I’m a Self-Made Millionaire: Here Are the Ways I Diversify My Portfolio
After scratching and clawing and scrimping and saving your way to a fortune, the last thing you want to do is lose it. That’s why diversifying your assets is a fundamental wealth-guarding strategy.
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After all, if you put all your eggs in one basket, your entire net worth is vulnerable to a single point of failure.
GOBankingRates spoke with two self-made millionaires who defend their fortunes with simple but effective diversification strategies. Both are big believers in not overcomplicating their portfolios because diversification doesn’t have to be complex to be effective.
A Millionaire Landscaping Pro Keeps It Simple and Consistent
Bryan Clayton is the CEO of GreenPal, an online marketplace dubbed the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine. A lifelong landscaping pro, he masterminded the platform, which connects homeowners with vetted local lawn care professionals. The platform has more than 300,000 active users and facilitates thousands of transactions daily.
Previously, he created Peachtree Inc. and grew the company into one of Tennessee’s largest landscaping businesses, which did $10 million in annual revenue before he sold it to Lusa Holdings in 2013.
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Finding Diversification in the Hunt for ‘High-Quality Revenue’
Clayton discovered diversification accidentally when searching for ways to make money without working so hard to earn it.
“Back when I was grinding it out with my landscaping business, which I eventually grew to over $10 million a year in revenue, I got some gold advice from a banker client of mine while I was mowing his yard,” he said. “He told me, ‘Son, you need to turn your low-quality revenue into high-quality revenue.’ I didn’t get it at first, but he broke it down for me — mowing yards was hard, constant work with income that stopped the minute I stopped.”
‘Don’t Overcomplicate Your Investments’
The banker suggested Clayton invest in real estate and stocks that pay dividends to shareholders because both offer growth potential plus a passive income stream you can access without having to sell any of your holdings.
“So that’s what I did,” said Clayton. “For years, I lived lean and plowed every spare dime into single-family homes and the S&P 500 index.”
An investment in the S&P 500 offers instant diversification — one share of an index fund buys a sliver of the 500 largest American companies. To further diversify, Clayton’s properties offer a hedge that isn’t tied to the stock market’s whims.
It’s not a complicated formula — and that’s exactly how Clayton likes it.
“Keep it simple,” he said. “Real estate for steady income and appreciation, and stocks for growth and dividends. No fancy stuff, just consistent investments. That strategy let me retire at 32 and start my tech company, GreenPal, turning those early sweat equity days into a more sustainable financial future. If you stick to the basics and stay consistent, it pays off. Don’t overcomplicate your investments.”
Frugal Living Turns Average Earners Into 20-Something Retirees
During her eight-year marketing career, Lauren Keys leveraged her communications and creative experience to grow a small business. At the end of 2018, she left her full-time job to retire way ahead of schedule. That gave her and her husband time to launch their blog, Trip Of A Lifestyle, a platform for money-saving tips and frugal traveling strategies.
They donate 100% of the blog’s affiliate profits to charity.
“My husband, Steven, and I reached a net worth of $1 million at the ages of 33 and 34 without either earning a six-figure salary,” said Keys. “In my 20s, I worked as a marketing manager for several small firms, earning between $36,000 and $84,000 per year. Steven worked as a physics teacher, making between $38,000 and $90,000 annually.”
They both quit their full-time jobs and entered semi-retirement at age 29, growing their wealth through investing and part-time freelance work until they were millionaires. The secret — extreme frugality and spartan living.
“We were able to save 60% to 80% of our incomes during our careers because we engineered our expenses to be extremely low,” said Keys. “Living in modest condos, riding bicycles to work, sharing a used car, and cooking meals at home.”
It’s a Big Stock Market — Why Not Diversify Across All of It?
Clayton spreads his money across all 500 companies on the S&P — the home of giants like Apple, Amazon and AT&T. Keys, on the other hand, diversifies much more thoroughly — but like Clayton, she doesn’t overcomplicate things.
“Our investment portfolio has always been very simple,” she said. “Our main holdings are total stock market index funds, namely VTI and VXUS.”
VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) contains not 500 companies, but 3,719. VXUS (Vanguard Total International Stock ETF) holds 8,616 stocks.
A single share makes them partial owners in virtually every publicly traded company in the world — how’s that for diversification?
“Broad index funds are diversified by definition, but we achieve further diversification across other asset classes by including a bond market index fund, BND, as well,” said Keys.
Echoing Clayton’s strategy further, they also own one mortgage-free rental property, their previous residence.
“Due to our deliberately low cost of living, we could live off of investment returns alone from this point forward if we wanted to,” said Keys. “And we consider ourselves to be retired.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m a Self-Made Millionaire: Here Are the Ways I Diversify My Portfolio
