Have you reached a new $MM mark in the alst few years?

[unclemick]

en - ga - neer 1966 big bucks 8k starting salary - no index funds , IRA, 401k, full commission broker - not a clue how to invest.

took a while. and people wonder why I'm so Curmudgeony.

heh heh heh - and opinionated too!

[UVaOK]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam I, for one, am convinced that 1MM is a large sum of money. To put it in context, consider a young college graduate today. This young engineer just got a job today, paying 50K a year. He wants to save 1MM in today's dollars. Here's his plan: - Save 15% of his gross salary - Increase his saving 5% a year. 7,500 this year; 7,875 next year... - Inflation is 3% - ROI is 11% For those who think 1MM is not a lot of money, I challenge you to calculate the number of years it takes this engineer to reach his goal.

Employing the most conservative assumptions possible (savings accumulate only at the end of the calendar year and therefore draw interest only in following years, inflation begins at end of calendar year 1), it will take him in the ballpark of 30-31 years.

Nominal million comes in at 23-24 years.

More realistic temporal modeling cuts down those time frames.

Playing around with the inflation, even just a tad, is rather scary, however.

UVa

[ESRBob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam I, for one, am convinced that 1MM is a large sum of money. To put it in context, consider a young college graduate today. This young engineer just got a job today, paying 50K a year. He wants to save 1MM in today's dollars. Here's his plan: - Save 15% of his gross salary - Increase his saving 5% a year. 7,500 this year; 7,875 next year... - Inflation is 3% - ROI is 11% For those who think 1MM is not a lot of money, I challenge you to calculate the number of years it takes this engineer to reach his goal.

Sam,
When you do the calcs, remember that our engineer is going to work hard, take risks, ask for more responsibility, learn his craft and therefore get raises over the years at more than just inflation rate. FIREes often (though of course not always) have worked harder than average to get ahead of the curve, thus boosting their earnings and savings.

[tightasadrum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp I've been retired since May 99, so clearly in the withdrawal phase. I had a large safety margin (~ $1 million more than I needed) but it wasn't fun retiring at the top of the market.

clifp, That's what really shakes my tree about hanging in up soon. This market. I'm so tight about money, I'm afraid I would become phyically ill if the market tanked three months after ER. (I still believe my attitude about money grew out of the worst spanking I ever got the day I lost my piano lesson money.) By any reasonable measure I should be ready to ER, so I will soon. But sleeping at night will not be possible without a conservative, cash heavy allocation, even though intellectually I know it is false economy.

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UVaOK Employing the most conservative assumptions possible (savings accumulate only at the end of the calendar year and therefore draw interest only in following years, inflation begins at end of calendar year 1), it will take him in the ballpark of 30-31 years.

Yes, it does take a loooong time, doesn't it.

What is "realistic temporal modeling"?


ESRBob

Quote:

When you do the calcs, remember that our engineer is going to work hard, take risks, ask for more responsibility, learn his craft and therefore get raises over the years at more than just inflation rate. FIREes often (though of course not always) have worked harder than average to get ahead of the curve, thus boosting their earnings and savings.

That's why our engineer was able to increase his saving 5% annually for 3 decades.

But I agree with you, some people are highly motivated and are able to shorten the required time significantly by saving more. Some young members here, for example, are saving 30%, 40%, even 50% of gross income.

[UVaOK]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Yes, it does take a loooong time, doesn't it. What is "realistic temporal modeling"?

By "more realistic temporal" modeling, I meant that my "conservative" assumptions about timing (savings accumulate only on the final day of the year and therefore draw interest only in following years), are not true to life.

Presumably, the engineer is saving a a set percentage of each of his paychecks, and therefore receiving returns on that money immediately throughout the given year.

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UVaOK By "more realistic temporal" modeling, I meant that my "conservative" assumptions about timing (savings accumulate only on the final day of the year and therefore draw interest only in following years), are not true to life. Presumably, the engineer is saving a a set percentage of each of his paychecks, and therefore receiving returns on that money immediately throughout the given year.

OK. Doing that would save at most half a year, but it's still around 30 years.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Broke the $1m and $2m barriers in 2005. The year started out just over $900K and would have ended around $1.2m, but then I had an inheritance. Currently pushing $2.5m.

Made it to $2.5m. Next goal: $3m in 2010.

[kumquat]

Reached a new number today. Unfortunately it's less than it was a few days ago.

[travelover]

Hit 1 MM mark in 1999, XDW's lawyer convinced me I was only a half millionaire. I'm above that mark again now and ER.

[pj86]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yona Just reached my first Million few weeks ago. About 10 years earlier than planed. The last 2-3 years were just too good to be true. All thanks to diverting my portfolio to very undervalued stocks. I always thought I will celebrate this event, but it came so fast that I was not prepared for it (my net worth was only 600K at the beginning of the year) Did anyone celebrate his first million? How?

Are you the guy from pfblog.com?

[clifp]

Hum I haven't quite fallen backward below another million mark, but if the market continues for a the rest of the year like it has the last few months....

[Maurice]

Broke 1MM in 2001, 2MM in 2005, would have thought 3MM was coming this year but it no longer seems likely. (all this excludes equity in primary residence of course)

[Maurice]

Actually, I probably broke 3MM at some point during this year, had I MTM'd my portfolio on a daily basis. As it is I only check it at month end and it got as high as $2.95. I suspect there were days intra-month where it might have peaked above 3MM.

[yona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj86 Are you the guy from pfblog.com?

Not me. My portfolio is about 90% in Hong Kong stocks.

Thanks for the link though

[Ronstar]

1MM in 1998
2MM in 2005
3MM in 2006

3.4 and falling now

[kcowan]

Just hit 2MM again but from the other direction...