The no-longer-millionaire club

Eh Im ok. Ive been in worse places. Like not eating or not having a roof over my head. ;) Now I got this awesome internet and this tasty beef jerky and tequila at my desk. Life is good.
 
Nords said:
Many times! As far as I can tell, the only membership advantage is higher taxes.

One of our local entrepreneurs has a refreshing "easy come, easy go, I'll make more" attitude about his net worth. He was an exec in a 1990s Internet startup that went public in the low teens and ended the day at $125/share. He was pretty happy about it, but three months into the six-month lockup his shares were worth $1 each.


Quicken has a net-worth feature that can include personal-property assets. Or you could roll your own spreadsheet.
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The easy-come-easy-go attitude is a required attitude for risky work like entrepreneurship, and I used to think that I would never be able to have that attitude. The silver lining I'm discovering in this downturn is that I'm not as loss averse as I had imagined.

New research in portfolio management is highlighting the importance of considering human capital in the context of portfolio management. I'm surprised by some of the graphs I have seen in the CFA text because even at my advanced age, I apparently still have the vast majority of my human capital ahead of me, so while the losses have been house sized this year, in the overall context of human capital + financial capital, the losses aren't so bad.
 
Whatever happens do not let the Norwegian widow out of your sight.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

heh heh heh - :cool:.
 
I'm a member too! I don't count property or other assets...only funds.
I'm getting numb to the losses now. :duh: When the DOW goes down only a couple hundred in a day, we celebrate like it was a good day.:rolleyes:
When it goes up a couple hundred a day, we say "yeah right, just watch it tomorrow. :p
I still think and hope that it will go up again and we'll be back. Don't think that will happen though until jobs level out and start going up again.
 
I was only in for a short time, so it was more like being a visitor than a member.

A few more upticks in the market and a little more savings should allow me another visit.

It will be a good feeling going up when this is all over.
 
free4now said:
I recently became a member of the no-longer-millionaire club. I may have to change my forumid to "free4notmuchlonger". I will say it has been an invigorating time... the threat of the death of my FIREhood has energized me to get cracking on all the things I want to do with my free time, and rather than sleepless nights I'm coming home exhausted and falling asleep instantly from doing so many good things in my days. But it feels like it may be the end of an era.

Anyone else joined the club?
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Funny how perceptions change: when I joined the ER club in December 02 my invested NW (net of houses, cars, underwear and such) was just shy of $1M and I was full of hope for the future (thinking the 2000-2002 period was just a bump in the road etc). All the retirement calculators showed I would be fine. So time moves on and the NW zoomed up 2003 to 2007 and over the last couple of months way down and now its back to just a little better than back then. Big difference is my optimism then has turned to dread/fear now... (Although the retirement calculators show I'm still OK at 4% WD)

So I do wonder is this the end of the ER era when a lot of "normal" folks that followed a LBYM lifestyle and followed a reasonable AA diversified investment path could be fairly certain that ER was a very reasonable option?
 
novaman said:
No but I soon might be gaining membership into the "I lost at least a million" club:(
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I'm a card carrying member of this club. Guess it hurts me more than kumquat...but I'm still accumulating, and not selling (until late this year to harvest some losses to off-set any cap-gains distributions, then jumping right back in), so I figure the losses are just "paper". Funds for ER still over a mil though, not counting homes (no mortgages). We'll be OK, knock on wood...:duh:

R
 
In so many ways, I am fortunate....but lately, I have to try really hard to convince myself. Portfolio(equities) is dismal, cattle market has tanked.
Thankfully my bonds (GNMAEs) are doing great and the real estate is holding. Ooooh, how I long for the good ol' days - when frugality was an option, as opposed to, a necessity.

Sigh.
 
ejman said:
Funny how perceptions change: when I joined the ER club in December 02 my invested NW (net of houses, cars, underwear and such) was just shy of $1M and I was full of hope for the future (thinking the 2000-2002 period was just a bump in the road etc). All the retirement calculators showed I would be fine. So time moves on and the NW zoomed up 2003 to 2007 and over the last couple of months way down and now its back to just a little better than back then. Big difference is my optimism then has turned to dread/fear now... (Although the retirement calculators show I'm still OK at 4% WD)

So I do wonder is this the end of the ER era when a lot of "normal" folks that followed a LBYM lifestyle and followed a reasonable AA diversified investment path could be fairly certain that ER was a very reasonable option?
Click to expand...

If you think the people here are normal, go over to the thread about gloves.

Extremely frugal people with good jobs have always been able to get free, and that will continue to be true.

Texarkandy said:
You say that like there's something wrong with living in Tennessee? :confused:
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You ever hear of a Tennessee Massage? 'Nuff said. :)

Ha
 
i have lost somewhere between 500-750k between the stock market & real estate equity in the last year. i was hoping to retire in 3 years at 45, but now may need to w@#k a couple more years longer.
 
free4now said:
Anyone else joined the club?
Click to expand...

As an income-oriented investor, this isn't the question that I like to ask. Acquiring a high-maintenance, high-ongoing-expense item like a mistress or sports car can do as much damage to free cash flow as suffering a capital loss. I prefer to look at more than just net worth when evaluating my financial condition. That said, my portfolio is down only 4% from the market peak last year, primarily because it was engineered to be low-risk, low-return (after taxes and inflation). The latest market turmoil only reinforces my preference for the slow-and-steady-growth approach to wealth building over the soar-and-crash approach. :)
 
I was never close, but I've gone from a 450k NW to a 250k NW over the last 12-18 months - and that's including home equity. On the plus side(?) home equity went from the vast majority to not close to half my NW. If you ain't properly diversified, don't worry, the market will make it happen for you. :rolleyes:
 
As an income-oriented investor, this isn't the question that I like to ask. Acquiring a high-maintenance, high-ongoing-expense item like a mistress or sports car can do as much damage to free cash flow as suffering a capital loss.
Click to expand...

I have suffered significant capital loss but for a three year period had a high-ongoing expense item called a mistress, I assure you the latter was a lot more fun!!!!!
 
Notmuchlonger said:
Eh Im ok. Ive been in worse places. Like not eating or not having a roof over my head. ;) Now I got this awesome internet and this tasty beef jerky and tequila at my desk. Life is good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I was in debt once, borrowed $50 from mom, lived paycheck to paycheck for a few months, never want to go back to that. And when I was semi-retired, I was once down to four months expenses. But, like you, I'm ok now.

BTW, Notmuchlonger, how much longer?
 
I've gone from over 5M to 3.5M. And my business is now bleeding money.

But I'm still living the dream, baby!:D
 
Went under as of today but still nearly $1MM with a paid off house {including house, cars, RV, PP, etc.} and not yet done w*rking.

Stocks are becoming a more and more insignificant part of the total net worth by leaps and bounds = kinda funny in a way. :p
 
when i did my revocable trust this past spring, i had to estimate my NW. including everything, investmements and tangible assets (house, cars, boat) i was close but no cigar.
 
A little earning power and a little market power. I'm back in the club.
 
Dammit this market was supposed to stay at DOW 7k for four more years while I accumulate then have an unprecedented runup to allow me to retire gloriously, timed perfectly with my cat that likes to pee on walls reaching end it's lifespan.

I've not lost hope...
 
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