There are about 22.7 million millionaires in the United States, which is about the same as the entire population of the state of Florida.⁷ That’s a lot of millionaires—and chances are you probably live on the same street as one without even realizing it!

A few years ago, Ramsey Solutions conducted The National Study of Millionaires, the largest study of millionaires ever done. We wanted to learn more about this unique group of folks and the habits and behaviors that helped them reach millionaire status. Some of the team’s findings raised a few eyebrows because it turns out that many of the assumptions folks make about millionaires are untrue:

• Do you need a huge salary to become a millionaire? Nope! One-third of millionaires never had a six-figure household income.
• The top three careers of millionaires: engineer, accountant and teacher. So much for the idea that all millionaires are rock stars, athletes, doctors or lawyers.
• About 8 out of 10 (79%) millionaires received no inheritance at all. And of those who did get an inheritance, half of them received less than $250,000.

So, how did they do it? How did the vast majority of millionaires in America reach a seven-figure net worth? It’s not a shock that millionaires view investing as the primary tool for building wealth and securing financial independence, but let’s talk more about how they went about it.

Most of the millionaires we talked to (80%) said investing in their employer-sponsored retirement plan was their primary vehicle for reaching a million-dollar net worth.

There are plenty of reasons why the boring old 401(k) is such an important wealth-building tool! Not only do most employer-sponsored plans come with amazing tax benefits (like tax-free investment growth inside Roth accounts), but they also tend to have a company match that provides employees with “free” money for investing.

But because most employer-sponsored plans have government-imposed annual contribution limits, many millionaires look for additional investing options outside of their company plan, especially IRAs that come with similar tax advantages and more investments to choose from.

There will always be at least some level of risk in investing, and millionaires know that risk is something to be managed, not avoided. Still, there are times when the risks outweigh the rewards, and millionaires know which risks aren’t worth taking.

For example, not one of the 10,000 millionaires we surveyed put single stocks in their top three wealth-contributing factors and they don’t use debt as “leverage.”

In research interviews, millionaires mentioned taking advantage of mutual funds and low-cost index funds as some of the keys to growing their wealth.

Building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint. The median age for attaining millionaire status was 50 years old (meaning it took many folks between 25 and 30 years to reach millionaire status).

Nearly half (48%) of net-worth millionaires say they save at least 16% of their income each month, including 30% who save at least 20% of their income. If you want to build wealth, you have to make saving a top priority!

Millionaires understand more than most that debt is a trap that’ll keep them stuck and keep them from saving and investing. In fact, they’re more than twice as likely to have stayed away from credit card debt than the general population over time, and most millionaires (73%) said they have never had credit card debt.

They also tend to drive paid-for used cars and work hard to pay off their homes early (the average millionaire paid off their mortgage in about 10.2 years). As a matter of fact, the millionaires we interviewed for the study became millionaires primarily with a paid-off home and well-funded retirement accounts.

When you understand that debt is more likely to keep you from building wealth, you’ll do whatever you can to avoid it!