A Los Angeles engineer started work on a $15,000 salary in 1979; by 2026, his net worth had reached about $8 million

A mechanical engineer in Los Angeles began his career in 1979 on a salary of $15,000. In 2026, his net worth stands at about $8 million. He says there was no big win or lucky bet behind it. “All of my money was made $1 at a time,” he says, and he calls himself the classic “millionaire next door.”

He was 22 when he joined his company’s savings plan, and he put money in from his first paycheck. He has never stopped. When that plan was replaced by a 401(k), he moved the balance into an IRA and bought lower-cost equity mutual funds. ETFs did not exist at that time. Since then, he has put the maximum into every company savings and retirement account offered to him.

How a $15,000 starting salary grew into an $8 million net worth

For the first eight years, he put money only into the savings plan. His aim was a down payment for a condo, which he bought in 1986. He still lives there today. After the purchase, he started contributing to the company’s pension plan, and he kept doing so until the plan was closed.


Roth IRAs came later. For many years his pay was below the income limit, so he put spare cash into a Roth IRA and a regular brokerage account. When his salary rose above the limit, he used Roth conversions to keep building tax-free money. He crossed his first $1 million around age 50, in 2007, just as the economy was heading into the Great Recession.

His career did not stay with one employer. After a change in company ownership, his work group was sold to a second, smaller company. To keep its engineers, that company started a deferred-salary plan modelled on the older defined-benefit pension. This worked well for him.

He retired from the second company at 56 and started receiving the payout, which he calls his “pension.” He then took a job at a third company nearby and kept working.

He did not spend that pension income. He has put almost all of it into low-cost stock funds over the years.

At 45, the second company offered a long-term care insurance plan through MetLife. He took a five-year benefit with two extras: a 5% yearly inflation increase, and a 50% cut in the premium starting at age 65. MetLife no longer sells this plan. He says he has been told it is an excellent one.

His spending habits are simple, and he links them to his childhood in Cleveland. His parents had to buy at least eight cars because road salt in the winter ate away the metal. He wanted to use Southern California’s mild weather to avoid that cost. He is now on his fourth car and hopes it is his last. He kept each one for at least 10 years and 100,000 miles, and no car loan ran longer than 36 months.

Food is handled the same way. He cooks most of his meals from scratch on the weekend and eats the leftovers through the week. Now and then he eats out with friends on a weekend as a treat.

He also pays close attention to debt. Over the years he made extra payments on the condo loan. The balance was already low, but he wanted to be free of the monthly payment and the stress that came with it, so he paid it off. He then invested the freed-up cash in the stock market. At the same time he cleared a small car loan and a small credit card balance.

His card balances still stay under 5% of his credit limit. For daily spending he uses cash or a debit card. Sometimes he charges a purchase to the credit card and then pays the money back right away, so he gets the reward points.

Today, his retirement accounts hold just under $6 million. They are spread about equally across four places: a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, a brokerage account and 401(k) plans. His total net worth is around $8 million.

He still works as a mechanical engineer, which he says he has wanted to be since childhood. He has also put off Social Security until age 70, when the monthly amount reaches its highest level.