How much capital would YOU need to make 1 million dollars?

Within 5 years? With no cost of capital, PV0 - $115k.

If you know what you're doing, $100k should definitely be enough.

It is not nearly as easy as btbanker is saying. If you start with 100k, you are compounding that around 60% per year for 5 years which is ridiculously good and nearly impossible.

Around 700k. 7% average return through diversified large cap dividend stocks + index tracker fund.

All it really takes it 100k down on a $1 biotech stock... then positive results come out on their new drug which takes it to $10, and boom. You're a millionaire. Easy, right?

Or you could just bet your friend $1mm that the Penguins win the Stanley Cup.

Alright. Real answer: $1.2mm. $200,000 fee for me to make you $1mm

$1000 if you know what you're doing. Though you have to be actively trading.

Realistically speaking, you probably need about 1.6mn of capital to make 1mn of profit in 5 yrs, excluding transaction costs and other fees. That's just what it comes out to if you assume 10% return each year.

I interpreted this differently. I would have said about $5 million. 2% mgt fee and (assumed) 2% in fees earned of capital base from carry equals about $200K per year in earned fees. Over 5 years it's ~$1 million in fees.

So what do you guys think.

I'm a 3rd year med student and need to select a residency soon. My choices include EM which is 3y and has a avg salary of 250K (easy @ rural locations). Salary starts near its apex because a practice does not need to be built from scratch (hospitals build EDs not private investors). I have been self-studying finance since the end of 2nd year. My plan is to live frugally after residency and spend the change on investing. I will only have to work 36h/wk (3 twelve hour shifts) to achieve the previous avg salary and will have time to trade online.

Is this a better strategy than say completing a 6y residency that will get me a maximum salary (at its apex) of 350-450K but is so busy that I will have to hand the change to a hedgefund/broker. I would honestly rather learn your field and do it myself. Is that realistic? If it's unlikely what could I do to improve my chances of success? Study finance formally/university? Offer to pay a major investing group/hedge to hire me to get the chance to work for them and learn how successful brokers/hedges operate? Is it even enough capital for what I'm planning?

My goal is to be millionaire before I'm 40.

Well Baltimore is currently +320 week one at Denver, so $312,500.

Honestly investing is pretty much a full time job if you want to do it right. On top of that, it's difficult to learn all there is to investing in a couple years without institutional experience. However, there are cheaper alternatives to hedge funds or brokers (ie. mutual funds, index funds).

If you go that first route you'll make 750k gross after 6 years not assuming any return on investment. It will take you 7.5 more years to catch up to the first route if you took the second route earning 350k a year, but after that, you'll outearn by 100k. This means that route 1 will be more attractive if you can compound 2.625m*(1-tax) at a rate that will earn you more than 100k a year in excess of how much you can compound if you took route 2 and didn't teach yourself investing. Obviously an oversimplification but hope that helps.

This is potentially the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

You are asking for a certain answer in a field that is inherently uncertain. This isnt like a sport, and ask how many years until i can play scratch. That in itself is unanswerable but still way more answerable than your question. You should not be trading with money you cant lose. You are more likely to end up with nothing after 5 years than a million. If you want to be a millionaire then do what you are passionate about, not what you think will make you a million.

Go hard with Lending Club. D-G loans only.

VanGalen, I'd go with option 1 if you consider yourself significantly above average intelligence (i.e. capable of mastering new skillsets). With 40 hours a week of work, you have another 30 - 40 to work on other things (assuming you go roughly as hard as many finance ppl or your second option).

You could likely do things in that time (not limited to stock markets) that would end up more than making up the different (especially once you factor in the extra residency and time cost). Assuming these are things you enjoy, you'd be far better off than spending more time in school so that you can spend more time at work so that you can eventually make 100K more than an already high salary level.

Just my 2c.

$100K + some DHS & ICE contacts + some cocaine = $1,000,000 in 1 year.

I am amused by your question and equally amused by many of the answers that am reading. Although I admire your interest and drive to become a millionaire....I highly recommend that you focus your time and energy on your career in medicine. In the long run you will be happy that you did.

There are some very intelligent people on this site which is one of the reasons why I enjoy visiting WSO. That being said I highly doubt that most have 7 figure investment accounts and even fewer have actually earned it through trading in the markets. There is some good insight here but keep in mind that what is possible or what is probable are two very different things. Someone mentioned it above but when talking about the rate of return on an investment you are looking at an outcome that is far from certain. Beyond just quoting or calculating rates of return you need to also consider the standard deviation or variance in returns for an investment along with the statistical probability of losing all of your money. Looking at the return without fully understanding the risk is a recipe for disaster.

250K

Lol at some of the delusional youngins in this thread. Sitting in Intro to Accounting or whatever when Lehman collapsed. As it is said in A Game of Thrones...you're all summer children...but the long winter is coming.

It it was socially acceptable for doctors to screw over patients for money, I'm sure they would do it. In China, no healing unless you pay up front. Also gifts of money is expected afterwards.

if i was trading it, i think you would only need 10K, given you put it in out of the money call or put options on a stock that super volatile right before earning. now given you screw up, it's your lose, go home and cry, but if the stock doubles, you may go home pretty freaking happy up a mill and half like ppl who bought NFLX options with 2 week exp. one day b4 Ichan came in. now if i was investing, i would say 500 to 600k, given you are trading futures or currencies, and get a nice return of 15 to 20% a year (not the hardest thing to do if you have spot on risk management)

If you can make 250k while working only 36 hours per week, take it. Talk about amazing work/life balance. SirTrades created a lifestyle jobs thread not too long ago, hunting for a balance as such.

Just don't trade with your spare time. No one wants a doctor that's preoccupied by the sheriff foreclosing on his home.

Go to an emerging market where you have an inside connection. I personally know dozens of people who have turned 100-200k to 1m+ in 5-7 years -- I am on that track now. After 3 years, just recently sold some of my overseas investments for a cash-on-cash multiple close to 30x. Not saying there was no luck involved, but it helped a lot to know my target market.

Brazil.

.

Investing small amounts of capital at a ridiculously high rate of return is not all that uncommon. Buffett claims to be able to do 50%/yr on $1mm; I've seen much higher from start-up hedge funds punting around in the micro-cap space. It takes some minor activism to really juice returns though.

5 years? You can do it in 5 minutes. Here's how:

Step 1: Find $5

Step 2: Go on Ebay

Step 3: Buy a $100 million Zimbabwe dollar bill

Bam, voila, you're a millionaire.

As some have said...I took this question to mean "how much would you need to make 1 million assuming you were actively trading it" So, my initial thought is, I know a guy who picks pennies and his 12 month average upside has to be...like 250% per month on average. Maybe more. So if you're willing to roll the dice (which, let's face it the worst you can do with promoted pennies is go flat), you could start with 1k and have a million before the year is out. Something I've considered doing lately. I mean, before with Zecco (don't use them) that was unthinkable but now with ThinkorSwim, I think it's possible t do well with event-based penny trading.

lol at all of the ridiculous return claims posted here.

My personal portfolio has returned somewhere around 12-14%for the past couple years, so Im guessing I would need around 550k-700k

Nobody here has said anything about entrepreneurship yet.

I'm 22 years old, have 12k to my name and owe more than that in student loans. I have a job I work 50 hrs/week and am starting a company on the side.

Given TWO years from today, I believe the chance I am a millionaire is greater than 10%. Don't believe me if you want, but if you give me 10 to 1 odds, I will bet money on it.

So many wizards

$1m

Any type of investing is allowed? I'd only need 1 penny and invest it in a daily compounding bond.

Couldn't tell you man, I've got balls but they're not crystal balls

If no additional funds were added periodically, I'd need 475k with my system, including drawdowns, fees etc. The system averages 17% return.

50K.

Just need to pay a developer to create my web app. Then I sell it for $4.99/ee to small/businesses. Sell to 2000 companies assuming average of 20 ee per company. Easy peasy.

I did it in a year and a half with 100k

What's your target vol? Once you have that, using a simplistic assumption that your Sharpe is 1, you can calculate the required capital relatively easily.

$1000 should be more than enough, shouldn't take more than 4-5 months to reach a million: http://qz.com/583202/you-could-have-turned-1000-into-trillions-by-perfe…