What Car Does a Self-Made Millionaire Drive (And Why You Should, Too)
Story time.
Imagine you’re out there, minding your own business, and people just assume you’ve had everything handed to you on a silver platter. You know, like you were born out of some trust fund instead of your mum.
That’s me. I’m about as close to being a trust fund baby as gods are to being real.
I did become a millionaire, though. But it wasn’t magic — it took some spectacularly bad decisions before I figured out the secret to life. So, let’s rewind for a second.
I grew up poor.
I don’t mean like “we can’t afford Starbucks every other day” poor. No, I mean “How TF we’ll afford groceries this month” poor. Me and my mum lived in a house that wasn’t even ours — it belonged to her and her eleven siblings.
Every single one of them had their own house except us.
My mum was a seamstress, raking in a grand total of less than $800 a month, somehow making it work like she had an advanced degree in miracles.
My dad? A carpenter who made money just as fast as he could blow it. I guess that’s where I got my spending habits.
Oh, and yep, divorced — because, of course.
No one in my family knew anything about college, getting/keeping a job, or why all of this mattered. None of my 20 aunts and uncles had been to college. My dad left school in the 7th grade, and my mum barely finished high school out of sheer obligation.
When I finally landed a BS in Microbiology and Mathematics and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, you’d think I’d use all that education to rake in the cash, right? Yeah, no. Turns out, degrees don’t always come with a treasure map.
But here’s the kicker: I could’ve become a millionaire way earlier if I’d had even a fraction — like 1/10 — of Forrest Gump’s smarts.
At 18, I joined the military and soon after found myself in Iraq. The numbers in my bank account kept going up, and like most people who grew in poverty, seeing big numbers for the first time, I did what any typical me would do: blew it on crap I didn’t need to impress people I didn’t even like.
I’m talking Honda S2000s, BMWs, racing parts, cruises, custom-built PCs — you name it. I was out here thinking I was living the dream.
Oh, and my brilliant idea of investing $25 a month out of my $5,800 active military salary? Totally the strategy of champions.
While in college, I wasn’t active military anymore and was raking $2,000 a month just for going to class. Had no debt, no real expenses. Investing $1,000 month was like taking a shit after eating tacos: took zero effort.
How much do I now have from the $1,000 a month investment you ask? Oh, no. I didn’t invest shit. I held on to my strategy of champions.
I spent all of that income on flashy stuff that screamed “look at me” while my future self screamed “why are you like this, bro?” I drove a brand new BMW 328i for Buddha’s sake.
Then 2018 rolled around, and I moved to Japan. That’s when my miracle moment happened —I moved past my 10 year old mentality.
I closed my eyes and started hustling on the side, investing every spare penny I had. When I opened my eyes I was making over $6,000 a month on top of my regular job. Then COVID hit, and I closed my eyes for a bit again. Open my eyes again and I had nearly a million bucks saved up and over $5k in monthly dividend income.
What. The. Fugg.
A few months later, I crossed the million dollar mark.
On to the point. Let me tell you about owning a car in Japan. It’s like owning a pet tiger: cool in theory but you don’t need it. Not unless you live in a cave, 100 miles away from society.But with a baby on the way, I caved and bought a car. And no, I wasn’t about to buy another BMW.
Enter the best car in the world: the Honda Fit.
The mighty Honda Fit. A used one, no less. $10k. My monthly payments? $147 .
Ideally, your car payments should be between 0–10% of your income. No one cares what you drive; no one who’s worth your time, anyways. And after a few months, neither will you.
If you have the cash to pay for it outright? Even better. Do that.
But here’s where the real fun begins — the math. And by fun, I mean the part where you realize how stupid you were.
Imagine if I had made these budgeting decisions when I was making $2,000 in college. In five years, I could’ve paid off a car and saved an extra $550 a month for investing. Instead? The BMW 328i I was driving was setting me back $800 a month in payments. Bloody genius.
Had I invested the $550 a month I would’ve saved by getting a Honda Fit instead, for the past 16 years, with a 10% annual return (and without counting the 10% average growth), I’d be sitting on an additional $260k and $2,100 a month in dividends.
That’s basically enough to live comfortably with a part-time job. But instead, I spent my 20s acting like I had less sense than Forrest Gump.
Here’s the TL;DR? Skip the BMW, the truck, and all the fancy nonsense. Get yourself a Honda Fit or something similar. Actually, no. GET A HONDA FIT. Trust me, your wallet will throw a party, and you’ll be thanking yourself when the only flashy thing about you is your bank account.
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