People Explain How Someone In Their Class Became Rich

He Was A Skater Boy

"He dropped out of high school at 15 to be a pro skateboarder. People laughed, he's now worth 50 mil."

"Rick Howard"

"Yeah it's pretty cool, went to school together and a bunch of us started skating around the same time, he just took it to the next level. Thankfully I wasn't of those laughing as I knew he'd make it but damn, numerous businesses and 50 mil later, well done my man."

– tekhed303

A Hell Of A Life

"Started online gambling sites back in the 90s, dropped out of high-school, millionaire by 20 Overdosed by 25."

– waltwalt

"What a life. That 5 year run would have been wild"

– superfresh23

Coders

"Sim for me- my friend wrote code for the online sites that was really good in some way (beats me how I’m no programmer) and they paid him through the nose for it. Next step he modified the code to work for stock market prediction and he runs a hedge fund. Owns like 8 houses in 6 diff countries and his own jet. I’m smart but not in that specific kind of way - I’d be jealous except he was a good nice dude before and remains. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy and it was all through work and smarts"

– Remarkable_Green_566

Bitcoin

"I went to school with a kid that was all in on bitcoin from the get go. He was a hustler out of the womb, and held two jobs along with a couple different side hustles. He didn't have much in the way of a social life, so he invested probably 75% of his income. He was buying bitcoin when it was like $1. He went on to buy a number of gas stations/ convenience stores and apartment buildings. He went from a McDonald's fry cook to buying and selling classic cars as a hobby."

– Waffle_Maestro

"One of my former co-workers did something fairly similar. When he upgraded to new servers (we were self-hosting), he asked our owner if he could use the old ones to mine BTC. The owner said it was fine as long as he took them home to do it. Similarly to the kid in your story, he also spent some of his income buying up BTC (between the years it moved from ~$10 to $200 per coin), and then also was part of some BTC trading thing online."

"Fast forward to 2019, he sells off most of it at $16k per coin. He wouldn't tell our friend group (mostly old colleagues) how much exactly, except to confirm it was more than 1,000 coins. He did pay taxes on all of it... still bought a giant house outside of Boulder and now travels all over and is getting a Ph.D. for fun."

"Obviously he could've held longer, but I think he was just tired of obsessing over its value bouncing all over the place when he already had more than enough to retire comfortably in his mid-thirties."

– asmodeanreborn

"Not my close friend but a kid in my English class, really f**king smart kid. He entered a coding/robotics competition and got third place. He was pretty bummed out for a while. First prize was a scholarship for a pretty big university. And third place got a lousy 500 bitcoin. He kept the 500 bitcoin despite people telling him to cash it and get the $100 or whatever it was worth. Anyway he cashed it at the peak of bitcoin and is now living pretty f**king well with his $30mil."

– Sploshta

He Was The One

"A guy skipped class to MUD enough times that the best high school in the Midwest kicked him out. He rarely showered and smelled like death."

"He went to college at 25 and sold Volcano vaporizers from his dorm room. Over the next decade or so, he built that business into a large head-shop wholesaler. He cashed out eight figures liquid just before the pandemic."

"20% of our class are engineers today; 10% are doctors and 10% are lawyers. Ol' stinky is more successful than any of us."

– mzanon100

The Tech Field

"She started working for a little company called Microsoft in the mid-1980s. She retired at 40."

– dma1965

"My classmate worked at LinkedIn before it got big. Retired at ~30 by pouring everything into buying a house. Helps that he likes eating plain foods (bread, rice, porridge, potatoes, broccoli, carrots) and doesn’t really spend that much money."

"He’s basically been traveling 10/12 months a year since retirement."

– WeeBabySeamus

Stock Guru

"Smart guy. A little socially awkward but was a swimmer and in top classes."

"Went to UCLA, became a doctor (maybe a surgeon). Started to play the stock market for fun. Ran a bulletin board to talk stocks."

"Turns out he had Asperger and was able to read the stock market signs really well."

"Made $300M when the market crashed as he bet against it. Christian Bale played him in the movie about him, the Big Short."

"Mike Burry. Class of 1989. We knew each other. Not friends but acquainted. Couldn’t be happier for the guy. Truly, happy he’s done well. Not seen him since we graduated. If I did I’d totally (and jokingly) ask him for some cash. I’d try to make him laugh. He’d probably still be awkward."

– MW240z

Rich By Accident

"There's a lot of them that became rich. For most of them they graduated as engineers or medical doctors and simply did their jobs and were reward handsomely."

"But that friend became rich through trades. He took his student loan and bought a piece of very inexpensive land just outside of his city limits. Just by an absolute fluke the city announced shortly after that it planned to expand city limits to include his vacant land.... and suddenly it skyrocketed in value. This was at a time before any real internet and before everyone had a cell phone. And there's all these property developers trying to figure out who owns this land so they can buy it."

"Eventually his mom opens his mail and finds a past due property tax notice and an offer for about 20x what he paid for it."

"He took the first offer he got (and regretted it) and went to a bank and directed them to invest entirely in dividend stocks and for the dividends to be deposited directly into his bank account."

"He used that money to stay a student for life and basically never worked a day in his life. There was one point where it got close to him needing to get a job... but then one of the companies announced increasing their dividend."

"I have rich friends, and then there's him... just living off of his wealth. He doesn't have a great life, but he also doesn't work."

– garlicroastedpotato

I Knew Him Before

"I went to school and was friends with the guy who founded Uber. He offered to take my SATs for me for $500 as we looked alike and he is very smart. He was always "that guy.""

– ReflectionsGo2Ways

Don't Judge A Book...

"Big-time stoner who I always thought was a lazy scumbag who would never amount to anything.

He went on to start one of America's most successful marijuana edible companies. Classy billboard ads in multiple cities. My mom bought their CBD gummies for awhile. Every year he donates millions of dollars of his company's profits to bail funds for people of color who've been arrested for marijuana possession.

He is more successful and has done more objective good for the world than I ever have or will. Turns out I was a bitter judgmental loser in high school!"

– UOLATSC

Do With It What You Will

"Guy’s parents told him in middle school, we’re giving you $20k right now and that’s all you’ll get from us. He was told he can use it for college if he pleased or a car when he was old enough to drive. He started studying stocks like a madman, invested most of that money, and now he’s a millionaire."

– maru_badaque

I need to start studying stocks...

Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.