My father made a casual mention of becoming a millionaire late in life. Obviously in the era he started working, around 1958, a million dollars was something special for someone to shot for. According to my estimate, $1M in 1958 would be close to $11M in today's dollar. I guess he thought it was a nice thing to see before he passed away in late 2021.

Of course many workers of his time were covered by a solid pension so his pension and social security covered his expenses. My brother and I were able to split what savings he had at the end. His biggest expense was probably taking care of my mother, especially the last year in assisted living with a very rare disease.

I think most people now with a solid job don't view $1M as anything special. Obviously there are some people out there knowing that it will never happen for them.

For most people trying to get to $10M+ now is probably as difficult as getting to $1M was in the 1950s/60s. Certainly not impossible for a couple w/o kids and solid jobs but for the vast majority of people not something attainable. And really not even needed.

I'm not sure what my uncle has overall but I know almost all of his RMDs in his 80s go directly to charities. He has been doing this for a long time.

No real point here although being happy is more important than chasing $$$. I've always selected jobs that interested me but didn't require long hours because I knew once my time is gone, I can't get it back. No regrets at all.

Happy New Year.
Rich