Been on here since 2015, right around when I graduated. In fact I just revisited my first post on here, almost 9 years ago, and my net worth was a whopping $46k.
As of this week, we (wife + 3 kids) are now over $1.1m. And neither of us are doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, or have gotten any substantial help from family. I work in R&D and my wife is an elementary school teacher, though she's currently taking two years off to stay with our youngest child (2 months old).
So the update is:
Probably the best thing we did was buy a house and cars substantially below our means and paid them off ASAP. We also have traveled very frugally and generally avoid stuff like boats, RVs, that depreciates and carries monthly costs. We do pay a lot for one of our kid's daycare, though those payments will stop in a few months when she heads of to Kindergarten. We also pay $1k/month for our oldest kids' private school.
Not sure what the timeline looks like - our last kid will enter college when I'm 54, so hopefully we'll have enough socked away to retire right around that time.
Immediate goals are to get the cash up to $100k, and start socking away more in taxable investments.
This forum has been a major help. Not only for the advice, but I love seeing success stories. And I find a lot of people on here are similar to me - middle class engineer types with kids, looking to retire "early" but not crazy early (e.g. ages 35), unlike some other boards....
As of this week, we (wife + 3 kids) are now over $1.1m. And neither of us are doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, or have gotten any substantial help from family. I work in R&D and my wife is an elementary school teacher, though she's currently taking two years off to stay with our youngest child (2 months old).
So the update is:
$71k cash (savings, checking, HSA cash, etc.)
$361k 401k
$140k Roth IRA
$110k Taxable Investments
$64k HSA Investments
$21k 529 Plans
$320k paid-off house
$50k paid-off vehicles
Probably the best thing we did was buy a house and cars substantially below our means and paid them off ASAP. We also have traveled very frugally and generally avoid stuff like boats, RVs, that depreciates and carries monthly costs. We do pay a lot for one of our kid's daycare, though those payments will stop in a few months when she heads of to Kindergarten. We also pay $1k/month for our oldest kids' private school.
Not sure what the timeline looks like - our last kid will enter college when I'm 54, so hopefully we'll have enough socked away to retire right around that time.
Immediate goals are to get the cash up to $100k, and start socking away more in taxable investments.
This forum has been a major help. Not only for the advice, but I love seeing success stories. And I find a lot of people on here are similar to me - middle class engineer types with kids, looking to retire "early" but not crazy early (e.g. ages 35), unlike some other boards....
