How much of your first million did you keep? (as you made it)

[Fox]

Hey everyone - would be interesting to see the different results on this.

As you made your first million (gross sales) how much of it do you manage to put aside and keep (or put into assets)?

I am curious about the percentage that just went right back into the business or got used up on living or business costs.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I honestly can’t remember, I just know that I had very little lifestyle creep or upgrade, I saved most of the money, reinvested in the business, Or invested it in the the market… after I sold my first business, then I got pretty stupid, an economic downturn thrust me back to my senses.

I also should note that I learned very quickly that at quarterly tax time, If I didn’t have six figures liquidly laying around, I’d be screwed and couldn’t pay estimated taxes.

 

[Itizn]

Let you know once I get there!

 

[WJK]

Hey everyone - would be interesting to see the different results on this.

As you made your first million (gross sales) how much of it do you manage to put aside and keep (or put into assets)?

I am curious about the percentage that just went right back into the business or got used up on living or business costs.

I reinvested every dime that I could get my hands on... I did the beans and rice thing in my personal life. And I borrowed more to shove more money into my RE projects. Business growth absorbs bucket-loads of capital. Each and every level takes a whole new investment strategy and funding.

And I've done it more than once. Stuff happened that was beyond my control. You know -- riots, divorce, deaths, market collapses, medical problems... as well as stuff that I could control like premature business expansions...

I can tell you this -- each time I have built my little kingdom, I have gotten better and faster at it. I'm a lot smarter and conservative today than I was when I started. I have identified a bunch of business bear-traps that I now know to avoid. I play the game much better these days.

 

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[biophase]

$1M gross would have been around $200k net and $130k after taxes. I remember I was making around that amount for a while that I was putting $100k into real estate every year for the first 3-4 years. So I probably was spending $30k/yr on living expenses.