So 1% by state varies widely. In New Mexico it's only $241,000 per year. Where I live, in Missouri, it's $309,000.

The way things are going, I'll be in the 1% for New Mexico within 5 years. The way I did this was pretty much hard work, education, and working toward making money with a long-term goal of income generating properites. Within 10 years, I'll be top 1% for Missouri, and the goal is to click through that list until I'm top 1% in the top state (CT, $678k).

I'm not saying I did this by myself. I went to school on the GI Bill with my time in the Air Force. It is no exaggeration to say I killed for my education. I hold two Masters, one in Operations Management and Business Administration, and one in Marketing. I woked a job in Marketing where I was making 15 an hour while I was in school and it got me the job I have now. I still took student debt to do this and maintain my standard of living. As well, my girlfriend, makes good money having taken a lot of student debt and going to grad school after being on a full-ride scholarship to go to undergrad. She went to public school in Broward County, so she's one of the few that 'got out.' She did internships, and she worked the whole time through undergrad and grad school to pay rent because her mom didn't have anything. I don't know what hard work looks like, but I bet it's pretty close to that. I like to think that I worked as hard as her when I was 26, but I'm not sure.

So our parents weren't going to loan us a million dollars. They didn't have it anyway. My parents do now, but it's from the same way as me. They both work (dad is a mechanic and mom is very high up in the insurance industry) and my mom went to night school while working a cubicle job until she had the corner office job. And I don't care for my mom as a person, but her work ethic is unquestionable.