[privatedan]

1.) Graduated from a top engineering school with little debt ( ~$10k ) thanks to wonderful parents who planned from day one to send my sisters and I to our top choice colleges.

2.) Consulted, tutored, did odd jobs throughout school to help pay for living costs and continued this for my first year out of college while I worked at a large engineering company ( one year out and I had saved ~$40k, which > than a year's expenses at the time ).

3.) The $40k allowed me to take a risk and join a smaller company in the financial/software space that was offering half the salary other companies were offering, but with very good upside potential.

4.) Company has been doing very well -- much better than I anticipated. I invested my earnings well ( avg'd just over 20% return per year since I started investing during the turmoil in 2008 --- took very little, IMHO, investing risk --- turns out obsessive-compulsive tendencies can be put to good use digging into and understanding 10k reports ). I made my first million before I turned 30 and have multiplied that a few times over in the next few years doing pretty much the same thing. There was no one event that dropped a bunch of cash in my lap. I accumulated ( and continue to accumulate ) cash ( at an increasing rate --- snowball effects are amazing ) over time. Still cranking away.....

Best advice I can give for those who want to accumulate wealth. Find something you enjoy, can reward you well financially, and then grind it out for a decade. The last part isn't talked about that much because, well its generally not all that glamorous --- but I enjoyed it.