Author Topic: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.  (Read 5827 times)

felizcortez

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We hit another major milestone today on our journey.  We clicked over $2M in net worth 3 years after we crossed the first $1M (March 2015).  Wife is 32 and I'm 35 and honestly didn't think we'd get here this quickly.  I mean, I knew our net worth would grow, but I had no idea it increase so quickly.  Frankly, I'm still in a bit of shock, particularly since the market gains have been crazy.  I'm still under contract at work so have to finish that up or I owe back some significant cash so we have about a year left until we are planning on pulling the trigger

The piece that put us over the top was a few options that vested today.  We still have a few large payouts expected this year so it's going to be great no matter what the markets decide to do.

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2018, 08:26:35 PM »
Way to go!  I am hoping to get to 2 in a few more years.  You are right that the increases in the market daily are jaw dropping!

Lyssa

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2018, 12:54:11 AM »
Congrats!

Still working on my first but at least that's more than halfway done. Completely unrelated question: How long took your second 500k? ;-)

Linea_Norway

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2018, 01:51:29 AM »
Congrats. Well done at such a young age. You will end up with a nest egg higher than most people who start FIRE on this site.

felizcortez

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2018, 08:40:35 AM »
Congrats!

Still working on my first but at least that's more than halfway done. Completely unrelated question: How long took your second 500k? ;-)

The second $500k took less than a year.  We hit 1.5M in Feb 2017

soccerluvof4

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2018, 09:24:55 AM »
that is amazingly fast! congrats..

felizcortez

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2018, 10:44:38 AM »
that is amazingly fast! congrats..

Yes, it was a combination of vesting stock at work, major bonus payments, and high salary.  Returns in the market have also boosted this up significantly as well.


moof

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2018, 03:42:45 PM »
Well done!

We crossed $750k invested and $900k net worth just recently, it seems like the first $250k took about 10 years, the next 250k about 7 years, and the last 250k only 3 years.

Moving from ~15-20% savings to ~45% combined with a market tail wind has really accelerated things over the last couple years.

Dicey

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2018, 11:54:38 PM »
There aren't many places one can discuss this stuff without criticism, so here's a hearty "Congratulations!" from me.

DH and are pushing the third mil, but we're much older than you are. We also never had high salaries, huge bonuses or stock options. Nonetheless, we made it. My point to others is not to be discouraged if you're not a high wage earner or didn't get a super early start. Just get moving and one day you'll be singing your own version of this song.

BTDretire

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2018, 11:37:31 AM »
There aren't many places one can discuss this stuff without criticism, so here's a hearty "Congratulations!" from me.

DH and are pushing the third mil, but we're much older than you are. We also never had high salaries, huge bonuses or stock options. Nonetheless, we made it. My point to others is not to be discouraged if you're not a high wage earner or didn't get a super early start. Just get moving and one day you'll be singing your own version of this song.

  Same situation here Dicey, (We also never had high salaries, huge bonuses or stock options).
It took us 31 years for the first $1M and 6 years for the 2nd.

brute

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2018, 11:43:27 AM »
Hell yeah! Nice work.

ysette9

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2018, 09:09:06 PM »
Compound interest truly is a magical thing. Congratulations. We hope to be following in your footsteps soon enough.

felizcortez

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2018, 11:16:27 AM »
Compound interest truly is a magical thing. Congratulations. We hope to be following in your footsteps soon enough.

I agree, looking at the dividend payments and realizing that the investments are adding the same if no more than I am from my savings is a cool thing. 

PaulMaxime

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2018, 11:35:04 AM »
There aren't many places one can discuss this stuff without criticism, so here's a hearty "Congratulations!" from me.

DH and are pushing the third mil, but we're much older than you are. We also never had high salaries, huge bonuses or stock options. Nonetheless, we made it. My point to others is not to be discouraged if you're not a high wage earner or didn't get a super early start. Just get moving and one day you'll be singing your own version of this song.

  Same situation here Dicey, (We also never had high salaries, huge bonuses or stock options).
It took us 31 years for the first $1M and 6 years for the 2nd.

So true. I have the benefit at the end of my career to have stock and a strong salary, though. Not so much at the beginning.

1M - 26Y
2M - 3Y
3M - 2Y 7M
4M - 10 Months.

Compounding takes a long time but when it kicks in, it kicks in hard.

FI: now.
RE: soon...

ysette9

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #14 on: January 29, 2018, 08:22:12 AM »
That is an amazing progression of net worth over time. 26 years for the first and only 3 for the second? For us it took about ten years for the first and we aren’t at the second yet, but it will be less than 10 years for sure, unless we have a massive market correction in the interim.

PaulMaxime

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #15 on: January 29, 2018, 11:32:37 AM »
That is an amazing progression of net worth over time. 26 years for the first and only 3 for the second? For us it took about ten years for the first and we aren’t at the second yet, but it will be less than 10 years for sure, unless we have a massive market correction in the interim.

Yeah. I didn't do a very good job of building wealth for the first part of my career. I had good intentions. I first discovered FI in the late 1990's through http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/

But then lots of things happened that got in the way - some unavoidable, others not.

In 2007 I really got serious (and also lucky) I got a job at Google, sold my house in Baltimore right as the housing crash started but before it hit full swing. Those two things got me going in the right direction in a big way.

I did have about 550K in retirement accounts at that time but not a huge amount of taxable investments, maybe 60K total - despite making really good money but like I said, sometimes life gets in the way.

So I put the profits from my house into the market in early 2008. Took a major hit over the next year (from 700K to about 350) but kept adding every month and by Feb 2011 hit my first Mil.

I will tell people over and over that the 2008-2009 great recession was the greatest thing that ever happened to me financially. I was very lucky to sell my house right before and then start and keep a great new job right at the beginning of it. It didn't hurt that my life had gotten much simpler by then, so I could focus on growing wealth.

I sometimes look back on the past and think that I could have done this much better. But that's not productive.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 11:35:24 AM by PaulMaxime »

acroy

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Re: The first million is the hardest, but the second is oh so sweet.
« Reply #16 on: January 29, 2018, 11:44:10 AM »
BADASS. congratulations!!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!