Maximum $$$ Saved in any given year

[Canadian Girl]

Wondering for those who have FIREd....what is the maximum amount you've saved in any given year?

 

[wabmester]

I'm not sure I understand the question. What does "saved" mean when you have no earned income?

 

[saluki9]

I think she means BEFORE you ER'd

 

[wabmester]

Oh. 

I never saved much more than 15% of my income through tradtional means.   I retired by tricking myself into saving more: business equity and home equity.

I really like those tricks.   Imagine how much people would save if, for example, everytime you bought something, you had to pay both sales tax and a retirement principal payment "tax" that went into something with guaranteed inflation-protected appreciation.   FIRE would be painless.

 

[REWahoo]

Thanks to the unexpected surfacing of long underwater stock optons, the calendar year I ER'd I w*rked for 5 months and saved an amount equal to 90% of my annual gross salary.

 

[Scrooge]

unexpected surfacing of long underwater stock optons

Underwater stock options? Did it have anything to do with "Titanic"? 

 

[REWahoo]

Underwater stock options? Did it have anything to do with "Titanic"?

Other than they both went down about the same time, no.

 

[TromboneAl]

My guess: $35,000

 

[Tadpole]

32% of gross

 

[Scrooge]

$55K, possibly as much as $60K, but I'd have to look up the numbers.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm

Maybe 10k in 1992. Salary 1966 - 8k, 60k in 1992.

Amazing what time in the market and index funds(when they came availible) can do.

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh

 

[IHateCNBC]

1998 saved 259% of income.

That tech bubble was great.

Been tough going the last two years "in the market".

 

[REWahoo]

1998 saved 259% of income.

Can you really save more than your income? Did you mean salary or are you including market gains in savings?

 

[grumpy]

After I retired from the gov't I collected my pension while also working as a part-time gov't contractor for two years. DW was also teaching half time then. The pension covered almost all regular expenses so we were able to add nearly $90k per year to our nestegg during each of those two years. Those were, by far, our peak saving years. Prior to that we regularly socked away about $35K to $40K per year.

Grumpy

 

[Siv]

Only me personally on regular years:
From salary, save 30K
From rental, 12-18K depending on vacancies duration
From investment, interest, other benefits, forex gain 8-10K

So about nett 50-60, trying to make it to 70 but it's tough. Last year was good, saved net 72K but this year so far it will be good if I can reach 55.

Husband has better earning potential.

I don't even think any family members know this information. Aside from vacation 2-3x a year, brand items, we don't buy much new stuff and still rent in china. We really don't have much things to show off to people.

 

[IHateCNBC]

Can you really save more than your income?  Did you mean salary or are you including market gains in savings?

Good point. That was my increase in networth for the year.

Income $375K
Increase to networth $972K.

And I spent like a drunken sailor that year. Eating out 10-15xs per week and just throwing money away.

Oh, to do it over again.

 

[kaudrey]

I saved about $35K last year. I have 15 years to go until FIRE, so I hope that number goes up as time goes on.

 

[mosaic]

2005 was exellent yr for me. Maybe saved 60k canadian then went on a four month holiday/ home build in Bali...

 

[retire@40]

$118K increase in net worth (not including home) was the best year I had, mostly from earned income.

 

[Donzo]

My best year for saving was 2004 = $64,000 - better than normal bonus year and a 2 week camping vacation instead of the usual.....

 

[Alan]

Best year for me was $118K 3 years ago. The following year $98K, then DW ER'd. Still managed $85k last year and on target for similar this year. - very dependent on my bonus.

 

[ESRBob]

2005 was exellent yr for me. Maybe saved 60k canadian then went on a four month holiday/ home build in Bali...

Mosaic,
Where is you home on Bali? Is it up near Ubud? or more coastal? We were there 20 years ago and really enjoyed the area around Ubud -- wonder what housing with a view costs in that part of the world these days?

In answer to the original post: 1999 was (and will remain) the biggest year of income-- capital gains-- in my life as I sold stock from the sale of my company into an overheated market. It was many times my annual income that year, and essentially made a comfortable ER possible for us in one swell foop. (We could have done a bare bones early retirement without that year's gains, but I'm not sure we could have gone down that road and been happy with it)