Retired for more than 7 years, what % has your NW increased or decreased?

[jimbee]

How many people actually met this criteria? I only saw one, but maybe I missed some. Others had a longer retirement or less growth.

It was only one, the quintuple was eleven years. Still surprises me.

 

[audreyh1]

I can’t imagine how someone would manage a 16% annualized return over 11 years either or similar either.

Retiring in March of 2009?

 

[Koolau]

Couple of possibilities regarding very high returns:

Folks who were good (or fortunate) might be more likely to post, heh, heh.

If you have a 10000 folks flip coins, a few of them will flip heads 25 times in a row.

Once in a while, there just might be someone savvy enough to pull off 2X to 4X increase in NW in a few years. Naaaaahhhhhh!

Selling a principle residence. This worked in reverse for me. I sold my principle residence (which I did not count in NW) for $150K. My investment property was worth maybe 3X that. I moved to the investment property and stopped counting it as part of NW. So suddenly, my NW went up $150K but dropped $450. I'm sure there are folks whose NW was affected in reverse.

As always ,YMMV.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

... Selling a principle residence. This worked in reverse for me. I sold my principle residence (which I did not count in NW) for $150K. My investment property was worth maybe 3X that. I moved to the investment property and stopped counting it as part of NW. So suddenly, my NW went up $150K but dropped $450. I'm sure there are folks whose NW was affected in reverse.

As always ,YMMV.

If you keep changing your methodology, that just makes things confusing.

I have rental real estate that cost me $250k to buy, then I spent four years remodeling it spending an additional $150k. Now I figure that I have spent roughly $400k on this property.

My monthly rent income is $7800. We figure that about $2800/month needs to be set aside to cover all operating expenses. This leaves me with $5,000 a month as net profit [or $60k a year].

I think that $60k a year is roughly 15% ROI on $400k investment.

 

[griffithee]

Couple of possibilities regarding very high returns:

Folks who were good (or fortunate) might be more likely to post, heh, heh.

If you have a 10000 folks flip coins, a few of them will flip heads 25 times in a row.

Once in a while, there just might be someone savvy enough to pull off 2X to 4X increase in NW in a few years. Naaaaahhhhhh!

Selling a principle residence. This worked in reverse for me. I sold my principle residence (which I did not count in NW) for $150K. My investment property was worth maybe 3X that. I moved to the investment property and stopped counting it as part of NW. So suddenly, my NW went up $150K but dropped $450. I'm sure there are folks whose NW was affected in reverse.

As always ,YMMV.

We were one of the fortunate (very lucky) to have similar. Our NW has gone up 175% every year since I retired. Only had very low five figures at retirement and now sitting mid six figures. Just dumb luck by saving a portion of our income and living below our means every month. We received some unplanned cash infusions. And, most notable, got crazy lucky on a couple of real estate deals (could have easily gone the other way).

I don't anticipate seeing those returns going forward without pure dumb luck and falling into opportunities. But we don't need the money to live and can just "let it ride".

 

[RobbieB]

Got a half million more than when I retired and been spending like a drunken sailor!

Bought some more fresh white truffles this year!

 

[Stormy Kromer]

4 years for me and investment NW has increased $600k, which would be about 20% more than what I started with.


We live on about $60,000, which includes about $15k for health insurance. We lack for nothing and wouldn't live any different if we had twice as much.

 

[rk911]

retired in ‘05. NW has nearly trippled. withdrawl rate is 0%, most of it in mutual funds but also a good chunk of cash. living off of pensions and SS. zero debt. life is good so far.

 

[Agapostemon]

Some rough numbers

For those that have been retired for several years, what is the % increase cor decrease in your NW?
Years retired__5__
With pension or SS_0__
Percentage increase_30%___
Withdrawal rate*__4.5%__
* of Nest Egg only, if known.

 

[slatoid]

NW

Years retired 8
With pension 8
With SS 1
Percentage increase constant income
Withdrawal rate* high

NW of original nest egg in 2012 increased 11 fold. Much of increase occurred over past year with heavy investment in Tesla. Still holding.

 

[steveark]

Retired five years, not taking Social security. Earning some from a side gig. Net worth up 15%.

 

[NW-Bound]

Retired: 8-1/2 years ago

SS: Wife started SS 1 year ago, still postponing mine

Investable assets (not counting homes): 1.6x the value back in 2012

WR: Highly variable, but overall, going down each year

With Quicken, it's very easy to get the total expenses since I retired. And same with income. Subtract the income from the expenses, and that is what I took from various after-tax accounts (some got depleted and closed down), plus IRA withdrawals once I got to 59-1/2.

The total WR in the 8-1/2 years is 28.9% of the beginning portfolio value. Divide that 28.9% by 8.5 years, and I get the average WR of 3.4%/yr.

But when I started retirement, my expenses were a lot higher with kids in college, and we had quite a bit of non-recurrent expenses like home updates/repairs, etc... My recent 12-month WR is 0.6% of portfolio value as of today.

From 3-4% down to 0.6%? Yes, due to several factors. We eat and drink less. Just kidding. There's some truth to that, but what we spend on food is not that much compared to whatever else.

Kids flew the coop, homes not needing work recently (except for the DIY solar thing which is still ongoing), no travel, not even RV'ing, wife's drawing SS. The portfolio goes up, and the WR goes down in dollar amount, and so the WR goes down even more in percentage. It all adds up.

It is good to go through and look at the numbers. Without Quicken, I would be hard pressed to come up with any of the above info. Most happy thing is the 1.6x increase in portfolio value. I will not tell you what the 0.6x increase is in dollar amount, but it is a 7-figure number. Heh heh heh...

How did this happen? Why has the market grown that much? How are we all so lucky?


PS. Note that none of the above numbers are adjusted for inflation. Too much work for that.

 

[kite_rider]

Years retired :7.5 (both me an DW)
Pension and SS: $0, SS is still at least 10 years out and I'm a skeptic - not counting on anything from it - but both DW and I have made enough contributions to get a decent monthly check if things stay as they are
Investible assets: ~3.3X the value at retirement in 2013
Withdrawal rate: 0%

We are living well off a mix of some remaining rental income and dividends from the portfolio. Note that the large increase in the portfolio is a mix of rapidly appreciated tech shares (almost 60% is 'unrealized gains') and having sold off rental property which also appreciated much more than we anticipated.

Though I may appear smug with this very fortunate early retirement financial situation; I'm actually somewhat paranoid. I've lived long enough to see both real estate and stock market crashes (especially tech stocks) several times in the past and think we are way overdue for another one. So run this survey again in a year or two and things may look very different...

 

[Lucantes]

For those that have been retired for several years, what is the % increase cor decrease in your NW?
Years retired____
With pension or SS___
Percentage increase____
Withdrawal rate*____
* of Nest Egg only, if known.

Retired for 3.5 years.
No Pension or SS Income (took Lump Sum).
23% Increase in Total Net Worth since Early Retirement after all expenses.
No fixed Withdraw Rate, just enjoying ourselves as desired.

 

[kcowan]

Years retired__18__
With pension or SS_$52k__
Percentage increase__132%__
Withdrawal rate*__2%__

We are attempting to increase our WD to reduce the portfolio growth but Covid is working against us (cancelled $15k Europe trip).

 

[CuppaJoe]

I have Social Security and a very conservative portfolio that is up about 5% from the day I retired. I take between 4-5%, maybe could take more but have a lifetime frugality addiction. I prefer to think of it as having X months of expenses above the portfolio principal. I expected to use “the 4% plan” and spend down but disregarding inflation, have not.

Retired 12 years (August 2008, age 61, 74 now), took a 10-year payout on a small pension, 1/4 of expenses was medical insurance until Medicare kicked in, another 1/4 of expenses vanished in June 2014.

Corona Era has decreased my expenses by $1,200 plus, more lucratively, I will owe no taxes for 2020 and possibly 2021 because RMDs are not required, also my landlord was not allowed to raise the rent until Oct. 21 but has opted to continue not raising it and is putting off charging allowable passthroughs, apparently for the duration of the pandemic. Market rate for a one-bedroom has gone from $3,600 to $2,700 negotiable with few takers while outgoing moving vans are a common sight. I have rent stabilization and after 26 years, rent is about 1/3 of expenses. My social and short trip expenses have disappeared leaving lots of room for big delivery tips.

A main financial regret is that I didn’t retire 18 months sooner.

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ Good to see you post again, CJ.

 

[CuppaJoe]

^^^ Good to see you post again, CJ.

Glad to see you and other familiar members still posting.

 

[REWahoo]

Hey Joe, nice to see you. Stick around and join in the fun.

 

[rk911]

this was my original post a few days ago:
retired in ‘05. NW has nearly trippled. withdrawl rate is 0%, most of it in mutual funds but also a good chunk of cash. living off of pensions and SS. zero debt. life is good so far.

went back and actually did the math. the increase between week 45 in my retirement year and week 45 this year was 139.77%. life is still good.

 

[Koolau]

this was my original post a few days ago:
retired in ‘05. NW has nearly trippled. withdrawl rate is 0%, most of it in mutual funds but also a good chunk of cash. living off of pensions and SS. zero debt. life is good so far.

went back and actually did the math. the increase between week 45 in my retirement year and week 45 this year was 139.77%. life is still good.

I ask myself this question also: SO what are you going to DO with your stash if you are living off pension and SS? In my case, I've been funding kid's down payments and favorite charities. But, if nothing else changes (and I hope it doesn't) I'll die with more than I need. Maybe a better question to ask (us) is "why did we save so much?" I think in my case, it was genetic. I was wired that way. I was never much of an investor, but always a world-class saver. It's been difficult to reverse that - though RMD's have 'helped.' YMMV

 

[grasshopper]

^^^ Us also first class savers, so so investors.

 

[unclemick]

Retired 27 years. Age 77. Pension(non-cola) plus SS(early) up to 30k. Last ten years Vanguard computer says 7%/yr for portfolio.

Heh heh heh -

 

[VungTau]

For those that have been retired for several years, what is the % increase cor decrease in your NW?
Years retired - 7++
With pension or SS - No pension, 10 more years to 70 then will trigger SS
Percentage increase - NW doubled in that time, been a good run! That includes a small inheritance +, paying a lump sum out for my 2 kids college costs -, and a huge forex loss on an AUD loan I made to a needy relative -.
Withdrawal rate - I just use this simple formula: Annual Expenses / NW.

For the first 3-4 years in California = 1.62
For the next 3-4 in Asia & S. American = 0.81
- Part of this is way lower costs & part is a higher denominator (yeah)


Bottom line - should probably loosen the purse strings but just don't see the need...





* of Nest Egg only, if known.

 

[DayDreaming]

Retired in 2009 at age 48
with no pension or SS,
my net worth has more than doubled, about 130% increase,
withdrawal rate < 2% based on current NW

I start collecting a pension in January,
SS is still a long way off.