I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if we could come close to $1 million for the third millionaire post. The series looks at the millionaire perspective from various angles. Read the first two: Millionaires in the Making: Pros and Cons and Do Negative Millionaires Exist? I actually didn’t even know the total until I added it up for this article. That could be one gigantic shopping spree if we were ever inclined to try to use it all in one day!

Here’s some statistics about the accounts and limits.

Number of accounts: 89

Number of companies: 17 plus 5 retail

Largest credit card line: $73,000

Smallest credit card line: $500

Average credit card line: $11,464

Companies with total limits over $50,000: American Express, Chase, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Local Credit Union, Citi, Bank of America and Discover.

Most accounts at one company: 19 (Chase), 13 (Citi), 11 (Bank of America)

Breakdown by ownership:

Mrs. Dupaix: $415,750

Mr. Dupaix: $370,800

Helocs: $171,350

Authorized User: $62,370

The limits include two Helocs and four family credit cards which we are authorized users on.

Cards We Have

Here’s some of the cards we currently use or have used in the past. (Please make sure to verify the terms before applying for any of them as programs frequently change.) 

• Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards
• Chase Platinum Business Card
• Miles by Discover Card 

Why So Much?

I like to take advantage of 0% introductory rates to make money. I also like to keep lots of available limits on hand to shift them around when one is due. See When Does the 0% Credit Card Really Expire? to read about the difficulty in pinpointing that day. In addition, having lots of cards means lot of offers in the mail to make even more money.

I didn’t actually intend to accumulate this many cards or these limits, it was just a process over the last eight years or so. I rarely close accounts and try to use each card once a year to keep the company from closing the account.

Credit Score Impact

I’m pretty sure this blows the theory that too many cards or limits too high will wreck your credit rating. All of our scores using various models are fine, and we have not had any problems qualifying for the best mortgage and loan rates. I used to monitor our credit daily, but outgrew my interest in tracking it.  

Action Plan

Technically since four cards are authorized users, we need another $42,100 to bump us over the $1 million mark in our own limits. It’s a ridiculous challenge, but one that excites me none the less. I’ll be on the lookout for a new card to apply for! I’ll let you know when I find the right one.

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The million dollar number is often set as a personal goal for many people. Has anyone ever gone the other way and made it to the dark side of a million? Could someone really owe $1 million? And I don’t mean holding a $1,000,000 mortgage, I mean someone who has a negative net worth of that much.

Emotions and Money

There are many instances when the emotional side and the rational side of money are confused. I’d like to say that earning, saving and investing are all just numbers, but I know better. I know that money makes you think in funny ways. For example, I will Sell Coupons on Ebay for a couple dollars but won’t Sell the Car to save thousands. It doesn’t make sense.

Even though emotions are present in all levels of wealth, does the $1 million number elicit more emotional attachment than other milestones? After all there are many blogs that are detailing the trip to $1 million already or in the future:

• Million Dollar Journey
• Million Dollar Countdown
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door
• 2million is even documenting the trip to $2 million

Would the same magical number hold true reaching a negative net worth of $1 million? Would it make people think differently, act differently or approach debt differently?

The Search

As you can imagine, I didn’t find anyone (excluding famous people and corporations). Which, I’m actually pleased about. What I did find is interesting:

1. I searched networthiq and found the person with the lowest net worth to be person 334442debt at ($367,535). However their user id leads me to believe that their net worth has actually gone down since they joined. In addition, I noticed that the comments include a goal to get out of debt in 24 months. That sounds pretty tough.
2. The families highlighted on Oprah recently revealed only the amount of debt they had, $300,000 ($230,000 in student loans and $60,000 in cars… hmmm… that doesn’t add up), and not their net worth. Although not likely, they may actually have a positive net worth.
3. CNN Money highlights a family that has a net worth of ($445,741) and it looks like they are going to keep going backwards for the near future. This could be the family that can make the negative millionaire status. Hopefully they will provide updates! (Credit to Living Almost Large for finding the family in: Bergmans…millionaire?)

Here’s some bloggers in the negative that I found:

• ($39,083) Blogging Away Debt
• ($114,409) Mrs. Micah

I searched up and down and found lots of people in debt, but not $1 million. Apparently it’s tough to get close to a negative $1 million. Or the credit bureaus cut them off. Maybe we won’t ever know if there is a negative millionaire out there.

And so my search continues… ideally I don’t really want to find anyone in this state, as I want everyone to succeed financially. It was a fun challenge though!

Read the third article in the millionaire series when I look at our credit cards and lines and see if we can’t hit $1 million in credit limits!

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