Anyone wake up and say "How did I accumulate so much?"

[Vincenzo Corleone]

I think the same thing, when I look at our portfolio and think, how the heck did that happen, and squint my eyes to make sure I'm looking at the numbers right.

Same! This disbelief - this feeling of "this is too good to be true" - is what's causing me to pore over our numbers EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I'm waiting to find a mistake one day.

 

[Sniggle]

I do, then I read this site and realize that I am a slacker.

 

[street]

I always believed I would have a good saving when I reached retirement age. I knew that because I worked hard for that goal and it was my main focus to have a large stash. (Opportunity, took risks, had goals, saved no matter what, was frugal).

When I started my career in late 70's and into early 80's I was making less the (11K gross) a year and things gradually went up. I was saving money like crazy and considered myself as a wealthy dude! Lol

What does surprises me thou, is the amount that has been accumulated. Save and the rest will take care of itself.

I really enjoyed the many success stories and your responses.

 

[Rocky mtn high]

Been planning since early 20’s but still amazed. Met with my financial adviser who asked”so what is your plan/goal with what you have accumulated”. he gave us a goal to figure out how to spend more! This is the guy who makes more if we have more.

 

[travelover]

Been planning since early 20’s ......

Wow, you must be over a hundred years old.

 

[W2R]

Nope. I know perfectly well how I accumulated what I have. I planned, worked hard, and was lucky enough to retire into a good SORR back in 2009. The market has done nothing but boom.

I do sometimes wake up and say, "When will the market plummet again like it did in 2008-2009?". One of these days this market boom will be over. You know it, and I know it. Got to happen eventually. The market giveth, and the market taketh away.

When that happens, I won't awaken and wonder "Where the H*** did it all go?" I'll know.

 

[MarieIG]

No.

 

[ls99]

No. I know exactly how I accumulated all the stuff. The hard part is to decumulate.

 

[Tiger8693]

Not yet....

 

[Dtail]

i disagree , i think my skill is knowing how lucky i am ( now and in the past )

in relation to the OP

NO
i think i need to double what i have ( but don't put a $value on property , i value that on income minus costs )

Ah, you are still not used to @Travelover's sense of humor.

 

[rodi]

I must say I feel a bit of "how did I get here" when I compare our current net worth to our networth when I retired in 2014. Thank you bull markets. I'm kind of glad there was a dip summer of 2015... because it made me hyper aware that the market can taketh away, just as easily as giveth.

And thank you continued frugality. (I may have to channel a bit of RobbieB's mojo... but only a little bit since I'm still too nervous to really blow that dough.) While we still have kids to fully launch - I'm too chicken to spend more... With the younger one graduating high school this year - the end of this worry is in sight (although a few years off.)

 

[unclemick]

I guess I'll be the contrarian. I know exactly how I got here, because I've been planning for it and monitoring my progress since the early 1980s.

1977. One sheet of green tint (now TOPS Engineering Computation Pad) had my 401k plus taxable investments graphed in 6,8 &10% compounding out to age 63 plus.

'The fickle finger'' un - employed me at age 50 and real life became much more complex.

Heh heh heh - Got there. And will probably leave some on the table as well as continue charitable donations that were not on the 1977 radar.

 

[Blue531]

The odd but great thing for me was that just as I was retiring, my stock portfolio took off and yeah, I blew way past my needed retirement amount. Everything had fallen into place nicely and with an added bonus. I could not have been more pleased and thankful.

 

[CincyDave]

Yes, amazed. Currently at about double what I thought we would need for a comfortable retirement. LBYM and an amazing market run.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

Yes. I am amazed every single day that our investments have grown to what they have. I am so very fortunate. I have found that the harder I work, the luckier I get.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Of course, being me, as I read this thread I wondered about our perceptions vs. the actual numbers, so I checked, and from the time I graduated college and started working and paying my own bills until now, cumulative inflation has been very close to 100%, so whatever amount I thought of as a lot of money then (one MILLION dollars, as Dr. Evil might say) would be about twice as much now. And if I think of myself as having half the net worth I have now, that still feels like a lot more than I ever thought I'd have!

 

[novaman]

Anyone wake up and say "How did I accumulate so much?"

Like many on here I’ve been a good planner. I started in my late 20’s with a lofty goal of hitting my magic number by the time I was 43. Well, I came close. Unfortunately I turned 43 in 2006 and just as I was about to hit my goal the mortgage crisis hit, setting me back a few years. I managed to hit my goal somewhere around 2010-2011 but didn’t actually sell my practice until 2018. Since then my net worth has reached a lofty number that I didn’t even consider would be attainable. We all have the incredible run up in the market to thank for our success.

 

[harley]

Yes. And although we worked at it saving, investing and LBYMing, we’re not self-congratulatory about it - there was some luck involved (for all of us). We did much better financially than our expectations when all is said and done, but it isn’t over yet...there are still no guarantees, just probability. We hope for the best, but we know it could all go pear shaped before the finish line.

I acknowledge how lucky we've been to live in the times we've lived in. However, everyone else I know has also lived in those times, and very few of them have made their way to where we are. Some, but not many. There's luck, but you've got to position yourself to be able to take advantage of that luck.

And don't jinx it!

 

[NW-Bound]

Anyone wake up and say "How did I accumulate so much?"

It's way better than waking up and say "Dang, I am broke. Better learn some panhandling skills now".

 

[RobLJ]

Sometime, around 1998 to 2000, after getting Microsoft Money to handle investments/expenses, I created an initial plan, which pretty much stayed the same after going to Quicken and finding out later about Firecalc. It assumed both of us would retire around 65, not early.
In 2015 we had blown about 25% above the number and, even after increasing spending 20%, the numbers still worked, so I semi-retired at 57 and moved to Reno with DW. 6 years later we're both completely retired--and about 45% above 2015 portfolio.
Out of curiosity, I just reran Firecalc with today's portfolio and max spending at 97% confidence and a minimum of 1/2 million left is 40% above January's withdrawal (and we probably will only spend 80%). And we're not drawing SS yet.


Even in my best projections, I didn't think we would attain this, even though a bear market could reset the smugness pretty quickly, like last March.
Sidenote: Quicken's Net Worth tracking chart is pretty cool, particularly since my data goes back to 1994.

 

[boilerman]

Like many here, although we worked hard, save and planned every step, yes we are amazed.

I think it’s because of the math of compounding. Early on, when your stash is $100k, a 10% return is only 10k. Later, at a $1M, it’s $100k.

Try graphing your NW and it probably looks like a steep mountain incline. It’s hard to not be amazed.

 

[LOL!]

How did I get here?

This is not my beautiful house ...

The video is more than 40 years old.

 

[Rocky mtn high]

There is no doubt luck was some of it but, you also make your own luck. My brother 1 1/2 yrs younger had good jobs. Now drawing SSI and admits he will have to work the rest of his life. My sister super saver can retire when she wants. We joke that somehow our brother did not get the money gene!

 

[socca]

Anyone wake up and say "How did I accumulate so much?" It's way better than waking up and say "Dang, I am broke. Better learn some panhandling skills now".

An even worse question: "How did I accumulate so much while contributing so little?"

 

[dheb]

No, not really. When I was young, I sketched out a wildly optimistic plan, where I would contribute $2000 to an IRA annually, and I would double my money every five years. For example, if I started with 10k, 5 years later I should have 30k (10k doubled, plus 2k times 5). Like I said, wildly optimistic. But it was the 90s. In 10 years, that would be 70k. In 15, 150k. in 20, it should be 310k. In 25, 630K, etc. I figured out pretty quick that the magic happens when you get to a pretty big number, then double it, then double that. So I stuck to my plan. It would have taken me a little longer than 5 years to reach each one of my 5 year goals if I hadn't been able to boost my contributions well above $2k per year. But by investing more along the way, I've actually been able to hit the target amounts that I sketched out on the back of an envelope decades ago. Not really a surprise -- just some planning, persistence, and prudent investing.