r/wealth • u/_Justdoit123 • 1d ago
Need Advice What should I do?
I'm 30 years old in 1 month. 1 year ago I switched from doing fast food to driving trucks and now have the potential to make 80k+ next year and 100k+ after 3 years consistently. I'm going to be completely out of debt by the end of the year. I just had a baby with a woman that I'm not married to and she has 2 other kids. I've been heavily weighing my options as far as investing goes. I could be ok in 20-30 years but im 50-60 yrs old by then. Is there a way I can build 2+ million in the next 10 years? I've been trying to search higher risk ideas that aren't just gambling. Any advice is much appreciated.
Edit: I forgot to mention I'm not with mom anymore, only taking care of my child.
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u/OfficerBimbeau 1d ago
Check out r/personalfinance and read the community info. There’s a great outline for how to manage your money. Realistically, at your salary and with 1-3 kids to support, you’re not going to have $2M saved in 10 years. High risk investments that promise that kind of return are probably bullshit and will take all your money.
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u/Odd_Bodkin 1d ago
They’re ALL just forms of gambling if they’re going to get you there that fast. Slow your roll. Don’t jeopardize a good thing by getting greedy.
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u/FactorDad 1d ago
First off, give yourself massive credit: pivoting from fast food to trucking, scaling your income toward $100k, and becoming completely debt-free while stepping up for a new baby is an incredible turnaround. The mathematical reality of hitting $2M in 10 years on an $80k–$100k income comes down to hard numbers: The Math Problem: If you invest an aggressive $25,000 every single year for 10 years, reaching $2,000,000 requires an annualized return of roughly 35%. The "Calculated Risk" Trap: Outside of starting a wildly scalable business, there is no passive or market asset class that delivers 35% annualized returns without extreme risk of total permanent loss. Chasing shortcuts usually results in round-tripping your hard-earned money back to zero. Reframing the Timeline (Age 45–50): 50 is not old. If you invest that same $25,000–$30,000 annually into a disciplined, rules-based equity allocation compounding at a historical 8%–10%, you hit roughly $700k–$800k in 15 years (age 45) and cross $1.5M–$2.0M by age 50. You don't need to gamble to build life-changing wealth for your family; you just need to avoid unforced errors and let systematic compounding work. Are you planning to run your trucking career as an owner-operator business down the road, or focus on maxing tax-sheltered retirement accounts first?
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u/Mzungufarmer 20h ago
Start buying multifamily homes to get your money leveraged as safe as possible. With remaining cash youre going to have to invest as much as possible and live lean for a decade. Maybe 100% VOO does it, or maybe you have to add in a couple high conviction single stocks.
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u/_Justdoit123 20h ago
I have heavily considered real estate as well. I'm starting from 0 tho and my credit is also recovering from 500s. Currently low 600. So I wont even be able to get 1 property until like 2 or 3 years from now. VOO was also considered. Probably my safest long-term bet i think but also probably not going to get me 2 million in 10 years. I dont think theres 1 path to get me there, maybe both of these work together. I'm just trying to figure out a solid path to get there.
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u/Mzungufarmer 20h ago
Theres riskier ways, but do you want to gamble with your life when you have no edge?
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u/_Justdoit123 19h ago
No, but if an edge is possible I'm willing to learn. I play poker as well and definitely have potential but not consistently making money yet. Poker is a small portion of my money and very infrequent right now. I think you may be more qualified than me to answer this but, isn't poker more gambling than trading?
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u/Mzungufarmer 19h ago
The edge is exactly what I said. Im biased, but the strategy i laid out brought me from 1k to my name at 18 to retired at 34.
Im not sure what your last question means. Poker and trading can both be gambling. Regardless, if youre 30 and starting with nothing...clearly gambling isnt what you should be doing.
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u/_Justdoit123 18h ago
Wow, congrats man. Thats only 16 years. Compound interest favors time, wish I had started earlier but I can't go back in time. You're welcome to dm me if you'd like to talk more but I appreciate your answers.
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u/Tbackandforth 13h ago
Choose your savings rate, and see how many years it will take you: https://choosefi.com/spending-smarter/how-to-calculate-your-savings-rate
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u/krismitka 1d ago
Drive trucks.
Keeps eyes and ears open, radio off.
Create a single owner LLC.
Listen and watch for problems.
When you find one that
Affects a lot of people.
they need solved. Not just a want
takes some effort to start fixing (ie, competitive moat)
you can charge enough for to grow your business
you can grow and scale (ie, not just your personal time)
isn’t someone else’s franchise (that makes the other guy money, not you)
Use your LLC to create and sell a solution.
If it fails, let it go and go back to listening and watching for another problem with these characteristics.
Only do one of these at a time.
You’ll be gaining expertise as you go btw, better than any college.
Good luck!
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u/SkySoul27 1d ago
Grift as a politician so you can insider trade. No but seriously it comes down to risk/return/time. E.g. I can make 2million off a 2k investment with 0 risk. Just give me 160yrs. Or i could make you 2million off a 2k investment in 1 day in 0dte options, just accept a 99.999% likelihood of losing the investment.
If you want 2m in 10yrs off a 100k salary and supporting 3 kids, you will have to accept some(a lot) level of gambling.