a new milestone for me!

[aida2003]

I'm almost 38, wife just turned 40. kids are 7 and 9, single income. I think our NW is relatively low compared to many posters of our age on this forum, this is because my career/salary didn’t take off until 5, 6 years ago(I’m making close to $100k now).

Now I see a fuller picture and I think your family is doing nice considering that's only 5-6 years, SAHM + 2 kids.

Software or whatever industry says nothing to me. I'm totally clueless in that area, but I see what you're saying about computer related career and accounting and enumeration for both. Just today I had lunch with my friend who said she was promoted to a manager. She's an IT person dealing with Cyber Security and works for one of major electricity companies. And she's only 33y.o. I was so curious to ask about her salary, but all I said "Great! Now you're raking money in". She just smiled at me... and left me wondering

 

[Emeritus]

I'm almost 38, wife just turned 40. kids are 7 and 9, single income. I think our NW is relatively low compared to many posters of our age on this forum, this is because my career/salary didn’t take off until 5, 6 years ago(I’m making close to $100k now). Prior to that I’d been stuck at a dying software company for 4 years making less than $50k(I switched career into the dot com burst, then came 9/11, software jobs were scarce. Then the defense industry took off and that’s how I got into the DoD software industry which I’m in now); and even prior to that I was making less than $30k with my accounting degree in the late ‘90s. So a great majority of my savings really came from the past 6 years.


BTW, thanks to all the congrats and encouraging words from everyone.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune;
Francis Bacon

Speaking as a Father of the Bride who just married off DD#2 I wish you the very best. MIL FIL DW And SIL were/are all software geeks. I taught software law among other things. We also had our kids in our 30s.
Only advice I can give you is keep up in the broad field not just your niche, especially in DOD land.

 

[Alan]

Danger In a Young Dreamer tracking progress and trends in his basket of market-priced assets to keep a score? Nonsense, in my view.

Congrats, ER_Hopeful - with no qualifiers.

+1

You are doing great, keep on doing what you have been doing.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune;
Francis Bacon

Speaking as a Father of the Bride who just married off DD#2 I wish you the very best. MIL FIL DW And SIL were/are all software geeks. I taught software law among other things. We also had our kids in our 30s.
Only advice I can give you is keep up in the broad field not just your niche, especially in DOD land.

You might also want to get a bit of experience in software procurement by DoD and the Federal Government generally.

 

[Andre1969]

Yeah, congratulations on that milestone! Just to warn you though, you'll inevitably cross that same milestone again several more times, as the market bounces around.

Happened to me with the $400K milestone. I broke that milestone four times: October 2007, December 2007, June 2008, and October 2009. Hopefully I'm above it for good now, but you never know...in November 2008 I was flirting with $200K. And it doesn't look nearly as pretty falling down to it, as it did rising up!

But, just keep doing what you're doing, plug away, and dollar-cost-averaging does help smooth out the rough patches in the long run.

 

[Rambler]

Congrats ER_H

The more you dca, the faster it grows, and the easier it gets. Keep at it.

R

 

[se012101]

ER_Hopeful - congratulations on your achievement! It is amazing how fast it starts happening once you get your teeth sunk in!
Reading your later posts in this thread, it's seems we've got a lot of parallels. I'm about your age (2 yrs older), couple of kids close to the same age (3 and 7), single income family, income started increasing rapidly about 6 years ago, and crossed the same milestone early this year.
Best of luck in the future!

 

[chinaco]

Congrats... keep it up!

Someday you will be thanking yourself for having the option to make other life choice due to FI.