What 10,000 Real Millionaires Can Teach San Diego High Earners About Building Wealth

You earn well. Maybe very well. But if you're like many of the high-earning professionals and business owners I work with here in San Diego, there's a nagging feeling that your income and your actual wealth aren't keeping pace with each other. You're doing everything right on paper — a strong salary, equity compensation, business revenue — but the finish line still feels far away.

Here's something that might reframe how you're thinking about it.

Ramsey Solutions conducted what is widely recognized as the largest research study of its kind — surveying more than 10,000 U.S. millionaires to understand exactly how they built their wealth. The findings directly challenge many of the assumptions people make about who gets rich and how. And for the San Diego professionals and business owners I work with, the data is both encouraging and instructive.

This one surprises people most. The study found that only 31% of millionaires averaged $100,000 or more per year over their careers — and one-third never earned six figures in a single working year.

Let that sink in. San Diego's median household income in Sorrento Mesa, Torrey Pines, and the surrounding biotech and tech corridors regularly clears that threshold. Many of the H.E.N.R.Y.s (High Earners, Not Rich Yet) I work with are pulling in $150,000, $200,000, or well above that — and still feel financially stuck.

The study found that 93% of millionaires attributed their wealth to working hard, not to having a high salary. Income is a tool. The question is whether it's being used like one.

The data here is definitive. A full 79% of millionaires surveyed received no inheritance whatsoever from family. Of the 21% who did receive something, only 3% inherited $1 million or more. Meanwhile, 8 out of 10 came from families at or below middle-income level.

This isn't the story of lucky breaks or silver spoons. It's a story of deliberate behavior over time.

The study found that no millionaire listed single-stock investing as a meaningful driver of their wealth. Not one. It didn't even crack the top three factors cited.

Instead, 75% of millionaires said the real driver was regular, consistent investing over a long period of time. Three out of four — pointing to boring, systematic, unsexy investing as the path.

This is particularly relevant if you're holding a concentrated equity position — company stock, RSUs, or a single large asset class. Concentration can feel like a wealth-building strategy, but the data from actual millionaires suggests the opposite: diversified, consistent investing across time is what actually works.

Beyond busting myths, the study identified clear behavioral patterns that separated millionaires from everyone else.

If you own a business in San Diego — whether in construction, defense contracting, healthcare, or professional services — your path to millionaire status has some additional variables the study's general population didn't face.

Your wealth is likely highly concentrated in your business. That's both an asset and a risk. The study makes clear that diversification and consistent investing outside of a single asset matter enormously to long-term wealth. For business owners, that means systematically pulling profits out of the business and deploying them into a diversified investment strategy — not just reinvesting everything back in.

It also means having a plan for what your business is worth and what happens to that value when you're ready to exit. The millionaires in this study got wealthy slowly and deliberately. A successful exit is where business owners can accelerate that process — but only if the groundwork has been laid years in advance.

The National Study of Millionaires isn't a get-rich-quick story. It's actually the opposite. The data shows that wealth accumulation is overwhelmingly the result of consistent behavior over time — not high salaries, not inheritances, not bold swings on a single investment.

For San Diego's high earners and business owners, that's genuinely good news. You already have the income. The question is whether your behavior, your plan, and your strategy are aligned with where you want to go.

If you're not sure, that's exactly what we help you figure out.