Train from $4M and beyond

[GreenEggs]

Approximately $7MM NW not counting my private company stock which might double that if we go public or sell out.

95% equities. A small amount (3 years expenses) in tax and AMT free municipal ETF.

When will I retire? I don't know. I like the company and would like to see it through to IPO since I've been here since nearly the beginning.

Update:

This year has been really crazy for my investments. Up nearly 40% for the year (ahead of the market by almost 42%) Large chunk of Tesla stock as well as a bunch of smaller SAAS companies have just done well and also stalwarts like Apple and Amazon

NW: just shy of $10MM

Congrats. 


I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon. 

[PaulMaxime]

I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon.

I have about a 2% position in ARKK. I'm mostly an individual stock investor but I'm becoming more willing to let them manage a portion of my portfolio.  I've been building it slowly for about a year and a half. I like their research very much. You should check out their podcasts and youtube presence as well as all their research models are all open source.

I get more out of them than just the investment growth since I lean on them for information across my portfolio.

Cathie Wood is awesome.

[GreenEggs]

I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon.

I have about a 2% position in ARKK. I'm mostly an individual stock investor but I'm becoming more willing to let them manage a portion of my portfolio.  I've been building it slowly for about a year and a half. I like their research very much. You should check out their podcasts and youtube presence as well as all their research models are all open source.

I get more out of them than just the investment growth since I lean on them for information across my portfolio.

Cathie Wood is awesome.

I've seen their podcasts & also have been receiving their lists of daily transactions.  Realizing how often she adjusts her positions opened my eyes about what goes on behind the scenes to achieve those kind of numbers.  It's good to hear that you like Ark too. 


If the C-19 crash hadn't happened I would have remained content with Vanguard & not bothered looking for better options. 

[PaulMaxime]

I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon.

I have about a 2% position in ARKK. I'm mostly an individual stock investor but I'm becoming more willing to let them manage a portion of my portfolio.  I've been building it slowly for about a year and a half. I like their research very much. You should check out their podcasts and youtube presence as well as all their research models are all open source.

I get more out of them than just the investment growth since I lean on them for information across my portfolio.

Cathie Wood is awesome.

I've seen their podcasts & also have been receiving their lists of daily transactions.  Realizing how often she adjusts her positions opened my eyes about what goes on behind the scenes to achieve those kind of numbers.  It's good to hear that you like Ark too. 


If the C-19 crash hadn't happened I would have remained content with Vanguard & not bothered looking for better options.

So I don't trade anything near like they do for sure. I'm more buy and hold. But they have weird restrictions because they are a mutual fund - like they can't have anything more than 10% of their portfolio and so they have to sell things that grow too big - where I'd be delighted if something grew that much. I might eventually trim back but we as individuals don't have an arbitrary limit like that.

Glad to hear that you are looking at other things. Index is great and for most people it's probably the best but I do think it's possible to do better. I've done much better personally, and I've been tracking my returns against the "market" since 2007.

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

Quick update, hit a new high watermark right at the end of July:

August 2015: $1.0
April 2018: $2.0
July 2019: $2.8
December 2019: $3.6
July 2020: $5.0

This doesn’t show the 60% drawdown I had to go through during covid. oof!!

Separate topic: I’m curious if folks on this thread here have net worth goals.

[secondcor521]

I hear you on that.  I have a good friend at work who occasionally asks me for financial advice.  I know enough not to try to help people without their explicitly asking, but he was asking, so I've answered his questions and pointed him toward good resources.  He does not know I'm FI (I keep that pretty close to the vest) but does know from things I've been involved with on the job that I'm good with money. 

Then one day out of the blue he just lays into me about how he's sick of me "lording it over everybody how rich I am."   

No idea what got into him, but that was the end of that.

I'm not necessarily qualified to post in this thread.

However, I have noticed that it is incredibly easy to say stuff without even thinking and unintentionally reveal - at least in broad strokes - information about how much money we have.  For example, mentioning VTSAX which has a minimum investment amount.

Sometimes people incorrectly project based on stuff we say too.  If I say I retired early at 46 or have a net WR of 0.8%, some people may assume that I have more than I actually do.

I try to be very careful in what I say for that reason - no interest in being a tall poppy.  My general rule is to never discuss assets or income to any degree of specificity.

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

Agreed. I also don’t talk specifics of my finances. A lot of downside, little to no upside, of doing so.

[Ockhamist]

Yep.   Frustration is, though, I like to help people when I can, especially my friends.   If I was good at carpentry (speaking VERY hypothetically here) and a friend needed help building a deck, I'd be able to help, offer advice, etc.   Unfortunately, being good with money seems to mean that you don't dare.   Even if you keep your own specifics close to the vest, just *knowing* stuff makes you a target for resentment.  Ugh.  Unfortunately I can't keep knowing that stuff a secret due to the nature of my work and things that I have published.   Double ugh.

Bah, I'm an introvert anyway.   Friends are overrated.  ;-)

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

Money can be a very personal thing, and can carry a lot of emotional baggage with it depending on the person.

For friends who are at somewhat of a similar place financially, I am comfortable with talking investments if the topic comes up.

[imolina]

I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon.

I have about a 2% position in ARKK. I'm mostly an individual stock investor but I'm becoming more willing to let them manage a portion of my portfolio.  I've been building it slowly for about a year and a half. I like their research very much. You should check out their podcasts and youtube presence as well as all their research models are all open source.

I get more out of them than just the investment growth since I lean on them for information across my portfolio.

Cathie Wood is awesome.

I've seen their podcasts & also have been receiving their lists of daily transactions.  Realizing how often she adjusts her positions opened my eyes about what goes on behind the scenes to achieve those kind of numbers.  It's good to hear that you like Ark too. 


If the C-19 crash hadn't happened I would have remained content with Vanguard & not bothered looking for better options.

How do you receive the daily transactions of ARK?. I am really interested in starting investing in ARKK, however I hesitate everyday as the price keeps going up so much due to tesla. I am hoping for a pullback of Tesla and ARKK to start investing.

[GreenEggs]

I've been looking at Ark Funds which have had similar gains.  ARKG 52.79% YTD & ARKW 43.95%  Wish I'd known about them 6 months ago.  About half my NW is tied up in real estate, hoping to unload it soon.

I have about a 2% position in ARKK. I'm mostly an individual stock investor but I'm becoming more willing to let them manage a portion of my portfolio.  I've been building it slowly for about a year and a half. I like their research very much. You should check out their podcasts and youtube presence as well as all their research models are all open source.

I get more out of them than just the investment growth since I lean on them for information across my portfolio.

Cathie Wood is awesome.

I've seen their podcasts & also have been receiving their lists of daily transactions.  Realizing how often she adjusts her positions opened my eyes about what goes on behind the scenes to achieve those kind of numbers.  It's good to hear that you like Ark too. 


If the C-19 crash hadn't happened I would have remained content with Vanguard & not bothered looking for better options.

How do you receive the daily transactions of ARK?. I am really interested in starting investing in ARKK, however I hesitate everyday as the price keeps going up so much due to tesla. I am hoping for a pullback of Tesla and ARKK to start investing.

There's a place on their website for you to subscribe for it.  Btw, a few days ago I noticed that instead of listing the number of shares purchased or sold they've changed it to a percentage of their portfolio, which seems odd.  So, instead of it saying 241559 shares sold now it says .0347% sold.  I guess they've decided to slightly less transparent. 


I'm not sure why ARKK seems to get more attention because ARKW has slightly higher performance numbers.  They both hold about 10% of TSLA.  Each day TSLA prices rise ARK sells off more shares of it.  I'm not sure what will happen when the TSLA bubble bursts.  I don't know if it was wise, but I purchased some of each of the 5 ARK funds to diversify a bit.  Only ARKK & ARKW hold TSLA, but the others still perform quite well. 

[PaulMaxime]

How do you receive the daily transactions of ARK?. I am really interested in starting investing in ARKK, however I hesitate everyday as the price keeps going up so much due to tesla. I am hoping for a pullback of Tesla and ARKK to start investing.

Instead of waiting for a pullback divide the amount you want to invest in to 3 parts. invest some now and then maybe each month after. This way you don't miss out because of some arbitrary price you've set in your head.

It's really easy to anchor on a price and then have a stock just totally run away on you. This way if it goes down you get to by more at a lower price and if it keeps going up you don't totally miss out.

As far as the percentage of a trade being less transparent I disagree. A number of shares is meaningless unless you know how many they hold. This way you can get a real idea of how they are managing their portfolio without having to know the size of each position.

They've been taking in a lot of capital so a 10000 share buy or sell today is a smaller transaction relatively than the same 10000 share transaction 6 months ago, where this would show up as a smaller percentage now. So much more useful.

[GreenEggs]

How do you receive the daily transactions of ARK?. I am really interested in starting investing in ARKK, however I hesitate everyday as the price keeps going up so much due to tesla. I am hoping for a pullback of Tesla and ARKK to start investing.

Instead of waiting for a pullback divide the amount you want to invest in to 3 parts. invest some now and then maybe each month after. This way you don't miss out because of some arbitrary price you've set in your head.

It's really easy to anchor on a price and then have a stock just totally run away on you. This way if it goes down you get to by more at a lower price and if it keeps going up you don't totally miss out.

As far as the percentage of a trade being less transparent I disagree. A number of shares is meaningless unless you know how many they hold. This way you can get a real idea of how they are managing their portfolio without having to know the size of each position.

They've been taking in a lot of capital so a 10000 share buy or sell today is a smaller transaction relatively than the same 10000 share transaction 6 months ago, where this would show up as a smaller percentage now. So much more useful.

I'm sure you're right.  Neither measure really means much to me, I just notice the buy/sell part & the ticker symbols.

[imolina]

How do you receive the daily transactions of ARK?. I am really interested in starting investing in ARKK, however I hesitate everyday as the price keeps going up so much due to tesla. I am hoping for a pullback of Tesla and ARKK to start investing.

Instead of waiting for a pullback divide the amount you want to invest in to 3 parts. invest some now and then maybe each month after. This way you don't miss out because of some arbitrary price you've set in your head.

It's really easy to anchor on a price and then have a stock just totally run away on you. This way if it goes down you get to by more at a lower price and if it keeps going up you don't totally miss out.

As far as the percentage of a trade being less transparent I disagree. A number of shares is meaningless unless you know how many they hold. This way you can get a real idea of how they are managing their portfolio without having to know the size of each position.

They've been taking in a lot of capital so a 10000 share buy or sell today is a smaller transaction relatively than the same 10000 share transaction 6 months ago, where this would show up as a smaller percentage now. So much more useful.

That's what I decided to do last week. I started to invest in it slowly. I bought some shares, next month I will buy more, and so on. Thanks

[PaulMaxime]

Just curious how everyone on this thread has done this year.

I'm currently up 112% for the year, and on top of that my private company did a tender offer and I got to sell them some shares to the tune of about $1MM pre tax.

I don't generally count my private stock in my net worth at all.

[2sk22]

Just curious how everyone on this thread has done this year.

I'm currently up 112% for the year, and on top of that my private company did a tender offer and I got to sell them some shares to the tune of about $1MM pre tax.

I don't generally count my private stock in my net worth at all.

We did very well but definitely not 112%! In our household, we have acquired wealth mostly by index fund investments. But the market rise has definitely helped us and our net worth is now well over $5M. This amount is well above any number I had in mind so I was able to retire - which has been a much greater source of happiness for me.

[GreenEggs]

I haven't done quite as well as you in the market, but we suddenly have buyers for all of our real estate.  Three lots under contract & 2 more scheduled to be early next week, all closing by end of 2020.  So, that will be almost $3M to deposit with Vanguard. 

[Much Fishing to Do]

My TNW went from $4M at year start, to $3.3M at March low, to $4.3M at today's high.  As far as LNW its more like $3.3M today, so decent chance I'll never make it into this group based off of that definition.

That's pretty much all market movement.  Didn't work a lot this year but it was enough to cover the bills and not touch the portfolio.

[JoJoP]

Most of our NW is in real estate, and rough values are skyrocketing and we're up almost $800K this year, maybe more.   So far, I'm still in the "pinch me" stage. 

We've diversified now to  a LCOL area, which allows a 8-10% return after expenses every year on properties that had doubled in our HCOL home area.   By moving a couple of assets, we increased our yearly take home and splintered large assets into smaller, more mobile ones with a better return.  We don't expect the new investments to appreciate as rapidly, but the monthly return is greater and we plan on long term holds. 

 I think we're going to do it again, and, again, increase our profit by a couple grand a month.   Plus it's fun! 

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

Update: 2020 turned out to be a banner year, surprisingly.

August 2015: $1.0M
April 2018: $2.0
July 2019: $2.8
December 2019: $3.6
July 2020: $5.0
Dec 2020: $7.5

[Car Jack]

My view on retiring at a certain NW # has changed. 

For me, once my corporate gig is over, I plan to continue working in some capacity in an area that I'm passionate about.

Anyone else in the same boat?

--Jay

That has always been my plan.  Just enough to be able to make Roth contributions, which I can't make now.  Income is over the limit and I have well over 2 commas in tIRAs.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Update: 2020 turned out to be a banner year, surprisingly.

August 2015: $1.0M
April 2018: $2.0
July 2019: $2.8
December 2019: $3.6
July 2020: $5.0
Dec 2020: $7.5

On one hand, I'm really impressed at what was possible, but on the other hand, I had enough at $2M (and 3 and 4...) so I'm pretty happy to plod along at 'only' $500k growth for 2020.  It's still a whole lot more money YoY than I'll ever spend, even with all the charity I'm doing these days.  I sometimes think I should take 500k or a million and try harder, but what would I do with another 500k or million net worth anyways?  I can already do stuff like fly first class and buy a crazy second home, and I don't really want to do either of those things.  Already did it as an expat with my job and will likely do it again if the world gets back to normal.  They paid me to have a second home in Dubai and Paris, fly first class on Emirates and Air France, so I guess now I'm a bit jaded on spending my own money on such things that honestly were only fun for a few years.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

My view on retiring at a certain NW # has changed. 

For me, once my corporate gig is over, I plan to continue working in some capacity in an area that I'm passionate about.

Anyone else in the same boat?

--Jay

Retirement seems over-rated to me, especially after experiencing working from home.  My work (prior to 2020) gives me many things that money cannot buy.  Being a professional has given me access to challenges and situations that I cherish.  Once I retire, I have to spend my own money just to have access to things other people can also buy.  Sounds like either a whole lot more work to become more proficient than them, or boring because I'm just buying commercial things (even when it comes to experiences).

Doing HUET training every few years, safety reviews for offshore platforms so that the workers are able to focus on their tasks and production is flowing, and being part of multi-billion dollar projects is way too interesting for me to just 'retire early' and feel like I've won some challenging competition.  But I do understand that many normal people are enamoured with the quixotic idea that they hit FI and blissfully sip champagne at 9am on a Monday morning for the rest of their life :)

[GreenEggs]

Do any of you know where we can get a Covid vaccination a bit sooner?  Is there a donation I can make that will get me one today??? 


I'm so tired of waiting.  It seems like there should be a 1st class access for it somewhere. 


It's tough watching my portfolio fluctuate $200K per day and having to wait my turn for the damn shots! 

[shuffler]

Do any of you know where we can get a Covid vaccination a bit sooner?  Is there a donation I can make that will get me one today??? 


I'm so tired of waiting.  It seems like there should be a 1st class access for it somewhere. 


It's tough watching my portfolio fluctuate $200K per day and having to wait my turn for the damn shots!

You're mid-50s.  Have some shame and wait your turn.

[Dicey]

Do any of you know where we can get a Covid vaccination a bit sooner?  Is there a donation I can make that will get me one today??? 


I'm so tired of waiting.  It seems like there should be a 1st class access for it somewhere. 


It's tough watching my portfolio fluctuate $200K per day and having to wait my turn for the damn shots!

Hahaha, I got one because I volunteer at a thrift store that benefits a local hosputal. Go figure.

I follow this thread because I like "train" over "race", as previously mentioned. Technically, our TNW (is that redundant?) qualifies me, but the big half is in RE. Nowhere near $4M in equities alone.

I'll go back to lurking now. Plus, I have another shift at the thrift store today, so I need to get myself in gear if I'm going to have time to walk there. Good thing I already packed my lunch.

[GreenEggs]

Do any of you know where we can get a Covid vaccination a bit sooner?  Is there a donation I can make that will get me one today??? 


I'm so tired of waiting.  It seems like there should be a 1st class access for it somewhere. 


It's tough watching my portfolio fluctuate $200K per day and having to wait my turn for the damn shots!

You're mid-50s.  Have some shame and wait your turn.

You sound like my wife!  ;)

[shuffler]

You sound like my wife!  ;)

She sounds lovely!   :^)

[GreenEggs]

You sound like my wife!  ;)

She sounds lovely!   :^)

She is. 


As they say, "opposites attract". 

[JoJoP]

Do any of you know where we can get a Covid vaccination a bit sooner?  Is there a donation I can make that will get me one today??? 


I'm so tired of waiting.  It seems like there should be a 1st class access for it somewhere. 


It's tough watching my portfolio fluctuate $200K per day and having to wait my turn for the damn shots!

Hahaha, I got one because I volunteer at a thrift store that benefits a local hosputal. Go figure.

I follow this thread because I like "train" over "race", as previously mentioned. Technically, our TNW (is that redundant?) qualifies me, but the big half is in RE. Nowhere near $4M in equities alone.

I'll go back to lurking now. Plus, I have another shift at the thrift store today, so I need to get myself in gear if I'm going to have time to walk there. Good thing I already packed my lunch.

I could never volunteer at a thrift store because I'd lug too many treasures home.  Really my inner starving student just takes over at a thrift store.    I had to swear off thrift store shopping several years ago when the clutter finally became too much. 

 I love to volunteer, though, and I haven't been without a charitable cause in decades.  When one has the ability, I think it's part of my civic duty to help where and when I can.