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Finance Dave · 03-10-2021, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blurestraveler

Surpassed $5 million in liquid assets.

Wow, that's a lot in liquid! Great job. Do you also have some in the markets?

**Gumby** · 03-11-2021, 08:12 AM

I received my first Social Security payment today.

F.I.R.E User · 03-11-2021, 01:29 PM

At what age did you decide to withdraw?

Dalmore · 03-11-2021, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby

I received my first Social Security payment today.

Congrats!

**Gumby** · 03-11-2021, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F.I.R.E User

At what age did you decide to withdraw?

62. We don't really need the money right now, but the young wife is not eligible for SS on her own and is subject to the Government Pension Offset, so she will not get any spousal benefit. More importantly, she also won't get a survivor benefit in the probable event that I predecease her. Which means when I'm gone, the SS income is gone 100%. Our logic was to take the SS money now so that we don't need to touch any of our portfolio, which will then be larger when she needs to depend on it. Currently, pensions plus my social security more than cover all of our spending, unless we opt for more frequent luxury travel.

Dtail · 03-11-2021, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby

62. We don't really need the money right now, but the young wife is not eligible for SS on her own and is subject to the Government Pension Offset, so she will not get any spousal benefit. More importantly, she also won't get a survivor benefit in the probable event that I predecease her. Which means when I'm gone, the SS income is gone 100%. Our logic was to take the SS money now so that we don't need to touch any of our portfolio, which will then be larger when she needs to depend on it. Currently, pensions plus my social security more than cover all of our spending, unless we opt for more frequent luxury travel.

Your situation is probably one of the few on this site where 62 makes sense.

scrabbler1 · 03-15-2021, 10:01 PM

I wrote about a month ago how I was nearing the $1M mark in the taxable part of my portfolio. Well, today I reached that mark. I had to widen a column in my spreadsheet which keeps track of this because of the 7th digit and 2nd comma!

CindyBlue · 03-15-2021, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby

I received my first Social Security payment today.

Congratulations!

(I get mine next month!)

skyking1 · 03-15-2021, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F.I.R.E User

How did you accomplish this? This is FatFIRE.

was that directed at me?

kgtest · 03-16-2021, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrabbler1

I wrote about a month ago how I was nearing the $1M mark in the taxable part of my portfolio. Well, today I reached that mark. I had to widen a column in my spreadsheet which keeps track of this because of the 7th digit and 2nd comma!

Very nice. Congrats. Love it when we add commas

scrabbler1 · 03-16-2021, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgtest

Very nice. Congrats. Love it when we add commas

...and when we have to widen columns, too!

**MarieIG** · 03-20-2021, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyking1

was that directed at me?

Perhaps Dash Man - in the deca M club?

ATXFIRE2034 · 03-25-2021, 08:18 PM

I charted my aggregate IA asset balances and growth % y/y for the last 9 years (that's how long I've been keeping detailed records). On average, 26% growth y/y - not too shabby! But when you remove the best performing year @ 69% growth (Mar-2020 - Mar-2021) -aka- "The Year of COVID" - the average drops to 20%. Anyone else track like this that is willing to share? I found it insightful.

kgtest · 03-25-2021, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATXFIRE2034

I charted my aggregate IA asset balances and growth % y/y for the last 9 years (that's how long I've been keeping detailed records). On average, 26% growth y/y - not too shabby! But when you remove the best performing year @ 69% growth (Mar-2020 - Mar-2021) -aka- "The Year of COVID" - the average drops to 20%. Anyone else track like this that is willing to share? I found it insightful.

I do. We averaged 28% annual y/y past 8 years since I started tracking.

ATXFIRE2034 · 03-25-2021, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgtest

I do. We averaged 28% annual y/y past 8 years since I started tracking.

Thanks for sharing kgtest. Has your AA been pretty consistent over that time?

srblanco7 · 03-26-2021, 06:10 AM

Over the last 8 years we've been at 20%/yr increase in assets. We've been tracking since mid-2005, and from 2006 to 2020 we're at 17%/yr. Asset allocation was fairly consistent for most of that time period, with the exception perhaps that over the last couple years we've shifted to a slightly higher percentage of bond funds (currently at 80% stocks/20% bonds).

karen1972 · 03-26-2021, 01:24 PM

Happy dance, today we are refinancing our home to sub 3%.

We retired and then moved but I had not planned properly for what that would mean for getting a new home loan given we had no income the bank liked and in our late 40s. I ended up with a asset based mortgage with a rate that was soul sucking compared to what we were use to. My honey had taken a 3 month contract gig that just happened to keep getting extended and has finally qualified us for a conventional mortgage so we are back on track.