yakers
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Still down 8.2% from EOY 2021, deopped below $2M, not sure when/if Ill get back there probably not at previous purchaseing power
Back above $3M
- Thread starter brokrken
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Mr. Tightwad
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
2003: 1 million in assets
2005 1m net worth
2007 2m
2008 retired
2009 back to 1 million nw
2011 back to 2m nw
2023 4.5 nw
Thanks for this. Im about 6 years behind you, and my numbers look similar, even the final number you're targeting. Sitting at about 1.4MM NW equivalent to your ~2017ish.
COcheesehead
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
With such high numbers, why was your wife hesitant over $300k?
Stupid spellcheck
Inheritance
mebden
Recycles dryer sheets
What was the amount and age did everyone start retirement? And once you did retire did you add more to your retirement accounts or just let it keep compound?
Everyone? You're assuming everyone here is retired. I am not retired.
mebden
Recycles dryer sheets
Ok the majority sorry
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Some people have pensions, some don't. And there are many permutations regarding taking Social Security. So a portfolio number and an age alone will provide limited information at best.
lucky penny
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Interesting question, but belongs in another thread -- why not start one?
mebden
Recycles dryer sheets
And I guess I will then
RetiredHappy
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When we retired, me at 53, we had to pull about $250K per year out of our investment accounts for the first few years, and now about $120K per year. Our net worth is now about when we retired 8 years ago. We do expect our investments to go back up some when the market recovers.
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Yes, that's one way of handling it. Plan to not live as long. Life expectancy in general has dropped with COVID, and who knows what is coming down the pike.
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dobig
Recycles dryer sheets
I'll start a little lower. Hit 200 K in Y2K & thought I owned the world
1st hit 1M early 2017
Retired June 2015. Today I'm at 1.6M. I don't think I'll ever be a member of the 2M club, but still feel very fortunate.
We're about where you are but haven't retired yet. Sometimes I feel pretty good where we stand and other times I start reading some of these posts and feel like I'm on a different planet.
The bad part is I sometimes let it influence my thinking and skew where I think we need to be. Not really sure what I would do if we ever got to some of these astronomical numbers. Maybe buy a 45' Viking and polish the brass every day.
Koolau
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Good news/bad news: When you get to those astronomical numbers, they will no longer seem astronomical. Just sorta normal numbers.
But I sympathize. When I hear that someone has twice the NW I have, I just sort of shake my head and wonder what that would be like. But then, I remember. I have enough. How much more do I need??
We’re about where both of you are but not yet retired. And yes, it’s easy to read other stories of success and naturally compare them to your own situation. I try to keep everything in perspective and be thankful for what I have while realizing that so many people have much less.
It’s not about comparing yourself to others. Be content with what you have and recognize all of your financial successes.
Andre1969
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Yep, I agree completely. Whenever I've hit some kind of once-lofty financial goal I've set for myself, once I get to it, it usually feels like meh, just another day. I think part of it might be age-related, but another part is that usually these goals are reached in a somewhat gradual process?
For instance, if I was in my 20's or 30's, with only a typical, modest amount saved up, and suddenly $3M landed in my lap, I'd probably feel on top of the world. But, in my early 50's, I have decades of experience of market ups and downs, various world turmoils, unexpected problems that crop up here and there, how fast prices can rise on certain things regardless of what they tell you the inflation rate is, etc, I guess I'm a bit more jaded.
Thinking back, I hit my first $1M in February of 2015. But, it wasn't exactly a happy time. First, I had hit $500K in March 2010, $600K in January 2011, $700K in 3/2012, $800K in 4/13, $900K in 12/13, and $970K in 6/2014. There were ups and downs along the way, but I guess I had just gotten used to that kind of momentum, so when it sort of stalled out at the end of June, and getting to that $1M just got a bit aggravating.
But then, even worse, in August of 2014 my 90 year old grandmother got sick and had to go into the emergency room. She got better, but never better enough to come home. She was in an assisted living facility for awhile, that cost about $2800/mo. But then she took a turn for the worse, back to the hospital, and then into a nursing home. That one was going to run around $12K or so/mo, once Medicare ran out. Now that I think about it, she might have gone into the nursing home around the time I hit $1M. At least, I remember visiting her on her 91st birthday, which was in February, in the nursing home. So, that was a stressful time for my family.
I remember running the numbers too, estimating how long it would be before Grandmom's savings were exhausted, and then the family, including me, would start picking up the tab. Logically, I know you usually don't last long once you're in the nursing home. But, I had one great-grandmother, who died in 1981 when I was 11, who I always remembered as being in a nursing home. I know little kids don't always remember things properly, but my only memory of her is in a wheelchair. In the earlier years, Granddad would go get her, and bring her to his place, to visit for a bit, and in later years, we'd go see her at the home. And, this is morbid I know, but us grandkids were shocked when Great Granddad died in 1977...not that we'd been placing bets on it, but we figured Great Grandmom would go first!
Anyway, Grandmom made it to the middle of May, 2015, so she went quickly and, I'm hoping, painlessly.
When I hit $2M, it was ever so briefly in January 2020. As in, like 1 or 2 days. I did start getting a little giddy, and thought seriously about retiring on my 50th birthday, in April of that year. Well, I topped out on February 19, 2020, at $2,048,142. Of course, it didn't last. By March 23, I was down to $1,361,983. By the time my birthday rolled around, we were on the road to recovery, but I was still down pretty seriously, around the $1.54M mark.
So, I guess I really didn't get much of a chance to feel giddy about $2M, either. In fact, the main thing I remember about it was how quickly it could go away!
In late 2021, when I was pushing the $2.5M mark, I started thinking that, if I was still around $2.5M when my 52nd birthday rolled around in 4/2022, I might get serious about retiring. By the time my birthday rolled around, I was around $2.4M. But we'd already been through three dips so far in 2022, each one a bit more severe than the last. And, I was also really starting to notice the inflation numbers, so I figured I'd better hold off.
I know that no matter when I retire, there's always going to be something to make me second-guess myself. But, I think these constant ups and downs, and with other things that pop up in life, often it makes hitting these hitting these financial goals end up not being the Shangri la we imagined they would be.
But, even though I'm what I'd consider to be "comfortable", sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to have a lot more. Like, if my net worth suddenly doubled. I pretty much have everything I need, and if I deprive myself of something, it's only because I'm being cheap...not that I can't afford it. But still, sometimes I wonder.
If my NW did suddenly double, I think the one major thing I would do would be to finally retire. But other than that, I really can't see myself ramping up my lifestyle. Maybe I'd finally retire that '03 Regal I inherited from my Dad that reinforces the old cliche "Old GM cars run bad longer than most cars run at all." But, beyond that, at the moment at least I can't really think much loftier than that.
lucky penny
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What a great post, Andre. Thanks for sharing this.
I read once about a survey of people who were asked how much they had, whether they were comfortable with that amount, & how much they would need to feel comfortable. A very large percentage said they would need "twice as much" as they had already, regardless of the amount they had now.
I think this may have been in a book by Lee Eisenberg called The Number: What Will You Need for the Rest of Your Life, and What Will It Cost? I read it when I was thinking about retiring & I could definitely identify. It gave me some perspective.
I read once about a survey of people who were asked how much they had, whether they were comfortable with that amount, & how much they would need to feel comfortable. A very large percentage said they would need "twice as much" as they had already, regardless of the amount they had now.
I think this may have been in a book by Lee Eisenberg called The Number: What Will You Need for the Rest of Your Life, and What Will It Cost? I read it when I was thinking about retiring & I could definitely identify. It gave me some perspective.
COcheesehead
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
When you have enough money, you can do anything you want, just not everything you want. LOL.
More Detail
This is interesting, spilling all of it but leaving out important points. I understand the NW part, but if I consider that I'm taking into consideration the value of our home according to Realtor.com which continues to go up, looking at taxes, and changing our tIRA investment strategy last year. Leaving stock funds alone for a few years to come. I guess overall the portfolio IRR value has increased by 7.6% over the last 10 years. We've not WD and won't for another couple of years.
We took the lump pension that kicked us up $650K. So we're at $3+ but what does that really mean? Will not take full SS until 70. It really comes down to spending. I read articles in the WSJ, they did profiles of several people with various NW and their NW is way lower than ours and they spend a lot more than we do. And they are completely confident of their future for the next 30 years.
Obviously, they are not on this forum. And they don't use Firecalc. I typically leave out our emergency fund and living cash from the portfolio. And have $150K in iBonds that are just case $$, but we'll probably cash out next year.
This is interesting, spilling all of it but leaving out important points. I understand the NW part, but if I consider that I'm taking into consideration the value of our home according to Realtor.com which continues to go up, looking at taxes, and changing our tIRA investment strategy last year. Leaving stock funds alone for a few years to come. I guess overall the portfolio IRR value has increased by 7.6% over the last 10 years. We've not WD and won't for another couple of years.
We took the lump pension that kicked us up $650K. So we're at $3+ but what does that really mean? Will not take full SS until 70. It really comes down to spending. I read articles in the WSJ, they did profiles of several people with various NW and their NW is way lower than ours and they spend a lot more than we do. And they are completely confident of their future for the next 30 years.
Obviously, they are not on this forum. And they don't use Firecalc. I typically leave out our emergency fund and living cash from the portfolio. And have $150K in iBonds that are just case $$, but we'll probably cash out next year.My numbers were amazing a lot like your numbers. You and I must have gone though the same 'ride'.
1m 1999
2m 2007
3m 2014
4m 2016
5m 2019
6m 2020
6m+ now
It took us 16 years of working and saving to get to the first million. Of course soon after we get to the first million the dot com bust happens and it put me down for a while. Then the housing bubble hit me hard, we sold a bunch near the low (I know...I should of held on) and went from 100% stock to a more modest 60/40. We retired around 2016 and amazingly it doesn't seem to make much difference. We're at a point where enough is enough and our goal is to enjoy the time we have left.
OldShooter
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Recounted by John Bogle:
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel "Catch 22" over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have . . . Enough.”
COcheesehead
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I mentioned “life events” can help your numbers like an inheritance or in our case the sale of a small business, but what I did not say is they can also hurt you. In ‘99 my assets were cut in half by a divorce. So to get to my first mil by 2005 was a feat. I was also in the beginning stages of starting that business that I eventually sold and my first year’s income was a cool $32,000.
So I feel proud of what we have today, but I feel prouder of how I got here.
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