3 Habits to Adopt as a Lower Earner That Could Make You a Millionaire

As of 2023, there were 5.3 million people in the U.S. who had enough wealth to be considered millionaires. But it's rash to assume that most of those people attained millionaire status through high earnings year after year. In fact, you should know that it's possible to eventually become a millionaire even if you're a fairly low earner. 

If you adopt these essential habits, you may be shocked -- in a good way -- by how much wealth you're able to accumulate over time.

1. Not spending your entire paycheck

It's easier to not spend your paycheck in its entirety when you're earning $80,000 a year compared to $40,000. But if you make a point to reserve even a small portion of each paycheck for the future, you can eventually build up your savings. 

One thing it might help to do is play around with different budgeting apps until you find one you're comfortable using. From there, you can use that app to help prioritize your expenses and free up a small amount of money to save.

2. Automating savings contributions

Many people contribute to a savings account at the end of the month, after they've paid all of their bills. A smarter bet may be to send money into your savings, or into another account, at the start of the month, before you've started to spend your wages.

Once you have a budget going, you can get a sense of how much money you're not spending each month. You can then set up an automatic transfer in that amount, so the money lands in your savings at the start of the month -- before you're able to spend it. 

3. Investing

Investing money for the future is something you should really only do once you have a complete emergency fund. But if you're willing to invest in stocks, you can potentially turn a series of small contributions to a brokerage account or IRA into a large sum over time.

Let's say you begin investing $100 a month at age 22. Over the past 50 years, the stock market's average annual return, accounting for both good years and bad, has been 10%. If your investment portfolio delivers that same return, you'll end up with a little more than $1 million by age 69.

And don't worry if you don't know a ton about investing. The aforementioned 10% stock market return is based on the performance of the S&P 500 index. You can buy S&P 500 index funds or ETFs (exchange-traded funds) for your portfolio if you're not sure which individual stocks to buy.

Let's get one thing straight. Becoming a millionaire isn't necessarily easy on a lower salary. Heck, it's not that easy on a high income, either. 

The point, however, is that it's a possibility, and one you shouldn't write off. And if you make a point to not spend all of your earnings, automate your savings, and invest, you may end up with a lot more money to your name than you ever could have imagined.