$100k Milestone!

[BigMoneyJim]

With today's paycheck and yesterday's market results I topped $90k in savings and investments. It occurred to me several months ago that $100k by the end of the year was possible with a very favorable market, but I'm going to cheat a little by adding in my car, furniture, electronics and toothpicks and celebrate 2005 as the year I hit $100k in assets. I am 35 (and still debt free, and still single with no kids). (I also have a non-COLA vested DB pension and 15+ years of SS contributions.)

I often feel like the poor guy around here, but looking back I'm pretty happy with my situation. 2004 saw the end of my debt. 2005 has been a celebratory year of spending loosely, and looking back I see I spent around $3000 on air travel and $3000 on electronic goodies among other general financial looseness. To reach $100k in spite of that is quite encouraging. I am eyeing to reduce spending in 2006 while still having plenty of fun. I'm sure I could've done better with my finances over the past 17 years, but I can't beat myself up too much, either.

[justin]

Congrats on the milestone! How does it feel to be a hundred-thousandaire?

I'll take this opportunity to gloat over my milestone too. I hit the $150,000 mark on my long-term investment portfolio (mutual funds+stocks) last week sometime. Now only $1.x million to go till FIRE!!

Congratulations to both of you! Many young people are in debt up to the gazoo.

[dusk_to_dawn]

Congrats on the first 100K!!

Good news....the next 100K is always easier than the first 100K, unless you are in jail or get married to someone that doesn't see things your way.

Note: I am not speaking from personal experience about the jail or the unfortunate marriage.

[Dawg52]

Congrats! It's always nice to reach a goal that you have set for yourself. You will be smiling even more when you get another zero added to that number. *

[dunc0029]

Congratulations! *Hindsight is 20/20 and most of us can look back and see how we could have done better, but it sounds like you're definitely well on your way.

I myself am eagerly counting down to the 100k milestone this year. *It might happen as early as tomorrow as that is payday for me.

[maddythebeagle]

Congrats

[Texas Proud]

Big money...

It is a great milestone... one that few your age reach....

A short story... I had a friend and we were both saving back at your age... there was an old fart who keep gloating on how much more money he had then my friend... so one day my friend got tired of this and said "I hope you have more since you have 20 more years of savings over me"... kind of puts it in perspective on why most of the people on the board have more than you...

[Martha]

Cool Jim. When I was first on this site, you were doing your debt countdown. Now look!

[brewer12345]

Good for you, BMJ. You now have lots of dolars working for you instead of lots of dollars working against you.

[Jay_Gatsby]

Nice work. It is definitely easier to hit the next $100k level, and it only accelerates from there -- assuming you leave it alone to grow.

[frayne]

BJM, good job and keep up the good work. You'll be FIRE before you know it. BTW, ain't nothing wrong with enjoying the journey along the way and living it up a little bit. With the exception of a home, just stay out of debt if at all possible.

[dusk_to_dawn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Good for you, BMJ.* You now have lots of dolars working for you instead of lots of dollars working against you.

That is such an important concept. It is a concept that nonsavers don't appreciate. It is so much easier when you have dollars working for you rather than debt working against you. I think of it like a swimmer in a river. Would you rather go through life swimming upstream and fighting the current (debt working against you) or would you rather swim downstream and eventually just float on (FIRE)?

[Andre1969]

Gongrats on hitting that milestone! I remember when I hit the $100K mark...it seemed so exicting at the time! Actually, now that I think about it, the $60K mark was a major deal for me. The reason for this is that I hit $60K back in late 2000, just as the tech bubble was starting to burst. I only broke that level for a short time before it plunged. I sunk more money in, investing it back up over the $60K mark, and even flirting with $70K in May of '01. But then it sputtered again, the 9/11 tragedy hit, and other problems, and it seemed like $60K was a million miles away. I finally popped back over the $60K mark in March 2003 and thankfully went nowhere but up.

It's kind funny how looking back, that turbulent time was only about a two year span. Seemed like forever when I was going through it, though!

I don't know if this is really logical or not, but I tend to keep track of two figures. The first figure is all of my mutual funds, 401k's, Roth IRA, Scottrade Account, etc. These are accounts that I'm trying to nuture and grow, and not withdraw from unless absolutely necessary, which I guess I'd call my "primary total". Then there's my "grand total" figure, which adds in savings bonds, my checking account, the 21 bucks I have in my credit union, and my Emigrant Direct money market account. I didn't used to pay much attention to the "grand total" until the past few years, when my Mom sprung a surprise on me, that she took out a bunch of savings bonds for me when I was a little kid, and some of them were at final maturity. And then after I sold my condo, my checking account usually had a much larger balance in it, plus I opened the Emigrant account. Before that, I rarely had more than $3K in the checking account, and there were only around $4,500 in savings bonds that I had any knowledge of, so that "grand total" just didn't seem to matter.

And even now, the first total is still the one I pay more attention to, because I figure that as the bonds mature, I'll use them, and possibly any overage in the money market account, to help grow that first total.

Anyway, I'm closing in fast on a milestone myself: the quarter-million goal for the "primary total". As of this morning, I'm at something like $249,055. Soooo close! Wow, and to think that just 9 years ago I was going through a divorce, around $26,000 in debt, and there seemed to be no hope in sight!

My next milestone for the "grand total" would be $400,000, but at $340K I've got a bit to go.

Anyway, congratulations on that $100,000 milestone. May you see the $200K milestone in no time flat!

[Outtahere]

Congrats BMJ... nothing like seeing that number with your name attached to it.

[wildcat]

Applause applause...now that you have hit the 100k mark do you mind sharing?

[uncledrz]

BMJ---Good job, happy to hear this from you, the next will be easier, come quicker, than the first, etc. It's the process, which you clearly know.

[KB]

That's great BMJ.

I'm pretty sure you're ahead of where I was at 35. Things began to improve greatly when I was in my 40s.
It's all uphill from here (well unless the market tanks...and then a dip before the uphill again).

[xprinter]

Congrats!!
I hit a milestone this month also 1 million net worth. I am 51 at your age my net worth was under 100k for sure. I divorced my spend thrift wife in my early 40's. Funny thing is she left me for a loser. Now I have remarried a much more physcally conservative woman. It's amazing how fast savings can mount up.
Good luck with the next 100k.

[Andre1969]

yeah, it's almost scary (in a good way) how quickly savings can pile up through the magic of compounding. I just ran some calculations that show I could be breaking the $1M mark by around 2014-2015. That's assuming that I can keep socking away $35K or so annually, and also a 10% growth rate, which might be a bit optimistic on both accounts. So to be pessimistic, I'm calling $1M by 2020!