Financial Milestone Reached

[riverwed070707]

I added up the value of my 401K, my Roth, my Taxable Brokerage Account, and my various bank accounts this morning. Here is the current value:

$200,436.83

As a point of reference I am 34 years old, single with no kids, and earn around $55K a year. I'm quite pleased with my progress thus far of a financial journey that started about 10 years ago when I finally got my first "real" job.

Would anyone else like to share their finances?

That's awesome! I hope to be in a similar spot when I'm your age. I'm 26, married w 1 kiddo and have about $55k. I started saving when I got my first big kid job at 21. DH is older (32) but didn't have a retirement account (or savings for that matter!) until I opened one for him 2 years ago so that has been a bit of a slow down for us. Our household income is about $60k/yr -- mostly my salary + DHs very pt job.

[Petunia 100]

True, but if you hold onto that home for another decade, the price will likely have returned to where it was, maybe above it. You'll likely still have incurred a loss when you factor in inflation, but it's not as bad as it may appear if you are willing and capable of sticking it out for the long run.

I've always thought that a home is a long-term investment.

Well, if that happens, I will not mind.

Yes, a home is a long-term investment. However, that doesn't mean you can count on your down payment always being an asset in the form of equity. In my case, my down payment is long gone. At present, I would need my home value to rise about 65k just to get back to zero, and I would still be out the down payment. Hopefully, Kork will not find him/herself in a similar situation.

[Petunia 100]

And I don't think I ever responded to the original topic.

At age 40, my net worth was 250k, and I felt I was comfortably on track to hit 1 million by age 65. I only needed my net worth to double twice, and I had 25 years of saving and compounding to go.

Now at age 45, my net worth is just under 100k. It pops over sometimes, then back down. I am not at all confident I will hit 1 million by age 65. In fact, I consider it unlikely. I need my net worth to double 3.5 times in the next 20 years.

[riverwed070707]

And I don't think I ever responded to the original topic.

At age 40, my net worth was 250k, and I felt I was comfortably on track to hit 1 million by age 65. I only needed my net worth to double twice, and I had 25 years of saving and compounding to go.

Now at age 45, my net worth is just under 100k. It pops over sometimes, then back down. I am not at all confident I will hit 1 million by age 65. In fact, I consider it unlikely. I need my net worth to double 3.5 times in the next 20 years.

Interesting to see it from the perspective of someone who wasn't just getting into the market when it fell. I presume you are including your real estate in your net worth for both scenarios? How were your numbers affected excluding your home valuation loss? Looking at the original post, I think BJ was just looking at cash investments and savings.

[disneysteve]

I was going to ask if you knew how long it took to get from $100k to $200k? The power of compounding, once passing the $100k mark, is mind blowing.

Of course it is also a matter of perspective. Let's say you started with 5K and got to 100K. That's a 20X increase. From 100K to 200K is a 2X increase. From 200K to 300K is a 0.6X increase. So each successive 100K really does come faster and easier, which is a good thing.

[Petunia 100]

Interesting to see it from the perspective of someone who wasn't just getting into the market when it fell. I presume you are including your real estate in your net worth for both scenarios? How were your numbers affected excluding your home valuation loss? Looking at the original post, I think BJ was just looking at cash investments and savings.

Yes, including the home value in both. All of the loss is attributed to my home. My investment portfolio has long since recovered from the plunge in 2009.

[Gina23]

Age: 33

Started working in 2001 @ 40k/year.

I'm at about 250k saved including a pension from a former employer.

Current salary: 90k/year

I own a house and put about 50k down on that 3 years ago, so a chunk is tied up in that.

But, yes, things are finally starting to roll. It did take forever to get to that 100k mark. It was right before the crash a couple of years ago... I was at 99k... and suddenly the bottom dropped out of the market. Talk about crushing my milestone!

[feh]

My spouse and I are both 46. One child.

We have a little over 1.1M in retirement as of today. Net worth is about 1.55M. We've been saving and frugalizing for 20 years.

If the market does reasonably well the next few years, we should be looking at early retirement, which is our primary goal.

[breathemusic]

Age: 26

I've got just about $50k looking at my TSP, Roth IRA, and savings.

But since I started my job out of college 4 years ago, I've gone from making about $40k per year to making almost $90k with the last big promotion I got a few weeks ago.

Hopefully now I can really start throwing down some savings!


Congrats to all of you out there who have been hitting milestones and really committing to saving for retirement!!

[97guns]

it appears that everyones wealth is locked up in a 401K or IRA, is there anyone saving elsewhere?

[MonkeyMama]

it appears that everyones wealth is locked up in a 401K or IRA, is there anyone saving elsewhere?

??? Who said *all* their money was locked up in 401ks and IRAs?

[kork13]

it appears that everyones wealth is locked up in a 401K or IRA, is there anyone saving elsewhere?

I've got about 50% of my money in retirement accounts, 30% in taxable investments, and 20% in cash/I-bonds (not including my impending home purchase, which technically will alter this balance significantly).

Honestly, I don't see how it's a surprise that the majority of people's money is going to be in retirement (i.e. tax advantaged) accounts... Living in retirement with zero earned income for 25-30+ years is easily going to be the most expensive venture anyone embarks upon. Wouldn't you want to save the greatest portion of your money toward that lengthy, expensive period of your life? And even more, do so in a tax-advantaged account such as a 401k or Roth IRA?

[feh]

it appears that everyones wealth is locked up in a 401K or IRA, is there anyone saving elsewhere?

About half of our retirement savings are in taxable accounts.

[Gailete]

I say congrats to all of those that have stuck it out and done the hard work of saving. While I've tried hard, life has interferred with what I have been able to save so we are nowhere near a decent amount but we press on.

[auron]

Age: 26
Inc: $59k/yr
Not married, No kids, no car loan, no mortgage.

Savings: ~$12k (75% cash, 25% 401k)

Wish that savings number was higher, but I'm only 1 year out of school and I've paid $17k toward my student loans since last week in Dec '11.

Long way to go for that $100k mark