How to become a millionaire might be simpler than most people imagine.
You don’t necessarily need to start a successful company, become a doctor, earn a six-figure salary, inherit money, or discover the next great stock. Sometimes the formula is much less exciting: work, save, invest, and repeat for decades.
Tony Barzar is a remarkable example.
Barzar is 60 years old and works as a cashier at Costco in Tucson, Arizona. He earns $32.90 an hour.
He is also a millionaire.
His story, originally reported by The Wall Street Journal, demonstrates one of my favorite principles of personal finance: building wealth is often less about how much you earn and more about what you consistently do with what you earn.
From $5.85 an Hour to Millionaire
Tony Barzar’s career began almost 40 years ago.
In 1986, he was working at a grocery store earning around $3 an hour when a friend suggested that he apply for a job at Price Club, one of the pioneers of the warehouse-store concept.
Price Club offered him $5.85 an hour.
Barzar took the job.
His first assignment wasn’t glamorous. He collected shopping carts in the parking lot of a Price Club store in Tucson, Arizona.
Price Club eventually merged with Costco in 1993, and Barzar stayed.
Over the decades, he performed different jobs inside the warehouse before becoming a cashier.
Today, he earns $32.90 an hour.
But something much more important was happening during those decades.
Tony Barzar was investing.
When Price Club’s pension plan transitioned to a 401(k), Barzar began putting a small portion of his paycheck into his retirement account.
He continued doing it.
Year after year.
Decade after decade.
Eventually, his retirement account grew to more than $1 million.
How to Become a Millionaire: Start With a Plan
There is nothing magical about Barzar’s story.
That’s precisely why I find it so inspiring.
He didn’t win the lottery.
He didn’t receive a huge inheritance.
He didn’t become a corporate executive.
He didn’t create a technology startup.
He simply developed a financial plan and remained consistent with it for decades.
That’s one of the most important lessons in personal finance.
A reasonable wealth-building plan might look something like this:
- Spend less than you earn.
- Save part of every paycheck.
- Invest the money in productive assets.
- Take advantage of employer retirement programs.
- Increase contributions as your income rises.
- Avoid constantly interrupting your investment strategy.
- Give compound growth several decades to work.
None of those steps are particularly exciting.
Together, however, they can be extremely powerful.
The Incredible Power of Compound Interest
Time is one of the greatest wealth-building tools available.
Imagine someone invests $300 per month and earns an average return of 8% annually.
After 10 years, the account would be worth roughly $55,000.
After 20 years: about $177,000.
After 30 years: about $447,000.
After 40 years: approximately $1.05 million.
The investor contributed only $144,000.
The rest came largely from investment growth.
That’s compound interest.
And there’s another important lesson hidden in those numbers: the biggest gains happen toward the end.
This is why starting early can matter much more than trying to find spectacular investments later in life.
Costco Deserves Some Credit Too
Barzar’s success wasn’t entirely an individual accomplishment. His employer created an environment that made long-term wealth building easier.
Costco has deliberately pursued a different employment strategy from much of the retail industry.
Rather than constantly replacing workers with cheaper new employees, Costco pays experienced workers relatively well and offers benefits designed to encourage them to stay.
The strategy appears to work.
Costco has said its turnover among employees who have been with the company for at least a year is around 7%, remarkably low for retail.
The company also offers retirement benefits that can become extremely valuable over a long career.
Costco CFO Gary Millerchip has said that “many thousands” of the company’s hourly employees have accumulated seven-figure 401(k) accounts.
Barzar isn’t an isolated miracle.
There are thousands of workers like him.
That’s perhaps the most impressive part of the story.
Wealth Is More Than the Number in Your 401(k)
Barzar’s financial life also illustrates why we shouldn’t measure prosperity solely by salary.
Over the years, his family bought a three-bedroom home with a swimming pool and traveled to Europe.
Costco’s employee benefits also became extremely important when Barzar’s wife, who had previously worked in a Costco bakery, developed stage 3 brain cancer.
She underwent three brain surgeries.
Their Costco health insurance covered the surgeries, according to reporting about Barzar’s story.
A good salary matters.
But retirement contributions, healthcare, paid leave, job security and other employee benefits can also have enormous financial value.
You Don’t Have to Become the Boss
There’s another part of Barzar’s story I particularly like.
He was offered opportunities to become a supervisor.
He declined them.
Modern career advice often assumes everyone should constantly climb the corporate ladder.
Cashier → supervisor → manager → regional manager.
Barzar chose another path.
He likes working with customers. He enjoys mentoring younger employees. He apparently enjoys his job enough that, despite having enough money to retire, he continues working.
There’s a valuable lesson here too.
Financial success doesn’t require having an impressive job title.
You can become financially successful while doing ordinary work exceptionally well.
The Same Principle Works in Canada
Tony Barzar’s story takes place in the United States, where he accumulated wealth through a 401(k).
Canadians have different investment accounts, but the fundamental strategy is exactly the same.
Instead of a 401(k), Canadians can use accounts such as:
- RRSPs
- TFSAs
- Workplace pension and retirement plans
- Regular taxable investment accounts
The specific tax rules are different.
The mathematics of compound growth isn’t.
Whether you live in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Tucson or New York, the basic principle remains:
Earn money → save part of it → invest it → stay invested → repeat.
You Don’t Need to Find the Next Nvidia
People often make investing unnecessarily complicated.
They search for the next Nvidia, Bitcoin, Amazon or Tesla.
They jump from investment to investment hoping to discover something that will make them rich quickly.
But becoming wealthy doesn’t necessarily require finding extraordinary investments.
For most people, regularly investing in diversified, low-cost index funds for several decades is a much more realistic strategy.
The objective isn’t to become rich next year.
The objective is to become wealthier every year.
There’s an enormous difference between those two ideas.
Poverty is a Choice
Poverty is the natural state.
Throughout history, most people have been poor and only a small percentage make it to be financially well off. But in the U.S. and Canada, staying poor is a choice.
Even as a cashier, with very little formal education and a low-paying job, a person can become a millionaire.
To not be poor, they just need to have a steady job and live below their means.
That’s it.
No more.
The story of Tony Barzar proves it. If a person is poor, it is because they want to be poor.
Consistency Beats Intensity
People frequently become enthusiastic about personal finance for a few months.
They create a budget.
They save aggressively.
They start investing.
Then life happens.
The enthusiasm disappears.
Barzar’s story demonstrates something far more powerful than enthusiasm: consistency.
You don’t have to make perfect financial decisions every day.
You need to make reasonably good financial decisions repeatedly for a very long time.
Your Greatest Financial Asset May Be Time
Suppose you’re 25 years old.
You have something extraordinarily valuable that a 55-year-old millionaire might happily pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to possess.
You have 30 additional years.
Thirty years of earning.
Thirty years of saving.
Thirty years of investing.
Thirty years of compound growth.
Unfortunately, young people often feel they don’t have enough money to invest.
That’s backwards.
Starting with $50 or $100 per month can establish the habit.
As income increases, contributions can increase.
The important thing is to begin.
Becoming a Millionaire Isn’t Guaranteed
It’s important to add one qualification.
Not literally everyone will become a millionaire.
People experience unemployment, disabilities, family responsibilities, divorce, medical expenses, low wages and countless other circumstances that can make saving difficult or impossible.
Investment returns aren’t guaranteed either.
But Tony Barzar demonstrates something much more useful:
You don’t have to be extraordinary to build extraordinary wealth.
Millions of ordinary Americans and Canadians have access to the same fundamental tools: employment income, retirement accounts, diversified investments and decades of potential compound growth.
The Millionaire Behind the Costco Register
Imagine walking through Costco and seeing Tony Barzar helping customers at self-checkout.
Nothing about the scene screams “millionaire.”
And that’s precisely the point.
Millionaires don’t always drive Ferraris.
They don’t always live in mansions.
They aren’t necessarily entrepreneurs, investment bankers or surgeons.
Sometimes they’re the person scanning your groceries.
Barzar could apparently retire.
But he continues showing up for work.
After nearly four decades at Costco, he has accumulated something arguably more valuable than a million-dollar retirement account.
He has options.
And ultimately, that’s what financial independence is about.
Money gives you the ability to choose.
Tony Barzar’s story shows us that getting there doesn’t necessarily require brilliance, luck or an enormous salary.
It requires a plan.
And then it requires doing something surprisingly difficult:
sticking with that plan for a very long time.
FAQ: How to Become a Millionaire
Can you become a millionaire on an average salary?
Yes, it is possible. Someone who consistently saves and invests a portion of an ordinary salary over several decades can potentially accumulate $1 million or more. The outcome depends on savings, investment returns, time and personal circumstances.
How much should I invest to become a millionaire?
It depends primarily on your starting age and investment return. At an 8% annual return, investing approximately $300 per month for 40 years would grow to roughly $1 million. Returns are never guaranteed.
Do Canadians have a 401(k)?
No. The 401(k) is an American retirement account. Canadians have alternatives including RRSPs, TFSAs and workplace retirement or pension plans.
What’s the most important lesson from Tony Barzar?
Consistency. Barzar didn’t become wealthy overnight. His wealth resulted from decades of employment, saving, investing and taking advantage of the retirement benefits available to him.
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