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Old 03-22-2013, 03:19 PM   #41
Confused about dryer sheets
 
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Originally Posted by Karloff View Post
When I was single, a little younger (29, I believe) and reached $50K in savings, I thought $100K would make me feel immensely better and anything above that was basically icing on the cake.
30 years old and just hit $50,000 this week in Roth, solo 401k, and HSA. I have a long ways to go, but still a good milestone.

Another milestone I think is just refinancing my house to the lowest interest rate I'll ever see of 3.25% w/ 100% financing 30 yr fixed (I know it's frowned upon, but it's my situation).
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Old 03-22-2013, 05:13 PM   #42
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
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paid off mortgage, kids college saved / paid for. One graduates in May and the other in two years...almost like a mortgage! I'm at financial independence now with the recent run up......and three years and counting for ER at 55......
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Old 03-22-2013, 06:59 PM   #43
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I paid off the mortgage the first of the year and then finally bumped up my 401k to the maximum. I should hit $500k NW this year which for my age of 45 isn't particularly great but I'm single and I look at it as if my imaginary wife had a similar NW we would be hitting 1M NW this year.
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Old 03-22-2013, 07:08 PM   #44
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Finally realized that I really CAN retire because all my pessimistic calculations were simply overkill - I expected not one, but two or three things to go wrong. I'm now confident that I am FI (and would have a 3% starting WR). The biggest milestone was achieved last week when I told the bosses that I'm FI and am thinking of retiring. They all think something must be wrong -- how could I possibly retire at the ripe old age of 50 ? I've made it clear that I can go at any time. They are being extra nice to me now However its 9pm on a Friday and I am still at work !!! I can't wait to finally make the move but I'm waiting to see if they try and keep me a little longer by making me an offer I can't refuse.
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ER'd in June 2015 at age 52. Initial WR 3%. 50/40/10 (Equity/Bond/Short Term) AA.
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Old 03-22-2013, 09:23 PM   #45
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Location: Houston, TX
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2MM in financial asset value (401k, HSA, stocks, MFs, cash) and no debt. Ten years ago we were at $550M with a $80,000 left on a mortgage. That's when I became aware at the age of 44 that I needed to actively manage our investments, debt, saving and spending activities. I wish I would have started sooner.
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Old 03-22-2013, 09:43 PM   #46
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DH and I are 41 and crossed over the $1m mark (and back, and over again) last year. Then we added a mortgage - on a great place where most of the other residents are retired, so we get to pretend. :-) Oh, and I received a transfer from the j*b that was making me so miserable the past couple of years. Life is good, but we're still focused on ER.
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Old 03-23-2013, 12:34 AM   #47
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Major milestones of late:

1. Joined E-R.org in 2011.
2. Posted 1st, um, post in 2012.
3. Quit mega-corp on 2/6/2013.

Not exactly retired, more semi-retired as we have rental properties I will now manage (D/W was handling it mostly previously). Also hope to find properties to flip to help with income so we don't drain savings too quickly.

Did I mention I left mega-corp? Woo hoo! I guess this kind of puts me in the Class of 2013. Well, the Semi ER Class of 2013.
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Old 03-23-2013, 03:07 AM   #48
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'Fully funded' the kids 529, meaning by my estimation it should pay for college and grad school anywhere he wants to go. Did this before he turned 4.
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Old 03-23-2013, 03:16 AM   #49
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I'll add - we've been FI for years, RE next Friday!
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Old 03-23-2013, 06:11 AM   #50
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I do remember that "one" post. One of the funniest posts ever :-) .
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevdude View Post
2. Posted 1st, um, post in 2012.
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Old 03-23-2013, 12:00 PM   #51
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Four meeeeeellion dollars net worth! 3/23/13



Actually $4,000,043. I had to go to the coinstar machine at CVS this morning and redeem $291 in coins to get over $4M.

56 years old, retired 21 months - wife is still teaching.

$2,900,000 tax deferred
$377,000 taxable
$13,500 savings/checking accounts and cash at home
$654,400 house - no morgage, value based on the average of four online estimates.
$55,000 for two cars and personal property - OK I pulled these out of my arse but I believe they're conservative.
No debt

Forgive my apparent arrogance and braggadocio, but I enjoy reading other success stories and hopefully this might provide inspiration for other schlubs like myself.

I'll report back when I've lost half of it.
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Old 03-23-2013, 12:24 PM   #52
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Way to go on the 4M mark!
It seems to me that at 4M you are on coast mode, as far as money goes. I am not there yet, but that is my next goal. However, I have found that whenever I reach a NW target, it is is exactly half of what I want, or think I need at the time. :-( Need to breakout of that thinking. :-)

I have been using the wealth rank app http://methowtime.com/wealthrank/ and they say you need 4.5M to make it into the top 1% (final target
Also tried to get a handle on how much NW gets you into the 1% club. Seems to be a large range, depending on the source. The Capgemini World Wealth report is the best I have seen so far. http://www.capgemini.com/worldwealthreport/
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Old 03-23-2013, 01:28 PM   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TOOLMAN View Post
Way to go on the 4M mark!
It seems to me that at 4M you are on coast mode, as far as money goes. I am not there yet, but that is my next goal. However, I have found that whenever I reach a NW target, it is is exactly half of what I want, or think I need at the time. :-( Need to breakout of that thinking. :-)
LOL been there, done that --- then I realized that not working one more day than I needed to was my REAL goal, so I reduced my contingencies and fears on my portfolio while maintaining my LBYM buget to allow me to take the leap this year
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Hebrews 12:11

ER'd in June 2015 at age 52. Initial WR 3%. 50/40/10 (Equity/Bond/Short Term) AA.
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Old 03-23-2013, 01:41 PM   #54
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Early this year, hit a net worth of $2M, 1.6 investments, 400K in home and other assets. Age 59, still at w**k, DW has already retired.
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Old 03-23-2013, 02:58 PM   #55
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1. 2003: Retired from the AF Reserves, guaranteeing a COLAd pension and retiree HI.

2. 2011: Became "mortgageless"

3. 2012: Achieved FI
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100% x 10% > 10% x 100%
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Old 03-23-2013, 03:20 PM   #56
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30 June 1987 - received first paycheck after college and invested 10% of it into the stock market via an IRA. Had started off going to the beach that day, but our buddy who gave us a ride wanted to stop off at his financial advisor. We were invited in, wearing our beach shorts, flip flops, and a little worse for the wear due to lingering hangovers from the night before (did I mention we were just out of college?). We were met by the smiling financial advisor and given a free Coke, and the next thing we knew we were signing up for IRAs. I hadn't even known what an IRA was before that day. We actually did make it the beach that day, and I've been saving and investing ever since. It took me about 5 years to figure out that the front loaded, high-fee fund was a really bad deal for me and a great one for the advisor. I ended our relationship at that point and became my own advisor, but I am thankful that it got me started, not only with the introduction to saving for retirement, but also to the stock market, and that was the beginning of a great and interesting life-long education.

1 June 2011 - two steps forward and one step back. I gave my one-year notice of intent to retire (one year is the required notification period), and then several months later fell victim to the one more year syndrome and withdrew my request.

1 June 2012 - giant step forward and vowed no more "one more years," and gave my 12 months notice.

1 June 2013 - next milestone: first day FIRE'd.
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FIRE'd on 1 June, 2013 at age 48, DW FIRE'd with me on same day at age 47.
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Old 03-23-2013, 03:28 PM   #57
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NW is close to $3.4M including house. My goal was to get to $3MM excluding house....I'm a couple hundred K short of this now. Reached FI....have 40x annual expenses including 32k pension. $4MM sounds real nice but I don't think I'm going to make it to that milestone.....49 and looking to RE at 50 to 51.
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Old 03-23-2013, 03:42 PM   #58
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A few of my older milestones:

April 1998 - paying off my mortgage and becoming debt-free (again).

August 2000 - reaching the $200k plateau in taxable account investments. That was big because I had paid off the mortgage only 2 years earlier so there was no corresponding debt to offset it.

I am closing in on $800k in my taxable account investments.
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"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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Old 03-23-2013, 05:13 PM   #59
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This is a fun post. Great reading other people's successes and goals. It is all so encouraging. Let's all keep at it!!

Milestones:

2010: ditched terrible FA from Morgan Stanley (the was made possible by reading this site and Bogleheads. Thank goodness for these sites!!
End of 2011: 1MM net worth excluding house
End of 2012: 529s for 2 children funded as much as I wish to fund
Early 2013: Watched Ravens win Superbowl in NOLA

Goals:
September 2014: ten years married to an amazing woman
Mortgage free by age 40
FI by 45
SRE at 50
RE at 55
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Old 03-23-2013, 06:55 PM   #60
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awesome DB. We're 30 y/o, and just went over $120K in our investments (401k, roth, trad ira). In 3 months, we'll have all of our vehicles paid for (3 total). Also, we have $-15k equity in our home, and a rental that generates about $50 a month positive cash flow after paying mortgage and property mgmt fees I have about 13 more years to a military pension (hopefully). But in all reality, I think we're doing pretty well. I'm just hoping the real estate market begins to pick up and then we should be doing well.
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