Simple Math for Would-Be Millionaires

I read a simple statement on social media the other day that blew my mind. As is often the case with these things I can’t find it now, but it doesn’t matter because the concept really was simple enough that it’s now engraved in my mind.

To make a million dollars you have to make $120 an hour, every day for a year.

$120 an hour may seem a ridiculous amount if you’re on minimum wage, or a very reasonable amount if you’re a hot-shot lawyer. Either way, you’ll be aware that you can’t work or bill 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And that’s what the calculation is based on. As I say, the math is simple:

120 x 24 = 2,880

2,880 x 365 = 1,051,200

The concept is, of course, based on passive income. When it comes to passive income making $120 in any given hour isn’t that hard. I do it regularly when one of my affiliate partners has a big launch or promotion. The tricky part, without doubt, is doing it consistently, every hour of every day, for a year. That seems like it would be hard to do, and it is, but the mind-blowing part is, it’s theoretically completely possible.

How to Make $120 or More in an Hour

Here are some ways I’ve made $120 or more in an hour.

Selling big-ticket items from affiliate partners

I’m an affiliate for various people who sell, for example, $500 courses with a 40% commission. It takes one of my readers or followers about 2 minutes to buy one of those courses. I earn $200. I also partner with people who sell ‘cheaper’ courses or digital products, at about $97, with a 50% commission. If I promote them and 3 people buy through my link in a single hour, that’s around $145 that hits my bank account.

Launching a low ticket digital product

When I launch a new digital product (like one of my success kits) I sometimes launch with a pay-what-you-want sale. Buyers can name their price, from up. When I do this, sure some people pay a dollar, but most pay a little more. Often 5, 10, or 20 bucks. I have an email list of a couple of thousand people and a social media following (across various platforms) of over 10,000 followers, so generating 100 sales of a new product in the first hour of the launch is perfectly doable. That’s over $120, easy.

Writing a revenue-generating article

I write on Medium.com, which is a platform that generates income for me according to how popular my articles are. Depending on the complexity of what I’m writing, I can sometimes create an article on Medium in around an hour. If it then generates $120 (over time), I’ve hit my magic number again. Full disclosure: a lot of articles on Medium make a lot less than $120, but some make $300 or $400. My top earning article on Medium has earned over $2,000.

Writing and creating digital products may not be your thing. There are other sources of passive (or semi-passive) income, including various kinds of investments such as rental real estate. I wouldn’t want to encourage anyone to do anything they’re not knowledgeable about and comfortable with. So if you have no passive income whatsoever right now, please do a lot of research before you decide on a strategy.

My aim here is to simply get you to think about the math, and the concept itself. $120 an hour, every hour for a year, and you’re a millionaire (at least until you have to pay your taxes). $60 an hour, every hour, and you’re half-way there. Even $10 an hour, every single hour, and you’re bringing in the equivalent of a very comfortable annual salary.

I’ll be considering this concept every time I strategize around my passive income streams from now on. I suggest you do too.