Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

[Huston55]

Yes; that's it. It'll be a long time before another milestone!

There's another milestone that you/DW might hit soon, given that you're in the 2x2 comma club.

It is:

1. NW => Total Lifetime SS (W2) Income.

2. An alternative (for those with substantial Pensions, annuities, etc.) is:
NPV of (All Investments + Guaranteed Income Sources) => Total Lifetime SS Income.

As an example, assume 'Total Lifetime SS Income' (which you can get from the SS website) = $3.0 MM

For method #1, take your current NW & compare to $3.0 MM
For method #2, take current NW + NPV of guaranteed income streams (you choose the discount rate) & compare to $3.0 MM

I can't claim credit for this "milestone"; I read it from another poster (can't remember who). But, I think it's very cool to have "accumulated more equivalent NW than the total income you've had over your lifetime" (in a manner of speaking). BTW, I know the 'time value of money' is not accounted for but, for this milestone, I'm OK with that.

Check it out and see if you're close.

 

[RobLJ]

Keep at it. The first 500k is the hardest. (12 years ago, for us.)

Total investments (retirement accounts + taxable brokerage account) just passed $500k. Onward and upward!

 

[Johanson]

My 40K finally hit a half mill Monday. That only took 28 years.

 

[nvestysly]

My 40K finally hit a half mill Monday. That only took 28 years.

That's sure to be a good feeling. I know it was for us. If history is any indicator the next 500 will not take nearly as long.

Fine Print: past performance is not an indicator of future results.

 

[Downtown]

Crossed $2 million in investments today. Along with some rental properties and a paid-off house, our ER plan is taking shape. Trying to stay motivated at my day job - some days are really difficult!

 

[kgtest]

Now have over 2mil under advisement with 7 clients. Unfortunately not all is mine, and managing others money isn't as gratifying as managing my own, but people trust me so I'm legitimized.

As odd as it is, I've found it most unifying to analogize money to a horse race, horses, the jockey's that ride them, the stable's they live in and the nurturing they get.

It's easy to compare Strong Horses, Large Horses, to Large Growth Stocks like AAPL for instance.

And that you wan't at least three horses in the race equally balanced, a small, med and large horse (SmallCap, LargeCap). And that these US horses are fairly stable and consistent etc.

Easy to explain trimming the fat, for the losers, and rebalancing the winners to keep the horses running the same race at a similar pace. So easy to compare rabalancing this way.

The first horse I advise they pick is from VUG, VB, VBK or VOOG. Once they understand the differences between those its easier to explain the rules of the horse race.

One observation that surprised me, Overwhelmingly new clients have the same mind-set. They finally start "trusting me" when the market is at all-time high's and has been running a fast paced race for a while. I tell them please, stop this way of thinking, I advise you to put more horses in the game when the pace of the race is slower and the market is on a down-turn, instead of thinking, gee valuations of these horses/stocks are at an all time high maybe NOW I should pay for some horses and get in the race. NO NO NO, get in the race when the horses are cheap man!

I always tell them golden rule of investing, put as much money as you can in, as often as you can, and keep it in there and protected for as long as you can. That's KG's Golden Rule to investing. A penny invested today is 7c in 30yrs lol

 

[W2R]

I have been retired for 8 years, but I still have FIRE milestones to share.

Last week, thanks to Mr. Market, my portfolio reached its highest ever!! This, despite the majority of my spending money coming from my portfolio, and despite buying my Dream Home in 2015. It's almost as though my Dream Home was free.

 

[aida2003]

I always tell them golden rule of investing, put as much money as you can in, as often as you can, and keep it in there and protected for as long as you can. That's KG's Golden Rule to investing. A penny invested today is 7c in 30yrs lol

I like your rule except the *protected* word seems misleading unless I'm interpreting it incorrectly.

 

[simple girl]

I have been retired for 8 years, but I still have FIRE milestones to share.

Last week, thanks to Mr. Market, my portfolio reached its highest ever!! This, despite the majority of my spending money coming from my portfolio, and despite buying my Dream Home in 2015. It's almost as though my Dream Home was free.

So awesome!!!! Congratulations!!!!!

 

[nvestysly]

I have been retired for 8 years, but I still have FIRE milestones to share.

Last week, thanks to Mr. Market, my portfolio reached its highest ever!! This, despite the majority of my spending money coming from my portfolio, and despite buying my Dream Home in 2015. It's almost as though my Dream Home was free.

We didn't buy a house but sure have benefitted from the bull market since 2008.

Been FIREd for six years, taking all our money for expenses from our investments in the form of dividends and gains, and our portfolio is worth substantially more now than when we pulled the plug. As you said... almost like living for free!

The bull market won't continue indefinitely so we've "rung the register" and trimmed several positions in anticipation of future events. Our withdrawal rate started at about 3.5% and we've given ouselves raises each year. Currently living on 2.5% withdrawal rate so we're comfortable when a correction occurs.

 

[knucklehead 61]

ira now tops 1.4m
19 paid off rental properties
6 mortgaged rental properties
equity in real estate up 500k+ this year.
& currently 17 antique Harley-Davidson's with more being added in a couple months.
life is good in ER land!

 

[younginvestor2013]

Thanks to market highs and continued disciplined savings, I am quickly approaching $400k in invested assets (not including about $40k in home equity). 28 y/o, dating, no kids, living in Chicago.

Taxable brokerage: $233k
Roth IRA: $96k
Roth 401k: $55k
HSA (mostly invested): $7k
Total: $391k

My "comfortable" annual spend is $60k, including taxes. Plan is to continue the course, enjoy life to the fullest but avoid major lifestyle creep. In another 10 years, I should be in a really good position, financially speaking, to possibly FIRE or switch to more enjoyable/part time work.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Scout]

Thanks to market highs and continued disciplined savings, I am quickly approaching $400k in invested assets (not including about $40k in home equity). 28 y/o, dating, no kids, living in Chicago.

Taxable brokerage: $233k
Roth IRA: $96k
Roth 401k: $55k
HSA (mostly invested): $7k
Total: $391k

My "comfortable" annual spend is $60k, including taxes. Plan is to continue the course, enjoy life to the fullest but avoid major lifestyle creep. In another 10 years, I should be in a really good position, financially speaking, to possibly FIRE or switch to more enjoyable/part time work.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

Nicely done.

 

[rodi]

younginvestor - great job! You are so far ahead of where I was at your age. Kudos.

 

[Andre1969]

Well, on Friday I hit a milestone of sorts. In terms of raw dollar appreciation, 2017 has become my best year ever. So far, my investments have made around $174,000 this year. That tops my previous best of 2009, where I saw a rise of around $170,000.

Now, once you factor in inflation, that $170k back in 2009 was still more. But, we were also bouncing off the bottom of the Great Recession, so back in 2009, it didn't feel like I was making money, but rather recouping my losses.

Percentage wise, that comes out to around 14% so far this year, versus around 40% back in 2009. So this hasn't been a phenomenal year, percentage wise, but I'm not complaining. And it definitely shows the power of compounding, patience, and long-term investing. Of course, things can change in the next three months, so I'm not gonna utter that W-word

 

[Koogie]

Thanks to a brief market high and the first October dividend, briefly became an official liquid multi millionaire this morning.

The market retreated and I'm just back to being a plebe again.. oh well, easy come, easy go. lol

 

[akidagain2018]

Now 90 business/working days to FIRE target!! Was 9 years, ugh. Woohoo!! I can make it. But I'm still confused whether to continue to work in some capacity, where to live, out of three states. Can't wait for spring when I'll lap the 90 business days!

 

[FIREmenow]

The YEARS digit disappeared on my countdown timer this weekend!!!

 

[Andre1969]

Oops...made a little boo-boo in my post above, #1565. I looked over my records this morning, and it turns out it was 2013 that I saw a return of around $171,000, and that was around 22.3%. Somehow I had forgotten what a year 2013 was...probably would've been even better for me, but I had started cashing out a bit as the market hit new highs, and used it to pay down the mortgage.

Anyway, in 2009, I saw a return of around $131,000, which was still around 40%. And, so far, 2017 is still turning out to be my #1 year, in raw $ return. Hopefully the last three months keep on that upward trend!

 

[halcyon]

Passed 200k in my 401k 5.5 years after passing 100k - and I was laid off for a year of that time.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Passed a very rounded investment milestone. Celebrated by having "last day meat" chicken wings, on sale and home grown stuffed peppers, and on sale $10 bottled wine. During the day I split wood for this winter. Shouldn't I have spent something?

 

[pjigar]

No

 

[Sniggle]

Finally hit seven figures on the 401K: Current Balance $1,000,511.30. Beat my stretch goal of getting to $1 mil before the end of my 50th year (currently 50 years, 4 months)

Pretty proud of myself, considering the wife does not work and I am just a lower level corporate slug

Been a while since I had any milestone worth commenting on. However, today I can report that my 401K edged past $1.5 million, with $180,00 in ROTHs and $12,000 in medical, for just under $1.7 million.

It did take me over 3 years to get from $1 million to $1.7 million.

 

[gayl]

Just logged onto my schwab app and notice that they have completely revised the home screen. The top of it has a graph that shows how much the account has grown. Was surprised to see what had happened over the year. I knew I was up since Trump was elected, not saying that I like his politics just saying it's good to my dollars. So I'm off to spend some of that. I have a hard time letting go of it but boy it keeps growing! Up >20% this yr & all index ETFs

 

[Major Tom]

not saying that I like his politics just saying it's good to my dollars.

We've been in a bull market for the last 8 years though, haven't we?

PS - congrats on the gains. It sure feels good to see those ever-increasing numbers!