Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

[LarryMelman]

At my company, you need to be on the payroll on the date they pay the previous quarter's bonus, and that date can be up to 2 months into the next quarter. Also don't forget any other perks on the calendar like stock vesting or vacation accrual.

Where I work, basically there's one "best day" every quarter to quit. (Or perhaps to give notice if you're worried about being walked out on the spot; I've heard that it's customary to give 2 weeks notice and be paid for it even if you're walked out but that could well be urban legend. When you give notice, expect that it could be your last paid day.)

 

[retired1]

i finally [went against advice received from this forum and] told my immediate manager that i plan to retire no later than 12/31/19.

He did confirm what some here said, which is that once he "makes it official" and notifies hr, there's a chance i'll be walked out the door that day.

So we're holding off until i give him the go-ahead.

But the date is out there in the universe now, and plans are being made as though i will no longer be here at the office--hallelujah!!!

!! Congrats !!

 

[retired1]

Turned in my notice today. Will RE at the end of this month, a bit shy of my 51st birthday

Nice & Congrats !! Keeps us still working "motivated" to do the same someday soon !

 

[Blurestraveler]

I just went over $2 million in my 401k. Total investable assets excluding house is $4.25 million. I would be interested to hear from others who have gone over $2 million in their 401k.


I am 60 and a long time lurker on this forum. I very much appreciate all of the knowledge that I have gained from this group.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Very impressive!

I just went over $2 million in my 401k. Total investable assets excluding house is $4.25 million. I would be interested to hear from others who have gone over $2 million in their 401k.


I am 60 and a long time lurker on this forum. I very much appreciate all of the knowledge that I have gained from this group.

 

[teetee]

I just went over $2 million in my 401k. Total investable assets excluding house is $4.25 million. I would be interested to hear from others who have gone over $2 million in their 401k.


I am 60 and a long time lurker on this forum. I very much appreciate all of the knowledge that I have gained from this group.

I started working and my 401k 6 years ago and only have 160k saved in it so far despite my max contribution every year. Can you share the figures of the principle and investment return of yours? I am pretty discouraged seeing your number.

 

[Blurestraveler]

I am not certain with regard to all of the principle contributions and investment returns over the years. However, I will say that I have been contributing the maximum allowed for many years. For me, that has been contributions of principle in excess of $50,000 per year.


With regard to investment returns, I am primarily a dividend growth investor with a smattering of growth stocks that do not pay dividends (Amazon, Google, Facebook). I reinvest all dividends in individual stocks that I select based on valuation.


I have over 150 stock positions along with a portfolio of individual corporate bonds. My projected income off of my total portfolio this year (taxable and non-taxable accounts) will be just over $180,000. Most of this amount is reinvested. I am not retired.


I know this method is not for everyone, and I certainly respect all of those who use index funds for their investing needs. However, I enjoy the process of picking individual stocks and it has worked for me.


I would not be discouraged at all with your results. It takes a while for the snowball effect to take place. However, once it does it is a powerful force.

 

[kgtest]

I started working and my 401k 6 years ago and only have 160k saved in it so far despite my max contribution every year. Can you share the figures of the principle and investment return of yours? I am pretty discouraged seeing your number.

Me too. Musta had a helluva match...i get 5% match save badically all SmallCap spectacular returns but doubt I hit 2mil. Unless I decide to keep working until 60.

Nice job, you need to browse the blow yer dough thread and hangout with RobbieB and NYEXPAt and Big_Dawg and Kcowan. Just a few of the ballers I call friende haha.

 

[teetee]

For me, that has been contributions of principle in excess of $50,000 per year.

I am interested in how 401k contribution can be more than 17k-19k in the past decade. How did you get your employee to contribute that much for you?

 

[2k6_TX_Dad]

I am interested in how 401k contribution can be more than 17k-19k in the past decade. How did you get your employee to contribute that much for you?

I would imagine that it was part of his compensation agreement. (there's a lot of high earners in Houston)

I'm in my 11th year in my 401k, max each year + 4% match, it's just over 460k. If I can get 8.7% over the next 5 years (my retirement goal) it will be at 1m.

It would be at 1.8m if I worked to 60.

 

[NgineER]

I am interested in how 401k contribution can be more than 17k-19k in the past decade. How did you get your employee to contribute that much for you?

There is your personal max contribution in the range you describe (traditional or roth).
Then there is company match
Additionally there is after-tax contributions which can be 0-100% of salary (The max I have seen quoted is 75% of salary, mine caps out at 9% of salary)

If I max mine out, I would be in the neighborhood of $45k/year including all matches and contributions to both traditional and after tax.

 

[Blurestraveler]

This is correct. However, I am a partner in a law firm. While it is called a "match" I actually pay the match from my distributions from the firm. In other words, the company did not actually make any contributions into my 401k. In addition, the amount of the contributions you can make go up based on age.

 

[Finance Dave]

I started working and my 401k 6 years ago and only have 160k saved in it so far despite my max contribution every year. Can you share the figures of the principle and investment return of yours? I am pretty discouraged seeing your number.

Don't be discouraged....you are doing great! At your "age" I only had about $50k and I FIREd at 57...so you're doing well! There is an exponential growth in the curve as you get out towards the end of retirement. At some point your earnings in your retirement accounts will be higher than your W-2 income...then you've "replaced" your JO* !

I am not certain with regard to all of the principle contributions and investment returns over the years. However, I will say that I have been contributing the maximum allowed for many years. For me, that has been contributions of principle in excess of $50,000 per year.


With regard to investment returns, I am primarily a dividend growth investor with a smattering of growth stocks that do not pay dividends (Amazon, Google, Facebook). I reinvest all dividends in individual stocks that I select based on valuation.


I have over 150 stock positions along with a portfolio of individual corporate bonds. My projected income off of my total portfolio this year (taxable and non-taxable accounts) will be just over $180,000. Most of this amount is reinvested. I am not retired.


I know this method is not for everyone, and I certainly respect all of those who use index funds for their investing needs. However, I enjoy the process of picking individual stocks and it has worked for me.


I would not be discouraged at all with your results. It takes a while for the snowball effect to take place. However, once it does it is a powerful force.

Great job! You sure must invest a lot of time in selecting stocks...and you're right that's not for me but you've been successful and 150 positions gives you a great diversification.

 

[Finance Dave]

Reached a new peak today! I rebalanced (purchased some S&P index) when the market dropped a few hundred points about a month or so ago and now we've recovered....so I took money off the table and am back to our target AA.

We are $300k over our goal....although we like to have this buffer for those times when the market drops. Although a year ago I was frustrated buying 2.8% 4-year CDs as part of our CD ladder....those are now looking quite attractive lol. Just had one mature and had to replace it with a much lower rate.

 

[Andre1969]

Yesterday was a milestone of sorts for me. My investible assets saw a return of over $300,000 so far this year. Of course, 2019 isn't over, yet, but this is the first year I've ever saw that big of a dollar rise.

In the overall scheme of things, I know this is relatively meaningless. And, as my net worth gets larger, it's simply easier to hit big dollar amounts like that. Plus, it's the percentages that really count. Still, it was a nice feeling.

FWIW, my second best year, now, dollar-wise is 2017. That year, I saw a return of around $236,000. That was the first time I popped the $200K barrier.

 

[pjigar]

I started working and my 401k 6 years ago and only have 160k saved in it so far despite my max contribution every year. Can you share the figures of the principle and investment return of yours? I am pretty discouraged seeing your number.

Your number looks fine. It takes a decade or more to see the magic of compounding. Only thing you have to remember is to "Not do anything" when market tanks which will multiple times in your carrier. Just to give you idea: my 401K balance didn't even broke 100K in first 7 years.

 

[dirtbiker]

I am not certain with regard to all of the principle contributions and investment returns over the years. However, I will say that I have been contributing the maximum allowed for many years. For me, that has been contributions of principle in excess of $50,000 per year.


With regard to investment returns, I am primarily a dividend growth investor with a smattering of growth stocks that do not pay dividends (Amazon, Google, Facebook). I reinvest all dividends in individual stocks that I select based on valuation.


I have over 150 stock positions along with a portfolio of individual corporate bonds. My projected income off of my total portfolio this year (taxable and non-taxable accounts) will be just over $180,000. Most of this amount is reinvested. I am not retired.


I know this method is not for everyone, and I certainly respect all of those who use index funds for their investing needs. However, I enjoy the process of picking individual stocks and it has worked for me.


I would not be discouraged at all with your results. It takes a while for the snowball effect to take place. However, once it does it is a powerful force.

How do you keep up with 150 individual stocks? I only invest in 7 individual stocks (plus my index funds and other things), and have a hard time keeping up with their earnings reports, news, outlook, etc.

 

[kgtest]

How do you keep up with 150 individual stocks? I only invest in 7 individual stocks (plus my index funds and other things), and have a hard time keeping up with their earnings reports, news, outlook, etc.

+1 I own CASY APPL MMM and now HAS and WORK and thats enough stress for me. I know I'm doing it wrong but still.

 

[Blurestraveler]

Thanks for your responses.

For a number of reasons I do not feel it is a chore or burdensome to keep up with the number of stocks in my portfolio.

I have a number of resources including paid and unpaid online sites that assist. I have two paid services that provide me with approximately 20 different newsletters that I use for investment ideas and assist in keeping up with developments on my individual positions. I have lifetime memberships with these sites that were long ago acquired at significant discounts to their current price.

In addition, I use Morningstar for valuation purposes. I also use the free Seeking Alpha site. That site allows you to input all of the tickers of the stocks in your portfolio and then all of the news and articles pertaining to those stocks are sent to your email box on a daily basis.

I also follow other free dividend growth websites like the Dividend Growth Forum and Jason Fieber.

One of the main reasons I do not have as much concern as you express is that the core of my portfolio is made up of Dividend Aristocrats (stocks that have paid a dividend and raised their dividends at least 25 years) and other stocks that have a long history of paying and raising their dividends each year.

With few exceptions, I will hold these stocks forever. I may trim my positions when Morningstar indicates they are overvalued, but I will not sell the entirety of my position unless there is a very unusual situation. As a result, due to the annual increases in the dividends for the individual positions my yield on cost can become rather substantial.

I have benefited greatly by learning about individual companies as well as different business organizations (REITs, MLPs, corporate bonds, preferred stock and BDCs) that make up my diversified portfolio. This knowledge has assisted me greatly in my profession as well as my individual investing.

As I said in my initial post, I certainly understand this method is not for anyone. I have nothing against index investing as I believe it is the method most people should adopt.

However, my method has proven to be very successful for me and also allowed me to gain a great deal of knowledge.

Most importantly, my income from these investments using this method is projected to easily exceed $200,000 next year. For me personally, being able to live off of the income from my investments without touching the principle is comforting.

Again, I know others differ with this concept, but it works for me. Best wishes in your personal journey and thanks for the interest.

 

[TheHobbit]

Long time lurker, and thanks to the advice on here and John Bogle, I just recently broke $2.5m invested with a paid off house. Early 40s. Going to ease up at $3m, and look at semi retiring (work 3 days a week or remote). Been a long journey, with plenty of deferred gratification, but worth it... I can feel the pivot coming where time is becoming the precious commodity vs. money.

 

[RISP]

Aaaand I finally doubled up: 200k invested as of this morning!

OMG, I had started to think I would never get there. For several months, I came tantalizingly close, only to have the market pull back a little each time. Then my car needed some repairs... Last Friday, at the close, I was €6 short. I mean, I have more than that in my wallet, but that's not how I'm keeping score, and I wasn't going to start cheating now.

So this morning, when the stock exchange opened, I finally made it over €200,000 for the first time.

It took me almost 6 years to get to the first 100k, and 3.5 years for the second. The third should come in under 3 years, if the markets cooperate. Next stop: Quarter Millionaire!

Okay, that didn't take long. One year to the day actually! Aggressive saving, good market returns on both stocks and bonds in 2019, and a small inheritance not only got me to 250k, but I now have more than 300k invested.

03-20-2015: 100,000
09-24-2018: 200,000
09-24-2019: 300,000

 

[tricky88]

A kind of surprising milestone: I'm up over $300k in net worth this calendar year. I've never broken $300k in any year. It's all putting us closer to the day... Which as it gets closer makes me worried about entirely new things, rather than work.

 

[ckelly78z]

My 401K is at $275K, while I have no more mortgage, and very little debt. My milestone is getting my daughter married off next month, and my 20 year old son is out of trade school (UNOH Diesel Tech) and is actively looking for an apartment. You can't imagine the expenses we have incurred for getting our kids to this point this year.

Next year, I will be able to take my 401K back up to 25%, and our household expenses should be cut in half with 2 less kids living there, and no more weddings to pay for.

 

[teetee]

Okay, that didn't take long. One year to the day actually! Aggressive saving, good market returns on both stocks and bonds in 2019, and a small inheritance not only got me to 250k, but I now have more than 300k invested.

03-20-2015: 100,000
09-24-2018: 200,000
09-24-2019: 300,000

Congrats. Looks like you are on your way to reach the 1st million within 5 years.

 

[RISP]

Congrats. Looks like you are on your way to reach the 1st million within 5 years.

Thanks! More like 12 years, according to my calculations, but who's keeping score.

At least I dearly hope there will be no more inheritances in my near future.