200k to 250k in a flat market

[UnrealizedPotential]

I am guessing that it takes on average about 2 years to make that 50k leap. It has been about 1.5 years for me. I have about 225,600k right now. In a flat market it sure seems like it takes forever. It's not easy but I contribute about 12k a year to my investments. Anyone else feel like going from 200k to 250k took forever?

 

[Senator]

It always takes more time than it should... But it really depends on how much you save.

I am fortunate to be able to save quite a bit, I am targeting saving $200K for this year, which includes my companies 401K match. Any market gains or losses are outside of that number. About 5x what my budget is.

Keep at it, try and save what you saved last year, plus any raises or expenses you do not have ion the new year.

 

[nash031]

There will soon be a time for you where that $50K becomes a relative drop in the bucket. You'll be asking the same question about $500K to $750K, and eventually $2M to $2.5M. All relative, but keep at it we'll all get there (wherever your th
ere happens to be)!

 

[Dash man]

We reached a number three years ago where we felt comfortable to retire, so I did. DW decided to keep going. Our net worth has since doubled. Keep saving and investing...you never know when the good times will benefit you. Just be sure to rebalance so you don't keep too much of a good thing when it goes bad.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Clone]

For a long time it seemed to take forever to get it to move. After awhile it was a big number. Then it was interesting to watch it to go up or down in a couple days what you used to wait to accumulate for a couple years.

It is all relative.

 

[Animorph]

That's a 25% gain, which is more than two years of an average market.

 

[hausfrau]

Waiting for investment gains is like watch a pot of water boil. Sometimes it takes a while to see the gains. In my intro post on this site, I was second guessing my DH's and my decision to leave my job to take care of my small child.

Almost three years later, we are in a great spot. Our net worth has increased considerably. We still save a good amount and DH got a promotion, but compounding and dividends have done the heavy lifting.

 

[Slow But Steady]

My wife retired from Chevron, and still owns quite a few of their shares, so we're waiting to get back to where we were a year ago. That's really a drag.

(BTW, she holds the shares in a her 401K, and there are some advantages to taking the shares out in a way that takes advantage of the net unrealized appreciation rules, so I'm hoping it turns out OK in the end.)

 

[LOL!]

At least you are going up.

Wait until your portfolio loses $250K in a few months. Are you prepared for that?

 

[Car-Guy]

There will soon be a time for you where that $50K becomes a relative drop in the bucket. You'll be asking the same question about $500K to $750K, and eventually $2M to $2.5M. All relative, but keep at it we'll all get there (wherever your there happens to be)!

Not sure everyone will agree with your perspective but it's certainty has become true for me. When I was working, it was the ups and downs of my 401k since that's where I'd see the big changes. Even as recent as 3 or 4 years ago, I would "stress out" over a 5k loss in a day or even a week. (Opposite true for gains of course ) Now it really doesn't bother me much. e.g. I just checked and I have lost about 35k in the past 10 days but made that (or more) the two weeks before that. I built a spreadsheet to track my weekly gains/loss by total "cash or liquid investable" net worth for the past year. I speculate (nice term for gamble) a lot. Some weeks I lose, some weeks I win. So regardless of my speculation "activity" (which includes trading stocks) I am to the point I really only care about my bottom line and don't worry "too much" about any particular trade, bet, etc). One of my friends calls this speculation diversification. As long as the bottom line is going up, I quit worrying about it and just enjoy retirement.

However, if my bottom lines starts heading south, I might be rethinking my seemingly somewhat cavalier position.

 

[RetireAge50]

While you are still contributing this is a good thing the market is flat (or going down would be better). But since it is flat makes sense how long it is taking. Maybe $4k dividends plus your $12k contribution for 1.5 years is $24k.

Since you are laying the groundwork, it will be fun for you when the compounding begins!

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

At least you are going up.

Wait until your portfolio loses $250K in a few months. Are you prepared for that?

I don't know. So far I have been able to handle anything the market has thrown at me.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

While you are still contributing this is a good thing the market is flat (or going down would be better). But since it is flat makes sense how long it is taking. Maybe $4k dividends plus your $12k contribution for 1.5 years is $24k.

Since you are laying the groundwork, it will be fun for you when the compounding begins!

Well to be honest my biggest fund is an Equity Income fund and it's down about 3.5% so far this year. I think last year my dividends were 6k for everything. This year maybe 7k plus. We shall see. For the 1.5 years I think the contribution is more like 18k. But I also own a small cap value fund which has been down. My Real Estate fund has small gains. The rest is SP500 index funds and Value fund. No international funds. I think soon compounding will begin because my shares owned are rising rapidly.

 

[RunningBum]

IIRC, $200K to $250K was a blink in time for me. The market was soaring at the time and I had great employee stock options.

 

[lem1955]

Rule of 72. I imagine most of you already know this. So this post is for newbies to investing and compounding. Rule Of 72 Definition | Investopedia

 

[Andre1969]

Lessee, a year and a half ago would be roughly May/June of 2014. I remember 2014 starting off pretty strong, up to about that point, and then it sort of wavered. I was up around 6% by June of 2014, but ended the year up 5.6%. Now, that's a 5.6% ROI...if I count additional investments, the number would be higher.

As of 11/6/15, I'm up about 3.7% YTD. So, when you figure I actually lost a bit between June of 2014 and the end of the year, plus this year's meager gain, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. In my case, I'm getting frustrated simply getting from $1M to $1.1M! I think I hit $1M back in August of 2014. I hit $1M again, on the way down, in September! Got close, at something like $1.08M back around May or so.