How to invest 3 million dollars – The BEST phase of your life.

I’m finding myself in a funny place in my investing life. Very funny place. I’m approaching 3 million dollars and I LOVE the benefits but it’s actually quite scary to invest here. So today I want to tell you why investing 3 million dollars is different from even the millionaire mark. 

In case you missed it, this is part of a larger “how to invest” series that includes: $1000, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000, $1M, $3M, $5M, and $10M. It’s all here:

And today you will learn:

• The real issue with being a tri-millionaire
• Where to invest your money at this point in your wealth journey
• The surprising investment that’s not what you think
• What’s yet to come

So back to why 3 million dollars is a funny place. 

Simply put. You’re at a point where your day job income doesn’t really matter anymore. So… congrats on making yourself irrelevant! 

This has some AMAZING benefits but it creates some issues too. Because…

1 – Having a job becomes pointless, except for the fun of it. 

So you guys know that I work part-time. It’s the best side-hustle ever. But it’s interesting to not need it. If I have a sucky day at work, I ask myself – should I come back tomorrow? If you’re at the 3 million dollars mark, then your investment income is probably higher than your work income. 

It’s weird. But at the same time. DANGEROUS… 

2 – Your income can’t get you out of investment jams anymore. 

When I bought my first rental property, I knew that if absolutely everything went south, I could still make necessary payments with my work income. Not so when you’re playing a bigger game. 

When you became a millionaire, you hopefully started getting more conservative with your investments. And the multimillionaire inflection point is exactly why. 

If you have an unplanned expense in a business you bought, in a few of your rentals, or heck, even in your own expensive home, your income won’t cove the difference. The numbers are just getting too big at this point. 

What does that mean?

It means that your investments have to support themselves entirely. No bailing out from Mr. Job. 

How to invest 3 million dollars

So with that  knowledge, this is how to invest 3 million dollars. 

Lower your leverage (4%)

I don’t need to tell you that I think real estate is great. There are several ways to go about investing in real estate but my favorite at the moment is single-family rentals. And even from there, there are lots of ways to get started and make it work for you. 

In the investing 1 million article, I recommended getting into cash flow houses. Now, in the 3 million dollars phase of your wealth, you probably want to start de-leveraging everything. You’ll only be “earning” 4% (the interest rate on your debt) but it’s worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mortgages and have nothing against a little leveraged debt, but we’re entering new territory. 

There are two reasons for this. 

1 – To increase your safety even more. 

Remember, when you have a lot of money, it’s important to protect it. Decrease the cash flowing out. Even if you can handle all the payments you have now, having a few bad months and could get VERY SCARY. 

It’s scary at any level of wealth, but now that you’ve probably told your old boss to shove it, we don’t want to risk losing our investment income. 

2 – To lighten your mental load. 

If you had all of your 3 million dollars invested in real estate, even if it was mortgage-free, that would be around THIRTY HOUSES! 

(Obviously, that depends on where you want to buy property. If this was Hawaii or Toronto, it’s more like 5 average houses.) 

But even if I had great property managers, I don’t have the mental capacity for that! So take a load off, start de-leveraging your properties and reducing your payments while upping your monthly cash flow even more. 

See also: The best property management software for self-managing
And: Best courses to get started in real estate

Grow your business empire (50%)

Buying a business is surprisingly simple, but running it is time-consuming. Not recommended for “passive income.”

Obviously, there’s a lot to do to run a business but once you develop that business-muscle, it’s fun to keep flexing it. It’s smart to diversify your revenue streams and put some eggs into other baskets by acquiring other companies in different niches. 

PLUS, if you want to power through to the $100M or $1B levels of wealth you need to own a successful business empire. Plus you get to feel proud and call yourself a CEO 😛

Have a look at this graphic from Visual Capitalist. If you’re a tri-millionaire who aspires for something big you need to be like the other mega-millionaires and get a huge chunk of money in business interests. 

See also: Your car will cost you more than $1,000,000!

You don’t have to start a business from scratch. That’s a huge commitment. But you can get your feet wet by perusing what’s out there or by getting to know some business owners yourself. 

Get an assistant (100%)

At this point, your time is super valuable and I LOVE embracing this! If you are holding real estate without high leveraging, or you’re investing in index funds, you’re getting at least 8% returns. 

So for your 3 million dollars, we’re talking $240,000 per year. 

Holy cow! 

Okay. Let’s dive into those numbers a little deeper. 

You’re awake for 5840 hours in one year. (365 x 16 ~ we’re assuming 8 hours for sleep.) 

That means you’re getting over $40 per hour just for being awake! ($240,000 / 5840hrs = $41.10/hr) Even while you’re driving, brushing your teeth, or mowing your lawn – you’re earning more money per hour than your average person. 

So hire that average person and offload everything possible! 

We’re talking babysitters, cleaners, handymen, assistants, gardeners, VAs whatever! Their time is less valuable than yours. 

I’m hiring a virtual assistant right now and I am basically exploding with offloading excitement. Once I thought about offloading random and annoying tasks, my time-efficient brain just went rampant. 

Now you can use the time that you gain to do the things you actually care about OR to generate more wealth. 

For example:

• Answer pointless emails OR have someone give you the TL;DR while you stake out your next rental property? (The answer should be obvious, you know how I love TL;DRs)
• Weed your lawn or go to the gym and feel awesome?  
• Wash your floors or play with your kids while teaching them about money? (Yeah, yeah. Chores are good for kids, but play along with me here.) 

If you just want to get your feet wet,

Does it have a direct ROI? Not always. But if it frees up even 10% of your time, then you just earned yourself a raise as far as I’m concerned! 

What’s next for us?

Next we’ll talk about how to invest at the $5M and $10M mark. Hintoid for you: there will be some apartment buildings involved. But we’re not there yet. Check the how to invest guide to find out when it’s ready. 

And if you haven’t already, go back and do this:

This is a bit below the one million dollars category, but it’s still recommended. Visit them all here.

• Invest in yourself
• Rent out your basement ← although once you are a multi-millionaire maybe you can live without the extra $1000/mo noisy neighbor downstairs.
• Refinance your house/loans
• Tax-sheltered investing

Now get back to that champagne! You have lots of money to invest and now you’re all set to both protect it and get an income. Growing your wealth is a little different from now on but that just makes it more fun! 

TL;DR – How to invest 3 million dollars

• The 3 million dollars mark is different, because our investment income probably surpasses our work income, and our work income can’t bail out any investment jams.
• Invest in low-leverage real estate for peace of mind on a bunch of different fronts
• Buy a business to have your eggs in a few baskets
• Working isn’t worth it anymore so start with an assistant. Your time is literally worth more than theirs. So treat it that way.