Have you reached a new $MM mark in the alst few years?

[Moemg]

Most of the posters on this forum do not live an elitist lifestyle. If anything I think most of us would never be picked out of a crowd for being wealthy because we live simply and frugally .Most of us started saving early and never stopped so the power of compounding made us rich. If you read the posts about annual budgets you'd see most of them are in a pretty low range .

 

[PBAT]

Excluding home equity and college funds, we hit .5M this year.

I know it doesn't compare to some others, but for us it's very exciting! It led to me finding this forum, educating myself with many of the books you guys recommend, and getting our investments in line with our semiER plans.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing so much with us!

 

[unclemick]

Most of the posters on this forum do not live an elitist lifestyle. If anything I think most of us would never be picked out of a crowd for being wealthy because we live simply and frugally .Most of us started saving early and never stopped so the power of compounding made us rich. If you read the posts about annual budgets you'd see most of them are in a pretty low range .

'You cheap SOB!' - was one her favorite terms of endearment. Cheap bastardhood is one of my favorite states of true bliss.

1993 - 350k his and hers including the duplex.

Time in the market(aka the 90's), not spending a lot - the cachet of a million seems to arrive somewhat automatically.

- have fun in ER! Drive that 10 year old pickup with rusty fender in your Salvation Army bib overalls with your trusty red haired dog chained in back.

 

[DangerMouse]

For those who have $MM, it would be interesting
to poll them to find out how much of their $MM
is in the stock market... but hey, like real estate,
the stock market always goes up, right ?

Helena, I agree that not everyone needs a million to retire, and I hope that lurkers reading this board do not believe they need to do so. That said, someone with a good company pension and cheap healthcare is probably better off financially than someone with $1m in the bank.

As to how much one has in the stock market, we have 45% of our holdings in cash even though we are mid 40s and that goes against everything you ever read about investing. However, it helps us sleep at night and we actually put 90% of our new money into cash deposits.

 

[Moemg]

Helena, I agree that not everyone needs a million to retire,

I don't think you need a million but I think you need assests worth a million and that includes the value of your pension and social security especially if you are younger .A million is only going to give you $40,000 a year not a real extravagant lifestyle .

 

[kcowan]

$1M should provide a decent life in Latin America including healthcare coverage. Think of it as a fallback plan.

 

[W2R]

I don't think you need a million but I think you need assests worth a million and that includes the value of your pension and social security especially if you are younger .A million is only going to give you $40,000 a year not a real extravagant lifestyle .

$40,000 is more than some of us have ever lived on in our lives, though, much less in retirement. Do a little research on statistics of retirement incomes and I think you'll find that many retired people do not have that kind of income.

edited to add: I found an AARP article from 2005 at Women Age 65 and Older: Their Sources of Income that claims that the median income of men over 65 is $20,400 and the median income of women over 65 is $11,816. I'm not saying that we should aim for this, but it is what it is (whatever that is).

 

[tangomonster]

No, and I don't intend to... but I am retired just the same.

I know it's hard to believe... judging from the majority of
posts on this forum... but not everyone lives... or wants
to live... an elitist lifestyle.

Helena, I don't know where you are getting the "elitist lifestyle" from on this board. It seems to me that most of us here live in a very low key, unostentatious way. I have a high net worth but it was totally through living below my means, saving, and investing. I never made more than $45,000---and that was only for the year before I retired. I come from lower middle class parents---mother a high school grad, father didn't even complete high school. I've always lived below my means. Haven't taken a vacation in ten years, a $20 monthly Netflix subscription is my major entertainment, up until last year I lived in a $100,000 1,000 square foot condo, get $13 haircuts from Great Clips, only switched to DSL last month, haven't bought clothes since retiring a year ago and didn't buy much more when working, driving cars like Honda Accords for years, etc.

We were only able to retire at 52 (DH, also) because we have lived so frugally and saved so much, even on low salaries. We did start investing at a young age and enjoyed some good returns at one point with the stock market. Now that we have millions, we're not living any differently, with the exception of moving to a 1700 square foot condo that cost twice as much as the old, solely because we were getting tired of living in a place that was becoming rundown, overloaded with renters, and filled with twenty somethings who were partying outside all hours of the night.

I do agree that not everyone needs millions to retire, but for those of us who don't have pensions, who never want to go back to work, and who are paying for our own health insurance at $1000 a month, it does seem more prudent to have a large nest egg to finance this. Over twenty yeasr ago I went on a cruise and the Israeli waiter was excited about how he would retire early once he accumulated $100,000. Not saying $100,000 isn't a good amount, but didn't think someone in his thirties could live off of it the rest of his life, especially in Israel.

 

[Moemg]

$40,000 is more than some of us have ever lived on in our lives, though, much less in retirement. Do a little research on statistics of retirement incomes and I think you'll find that many retired people do not have that kind of income.

edited to add: I found an AARP article from 2005 at Women Age 65 and Older: Their Sources of Income that claims that the median income of men over 65 is $20,400 and the median income of women over 65 is $11,816. I'm not saying that we should aim for this, but it is what it is (whatever that is).

If you add the $20,400 and the $11,816 together and add in inflation you have $40,000 .I was talking couples not singles though I don't think most single people could make it on $20,400 ( except Khan )

 

[Sam]

I, for one, am convinced that 1MM is a large sum of money. To put it in context, consider a young college graduate today. This young engineer just got a job today, paying 50K a year. He wants to save 1MM in today's dollars. Here's his plan:

- Save 15% of his gross salary
- Increase his saving 5% a year. 7,500 this year; 7,875 next year...
- Inflation is 3%
- ROI is 11%

For those who think 1MM is not a lot of money, I challenge you to calculate the number of years it takes this engineer to reach his goal.

 

[unclemick]

en - ga - neer 1966 big bucks 8k starting salary - no index funds , IRA, 401k, full commission broker - not a clue how to invest.

took a while. and people wonder why I'm so Curmudgeony.

heh heh heh - and opinionated too!

 

[UVaOK]

Slow and steady wins the race...

I, for one, am convinced that 1MM is a large sum of money. To put it in context, consider a young college graduate today. This young engineer just got a job today, paying 50K a year. He wants to save 1MM in today's dollars. Here's his plan:

- Save 15% of his gross salary
- Increase his saving 5% a year. 7,500 this year; 7,875 next year...
- Inflation is 3%
- ROI is 11%

For those who think 1MM is not a lot of money, I challenge you to calculate the number of years it takes this engineer to reach his goal.

Employing the most conservative assumptions possible (savings accumulate only at the end of the calendar year and therefore draw interest only in following years, inflation begins at end of calendar year 1), it will take him in the ballpark of 30-31 years.

Nominal million comes in at 23-24 years.

More realistic temporal modeling cuts down those time frames.

Playing around with the inflation, even just a tad, is rather scary, however.

UVa

 

[ESRBob]

I, for one, am convinced that 1MM is a large sum of money. To put it in context, consider a young college graduate today. This young engineer just got a job today, paying 50K a year. He wants to save 1MM in today's dollars. Here's his plan:

- Save 15% of his gross salary
- Increase his saving 5% a year. 7,500 this year; 7,875 next year...
- Inflation is 3%
- ROI is 11%

For those who think 1MM is not a lot of money, I challenge you to calculate the number of years it takes this engineer to reach his goal.

Sam,
When you do the calcs, remember that our engineer is going to work hard, take risks, ask for more responsibility, learn his craft and therefore get raises over the years at more than just inflation rate. FIREes often (though of course not always) have worked harder than average to get ahead of the curve, thus boosting their earnings and savings.

 

[tightasadrum]

er'ing in a down market

I've been retired since May 99, so clearly in the withdrawal phase. I had a large safety margin (~ $1 million more than I needed) but it wasn't fun retiring at the top of the market.

clifp, That's what really shakes my tree about hanging in up soon. This market. I'm so tight about money, I'm afraid I would become phyically ill if the market tanked three months after ER. (I still believe my attitude about money grew out of the worst spanking I ever got the day I lost my piano lesson money.) By any reasonable measure I should be ready to ER, so I will soon. But sleeping at night will not be possible without a conservative, cash heavy allocation, even though intellectually I know it is false economy.

 

[Sam]

Employing the most conservative assumptions possible (savings accumulate only at the end of the calendar year and therefore draw interest only in following years, inflation begins at end of calendar year 1), it will take him in the ballpark of 30-31 years.

Yes, it does take a loooong time, doesn't it.

What is "realistic temporal modeling"?


ESRBob

When you do the calcs, remember that our engineer is going to work hard, take risks, ask for more responsibility, learn his craft and therefore get raises over the years at more than just inflation rate. FIREes often (though of course not always) have worked harder than average to get ahead of the curve, thus boosting their earnings and savings.

That's why our engineer was able to increase his saving 5% annually for 3 decades.

But I agree with you, some people are highly motivated and are able to shorten the required time significantly by saving more. Some young members here, for example, are saving 30%, 40%, even 50% of gross income.

 

[UVaOK]

Yes, it does take a loooong time, doesn't it.

What is "realistic temporal modeling"?

By "more realistic temporal" modeling, I meant that my "conservative" assumptions about timing (savings accumulate only on the final day of the year and therefore draw interest only in following years), are not true to life.

Presumably, the engineer is saving a a set percentage of each of his paychecks, and therefore receiving returns on that money immediately throughout the given year.

 

[Sam]

By "more realistic temporal" modeling, I meant that my "conservative" assumptions about timing (savings accumulate only on the final day of the year and therefore draw interest only in following years), are not true to life.

Presumably, the engineer is saving a a set percentage of each of his paychecks, and therefore receiving returns on that money immediately throughout the given year.

OK. Doing that would save at most half a year, but it's still around 30 years.

 

[Meadbh]

Broke the $1m and $2m barriers in 2005. The year started out just over $900K and would have ended around $1.2m, but then I had an inheritance. Currently pushing $2.5m.

Made it to $2.5m. Next goal: $3m in 2010.

 

[kumquat]

Reached a new number today. Unfortunately it's less than it was a few days ago.

 

[travelover]

Hit 1 MM mark in 1999, XDW's lawyer convinced me I was only a half millionaire. I'm above that mark again now and ER.

 

[pj86]

Just reached my first Million few weeks ago. About 10 years earlier than planed.
The last 2-3 years were just too good to be true. All thanks to diverting my portfolio to very undervalued stocks.
I always thought I will celebrate this event, but it came so fast that I was not prepared for it (my net worth was only 600K at the beginning of the year)
Did anyone celebrate his first million? How?

Are you the guy from pfblog.com?

 

[clifp]

Hum I haven't quite fallen backward below another million mark, but if the market continues for a the rest of the year like it has the last few months....

 

[Maurice]

Broke 1MM in 2001, 2MM in 2005, would have thought 3MM was coming this year but it no longer seems likely. (all this excludes equity in primary residence of course)

 

[Maurice]

Actually, I probably broke 3MM at some point during this year, had I MTM'd my portfolio on a daily basis. As it is I only check it at month end and it got as high as $2.95. I suspect there were days intra-month where it might have peaked above 3MM.

 

[yona]

Are you the guy from pfblog.com?

Not me. My portfolio is about 90% in Hong Kong stocks.

Thanks for the link though