Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networth?

[spncity]

Not really a windfall - and not that huge - but just opted for a payout of some deferred compensation to pay off the house about five years ahead of schedule. I know that there are pros and cons about whether to pay off the house vs. invest the money. But it was something we really wanted to do and it has been nice to feel that feeling of no debt anywhere.

Since then, about every old car we have has been breaking down or needing something repaired We do most of the repairs ourselves. Hopefully the repairs won't continue to happen too regularly, or someone's going to be hankering for a new near-new pickup truck.

 

[FinanceDude]

I guess the "windfall" I got I woudl rather have NOT received............

My sister's 403B, which is now split between my two sons, which will guarantee them the opportunity to follow whatever career path they want to, within reason............

I would rather have my sister back.............

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

Never had a windfall.

If my mom pre-deceases me I will decline my share. I told her to
leave me out of the will, but she insists on an equal split. Since I
already am retired and have plenty, it would just add to the estate
taxes when I pass, and my siblings could use it more than me
(they are not spendthrifts, but neither has accumulated much
towards retirement).

 

[Nords]

I earned the odd nuclear bonus during my career and banked every penny. Whenever we'd go to sea for a six-month deployment I'd do the same with a couple months' advance pay and live off what was left (not that I had much liberty to live it with).

When I retired I was able to sell back my accumulated leave. That was a nice few thousand dollars but I paid dearly for it the following January when the pay system issued three separate W-2s and couldn't figure out which one(s) went to the IRS. It's a little frustrating to receive an unexpected four-figure Treasury check in the mail with no documentation when the only answer you can get is "We're not sure, we'll let you know." But those of you planning to sell back leave don't have to worry-- they've assured me that you'll have a completely different pay problem it's been fixed.

My grandfather's death (after 14 years of long-term care) left my brother & me with $30K. It didn't change the ER plan (I had already retired) but I've been executing my "brilliant investor" ideas here (on a much smaller scale) instead of on the ER portfolio. That's probably saved us thousands of dollars more than it's cost me.

Spouse is one of those annoying people who wins a door prize at every social event. She still hasn't gotten around to playing lotteries or learning blackjack, though.

 

[clifp]

I got a bunch of lottery tickets stock options. Some of them were up more than 50x. Now to be fair to myself, as I've told many people I did earn my lottery tickets, by chosing a good paying profession computer science vs my first love history. Except for one $250,000 sports cars (I actually only paid $20K, but that is the value of the stock options I sold.), I didn't fritter the money away and started maxing my 401K right out of college. I consider the biggest windfall to be the choices I didn't make. For example, in the mid 90s when many of my co-workers left Intel to go pursue jobs with potential mega payoff (EBay, Yahoo, Netscape) , I stuck around to collect the rest of my options. I also made a conscious effort to diversify and rebalance my portfolio rather than trying to capture the top of the dot.com bubble.

 

[gandalf42]

Yes. Received a significant inheritance from my folks. Never counted on receiving anything just because I believe a person, including your folks, should be free to save or spend what they have. (A freedom I also claim) So we practiced LBYMs for all of our married lives and were making good progress. Probably would've been somewhere into the 60s before retirement though. The inheritance allowed me to retire at 52.

I hope to be able to pass on a decent inheritance to the kiddos. But they better not be counting on it!

 

[aenlighten]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

No, and I am not planning on leaving one, but most likely will anyway.

 

[Gone4Good]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

Yup. Once a year. It's called bonus time.

 

[Meadbh]

Yes, inheritance increased my NW by ~80%. Without it I wouldn't be able to consider FIRE.

 

[two4theroad]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

Yes. DH and I both invested in our company stock for 25 years and it exploded about 3 years ago. It contributed over 2/3rds of our portfolio value and without it we would still be working.

 

[audreyh1]

I got a bunch of lottery tickets stock options. Some of them were up more than 50x. Now to be fair to myself, as I've told many people I did earn my lottery tickets, by chosing a good paying profession computer science vs my first love history. ...I stuck around to collect the rest of my options. I also made a conscious effort to diversify and rebalance my portfolio rather than trying to capture the top of the dot.com bubble.

I "earned" my lottery tickets stock options too, but with recouping 1000x the original investment it's hard for it not to feel like a "windfall". For many years (company private) it seemed like "funny money" that might go sayonara someday. But then it turned into real money. Was kind of a shock.....

Audrey

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

thanx mom, iou1

 

[joesxm3]

I was truely fortunate to get a full scholarship that paid for my undergraduate degree. I doubt if I could have gone to college without it.

A college degree is not ticket to success, but the lack of one is a greater obstacle to success.

 

[Khan]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

Full state undergraduate scholarship and there was the supervisor that pushed through promotions for the office geeks.

My inheritance was ~$2000 from a mutual fund my mother set up to leave a small legacy.

 

[bbbamI]

Nope...nada...nuthin'.

 

[Meadbh]

thanx mom, iou1

Exactly!

 

[playaman]

Several years ago I was elected to the board of directors of a large corporation. Perhaps I got there because I "earned" it, but I've often thought it was a fluke -- they needed someone with my narrow set of skills and I was there. "Right place at the right time." The stock over the years, plus directors' fees, have all gone into retirement accounts -- now pushing $1 million.

In all honesty, I think of it more as a windfall than compensation.

 

[hogtied]

almost too many to count but to name a few: 6 stock splits of parent company that I worked for, scholorship grants by parent company to five of my childrens each year in college (20 years total tax free) pension from parent company, founders stock grant when new company spun off from parent company, 9% match to 401K from new company, inheritance from grandparents, gifts from parents so as to whittle down their assets. I am blessed!

 

[lhamo]

My sister and I co-owned some property, deeded over to us by our mom, on top of which we built a house. I was in school at the time, so most of the money for the house building and payments came from my sister, who had a good job. I did pay part of the mortgage during the time I lived in it. I later decided to get married, and signed the house over to my sister. She was nice enough to pay me back what my share of the original cost for the house/land was over several years (50k total). We used that as a substantial part of our down payment for our NYC apartment. That apartment more than doubled in value during the 2+ years we owned it. We sold in 2003, and have more or less been watching it slowly grow since then (most of it has stayed in cash and CDs). Probably would have done better with investing in the market, but there was enough uncertainty about our employment and RE situation that I didn't want to run the risk. We were piling savings from our jobs on top of it, and continuing to invest in retirement accounts such that we had US-based earnings.

Sometimes wonder "what if" we had taken more risks, but am happy to have the nest egg we do safely in the bank, waiting for when we buy our next home (hopefully in the next year).

lhamo

 

[redduck]

It's funny that you should ask about a windfall. A few days ago I discovered that I had an additional 5932.443 shares of DODFX in my Scottrade account at about $47.80 per share. I don't know how the shares got there. Scottrade said I was the one that placed them there (I'm almost certain it wasn't the guy typing this at the moment). So, it seems I have the double life going on. I figure if one of me can do this two more times this year, one of me is retiring.

 

[Dry Socks]

Re: Did you have some form of windfall that significantly contributed to Networt

It's funny that you should ask about a windfall. A few days ago I discovered that I had an additional 5932.443 shares of DODFX in my Scottrade account at about $47.80 per share. I don't know how the shares got there. Scottrade said I was the one that placed them there (I'm almost certain it wasn't the guy typing this at the moment). So, it seems I have the double life going on. I figure if one of me can do this two more times this year, one of me is retiring.

Can your double also take money out ?

 

[Moemg]

Three years ago ,I inherited $20,000 from a close family friend .I was already FI so I took all the women in my family on a cruise to Bermuda .We had so much fun. We called our group the heiresses.

 

[Nords]

It's funny that you should ask about a windfall. A few days ago I discovered that I had an additional 5932.443 shares of DODFX in my Scottrade account at about $47.80 per share. I don't know how the shares got there. Scottrade said I was the one that placed them there (I'm almost certain it wasn't the guy typing this at the moment).

Dude, if they're going to argue with you then I'd just cash out and close the account...

 

[FinanceDude]

Dude, if they're going to argue with you then I'd just cash out and close the account...

You can always claim ignorance............"Your Honor, all I did was cash out my account"..............

 

[Bart523]

If you include the equity in a personal residence a part of net worth, two events contributed. My grandmother died in 1970 when I was 22. She left me $7,000 which my wife and I used to buy a house in a MD suburb of D.C. We probably would not have been able to buy the house without that down payment. During the ensuing years we bought other homes as we moved from state to state. At one point we moved back to MD and the cost of housing there was considerably higher than in the midwest, where we had been living. A very kind, generous and wealthy couple gave us $18,000 to put with the equity from our previous home sale to buy a house. We definitely wouldn't have been able to buy a house in that case.

We're not counting our chickens before they hatch but in the next year we will be getting an inheritance which will make it possible to consider retiring early or doing something other than working for someone else. We have been fortunate to be the recipients of the generosity of a loving grandmother, kind friends and the wise decisions that a loving mother made during her life that will now be benefiting us.