The power of compounding is amazing. I am 34 now, wife is 33 and I have been investing in the market for 8+years (since 2008) when I first had access to a company sponsored 401k plan. Before then, I had no idea how to invest into the markets...and even then I had no clue what I was doing with a target date fund allocated to 50% bonds when I was 26years old. That mistake likely cost me a bit of opportunity.
Compare this now to my DH who had a Taxable TD Ameritrade brokerage her parents opened for her when grandma passed. This small amount of money grew quite a bit, allowed her to pay her college expenses, rent and even some graduate classes and a down payment on a car.
She finally took the remaining 4,000 out to help me pay off debt after being unemployed last year. This money lasted her a great while.
Now because of that help, she herself was able to save up enough in her retirement accounts where she actually has more shares of stocks and therefore a larger portfolio than me. I have been saving as much as I can, and this month I will finally surpass her in owning more shares and having a more valuable portfolio because of that.
Here’s the kicker, I earn 3x more than her, and have always earned at least 2x as much…known her for 10yrs. I have been saving as much as I could afford through the what I call real world problems, getting married, buying a house, having a kid… but yet it took me 9yrs of aggressive saving to match her portfolio.
If I could do it over, I would have opened a taxable brokerage account in high school and started saving sooner and more often. Probably a common statement. Learn from my mistake young jedis.
Compare this now to my DH who had a Taxable TD Ameritrade brokerage her parents opened for her when grandma passed. This small amount of money grew quite a bit, allowed her to pay her college expenses, rent and even some graduate classes and a down payment on a car.
She finally took the remaining 4,000 out to help me pay off debt after being unemployed last year. This money lasted her a great while.
Now because of that help, she herself was able to save up enough in her retirement accounts where she actually has more shares of stocks and therefore a larger portfolio than me. I have been saving as much as I can, and this month I will finally surpass her in owning more shares and having a more valuable portfolio because of that.
Here’s the kicker, I earn 3x more than her, and have always earned at least 2x as much…known her for 10yrs. I have been saving as much as I could afford through the what I call real world problems, getting married, buying a house, having a kid… but yet it took me 9yrs of aggressive saving to match her portfolio.
If I could do it over, I would have opened a taxable brokerage account in high school and started saving sooner and more often. Probably a common statement. Learn from my mistake young jedis.
