Big Milestone - $3M

[powerplay]

Congratulations on your $3M!
You are doing great!

 

[brokrken]

Congrats... my wife and I just retired in March and moved to North Carolina. I was 50 and she was 48. Where in NC is vacation home? We are living near Lake Norman.

Ronbus, It is on Sugar Mountain, but we are thinking we'll ultimately settle in Asheville.

 

[brokrken]

Well done. One note on calculating net wealth, I would include any equity (including real estate). Ultimately, whether you live in the property (or rent it) there is both a benefit and an opportunity costs of other income you could be getting from that equity. A good way of looking at it is that you are essentially "renting" with you being your own tenant.

Out of interest, what is the net yield you are earning on your 3m?

Yield is only about 1.6%, as I am heavily in equities at the moment. Need to start weening down that allocation, but the fixed income yields available at the moment are laughable.

 

[harllee]

Ronbus, It is on Sugar Mountain, but we are thinking we'll ultimately settle in Asheville.

Small world--we have a home at Sugar Mountain that we use in the summer. Welcome to the area, I am sure you will enjoy it. There is a nice small golf course at Sugar. We also enjoy the summer music. On Wednesdays in the summer there is Grillin and Chillin-- a cookout and a band at the Sugar Mountain golf course. Banner Elk also has summer music on Thursdays at the downtown park (very nice park in Banner Elk). We also enjoy all the wineries--especially Grandfather Winery and Linville Falls Winery , they have music on the weekends in the summer. Maybe we can arrange to meet next summer.

 

[Koolau]

Congrats on your milestone. To the extent that any of us here were helpful, you are more than welcome. Most of us take pleasure in other member's success (heh, heh, after we suppress a wee bit of envy, perhaps!) YMMV

 

[brokrken]

Small world--we have a home at Sugar Mountain that we use in the summer. Welcome to the area, I am sure you will enjoy it. There is a nice small golf course at Sugar. We also enjoy the summer music. On Wednesdays in the summer there is Grillin and Chillin-- a cookout and a band at the Sugar Mountain golf course. Banner Elk also has summer music on Thursdays at the downtown park (very nice park in Banner Elk). We also enjoy all the wineries--especially Grandfather Winery and Linville Falls Winery , they have music on the weekends in the summer. Maybe we can arrange to meet next summer.

Ha! Yeah, small world and sounds like a plan. Let's keep in touch.

 

[Monterey298sc]

We are 2.9 liquid, with real estate we total about 4 . We are trying to sell our business and get out and liquidation but Covid has delayed this

 

[FIREarly]

On 9/02/20 I posted a thread titled "Small Milestone - $2M" and here we are less than 15 months later and I've hit the $3M mark (not including real estate equity). I am both humbled and amazed at this performance. When I started this FIRE journey 11/12 years ago my goal was to hit $3M and retire at 55. I'm 44 now and the plan now is to still work until our daughter graduates high school in 3.5 years. We are under contract on a vacation home in North Carolina that we'll use to get acquainted with the area between now and then. So, actually this $3M will come down in a few weeks when some of that gets transfered to real estate equity.

As I said in the previous post, a lot of credit has to go to you all for the wise words and encouragement. That's much appreciated and keep 'em coming!

Congratulations, reading your story helps inspire the continuing process of wealth accumulation.

 

[stan101]

Congrats! For those of us still learning, can you tell us how you went from $2mil to $3mil so quickly? Was it a large income? Certain stocks? Heavy equity allocation? Combo?

 

[FIREarly]

Congrats! For those of us still learning, can you tell us how you went from $2mil to $3mil so quickly? Was it a large income? Certain stocks? Heavy equity allocation? Combo?

Bet it all on 00!!

Don't do that.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Congrats! We are at 2.8 so not too far behind! They have been going up for 2019, 2020, 2021 at +260, +550, +410 which seems pretty ridiculous especially since it makes the salary income look tiny. I wasn't tracking so much before 2019, but it seems like some kind of threshold is crossed when salary can't keep up with passive gains. It's like when you push a boulder and realize its momentum is way beyond your puny strength. We are also heavy in equities, wanting to scale down, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We no such concrete plans about when I can do the big RE... must be nice to have a time limit on it. And also still worried about that other shoe.

 

[Skitso999]

Yeah, $2350 on a 600 grand property -

SHEESH!! Our property taxes on our house, in the Peoples Republic of Southern Illinois are $6000 on a $300K house!

 

[eytonxav]

Congrats, great accomplishment at your age.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Yeah, $2350 on a 600 grand property -

I know that RobbieB is trying to hijack the thread and I am adding to it. We have you beaten on the home that we just sold in Jan 2021. Acquired in 2014, sold for $700K, property tax of $2,400 and the best part is property tax is not reassessed on sale. The new owners are paying the same amount, plus a maximum of 3% increase per year. Our current home which was bought in Jan 2021 is about $1M, property tax of $4,100 and we are not complaining.

 

[rmcelwee]

On 9/02/20 I posted a thread titled "Small Milestone - $2M" and here we are less than 15 months later and I've hit the $3M mark (not including real estate equity). I am both humbled and amazed at this performance. When I started this FIRE journey 11/12 years ago my goal was to hit $3M and retire at 55. I'm 44 now and the plan now is to still work until our daughter graduates high school in 3.5 years.

Here's a data point which might make you smile. I'm almost 55 and just hit $3M. It took me 22 months to get there from $2M. So, you are about 11 years ahead of me and 7 months faster. I credit that "slow" increase to having $1M+ in bonds (happy wife, happy life). Good job!

 

[RioIndy]

Amazing job! 1.5M is my next target. At 3M you have enough to do just about everything and never have to worry (small asterisk on this of course). Now you can focus pretty much entirely on every other aspect of life. Big congrats.

 

[brokrken]

Congrats! For those of us still learning, can you tell us how you went from $2mil to $3mil so quickly? Was it a large income? Certain stocks? Heavy equity allocation? Combo?

It was a number of things.

1. A super hot market
2. A heavy equity allocation
3. A bunch of NVDA, which I have a cost basis of $2.50/share. What a lucky purchase this was over 10 years ago. I do give myself at least a little credit for never selling this and many other long time holdings that have done reaally well
4. I have had some company stock vest and recieved a bonus in this time, but the total of those two after taxes was only about $100K

 

[brokrken]

I know that RobbieB is trying to hijack the thread and I am adding to it. We have you beaten on the home that we just sold in Jan 2021. Acquired in 2014, sold for $700K, property tax of $2,400 and the best part is property tax is not reassessed on sale. The new owners are paying the same amount, plus a maximum of 3% increase per year. Our current home which was bought in Jan 2021 is about $1M, property tax of $4,100 and we are not complaining.

The place I just bought in NC was $365k and taxes are just over $1k per year. On the other hand, my place in Chicago is probably worth $650k and taxes are $13k per year.

 

[brokrken]

Amazing job! 1.5M is my next target. At 3M you have enough to do just about everything and never have to worry (small asterisk on this of course). Now you can focus pretty much entirely on every other aspect of life. Big congrats.

The rub in all of this is that of the $3M, $2.45 is qualified money. So, that only leaves $550k in taxable accounts for me to bridge to 59.5. Two things will help. 1. I have nearly 4 years left to beef up the taxable portion and have a some significant stock vestingin that time period. 2. DW is 5 years older than I, so in 4 years she'll only be 6 years from 59.5.

We can do 72t if absolutely needed, but hopefully won't have to.

 

[Koolau]

I know that RobbieB is trying to hijack the thread and I am adding to it. We have you beaten on the home that we just sold in Jan 2021. Acquired in 2014, sold for $700K, property tax of $2,400 and the best part is property tax is not reassessed on sale. The new owners are paying the same amount, plus a maximum of 3% increase per year. Our current home which was bought in Jan 2021 is about $1M, property tax of $4,100 and we are not complaining.

Hijacking the hijack, I've mentioned before that one of the ways folks make it in the Islands is that our RE taxes are lowest in the nation. I think ours was about $1600 on a roughly $600K property. We do get a nice deduction for being kupuna (elders) but the rates are quite low for everyone - by comparison to much of the nation. Of course, "discount" milk is $5.50/gal, fresh blue berries are a buck an ounce so there's that.

Returning you now to our regularly scheduled celebration of a $3MM milestone. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

The rub in all of this is that of the $3M, $2.45 is qualified money. So, that only leaves $550k in taxable accounts for me to bridge to 59.5. Two things will help. 1. I have nearly 4 years left to beef up the taxable portion and have a some significant stock vestingin that time period. 2. DW is 5 years older than I, so in 4 years she'll only be 6 years from 59.5.

We can do 72t if absolutely needed, but hopefully won't have to.

My situation wasn't quite this problematic. I was over 50% qualified. But after 16 years of FIRE, I'm STILL working my self out of the "qualified money" issue. I did lots of Roth conversions and always take more than my RMD. But, darn it, the qualified money just keeps growing!

First world problems are the best problems. Still, ours are cautionary tales to the young 'uns. Fund those taxable accounts too! Roth as much as you can without maxing your tax. The gummint giveth and the gummint taketh away. YMMV

 

[harllee]

My situation wasn't quite this problematic. I was over 50% qualified. But after 16 years of FIRE, I'm STILL working my self out of the "qualified money" issue. I did lots of Roth conversions and always take more than my RMD. But, darn it, the qualified money just keeps growing!

First world problems are the best problems. Still, ours are cautionary tales to the young 'uns. Fund those taxable accounts too! Roth as much as you can without maxing your tax. The gummint giveth and the gummint taketh away. YMMV

If you are over 70.5, give some of that IRA money to your favorite charities, that is what I am doing.

 

[Koolau]

If you are over 70.5, give some of that IRA money to your favorite charities, that is what I am doing.

Yeah, me too. It's very rewarding but YMMV.