Half a million dollars!

[eefool]

My net worth crossed $500k! Not bad for a first post, eh?

A bit of an intro: I always knew I was going to retire early. While doing some research on it years ago, I found ERE's site, but thought it was "too extreme." I just kept saving and saving. I stumbled upon MMM 9 months ago, and now I'm more focused on reaching that goal.

Here's a plot of my net worth over the years.

[Ziggurat]

Congratulations, nice work!  (cool to have a nice graph like that too).

[jexy103]

Congratulations! Not bad for any # post! ;-) $500,000 in 7 years - great work!

[pac_NW]

Way to go!

[Zaga]

Great job!  So...what do the colors mean?

[eefool]

Thanks guys! Blue is retirement accounts, red is everything else.

[Exflyboy]

Nice.. Do you have a house thats paid off on top of this number?

Frank

[Mr Mark]

Excellent. Thats a great graph for those that feel they want to stuff it under the mattress. Compounding interest and dividend is a wondrous thing!

[umterp1999]

Congrats.  May I ask how old you are and what the everything else represents?  Real Estate, stocks etc?

[eefool]

No house paid off. I rent in the bay area. Doesn't make sense to buy for me.

I'm in my early 30s. Out of everything, it's ~80% in stocks, ~20% in equity in my parents house.

[payitoff]

cool stuff!! congratulations!

how much were you saving on average per year?

[spoonman]

Outstanding!  This is another example of how a persistent effort can snowball into something great. 

Very inspirational, thank you for sharing your story!

[Babymoustache]

Wow! Go you, you badass!! I'm suitably awe inspired and impressed! :)

[KBecks]

Congrats!!!

[lexie2000]

Excellent job!!

[eefool]

how much were you saving on average per year?

Don't have the numbers per year. Was definitely saving more early on cause I was still living with parents.

Last year, it was around $26k (~50% savings rate) and I only started to really cut down my expenses the last 4 months. I'm aiming for 60% this year.

[MrCash]

how much were you saving on average per year?

Don't have the numbers per year. Was definitely saving more early on cause I was still living with parents.

Last year, it was around $26k (~50% savings rate) and I only started to really cut down my expenses the last 4 months. I'm aiming for 60% this year.

Awesome!  What's your FI goal?

[eefool]

Awesome!  What's your FI goal?
[/quote]

I'm looking at 800k to 1m, so hopefully 3-5 years.

[FIreDrill]

Congrats! That's a pretty awesome Stache :)

[Vitai Slade]

Wow, congratulations! I just hit 50k the other day and can only dream of 500k, but it will come soon enough! I've been tracking my net worth and all of my accounts very closely for the past couple of years, but I only have been doing a standard line graph. Now I want to go back and do this kind of graph you have! Very cool looking and shows a lot more data in just one snapshot.

[soccerluvof4]

Job well done!

[Vitai Slade]

Aaaaaand I made my graph! It looks like the start of yours! I've now officially added this to my permanent net worth tracking file. It's so pretty! Thanks for the idea!

[MrCash]

Awesome!  What's your FI goal?

I'm looking at 800k to 1m, so hopefully 3-5 years.
[/quote]

Very nice!  You'll be there in no time at the rate you're going.

[Stashasaurus]

Hey eefool, I don't know if you have the information for a break down by account, but if you do, you can make a neat area graph.

[FrugalAussie]

Fantastic, it's wonderful to see that an average wage earner ($52,000/yr nett?) can save so well.  I'm also earning about $50,000/year and on track to save 50% this year but I'm nearly 20 years older.  For me the power is in having quick access to FU money. Good luck in getting to a 60% saving rate.  What will you do differently to save that extra 10%? 

[Ricky]

Fantastic, it's wonderful to see that an average wage earner ($52,000/yr nett?) can save so well.  I'm also earning about $50,000/year and on track to save 50% this year but I'm nearly 20 years older.  For me the power is in having quick access to FU money. Good luck in getting to a 60% saving rate.  What will you do differently to save that extra 10%?

$52k U.S. net dollars is definitely above average, given that this level of income would fall within the top 50% of earners.

[garg33]

Fantastic, it's wonderful to see that an average wage earner ($52,000/yr nett?) can save so well.  I'm also earning about $50,000/year and on track to save 50% this year but I'm nearly 20 years older.  For me the power is in having quick access to FU money. Good luck in getting to a 60% saving rate.  What will you do differently to save that extra 10%?

$52k U.S. net dollars is definitely above average, given that this level of income would fall within the top 50% of earners.

That's actually well below average for the Bay Area, where median income is $74,922. It's even below the CA statewide median income of $58,328. Which makes this achievement all the more impressive!

Source: http://blog.pacunion.com/bay-area-median-income-second-highest-in-us/
Edit: more authoritative, corroborating source: http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr12-02.pdf

[nicknageli]

That's actually well below average for the Bay Area, where median income is $74,922. It's even below the CA statewide median income of $58,328. Which makes this achievement all the more impressive!

I'm always amazed how how little households make in CA when compared to how expensive everything seems to be there.  Spend a little time in S. California and you'll find that a C-Class Mercedes or a 3-Series BMW is basically a Honda Civic there.  Everyone seems to have one.  It really makes me wonder what people do for a living.  I wonder if consumer debt per capita is any higher in CA than say TX, DC or AZ.

[Ricky]

Fantastic, it's wonderful to see that an average wage earner ($52,000/yr nett?) can save so well.  I'm also earning about $50,000/year and on track to save 50% this year but I'm nearly 20 years older.  For me the power is in having quick access to FU money. Good luck in getting to a 60% saving rate.  What will you do differently to save that extra 10%?

$52k U.S. net dollars is definitely above average, given that this level of income would fall within the top 50% of earners.

That's actually well below average for the Bay Area, where median income is $74,922. It's even below the CA statewide median income of $58,328. Which makes this achievement all the more impressive!

Source: http://blog.pacunion.com/bay-area-median-income-second-highest-in-us/
Edit: more authoritative, corroborating source: http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr12-02.pdf

Maybe so, but he said he was living with his parents for the majority of the time, in which case I assume they helped him out ALOT since it sounds like he had an 80-90% savings rate. Which he would of had to to have achieved $400k ($500k - 21% equity in parents' house) even WITH stock market returns. So cost of living was irrelevant here when he had such a high savings rate...

I wouldn't personally count equity I currently have no control over into my net worth.

A great achievement by any means, just providing some perspective that others may not have considered.

[eefool]

$52k is take home. I'm right about the median for net, but for a household of 1.

I'm always amazed how how little households make in CA when compared to how expensive everything seems to be there.  Spend a little time in S. California and you'll find that a C-Class Mercedes or a 3-Series BMW is basically a Honda Civic there.  Everyone seems to have one.  It really makes me wonder what people do for a living.  I wonder if consumer debt per capita is any higher in CA than say TX, DC or AZ.

As for consumer debt, looks like CA does lead the nation (http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/national_economy/householdcredit/DistrictReport_Q12013.pdf), but it's due to higher home prices/higher mortgages.

[Elaine]

This is really inspiring to see, thanks for posting!

[eefool]

Maybe so, but he said he was living with his parents for the majority of the time, in which case I assume they helped him out ALOT since it sounds like he had an 80-90% savings rate. Which he would of had to to have achieved $400k ($500k - 21% equity in parents' house) even WITH stock market returns. So cost of living was irrelevant here when it sounds like he received a lot of help.

I wouldn't personally count equity I currently have no control over into my net worth.

A great achievement by any means, just providing some perspective that others may not have considered.

Yes, I definitely received a lot of help. I'm extremely grateful for what my parents have done. I came out of college with no debt, lived at home for close to 4 years while working while helping out minimally with some bills (around 300/mo?). But more importantly, they were always frugal and raised me to be the same.

[Ambergris]

Well done, eefool!  I am looking forward to being a half millionaire myself soon, but my circumstances are less impressive than yours - higher income, lower cost of living area, not able to put up with parents non-stop ;)

[nicknageli]

As for consumer debt, looks like CA does lead the nation (http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/national_economy/householdcredit/DistrictReport_Q12013.pdf), but it's due to higher home prices/higher mortgages.

Great link/info.  Thanks.

Congrats on your savings!

[Ricky]

Maybe so, but he said he was living with his parents for the majority of the time, in which case I assume they helped him out ALOT since it sounds like he had an 80-90% savings rate. Which he would of had to to have achieved $400k ($500k - 21% equity in parents' house) even WITH stock market returns. So cost of living was irrelevant here when it sounds like he received a lot of help.

I wouldn't personally count equity I currently have no control over into my net worth.

A great achievement by any means, just providing some perspective that others may not have considered.

Yes, I definitely received a lot of help. I'm extremely grateful for what my parents have done. I came out of college with no debt, lived at home for close to 4 years while working while helping out minimally with some bills (around 300/mo?). But more importantly, they were always frugal and raised me to be the same.

Congrats at any rate. You definitely made the right choice to save - which I'm sure your parents appreciate and are proud of. It would be a lot different if you traveled excessively and bought frivolous things.

I'm sure its a good feeling knowing that you could semi-retire right now, or at least take a significant amount of time off from "work".

[randymarsh]

I'm always amazed how how little households make in CA when compared to how expensive everything seems to be there.

Same. Plenty of people make lots of money in certain parts of CA. But it seems like "regular" earners are at a huge disadvantage.

Is the 72K median per household or per worker? Must be household right?

My own zip code has a median household income of $66,000. But the price difference in housing is night and day compared to the Bay area. There's also much less pressure to keep up. A few people drive BMWs, but most parking lots are Civics/Accords/Explorers.

[George_PA]

Nice job eefool!

You mentioned that out of everything you have 80% in stocks.  Any chance you could share what you invested in, i.e. was it an index fund? with vanguard or another company?  Also is all the stock in 401k or Roth IRA type age restricted retirement investments or do you keep a certain percentage outside of the 401k type investments?

Thanks, I am always interested to here from real world people as to exactly what worked for them.

[eefool]

Of the 80%, it's about 45% in IRAs, 35% in post tax accounts. My company discontinued their 401k plan a while back, so I'm limited there.

For my retirement accounts (Vanguard), I started with a Target fund. Once I had enough to spread out to my own allocation, I went with 30% Total International Index, 30% Small Cap, 20% Value Index, and 20% S&P 500 index. Picked it out of a list of allocations thinking I could take on more risk, thus higher international and small caps.

The post tax accounts are all over the place. I've done ETFs, leveraged ETFs, and individual stocks. I even took a (tiny) gamble on Fannie Mae. Broke even there and realized it wasn't for me. Haven't fully run the numbers to see if it's worked better than an index fund. That's basically what's next on my list.

[zinnie]

congrats! that's a super impressive graph.