Small milestone - $2M

[Finance Dave]

Congrats on the $2M!

I could not sleep well at night with 83% equities...but I'm sure your situation is much different than mine.

 

[brokrken]

Congrats on the $2M!

I could not sleep well at night with 83% equities...but I'm sure your situation is much different than mine.

It gives me some pause, as well. And I can tell you back in March I was worried as hell. Two points that make me keep the current allocation.

1. This is what helped get me to where I am. So, sort of a dance with the girl you brought thing. And, if I want to RE in 4-5 years, this allocation/risk is gives me a better shot to get me to the number that I need.

2. My planned RE is 48 and I am planning/trying like hell to get there. But, if the market falls apart, I will still be young enough to w*rk a little longer if a recovery is needed.

As soon as I RE, I plan to move closer to 65/35.

 

[brokrken]

I intend to "graduate" from working next May.

Nice!! I wish I was there with you, but I have some years to go. Need to get my daughter off to college first.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Nice!! I wish I was there with you, but I have some years to go. Need to get my daughter off to college first.

Thanks!

OTOH, my RE will be a lot less "E" than your RE!

Best of luck with launching your daughter.

 

[NW-Bound]

Congrats to the OP!

... I think my favorite milestone (besides reaching FI) was when I made more per year from my investments than from salary...

Many years ago, I realized I needed to pay attention to my stash when I observed the same. I started to watch and log its value every day.

And of course, I then saw that I could lose the same as my annual earned income in a matter of a month. You could lose in a month what it took a year to gain. The market always drops faster than it climbs. That's how the market works. But the stash slowly rises and I now can lose my previous annual salary in a much shorter time than a month. Hey, that's progress.

I am still updating that diary which exists as a file on my laptop. The date of the first entry is 1999/12/13.

 

[brokrken]

I started to watch and log its value every day.

I update the value of all of my accounts every day. Takes 5 minutes as part of my morning routine. I don't, however, keep a daily log. I just change the values. The only log that is kept is annual, when I start on a fresh row. That goes back to 2009

 

[Koolau]

Congrats to the OP!




Many years ago, I realized I needed to pay attention to my stash when I observed the same. I started to watch and log its value every day.

And of course, I then saw that I could lose the same as my annual earned income in a matter of a month. You could lose in a month what it took a year to gain. The market always drops faster than it climbs. That's how the market works. But the stash slowly rises and I now can lose my previous annual salary in a much shorter time than a month. Hey, that's progress.

I am still updating that diary which exists as a file on my laptop. The date of the first entry is 1999/12/13.

I suppose the reason I've structured my AA with rarely more than 35% equities is because I couldn't stand the thought of "losing my salary" in a month (or year, etc.) SO, it's cost me in the long run, but I've been more than happy with the smoother ride - albeit not so fast or "exciting."

 

[NW-Bound]

Now that I have used Quicken since 2010, I can use it to show what I had in each account on any past date, and do not really need my diary file. But prior to Quicken, I used MS Money which has gone defunct. And I like to have a simple record of what my liquid assets were in the past, so that I can just scan through the file, and remind myself that the market giveth, and the market taketh.

Why, just in February of this year when the pandemic finally shook up the US market, I lost my previous annual earned income - back in 2012 when I was still working - in a single week.

Yes, from 2/19/2020 when the S&P reached a record high to one week later on 2/26/2020, I "lost" what I used to work for 1 year to earn. And that was gross income, with SS deduction and all kinds of taxes.

And of course it did not stop there. The market kept sliding until it hit bottom on 3/23/2020, and the S&P lost 34% in a month. How many years of work did I "lose", top to bottom? It is painful even now to compute it. Heh heh heh... Oh man, that's a lot of bread.

Actually, I have been through this kind of turmoil before, in the 2000 tech route, and then the 2008-2009 subprime fiasco. Each time, it hurts less and less.

And I was never 100% in the market. 80% max. Only about 55% currently.

Slowly made back what I "lost" and then some. So far so good...

 

[street]

^ interesting in posters comparing working years income vs what the market has brought in comparison in gains.

I know in the 52 months I have been retired, I have had a year or so I didn't make my total income for the year. I did see what I had when I started retirement until what I had today, and in 52 months I average $23,700.00 a month income. I can tell you that I never made that amount a month when I was working. So, no matter what happened in the past 52 months I still made more per month, maybe not a year, then I did working.

 

[nash031]

I was close to this milestone with the recent run-up combined with some well-timed money put into the market during the COVID crash earlier this year... but then we decided to open a small business and invest about 15% of our invested assets into it and now we're not. BUT, there's a decent chance we'll end the year at the same "number" that we started the year at, but with a small business running for my wife's work and my eventual side-gig!

What a year it's been!

 

[NW-Bound]

^ interesting in posters comparing working years income vs what the market has brought in comparison in gains.

I know in the 52 months I have been retired, I have had a year or so I didn't make my total income for the year. I did see what I had when I started retirement until what I had today, and in 52 months I average $23,700.00 a month income. I can tell you that I never made that amount a month when I was working. So, no matter what happened in the past 52 months I still made more per month, maybe not a year, then I did working.

It's great that you get that much more from investment gains than your previous work income. That's a great place to be.

As Koolau meant earlier, people compare their investment gains to their work income, because when you get more for doing nothing vs. toiling 8 hours/day, you start to lose the incentive to work.

Your post made me look back to the point where I quit work in 2012. My stash is quite larger than it was at that point, but is the gain higher than my would-be earned income? It is not.

But, but, but I have been drawing on the stash for living expenses. What if I account for that? Quicken comes to the rescue here, as with just a few keystrokes, it tells me how much I have spent since my last paycheck.

And I add that back to what I have now, and subtract out the value back in 2012 to get the gain, then divide by the 8 years of putzing around. Oh la la! Not bad. It's quite a bit more than what I would make working. Of course I did not bother to make adjustments for inflation, because that takes too much work.

Dang! The market god has been very kind the last 8 years since I retired.


PS. Of course if I knew the market was so good, I would have gone 100% in stock. Wouldda, shouldda...

 

[street]

NW-Bound >>> I remember when I was in my early 20's I would calculate out on paper to see what I would have to have in savings to make more then my salary. Lol

I had pages full of number as I would do it on paper. I remember when I finally threw it away, and thought to myself what a lot of work I went through. I guess I had fun and did some dreaming along the way thou.

Yes, times have been good for all of us, and if we weren't making more from investments I suppose we would be still working.

I could go back and see what I spent and add that back in, to get a actual true number.

 

[Koolau]

NW-Bound >>> I remember when I was in my early 20's I would calculate out on paper to see what I would have to have in savings to make more then my salary. Lol

I had pages full of number as I would do it on paper. I remember when I finally threw it away, and thought to myself what a lot of work I went through. I guess I had fun and did some dreaming along the way thou.

Yes, times have been good for all of us, and if we weren't making more from investments I suppose we would be still working.

I could go back and see what I spent and add that back in, to get a actual true number.

I still recall doing that kind of paper-figuring. I had a special notebook for it. I found myself doing it every time I was struggling at w*rk. I even recall setting up a proposed countdown to FIRE when the earliest I would be FI was 11 years off! Fortunately, times got better and I actually stayed beyond FI. YMMV

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I open a bottle of Veuve Clicquot or DP for every big milestone of that sort. I put the date on the cork and tuck it away -- with the other corks -- way up on a top book shelf, way in the back against the wall. Only I know they are there, but for some reason I get my jollies knowing I have that stash marking those big milestones.

Congrats to you; have a drink!

I love this!

-BB