<p>I can’t imagine it’s easy to become a millionaire in any field but I suppose you’ll be fine financially.</p>
<p>Becoming a millionaire has many factors involved. The two most important ones are decent income and disciplined savings.</p>
<p>Your initial question is framed from a young person’s still naive perspective. You asked if someone can become a millionaire by just working as an engineer making $65-70k per year. You most certainly can become a millionaire with that type of job, but it may require a modest lifestyle. </p>
<p>If you put back 16% per year in a company 401k and earn an average of 10% returns on your money each year, you would reach $1MM in about 25 years. If your employer matched your contributions, it should come even quicker.</p>
<p>Get your degree, go to work, work hard, make a few friends and connections, pursue independent ideas as you progress in your career, and keep your nose clean. Good things will come.</p>
<p>As others said, entrepreneurs can become millionaires. Entrepreneurs can be engineers, but they have to be managers as well.</p>
<p>I want to be a millionaire by age 25, and I’ll do it. </p>
<p>I’m either going to start up my own company or take part in a few start-ups. Even if some of them fail, I will be able to learn from the experiences and just try again. You have to take big risks to get big rewards and I’m going to do that in my 20s when I’m still young and capable.</p>
<p>People with good ideas get far in life. If you’re just working an engineering job 9-5 and expect to be a millionaire then its probably not going to happen. If you and your friends get together and make your ideas a reality and take that risk of failure, then you will have both good experience and good rewards.</p>
<p>Sure you can, but only if you study B.S.E engineering from top university like Cal-tech, Stanford, UT Austin or MIT. My cousin is 28, he studied petroleum engineering from UT Austin & his starting salary was around $105,000/annually without tax. Later on did Masters in Petroleum Science from Cal-tech & started making around $240,000/yearly as Drilling Super wiser. On other hand he bought a small restaurant in NYC which give him around $55,000/annually too. And now 4 years later, he bought a million dollar house in Houston. So jealous!! If you plan your next 10 years, work hard & smartly then sure every engineer can make millions.</p>
<p>If you invest your money wisely you can be a millionaire in almost any carrier you choose. The biggest asset of an Engineer is his ability to understand complex calculations and finance also requires complex calculations (maybe not quite as complex but difficult enough for less mathematical inclined folks). Do not get stuck into " I can only get rich one way". Many people buy real state, bonds, stocks and slowly grow their capital. Some will have the opportunity to work in a start up firm or start with a stellar salary, but with some planning even the regular salary Engineer can became a wealthy guy over a few years.</p>
<p>Having a million dollars by retirement starting out at age 22 is not that difficult for the disciplined engineer. The secret to being a millionaire is to spend less than you earn. If you spend like a business major and earn an engineers salary you’ll be in great shape. The key is to start early. Put the maximum amount you can into a 401k or your IRA. Even if your putting away 20% of your income you’ll still have more disposable income than graduates of most majors (on average).</p>
<p>Yes, you just need insight, managing skills, and entrepreneurial talent as many other posters have mentioned.</p>
<p>No harder or easier than anyone else with a stable 60-70k income.</p>
<p>Here’s a story. My cousin went to school with a computer engineer who started his own company, making a new type of fingerprint authentication chip that had never been seen before. After a few years, Apple expressed interest in buying his company, and he sold his company to Apple for 350(!) million. This technology is supposedly going to be in the new iPhone 5S.</p>
<p>Point of the story - if you start a successful company, you can definitely become a millionaire.</p>
<p>Something else - according to the BLS, the average engineering manager makes around 120k / year and many make more, so assuming an engineer enters management around age 35-ish and didn’t spend frivolously in their 20s, it doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to have 1 million in assets by 50-55.</p>
<p>Thomas J. Stanley (writer of such books as The Millionaire Next Door) seems to think that engineers tend to be more frugal on average:</p>
<p>[Stop</a> Acting Rich: A Professor of Frugality](<a href=“http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/140/Stop_Acting_Rich__A_Professor_of_Frugality.html]Stop”>http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/140/Stop_Acting_Rich__A_Professor_of_Frugality.html)
[Even</a> More Frugal Than One Engineer](<a href=“http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/133/Even_More_Frugal_Than_One_Engineer.html]Even”>http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/133/Even_More_Frugal_Than_One_Engineer.html)
[Stop</a> Acting Rich: Good Advice from a Frugal Engineer](<a href=“http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/116/Stop_Acting_Rich_Good_Advice_from_a_Frugal_Engineer.html]Stop”>http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/116/Stop_Acting_Rich_Good_Advice_from_a_Frugal_Engineer.html)</p>
<p>Perhaps the mindset that many engineers have that makes them successful at engineering design solutions within often very limiting constraints (including cost constraints – it may require better engineers to design a quality $15,000 car than to design a quality $50,000 car, for example) may carry over into their personal lives, including how they spend and save their money.</p>
<p>So even without considering outliers who start companies that eventually become enormously successful, it is not outlandish to think that engineers can become financially well off.</p>
<p>The Millionaire Next Door is a require reading at my house and at my husband’s residency program (where of course he implemented the required reading).</p>
<p>As others have said, becomming a millionaire is relatively easy, you just have to start investing EARLY. The power of compounding interest is pretty amazing. </p>
<p>I’m grooming my Civ-E major S to become a millionaire. He just finished his freshman year and is working an internship this summer. I’ve already told him he needs to take about 25% of what he earns and put it in a Roth IRA at the end of the summer (at age 19).</p>
<p>I’ve told him if he takes about 1/3 of his salary and invests it for the first 5 years after he graduates that then he can go back to contributing 6-10% for the remainder of his working years and he’ll easily have over a million when he retires.</p>
<p>The problem being that a million is really not that much money anymore. Assuming my son (currently 19) retires at age 65 and has 1 million dollars, if he estimates that he will live to age 90 (which won’t be uncommon in 70 years) and that he won’t be able to rely on social security income by then, that leaves him with $40,000/year to live on. And in nearly 45 years time $40,000 won’t even have the value that it does today. 1 million dollars will allow someone to ‘get by’, but definitely does not equate to being wealthy. For today’s college students, I’d aim for having 2-3 million saved to live very comfortably during retirement.</p>
<p>You’re more likely to become a millionaire if you major in Business over Engineering.</p>
<p>In our state, with high property costs and values, there are many whose homes alone are worth 7 figures or more. How much equity each has in the building varies widely, as well as what other liquid assets they have.</p>
<p>I agree that $1M isn’t really the magic number to be sure you won’t outlive your assets, especially if you’re long-lived. H and I have relatives who celebrated their 100th birthday and more!</p>
<p>$200 million within first 15 years is doable.</p>