View Poll Results: How Did You Reach $1 million NW?
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Owning/Operating a Business
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19 |
5.11% |
Real Estate
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18 |
4.84% |
Profession - Doctor, Lawyer
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14 |
3.76% |
Inheritance
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4 |
1.08% |
Saving from your employment income and investing
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307 |
82.53% |
Other
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10 |
2.69% |
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09-04-2017, 08:52 PM
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#101
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 987
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Does a mil in mostly tax deferred accounts count? Realistically after taxes it is only $800k.
Also, do you subtract house liability? Just curious, as I could sell the house next month and rent, and have 1.5M. Instead, we plan on selling in a year, and taking out a 30year with 20% down and investing the rest.
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09-04-2017, 09:01 PM
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#102
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 524
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DW and I are physicians. I worked for the federal government with some part-time private practice. DW worked for the state. We each have pensions and SS. While we were not especially frugal we always maximized TSP, SEP, etc contributions. For many years, we didn't give much thought to how our money was invested.
When we retired early in 2008 our NW was a bit less than 1M. Within a couple of years we hit the first $M and we've enjoyed watching the pot continue to grow.
(It's unlikely that we'll ever need more than our pensions/SS so I guess we're just growing a nest egg for our kids and grandkids.)
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09-05-2017, 04:41 AM
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#103
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Perryinva
Does a mil in mostly tax deferred accounts count? Realistically after taxes it is only $800k.
Also, do you subtract house liability? Just curious, as I could sell the house next month and rent, and have 1.5M. Instead, we plan on selling in a year, and taking out a 30year with 20% down and investing the rest.
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I count the full value of tax deferred accounts and then consider the taxes as an expense. You should deduct your loan amounts to calculate NW. When I am just considering retirement assets though, I ignore home equity.
__________________
"The mountains are calling, and I must go." John Muir
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09-05-2017, 05:16 AM
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#104
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Des Moines
Posts: 1,389
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I also voted saving and investing, but it was a long, slow road that we did not really know we were on. We literally started with nothing (similar to many I am sure), both from very modest families. I worked in the retirement biz, so I always did what we told our clients to do, from a very early age. And always, even now, LBYM.
We did get lucky, or have good timing, and all three of the houses we have owned and lived in have always appreciated and now our last house has been paid off for seven years.
Very interesting thread, thank you.
P.S. When I think of all the mornings I got up, got kids off, and went to work, no it was not luck. We worked for all of it.
__________________
Retired in 2013 and we are living the dream!
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09-05-2017, 06:41 AM
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#105
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Crownsville
Posts: 3,746
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Overall, it was a combination of inheritance, real estate, and saving/investing from employment income that got me to $1M, but the bulk of it was from saving/investing.
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Poll:How You Got to $1 million NW
09-05-2017, 06:53 AM
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#106
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 1,867
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Poll:How You Got to $1 million NW
I have to say having started out as poor as a church mouse. I am grateful that we live in a country where working smart and hard can pay off.
1. Saving first
2. A decent income - it would difficult to build a pile if you made the minimum wage.
3. Frugality
4. Investing in the market - index and dividend funds.
5. A spouse of like mindset.
#5 is likely the most important for both wealth building and contentment.
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09-05-2017, 07:11 AM
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#107
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,884
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Having an above-average household income (although not way above) and saving a large percentage of it.
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09-05-2017, 07:57 AM
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#108
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: philly
Posts: 1,219
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combination.
Late dh owned his own business. when he died, I sold his portion of the business to his partner.
But we saved. mainly we were both lucky to be his high wage earning fields (engineering and science) with megacorps that we were able to save with.
__________________
My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being "normal" is not necessarily a virtue? it sometimes rather denotes a lack of courage~Aunt Francis
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09-05-2017, 08:32 AM
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#109
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 1,049
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#1 - Getting a professional degree in Engineering (Despite being a Poor Hungry Doctor degree, not a Money Doctor)
#2 - Saving and investing
#3 - Meeting my frugal wife who taught me to save again
#4 - Recent real estate investing
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09-05-2017, 09:10 AM
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#110
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 152
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I checked "saving," but I expect like most people in that category, the answer is actually a bit mixed.
I've cleared $500-600,000 in profits from three primary residences and currently have about $1.1 million in real estate equity (primary and secondary homes).
I invested about $350,000 that I inherited from my parents about 20 years ago, currently worth about $1 million.
I collected $500,000 in life insurance when my wife died (far too early) more than 15 years ago, but that nearly all went for college and grad school for my kids (now fully independent and successful)
And, I have saved and invested about $3 million in retirement accounts and another $500,000 in after tax investments.
It's mostly been about slow and steady. Always making a reasonably good living (but never more than $150k each a year); always living (a little) below our means; always maxing out our retirement contributions; and saving and investing maybe another 5%. Since we were also covered by pensions and social security, that seemed like enough; and with the power of compounding and some reasonably good stock picks, it looks like it was!
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09-05-2017, 10:29 AM
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#111
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,657
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LBYM, saving and index fund/401K investing. We messed up a lot at first with investing, didn't know what we were doing.
Definitely not real estate! We lost every time.
No inheritance to speak of.
Mostly it was a matter of not eating out, not going on vacations, buying good clothes and taking care of them (and not gaining weight), and driving vehicles till they were not roadworthy any more. Also, buying less house than we could afford.
__________________
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
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09-05-2017, 10:51 AM
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#112
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 504
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If you want to break down by % my ballpark guess would be:
10% inherited
10% real estate appreciation
50% earned income
30% investment returns
I'm not at a mil yet but 95% of the way. I suspect investment returns will increase as a % as time goes on - still very early on (8 years of work)
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09-05-2017, 09:10 PM
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#113
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Dryer sheet wannabe
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 23
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Real estate. But my wife socking away the max in her 401K with a generous company match certainly played a big part as well.
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09-06-2017, 04:40 AM
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#114
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 23,038
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I have been a lawyer for 25 years, but the key to my current net worth has been LBYM, saving and investing, just like anyone else with a job.
__________________
Living an analog life in the Digital Age.
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09-06-2017, 05:21 AM
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#115
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 883
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FI_by_2023
Nothing special. Between learning about compounding and fear of being poor, started saving early and have kept long term perspective in market downturns...and marrying somehow who bought into approach has also helped.
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What he said.
__________________
"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating". Oscar Wilde
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09-06-2017, 06:14 AM
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#116
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Alberta/Ontario/ Arizona
Posts: 3,393
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gumby
I have been a lawyer for 25 years, but the key to my current net worth has been LBYM, saving and investing, just like anyone else with a job.
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Right, by definition if you dont win the lottery, get an inheritance, or are self employed, the only way to become FI is LBYM, save and invest. Even being self employed you will need to LBYM. Not surprisingly over 80% said they did it this way. Maybe if the cutoff was higher the results would be more interesting?
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09-06-2017, 06:55 AM
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#117
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 1,688
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Couldn't tick more than one box.
Saving and investing
Profession
Real estate
Having the right spouse
Were all factors and it would be misleading to single out just one.
__________________
Budgeting is a skill practised by people who are bad at politics.
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09-06-2017, 01:45 PM
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#118
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,003
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Quote:
Couldn't tick more than one box.
Saving and investing
Profession
Real estate
Having the right spouse
Were all factors and it would be misleading to single out just one.
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I was asking that people vote for the one that had the greatest impact. Perhaps I should also have included an option for "combination".
__________________
"The mountains are calling, and I must go." John Muir
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09-06-2017, 01:59 PM
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#119
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,639
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I can't tell you how many books/articles I've read over the years that stated that most millionaires got there through owning a business or through real estate. Yet, our poll shows less than 10% went that route.
We've never owned a business and our houses have probably lost money over the years if I were to track every penny spent on them. We also didn't have really high paying jobs compared to a lot of people that post here. So, I guess we are in the 100% savings/investing camp.
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09-06-2017, 02:20 PM
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#120
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,145
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
IPO
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Technically I guess this meant I owned a business, even though it was a very small percent of the business and I didn't really "feel" like an owner. I didn't answer the poll yet, but I guess I should.
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
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