PolloLoco--
Well done on the stock option exercise (and presumably sale of underlying stock). Don't forget, you've got a big tax bill coming. I remember the sinking feeling in April 2000 when I paid a lifetime of taxes for my one great year. What made it easier, though, is that I never actually calculated the value of the stock directly while prices were moving up: I always had my spreadsheet just show me 75% of the value, figuring I'd need to pay 20% to the feds and 5% to the state, so it made sticker shock easier.
But I may be unusual in that regard. I converted most of my IRA to Roths, and one of the reasons was that I was tired of looking at my net worth and then having to mentally subtract unpaid capital gains on IRA holdings -- I just figured take the medicine and quit having to think about it.
My 2 cents on the CT-BB slugfest is that our personal networth calculations may be critically important to ourselves, but my original post was an attempt to get us sharing investment returns on different types of asset allocations/ ER Portfolios as a way of seeing how different folks investment strategies played out during a relatively good year, what different ERs actual investment returns are -- that sort of thing. That to me is where the rubber meets the road for any of us who need to live off our SWR for the rest of our lives!
And for those of us not yet in our 60s but counting on Social Security -- I am hearing some disturbing rumbling from Washington on sparing the already-drawing or over-65's, rescuing the young and employed with their new govt-sponsored personal retirement savings accounts, and, by implication, pulling at least some of the rug out from under those in the middle (which I am going to guess includes pretty much anyone between 40 and 60, especially those no longer working and contributing to SS).
The issue seems to be adjusting people's benefits for increases in the wage index (gold standard) or just for inflation (bronze standard). The 2 percent (?) or so per year difference can really add up over a long retirement, (which is why they are doing it). .Article in today's WSJ that points pretty clearly to this as Bush's agenda for SS.