I remember reading an article where Dave Ramsey said the top two ways that most people become millionaires in the $1M to $5M dollar range; 1) a paid off home and 2) maxing out retirement accounts.

I already knew that paying off a home is always a way to help yourself become financially secure. But how many folks are really maxing out retirement accounts? Not as many as you would think. I did some research and found that although many people polled say they want to be a millionaire one day, not many actually reach it to that goalpost. Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI for short) data estimates that just 3.2% of Americans have $1 million or more in their retirement accounts. The numbers below were posted by the Motley Fool from EBRI’s retirement savings data.

These are the amounts in Americans’ retirement accounts:

$0 to $9,999: 58.4% of Americans
$10,000 to $99,999: 20.5%
$100,000 to $499,999: 13.9%
$500,000 to $999,999: 4%
$1 million to $4.99 million: 3.1%
$5 million or more: 0.1%

You will notice that almost 80% of Americans have less than $100,000.

You may have also noticed on my post Her First $400K that I showed you a tweet from rapper Drake saying the first $100K is the hardest.

No sh*t!!!

That means only the top 20% have made it past the first hurdle of $100k.

The next 14% have reached just shy of half a million dollars.

Not too shabby.

Then the percentage just sink like an anchor.

Only 4% get beyond $500K. And just a mere 3.1% got to the holy grail of $1 million in retirement savings.

And don’t even look at the numbers for $5M, that is a paltry one percent.

Not too surprising that the 1% take the top prize.

Only the top 3% make it to the millionaire promise land.

No wonder so many folks are playing the lottery.

It can take 20-30 years of investing to make it to $1M and the possibly another 7 or so to get to $2M. That’s 40 years! A lifetime.

However, do not be discouraged.

Any obstacle can be overcome with a well-thought out plan.

Making your primary target to get to $100,000 can reap you rewards for a lifetime. Starting here can help you achieve the next goal. Whatever you do decide to do make sure you make your plan as specific as possible.

Write it down.

And no matter what, don’t stop until you reach your goal.

That is the only way to achieve anything.

You do not give up.