How I went to the USA and through 20 years became a millionaire

Anyone can become a millionaire in the USA. User LJ from Miami under a nickname Skysheep told in his blog how he managed to earn a decent fortune in America. The following is his first-person account.

Фото: Depositphotos

Almost 20 years ago, I landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. I had a half-empty suitcase with clothes and $ 300 dollars with me.

One of the first complications I encountered was with telephone booths. They wanted 25 cent coins from me. I had to call the people meeting me and tell them that I had arrived and what time my next plane was arriving. And I had with me only 3 pieces of paper for one hundred dollars, and for some reason no one wanted to exchange $100 for coins of 25 cents. One airport worker who looked like a janitor simply gave me 4 coins. True, the phone simply swallowed them and did not connect me. I had to ask this man for a few more coins. Later I learned that the phrase I used (“Do you have any change?”) is a standard phrase of beggars who ask for money for drinks. When I called, I received an answer from the answering machine. I knew in principle that they exist in nature, but I had never left a message on an answering machine before.

Then I had to go to another La Guardia airport, from where I had a plane to another city. I had no special connections in the USA, just a friend of my aunt lived in the USA in Tennessee, and he contacted the local church, which agreed to help me at first. I successfully boarded a bus that drove me through the picturesque areas of Brooklyn and Queens, written graffiti.

The second difficulty I encountered was the size of La Guardia airport. It turns out you need to go not just to the airport, but you need to know which terminal you need. After long ordeals, I still found my terminal and got on my almost direct plane to the city of Knoxville. Later I learned that there are several Knoxville in these cities in the USA, but then it did not occur to me that Americans could call cities in different parts of the country by the same name. I was lucky that I bought a ticket in the state I needed.

At that time, airport greeters were allowed to go directly to the exit of the plane, and as I exited, I was greeted by a delegation from the church, with balloons and flowers. At first I lived with the pastor of this church, then with one of the parishioners, who lived alone in a house with six bedrooms. They helped me a lot at first - they took me to interviews, helped me get a social security number, sometimes drove me to work, gave me furniture and kitchen utensils.

I found my first job two weeks later. There was a restaurant not far from the pastor's house. I went in and asked if they were hiring. They asked “Do you speak English?” and I answered “of cors”. They told me to come in the evening in black trousers and a black T-shirt. I only had one black tank top with AC/DC on it. I put it on, but for some reason the restaurant manager really didn’t like this T-shirt. In the end, she gave me a branded T-shirt from this restaurant, and said that she would deduct $30 dollars from my first salary.

Фото: Depositphotos

I worked like a busboy, carrying all sorts of tables, trays, dishes, and other heavy things back and forth. I made $6,50 an hour and even earned my first tip the first week when one of the waiters shared a dollar tip with me and joked “don’t deny yourself anything!” The work, of course, was very hard, and after the first few days I felt completely exhausted, my legs and back hurt after a 12-hour day. But on the other hand, I earned $270 in my first week of work, which was about the same as what I earned in a month in Moscow. Another advantage was that you could order one serving of any dish during your work shift. Since the portions were huge, it was enough for me for the whole day, and I didn’t need to buy food.

Then I went to work in a bar. There were more tips and you could sell cigarettes and cigars. In general, I didn’t complain about life. I rented my first apartment - a studio for $225 per month. I didn't have a car, but I lived close to work.

Then I went to study at the community college, while continuing to work at the bar at the same time. As it turned out, in these colleges there are no entrance exams. Take there everyone who wants to learn. Since I was poor by American standards, I also received grants (Pell Grants) for training. With tuition fees of $ 500 per semester, I received about $ 2000 grants. With this money, I bought my first car for $ 800 dollars. After 3 of the month, I broke it.

I continued to study, changed jobs many times, moved, continued to study and work.

Well, about the main thing - how I became a millionaire in the USA. It turned out that becoming a millionaire in the USA is quite simple. You just need to come at a young age, get a good, in-demand education, work in your specialty, get money, spend less than you earn, save and invest, and just wait 20 years. And suddenly you find yourself a millionaire!

Here is the history of my salary over the past 20 years, which I took from the Social Security website. Once a year, they send me an e-mail message so that I can check the correctness of the salary, on the basis of which they will later calculate the pension. As it turned out, making money in the US is relatively easy for those who like to learn and are not afraid of work.

Of course, I know that you can earn money in other countries. Only in Russia, for some reason, having an education and working in a specialty is not at all a guarantee of a normal income. In Russia, it’s quite easy to work as a doctor or engineer and not even have money to rent a modest home, let alone such things as retirement savings. For some reason, in Russia it mainly depends on luck (and connections), but in the USA it mainly depends on your efforts, and luck and connections play much less importance. For some reason, of all my classmates in Russia, only those who work in the government or law enforcement agencies live well. And the rest, in my opinion, do not live, but simply exist - they save for a TV or a trip to Turkey, they constantly dream of some kind of car and save money for it, they go to the dacha for 8 years in a row and build it with their own hands (maybe will be completed for retirement). They get into an accident and cannot replace the car because there is no CASCO insurance and the other driver does not have enough insurance coverage.

True, in addition to making money, we must also save them. To do this, keep costs below revenues. This is not possible for everyone, as there is an unlimited amount of opportunities to spend money in the USA. Almost all companies have retirement plans, where they can save a part of their salary, before taxes, and the company adds its money. This is a great way to save money, as it reduces taxes and allows you to simply get extra money from the company. Also, many companies pay for training their employees. I thus received over 50 thousands of dollars in training.

I provide a plate with assets. Some old figures are, of course, approximate, because I can’t remember exactly how much I had in my account in 1996. But the order of the numbers is like this. In the real estate column, I included the value of the property minus the mortgage. Real estate turned out to be the best investment for me, although between 2007 and 2010 it dropped in price quite a lot. I have already bought three properties - I live in one and rent out two. Retirement savings is money in retirement accounts (IRA, 401K). I try to save there as much as possible and invest money in a diversified portfolio of securities. Sometimes my investments fall (-22% in 2008) and sometimes they rise (+24% in 2013). But overall they have grown quite decently. Other investments are everything else that is not sitting in retirement accounts. The rest includes the cost of the car and cash in the bank account. I have no debts other than a mortgage.

So, how to become a millionaire in the United States:

1. Highly paid specialty (easier with education)

2. Low costs

3. Invest in real estate and other things.

4. Wait a bit.

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