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No mention of those being born with a silver spoon..
and lots of people retire early by purchasing real estate and living off the monthly cashflow.
Yeah, I think real estate is the biggest omission from the list. I put sale of home for it, but that's not really accurate. Stocks/401K will be great from a liquidity standpoint and have done well, but the luck of being in an area with appreciating properties/rents on properties that are leveraged is really what made it happen for us.
Only semi-retired yet. Still consulting, but without worries for gap periods.
Wife retired 2 years ago and I'm going in another year or so. Of our total nest egg, about 50% is 401K both our contribution and employer match, 30% is equity in the house (bought the "ugly" house on the nice street in a SoCal beach city 32 years ago) about 15% inheritance and maybe 5% other (cash, cars, collectibles etc.)
My Pop, when his mortgage was paid, in the 1960's he started investing. This seemed unusual for that time, especially for that time and middle class ? Wondered to whom he consulted ?
Husband became disabled at 40, I was working part time till we moved to another state with lower cost of living. Husband always wanted to be out of CA ! When he became disabled, lived as frugally as possible with two teen-age sons. Husband moved to Heaven 5 years ago, and still modestly.
God has bless me with listening to wise folks like yourselves !
I'm a mix of real estate, tax deferred retirement portfolio, and after tax portfolio. In my career, I have seen less than $10K of employer matching. It's unlikely I'll inherit a dime but you never know.
My assets are from our investment portfolio which we started when we were 25 in college. We bought and collected rental Real Estate properties at each duty station.
Your poll lists:
'Sale of my house?'
I have sold houses, so I guess that some of my assets have come from the accumulatoin of selling properties.
'Sold my business'
All of our previous homes were rental properties. In my mind they were business assets.
'My wealthy kids gave me the money'
Ha ha ha
'401K Investment returns from employer contributions'
I have never put a dime into a 401k.
Always lived below our income and saved, saved, saved. Took advantage of the "magic" of compounding. Avoided load mutual funds. Believed in Vanguard early on. For stocks, buy and hold. (Bought Microsoft a couple years after the IPO, still have it.)
It's really not complicated. When we got married in 1970, we had about $1500 between us. I had a pearl engagement ring and we couldn't afford a diamond (small) until our fifth anniversary.
We both had college degrees and in those days that was the ticket. I recognize it's not as easy now. But we read books like "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need," "The Millionaire Next Door," subscribed to Kiplinger and Forbes and Fortune and Money magazines.
This year, now that we both have to take Required Minimum Distributions, our income, and thus taxes, will be higher than any other year of our lives. Note: One of us is a chemical engineer and one is an English major. You do NOT have to be a finance major to do well. Just keep studying and learning.
Lessons I've learned: maybe we should have had a lot more fun when we were younger. I encourage younger people reading this to consider that option if they're Savers with a capital S. Spend some of it and enjoy it while you're still able-bodied!
We have no kids, but even if you do, inheriting huge amounts of money may not do them good. We love our nieces and nephews, but the bulk of our estate will go to favorite charities.
Pretty much a combination of my local district pension, DH's state pension, purchasing a home and selling it a profit, investing profit in another house and then selling THAT at a profit, repeat, repeat, and also to a lesser degree owning rental property with a positive cash flow.
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