<prompt> Human: Im hitting the half-million mark at age 38 with my paycheck today. I havent done the math but I estimate that 75 of this accumulated in the past 4-5 years.How has your wealth grown over the years? How did this correspond to your expectations and what were your biggest surprises along the way? What did you do right and what could you have done differently?  <response>: In rpersonalfinance, I documented when I became a millionairre Then I documented my wealth a year later 1.47 millionMy net worth is about 1.5 million right now.You can read it for details, but essentially, it was this:Im 36, I maxed out my 401K with matching for 14 years. It is almost 500K - just normal mutual funds. All the while, I saved about 25K on average and invested. Bought a couple of properties after the housing boom and some leveraged mutual funds , when everyone said the sky is falling, which worked out handsomely. My total net worth, including 401K, is 950K.My wife is 33, she started maxing out her 401K slightly later at around age 25-26. He 401K is about 250K. She saved about as much as me, but was very wimpy in early on. Starting investing in stocks in 2008. Her total net worth including 401K is 550K.Nothing grand or special. Just working good jobs, and savings, and investing. 