Net worth Today

[Andre1969]

If you had ten+ times more NW than you do now, do your think your preferred lifestyle might change?

Honestly, I don't think I'd know what to do with that much money. My aspirations just aren't that high, I guess.

A few things that come to mind...
1) Retire immediately
2) Hire a lawn service to cut the grass
3) Get the swimming pool replastered and heated, and have a small poolhouse/cabana/whatever built
4) Put a half-bath down in the basement
5) Help my uncle get into a small house that he can manage by himself.

But realistically, I could do the first two things right now, if I really wanted to. As for the swimming pool, I'm planning to get it replastered in the near future, and a poolhouse built. Although heating it seems like kind of a gratuitous luxury.

I could afford to do the half-bath in the basement, but just don't see the need for it.

As for my uncle, he's currently living in Grandmom's old house, and the plan is for him to move into the first floor master suite of my house. But, once Grandmom's house sells, between his cut and my cut of the proceeds, and another good year on the stock market, I could probably swing that, as well.

I dunno...maybe I just need to start thinking bigger!

 

[MarieIG]

If you had ten+ times more NW than you do now, do your think your preferred lifestyle might change?

Ha, Ha, Ha, I see someone already took my answer. I would probably (see the word probably is still in there) fly business class. Too painful to pull the trigger on that one now. Maybe a bit more travel. Yes, I would still comparison shop: I don't like to waste money. Some upgrades here and there. More for charity.

 

[Joylush]

If you had ten+ times more NW than you do now, do your think your preferred lifestyle might change?

I think that would depend on what your current net worth is. If it was $1,000,000 going to $10,000 would just make me feel more secure.

If I had $10,000,000 and it went to $100,000,000 I don’t believe my lifestyle would change. But I’d still be focused on how to best preserve the money and make the best use of it. I’d probably start a private charity, sell my rental houses to tenants who want to buy them at a reduced price and give more money away to more people.

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, my charity giving would definitely increase.

 

[Aus_E_Expat]

My financial advisor tells me I have more money than I could spend in my lifetime based on my previous spending habits.
I told her that means I need to change my spending habits or my working career has been a waste of time and effort.

 

[USGrant1962]

My financial advisor tells me I have more money than I could spend in my lifetime based on my previous spending habits.
I told her that means I need to change my spending habits or my working career has been a waste of time and effort.

+1

There is a recurring theme around here that says once you're FIRE you should quit and settle for your current standard of living. Yet we spend the first 30ish years of our working lives trying to improve our standard of living. And when we FIRE we are looking at another 30-50 years of living!

That is why I recommend a FIRE portfolio AA between 50/50 and 75/25. Keep your money working for you so in 5 or 10 years you can fly business class, buy that beach house, take the kids and grands on vacay, eat at better restaurants, drink better wine/beer/whiskey/whisky, or whatever floats your boat (boats are a good way to spend money!).

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah Baby!

 

[RetiredHappy]

+1. We spent a ton while we were working and we ain't slowing down in retirement. The nice thing is there is nothing that we want that we cannot afford. We are enjoying the fruits of our labor, so to speak.

 

[Timeisprecious]

Spoiler alert: the next $1M will come faster than the last one, and so on...

This is not necessarily true if you're newly retired.

 

[Timeisprecious]

+1

There is a recurring theme around here that says once you're FIRE you should quit and settle for your current standard of living. Yet we spend the first 30ish years of our working lives trying to improve our standard of living. And when we FIRE we are looking at another 30-50 years of living!

That is why I recommend a FIRE portfolio AA between 50/50 and 75/25. Keep your money working for you so in 5 or 10 years you can fly business class, buy that beach house, take the kids and grands on vacay, eat at better restaurants, drink better wine/beer/whiskey/whisky, or whatever floats your boat (boats are a good way to spend money!).

Well, maybe. But if you have a pension that covers your needs and most of your wants, you may not want to accept this level of risk. True, you can do it and if you end up losing a lot, you still have the pension. But hmmm - I dunno - for some reason I like where I'm at and am okay with some improvement without accepting a lot of risk.

 

[DrRoy]

One of our most substantial financial milestones was paying off the mortgage around 2012. The boost to family cash flow felt quite remarkable.

 

[WD40 or duct tape]

One of our most substantial financial milestones was paying off the mortgage around 2012. The boost to family cash flow felt quite remarkable.

Same here DrRoy, we became 100% debt free 12/10/2013. It's amazing how that allowed us to live WAY under our means - and how quickly the NW increased!

 

[Badger]

One of our most substantial financial milestones was paying off the mortgage around 2012. The boost to family cash flow felt quite remarkable.

We did the same by doubling our mortgage payments until they were paid off about 10+ yrs before we retired. Then we decided to increase our 403b accounts to the maximum amounts and also the maximum to our Roth IRAs with some left over for taxable investments.

Now we're "Steppin in high cotton".



Cheers!

 

[Letj]

I most certainly would not spend/cannot spend in this lifetime what I’ve already accumulated and I am often baffled at how quickly people blow through money. Could it be a certain psychological make up? I am as happy as I can be and frankly nothing brings me additional happiness. I am happy as a clam with my hobbies of travel, hiking, Pickleball, dancing and whatever else I do, none of which cost much money. I have more clothes than I need; I can only eat so much and I can drive just one car. Anything else just feels like waste and won’t bring me more joy. It’s this reason why I don’t get why people continue to work beyond enough money to provide anything they need and want. I can afford the vacation home and a boat but why would I get them when I can get on a boat and vacation anytime without owning them. I am curious to hear how all the toys make a difference to one’s life. For me, it would be a burden without adding happiness. I can’t be any happier (freedom from work took care of that).

 

[street]

One of our most substantial financial milestones was paying off the mortgage around 2012. The boost to family cash flow felt quite remarkable.

Having those large monthly payments disappear is a huge help in saving for retirement.

I built my home from ground up, so I saved a bunch doing that. I then at 28 years old paid it off and have not had a large loan since, except for a vehicles which I never went the length of the loan before we paid them off.

I credit not having a house payment for over 35 years that made it very easy for me, to get where I needed to be at retirement age.

It was a huge milestone for me at that age. I felt very proud at the time having paid it off, so young in life. The banker told me if everyone was like you, banking would be easy. He was impressed and he is a good friend yet to this day. Lol

 

[rodi]

I caught an old "Columbo" episode the other day, where they mentioned some prices, and I thought it was an interesting little time capsule. Now, being a tv show, I wouldn't be my life on some of these dollar figures being totally accurate, but they may have been a ballpark figure for the time.

Anyway, the episode originally aired on 9/26/72. Columbo was grilling a murder suspect, a music conductor who lives a fairly lavish lifestyle, on various costs and such. The suspect said he paid $18,000 per year in property taxes, and from that Columbo guessed the house cost $720,000, to which the guy responded close, $750,000. The house was the same one used for the exterior shots of the governor's mansion in "Benson". Columbo then asked how much this guy had spent on all the furniture and he said "Oh, I don't know...maybe $100-200K."

Columbo mentioned that he only makes $11,000 per year!

It really made me notice that, even back in 1972, you had to be more than just an entry-level millionaire if you wanted a really lavish lifestyle. And, in the case of this murder suspect, he had a rich wife he was leeching off of.

I just looked up the Benson house on Zillow.com. They estimate it's current value to be about $6.7M (oddly, about what $1M adjusted for inflation in 1972 would be). Its property taxes in 2020 were $7,557, and its assessed value was only $514,591!

Those tax/assessment numbers seem laughably low to me. I'm guessing they reflect some kind of tax credit for it being a primary residence? And doesn't California have provisions in place to keep property taxes really low, if you stay in your home a really long time?

Here's the Zillow page: https://www.zillow.com/homes/1365-S-Oakland-Ave-Pasadena,-CA-91106_rb/20699719_zpid/

prop 13 plays a factor in the listed assessed value. If it doesn't change hands, it doesn't get reassessed.

I believe the $6.7M value... Pasadena has pricey homes.

Edited to add: Redfin values it at $10M. And confirms it hasn't been sold in the last 20 years or so.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Pasadena/1365-S-Oakland-Ave-91106/home/7011267

 

[sengsational]

I don't think I'd ever stop comparison shopping.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one cursed with this trait. I've been trying the "under a $50, just buy it, and see how that feels". But I fall off the wagon all of the time...."wait a minute, this is a $12 item!!"

 

[street]

^ That is me to a T! Being frugal is hard thing to break.

 

[Joylush]

Nothing wrong with comparison shopping. Why pay more for anything if you don’t have to?

It just depends on if you’re practical about it or not. I get a military discount at Home Depot but my other half doesn’t. I’m not going to insist on shopping with him every time he needs to stop in to make a purchase just to save a couple dollars if it’s not convenient.

Smart shopping will always be a good trait to have.

 

[RobbieB]

I don't do the comparison shop for price so much anymore, but features. It has to be what I want for the purpose I have in mind more than how much it costs.

 

[yidal8]

Right and a very good point. Not surprisingly the individuals I typically see have a 800k home and are requiring a 150k annual spending in retirement. Though I planed for 45k annual, in the past 2 years that I've been retired I'm barely spending 30k.

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Keep in mind the marginal tax rates back then. In 1970, assuming your $1M threw off $40K in income for the year. Your marginal rate for Married/Filing Jointly would have been 48% for any income above that up to $52,000. The 28% marginal tax started at $16,000. The top rate was 70% for income above $200,000.

The old saw applies: It's not what you make, it's what you keep.

-BB

 

[Joylush]

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

Well he did say those in high cost of living areas with expensive homes require more annual income. You didn’t say what the value of your house was or the annual costs to maintain it.

If you chose to live in a high cost area your annual costs are going to be higher even if you have no mortgage. My house is worth around what my former MIL’s house is worth. My annual taxes are $1500 and hers are over $10,000. She has state income taxes, I don’t. Where you choose to live definitely affects your spending needs.

 

[JJpop]

I just checked all of our accounts tonight and with this crazy market we hit a milestone and officially entered multi millionaire status at $2,069,004.72. I am 55 and the DW is 51 and years ago I always wondered what it would feel like to be a multimillionaire and now I know. Not one bit different yet I always dreamed of attainting such status but today ask why. Then I see tons of people on this forum who have 2-5X that and was wondering if others seeing higher net worth's make you feel somewhat of a bit of a failure?

I ER'd two years ago and when I see other posters who have a five or seven million dollar net worth and are truly concerned if they have enough to retire, it makes me wonder why I'm not worried with much less? Am I missing something?

This stock market has created a lot of millionaires. It can also take it back.

I see a very large number of people in a state of euphoria over their new wealth because of stocks, Bitcoin, real estate.

I am forever the pessimist but I would feel a little uneasy right now letting it ride.
Easy come easy go, and a lot easy money has been made.

 

[yakers]

This stock market has created a lot of millionaires. It can also take it back.

I see a very large number of people in a state of euphoria over their new wealth because of stocks, Bitcoin, real estate.

I am forever the pessimist but I would feel a little uneasy right now letting it ride.
Easy come easy go, and a lot easy money has been made.

Now, if only I knew when it was all going to tank.....