What's the size of your portfolio?

[MichaelB]

Send it to me if you can't figure it out.

You got it. Just send me your name, address, bank account # and SS # and I'll set up an automatic transfer.

 

[REWahoo]

You got it. Just send me your name, address, bank account # and SS # and I'll set up an automatic transfer.

Oh please!

Since you are being so generous I wouldn't think of putting you to all that trouble. I'll be more than happy to take care of the auto-transfer for you. Heck, I'll even take any built-up accumulation off your hands as well!

 

[W2R]

My grandpappy used to say "forewarned is twice warned". This is very difficult to capture as a poll topic, as W2R warned here


I didn't vote because I don't have a pension and some people do, we do have a second home that's not included while other people don't, we're older than some and younger than others, we have a separate cash account not included in the portfolio, and I don't think there's an inheritance out there but can't say for sure. Besides, the portfolio categories are spread unevenly.

And what do we do with SS?

I thought Aida2003 did the best possible job in defining what she wanted to ask about in this poll. Like someone else said, it's like herding cats around here. I guess people just assume purposes for the poll that were never stated or claimed, and then object to the way it was defined for that reason.

The poll was inspired by portfolio sizes that some members had claimed in other posts, AFAIK.

While reading a few threads on "Hi, I am..." yesterday, I "met" a few millionaires with great wealth which got me curious. I created a poll to learn the size of ER or seeking ER retirement portfolios.

I don't think she wanted to know how "well set" we are for retirement overall. She clearly asked for exactly what she wanted. Members are free to ignore the poll if they wish.

 

[aida2003]

A better question would be "net worth"

My house is paid for and I do consider it an "asset" as I don't have to pay rent or mortgage and that is a real "income", same as if I had assets paying that dividend.

I would disagree. I have a paid off house, but it doesn't produce any income to feed me. That's why I'm thinking that paid-off rental house could be included in the portfolio because provides income for your living.

Like I said it's not a scientific survey here.

 

[aida2003]

I don't get this poll. I would prefer a poll like:

- age
- net worth
- pension/social security income
- expenses

That would more relevant.

CaliKid, if you could create such a poll, I'm all for it. Give it a shot

 

[easysurfer]

Be careful or this thread may be closed due to the political connotation.

But the "Little REWahoo" reference is pretty funny, for a Texan.

How does that saying go? "Everything is bigger in Texas" .

Doing a little Googling, seems studies indicate that finger length ratios (but not the size of the fingers themselves) can provide a better clue. Maybe the next time someone says "I'll give you a palm reading", maybe it is not only the palm getting read. .

 

[aida2003]

Another issue with this poll is that people are at different stages of their lives. Some/many are already retired, others are still saving towards retirement.

Some are on the tail end of the age curve, others are young whippersnappers.

Yep, I agree with this too, but how do you create such a poll/survey, Rodi? I think young people would realize that they still have years ahead to save (like my own family).

All I was curious about the distribution of values of retirement portfolios on this forum. And what I meant by 'retirement portfolios' is family's savings from 401k or similar plans + IRA's + taxable savings for the 'gray' years. If some people chose not to save because they knew they'd get a large pension, so be it. It will skew the results, but pension like SS is income streams, not assets. Yeah, I know different people view it differently.
I don't care about each person's individual nest eggs, but of course I curiously read such posts on some threads. If people disclose, I'm fine. I don't know such people personally and even if I did, so what? Sure there can be emotions involved, but that would be my problem to deal with, right?

 

[W2R]

CaliKid, if you could create such a poll, I'm all for it. Give it a shot

+1, and the same goes for the rest of you that want a different kind of poll. It would be fun to have several competing polls, and we would all learn even more about the difficulties of defining our terms for a poll.

 

[aida2003]

I'm waiting for the how long is your Johnson poll.

Hmm, is this the right forum for such a poll, maybe we shouldn't go that far

 

[aida2003]

I can understand not including a "potential" inheritance but some us may have major investments in cars, collectables, etc. I know I have "collectables" that I have bought as investments and many (not all) have increased significantly in value. Similar to stocks in my 401k and IRA.

But they are not feeding you, are they?
See, W2R already found an old poll of net worth so I didn't want to repeat it. Each questionnaire, survey, or poll have not well defined questions and/or different person interprets them in a different way. This is not a census survey

 

[aida2003]

+1, and the same goes for the rest of you that want a different kind of poll. It would be fun to have several competing polls, and we would all learn even more about the difficulties of defining our terms for a poll.

Thank you for your support, W2R.

 

[HFWR]

I'm waiting for the how long is your Johnson poll.

I'm reminded of an old joke about condoms. There was some chuckling about the inscription on the condom, "Eat at Shorty's", until the condom was fully "extended", whereupon it said "Eat at Shorty's Truckstop, Bar and Grill, and Carwash in Chattanooga, Tennessee"...

 

[Hermit]

If you are selling your paid off house and living in a van down by the river, do you then get to count your house money in your portfolio?

That's me! Only its a very old motor home down by a creek that only runs in the spring. Yes. I counted what was in my portfolio. Whether or not I count what is in my house building cash bucket does not change my answer.

 

[MRG]

As there are many creative members here you will get many different combinations of assets and income producing methods.

I for one like that, I'm always learning something new from others. I guess in this case creativeness can trump size.

 

[RunningBum]

ETA: Not PUBLIC anymore! Posters saying that it's worthless and nothing to gain. This is a voluntary voting. Nobody will know YOUR portfolio and I do not care about YOUR portfolio though a lot of people choose to disclose sometimes. It's an anecdotal survey, I know. Just to get an idea how well y'all doing as compared to the whole population. I wouldn't believe whoever says that we are not curious...

Since you claimed it was to get an idea how we match to the whole population, what is the distribution for the whole population?

 

[W2R]

Since you claimed it was to get an idea how we match to the whole population, what is the distribution for the whole population?

Sounds like you want to start your own poll with your own motivations and your own definitions! Feel free to do so. Then YOU will be in charge, and YOU will get to define your terms and motivations. Aida2003's statement seemed clear enough to me, but perhaps you will be clearer in stating your own motivations, for your own poll. I'm waiting.

 

[aida2003]

Thank you to the OP (or the mods) for making the poll private. However, the question posed is still not clear. Specifically, the requirement to omit an inheritance. I have received two inheritances, and I put them into my investment portfolio. One of them was 11 years ago. I don't know how I can separate out the past value of that inheritance, which was substantial, and calculate the present value of the remainder of my portfolio. Hence, I am not going to answer the question.

No thanks needed for making it private. I messed it up. It was my venture into polling, and not too successful as you can see per the feedback . I find it funny.

Re your inheritance, it's a bit tricky, but as you state it's very sizable. You don't need to account it to a dollar or even $100K. I'm sure you remember the amounts of inheritances you received and added to your IRA or taxable account. Can't you estimate the growth of each separately? You can be conservative and use S&P 500 return over the last 11 years and then another timeline for the newer inheritance.

I wished to exclude inheritances and lottery winnings because you didn't earn them per se. It's luck or kind of (not sure what term to use for inheritances).
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In general, I thought people wouldn't take this poll very personal. You all know that Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc. do data mining and they use real data. Later you read an article saying that people have saved X dollars in 401k and Y dollars in IRA's and then extrapolate for the rest population.

So, my inquiry was how much of your own earned money a person or a couple saved in 401k+IRA+taxable. Of course, some people (successful entrepreneurs) have better chances as they have solo 401k or some 'C' type person got valuable options/stock. So, those will skew results as well as age because older people by definition should have larger balances (if they chose to save maximums). But don't worry I'm not planning to do any data mining as I'm clueless how it's done.

We can redo this poll in 30-40 years after people with fat pensions have left the playground. Hardly anyone will be awarded a pension in private sector in the far future.

 

[RunningBum]

Sounds like you want to start your own poll with your own motivations and your own definitions! Feel free to do so. Then YOU will be in charge, and YOU will get to define your terms and motivations. Aida2003's statement seemed clear enough to me, but perhaps you will be clearer in stating your own motivations, for your own poll. I'm waiting.

No, no I don't at all. Where did you get that from? I quoted what the OP said.

 

[W2R]

No, no I don't at all. Where did you get that from? I quoted what the OP said.

What you quoted was written in plain English, and seems clear enough to me. I'm just saying that those who cannot understand her well stated definitions and motivations, should start their own polls. It could be fun!

Meanwhile, I think she has already designed THIS poll and doesn't need any "help" redesigning it at this stage.

 

[MichaelB]

Kidding aside, it is very difficult to get the kind of specifics we want from polls. Census data would be the better source, but such a thing does not exist.

In general, I thought people wouldn't take this poll very personal. You all know that Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc. do data mining and they use real data. Later you read an article saying that people have saved X dollars in 401k and Y dollars in IRA's and then extrapolate for the rest population.

So, my inquiry was how much of your own earned money a person or a couple saved in 401k+IRA+taxable. Of course, some people (successful entrepreneurs) have better chances as they have solo 401k or some 'C' type person got valuable options/stock. So, those will skew results as well as age because older people by definition should have larger balances (if they chose to save maximums). But don't worry I'm not planning to do any data mining as I'm clueless how it's done.

One way to approach this could be to ask what % of the portfolio is tax deferred vs taxable. I would guess that for many of us most of the tax deferred savings comes from regular monthly saving over time, while the taxable has a larger component of bonus / stock options / sold my business.

Of course, this won't stop the smart-alecky responses (like mine ) but it might have some value. Here's a 2 year old thread on that, not a poll, but with responses you might find interesting. http://www.early-retirement.org/for...sets-taxable-vs-tira-401k-vs-roths-70156.html

 

[RunningBum]

What you quoted was written in plain English, and seems clear enough to me. I'm just saying that those who cannot understand her well stated definitions and motivations, should start their own polls.

And in clear and plain English, I asked what the benchmark measurement was.

 

[NW-Bound]

OK, some people are too shy to share their number. Here, I will spill my beans. Well, not all of it anyway.

Even if I divide the stash by 2 because I am married, each of us still has a 7 figure. That does not include the 2 homes, and we have no inheritance. In fact, we provided quite a bit of financial support to my inlaws who were broke.

And we have had no stock options, because we did not get to a high enough level at our megacorps (both are member of the Dow 30). All that money came from before and after-tax savings off earned income, plus some company matching. I even had a few years of working for no pay when I cofounded a startup that went belly up. Good thing I did not put any of my own money in there, just free labor.

We worked our butt off until the early 50 for my wife, mid 50 for me, so did not retire really early. I don't know how the American dream is defined, but I am not complaining.

 

[REWahoo]

It was my venture into polling, and not too successful as you can see per the feedback .

Get over there in that long line. It is rare that a poll doesn't get "why didn't you" or "it would have been better had you" laments. Nature of the forum beasties...

 

[MRG]

Get over there in that long line. It is rare that a poll doesn't get "why didn't you" or "it would have been better had you" laments. Nature of the forum beasties...

+1

Sometimes we critique the poll without understanding what the poll represents to the OP. It's actually been a good exercise for me, I gained a little insight into our portfolio and it's origin. Thanks for starting.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Sunset]

How does that saying go? "Everything is bigger in Texas" .

Doing a little Googling, seems studies indicate that finger length ratios (but not the size of the fingers themselves) can provide a better clue. Maybe the next time someone says "I'll give you a palm reading", maybe it is not only the palm getting read. .

hmmmm.... now you are making me worry about when other guys shake my hand and smile