At what point did you think the $1 million milestone was possible?

[Major Tom]

In my mid 30's, I started scribbling lots of sums on bits of paper, guesstimating how much I would have when older, at different savings and interest rates. I didn't know much about the markets, and had never heard of sequence of returns risk, so just used constant interest rates in my calculations. I came to the conclusion that a million was very doable, even on my modest salary. At that point, I didn't really know how much money I'd need to retire, as it seemed so far in the future. I just thought I'd save as much as I could, while still enjoying my life, and let the rest take care of itself.

So to answer the question, although it seemed like a lofty goal, I was in my mid 30's when I figured I had a decent shot at a million.

[_MEOW_]

Today, at age 30, a little later that I would've wish but it's still possible.

I ran the numbers 12k invested per year with an average rate of return @ 6% until age 60 you'll have $1,074,543
https://www.nerdwallet.com/banking/c...est-calculator

[Finance Dave]

At about age 26. That's when the 401k came out at my employer. I did the math and realized I could easily make it happen. What I didn't realize at that time is that near the end, your portfolio outearns your j*b! I couldn't make enough from 8-5 at Megacorp to beat my portfolio earnings...which is a good thing! That's when I started planning the FIRE date.

[Koolau]

When I had finally amassed $30,000, I knew it was possible to amass a million. After all, $30K is also 0.03 of a million. I'm serious, that was my thinking at the time though YMMV.

[pjigar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential I finally feel like I have a shot at the $1 million milestone. I am a bit over the 500K milestone now and it suddenly feels possible for me someday to reach the $1 million mark. I feel like compounding alone will get me there someday. I know it will still take years, but it seems doable now. When I reached the 250K point I never had this feeling, I simply didn't think about it. So at what money milestone or at what point did you feel like, yeah I finally have a shot at 1 million?

I can't remember but I can tell you that first 500K was the hardest. 1M came soon after in less than half the time of $500K. And every milestone after 1M have been realized sooner than anticipated. I guess that's what is called compounding!

[ShokWaveRider]

There sure are a lot of Millionaires next door here...

[Toocold]

When we paid off our mortgage in 5 years. I realized that if I could pay that off, I could certainly save 3x that over 15 years. We hit $1M NW 3 years later.

[mckittri2000]

Never. I have not reached that milestone and don't think I ever will. Retired 2 years ago comfortably with the mortgage and vehicles paid off. If I do reach the million it will be because some windfall comes up.

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential So at what money milestone or at what point did you feel like, yeah I finally have a shot at 1 million?

In my early 30s.

To be more specific, it was early in 2002. I only had $12K in my retirement account, which had just switched over from a bank to Vanguard due to a corporate buyout of the company where I was employed for the previous 5 years. I had just finished reading The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley, Danko) and The Armchair Millionaire. (Schiff, Gerlach)

The Millionaire Next Door gave me inspiration that an average working guy like me could live below my means and with compound interest and capital gains actually become a millionaire.
The Armchair Millionaire showed me how to invest the money in my new Vanguard account and how to set up my future contributions in order to make the most out of what I was contributing. I took that $12K and put $4k into the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, $4K into the Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund and $4k into the Vanguard International Growth Fund.

I did the math and figured I could reach $1M by the time I was 50 if I maxed out my contributions and averaged 10% yearly growth. I used historical averages, since nobody can really predict the future. And the max 401(k) contribution was only $11K back then. I was not able to max out my contributions every year but I never contributed less than 15% of my salary. Since I want to retire in 2025 I switched to a 60/40 stock/bond ratio at the beginning of the year but my stock portion is still invested per The Armchair Millionaire strategy.

I will turn 50 this year.

My liquid net worth as of this morning: $1,061,519.39

[Time2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau When I had finally amassed $30,000, I knew it was possible to amass a million. After all, $30K is also 0.03 of a million. I'm serious, that was my thinking at the time though YMMV.

I can one up you! In 1981, we earned $18k and saved $6k, at that point I thought WoW, we could really save a lot of money. In the very late 80s I was listening to the radio Money Talk host Bob Brinker, I credit him for getting my into the stock market, opening IRAs and so much of the financial information I have gained.
I started keeping track of net worth in 1987 when the number was $110,000.
In 1991 we hit $203,000 and by 1995 we were up to $330,000.
At that time we move South and I stopped keeping track of net worth.
At the begining of 2011 I started calculating net worth again, liquid net worth was $936,000.
One year later 1-1-12 we were over $1M, 6 years later at the end of 2017, were had over $2M.
(as someone already said, the second one is a lot easier)

I don’t have any memory of when I thought we would hit $1M, but when we did, we went out to a restaurant to have a minor celebration.
We were never high earners, we had some good years in the late 80s early 90s. The years between 1995 and 2002 I earned about $14k and my wife about half that. In 2001 my wife started a business in her spare time and it didn’t take me long to get onboard. From then until retirement, combined we earned in the $70s. I retired at 61, my wife at 58, so not real early, but we’re pretty happy with our 'earnings to net worth ratio' or 'conversion efficiency' as brought up in another thread.

[freedomatlast]

For one of my courses in college, we had to buy a book called "Principles of Engineering Economy". This book had tables you use to calculate problems such as, "If I save $12,000 annually at a compound interest rate of 6%, how much will I have in 30 years?" You could use various interest rates with different annual series of numbers. I also used the rule of 72 a lot in my calculations.

This was before personal computers and Excel were available. So I made a graph on graph paper and used this as my guide for savings. Dollars were on the y axis and calendar year was on the x axis. Each year I would would plot where we ended up for the year. I still have that graph. While others were buying new cars every few years and stretching to buy the biggest house they could afford, I was plugging away working hard at MegaCorp, consulting on the side, and saving dollars to reach my goal.

As it turned out, I beat the original goal by a wide margin thanks to hard work, generous raises and substantial bonuses.

So in answer to OPs question, I knew in college I could reach $1 million, made it happen in my 40s and thanks to 30 years of great stock market returns and not selling during downturns, exceeded those projections.

[MrLoco]

Always thought we would hit $ 1million which we did years ago. MAxing out 401k's at age 22 just out of college and investing almost exclusively in stocks was the key.

What we did NOT expect was to surpass $ 6 million which we did just this past Friday. $ 6million in investments NOT including primary residence. From Oct 30 to Nov.13....just 2 weeks....we saw an increase in value (on paper) of $200,000. Still can't believe the numbers sometimes. I make now ( when the market is on fire) in 2 weeks what my wife and I would take a year to earn.

Goal now is to enjoy it. Spend. Spend. Spend. Can't wait to be able to take luxurious, month long cruises again and fly first class anywhere in the world we want. Wife and I are both 60, retired , in good health, and looking forward to the "good life." Just need to now position ourselves to hold on to the money and plan to minimize taxes as much as possible.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider There sure are a lot of Millionaires next door here...

I've got that book around here somewhere... I read it a long time ago, back when a million had a lot more buying power than it does today.

[racy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential ...So at what money milestone or at what point did you feel like, yeah I finally have a shot at 1 million?

I knew as a poor college student after a (early '70s) computer class. We had to write a program as an assignment so I chose to demonstrate "the magic of compound interest".
I knew then I wanted to start investing ASAP and that a million would be very possible if not probable.

[RetireAge50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmchairMillionaire23 I did the math and figured I could reach $1M by the time I was 50 if I maxed out my contributions and averaged 10% yearly growth.

This is what I did too during a finance class in college. My goal was $1.5 million by 50 and it worked. I contributed 16% and the company match added another 11% for a total of 27% of pay.

Note: Since I graduated from college the S&P has averaged 9.96%

[HawaiiShrimp]

I got that feeling when my portfolio reached $750k. After that, it only takes less than 6 months to reach $1M milestone. It's a great feeling. It's a great accomplishment.

The first $250k is pretty tough... I can't tell you how LONG it took to save up all that much in my personal investment account. It felt like forever. From $250k to $500k also took years....

But, after $1M, things appeared to move faster. From $0 to $1M, it took me 15-16 years. From $1M to $2M, it took only 4 years.

[IMATERP]

I never expected that I would reach one million (and I haven’t, as of yet.)

I’m close + my wife and I have a paid off house + new vehicles + we both have State Govt. pensions + no cost retiree healthcare + wifey still works and adds to her nest egg.

Hence, even though neither of us have one million on paper - our net worth modestly exceeds two million plus. It’s all in how you look at things.

I

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrLoco Always thought we would hit $ 1million which we did years ago. MAxing out 401k's at age 22 just out of college and investing almost exclusively in stocks was the key. What we did NOT expect was to surpass $ 6 million which we did just this past Friday. $ 6million in investments NOT including primary residence. From Oct 30 to Nov.13....just 2 weeks....we saw an increase in value (on paper) of $200,000. Still can't believe the numbers sometimes. I make now ( when the market is on fire) in 2 weeks what my wife and I would take a year to earn. Goal now is to enjoy it. Spend. Spend. Spend. Can't wait to be able to take luxurious, month long cruises again and fly first class anywhere in the world we want. Wife and I are both 60, retired , in good health, and looking forward to the "good life." Just need to now position ourselves to hold on to the money and plan to minimize taxes as much as possible.

You have done better than most here. Heartiest and sincerest congratulations. NOW, let's see if you can do better than most of us here in Blowing That Dough! It ain't easy for many (most?) of us to switch from saving/investing to spending. Best of luck and if you have problems doing it, we have a few (just a few) here who have made the adjustment just fine - and they tell us about it. Personally, I find it difficult to BTD but YMMV.

[RenoJay]

I think when I turned 8 years old I decided I’d become a millionaire. I never questioned the “if”, only the “how.” Anyway congrats on getting halfway there!!

[scrabbler1]

I suppose it was first in the late 1990s, after I paid off my mortgage in 1998, during the 1990s booming markets, and when I was still working full-time.


The company stock ownership program had just begun, but the added value from that would not begin to take off until the mid-2000s. In those years, after I had reduced my income by working part-time, and after the 2001-2002 downturn had ended, I saw my NW zoom upward, around 20% per year for a few years (with my NW doubling in 4 years).


I got very close to $1M in late 2007, before the 2008 downturn. Retiring in late 2008 kept me from hitting $1M until 2010.