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Old 03-11-2014, 12:09 PM
 
4,196 posts, read 6,270,909 times
Reputation: 2835

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Quote:
Originally Posted by anInvestor View Post
My wife and I have always been savers. I think we've easily averaged +20% per year in savings.

We're in our mid 40's and have a mix of regular brokerage and retirement accounts. Combined current income is about $250k/yr.

We have:
$100k cash
$1.0M in standard brokerage accounts
$1.0M in retirement accounts
$400k in equity for our house

So our net-worth currently stands at about $2.4M

Our goal is to reach at least $3.5M and retire; which basically means just working on whatever we want.

I know our situation isn't typical, but what I can say is that SAVING is key. We wouldn't be where we are if we hadn't saved and invested. We've always max'd our retirements accounts, no exceptions.
Kudos.
nice job!
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Old 03-11-2014, 12:16 PM
 
3 posts, read 6,453 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by griffon652 View Post
^^ That's amazing man great job! What you said about saving is 100% true. I hope I can get somewhere near that. 1.7 Mil at 48 would make me satisfied because I don't make nearly as much as you so anything above that would just be good luck.
I figured out in my 20's that if I wanted to achieve a high salary I needed to live in a high-cost of living area which have commensurate high salaries, but live somewhat frugally. So we purposefully moved to what is now one of counties in the US which have the highest median incomes; a bonus is we also have the top elementary schools.

Everything is relative; so while earning $50k in Alabama might give you a nice living standard you will not be able to afford a Ferrari even as a good saver. But at least living in NYC with a high salary gives you the potential to afford a Ferrari. That was my reasoning and looking back on it was the correct decision for us.

I've also made investment mistakes. I got into a real-estate investment I didn't fully understand and lost $250k. I lost another $75k in a dumb mistake. But they are all lessons learned. But the key is not to give up and keep trying.

p.s. I'm too frugal to buy a Ferrari.

Last edited by anInvestor; 03-11-2014 at 12:35 PM..
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Old 03-15-2014, 11:24 PM
 
1,488 posts, read 1,951,175 times
Reputation: 3249
Quote:
Originally Posted by anInvestor View Post

I've also made investment mistakes. I got into a real-estate investment I didn't fully understand and lost $250k. I lost another $75k in a dumb mistake. But they are all lessons learned. But the key is not to give up and keep trying.

p.s. I'm too frugal to buy a Ferrari.
My problem is I HATE working so I plan on leaving the work force at 48. Worst case scenario is between me and the wife if everything goes wrong is we will be making around 170K/yr at that time so that’s a lot of lost income that we would have that I'm losing by retiring early. So I look at that as a lot of potential investment money I wont have but I would rather retire early and not work.

I'm in the same boat as you with the Ferrari except for me it was a Lamborghini. Especially after I saw the BMW I8 with the 94 mpg and 0-60 in 4.4. So I'm skipping the Lambo and definitely going to shell out the cash for the I8
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Old 03-17-2014, 05:18 PM
 
3 posts, read 6,453 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by griffon652 View Post
My problem is I HATE working so I plan on leaving the work force at 48. Worst case scenario is between me and the wife if everything goes wrong is we will be making around 170K/yr at that time so that’s a lot of lost income that we would have that I'm losing by retiring early. So I look at that as a lot of potential investment money I wont have but I would rather retire early and not work.

I'm in the same boat as you with the Ferrari except for me it was a Lamborghini. Especially after I saw the BMW I8 with the 94 mpg and 0-60 in 4.4. So I'm skipping the Lambo and definitely going to shell out the cash for the I8
I love my work, but I prefer to work on various projects of my own choosing. And do a lot of travel.

The new cars are nice but I'm still in love with the old Countach. Though really I'll think I'll be really happy buying 10 acres of land and some dirt bikes for me and the kids.
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Old 03-28-2014, 05:13 PM
 
Location: Texas
1,029 posts, read 1,480,420 times
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I'm 35/H is 36. He works for a tiny company and doesn't get a 401k. We've been married a year and between us have 3 kids.

We've got about
$175k in my 401k
$60k in IRAs
$55k in a brokerage account
$40k in the college funds (kids aged 4, 6, 8; two of the kids have another parent also saving for them).
$15k in cash

As of this year, we are maxing out the contributions to the 401k, maxing out his IRA, and adding a bit to my IRA, the brokerage account, and the various education accounts each month.

We save about 20% of our combined salaries, with another 2-5% currently going to short- or medium-term savings (downpayment on the next car, etc). The house will be paid off in 14 years.

We're on track for him to retire at 55 and me to retire at 60 and continue the same standard of living.
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Old 03-29-2014, 08:06 PM
 
Location: Flyover Country
26,212 posts, read 19,419,494 times
Reputation: 21673
I'm 47 and have $293,000.00. All of it invested in my 401K. No employer matching.

To give you an idea of the volatility of my investments, when the financial crash hit in 2008 I lost 38% of my portfolio value. But in 2009, I was up 36% from the last year, so it was largely a wash. And in 2010 I was up a whopping 64%.

For many years I did not diversify much, putting 30% of my monthly income into a single stock that often traded in the $35.00 to $45.00 a share range, and sometimes less than $35.00 (but not for long). I knew this stock and the potential for it and I banked a lot of money into it. Today that same stock trades at $99.00 a share. And I have since diversified.
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Old 05-26-2014, 10:04 PM
 
8 posts, read 29,244 times
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I'm 19 (in college) and have a little over $1000 in a 401k I had through an internship (1-for-1 matching up to 6% of salary/wages)
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Old 05-26-2014, 10:30 PM
 
26,150 posts, read 21,383,244 times
Reputation: 22746
Quote:
Originally Posted by odanny View Post
I'm 47 and have $293,000.00. All of it invested in my 401K. No employer matching.

To give you an idea of the volatility of my investments, when the financial crash hit in 2008 I lost 38% of my portfolio value. But in 2009, I was up 36% from the last year, so it was largely a wash. And in 2010 I was up a whopping 64%.

For many years I did not diversify much, putting 30% of my monthly income into a single stock that often traded in the $35.00 to $45.00 a share range, and sometimes less than $35.00 (but not for long). I knew this stock and the potential for it and I banked a lot of money into it. Today that same stock trades at $99.00 a share. And I have since diversified.


-38% and +36% is hardly a wash on a 100k starting balance you are at 84,320 after those two years you'd need another 18.6% to be even. This is a very common misconception

100k
-38%
+61.3%

That pulls you +6.00
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Old 05-26-2014, 10:58 PM
 
Location: Flyover Country
26,212 posts, read 19,419,494 times
Reputation: 21673
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowexpectations View Post
-38% and +36% is hardly a wash on a 100k starting balance you are at 84,320 after those two years you'd need another 18.6% to be even. This is a very common misconception

100k
-38%
+61.3%

That pulls you +6.00
That's interesting, thanks for that, even though the math is a bit fuzzy to me.
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Old 05-26-2014, 11:10 PM
 
26,150 posts, read 21,383,244 times
Reputation: 22746
Quote:
Originally Posted by odanny View Post
That's interesting, thanks for that, even though the math is a bit fuzzy to me.

I don't know if rounding out the numbers help illustrate it.


100k starting balance -50% = 50k


Year two you would have to be up 100% to break even for the two year time period. Being +50% in year two only gets you back to 75k or still down 25% over the time period
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