5 Self-Made Millionaires Who Earned Their Fortunes After Age 50
By , Money Morning•
While some folks prepare for retirement after the age of 50, others see this midlife milestone as an opportunity for absolute change. After all, who knows - people with enough gumption and resourcefulness can become self-made millionaires after the age of 50 - even when unfortunate circumstances are the agents of change.
Ken Budd, executive editor of the AARP magazine, says that "seeking business success in one's golden years is especially common among today's baby boomer generation." Perhaps younger folk (the whippersnappers) could stand to learn a few lessons from them...
Here's a look at how five self-made millionaires hit it big later in life.
Five Self-Made Millionaires Who Earned Their Fortunes After Age 50
Julia Child: One of the most famous post-fifty success stories is that of Julia Child, who started taking French cooking lessons when she moved to France with her husband. In 1949, at age 37, she was accepted to the exclusive Parisian cooking school Le Cordon Bleu, starting out at "housewife" level lessons. Though she advanced quickly through many classes, when it was time for her to enter an "expert level" course on haute cuisine, she was deemed unqualified and was placed instead in a class for restaurateurs. There, she was the only woman among eleven men. Julia stuck it out despite the incredible gender disparity of the classroom and graduated in 1950 (though she failed her first exam). After this, she decided to pursue her dream of constructing a cookbook. Seven years later, having collaborated with two other women, Julia Child was picked up by an agent at Alfred A. Knopf. In 1961, her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was released and instantly adored. By 1962, 12,000 copies had been sold. Julia turned 50 that same year. In the subsequent decades after the cookbook's initial release, Child wrote several more cookbooks and eventually hosted her own television show. Her total net worth was $38 million when she died on Aug. 13, 2004, two days before her 92nd birthday.
Money Morning subscribers, continue reading to find out how a 66-year-old man started a restaurant that's now a household name...
Colonel Sanders: Harland Sanders was 66 when he switched his career path. He was nearly broke after his once-successful restaurant had gone out of business thanks to the construction of a nearby highway that detoured traffic away. Despite this, Sanders remained well-known for his amazing fried chicken recipe. In fact, his recipe earned him the official title of Kentucky Colonel, designated by Gov. Ruby Laffoon in 1935. Colonel Sanders then devoted all his time to his chicken business - traveling, cooking, and striking deals across the country. He earned a nickel for every chicken sold by a restaurant. In 1969, he sold his business to investors for $2 million. He was then 79 years old. In 1986, already a subsidiary of Nabisco, Kentucky Fried Chicken was acquired by PepsiCo Inc. for $840 million. Today, the franchise is worth over a billion dollars.
Franny Martin: At the age of 56, Franny Martin - a corporate marketing executive for Domino's Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) and McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) - decided to up and quit her job in order to bake cookies full-time. Her husband planted the initial idea into her head. In 2002, Martin started baking cookies at home and delivering them to people who lived within 20 miles from her. But then customers started requesting shipments of her cookies. And her mail order cookie business - "Cookies on Call" - was born. Today she ships all over the world from her home base in Douglas, Michigan. She just recently signed a distribution deal with Local Brands Michigan for state-wide distribution. While her exact net worth is unknown, she hit the half-million dollar mark in 2010, long before she made any distribution deals. Martin told the blog LateBloomingEntrepreneurs.wordpress.com that "when midlife entrepreneurs do what they love, the money will follow."
Kim Gustafson: At age 54, office equipment sales and marketing exec Kim Gustafson left his job to become a ski instructor. Unfortunately, his knee was not in the best shape, and it required a brace when he held lessons out on the slopes. The brace piqued Gustafson's interest: perhaps there could be a more comfortable way to support my knee? He teamed up with researchers to create the Opedix Knee-Tec tight, which provides wearers with more flexibility. But the product didn't really take off until The New York Timeswrote a piece on it. Then sales skyrocketed and Gustafson began selling his knee brace for $225 a pop. Today, at the age of 65, his company produces another product that provides athletes with both medical support and comfort: orthopedic shorts. Opedix has a net worth of $32 million. [epom key="ddec3ef33420ef7c9964a4695c349764" redirect="" sourceid="" imported="false"]
Jeff Block: When a friend showed 57-year-old Jeff Block how to make an origami rose with a paper napkin, he didn't realize that an obsession was about to emerge. Block began making paper roses constantly after that. In 1999, he founded JustPaperRoses.com, an Internet-based company that sells paper roses as well as flowers made of leather, steel, wood, silver, and other materials. His decision to take this interesting entrepreneurial route was a complete 180-degree turn from his career as a mechanical engineer. For the first three years in business, Block only made paper roses for first anniversaries. Block told the PT Money podcast: "I turned my hobby into a full-time business with two employees. It's my American dream come true story. We've had over 35,000 customers and nobody knows about us!" Today, Block he fulfills about 5,000 orders a year, mostly for anniversaries.
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