norcaldreamer
Dryer sheet wannabe
It’s been about two years since my last substantive post here, so I wanted to check back with a progress report – that can also serve as a snapshot that I can come back to in the future. Back in May 2011, our net worth (excluding home equity) was approximately $320K. Most of that sum was in retirement accounts and cash savings accounts, and I was contemplating setting up a taxable investment account. At the time, I still had $30K of graduate school debt racking up 6.8% interest, and even though we had a large household income, we didn’t track our spending.
Fast forward two years later, and our net worth is now at $775K (plus another ~ $175K in home equity). This includes roughly $225K in taxable investment accounts, $425K in retirement accounts, and a very large emergency fund. Part of the growth of our net worth was the stock market at work, but most of it was the result of banking a large chunk of our salaries while trying to avoid lifestyle inflation.
Since discovering this board, I have spent a lot of time learning more about personal finance, setting up investment accounts, tracking expense ratios, putting money in back-door Roth IRAs, finding an asset allocation that works for me, etc. Even though I’ve been a lurker during most of the past two years, I’ve appreciated the many insightful posts on this board. And all the success stories have motivated me to keep going. So thanks, everyone!
However, I think the last two years have also been about finding balance. As the “saver” in the relationship, I used to wince whenever we spent what felt like exorbitant amounts of money. But the past two years has shown me that we can afford some indulgences while still making good progress towards our financial goals. On the other hand, the BF has learned that we DO spend a lot of money on things like food and travel, which has incentivized him to cut back and find more value in his spending.
Tracking our finances has been a very worthwhile endeavor, mostly because it has given us a better sense of the number that we are shooting for in order to retire. That number is still a little sobering, since it seems so far out there. But if we continue to work hard, save, and make progress, I think we’ll get there in the next 10-15 years.
Fast forward two years later, and our net worth is now at $775K (plus another ~ $175K in home equity). This includes roughly $225K in taxable investment accounts, $425K in retirement accounts, and a very large emergency fund. Part of the growth of our net worth was the stock market at work, but most of it was the result of banking a large chunk of our salaries while trying to avoid lifestyle inflation.
Since discovering this board, I have spent a lot of time learning more about personal finance, setting up investment accounts, tracking expense ratios, putting money in back-door Roth IRAs, finding an asset allocation that works for me, etc. Even though I’ve been a lurker during most of the past two years, I’ve appreciated the many insightful posts on this board. And all the success stories have motivated me to keep going. So thanks, everyone!
However, I think the last two years have also been about finding balance. As the “saver” in the relationship, I used to wince whenever we spent what felt like exorbitant amounts of money. But the past two years has shown me that we can afford some indulgences while still making good progress towards our financial goals. On the other hand, the BF has learned that we DO spend a lot of money on things like food and travel, which has incentivized him to cut back and find more value in his spending.
Tracking our finances has been a very worthwhile endeavor, mostly because it has given us a better sense of the number that we are shooting for in order to retire. That number is still a little sobering, since it seems so far out there. But if we continue to work hard, save, and make progress, I think we’ll get there in the next 10-15 years.
