Share Your FIRE Milestones - 2021

[sewang]

How did you amass so much in your retirement accounts?

Use defined benefit plan for self business, which allow one to put large portion
of the income in retirement account, plus active investing.

 

[RioIndy]

Just hit 1.1M

I just hit 1.1M last night. Incredible to have gone up another 100K in a little over 4 months since I hit the magic 1.0M late last year. And I'm not even making any active income right now!

I can say that my first 100K took me 22 years! Now it took me just 4 months?! And passively?

Gonna have to take little off the top here and re-boost up my emergency savings account while it's doing so well.

 

[RioIndy]

Well, I'll play the role of the "little guy". But as of close yesterday, my investments are now over $500k.
It truly is a snowball. The first $100k was the hardest!

I'm not a C-Suite Exec or high income earner. Just LBYM and save 35% to 50% of my income. Ready for the next $500k.

It sure does! As I just observed for myself that what took me many years before, now I see in a matter of months!

 

[RioIndy]

Sub 2% WR.

That's a satisfying level of confidence! Nice milestone

 

[F.I.R.E User]

I just hit 1.1M last night. Incredible to have gone up another 100K in a little over 4 months since I hit the magic 1.0M late last year. And I'm not even making any active income right now!

I can say that my first 100K took me 22 years! Now it took me just 4 months?! And passively?

Gonna have to take little off the top here and re-boost up my emergency savings account while it's doing so well.

Congrats. I was at around $285k in March 2020 and now at $528k.

When will I hit $1M?

 

[Flyfish1]

Retiring in 2 yrs:

Retirement Act. 2.3
After Tax Act. 1.4
RE private funds .63
Life Ins. .92
Biz Equity 1: .3
Biz Equity 2:.4

Total 5.95M , not counting equity in 2 homes, because selling one to buy a boat when we retire. Maybe crazy, but we love boating so... Also not counting kids wedding money set aside and remaining 529 funds for grandchildren when that happens.
The business buy outs aren't huge but are paid out over 4 and 5 years respectively which will provide a nice income stream and defer need to draw other accounts as much.

I wish our biz did a defined benefits plan, but too late for that now. I'm happy and FAT enough although not sure retiring at 59 1/2 counts as retiring early.

 

[Love This Community]

My 401K (not including spouse) hit the 500K mark for the first time! I went back to my records and saw that it was at $114K in 2013.

I did not have a good understanding of maximum contribution limits until 2012. I was thinking, maximum contribution from employee side means taking full advantage of employer match ( 100% up to 6% or 50% up to 8% for most companies). I mentioned this to a few people and some of them were under the same impression (not aware of $19,500 max contribution limit for 2021). Some thanked me and increased their contributions to meet the maximum limit. Whenever I am involved in a conversation on this topic, I make it a point to mention about maximum contributions. Even if one individual benefits from it, I am happy.

 

[scrabbler1]

I just pierced the $1.8M mark yesterday. However, I've been on a small spending spree this month which might pull me below $1.8M, depending on the timing of my next CC payment versus my next monthly dividend income occurs. Still, it's good to see another +$100k milestone reached.

 

[anothercog]

This market is nuts. Just ran the numbers and my investable assets crossed $5M for the first time. Did not expect to hit that until next year.

 

[Retch The Grate]

Well, the inflation in the stock market is working for my raw numbers, despite dipping down below $1m invested in stocks when I sold to buy the house in december, I'm back up over $1m again, so yay, kinda. Feels a little weird to celebrate it when it looks like inflation in the asset markets and not actual economic growth that is driving the valuation. But still.

 

[Retire2023]

Unbelievable 14 months this has been. Crossed 3 mil 2/5/2020, down almost 750K at the low in March 2020, and today crossed 4 mil! What a ride!

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

Unbelievable 14 months this has been. Crossed 3 mil 2/5/2020, down almost 750K at the low in March 2020, and today crossed 4 mil! What a ride!

That is outstanding! Way to go!

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

This market is nuts. Just ran the numbers and my investable assets crossed $5M for the first time. Did not expect to hit that until next year.

That's really impressive! A very nice milestone, indeed.

 

[AreWeThereYet0]

I hit 2M in investable assets yesterday. I had so few people to share it with that it was rather depressing. The 2M does not include the equity in my house. Moving onward and upward to the next million! Congrats to everyone and their accomplishments!

 

[sirion]

Similar to others, hit $5M a month ago with the market run up and am making firmer plans to retire at 55, 8 years from now. Kid will be out of college around that time. $5M was always my FI number but not at age 47. I need health insurance for a bit longer. Now, if I inherit $1M between now and then, I may reconsider. Chances of that are good, but not counting on it.

 

[calmloki]

We sold an apartment building on contract last year, so we bumped up our quarterly payments to state and fed in December. We were dreading the paperwork from our tax person which I wanted to see before April 15. Felt like we were going to get hammered.

Turned out I overpaid and Gal owed a bunch, and then there were the quarterlies to pay - we did our thing, did electronic payments to the state and feds, sent paper checks to our tax person and a lawyer working on another sale. Whuff. End of day on April 16 we hit a new high with our stock holdings as well as a new high in total NW. It's like we can't lose for winning!

 

[Andre1969]

I hit 2M in investable assets yesterday. I had so few people to share it with that it was rather depressing. The 2M does not include the equity in my house. Moving onward and upward to the next million! Congrats to everyone and their accomplishments!

I can relate, on the "Nobody to share it with" front. Actually, I got a good dose of that about 8 or 9 years ago. I was talking investments, finance, etc, with one of my friends who was about 5 years older than me, and easily made twice what I made at the time. At least, I know he made enough that he exceeded the SS threshold at the time, so he didn't pay SS on all of his income. Well, I thought I trusted the guy enough, to have an "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" moment. At the time, I was in the $700-800K range, while he was around $300K.

He had always been a bit of a competitive sport, and tended to come off as a bit of a know-it-all. Well, after that moment, his whole demeanor seemed to change. So after that, I learned not to get too deep into financial talk with people.

A couple weeks ago, I was having another conversation with another so-called friend. He dropped a bit of a subtle hint about how he works two jobs, but doesn't get paid enough. And then commented that I'm rich. Even though we've never talked finances. I asked him, what makes you think I'm rich? He said, well you have that nice house with a pool, with its "man cave" (in reality, a small building maybe 10x15 that used to be a construction office). I tried to deflect by saying "No, I'm not rich. The bank owns most of that and I have a big mortgage". He simply repeated "No, you're rich". Well, I got the feeling that he was smelling money, and wanted a little financial assistance, although he didn't come right out and ask for it.

Anyway, I hit a bit of a milestone on Friday, as well. $2.4M. Well, sort of. So yeah, if I have people getting their noses bent out of joint over $700K, or a swimming pool, I had to think what being a "Multi-millionaire" would do to their brains!

Congrats on your $2M!! I remember when I hit that milestone, it was a bit euphoric. It didn't last, though...that was back in early 2020, before the COVID crash. I hit it again briefly in August of 2020, but then there was another dip. I hit it again in November 2020, and so far have stayed above it. So hopefully, the third time is a charm!

 

[F.I.R.E User]

It took me about 13 years to reach $500K. How long will it take to reach $1M?

 

[street]

F.I.R.E User>>> good question. I guess you would run some number and use conservative percentages and your annual saving you contribute and see what it takes to to reach it. A lot of unknowns but you should get close.

I personally couldn't tell you when I hit 500k or even 1 million. I never checked or dwelled on the number game. I continued to save and invest through good and bad times and never looked back. Not sure that is typical but I did know if I continue on saving I would be fine.

Good luck hope you get there soon.

 

[Safire]

This market is nuts. Just ran the numbers and my investable assets crossed $5M for the first time. Did not expect to hit that until next year.

Hi, out of curiosity, what are you invested in? Thanks for sharing!

 

[F.I.R.E User]

F.I.R.E User>>> good question. I guess you would run some number and use conservative percentages and your annual saving you contribute and see what it takes to to reach it. A lot of unknowns but you should get close.

I personally couldn't tell you when I hit 500k or even 1 million. I never checked or dwelled on the number game. I continued to save and invest through good and bad times and never looked back. Not sure that is typical but I did know if I continue on saving I would be fine.

Good luck hope you get there soon.

Run #’s on FireCalc?

 

[street]

Run #’s on FireCalc?

Yes, or just estimate what you think you can save, plus what you are installing in 401K and use a 2.5% gain per year and see what you come up with.

There are many good calculators to see what you need to save and how long it will take to reach what you want.

 

[srblanco7]

It took me about 13 years to reach $500K. How long will it take to reach $1M?

Congratulations on reaching $500k! My personal experience was that the first $500k was the biggest challenge. How long to go from $500k to $1M (and beyond) depends on how much you're investing each year and your rate of return. As others have noted there are a number of available tools (e.g., FireCalc). I use the excel FV function to scenario model different rates of return.

My personal experience was roughly 7 years (2006-2012) to go from $500k to $1M - noting that this time period covers the great recession. Have fun scenario planning, it can be a motivator to save more.

 

[4legsgood]

Portfolio up over 600k since retiring 6 years ago. Yes! And that's after a lot of gifting. Not how I thought the draw down period would go.

 

[Andre1969]

It took me about 13 years to reach $500K. How long will it take to reach $1M?

Congratulations on that milestone! Most likely, the second $500K will come a lot more quickly. This got me curious, to look at my own records, and here's my data:

12/31/1997: Essentially, zero. The furthest my spreadsheet goes back. I was still recovering from a bad divorce, but by this time started to see a light at the end of the tunnel, so I began to get a bit serious about investing again.
3/30/2010: $500K. So, about 12 years and 3 months to get from zero-500K
2/27/2015: $1M. ~4 years 11 months.
9/29/2017: $1.5M. ~2 years, 7 months. However, I got some help here, with a rather sizeable inheritance from my Dad. Some of it had cleared during this period, but some was still in probate.
9/30/2019: $2.0M. ~2 years. I'm using a bit of creative accounting with this one, though. My investible assets were actually around $1.827M. However, I had bought a house in 9/2018, and the deposit+inspection fees+down payment, if added back in, would have put me over $2M
January/February 2020: I flirted with the $2M barrier a few times, and this is on its own merit, not counting that down payment.
8/31/2020: The first time I hit $2M, during the COVID recovery.
11/30/2020: The first time I hit $2M, and seemed to stay above it for good. I'm now at $2.415M, so with any luck, I'll never see a total that begins with a "1" again. (although $10M would be nice )

Anyway, congratulations on your $500K milestone, and have fun on your journey!