Once you sustain $5-10m net worth, you've made it. Almost. Rich enough to be comfortable, poor enough for one bad bet to send you back. Here's what actually changes at this tier, and how to get to $25m 👇 -Self-funding, barely. A 3% draw on $7.5m is $225k/yr pre-tax, ~$150k after. You can quit but probably shouldn't. Earned income is still the cheapest capital you'll ever get plus it’s more reliable.
-Risk capacity is real but finite. A venture bet going to zero is a bad year. Size so the worst case costs you a year or two, not a tier demotion.
-Borrow, carefully. SBLOCs work here, just at worse spreads than the private bank crowd gets. Keep LTV under 20% so a drawdown doesn’t become a margin call.
-Skip the fancy structures. Estate exemption is $15m per person. You don't have an estate tax problem, you have an income tax problem. QSBS, solo 401k, tax-loss harvesting, no state tax residency or Puerto Rico if extreme/mobile. Boring, cheap, compounding.
-Claude Max is 0.03% of your net worth. Fading the singularity at this tier is a choice. How to get to the next tier: 👇