Net worth Today

[aleabo]

Than more you have than less you want to spend. 10 years ago I was buying 50K car without second thought. Today thought that I need to take out 50K for car make me sick...

 

[Markola]

You may well see your portfolio grow instead. Mine grew 40% in seven years dispite a well over 4% burn rate.

Let’s hope, eh? I’d be thrilled with flat for 7 years.

 

[street]

Let’s hope, eh? I’d be thrilled with flat for 7 years.

Robbie, has made a great point and one that is very likely to happen. I beleive in a 7 year time frame your portfolio will be greater.

In 5 year in retirement mine has grown 52%.

 

[Andre1969]

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/

 

[firewhen]

People like to worry, especially many of the folks on this site who are fiscally conservative and planners by nature. As long as you are good, that is what matters. We have a large portfolio, and the latest thing I am going to have to worry about is the tax and medicare implications of eventually pulling all the money out of the tIRAs. I delayed and OMY for a loooong time. Keep in mind many FIRE with less than you.

 

[pjigar]

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

How fast the last one came was a huge surprise for me! I had to pinch myself and double check my dates.

 

[pjigar]

Perhaps it's not the desire for a FAT FIRE that drove them to want a bigger FIRE portfolio but other particular needs. One example I'm familiar with and close to is having special needs kids or grand kids where you want to be able to establish significant special needs trusts for them and/or have it be likely they'll receive a substantial inheritance.

That's me. I will keep plowing little longer for my son.

 

[LRDave]

NW is relative.

It's squarely between NNW and WNW.....

(I'll take my down vote and quietly leave the room..... )

 

[flybynight]

I remember hitting the first $1M and not feeling any different. Almost immediately I do remember thinking how I was 1 or 2 down days to not being a millionaire and I instantly longed to be a multi-millionaire. After hitting $2M same feeling...I'm a couple of down days away from being just a millionaire and losing my multi-millionaire status.

Fast forward a few years...I retired at the end of 2019 at age 58 with a very comfortable 3% WDR. Since then the portfolio is up over $1.1M, WDR is now 2.1%, and our lifestyle has not changed. We may or may not upsize to our dream home on a lake and go from our current $450K home to +$800K. Not sure but perfectly content where we are and contemplating our next move. Been in this home for 25 years. Both cars 8 years old but perfectly fine.

So what has changed? Our NW is now >$5M and retirement is great. I almost pinch myself everyday and we're very thankful for our good fortune. While my wife and I worked our butts off saving and raising kids with no handouts or inheritance, we nonetheless are very thankful. What has changed is the great sense of freedom to pursue hobbies and spend time volunteering for causes that we love. It's also nice to know that I could afford all kinds of stuff I don't want. It's great to go out to dinner any time we want any where we want and not worry about the price. Its great going to the grocery store and getting whatever we want without ever looking at the price. It's great going on vacation and not worrying about the cost. It's great writing a check to help someone out whenever it's appropriate. These simple things make me feel really rich. Spent my whole life concerned about saving and stretching a dollar. No more.

 

[GreenEggs]

Net worth has been kinda fun to watch here lately, but "enough is enough." Heh, heh, if I envy anyone here, it's for your youth and health.

Ditto.

 

[mebden]

One of the happiest financial moments of my life happened around November/December of 2004. It wasn't a specific $ milestone, but rather a couple of events that helped bump me up, in general.

First, I had made the final payment on my 2000 Intrepid around that timeframe, so that was $347.66/mo I no longer had to pay. I had actually moved in late 2003, but held onto my old condo, fixing it up to sell. That was a slow process, but I lucked out because the value really shot up in the time the contractor delayed. Anyway, once that condo was sold, that was maybe another $1,000/mo off the books. And I think I cleared about $76,000 on the sale.

NW wise, I had slipped above the $100K mark at the beginning of 2004, and pretty much stayed there, I think. Selling the condo put me above the $200K mark, so I guess there's that threshold. But for me, the satisfaction was more about the peace of mind of having that condo sold, and freeing up around $1350/mo in cash flow.

Some of the other milestones that people might think of as major, such as $500K, $1M, and $2M, while nice, just didn't seem like that big of a deal. I think mental frame of reference, for lack of a better phrase, might be part of it. When you're young, and don't have much, the idea of $500K, $1M, $2M or whatever seems like a big deal, a lofty goal, and it's easy to think of it as life-changing. But, for most of us, we don't hit those milestones instantly. They take years, or even decades, of hard work, risk, sacrifice, patience, etc.

Looking back on my path to $1M, I hit it, briefly, in February 2015. And I hit it again in October 2015, and again in March 2016. Third time was a charm, and it finally held!

But, before that, I had hit $900K at the end of 2013, so at that point I was almost there. I came close, $970K in June of 2014, but then it kind of stalled out. I finished 2014 at $988K. So, when I finally DID hit $1M, instead of being over-joyed, my attitude was more like "It's about damn time!". Plus, at that point I had spent over a year being basically 90% of the way there, so it wasn't like some magic threshold.

Now, if I could go back to any point in my 30's, say, and suddenly enough money fell into my lap to push me above the $1M mark, it would have been life changing. But I guess when you get there more slowly, you just get acclimated to your financial standing, so it doesn't seem like as big of a deal.

Plus, once you get into higher $ amounts, and see how fast it can rise and fall with the market, it can also be a bit humbling!

So Andre1969 I just have a question for you if you don't mind answering how much was your NW when you pulled the plug as I'm thinking of selling everything and living on the road in my motorhome. Especially if this hurricane costs me

 

[watchman3135]

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/

I was born in 1965 and grew up watching those shows. I often go back to watch Colombo, McCloud, etc. and like you I am tuned to car, gas, grocery even ransom prices which today seem like a bargin.

 

[brett]

This comparative business boggles my mind. There will always be people with more than me and there will be people with less. It has zero effect on my level of happiness.

The only three things concern us in retirement.

Are we happy with our retirement life?

Are we healthy, or healthy enough to do the things in retirement that we want to do or accomplish?

Do we have the financial resources to support and satisfy our preferred lifestyle?

After that, why would we even care what percentile in the equity or income curve we happen to be on??

We could care less about the Jones or the Rockefellers.

 

[Markola]

^^^^^ As Han Solo remarked after the moon worm chasing the Millennium Falcon was suddenly snapped up by something even bigger and uglier, “There’s always a bigger fish.”

 

[teetee]

I found this thread just keep getting better interms of expanding my mind.

If any of you watched any slice-of-life comedy Japanese anime like I do, you will see why I am amazed by all the retirement happiness talk.

I work in a high-stress silicon valley biotech company and the only thing left that is driving me to stay and let the work consume my life is the faster wealth accumulation phase. If I can last for next 6 years, I can retire and end my short 14yr career.

Almost all those animes I watched show how people in the Japanese country side are content with their lives and enjoy little details happen in their lives that I (and I assume most people who are busy like me) am not capable of.

I also tend to agree that if a person is under high stress situation for too long, they tend to tense up more easily. I used to be able to ride a bike for hours and not think about efficiency or speed. Now I can't even do it and not noticing minor noises from the chain hitting the rear derailer or wonder if I can beat my past records this time. The anxiety took all the fun out of the supposedly relaxing experience.

Rat in the wheel perfectly describes my current status.

 

[brett]

After six months of FIRE I had a number of friends comment on how much better I looked. Less stressed out.

 

[Car-Guy]

This comparative business boggles my mind.

Do we have the financial resources to support and satisfy our preferred lifestyle?

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

 

[Dtail]

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

I will answer that for me and my DGF, it is a resounding yes, but still happy to be where we are today.
Some humble brag always creeps into these types of threads.

 

[watchman3135]

Than more you have than less you want to spend. 10 years ago I was buying 50K car without second thought. Today thought that I need to take out 50K for car make me sick...

I'm finding this to be extremely true as I am sure their are others who after ER find spending money beyond necessities to be quite painful. It seems many of us suffer from the phycological factor of only addressing the accumulation and preservation phase and not well adapted to the burn/depletion period. Easy to see with a booming growth period we've so far experienced however I belive it leads to the term of what the maestro said "Irrational exuberance" or complacency. With the current market, one could pull 40k and still see accumulation on a million dollar portfolio. If and that's a big IF IMO but still not impossible that the US ever experiences what Japan's economy did "lost decades" beginning around 1991 with a 30 year flat growth rate, the FIRE acronym would quickly disappear.

 

[pjigar]

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

I think I would prefer better lifestyle if I had 10x net worth but not by much. I think I would be OK with just 2x! Remember prefect is the enemy of good so I plan to check out when we hit our number.

 

[RobbieB]

At 10X I would buy a house on the central coast (Pismo area) and a bigger boat -

 

[brett]

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

Not appreciably.

We could quadruple our current spending levels if we were so inclined.

 

[Joylush]

That is great, although what often happens is the market will go down....

And then you can tell people "I used to be a multi millionaire"

That’s my fear. So I wasn’t comfortable until I had twice the amount I thought I needed. And then when I hit that goal I still only feel comfortable spending the amount I have over that amount. Some of us are more anxious than others….to our detriment.

 

[Markola]

I found this thread just keep getting better interms of expanding my mind.

If any of you watched any slice-of-life comedy Japanese anime like I do, you will see why I am amazed by all the retirement happiness talk.

I work in a high-stress silicon valley biotech company and the only thing left that is driving me to stay and let the work consume my life is the faster wealth accumulation phase. If I can last for next 6 years, I can retire and end my short 14yr career.

Almost all those animes I watched show how people in the Japanese country side are content with their lives and enjoy little details happen in their lives that I (and I assume most people who are busy like me) am not capable of.

I also tend to agree that if a person is under high stress situation for too long, they tend to tense up more easily. I used to be able to ride a bike for hours and not think about efficiency or speed. Now I can't even do it and not noticing minor noises from the chain hitting the rear derailer or wonder if I can beat my past records this time. The anxiety took all the fun out of the supposedly relaxing experience.

Rat in the wheel perfectly describes my current status.

teetee, I hope you re-read your post and start to figure out how to build the life you want.

 

[Koolau]

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

I'll play.

I really think I'd fly first class. I could do it now, but just can't seem to pull the trigger when buying air tickets. I don't think I'd ever stop comparison shopping. YMMV