Share Your FIRE Milestones - 2021

[Retire2023]

Just updated our tracking sheet this morning and noted the same - YTD growth of investment accounts at >$1M.

Nice goal met! Don't think I'll get there by year end, but we are up over 900K. Got to love this market!!!

 

[rodi]

I'm not in the high flying group here. But our IRA accounts (not counting an inherited IRA - just accounts we contributed to) crossed $1M this week. DH will have to start taking RMDs from his in just over 2 years... but I'm 12 years away from RMDs.

 

[street]

^ that is outstanding!

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Milestone

$603.5k~.

I reached $500k on January 2021 and was hoping to reach $600k by end of this year. I got here early. Wow.

I am 43.

Will I be a millionaire before I turn 50?

 

[street]

Milestone

$603.5k~.

I reached $500k on January 2021 and was hoping to reach $600k by end of this year. I got here early. Wow.

I am 43.

Will I be a millionaire before I turn 50?

I hope you are and you should be a million plus. As you know there is so much that has to factor into what happens for all investors.

I wish you a multi millionaire by age 50. Good luck keep a saving and plugging away.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Milestone

$603.5k~.

I reached $500k on January 2021 and was hoping to reach $600k by end of this year. I got here early. Wow.

I am 43.

Will I be a millionaire before I turn 50?

It is impossible to say if you will be a millionaire before 50. But I will take the bet that you will be a millionaire someday.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

I hope you are and you should be a million plus. As you know there is so much that has to factor into what happens for all investors.

I wish you a multi millionaire by age 50. Good luck keep a saving and plugging away.

I am doing more OT to invest more.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

It is impossible to say if you will be a millionaire before 50. But I will take the bet that you will be a millionaire someday.

Let’s see.

 

[Exchme]

I guess it's a milestone, this is the first year I paid attention to those cases from FireCalc where the wealth really zooms upwards. It now seems credible, maybe even likely, that by the time we pass away that we could pass the estate tax exemption limit. The exemption reverts to $5.85M each, $11.7M together (inflation adjusted) when TCJA expires after 2025.

Suddenly our planning world has turned upside down from “will we be OK?” to “how do we pass the right amount to the kids?”

 

[Safire]

I guess it's a milestone, this is the first year I paid attention to those cases from FireCalc where the wealth really zooms upwards. It now seems credible, maybe even likely, that by the time we pass away that we could pass the estate tax exemption limit. The exemption reverts to $5.85M each, $11.7M together (inflation adjusted) when TCJA expires after 2025.

Suddenly our planning world has turned upside down from “will we be OK?” to “how do we pass the right amount to the kids?”

Congratulations!!!!!

 

[Andre1969]

Milestone

$603.5k~.

I reached $500k on January 2021 and was hoping to reach $600k by end of this year. I got here early. Wow.

I am 43.

Will I be a millionaire before I turn 50?

Congratulations on hitting that milestone! And, while there's no guarantee, I'd say there's a good chance of you hitting $1M or more by the time you're 50.

Looking at my own history, I hit $500K in March 2010, just before I turned 40 in April. I hit $1M in February 2015. So for me, about 59 months to get from $500K to $1M. So if you're already at $600K, seems like 7 years would be reasonable, to assume $1M.

Of course, much of it's dependent on stock market returns. Yet, even in my case, there were some rough patches. I was down about 15% in the summer of 2010, but that fall/winter I gained it back and then some. In 2011, I took a 6% hit early in the year, recovered to new highs, and then in the course of a month lost about 14% over the summer. In 2011 I actually lost money, but it was a small amount, only down like 0.12%.

2012-13 were great years, and the first half of 2014 was too, but then the market just fizzed out. I was around $970K by the 6/30/14, and it seemed SOOOO close to $1M. So for that milestone to just sit there, so close yet so far, was aggravating. Now I look back on it and it was like eh, so it took 8 months to get from $970K to $1m, big deal. But at the time, different story.

So, again, congratulations, and keep doing what you're doing! The market is going to rise and fall, and there are going to be drops that seem to push your goal further back. But then, there can be upswings that bring you to that goal quicker than you ever imagined.

 

[pjigar]

Will I be a millionaire before I turn 50?

I hope you will be millionaire by 50 but no one knows how the market will perform in the future. Focus on what you can control: Save, invest in some broad market low cost funds and most importantly DO NOT SELL when market tanks. But I can tell you that every milestone from here on out will be faster than the last one! It took us over 7 years to break 100K, we passed 1M in less than 5 years, and the rest is history. The snow ball people talk about is real in our case. Just stay the course.

 

[scrabbler1]

Congratulations on hitting that milestone! And, while there's no guarantee, I'd say there's a good chance of you hitting $1M or more by the time you're 50.

Looking at my own history, I hit $500K in March 2010, just before I turned 40 in April. I hit $1M in February 2015. So for me, about 59 months to get from $500K to $1M. So if you're already at $600K, seems like 7 years would be reasonable, to assume $1M.

Of course, much of it's dependent on stock market returns. Yet, even in my case, there were some rough patches. I was down about 15% in the summer of 2010, but that fall/winter I gained it back and then some. In 2011, I took a 6% hit early in the year, recovered to new highs, and then in the course of a month lost about 14% over the summer. In 2011 I actually lost money, but it was a small amount, only down like 0.12%.

2012-13 were great years, and the first half of 2014 was too, but then the market just fizzed out. I was around $970K by the 6/30/14, and it seemed SOOOO close to $1M. So for that milestone to just sit there, so close yet so far, was aggravating. Now I look back on it and it was like eh, so it took 8 months to get from $970K to $1m, big deal. But at the time, different story.

So, again, congratulations, and keep doing what you're doing! The market is going to rise and fall, and there are going to be drops that seem to push your goal further back. But then, there can be upswings that bring you to that goal quicker than you ever imagined.

We had some similarly bumpy paths to the $1M mark.

I hit $500k in the middle of 2003, just after I turned 40. I hit the $975k mark in late 2007, on the verge of crossing the $1M mark. But then the markets tanked in 2008 and I fell below $800k by early 2009. The markets recovered quickly and I hit the $1M mark briefly in April of 2010 before falling below it for a few months. By September of that year, I got above $1M and have been above it ever since.

The falling markets in 2008, however, never stopped me from retiring in late 2008. In fact, they helped me because they created some superb buying opportunities when I cashed out the company stock which had not taken any serious beating. Paying income taxes on that stock, despite using NUA, did set me back a little bit, too.

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

A little over 55X annual expenses, not counting a pension. Almost 75X with the pension. Holy smokes.

 

[Safire]

A little over 55X annual expenses, not counting a pension. Almost 75X with the pension. Holy smokes.

And long may you live to enjoy such luscious fruits of your hard work and the generous market forces!

Congratulations!

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Congratulations on hitting that milestone! And, while there's no guarantee, I'd say there's a good chance of you hitting $1M or more by the time you're 50.

Looking at my own history, I hit $500K in March 2010, just before I turned 40 in April. I hit $1M in February 2015. So for me, about 59 months to get from $500K to $1M. So if you're already at $600K, seems like 7 years would be reasonable, to assume $1M.

Of course, much of it's dependent on stock market returns. Yet, even in my case, there were some rough patches. I was down about 15% in the summer of 2010, but that fall/winter I gained it back and then some. In 2011, I took a 6% hit early in the year, recovered to new highs, and then in the course of a month lost about 14% over the summer. In 2011 I actually lost money, but it was a small amount, only down like 0.12%.

2012-13 were great years, and the first half of 2014 was too, but then the market just fizzed out. I was around $970K by the 6/30/14, and it seemed SOOOO close to $1M. So for that milestone to just sit there, so close yet so far, was aggravating. Now I look back on it and it was like eh, so it took 8 months to get from $970K to $1m, big deal. But at the time, different story.

So, again, congratulations, and keep doing what you're doing! The market is going to rise and fall, and there are going to be drops that seem to push your goal further back. But then, there can be upswings that bring you to that goal quicker than you ever imagined.

All my investments are in low to no cost index funds.

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

And long may you live to enjoy such luscious fruits of your hard work and the generous market forces!

Congratulations!

Thank you very much, indeed.

 

[Retch The Grate]

With our current stock price, this is the first time in my career where I've had stock options worth enough to be meaningful. Over $1m at the current valuation, which nicely offsets the $1m I tied up in equity in the house, now the price needs to just keep increasing until I get to start selling at long term capital gains rates (next june). Should get me back to feeling FI, RE goal is still a fair ways out.

 

[braumeister]

Mod note:
@F.I.R.E User:

Please stop making the same post more than once in this, or any other thread.

 

[rodi]

All my investments are in low to no cost index funds at Vanguard and Fidelity. I never sell. Started investing in 2007.

You implied in another post that you aren't subject to the whims of the market because you own index funds. (So do I). But owning index funds means you own the market. So if the market goes up, your nest egg goes up. If the market goes down, your nest egg goes down. It is directly tied to the holdings of the index fund... whether that's total stock, s&p, russel.... Index funds hold shares of stocks or bonds (depending on the specific fund) and *are* tied to the market they hold.

As for never selling... I don't get it. I sell periodically to fund my retirement. (Fortunately, we've had bull markets so the value of my nest egg has incr eased, despite occasionally selling index fund shares to withdraw funds.). Is your idea to never spend any of the investments you've accumulated? I would bet your heirs will sell some of them. I also sell to rebalance between my index funds, at least once a year.

Perhaps you meant you are a buy and hold investor, vs a market timer.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

You implied in another post that you aren't subject to the whims of the market because you own index funds. (So do I). But owning index funds means you own the market. So if the market goes up, your nest egg goes up. If the market goes down, your nest egg goes down. It is directly tied to the holdings of the index fund... whether that's total stock, s&p, russel.... Index funds hold shares of stocks or bonds (depending on the specific fund) and *are* tied to the market they hold.

As for never selling... I don't get it. I sell periodically to fund my retirement. (Fortunately, we've had bull markets so the value of my nest egg has incr eased, despite occasionally selling index fund shares to withdraw funds.). Is your idea to never spend any of the investments you've accumulated? I would bet your heirs will sell some of them. I also sell to rebalance between my index funds, at least once a year.

Perhaps you meant you are a buy and hold investor, vs a market timer.

I did have to sell EJ funds when I was transferring my Roth IRA to Fidelity. It was an in-kind transaction. No taxes were required to pay.

What did you sell? Actually, I did sell my profit from ESPP stock and then bought VTSAX in my taxable account but never to sell any shares to buy disposable item.

I don’t want to use my nest egg until I F.I.R.E.

I have nothing to rebalance. My 401k is a 2 fund portfolio. Roth IRA is just 1 as well as my taxable account.

I am a buy and hold investor. I never time the market.

 

[gatored]

Crossed $2MM in investable assets last night and $2.5MM in NW a few weeks ago, the former being the more important number. So far, things falling nicely into place.

I'm 52, wife is 48. Children are 13 and 10. The plan is to retire early in 3-5 years with house paid off and IA between $2.5MM and $3.0MM. Wife and I each have small pensions, mine locked at $1,350/mo at 60 and hers currently around $700/mo and continuing to grow.

 

[Extra Medium]

Crossed $2MM in investable assets last night and $2.5MM in NW a few weeks ago, the former being the more important number. So far, things falling nicely into place.

I'm 52, wife is 48. Children are 13 and 10. The plan is to retire early in 3-5 years with house paid off and IA between $2.5MM and $3.0MM. Wife and I each have small pensions, mine locked at $1,350/mo at 60 and hers currently around $700/mo and continuing to grow.

Way to go; those are cool milestones. I'm a little behind you (around $1.4MM), and am excited for that $2MM IA when I can get there. Shooting for a little less of a goal than you, but retiring in the same time frame (or dropping down to 0.6 FTE if I can; I still like my job, though I want a little less of it). No pensions for us, but we have income from two commercial real estate syndicators (strip malls) and may invest in a third, if not another type of real estate.

 

[MarieIG]

Busy week. Sold our house and I put in the form to roll over the remainder of my 401k (which is a Roth) into my Roth IRA.

 

[rodi]

I did have to sell EJ funds when I was transferring my Roth IRA to Fidelity. It was an in-kind transaction. No taxes were required to pay.



What did you sell? Actually, I did sell my profit from ESPP stock and then bought VTSAX in my taxable account but never to sell any shares to buy disposable item.



I don’t want to use my nest egg until I F.I.R.E.



I have nothing to rebalance. My 401k is a 2 fund portfolio. Roth IRA is just 1 as well as my taxable account.



I am a buy and hold investor. I never time the market.

Well... Since I'm already retired there's A bug difference. I didn't save for retirement in order this watch the money just sit there while I eat cat food. I withdraw (sell) since I'm retired and need three money for it's intended purpose. I'm a buy and holder of index funds but I do periodic rebalancing so that involves selling stock funds or bond funds and buying the other type. I guess I'm getting bogged down on your statement you don't / won't sell. I sell to fund my retirement and I sell (and buy) to rebalance.