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

[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]

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]

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.
[FONT=&quot] 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.[/FONT]

 

[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]

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]

...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]

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]

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.

 

[Skyward1]

25 years ago when I first started my 401k with 2% of my $25k salary there was a phone number you could call and it would give you projections based on expected salary increases and returns and you could play around with the numbers somewhat to see what was possible. I remember telling my parents that someday I would be a millionaire if I kept investing for x number of years.

As of today I am $5k short of hitting $1m in financial assets (not just 401k) for the first time and the futures are up!

 

[jollystomper]

Not until my salary crossed 100K at 38 did I think it was remotely possible. This was during the dotcom boom, my salary grew more rapidly than before, I was granted stock options, and the market have several years of "crazy" increases, so I figured I would get there someday. But I did not make it a serious pursuit until I was over 40, when Megacorp changed their retirement benefits and I realized that what was left of my pension, (if it survived) would not be enough for a future retirement. We began making a better effort to save and invest to reach that goal (and go beyond it).

 

[2017ish]

... 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. ...

I can't figure out why we had so little difficulty in flipping the switch. Maybe because our plan/desire was always to spend more in retirement than we did (excluding kids and taxes) whilst working? But, your point is quite valid given what I've read....

 

[RobbieB]

I never made a hundred grand salary a year in my life.

But I made it easy in investments -

 

[Valid not Invalid]

It’s good decisions, sacrifices, and luck. I met my future wife when we were both 19. She reminds me that when “the gang” was going to see a movie, I declined because I calculated I’d have to work over an hour to make the money I would spend on the movie. It’s those same calculated decisions that has me 6 months from retirement with 4M+ NW, and a 100K+ COLA pension at the age of 56. Good decisions, sacrifices, and yep, definitely some luck in there too.

 

[teetee]

I had a late start. I did not hold a full time job or start saving until I was 36. After a couple of years of full time work I created a spreadsheet and set the net worth goal for each year until I plan to retire in early 50s.

8 years in I still need a couple more years to reach the 1m goal. But I never had doubt that I will reach my goals. I am not smart, creative or particularly like money. But I am persistent. I have been lucky that I have not had to look for jobs very long and covid did not cause problems for my career either. I really want to retire early so I can travel around and experience as many new things as possible.

 

[dixter]

1 million bottles of beer on the wall... 1 million bottles of beer on the wall... can't remember when it happen'd....

 

[indiajust]

I always knew it was within reach. Real estate almost killed me, but once I escaped to rentership and invested the money... done deal. I am hoping for at least one more historical double, but the future could be different than past.

Motley fool had an article contrasting extremes: Some hedge fund guy and wife in bankruptcy court, fighting over how hard it was to live on 350k a year or some such. Had all the degrees and connections, never really worked a day in his life. Same day, article about elderly schoolteacher that accrued many millions and donated to charity on death. Never made much but super frugal and great investor.

I always tell folks to think in terms of spending time, divide your total nut stash by your annual nut. That's your years in the tank.

 

[CSdot]

When I saw I had over $1M in one of my retirement accounts. Then I added up everything and realized I am technically a multi-millionaire. The odd thing is we live a normal middle class lifestyle, and most excess money goes to various savings vehicles, so I can safely say that having a million dollars in the bank does not feel like what we were all led to believe being a millionaire should feel like.

 

[catii]

Never spent a minute worrying about it. DW made a 6-figure salary, & my computer consulting company topped $1M net in our first 6 months. Still, I was surprised, 34 years later, when she told me how much MORE we were going to be able to spend, once we retired. And then she told me that she had just retired, & I had 30 days to sell the company, or close it. I sold it.

Surprises, but all pleasant!