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Old 12-01-2015, 12:47 PM
 
30,876 posts, read 36,845,439 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359 View Post
One should seek a career that provides personal satisfaction and one you can work with some degree of happiness for at least thirty years. Challenges in the work place and outside it should be treated as opportunities for personal growth--rather than something to be avoided.Just sayin'.
A lot of people who pursue early financial independence see a 30 year career path as a jail sentence that totally restricts their flexibility and freedom, especially their time freedom.
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Old 12-01-2015, 01:57 PM
 
24,530 posts, read 18,106,170 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Siegel View Post
With 7% of all U.S. households having a net worth of $1 million or more, I think your estimate is way low.
I doubt spending $100K per year as a retiree has all that much correlation with high net worth. I'd bet the majority of retirees spending like that have defined benefit pensions. Two married retired teachers in the Northeast certainly have more than $100K coming in.

The 70%th percentile for net worth of retirees is about $300K. There just aren't that many households with enough investable assets to throw off that kind of passive income. With the death of the defined benefit pension, I would think that the trend is that we'll have even less retiree households spending $100K+ (inflation-adjusted) twenty years from now. The late-Boomers and Gen-X-ers have far more income and wealth stratification than early boomers.
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Old 12-01-2015, 02:08 PM
 
24,530 posts, read 18,106,170 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359 View Post
About a year ago, I calculated my wife and I are now millionaires based on our net worth. Big deal. I think people have it all wrong. The goal in life should not be to be a millionaire. The goal should be to live as well as possible. If one can live like a millionaire and not be a millionaire that's fine. My love for nice vacations abroad, new automobiles, and more than one home undoubtedly has held down our net worth. Yet, I wouldn't trade any of it for more dollars in the bank.
I wrote something like this as a rebuttal to mathjack in either the personal finance or retirement areas not too long ago. I've lived large my whole life with 5%-er income for most of it. In my last decade working, I've had to dial it back some to make sure I have enough of a war chest to retire comfortably. My father did pretty much the same thing. He didn't optimize his life for generating income or wealth. He certainly didn't suffer when he retired but he didn't have millions piled up. I'm on the same trajectory.
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Old 12-02-2015, 10:18 AM
 
Location: Ontario, NY
3,513 posts, read 7,760,804 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LongNote View Post
Do you know any self-made millionaires?
I do not know one, but my father does. He served in the Vietnam in the sea-bees with someone who later invented some kind of bracket to retrofit houses for earth quake proofing. I'm pretty sure his name was Garry D. Myers, the dates he started his company and the date my father was released from the military pretty much line up. His company was later purchased by Warren Buffet. He's a self made multimillionaire. After the my Father got out of the military, the Garry wanted to start a construction business with him in California (MHP, Inc. Structural Engineers), but my Father wanted to move back to Philadelphia where his relatives were. If he had stayed out in California like my Mother wanted, I could have had a much different life right now. My father sees him from time to time for Sea-bee reunions.

Last edited by TechGromit; 12-02-2015 at 10:29 AM..
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Old 12-02-2015, 10:28 AM
 
Location: Nashville TN
4,918 posts, read 6,444,128 times
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A million dollars in cash is still impressive, most millionaires i know only became millionaires from selling their house because they live in states like NY, CA or MA where the real estate is high and they sat on homes for years and then sold it when the RE market was at all all time high. 1 million or 2 million cash and not liquid assists is still impressive especially if you are under 50
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Old 12-02-2015, 11:47 AM
 
Location: Near Falls Lake
4,232 posts, read 3,148,550 times
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I know many self-made millionaires. They are not as uncommon as one would think. I made considerable amount of money when I sold my engineering company but keep in mind I sacrificed income for a very, very long time. My girlfriend did it by saving 18% of her income and living below her means since the time she was 20 (she had a very nice 6 figure income for many of these years-not bad for someone who never went to college). Saving and investing enabled her to retire very early and never have to be overly concerned about money for the rest of her life.
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Old 12-02-2015, 04:34 PM
 
Location: Spain
12,722 posts, read 7,529,982 times
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It is quite possible to pass get the self-made millionaire label and retire early by:
1. Having a well paying job
2. Living under your means
3. Understanding that investing isn't a savings account *cough* richrf *cough*
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Old 12-02-2015, 04:44 PM
 
Location: Striving for Avalon
1,431 posts, read 2,475,107 times
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Define "self made".

I know many who had some sort of windfall/leg up. I
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Old 12-02-2015, 04:57 PM
 
Location: Coastal Georgia
50,154 posts, read 63,598,266 times
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When I was young, I worked in banking. It is there where I learned not to judge a book by its cover.
Back then, in the early 1980s, banking was still done at the local level, and business was done on a hand shake. Anyway, some of our customers (now, they're clients, haha) were small business owners, who came to the bank with greasy hands, or overalls. They were hard working, steady strokers, who worked hard, and ran successful businesses.
I am sure that, on paper, they were millionaires, back when a million was a lot more than it is now.
My friend's second husband, now deceased, owned a Peterbilt truck dealership. He was a modest guy. He sold his company for a million bucks when he retired, but you never would have known it.
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Old 12-02-2015, 05:50 PM
 
Location: Spain
12,722 posts, read 7,529,982 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amelorn View Post
Define "self made".

I know many who had some sort of windfall/leg up. I
Self made = didn't inherit a business or substantial sum of money, wasn't gifted an executive position in family company, didn't win the lottery, didn't win a giant lawsuit, etc.
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