My new goal is to be a billionaire, but me thinks I should have started my quest sooner. At least I benefit from those who made it.
If you win a million dollars in a lottery, you will pay approximately $370,000 in federal taxes. An X post complained about the tax on such a windfall and said that we should tax billionaires the same way.
Of course that is exactly what we do. Everyone is subject to the IRC and the same type of income is taxed the same way for all. I think billionaires get a bad rap.
A 2021 study by economists from the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Management and Budget, using data from Forbes and public records said the top 400 wealthiest taxpayers paid an average income tax rate of 8.2%. Many people jumped on that as proof these folks were grossly undertaxed. However, to arrive at that percentage, the growth in net worth from unrealized capital gains was used. Hardly apples to apples.That’s like including the growth in your home value and 401k to determine your effective tax rate.
Nevertheless, I have decided to become a billionaire myself. I have the same chance as anyone, but time may not be on my side.
I invest in the stock market, in a single company stock and in real estate. That’s what billionaires do. I don’t have a garage or dorm room to start a business, but there are other ways. Unfortunately, I don’t have the entrepreneurial skills or desirable personality either.
On the other hand upon realizing that one billion is one thousand million, and looking at my current net worth, I have the same chance as Don Quixote.
Are billionaires self-made? Most are, but even those who inherited big bucks, inherited it from someone who did earn it. The Waltons are a good example. Some of the wealthy inherit a nice nest egg and then grow it on their own.
I look at a list of some well known billionaires and think to myself about how they changed the world, made life better, more pleasurable for the rest of us. About the millions of jobs they created around the world and about the many other small businesses that thrive by leveraging what the entrepreneurs created.
Steve Jobs / Steve Wozniak Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Reed Hastings, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Daniel Ek, Evan Spiegel, Jack Ma, Sam Walton, James Sinegal, Philip Knight, Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, Ralph Lauren
Many of the people on this list did the same thing, they took risk, created something, eventually issued an IPO while holding millions of shares and let the stock market take over. And then they diversified.
While many Americans envy such actions, the Philadelphia Fed found only 42.8% of U.S. adults personally own stocks. Pew Research Center, says only 21% of American families own individual shares directly. Roughly 60–65% of Americans have some exposure to the stock market through retirement accounts like 401k, but relatively few invest directly-many fear the risk. The thing is you don’t need big bucks to get started. Getting ahead requires constant change, growth, a bit of risk. You won’t improve your economic standing working in a minimum wage job relying on increases in the minimum wage.
To be honest, if they never paid a penny in income taxes, I think society at all income levels more than receives its moneys worth from these billionaires.
The post My new goal is to be a billionaire, but me thinks I should have started my quest sooner. At least I benefit from those who made it. appeared first on HumbleDollar.
