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"I was never into one-hit wonders, and I dove in when things were crashing, and I bought with any available funds I had."
By
Joyce Lamb
published
4 April 2026
in Features
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Welcome to Kiplinger's My First $1 Million series, in which we hear from people who have made $1 million. They're sharing how they did it and what they're doing with it.
This time, we hear from a single, 50-year-old, newly retired fiber optic splicer in Columbus, Ohio. He reports that he had a starting salary of $16,000 and ended at $101,000 over 30 years with small annual increases.
See our earlier profiles, including a writer in New England, a literacy interventionist in Colorado, a semiretired entrepreneur in Nashville and an events industry CEO in Northern New Jersey. (See all of the profiles here.)
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Sign upEach profile features one person or couple, who will always be completely anonymous to readers, answering questions to help our readers learn from their experience.
These features are intended to provide a window into how different people build their savings — they're not intended to provide financial advice.
To hear more about My First $1 Million, you can check out this podcast with bestselling author and tax attorney Toby Mathis:
Why a Teacher, Writer, and Garbage Man All Became Millionaires - YouTube
Watch On
The Basics
How did you make your first $1 million?
Honestly, the last seven years changed my life. I was always investing, but I changed my mindset in 2019. I never bought crypto or invested in GME (GameStop). I was never into one-hit wonders, and I dove in when things were crashing, and I bought with any available funds I had.
Simultaneously, I was saving 30% of my income annually in a high-interest savings (account) and CDs.
In 1987, I was in sixth grade, and a gentleman from Ross Labs came to my school to teach my class how to buy and trade stock. He gave everyone $2,000 of fake money to purchase one company (and whoever made the most would win). I went home and asked my mom if she owned any stocks. She had shares of her employer, Ameritech.
The next day, I put $2,000 on Ameritech at $60 a share. The stock went from $60 to a $100 and split, and I won (the contest) and received a certificate that I wish I had today.
I was now hooked, but at 12 I was only focused on Ameritech. I would grab the Columbus Dispatch and slide my finger over the microprint to find that ticker every day.
I grew up in a blue-collar household with a struggling lifestyle. When I graduated high school, I got a job with Ameritech for $7.64 a hour and immediately got into the 401(k).
I grew up loving the company and the stock, so I was excited to have my 401(k) reinvesting my biweekly contribution into the company stock. That is, until they officially became AT&T, and the stock was horrible.
In 2019, after 24 years of working for the company, I had only $191,058.20, and I felt so defeated. I was working this extremely physical job and had not nearly enough to retire on.
There was this loophole with my 401(k) that I learned — if you're out on a disability, you can do a rollover to an IRA, and I had broken my elbow, so I had the opening I was hoping for.
I was nervous at first, so I gave 70% of the money to an investment firm here in Ohio, and I invested the remaining 30%. In three months, that investment firm had lost $30,000, and I had made $30,000 investing on my own.
Nothing is more painful than seeing $140 a month in management fees while losing money, so on June 30, 2019, I transferred the 70% back to my rollover and went to work.
My initial strategy was the flashy "headline news" companies, like Apple, but when I started researching dividend stocks and learned about compounding growth, I balanced my portfolio better by reducing my 43% hold in Apple (AAPL) to just 5%.
This money went to beaten-down energy companies with huge dividends, then health care and consumer goods.
I just retired at 50, on January 20, just six years after taking full control. My total net worth is $1.45 million, and $240,000 of that is in a high-interest savings account and CDs.
Our millionaire watches the sunset on the beach.
My pride and joy is my portfolio that I call my "Monster ETF," which now has 84 holdings, and I've averaged 23.19% returns over the last 10 years.
What are you doing with the money?
It's still in the market, compounding, and was recently bringing me $35,000 in dividend income annually that I am dripping (participating in dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs).
The Fun Stuff
Did you do anything to celebrate?
Took a trip to Saint Martin to celebrate.
What is the best part of making $1 million?
My daily growth is a lot bigger. Recently, I made a year's salary in six weeks. If your base is big, your gains are big.
Did your life change?
Not particularly, but in today's world, I feel that I have lost friends, or, as they say, "we grew apart."
When did you retire?
By today's standards, I retired early at 50 (in January 2026).
Looking Back
Anything you would do differently?
There are some stocks I sold that I wish I would have held on to, like Bloom Energy (BE).
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Get (to a million) quicker by staying out of the bars, chasing the night scene. Also, don't think of Amazon (AMZN) as just a nerdy book stock.
Did you work with a financial adviser?
I did one time, in 2019, but they lost $30,000 in three months while charging me $140 a month. That was a kick to the stomach, and that started my independent investing.
Did anyone help you early on?
That random stranger from Ross Labs when I was in sixth grade.
Looking Ahead
Plans for your next $1 million?
To continue compounding, I hope to get the next million sooner with an idea I call "rolling a $100K."
Any advice for others trying to make their first $1 million?
- Pay your bills when they are due and not when it's payday
- Keep every possible dollar compounding in high interest savings
- Try to keep your debt down to one paycheck a month so the next paycheck is free to save
- Invest in dividend stocks primarily, and I personally like a yield above 3.65%
I joke around because there's 365 days in a year, and I want a company to pay me at least a dollar a day — it's my $1-a-day policy. Currently, 86 companies pay me $96.09 a day.
Do you have an estate plan?
No, but I am working on this at the moment.
What do you wish you'd known …
Before you retired? Honestly, nothing. I studied up pretty well.
When you first started saving? My mom used to get me $100 EE savings bonds when I was 10 years old, through auto withdrawal at her job.
When that little compounding monster would show up every six months, I would get excited that it would double in 17 years.
Anything you'd like to add?
(My significant other and I) met in 2018, and she lived in Texas, making $99,000 a year working three jobs. When our relationship progressed, I said, Come here, and I'll show you how to work less and have more.
I had her fill out a card of all of her financial info, and I laminated it. We just made new digital cards:
We also made a new set in 2024, after my mom passed away, to gauge how we were doing.
If you have made $1 million or more and would like to be anonymously featured in a future My First $1 Million profile, please fill out and submit this Google Form or send an email to [email protected] to receive the questions. We welcome all stories that add up to $1 million or more in your accounts, although we will use discretion in which stories we choose to publish, to ensure we share a diversity of experiences. We also might want to verify that you really do have $1 million. Your answers may be edited for clarity.
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Joyce LambSocial Links NavigationSenior Contributed Content Editor for Adviser Intel, Kiplinger.comAs Senior Contributed Content Editor for the Adviser Intel channel on Kiplinger.com, Joyce edits articles from hundreds of financial experts about retirement planning strategies, including estate planning, taxes, personal finance, investing, charitable giving and more. She has more than 30 years of editing experience in business and features news, including 15 years in the Money section at USA Today.