Poll:Have $5 million invested assets?

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 We really get in trouble with definitions around here, don't we? Especially with polls. -ERD50

Well, some of us do. But the finance industry didn't invent the term. It's pretty simple, your Ferrari Dino is you hope a chick magnet, but ordinarily it is not an invested asset. Your stocks and bonds and mutual funds and ETFs and commodity deposits and rental real estate and IMO that well chosen industrial lot you are holding are all invested assets. Speculative real estate is not less an investment asset than a stock that pays no dividend. In both cases, the only value is what you hope to realize at some future date.

I started by saying "invested assets". Then I thought, somebody will want to quibble about whether his cash balances or some bucket or idiosyncratic category that he maintains are really "invested assets", or perhaps only assets waiting to be invested. So I added "investable" to forestall this particular snag. But, as you say, too simple.

Ha

[luckydude]

For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories:

-Inheritance
-Lottery
-Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales)
-Sale of business/dividend from one's own business
-Stock options/IPO
-Divorce settlement
-Judgment from a lawsuit
-Others?

I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above.

luckydude

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREd "Investable assets" seems to be a term used by the financial industry to describe an investor's assets that a financial advisor can take under management immediately. Therefore IRAs are investable assets but not 401Ks or real estate as they can't make a commission off of those assets.

But, but, but the hapless retiree can be sweet-talked to roll out his/her 401k into an IRA, then the proceed used to buy annuities, illiquid REITs, etc... Mucho commissions and fees ensue. Heh heh heh...

I then thought about my Golden Eagle gold coins and a few other valuables that I have. Are they 'investables'?

Well, as these did not even add up to 1% of networth, let alone push me over the $5MM mark, my earlier vote was still valid. Heh heh heh...

[FIREd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydude For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories: -Inheritance -Lottery -Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales) -Sale of business/dividend from one's own business -Stock options/IPO -Divorce settlement -Judgment from a lawsuit -Others? I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above. luckydude

Feel free to create a new poll.

[Cooked]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanky If I let it reach $5 Million, I have failed.

+1 I respect the people who have accumulated more, but enough is enough. I want to try a volunteer gig for a while.

[obgyn65]

My view also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cooked +1 I respect the people who have accumulated more, but enough is enough. I want to try a volunteer gig for a while.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronc879 I'm shocked that, so far, 35% DO have $5MM+ in investable assets.

Many people, including myself, often don't see poll questions on threads, as the poll options don't always appear when you open a thread.

I've included the word "Poll:" at the start of the thread title. This is also useful when doing searches for past polls.

PS
I see that the % is already down to <15%

[donheff]

I would disagree on not counting a vacation home. Unless you view it's use as central to your retirement (as you would a primary residence) it is simply a slightly less liquid asset than stocks or bonds. Fairly valued it represents funds that can be made available to pay expenses. I view mine as an escape hatch asset if things go seriously south. Sell it and invest the proceeds in accordance with my AA and eliminate the substantial maintenance expenses to boot.

[jon-nyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydude For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories: -Inheritance -Lottery -Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales) -Sale of business/dividend from one's own business -Stock options/IPO -Divorce settlement -Judgment from a lawsuit -Others? I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above. luckydude

That's a pretty comprehensive list. It's hard to accumulate 25k without some combination of those.

[jerome len]

today, just under 14% of everyone answering this poll have over 5M....impressive since only about 1% of everyone has that amount. So, people answering this poll arent average. I have friends and family, some with much less, some with much more. In my opinion this happens for two reasons. 1. The career you chose or the business you owned. 2. how much you lived below or above your annual income. I knew one individual that owned a busiess, made over 1 million each year and died broke....he always spent a little more than he earned. I know another individual that was a janitor and college educated three successful kids, owned a small home, died late in life and left a couple hundred thousand dollars to his church. And....I'll bet my janitor friend was happier and had more friends than the broke millionaire at his funeral.

Me? I've been fairly successful, always lived under my means, had a blue collar Dad, saved my money, educated my kids and won't die broke. I love pizza, mexican food, shop at sales and splurge only when we really want to. I'm really lucky!!!!! most on this post are......so I think our common goal should be to have enough, live within our means and enjoy life!!!!! And.....I'm off on a vacation trip.....good day to all.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydude For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories: -Inheritance -Lottery -Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales) -Sale of business/dividend from one's own business -Stock options/IPO -Divorce settlement -Judgment from a lawsuit -Others? I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above. luckydude

You could add investing. A family that began saving from day one and accumulated steadily over their entire working life would have substantial investment gain in their portfolio.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Viewing another thread, I became curious. This is a blind poll, so even if you do not want to discuss your situation, please vote.

I'm surprised you failed to include what should be a mandatory response option: NYDB

[robbridg]

Have $5 million invested assets?

not even close

[Masquernom]

Just read the book "The Millionaire Next Door". Couple of professors in Chicago did surveys of wealthy folks for a class. Luxury manufacturers found out about it, and have been paying them to continue the surveys. Finally they wrote that book about their results.

It's a very interesting book to read.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bUU ... Seriously, I think it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that the typical member of this forum is an outlier. Precisely. However, I bet if we compared this forum to another personal finance forum I frequent, the numbers would be different - the difference between a place with many who can seriously think about ER and a place where many are wondering whether they'll ever be able to retire. Like you said... basketball players are tall.

OK, I guess I misread the intent behind your comment. I thought you were saying it was remarkable, I guess you are saying it is to be expected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cooked +1 I respect the people who have accumulated more, but enough is enough. I want to try a volunteer gig for a while.

I think you might be missing some scenarios.

A) What if a person has one (or more) kids/grand-kids with special needs, and wants to try to provide for them? That could take several million above/beyond their own needs.

B) Some people adopt kids with special needs. Consider it a 'private volunteer' situation, funded from their own private funds rather than going outside with their volunteer efforts.

C) Some people might hope to leave a large estate to charity - and they are better at earning money than volunteering. So their 'work' is really a volunteer effort, in a way. And they probably pay a significant amount of tax$, much of which goes to 'charity' type activities.

I obviously can't say how many of those who answered > $5M are in one of those categories, but it might be a part of it. Not everyone follows the same path.

-ERD50

[ERhoosier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB You could add investing. A family that began saving from day one and accumulated steadily over their entire working life would have substantial investment gain in their portfolio.

Agree. The bull market from 1982 through end of 1999 grew $1 invested into $21 (assuming reinvestment of dividends), or 18+%/yr. While some on this forum are too young to have participated fully in that bull run, and then avoided the subsequent dot-com bubble burst , no doubt that bull created many multi-millionaires from 'ordinary' blue-collar w#rkers who just LBYM'ed and invested their savings in well-diversified (SP index equivalent) mutual fund(s).

[rodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydude For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories: -Inheritance -Lottery -Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales) -Sale of business/dividend from one's own business -Stock options/IPO -Divorce settlement -Judgment from a lawsuit -Others? I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above. luckydude

I agree with the other commentor that said it would be hard to accumulate $25k without some combo of the above list. Especially since it includes salary!... Not to mention the catch all "others?"

[bUU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerome len I'll bet my janitor friend was happier and had more friends than the broke millionaire at his funeral.

The matter of happiness goes down a trail that evidently a lot of people find controversial (which is why the rest of this paragraph is rife with conditionals and equivocations). A recent review found that there was an inflection point regarding happiness that happened somewhere around a household income of $75k per year. A lot of folks vehemently attacked that prospect, but I found it to be a reasonable conclusion from reasonable premises supported by reasonable data -- not that that number "makes people happy" or that people with less money "aren't happy" at all, or any other extreme distortion of the meaning of what the corresponding research found. Rather, the research prompts me to value in the idea of pursuing a retirement plan that reliably assures an income stream that large. It's not enough to maintain our current lifestyle, but that research and other research like it has convinced me that there is a very good chance we could still be just as happy as we are now even if we reduced our lifestyle to that level (but I believes that the chances of that likely decrease sharply at lower levels of income, because the research indicated that, and I've not seen any compelling argument that injects some other number as a better number in that regard).

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 OK, I guess I misread the intent behind your comment. I thought you were saying it was remarkable, I guess you are saying it is to be expected.

It's both notable and to be expected. I had hoped that my earlier comment communicated that when it mentioned how it "underscores" (i.e., stresses, emphasizes) just how far off from the typical American the typical participant on this forum is. I'm sorry for any confusion in that regard.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydude For those who have $5+ million in investible assets, I would love to see a poll showing the breakdown of the sources of their wealth. I can think of some legitimate categories: -Inheritance -Lottery -Salary or bonus from employment (senior mgmt, sales) -Sale of business/dividend from one's own business -Stock options/IPO -Divorce settlement -Judgment from a lawsuit -Others? I think that in general, it is virtually impossible for an average Joe to accumulate this kind of wealth without some combinations of the above. luckydude

Obviously it is impossible for the average Joe, particularly if you define average as "the norm". However America is full of doctors and lawyers and business executives who have this kind of portfolio without any of the things you mention above, other than salary and bonus. But to disallow that is like saying you can't get tall without growing. OK, but so what? Even a fortuitous stock investment can do it, and more.

Ha

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerome len And....I'll bet my janitor friend was happier and had more friends than the broke millionaire at his funeral.

How will this bet be settled?