when you started here...

[disneysteve]

Wasn't terribly easy, but I went into each of the main forums (General Discussion, Investing & Banking, Personal Finance, etc.), went to the very last page, noted when I joined the forums, and started clicking through the page counter 100 at a time until I found posts from that rough timeframe. Then clicked through each page until I found my opening post.

What can I say, it was a Saturday afternoon & I got curious. Lol

There’s an easier way.

Do an Advanced Search for your user name and plug in the dates of the month you joined. I searched June 1 to June 30, 2006. Of course, that only works if you posted around the time you joined. If you lurked for a while and didn’t post right away, just expand your search parameters.

[kork13]

There’s an easier way.

Do an Advanced Search for your user name and plug in the dates of the month you joined. I searched June 1 to June 30, 2006. Of course, that only works if you posted around the time you joined. If you lurked for a while and didn’t post right away, just expand your search parameters.

LOL! I knew there had to have been an easier way than brute-forcing my way through it... Hahahaha

[Singuy]

2013
Debt
Student loan: ~90k of student loans,
140k of mortgage

Assets
10k of emergency fund
401k: 110k

2020
Debt
Zero

Assets
40k emergency fund/savings
50k Prepaid tuition
35k peerstreet
401k: 500k
Stocks: 3 million
Home equity: 900k

[amarowsky]

It says I joined: 6/27/2008.

Age: 21 (1 year into my 1st career on the Railroad)
Mortgage: $None
Debt: -$10,000
Portfolio value: ~$2500


2020: according to one of my trackers.
Age: 33 + 32 Y/o Wife (wife works fulltime, i'm working several part time jobs).
Debt: ZERO
R.E. Debt: Zero
Portfolio value: $370k
R.E. Value :$320k

Very good organic progress, helps when you have a married team working at it. . Paid off all of my debt levers earlier this year. And getting my R.E. License now. All my growth will try to be focused on either *Very freeing simple ways to make decent money -or- following jobs/projects/ideas that i'm interested in already, or curious to learn. Trying to make money motivation one of my later requests.... Only thing that keeps this plan risky, is you're not safe unless you have at least 1 foot in a big corporation before your medicare age. Thankfully, my wife is holding our insurance hostage card, by her corporation. I'm hoping this (corporate insurance affordability) will be bucked soon though. My last ditch effort, is taking a loading job at UPS. Super part time, but you get the big corporate insurance. Otherwise I'll have to go back to corporate sales..... (not the end of the world, but I only want to do that as a last resort. )

[cypher1]

Joined 4/2010 at 29, the following are rough estimates off top of head.

Debt: Mortgage 208K (1 yr in)

EF: 24K
401K: 6K (contribution rate 5%)


2020 at 39:
Debt: Mortgage 150K

HE: 170K
EF: 38K
401K: 162K (up to 18%)
Portfolio: 156K
Saving/contribution rate: 30-32% of gross.

[srblanco7]

Joined in Feb 2008.

Rough estimates for 2008
Debt: Mortgage $100k
Retirement and Investment Accounts including 529s: $600k

Current
Debt: None
Retirement and Investment Accounts $4.3M
529s: $166k
EF: $80k
Savings & Contribution Rate: 27% of gross (plus annual bonus)

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Joined in Feb 2008.

Rough estimates for 2008
Debt: Mortgage $100k
Retirement and Investment Accounts including 529s: $600k

Current
Debt: None
Retirement and Investment Accounts $4.3M
529s: $166k
EF: $80k
Savings & Contribution Rate: 27% of gross (plus annual bonus)

How did you manage to increase the Investments so much? Savings or investing? Amazing job!

[Singuy]

How did you manage to increase the Investments so much? Savings or investing? Amazing job!

Just me speculating but look at the year when he had 600k, it was 2008. That's pretty much the bottom of the bull market so any modest contribution including such a high base number should get him to where he is.

[srblanco7]

How did you manage to increase the Investments so much? Savings or investing? Amazing job!

Thanks LAL. A combination of good fortune, a healthy savings rate, and solid stock market performance since the time that I joined this site accounts for the majority of the growth. I also was a shareholder in a privately held company that sold and netted me an additional $750k in early 2019. I had been slowly DCA-ing these funds into the market when the pandemic hit, and, though I've never been a market-timer, I used it as an opportunity to invest what remained, which has bolstered our returns this year.

At the risk of over-explaining, I accumulated my shares in the privately held company based on foregoing a bonus over a roughly 15 year period and instead opting to receive my bonus in Company shares. Ultimately, I believe this approach resulted in a higher rate of return than if I'd taken the bonus in cash and invested in the market, but I've never run the calculation to verify.

[srblanco7]

Just me speculating but look at the year when he had 600k, it was 2008. That's pretty much the bottom of the bull market so any modest contribution including such a high base number should get him to where he is.

Fairly close to the bottom Singuy. Based on my tracking spreadsheet the $600k when I joined this site in Feb 2008 dropped to $460k in March of 2009. And, as you note, market performance since that time, has generally been solidly in positive territory.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Thanks LAL. A combination of good fortune, a healthy savings rate, and solid stock market performance since the time that I joined this site accounts for the majority of the growth. I also was a shareholder in a privately held company that sold and netted me an additional $750k in early 2019. I had been slowly DCA-ing these funds into the market when the pandemic hit, and, though I've never been a market-timer, I used it as an opportunity to invest what remained, which has bolstered our returns this year.

At the risk of over-explaining, I accumulated my shares in the privately held company based on foregoing a bonus over a roughly 15 year period and instead opting to receive my bonus in Company shares. Ultimately, I believe this approach resulted in a higher rate of return than if I'd taken the bonus in cash and invested in the market, but I've never run the calculation to verify.

That's a nice bonus of $750k. Try and run simulations. I'm curious.

[srblanco7]

That's a nice bonus of $750k. Try and run simulations. I'm curious.

Thanks for the prompt LAL, been meaning to actually run the numbers. Ran a simple simulation, assumed bonus each year was invested in S&P 500 fund and, in summary, appears I came out roughly 500k ahead by opting for company ownership. Validates what I'd presumed - but was interesting to actually run the calc.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Thanks for the prompt LAL, been meaning to actually run the numbers. Ran a simple simulation, assumed bonus each year was invested in S&P 500 fund and, in summary, appears I came out roughly 500k ahead by opting for company ownership. Validates what I'd presumed - but was interesting to actually run the calc.

So you made more than double by betting on yourself over taking the cash bonus. Not a bad bet i would say.

[ryan_themoneyguy]

As someone who works to help others find their best routes out of debt, I am so inspired by everyone's initiative and stories in this forum. Keep up the amazing work--you all help others in debt stay motivated and let them know it's possible to turn their financial situations around!

[bjl584]

Older thread, but I thought it would be fun to see how some of the veteran members' finances and situations have changed since signing up as a member on the forum.

I went from around a $100K net worth back in 2006 to just shy of $2 million today