Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And this is why my high school friends that work as teachers and social workers are enjoying full lifestyle (lots of restaurants, beach homes -though modest-, tons of school activities, pretty clothes, nicely decorated homes in good school districts, newer cars) and I'm only having half of that even though our income is probably twice as much as theirs.
So true. There are quite a few government employees who don't have to save a million dollars when their pensions will give them a nice enough lifestyle. No incentive to save. Might as well enjoy today since the in the future the pensions will cover them.
It’s human nature to see how one compares to others. Sometimes it’s helpful. I found out compared to others I was behind on saving for retirement. It made me sit down and get serious about catching up. This is a pretty anonymous forum and if people don’t want to share its fine. I find when no one shares, no one learns.
You're right, it is human nature to be curious where you are in comparison to others. I've used online tools before that show a distribution based on demographics and other tools that designate how much the sponsoring author believes people should have in their retirement funds at different ages.
Where I took issue is the idea that anyone would be asked to justify why they haven't reached some specific milestone, of someone else's choosing, which was the point of the thread. It sounded like baiting when I read it. YMMV.
Yes, I was giving a rough figure. But with dividends, it could be a lot more.
Anyway, the reality is that in late 2008/early 2009, most people were very freaked out by the stock market. A lot of people sold on the way down or they vowed that they would never invest in the stock market again. Such is human psychology.
Yeah, that was a conservative estimate. According to Portfolio Visualizer, 209k invested at the beginning of March (not March 9 exactly) in Vanguard's most expensive share class of the S&P 500 Index fund would have gotten you $1,041,963 as of the end of last month. That would include reinvesting all dividends.
Adding another $500 a month would have gotten you $1,170,655.
The problem with the whole premise of this thread is that getting to $209k is actually harder, in many ways, than getting to $1M. That first 100k is really the toughest climb. After that, if you just keep consistently adding a decent amount of, say $500 a month into a reasonably diversified portfolio it just takes off.
It took me 8.5 years to get to my first 100k and only 6 additional years to get to 200k, and that was despite the stock market crash and some bad investing decisions on my part.
Take your pick: Total stock market index fund, S&P 500 index fund, Vanguard Balanced Index, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index, Vanguard Wellington, Fidelity Balanced, Dodge & Cox Balanced, Mairs & Power Balanced--all are good enough--and this is not an exhaustive list.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 10-14-2019 at 05:50 PM..
Yeah, that was a conservative estimate. According to Portfolio Visualizer, 209k invested at the beginning of March (not March 9 exactly) in Vanguard's most expensive share class of the S&P 500 Index fund would have gotten you $1,041,963 as of the end of last month. That would include reinvesting all dividends.
Adding another $500 a month would have gotten you $1,170,655.
The problem with the whole premise of this thread is that getting to $209k is actually harder, in many ways, than getting to $1M. That first 100k is really the toughest climb. After that, if you just keep consistently adding a decent amount of, say $500 a month into a reasonably diversified portfolio it just takes off.
Take your pick: Total stock market index fund, S&P 500 index fund, Vanguard Balanced Index, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index, Vanguard Wellington, Fidelity Balanced, Dodge & Cox Balanced, Mairs & Power Balanced--all are good enough--and this is not an exhaustive list.
It took me 50 years of life to hit a million ...but only 12 years to multiply it many times over ....the deals get bigger and you are privy to deals you would never have access to as you network
And this is why my high school friends that work as teachers and social workers are enjoying full lifestyle (lots of restaurants, beach homes -though modest-, tons of school activities, pretty clothes, nicely decorated homes in good school districts, newer cars) and I'm only having half of that even though our income is probably twice as much as theirs.
As a government employee, I admit this is true. I'm sort of like this. Although I certainly don't have the lifestyle described above, my pension will be worth the equivalent of having $1M saved if I continue working there 6 more years until age 55.
As a government employee, I admit this is true. I'm sort of like this. Although I certainly don't have the lifestyle described above, my pension will be worth the equivalent of having $1M saved if I continue working there 6 more years until age 55.
People talk about pension cash flow being the equivalent of what a million dollars can produce but that is very different then having a million dollars saved .....
At a 4% draw the million dollars saved can generate that cash flow and 30 years later have more left over 90% of the time , then you started with .
so you can have that pensionized income from that million dollars BUT you also can end with more than the million you started with left ....that equivalent pension dies with you or your spouse ....so there is still a big difference between cash flow generated via a portfolio vs an equivalent cash flow via a pension
Last edited by mathjak107; 10-14-2019 at 06:21 PM..
there is a host of conflicting info in this thread... some people claim a million is not much these days, if we accept that thesis then $210k should indeed be an extremely pedestrian amount to save up, yet, many claim that to come up with $210k is a huge task that will take many many years... which is in direct contradiction to the claim that a "million isn't much", which one is it, let's get the story straight here.
Yet, if it takes many years to come up with just $210k then coming up with $1.7 million would just be a fantasy... these savers are contributing on average $8800, at that contribution level and a consistent 6% CAGR it would take 42 years to reach $1.7 million EXCEPT that in 42 years the inflation adjusted value of $1.7 million would be $4 million so they would still not even have reached 50% of the goal.
I primarily posed this question because I have heard from many that a million isn't much these days, so if it isn't that much then why don't you have a million? Or if you do I would've expected many to state in this thread that they have easily reached that figure. Except that most in this thread gave a myriad of reasons why that was a lofty goal...
however if it is a LOFTY goal then reaching a million is not an easy task and a million is a LOT contrary to the claim that a million isn't much.
You're the one using words like "paltry $210K".
If you meant it sarcastically, that was lost on most of us. It's hard to convey a tone in writing.
As a government employee, I admit this is true. I'm sort of like this. Although I certainly don't have the lifestyle described above, my pension will be worth the equivalent of having $1M saved if I continue working there 6 more years until age 55.
How many of your co-workers are putting aside extra like yourself? Or are most spending their paycheque and relying on their pension? If I was lucky enough for a gov't pension I wouldn't save and invest as much as I currently do that's for sure.
Most of us who managed to accumulate a few bucks don’t save in a linear fashion ..at different points in our lives we have less available to save and at other points more .
While i always tried to invest from my teen days I really did not get much traction until much later on with the bulk after the kids were older
Yes, I was giving a rough figure. But with dividends, it could be a lot more.
Anyway, the reality is that in late 2008/early 2009, most people were very freaked out by the stock market. A lot of people sold on the way down or they vowed that they would never invest in the stock market again. Such is human psychology.
And that is when you become the bull in the bear market.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
