MW 5 money moves that made this 32-year-old dad a millionaire in just 9 years
By Venessa Wong
Even in this economy, it's possible to amass $1 million in under a decade
Blake Edwards said there were several key behaviors that helped him and his wife grow their wealth quickly while switching careers and starting a family.
A low starting salary, global pandemic, unaffordable housing market, graduate school and two kids didn't stop Blake Edwards and his wife from becoming millionaires by their early 30s.
After college, Edwards worked a year in sales, earning less than $60,000, while his wife - who he met in college - made $10 an hour at her job. He soon switched careers and became a teacher, resulting in his salary dropping to $19,000 per year.
For three years, Edwards and his wife earned a combined income of less than $100,000. "I remember thinking, 'Man, it would be cool to be a millionaire by 30.' But I was like, 'There's just no way' - the math wasn't there," he recalled.
The couple continued to save and get raises at work. They bought a house. Then Edwards went to grad school from 2020 to 2022 and switched careers again to work in tech, bumping their household income above $200,000. They had two children, with a third now on the way.
Last month - to their surprise and seemingly in a flash - Edwards and his wife's net worth hit $1 million, with home equity accounting for just one-fourth of it. "We woke up [earlier] this year and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, we're about to pass that [milestone],'" he told MarketWatch. "It was just compounding blessings on top of each other - or luck."
Even as quasiaccidental young millionaires, Edwards said there were several key behaviors that helped them grow their wealth quickly. Although they hadn't set a target of quickly reaching $1 million, "it was discipline and habits over time," he said, which Edwards has been sharing on social media. He said he "saw a gap of people seemingly needing more transparency around money, and wanting a real-life version of someone trying to figure things out as they went."
The median household net worth for Americans in their early 30s, including home equity, is about $96,200, according to an analysis of 2022 Federal Reserve data, adjusted to 2025 dollars, by the investing website DQYDJ.
Read more: Here's what it means to be rich in this economy - from your 20s to your 80s
As outcomes like Edwards's become harder to achieve - with the unemployment rate for recent college grads rising above the average rate for all workers - here are the guardrails that helped his family achieve a meaningful level of financial freedom in a decade.
1. Get a degree to increase your earning potential - without taking out student loans
"I'm personally against student loans of any kind," Edwards said. "I went to a cheap in-state school where my tuition was covered essentially because of sports scholarships," as well as Georgia's Hope Scholarship, awarded to students based on their academic performance. His parents paid his $420 monthly rent through college and covered his groceries.
Unlike Edwards, in the 2023-24 school year, 27.8% of undergraduates received federal student loans, according to the U.S. Education Department.
If he hadn't won a baseball scholarship, Edwards said his plan was to work to pay for tuition, or go to community college for two years and then transfer out to finish his degree while working part time.
For grad school in 2020, Edwards took advantage of an employee benefit that paid for half the cost of his $12,000 program, and covered the rest himself. The retraining helped him land a new job with a higher salary.
Related: These are the fastest-growing jobs for new college graduates - even in this low-hire market
2. Automate investing at least 15% of your gross income, no matter your salary
Even when their finances were tight after college, Edwards and his wife committed to automatically investing at least 15% of their gross income in their retirement accounts. "That was always the baseline; we kept doing that," he said. As their incomes went up - and even down sometimes - they maintained a 15% minimum savings rate, adding any money left over on top of that.
By comparison, the median deferral rate for retirement plans at Vanguard was 6.8% in 2024.
On top of retirement, they also saved 10% of their take-home income for emergencies and future expenses, and tithed an additional 10% to their church.
These commitments left a smaller-than-average share of their income for living expenses, but Edwards said the habits created a scarcity at the beginning of their marriage that ended up being an advantage, as they kept their costs low even as their salaries rose.
Today, the couple's high incomes and modest budget allow them to invest more than one-third of their income. They maximize their paycheck deductions for their 401(k) plans, two backdoor Roths, their health savings account, his wife's deferred-compensation plan, and his employee stock-purchase plan, which are all automated. They also invest most of their annual bonuses.
While there has been a lot of growth in assets like bitcoin (BTCUSD) and gold (GC00), "we essentially only invest in index funds," Edwards said. They started in the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF VTI, which tracks the U.S. stock market, and more recently have been investing in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF VT, which tracks global equities. "I'm trying to reduce complexity as much as possible," he noted.
Suggested reading: MarketWatch Money Challenge: Make a plan to save 25% to 40% of your pay.
3. Pay for your cars in cash
Most car buyers need to borrow. For instance, all-cash buyers were only about one-fourth of new-vehicle sales last month, according to data from Edmunds.
Edwards had the advantage of receiving his first car, a 2013 Kia Optima that he still drives, from his parents, but said his wife bought a used 2016 Toyota Highlander a few years ago without borrowing. She took advantage of the high trade-in price offered for her previous vehicle when used-car prices were soaring after the pandemic, and covered the rest with savings. "We try to buy quality used cars," he said, using Consumer Reports as a guide for reliability.
More on this: Americans are embracing this terrible car-buying habit. It's costing them thousands of dollars.
Edwards's wife paid cash for her used Toyota.
4. Keep your total housing costs below 25% of your take-home pay
Edwards said he once heard personal-finance personality Dave Ramsey say that housing (which includes mortgage principal, interest, property taxes, insurance and homeowners association fees) should not cost more than 25% of one's take-home pay, and "we essentially stuck to that," he said. They bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in the Atlanta suburbs in 2020 for $250,000, and pay about $1,400 per month for the mortgage.
In 2024, one-third of U.S. households spent more than 30% of their gross income (which would be an even greater share of their net income) on housing costs, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Incomes haven't kept pace with home prices, and the median-priced house is now about $400,000.
While many Americans have a "dream home," Edwards said he's "always been acutely aware that whether I live in a 5,000-square-foot house or 1,400-square-foot house, I'm just living there. It's one of your biggest expenses that you have control over, but most people don't control."
From the archives (January 2025): How much of your net worth should be tied up in your house
The living room in Edwards's 1,400-square-foot home in the Atlanta area
5. Set aside money to take advantage when opportunities arise
Planning to pay off their mortgage early, Edwards and his wife had been saving in a money-market account. But when the market fell in April 2025 in response to the Trump administration's proposed tariffs, they saw a different opportunity with the $100,000 they had in the account.
The couple quickly shifted gears and bought shares of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. While unplanned, "that move has already turned into $40,000 to $45,000 extra on our net worth," he said.
While Edwards does not normally take such big risks, he took away a lesson from the experience: "You need to be [financially] prepared for opportunities that you don't even know are going to come along."
What personal-finance issues would you like to see covered in MarketWatch? We would like to hear from readers about their financial decisions and money-related questions. You can write to us at readerstories@marketwatch.com. A reporter may be in touch to learn more. MarketWatch will not attribute your answers to you by name without your permission.
-Venessa Wong
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 15, 2026 14:37 ET (18:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments