Author Topic: Anyone not making +100k & making good progress? Please share your success story.  (Read 23473 times)

MrMoogle

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I'm above average, but probably won't ever hit 100k.  Single.  Started at 55k, 8 years later, I'm FI and making 80k/year.  I have another 4-5 years to go though before I pull the plug. 

Oh and I haven't been perfect.  I brought a brand new car right out of college.  Owned a house for 4 years before moving.  Things like that.  And now, I feel like I'm filthy rich, and if I want something I buy it, and I probably had one of the lowest expense years this year.

Britan

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I make 60k - above average, but not 100k - but neither am I a success story. Yet. ;)

I live a pretty luxurious (to me) lifestyle, and still have a fair amount left over. I think I'm capable of 50% savings, though I don't always do it. Rent is really what hits me hard.

robartsd

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I'm kind of on arebelspy's boat.  I my self have not made more that 35k per year, in all my 8 yrs of working.  My DH has not made more than 45k per year, in his 12 yr working history.  However, our networth at the moment is around 800k.  I'm happy with this amount but DH want to hit 1M, so we will see.)

35k/yr * 8 years + 45k/yr * 12 years = 820k (assuming max salaries for entire careers). Sounds like your NW is greater than your lifetime earings - great job!

PhrugalPhan

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I rebooted my life 18 years ago when my net worth was $0 but I did have a just completed Master's Degree and just bought a fixer upper.  Since then I have gone through five jobs (same one for 12 years now), 1.5 years of unemployment, a divorce, and a salary that started at $36k up to $84k in 2002, back down to $60k in 2004 and grown up to $90k now in a HCOL area.  I now have a paid off house (value near $400k), $500k in various savings, and a vested pension.  And now have a girlfriend worth almost $800k.  Life ain't perfect, but it looks so much better today than when I started this journey.

Easye418

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26 married.  (26.5 really)  Started working at 22.5. 

Last year was the first full year that was made combined over $100k.

22.5yo made $18/hr, quickly bumped to $21/hr (~$40k) + gf made maybe $20k cash.
23yo 48k + fiance made 0
24yo 49k + fiance made 0
25yo 60k+10% bonus + wife made 0
26yo 70k+ 0% bonus + wife made $28/hr or ~$48k a year = $118k a year
Somewhere between this next step, I found MMM and BH and my eyes opened and I started blowing up debt and spending.
26.5yo I got promoted after 8 months to manager, could be somewhere between 80k-100k myself (should find out tomorrow :) )  and wife got a new job making $32/hr (~$60k), more hours at this job so we will probably be between $140-$160k a year combined.

Have $102k in Retirement.  Have $63k in Student Loan Debt and a big ol mortgage (getting rid of and moving closer to work).  Putting around $10.5k in 401k currently.  Plan to raise that up when I get my raise and hopefully max it out.

Without my wife, I would feel like I am growing at a CRAWLING pace.  We plan to try for kids next year so we will see how long she actually will want to work.  I need to eliminate the $63k in Student Loan debt and get a smaller mortgage to breathe a little.

Took some time, but you'll get there.  Gave me motivation.




robartsd

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I rebooted my life 18 years ago when my net worth was $0 but I did have a just completed Master's Degree and just bought a fixer upper.
You were probably well ahead of your peers - I'm sure many who compelted a Master's Degree at the same time as you had negative net worth!

PhrugalPhan

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I rebooted my life 18 years ago when my net worth was $0 but I did have a just completed Master's Degree and just bought a fixer upper.
You were probably well ahead of your peers - I'm sure many who compelted a Master's Degree at the same time as you had negative net worth!
Well I was 35 at the time.  I had spent time after college in poor paying jobs, then went overseas for 3 years.  I finally returned and got a Master's so I could get a decent job.  I worked part time while getting the degree so I wouldn't go into debt, but it was a very busy life for 2 years.

monstermonster

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I love this thread. I'm at $39k annually and it's the most I've ever made and with a 50% savings rate, I still feel like I live a life of great wealth. I hate watching MMM people here constantly berating incomes of $40K like they are poverty level and immediately telling folks they need to get a better paying job.

So thanks for starting this thread! It feels much more applicable to my life.

clarkfan1979

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In order to hit the goal of a 50% savings rate, I think my wife and I need to be making more than 100K. We finally hit the 100K last year. We live a pretty good life. The last time I checked our before tax savings rate it was 33%. We probably won't hit our 50% savings rate goal until we are around 120K which should happen in a couple years. We will see what happens. We also won't be able to hit 50% until my student loans are gone. 



Orvell

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I love this thread. I'm at $39k annually and it's the most I've ever made and with a 50% savings rate, I still feel like I live a life of great wealth. I hate watching MMM people here constantly berating incomes of $40K like they are poverty level and immediately telling folks they need to get a better paying job.

So thanks for starting this thread! It feels much more applicable to my life.

My base rate is 39K too! I felt like a rich ass bastard when I got the raise. You are not alone. ;)

 Look. We can't all be engineers. And honestly, I wouldn't trade in my expensive liberal arts degree for an engineering degree, either. :) It means our path will be less instantaneous, and that our savings rates mean less in the bank (or... not in the bank, as MMM folk we know the power of investment.) My dad is an attorney, and most of my family have doctorate-level educations or going to law school, or in tech doing well for themselves. It can be intimidating to be "low on the totem pole" both here and in the real world. But remember that value isn't money and money isn't value. :)

We are still rocking it!

You in particular are rocking it. My take home this year will be roughly 44K (a good year for the company meant higher than normal bonuses that I cannot count on in any form going forward) and my savings rate is only at about 42%

SpareChange

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I was hired FT in my current job in March 2014. My net worth at the time was between $0 and $5k. I made $74k last year, and am on track for ~$88k this year. My net worth at the end of Nov was over $85k...21 months after being hired. Paid off over $14k in student loans in that time. I am single, no kids, and rent an apt.

tarheeldan

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In order to hit the goal of a 50% savings rate, I think my wife and I need to be making more than 100K...We also won't be able to hit 50% until my student loans are gone.

I view paying down loans as part of savings rate. Net worth goes up.

Of course you know this but hitting 50% could happen now by cutting spending.

tarheeldan

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I was hired FT in my current job in March 2014. My net worth at the time was between $0 and $5k. I made $74k last year, and am on track for ~$88k this year. My net worth at the end of Nov was over $85k...21 months after being hired. Paid off over $14k in student loans in that time. I am single, no kids, and rent an apt.
You are kicking ass

monstermonster

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 Look. We can't all be engineers. And honestly, I wouldn't trade in my expensive liberal arts degree for an engineering degree, either. :) It means our path will be less instantaneous, and that our savings rates mean less in the bank (or... not in the bank, as MMM folk we know the power of investment.) My dad is an attorney, and most of my family have doctorate-level educations or going to law school, or in tech doing well for themselves. It can be intimidating to be "low on the totem pole" both here and in the real world. But remember that value isn't money and money isn't value. :)

We are still rocking it!

You in particular are rocking it. My take home this year will be roughly 44K (a good year for the company meant higher than normal bonuses that I cannot count on in any form going forward) and my savings rate is only at about 42%

I have the opposite issue: I know almost no one with a graduate degree, and most of my coworkers don't have a bachelor's degree. My family is all working class, blue collar mostly (and military). Most of my friends make about the same as I do or much less. My parents both have college degrees paid for by the United States Air Force. Even at my job, after a raise in March, I make $5/hour more than most of my coworkers (we have open salary rates.) At least a quarter of my co-workers qualify for food stamps on full-time work hours.

The only people I know in person making a lot more than me are folks that work in tech.

I am very, very lucky that I did two years of Americorps and was able to use the education award (plus generous financial aid)  to pay for an expensive degree (Economics, lol) at a good college in my mid-20's, but most of my friends didn't get the opportunity to go to college.

It's only when I hang out on these forums that I start feeling like everyone must have a JD and make $100K/year. What a warped world MMM forums are :-P Not a depiction of a normal cross-section of people.

ditheca

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It's only when I hang out on these forums that I start feeling like everyone must have a JD and make $100K/year. What a warped world MMM forums are :-P Not a depiction of a normal cross-section of people.

In my social circles I'm near the bottom of the totem pole, despite making 72k/yr.  (DW decided to stay home with the kids).  I'm aware that those I associate with at work and at church are of above-average wealth, but I'd hardly consider us warped or abnormal.  There are many categories of normal that don't correspond to the mean.

rulesofacquisition

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I view paying down loans as part of savings rate. Net worth goes up.


This makes me feel a bit more encouraged, as I still have a mortgage and one other debt.


Gin1984

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It's only when I hang out on these forums that I start feeling like everyone must have a JD and make $100K/year. What a warped world MMM forums are :-P Not a depiction of a normal cross-section of people.

In my social circles I'm near the bottom of the totem pole, despite making 72k/yr.  (DW decided to stay home with the kids).  I'm aware that those I associate with at work and at church are of above-average wealth, but I'd hardly consider us warped or abnormal.  There are many categories of normal that don't correspond to the mean.
We are abnormal because if we were, then we would be as the above poster said "a normal cross-section of people."  This is not a criticism, just a reality, not average aka not around the mean.

monstermonster

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It's only when I hang out on these forums that I start feeling like everyone must have a JD and make $100K/year. What a warped world MMM forums are :-P Not a depiction of a normal cross-section of people.

In my social circles I'm near the bottom of the totem pole, despite making 72k/yr.  (DW decided to stay home with the kids).  I'm aware that those I associate with at work and at church are of above-average wealth, but I'd hardly consider us warped or abnormal.  There are many categories of normal that don't correspond to the mean.
We are abnormal because if we were, then we would be as the above poster said "a normal cross-section of people."  This is not a criticism, just a reality, not average aka not around the mean.
I'm also pretty sure anyone who hangs out on a FIRE forum doesn't really correspond to "normal"...

 

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