Last Updated: Dec. 12, 2025 at 6:30 a.m. ET
First Published: Dec. 11, 2025 at 5:15 a.m. ET
Can you work a minimum wage job and retire with $2 million?
A gentleman reader asks this question: “We read news about some people making six-figure incomes while living paycheck to paycheck. My Taiwanese friend moved here, couldn’t read or write English, married an American GI, moved to Texas, worked at Walmart for minimum wage — worked for almost 60 years — and retired a few years ago only because her husband got sick. At 87, her stock portfolio is about $2 million. She owns two houses and lives with a disabled son. Her husband also had mental-health issues, so she couldn’t rely on him.” It’s possible she did this with seed money from her husband and, yes, it’s possible that she did this without it.
