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What Is The Interest on $100 Million? (And What Should You Do With It?)

If you had $100 million and earned 3%, you'd bring in $3 million every year.
Derek Sall
Author: 
Derek Sall
Deepti Nickam
Fact Checker: 
Deepti Nickam
11 mins
December 4th, 2023
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What Is The Interest on $100 Million? (And What Should You Do With It?)

We often hear about millionaires that are able to live off of interest and dividends during retirement. But what about people that are worth $100,000,000? What is the interest on 100 million dollars? Is the amount really as obscene as it sounds?

Yes, it is—for most of us. Let’s talk about what it would be like to have 100 million dollars.

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What is the Interest on 100 Million Dollars?

Based on research I've done in the past, here’s what the average interest rates usually look like:

  • Savings: 1%

  • Short-term government bond: 1%

  • Short-term corporate bond: 2–3%

  • Annuity: 3%

  • Certificate of Deposit: 5%

  • Real estate: 7%

  • S&P 500 Index Fund: 10%

Those are the interest percentages—but what does that mean in terms of dollars?

What is the yearly interest on $100 million dollars?

The quick answer—You could earn $5 million per year in pre-tax interest income by simply investing in a Certificate of Deposit (CD) at 5% interest. By investing in the stock market, you could earn upwards of $10 million per year if it grew at 10% interest.

Here are some other examples of interest payouts on $100 million per year:

  • With 1% interest, you’d make $1 million a year. (That’s just for the money to sit there and collect.)

  • At 3% interest, you’d earn $3 million per year.

  • At the annual rate of return of 8%, that’s $8,000,000 a year.

So the yearly interest on $100,000,000 could be anywhere in between $1 million and $8 million, depending on how well you invest your money.

What is the monthly interest on 100 million dollars?

The quick answer—You could earn $416,667 per month in pre-tax interest income with a Certificate of Deposit (CD) at 5% interest. By investing in the stock market and yielding 10%, you could earn $833,333 per month.

  • With 1% interest: $83,333 per month.

  • At 3% interest: $250,000 a month.

  • At 8% interest: $666,667 per month.

What is the interest on 100 million dollars per day?

If you invested in a CD (Certificate of Deposit) and earned 5% interest on $100 million dollars, you would earn a daily pre-tax amount of $13,699 per day.

If you invested $100 million with the interest rates below, here’s how much you'd earn each day:

  • 1% interest: $2,740 per day.

  • 3% interest: $8,219 a day.

  • 8% interest: $21,918 per day.

So if you had $100,000,000, you could earn more in a day than some people do in an entire year.

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Can You Live Off 100 Million Dollars?

The first question that’s circling the internet right now is, “Can you live off 100 million dollars?”

The answer is—of course you can.

I’m sure you could find plenty of uses for $100,000,000. And honestly, a hundred million bucks could take care of you and the next four or five generations after you (with money to spare).

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What to do with 100 million dollars

If you had 100 million dollars, it would be wise to invest it and live off the interest. Here are some simple ideas to grow your money:

  • Invest in a Certificate of Deposit at 5%.

  • Invest in real estate, which can earn 10% or more.

  • Become an angel investor and invest in businesses.

Earn 5% and you'll bring in $5 million a year. Invest in real estate at 10% and earn $10 million. (Plus, real estate is a fantastic tax shelter.) Invest in the right business and you could become a billionaire.

What can you do with $100 million?

  • Buy a $100,000+ watch that takes6 months to make.

  • Purchase a private top-of-the-line jet for 44 million.

  • Buy a Michigan mansion (in my hometown) for$10 million or less.

  • You could donate$25 million to end homelessness in Texas.

And even with those moderately insane purchases, you'd still have $20,000,000 left. There's so much that could be done with 100 million dollars. It's not quite as insane as having a billion dollars—but it's still quite the hefty amount to have!

How long would it take to spend 100 million dollars?

Based on the above, you can see buying even the most beautiful audacious thing still doesn’t cost a hundred million dollars. So what would it take to clear away all that cash? How long would it take to spend $100 million?

Let’s say you decided to spend $1,000 a day for the rest of your life. How long could you live on 100 million dollars before you ran out of money?

By spending $1,000 a day, you would go through $365,000 a year. Even if you earned no interest on your $100 million and spent $1,000 every single day of your life, you could still live for 270 years on a hundred million dollars.

In other words, you’d never run out of money. That’s pretty insane.

As you may have guessed, no one really needs $100,000,000 to live a happy life. Even people with just one hundredth of that (that's one million dollars) lead very happy lives in retirement.

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How to Earn 100 Million Dollars

People make $100 million in one of two ways:

  1. They build a business that becomes insanely successful.

  2. They inherit the money from their business-building parent.

That’s really it. You’re not going to earn a hundred million dollars by investing $1,000 a month into mutual funds. It’s just not going to happen.

If you want a net worth of $100,000,000, you’re going to have to start a business, work your butt off, and constantly re-invest the majority of the profits back into it.

How Long Would It Take to Make 100 Million Dollars?

Unfortunately, most people—no matter how hard they work—will never earn a hundred million dollars in their lifetime.

Let’s put $100,000,000 into perspective here:

  • If you made minimum wage your entire life, it would take you 6,600 years to make $100 million.

  • If you earned the average American income—or $50,000 a year—it would take you 2,000 years.

  • Even if you made mid-six-figures (say, $500,000) a year, it would take you 200 years to earn 100 million dollars.

The only way to truly earn a hundred million, without interest or inheriting any money, would be to earn $2 million dollars a year. Even then, it would still take you 50 years to earn $100 million.

How Long Would It Take You to Earn 100 Million Dollars With Investing?

As Einstein supposedly once said, “compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world”.

What if you consistently invested a fair amount of money? Then how long would it take to make 100 million dollars?

  • Let’s say you could invest $2,000 a month starting at age 16.

  • And let’s just say that you average a 10% return on your investments every year.

If you invested $2,000 every single month, never spent a dime, and always earned 10% a year, you'd be worth $100 million on your 77th birthday.

Investing 100 Million Dollars—Where Do Centi-Millionaires Put Their Money?

As we said before, most individuals that are worth $100 million are businesspeople. They work tirelessly. They love what they do. Heck, they simply live and breathe their businesses. And it should come as no surprise that much of these individuals’ wealth is tied up in those ventures.

Where do centi-millionaires invest? In themselves and in their business. Take, for example, Jeff Bezos—

Where is Jeff Bezos’s money stored?

Around90% of Jeff Bezos’s fortune is in Amazon stock holdings. And, as we already stated above, the same goes for most of America’s wealthiest individuals.

But why? The answer is quite simple.

If they cashed in on their holdings, that would make their wealth “realized”—and they'd be taxed on their gains. But if they just leave their wealth in the value of their business, they aren’t personally taxed on those gains.

So if they don’t need the money (and, as we established before, no one really needs 100 million dollars), then why take it out and pay taxes on it? You may as well just be a well-known centi-millionaire and enjoy the fame while it lasts.

Other Questions People Ask When Thinking About 100 Million Dollars

When researching the data for this post, I quickly realized that people have quite the array of questions they ask about millions of dollars.

Most questions came back down to earth a bit and revolved around saving up millions of dollars—which is totally fine.For many, saving up a couple million does the job quite nicely.

What is the yearly interest on 2 million dollars?

The yearly interest on $2 million would be $160,000 a year (assuming an 8% earnings rate). That could easily be money to live on year after year.

What is the interest on 10 million dollars?

Now, with $10 million, you obviously won’t earn as much in interest as you would with $100 million.

The average 8% annual interest on 10 million dollars would result in about $800,000 a year. That’s still more than what many people will save in a lifetime though—so it could be worse.

How many bank accounts should I have when building wealth?

Experts note that you should have at least four bank accounts These will be both for budgeting, saving, and building wealth through investing.

How would this work for the average person?

For one, you’d need two different checking accounts:

  • One would be for your regular bills—including your mortgage or rent, utilities, and other bills you can’t escape from (like groceries).

  • The second one would be for spending money or personal money. So this is money you can spend guilt-free.

Then you’ll need two savings accounts:

  • The first would be for your emergency fund. This account should be harder to touch so you aren’t tempted to dip into it unless you absolutely have to.

  • The second savings account should house your other savings goals. These include saving for a house, a car, and other goals.

Should I keep all my money in one bank?

That depends.

If you have less than $250,000 dollars, sure. Keep it in one account.

But if you have more than that, it’s recommended to split it up. This helps ensure that you have full FDIC insurance coverage in case your bank fails.

Where do millionaires keep their money?

Considering that FDIC-insured banks only insure $250,000 each person, they need to have the rest somewhere. Millionaires put their money in many different places and classifications.

This includes:

  • Real estate

  • Stocks

  • Mutual funds

  • Other accounts

It’s important to keep your hard-earned money safe. If you’re thinking about storing your millions, it’s important to talk to tax professionals and even a financial advisor.

Key Takeaways

As you can see, the interest on $100 million is a lot—more than what most people could spend their entire lives.

If you'd earn just 1% on a 100 million dollars, you’d likely earn $1,000,000 a year. All without lifting a finger. That’s pretty amazing.

Chances are, you’re not going to be a centi-millionaire—but even if you save up just one million bucks, that’s still a heck of a lot better than nothing.

And you could still live a very fulfilling, happy life!

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Contributors

Derek Sall
Derek has a Bachelor's degree in Finance and a Master's in Business. As a finance manager in the corporate world, he regularly identified and solved problems at the C-suite level. Today, Derek isn't interested in helping big companies. Instead, he's helping individuals win financially — one email, one article, one person at a time.
Deepti Nickam
Fact Checker
Deepti Nickam
Deepti is a content writing and marketing professional with 5+ years of experience in the B2B and B2C sectors. She has written about several subjects, including finance, project management, human resources, and more.
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