$250,000

[daystar]

The first two weeks of December have been very good to me. I just checked my Net Worth on Vanguard and I hit the $250,000 mark. I have a quarter million dollars!!!! I think I'll have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


See my previous net worth achievement here:
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=10190.0

 

[xmanz3]

Congratulations!

You are doing great and I wish you the best with your future investments. Would you mind sharing with us your investment strategy?

 

[daystar]

1. Be born to a rich grandma and rich parents that give you stock and $$$ for Christmas gifts.
2. Hold those investments for many years.
3. Max out your 401k
4. Max out your Roth IRA
5. Live below your means
6. Donate to charity or help others in need
7. Get lucky
8. Keep most of your cash in money market accounts, rather than checking accounts or under your mattress.
9. Buy index funds
10. Diversify
11. Find the asset allocation that works for you. I'm about 78% stocks (individual stocks, S&P 500, Wilshire 5000, International Funds), 2% bonds, 20% money market accounts.
12. Find cheap hobbies. Instead of golf, I play frisbee golf. Cost for frisbees, $25. Cost of playing $0. Having fun with my friends while getting some light exercise......priceless.
13. Help others meet their financial goals.

When I graduated college and began my first job in civil service in February 2003, I had a net worth of $107,000. All of that money had been given to me and I never spent a dime of it. Between February 2003 and today, I received an additional $25,000 in cash gifts from my parents and grandma. Now I will admit that I didn't make all my money the hard way, by earning it, but I've been very fiscally responsible in preserving my capital. I know I earned at least $45,000 all by myself because I have that amount in my 401k and it all came from working for civil service for almost 4 years.

 

[Robert the Red]

I remember (1994 or 95) when I sat down to compute my net worth for the first time, and it was just under $250K. A few years earlier it had been a lot closer to $0K. I felt pretty good. Congratulations -- a good start to gaining financial control over your own life.

 

[lowflyer]

Nice job on the $250K. That's an important milestone along the way. Keep track of the $$$ and watch them grow. Get yourself some kind of a spreadsheet or similar that you can update and print every quarter or ?? You'll enjoy looking back on them as time goes on and your investments grow.

 

[kjpliny]

That's great! Played around with some numbers and an on-line savings calculator shows that if you keep it up for another 25 years, saving 15k/yr in pre-tax and $10k/yr after tax, you will have over $3M (inflation adjusted = $1.5M) saved assuming an average return of 8%.

 

[FinanceDude]

The $250,000 you already have will become $2 million by itself in 27 years if you average 8% a year...........

Well done............

 

[uncledrz]

The first two weeks of December have been very good to me. I just checked my Net Worth on Vanguard and I hit the $250,000 mark. I have a quarter million dollars!!!! I think I'll have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sounds like we should all celebrate ---- you're buying

 

[OkieTexan]

Congratulations!

Remember that $13 a bottle wine will celebrate just as well as $300 a bottle wine!

 

[Andre1969]

Congrats on that milestone! I don't have my files with me right now, but I think I hit the $250K mark around June of 2005. It certainly felt like a major accomplishment for me!

Anyway, just keep doing what you're doing, and you'll probably be fine. And don't feel too guilty about not having to make all your money the hard way. The simple fact that you've been responsible enough to take those monetary gifts and invest them and make them grow, rather than just blowing it on something frivolous probably puts you ahead of the pack.

 

[Nords]

Sounds like we should all celebrate ---- you're buying

With this crowd it won't take long to get back to that $200K goal...