The first ___$ is the hardest, after that things start moving fast

[Rockies]

When I was a kid we'd find rocks and break them with a hammer and sell them by the road for .25 cents a piece. I remember one day a man came by and generously gave us 1$ for one of the rocks. That was a massive amount of money to us and we were beyond excited. The first dollar is the hardest, after that things start to move fast.

Once I was around 11 years old my dad would give me 5$ weekly allowance if I cleaned my room and mowed both the lawns. I saved and spent for years of hard work and did chores for my grandma before I had my first $100, which I was going to use to buy an electric guitar. The first $100 dollars is the hardest, after that things start to move fast.

When I turned 14 I got my first job making 4.90$ per hour (thats only $8.51 per hour in todays wages, so it still was not great pay) digging fence posts and building barb wire fences in the hot summer sun. I remember working the entire summer to save up $1000 which was a massive amount of money to me. The first $1000 dollars is the hardest, after that things start to move fast.

Fast forward to university where I worked a variety of summer jobs. I remember near the end of university I finally broke the $10,000 mark in my savings account. I had a conversation with my friend who had saved up $8000. That was a massive amount of money compared to our friends who were bad at money and we felt like we were really responsible people for being that rich. The first $10,000 dollars is the hardest, after that things start to move fast.

I left university and grinded working 6 days of week 9-12 hours a day and saved up $50,000 in a year. After that year I remember thinking I was rich. I didnt know anyone who had that much money in 2011. After that my expenses went up a bit and my wage went down, but I still worked hard in my career for another 4 years before a broke the $100,000 mark in 2015. This was a major deal for me. Again I felt so wealthy I couldn't even tell anyone I knew about it for fear of bragging. The first $100,000 dollars is the hardest, after that things start to move fast.

My net worth hit $500,000 in 2021 which didn't even seem like a major event to me. In the years after that I often felt like I was falling behind others and a bit of a financial looser. This was compounded by most of my friends having dual incomes and my move to a high cost of living area where everyone seemed to have tons of money mysteriously. My net worth is now around $700,000. I am still working hard to get to the 1 million mark, but I know once I get there that the first $1,000,000 dollars is the hardest, after that things will start to move fast.


_______________________

I wrote this for the following reasons:
1. To remind new investors of how powerful compounding interest and long term investing is. Give yourself 10, 15, 20, or 30 years and your wealth could beyond what you can even comprehend at the moment.
2. To remind myself that how rich you feel doesn't really have anything to do with how much money you have. I felt extremely rich/weathly/stable with $10,000 to my name and much less so with $700,000 to my name. There is no guarantee that you will feel like you "have arrived" when you get to a certain net worth. Its dangerous to compare yourself to others online or surrounding you that have more. Be grateful for what you have and keep things in context.  Money isnt everything, being able to be stable and enjoy life is more important. Certainly, being in financial trouble is quite bad for you, but as long as you can avoid that don't worry so much.
3. I never considered that 10 million could even be a possibility for me. But judging how the past has gone, maybe it is?

Let me know if this is in the wrong thread.

[the_hobbitish]

I really like this post.

Dual incomes does make a big difference. I've been solo income most of my adult life so I know the feeling you're describing. When I listen to a lot of the people around me though, I don't think most of them have high wealth. I think they have high spending. Many people around me have cars and stuff that I don't have, but my savings is far higher. They have different priorities. Maybe it works for them, but I'm much happier with knowing I've reached coast fire.

Hang on to that feeling of abundance.

[TheAnonOne]

I think the first million INVESTED really is the hardest.

It's the first time that a good market year really can change your life, after all, when else will you have 200k+ airdropped on you from essentially nothing?

Every move before that felt like something I could reasonably spend in normal life.

Even though my FIRE number is closer to 2 million INVESTED, the run from 1m to 1.4+mil has felt somewhat seamless. Even though I feel less control over the number than ever before. A 1% move could take MONTHS of me working and saving to overcome.

[charis]

We hit 1.1 within two months of hitting 1m.  But obviously that dropped almost 3% in the last few days.  It goes up quickly but can also go down somewhat dramatically.

[GuitarStv]

Yeah, after 1 mil invested things started to feel much more real.

[J.P. MoreGains]

In 2019 I had a job where I made $14 an hour as a mechanic in the maritime industry and I would often work 12 hours a day 7 days a week on dry docks. After 40 hours I would get double time. That year I saved like 34k. It felt like so much money. Good months I was saving a little over 4k.

This year I work as a software dev and I work 1/10th as hard and I'm saving nearly double per month. If market holds up I should be up 100k since last September.

It doesn't feel like as much money as in 2019. And I kind of miss that job even though it was brutally hard and backbreaking.

Funny how that works. Really earning every cent feels good.

[theninthwall]

Getting married and my wife finding her first 'real' job after college were big moments for our net worth. Having a team on the same page to share costs but also have a common goal is amazing. That said, we have already had to ride out some pretty shaky moments...we threw all our money into the market shortly before the COVID dive (my wife had painstakingly saved $40,000 and I felt sick to watch it go down and down). Then of course things boomed but we also had to spend much of 2022 fighting against the tide (in both the market and exchange rates as I am from a different country and most of my assets are still there). Across one 11-month period on our spreadsheet our net worth only went up by $17,000. But the next 18 months saw it go up by $500,000. So I guess we would say there's a little bit in the middle that's the hardest haha!

[Tigerpine]

Down markets are always the hardest.

[Davnasty]

In 2019 I had a job where I made $14 an hour as a mechanic in the maritime industry and I would often work 12 hours a day 7 days a week on dry docks. After 40 hours I would get double time. That year I saved like 34k. It felt like so much money. Good months I was saving a little over 4k.

This year I work as a software dev and I work 1/10th as hard and I'm saving nearly double per month. If market holds up I should be up 100k since last September.

It doesn't feel like as much money as in 2019. And I kind of miss that job even though it was brutally hard and backbreaking.

Funny how that works. Really earning every cent feels good.

I like my salary and benefits these days, but money will never feel as real as it did at 11 years old when I worked on a produce farm and got paid in wads of cash every Friday afternoon.

[Dicey]

Happily, this thread didn't go where I thought it was headed.

I can't wait to see your next few installments, even if we do know how the story ends.

Congratulations!

Lol, my first job paid $1.80 an hour. There was a profit sharing program. Over the years, it split three ways. I still have one third left. It has appreciated so much, I'm going to have to give it to charity. Those early years also count toward SS. Once adjusted for inflation, it's a lot more valuable, particularly as I retired early and have over a decade of goose eggs. Point: even the small jobs can make a difference when combined with compound interest.

[iluvzbeach]

For me, getting out of five figures in credit card debt to $0 was hardest and it got much easier from there.

Other significant milestones that just helped add to the “miracle” of compounding:

~Paying of vehicle and putting the payment amount in savings thereafter
~Maxing out all tax deferred options
~Paying off house, even if not financially optimal in the long run

Once these things were done and on auto-pilot, living expenses were super low and the net worth just seemed to skyrocket.

[Much Fishing to Do]

I was most definitely overanxious and afraid of failing at taking care of my young family for way too long, even taking on a job that was exhausting and took me away from them for weeks at a time, which I hated.  After my savings hit about 3 years of spending (about $150k at the time), it occurred to me there was very little chance something could happen at that point that would bankrupt us, and so further savings was no longer protecting me from financial devastation but rather merely moving up FI by some amount.  The thought I remembered having (being very tired from work) was that if work let me go that day it would be more like a happy event (the start of a sabbatical or vacation) than a bad one (being "unemployed"), because of course I'd find something else before the funds ran low. 

I know this isn't exactly what the post is getting at...but things certainly seemed to start moving much faster when it just because a game of "just how much earlier than normal retirement can I retire?" as opposed to any real financial concerns.

[iris lily]

Do you know what I think is the hardest? It’s the one financial goal I truly celebrate with people here, and that is getting to $0 debt.

That position clears a major emotional  hurdle. The rest of it is just piling up money.

[iris lily]

For me, getting out of five figures in credit card debt to $0 was hardest and it got much easier from there.

Other significant milestones that just helped add to the “miracle” of compounding:

~Paying of vehicle and putting the payment amount in savings thereafter
~Maxing out all tax deferred options
~Paying off house, even if not financially optimal in the long run

Once these things were done and on auto-pilot, living expenses were super low and the net worth just seemed to skyrocket.

Oh ha! I see that you posted my $0 debt idea today too. I had planned it post a couple days ago, but didn’t get around to it. I agree with you.

[Highbeam]

Once my assets made more money than I was making in salary. That was when things started really moving fast.

[The Beebsta]

I love the sentiment of the OP. The first $____ is always the hardest. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I didn’t even notice most of those milestones. I think I might have hit my first $100k when I was 25, but I wasn’t really counting. I remember I left a full time job to go and complete my university degree full time for the final year. I had about $80k in investments plus I had superannuation (Australian equivalent of 401k), which probably got me to the $100k mark. So, 8 years of working full time as I finished school and started work at 17. I worked hard, was in well paid jobs for someone without qualifications and had low living costs, living with my parents on and off for a few of those years. I also bought a 10 year old car and drove it for 7 years until I moved overseas.

The next 10 years I wasn’t really focussed on saving and investing. Instead I was seeing the world and building my career. Along the way I did save and invest but didn’t really pay much attention to it.

The next time I have any record or recollection of my net worth is when I was 35, married with 1 child. Our combined net worth at that time was just over $400k. Since then it has skyrocketed, and we’ve definitely been paying attention and actively working on increasing it.

The first $1m in combined super took 30 years in the workforce for both of us (with maybe 4 years each out for various reasons in that time). The next $100k took 6 months. We contributed about $15k of that, the rest was market gains. I haven’t checked since the recent dip but the markets look like they’ve recovered from that already.

It’s definitely crazy how compounding works. When it’s working in your favour, it’s like life on easy mode. Now, we are not saving or contributing other than mandatory contributions but these are dwarfed by market gains (and losses).

The first everything is the hardest, but it gets easier from there on out if you just let compounding and time work their magic.

[clarkfan1979]

Once I got to 10K in my checking/savings, I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck. That was probably the biggest mindset shift for me personally. I could now be more long term with my thinking and planning. The first 10K is the hardest.

[vand]

I believe it is Charlie Munger's quote about the first $100k that has become popularized over time:

"It’s a b—-, but you gotta do it... I don’t care what you have to do — if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

I don't know when he said it or what 100k was worth when he did.

Personally the one that always stuck with me was what an older and successful investor told me.. it went something like this-

"The first million is the hardest. The second million is hard too, but you have some help from the first one and have learnt a few tricks along the way. By the time you're working on your third million your only thought is how easy it is..."

[Log]

I believe it is Charlie Munger's quote about the first $100k that has become popularized over time:

"It’s a b—-, but you gotta do it... I don’t care what you have to do — if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

I don't know when he said it or what 100k was worth when he did.

Personally the one that always stuck with me was what an older and successful investor told me.. it went something like this-

"The first million is the hardest. The second million is hard too, but you have some help from the first one and have learnt a few tricks along the way. By the time you're working on your third million your only thought is how easy it is..."

I was just doing some thought experiments earlier today around the loose assumption that the market doubles every ~7 years.

If one hypothetically wanted to retire at 60 with $3M, you just need to have $1.5M by 53, then you could stop saving entirely as long as your income continues covering your expenses. Or $750K by 46. Or just $375K at 39. Or just $188K at 32. Or just $94K at 25.

If you start young and are happy with retiring modestly early rather than very early, rushing to a low 6-figure net worth is really all it takes. Compounding does the rest.

[JAYSLOL]

I believe it is Charlie Munger's quote about the first $100k that has become popularized over time:

"It’s a b—-, but you gotta do it... I don’t care what you have to do — if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

I don't know when he said it or what 100k was worth when he did.

Personally the one that always stuck with me was what an older and successful investor told me.. it went something like this-

"The first million is the hardest. The second million is hard too, but you have some help from the first one and have learnt a few tricks along the way. By the time you're working on your third million your only thought is how easy it is..."

That second quote was exactly my experience with $100k’s instead of Millions, the first $100k was hard as hell, the second one was still pretty hard, and the third one seemed to just show up in the last year without much time or discipline on my part

[vand]

I believe it is Charlie Munger's quote about the first $100k that has become popularized over time:

"It’s a b—-, but you gotta do it... I don’t care what you have to do — if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

I don't know when he said it or what 100k was worth when he did.

Personally the one that always stuck with me was what an older and successful investor told me.. it went something like this-

"The first million is the hardest. The second million is hard too, but you have some help from the first one and have learnt a few tricks along the way. By the time you're working on your third million your only thought is how easy it is..."

I was just doing some thought experiments earlier today around the loose assumption that the market doubles every ~7 years.

If one hypothetically wanted to retire at 60 with $3M, you just need to have $1.5M by 53, then you could stop saving entirely as long as your income continues covering your expenses. Or $750K by 46. Or just $375K at 39. Or just $188K at 32. Or just $94K at 25.

If you start young and are happy with retiring modestly early rather than very early, rushing to a low 6-figure net worth is really all it takes. Compounding does the rest.

Yes.. this is coast FIRE.

In practice, of course, returns are never gauranteed; even over long timeframes your starting point still matters, and you are best to course correct along the way if you find your portfolio growth falling behind schedule.  For example, in the 24 years since its dotcom peak to now, the S&P has "only" returned about 5.1% real, well short of commonly cited the "7% real"  that many people seem to think is their divine birthright!

[AJDZee]

I believe it is Charlie Munger's quote about the first $100k that has become popularized over time:

"It’s a b—-, but you gotta do it... I don’t care what you have to do — if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

I don't know when he said it or what 100k was worth when he did.

Personally the one that always stuck with me was what an older and successful investor told me.. it went something like this-

"The first million is the hardest. The second million is hard too, but you have some help from the first one and have learnt a few tricks along the way. By the time you're working on your third million your only thought is how easy it is..."

I was just doing some thought experiments earlier today around the loose assumption that the market doubles every ~7 years.

If one hypothetically wanted to retire at 60 with $3M, you just need to have $1.5M by 53, then you could stop saving entirely as long as your income continues covering your expenses. Or $750K by 46. Or just $375K at 39. Or just $188K at 32. Or just $94K at 25.

If you start young and are happy with retiring modestly early rather than very early, rushing to a low 6-figure net worth is really all it takes. Compounding does the rest.

Yes.. this is coast FIRE.

In practice, of course, returns are never gauranteed; even over long timeframes your starting point still matters, and you are best to course correct along the way if you find your portfolio growth falling behind schedule.  For example, in the 24 years since its dotcom peak to now, the S&P has "only" returned about 5.1% real, well short of commonly cited the "7% real"  that many people seem to think is their divine birthright!

Exactly. You need to take into account inflation.


To the original question poised in the thread - I saw things really start to take off when compounding returns start to add more to your NW than your actual contributions.
This tends to happen around the 6-8 year mark of investing, depending on your ROI assumptions, and assuming you have a steady savings amount.

[beee]

To the original question poised in the thread - I saw things really start to take off when compounding returns start to add more to your NW than your actual contributions.
This tends to happen around the 6-8 year mark of investing, depending on your ROI assumptions, and assuming you have a steady savings amount.

My data supports your claim to the point.
Our NW changed 2.2x our annual invested amount on year 7 after starting investing. It was never above 2x before that.

[theoverlook]

In practice, of course, returns are never gauranteed; even over long timeframes your starting point still matters, and you are best to course correct along the way if you find your portfolio growth falling behind schedule.  For example, in the 24 years since its dotcom peak to now, the S&P has "only" returned about 5.1% real, well short of commonly cited the "7% real"  that many people seem to think is their divine birthright!

But of course, that's not how anyone invests in the market. Nobody has a huge pile of money and puts it in on a peak day and leaves it. Most of us in the real world buys stocks over time, so a drop like the dotcom bust is a short term pain but in the end does not reflect as much of a drag on a real world portfolio as you suggest. For example, if instead of lump summing it 3/2000 at the peak, you start with $10k then and add $500/mo to today, your average return is 10.43% nominal.

As to the original question, it's definitely an issue of what your target is. Any time you get close to your target it gets easier as the returns compound. In comparison the the first $X, the second $X is always easier when the market is helping you - which, on average, it will.

[vand]

In practice, of course, returns are never gauranteed; even over long timeframes your starting point still matters, and you are best to course correct along the way if you find your portfolio growth falling behind schedule.  For example, in the 24 years since its dotcom peak to now, the S&P has "only" returned about 5.1% real, well short of commonly cited the "7% real"  that many people seem to think is their divine birthright!

But of course, that's not how anyone invests in the market. Nobody has a huge pile of money and puts it in on a peak day and leaves it. Most of us in the real world buys stocks over time, so a drop like the dotcom bust is a short term pain but in the end does not reflect as much of a drag on a real world portfolio as you suggest. For example, if instead of lump summing it 3/2000 at the peak, you start with $10k then and add $500/mo to today, your average return is 10.43% nominal.

As to the original question, it's definitely an issue of what your target is. Any time you get close to your target it gets easier as the returns compound. In comparison the the first $X, the second $X is always easier when the market is helping you - which, on average, it will.

Don't conflate it with the either the buy-at-peak or lump-sump vs averaging-in debate..

The point of Coast-FIRE is that you deliberately don't add any more in once you've put in enough that your finances reach a certain trajectory. So you could have invested between 1990-2000 to build your coast-FIRE pot and then.. coasted for the next 15 years to disaster.  If you have no cashflows in or out of your portfolio then your personal rate of return will be exactly the same as the portfolio's between the time you stop contributing and the day you start drawing on it.

Granted, in the real world things are never completely binary like that - yoy can plan a nice glidepath for ramping down your savings, keep topping up a smaller amount etc. 

[charis]

In practice, of course, returns are never gauranteed; even over long timeframes your starting point still matters, and you are best to course correct along the way if you find your portfolio growth falling behind schedule.  For example, in the 24 years since its dotcom peak to now, the S&P has "only" returned about 5.1% real, well short of commonly cited the "7% real"  that many people seem to think is their divine birthright!

But of course, that's not how anyone invests in the market. Nobody has a huge pile of money and puts it in on a peak day and leaves it. Most of us in the real world buys stocks over time, so a drop like the dotcom bust is a short term pain but in the end does not reflect as much of a drag on a real world portfolio as you suggest. For example, if instead of lump summing it 3/2000 at the peak, you start with $10k then and add $500/mo to today, your average return is 10.43% nominal.

As to the original question, it's definitely an issue of what your target is. Any time you get close to your target it gets easier as the returns compound. In comparison the the first $X, the second $X is always easier when the market is helping you - which, on average, it will.

Don't conflate it with the either the buy-at-peak or lump-sump vs averaging-in debate..

The point of Coast-FIRE is that you deliberately don't add any more in once you've put in enough that your finances reach a certain trajectory. So you could have invested between 1990-2000 to build your coast-FIRE pot and then.. coasted for the next 15 years to disaster.  If you have no cashflows in or out of your portfolio then your personal rate of return will be exactly the same as the portfolio's between the time you stop contributing and the day you start drawing on it.

Granted, in the real world things are never completely binary like that - yoy can plan a nice glidepath for ramping down your savings, keep topping up a smaller amount etc. 

So this is timely for me since we had been ramping up for the last decade and are now starting a ramp down.  This is first year that we are pulling back, only a bit, on maxing all retirement accounts after hitting a certain goal.  It's a toe dip into Coast-FIRE and rerouting some of that 60% SR into home improvements that we can enjoy prior to retirement.  But since our spending will never be close our income, I can't imagine ceasing all saving.  The bolded is an accurate description, I think.

[mistymoney]

but i think @vands point is a good one, although highly pessimistic. The statement of the OP holds true in many circumstances, a very high majority, but not all.

Market woes, loss of income, disability, other life circumstances, can rear up after the first ___$ comes in, and then rather than moving fast after that, things slow down or even dry up, and maybe one ends up needing what was hoped to be seed money for FI to combat a crisis or ongoing health issue or prolonged unemployment.

eve after reaching FI, combinations of events and circumstances can take that away. not likely. but not impossible.

[bthewalls]

I really these hate posts that say ‘the first 1m is the hardest’……investments wise I’ll probably never reach that in my entire life 😂😂😂

[MustacheAndaHalf]

I really these hate posts that say ‘the first 1m is the hardest’……investments wise I’ll probably never reach that in my entire life 😂😂😂

Perhaps you'll feel less isolated -

"The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future"
(by T. Boone Pickens)
https://www.amazon.com/First-Billion-Hardest-Reflections-Comebacks-ebook/dp/B0017SUYWS

[vand]

but i think @vands point is a good one, although highly pessimistic. The statement of the OP holds true in many circumstances, a very high majority, but not all.

Market woes, loss of income, disability, other life circumstances, can rear up after the first ___$ comes in, and then rather than moving fast after that, things slow down or even dry up, and maybe one ends up needing what was hoped to be seed money for FI to combat a crisis or ongoing health issue or prolonged unemployment.

eve after reaching FI, combinations of events and circumstances can take that away. not likely. but not impossible.

I make these binary points to highlight weaknesses in the assumptions made.  "the market on average returns 7% real" is a wide assumption that, by definition, won't work for as many as half the samples from any random starting point on a pure calendar basis, and likely considerably more than half on an endogenously arrived at "my portfolio has just reach a certain amount" point. 

On the one hand average long term returns should be more predictable as you lengthen the timeframe, but on the other hand small mistakes and shortfalls will compound to large ones.

[Mississippi Mudstache]

I think the first million INVESTED really is the hardest.

It's the first time that a good market year really can change your life, after all, when else will you have 200k+ airdropped on you from essentially nothing?

I've had a really weird investment experience. My investments dropped to $180k (from a high of $262k) in the big Covid dip. That was after about 7 years of hard saving. Losing $80k in a matter of weeks felt simultaneously really crappy (2 years of savings gone) and also like a missed opportunity (I didn't have any extra money to throw in at the bottom). Then, out of nowhere, my investments took off like a rocket. I'm at $800k in total investments today, a mere 5 years post-Covid, and I'm well over a million if you throw in home equity. I keep expecting things to back off, but they just keep running up and away. So for me, the first quarter million really was the hardest, and things have been snowballing fast ever since.

[bthewalls]

I really these hate posts that say ‘the first 1m is the hardest’……investments wise I’ll probably never reach that in my entire life 😂😂😂

Perhaps you'll feel less isolated -

"The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future"
(by T. Boone Pickens)
https://www.amazon.com/First-Billion-Hardest-Reflections-Comebacks-ebook/dp/B0017SUYWS

Thanks

[J.P. MoreGains]

I've had a really weird investment experience. My investments dropped to $180k (from a high of $262k) in the big Covid dip. That was after about 7 years of hard saving. Losing $80k in a matter of weeks felt simultaneously really crappy (2 years of savings gone) and also like a missed opportunity (I didn't have any extra money to throw in at the bottom). Then, out of nowhere, my investments took off like a rocket. I'm at $800k in total investments today, a mere 5 years post-Covid, and I'm well over a million if you throw in home equity. I keep expecting things to back off, but they just keep running up and away. So for me, the first quarter million really was the hardest, and things have been snowballing fast ever since.

Things really have taken off since Covid. I didn't really notice the Covid dip since I wasn't saving a lot at that time plus I'm still kind of new. I'm closing in on 250k... maybe by end of year I'll be there.

Still kind of scared of first downturn that I experience and lose money. Especially if it's a long period where things don't really come back. I'll guess I'll learn how to deal with it when I get there.

Now as I'm approaching 250k I can really see the power of investments when things are good. Being on the minimalist side I can already see that a lot of months my market gains are higher than my expenses. That's a good experience.

I really excited about getting to a point like you where it's really just a snowball of market gains

[JAYSLOL]

I think the first million INVESTED really is the hardest.

It's the first time that a good market year really can change your life, after all, when else will you have 200k+ airdropped on you from essentially nothing?

I've had a really weird investment experience. My investments dropped to $180k (from a high of $262k) in the big Covid dip. That was after about 7 years of hard saving. Losing $80k in a matter of weeks felt simultaneously really crappy (2 years of savings gone) and also like a missed opportunity (I didn't have any extra money to throw in at the bottom). Then, out of nowhere, my investments took off like a rocket. I'm at $800k in total investments today, a mere 5 years post-Covid, and I'm well over a million if you throw in home equity. I keep expecting things to back off, but they just keep running up and away. So for me, the first quarter million really was the hardest, and things have been snowballing fast ever since.

Yeah, at Covid I had just hit the first $100k a few months prior, was sitting at about $115k and it dropped to $85k within a couple weeks, and I felt exactly the same, it hurt a little, but mostly I wished I had more cash on hand. 

[EarlyInJourney]

I struggled with credit card debt all through my 20s and 30s, and didn't save anything. I didn't make much money, had student loans, and was undisciplined.

Somewhat ironically, it wasn't until I moved to a VHCOL locale that things started turning around. Sure, my expenses were something like 30% higher than before, but I was making 50-60% more at my new job. I kept my lifestyle more or less the same, and methodically paid off the $30K+ of CC debt within a year and a half. That was also when I discovered MMM.

I actually started contributing to a retirement account for the very first time at the tender age of 40! (hope that makes lots of you feel better about your own tardy savings start)

I went from literally $0 in savings (of any kind) in 2017 to $310K in tax-advantaged accounts and a $20K emergency fund today. But it didn't start until I -finally- paid off the CC debt that had been the monkey on my back for 20 years. So for me, the first 30K was easily the hardest.

Things that made it possible:

- I inherited a car from my FIL (kind of crappy 2017 hatchback, but not having a car payment each month has been truly beautiful - I plowed what could have been $300-400/month for a car loan right into my 457b retirement account)

- After 120 payments, my remaining student loan balance was forgiven ($50K+) - the $500/month loan payment became another nice chunk that went right into my 457b

- My work offers both a 457b and a 401k - I was able to "turbo save" in 2021 and 2022 and maxed out both accounts both of those years

- My wife also doesn't give a shit about clothing brands, nice cars, a big house, or otherwise keeping up with the Joneses - this helps a lot!

While watching the account balances grow these past 7 years has certainly been gratifying, it has not been as satisfying as paying off the bills and becoming debt-free - it felt like chains falling off me. I know that becoming FI is another way of removing chains, but it terms of sheer emotional impact, not owing anybody anything is tops for me. Sorry, I'm straying from the OP's intent, perhaps, but it's all connected for me.

[EarlyInJourney]

Or I could have just written: what @iluvzbeach said, basically.

[iluvzbeach]

Or I could have just written: what @iluvzbeach said, basically.

Oh, but I love how you wrote it all out. In many ways, our situations were similar, including being in credit card debt well into our 30s. Happy to report that all that net worth skyrocketing I mentioned in my post resulted in FIRE in 2022. You’ve got this!

[EarlyInJourney]

Thanks, @iluvzbeach !  Yes, I'm not really sure when retirement will happen, but I'm feeling good about where we're at, financially - it also really helps that I have 17 years of pension credit working for city governments, so we should be just fine. (plus, my wife is really good at what she does, and she can do it from anywhere with a good Internet connection)

Since my wife is 6 years younger than I am and we have a preschooler, in some ways I'd prefer taking a few sabbaticals/6 month breaks between jobs and just plan on working until I'm in my mid-sixties.  Maybe some variation on a coast FIRE?  I mean, I could just let my current $310K stash sit for 18 years, not contribute a penny more, and with, say, 7% interest at work, it would be in excess of a million when I'm 65.  That plus (hopefully) another 15 years of pension credit should put me in a comfortable position, not counting my wife's contributions...

I'm planning on quitting my job in CA this December, to have a break before we move back to the Midwest in March or so, and I'm really looking forward to working on my west coast bucket list before we leave - I'm really ready for a sabbatical right now!

Anyway, I'm glad you were able to FIRE, and I hope it's treating you well.

[joshrosenthal5000]

I really like this post.

Dual incomes does make a big difference. I've been solo income most of my adult life so I know the feeling you're describing. When I listen to a lot of the people around me though, I don't think most of them have high wealth. I think they have high spending. Many people around me have cars and stuff that I don't have, but my savings is far higher. They have different priorities. Maybe it works for them, but I'm much happier with knowing I've reached coast fire.

Hang on to that feeling of abundance.

The five items below make the difference between easy wealthy situation or living a few paycheck away from having to liquidate things or borrow more against the house or living off the high interest rate credit card.
 1) Dual compatible income or one income is well into the 6-figure (e.g. over $200k for medium or lower cost region).
2) Lower cost or lower tax regions such as Texas and Florida.
3) No social debt such as obligations to help out relatives or adult children and siblings.
4) No spouse with a leaky financial pitfalls such as child support, alimony, or judgement against, or self destructive habit such as bad gambling and/or consumption problems.
5) No crazy medical bills.

[joshrosenthal5000]

In 2019 I had a job where I made $14 an hour as a mechanic in the maritime industry and I would often work 12 hours a day 7 days a week on dry docks. After 40 hours I would get double time. That year I saved like 34k. It felt like so much money. Good months I was saving a little over 4k.

This year I work as a software dev and I work 1/10th as hard and I'm saving nearly double per month. If market holds up I should be up 100k since last September.

It doesn't feel like as much money as in 2019. And I kind of miss that job even though it was brutally hard and backbreaking.

Funny how that works. Really earning every cent feels good.

$14 per hour was quite low for maritime mechanics unless you lived out in the boonies.  At least you made double-time.  I am very happy that you got a better job but it is very unfair that many white-collar professionals do not get OT or even compensated for time beyond the 40-hr.  I am actually looking for a job in a different series just to bd able to work OT and get fairly compensated for it.  That and the itching desire to move to a no income-tax state with better weather while maintaining a same pay.  Houston is great and everything is much cheaper there while the salary is noticeable higher.

[alienbogey]

Difficult milestones for us:

•  Achieving zero net worth after getting married with two student loan debts (none forgiven)

•  Achieving house downpayment

•  Achieving maximum yearly tax-deferred contributions while raising kids

•  Paying off mortgage early

•  The first million

Looking back and considering the above list - hardest was paying off the student debt while in starter and retail jobs in HCOL areas.  One of us did a complete career reset and the other followed along, which reset our income level back to starting out, but with LCOL.

Easiest?  It sounds blasphemous to say it but, really, the easiest of our hardest list was the first million.  Once we achieved max yearly tax-deferred contributions seven digits became inevitable over enough time, assuming we kept it up.

(Market returns have been hard to believe since then, partly due to very fortunate stock picking, and each subsequent million has been easier than the last.)

[RetireOrDieTrying]

For me, getting out of five figures in credit card debt to $0 was hardest and it got much easier from there.

Gawd, yes. You beat me to it. Getting to zero was THE hardest part for me. I thought the day would never arrive. A little over 5 years ago I was freshly divorced at 50 with no house, no car, $25 to my name (not a typo) and $110k in credit card debt (also not a typo). From that turnaround point it was so frustrating for so long to live like a street urchin while I paid on seemingly inexhaustible high-interest debt. Once I got all the way up to nothing (that sounds weird) the first dollar in savings/investments felt amazing. By then, I was accustomed to my new lifestyle (nobody worth my concern cares what car I drive or what clothes I wear), so it just kept rollin'.

The first day of getting out of the hole was the hardest, by a country mile. I thank my lucky stars every day for my FIRE-y friend Peter, who provided guidance and encouragement, in a kind but frank way, and who still does.

[mistymoney]

For me, getting out of five figures in credit card debt to $0 was hardest and it got much easier from there.

Gawd, yes. You beat me to it. Getting to zero was THE hardest part for me. I thought the day would never arrive. A little over 5 years ago I was freshly divorced at 50 with no house, no car, $25 to my name (not a typo) and $110k in credit card debt (also not a typo). From that turnaround point it was so frustrating for so long to live like a street urchin while I paid on seemingly inexhaustible high-interest debt. Once I got all the way up to nothing (that sounds weird) the first dollar in savings/investments felt amazing. By then, I was accustomed to my new lifestyle (nobody worth my concern cares what car I drive or what clothes I wear), so it just kept rollin'.

The first day of getting out of the hole was the hardest, by a country mile. I thank my lucky stars every day for my FIRE-y friend Peter, who provided guidance and encouragement, in a kind but frank way, and who still does.

thats amazing! congrats!

[iluvzbeach]

For me, getting out of five figures in credit card debt to $0 was hardest and it got much easier from there.

Gawd, yes. You beat me to it. Getting to zero was THE hardest part for me. I thought the day would never arrive. A little over 5 years ago I was freshly divorced at 50 with no house, no car, $25 to my name (not a typo) and $110k in credit card debt (also not a typo). From that turnaround point it was so frustrating for so long to live like a street urchin while I paid on seemingly inexhaustible high-interest debt. Once I got all the way up to nothing (that sounds weird) the first dollar in savings/investments felt amazing. By then, I was accustomed to my new lifestyle (nobody worth my concern cares what car I drive or what clothes I wear), so it just kept rollin'.

The first day of getting out of the hole was the hardest, by a country mile. I thank my lucky stars every day for my FIRE-y friend Peter, who provided guidance and encouragement, in a kind but frank way, and who still does.

Congratulations on getting to “nothing!” That was certainly a big hole to get yourself out of and you did it remarkably fast. It’s so much easier the rest of the way. We’re roughly the same age, DH & I are FIRE and I owe so much to MMM and the people on these forums.

[J.P. MoreGains]

@RetireOrDieTrying

Gawd, yes. You beat me to it. Getting to zero was THE hardest part for me. I thought the day would never arrive. A little over 5 years ago I was freshly divorced at 50 with no house, no car, $25 to my name (not a typo) and $110k in credit card debt (also not a typo). From that turnaround point it was so frustrating for so long to live like a street urchin while I paid on seemingly inexhaustible high-interest debt. Once I got all the way up to nothing (that sounds weird) the first dollar in savings/investments felt amazing. By then, I was accustomed to my new lifestyle (nobody worth my concern cares what car I drive or what clothes I wear), so it just kept rollin'.

The first day of getting out of the hole was the hardest, by a country mile. I thank my lucky stars every day for my FIRE-y friend Peter, who provided guidance and encouragement, in a kind but frank way, and who still does.

Wow, what a turnaround story you have. Has to feel so good to be in a good place now.

The wealth you have built is really earned. There's a special feeling to that. When you retire it will be a great day for sure.

[Ron Scott]

I think the first million is so hard for most people that they never reach 2.

[charis]

I think the first million is so hard for most people that they never reach 2.

I think the issue there is never reaching the first million.  I don't know the stats but I'd bet that most people who reach the first also reach the second.

[Ron Scott]

I think the first million is so hard for most people that they never reach 2.

I think the issue there is never reaching the first million.  I don't know the stats but I'd bet that most people who reach the first also reach the second.

About 12%+ of retirees reach $1m. Only 4% have reached $2m.

[bthewalls]

I think the first million is so hard for most people that they never reach 2.

I think the issue there is never reaching the first million.  I don't know the stats but I'd bet that most people who reach the first also reach the second.

About 12%+ of retirees reach $1m. Only 4% have reached $2m.

In an odd way that’s actually reassuring……was starting to feel way behind on here lol

[Ron Scott]

I think the first million is so hard for most people that they never reach 2.

I think the issue there is never reaching the first million.  I don't know the stats but I'd bet that most people who reach the first also reach the second.

About 12%+ of retirees reach $1m. Only 4% have reached $2m.

In an odd way that’s actually reassuring……was starting to feel way behind on here lol

Yeah, i think the expression “your first million is the hardest” is meant for people who already have $2m+.