I’ve written about how to become a millionaire by 30. A lot of luck, hard work, strategy, and risk are involved. Most of us will eventually become 401k millionaires by 60 if we keep contributing the maximum. However, what about becoming a millionaire by 20? It sounds almost impossible given kids must focus on school usually until the age of 18.

Let’s go through a thought exercise on various ways to become a millionaire by 20. I’ll use some examples to demonstrate the possibilities. Once we realize what is possible, more good things are likely to happen.

But first, let’s discuss why you may want to or need to become a millionaire by 20. For those of you with young children or plan to have children, this post should be of particular interest. Or maybe, you are an enterprising young gun who already has the maturity to plan for the future!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Given Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss when to have more children.

Having children is a personal choice. There is no right or wrong answer. However, once you have children, it’s hard to imagine anything more precious in your life.

If you had a billion dollars, you would willingly give it all away to save your child’s life. Well, unless you were J Paul Getty, who refused to pay for his grandson’s ransom until his ear was sliced off.

Given children are priceless, it stands to reason that we should all have as many children as possible. The more you have, the wealthier you will be!

Unfortunately, we all have our physical, biological, and financial limits. Not all of us can afford multiple children. Some of us may feel bad knowing that the more children we have, the less quality time we get to spend with each one.

Even if we could have many children, our personal well-being may suffer after a certain number. After all, children require a Herculean amount of effort to raise properly.

Opening a Roth IRA for your kids is a must once they start generating earned income. Not only will opening a Roth IRA help build wealth for your kids, if you have a business, it will also help you save on taxes.

If you start contributing to your kid’s Roth IRA young enough, there’s a good chance their Roth IRA could be worth over $100,000 by the time they turn 18! If you combine their Roth IRA with a custodial investment account and a 529 account, they could have almost a million dollars by the time they turn 20!

Can you imagine having over $100,000, let alone $1 million by the time you are legally an adult? Since you worked for your money, you will likely feel like one of the richest and proudest 18-year-olds around. You’d have a massive head start to do more things that interest you.

Your first money memories may hold the keys to your relationship with money. Perhaps your first money memories may dictate your entire financial future.

My first money memory was getting admonished by my father for ordering lemonade at a restaurant. I was in the sixth grade in Kuala Lumpur. He said that instead of paying for sugar water, I should order water with a lemon slice for free. Not only was it free, it was healthier.

My second money memory was hearing my mother trying to encourage my father to spend more money. Although she was also frugal, I remember her saying he should spend more money to save time. I was in the seventh grade.

My third money memory was getting picked up in a black Mercedes SEL with fuzzy rear seats. It was owned by my father’s friend who was throwing a Chinese New Year’s party at his house. My father was already there, which was why I got picked up alone. I was in the eighth grade and thought this was the coolest thing ever. In contrast, we had a 15+-year-old paintless Datsun with missing hubcaps.

I’m pleased to say my family just took a vacation during a pandemic and survived. With two young children, it wasn’t exactly a relaxing vacation. It was more like a trip or a business writing retreat. Regardless of what you want to call our trip, I wanted to share some feedback.

When the lockdown began in March 2020, I made a promise that I would try and live our lives as normally as possible. I didn’t want to let a pandemic defeat us. So this philosophy included taking a safe family vacation.

After it was clear that San Francisco had flattened the curve, we decided to drive up to our place in Lake Tahoe and stay for a week in October. We figured the timing was good because more students were back in school and families had taken their summer vacations before Labor Day.