Author Topic: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today  (Read 3227 times)

HAPPYINAZ

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Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« on: March 23, 2017, 12:49:55 PM »
So excited!  We hit 1 million in net worth back in June, but that included the house.  Now we have 1 million without the house.  Exciting times.  But I gave up meat and cheese for Lent, so will have to celebrate with a healthy salad and a nice IPA. :)

This seemed to be an impossible milestone a decade ago.  So for those just starting out on your financial independence journey, keep the faith, it starts to snowball after awhile.  We make less money than most all our friends and they all say they will never be able to retire.  Makes me sad.  I try to help with those that seem interested, but you all know how it is...no one believes you can make so much money just by spending less and investing wisely.  They all think you have to have 6 figure salaries.  I spoke with a family the other day and the guy said he had worked for 29 years in a good job and would never be able to retire.  They had a giant house, giant boat, huge ATV, and multiple vehicles in their garage.  I felt so sad for them.   


 




« Last Edit: March 23, 2017, 05:32:04 PM by HAPPYINAZ »

tarheeldan

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2017, 12:51:55 PM »
Congratulations!

mudstache

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2017, 01:08:21 PM »
Wow, congratulations!!  Enjoy that salad. ;)

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2017, 01:21:56 PM »
Wow, congratulations!!  Enjoy that salad. ;)

ha! thanks! will do!

rg422

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2017, 01:23:07 PM »
Congratulations.

B L I S S

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2017, 08:21:21 PM »
Did you index invest the entire time or gamble a bit with individuals?

aFrugalFather

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2017, 08:31:33 PM »
Did you index invest the entire time or gamble a bit with individuals?

You are assuming stocks, but Real Estate, Precious metals, Business Assets, etc all are possible investments as well. 

zinnie

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2017, 08:33:33 PM »
Congrats! I can't wait to hit that one.

At least you didn't give up beer, too :)

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2017, 07:56:18 AM »
Congrats! I can't wait to hit that one.

At least you didn't give up beer, too :)

I gave up alcohol last year for Lent...whew, that was a tough one!  Luckily not this year!

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2017, 08:11:34 AM »
Did you index invest the entire time or gamble a bit with individuals?

Mostly all individual stocks.  I started learning about investing long before MMM was around, so I didn't learn about index investing until recently.  In addition to stocks, I have investments in things like Lending Club, Kickfurther, and Peer Street.  I also loaned about $120K to a friend for him to buy a house, that brings in a little over $825 a month.  I also have conservative investments in CDs.   I keep more cash on hand than most people here would consider reasonable, but it helps me sleep at night and to be ready to buy during market down turns or opportunities like helping my friend buy his house. 

Currently I have about 60% in the stock market, 23% cash or CDs, 17% in alternative investments like Lending Club, Peer Street, Kickfurther and my friends loan.  Our savings and investments have grown an average of 14.5% per year over the last 12 years that I have been tracking it.     

My husband and I currently still enjoy our jobs, so we will likely keep working at least a few more years.  But we have been doing more international travel the last few years and plan to keep doing more of that.  I am excited to keep earning money that I can then give away to causes we support. 

« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 08:20:52 AM by HAPPYINAZ »

trailcamaddict

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2017, 09:22:29 AM »
Did you index invest the entire time or gamble a bit with individuals?

Mostly all individual stocks.  I started learning about investing long before MMM was around, so I didn't learn about index investing until recently.  In addition to stocks, I have investments in things like Lending Club, Kickfurther, and Peer Street.  I also loaned about $120K to a friend for him to buy a house, that brings in a little over $825 a month.  I also have conservative investments in CDs.   I keep more cash on hand than most people here would consider reasonable, but it helps me sleep at night and to be ready to buy during market down turns or opportunities like helping my friend buy his house. 

Currently I have about 60% in the stock market, 23% cash or CDs, 17% in alternative investments like Lending Club, Peer Street, Kickfurther and my friends loan.  Our savings and investments have grown an average of 14.5% per year over the last 12 years that I have been tracking it.     

My husband and I currently still enjoy our jobs, so we will likely keep working at least a few more years.  But we have been doing more international travel the last few years and plan to keep doing more of that.  I am excited to keep earning money that I can then give away to causes we support.

14.5% growth is fantastic!  Would you mind sharing what parts of your portfolio are kicking off the growth?  I would love to be able to get better than the 9% or so that we have averaged!

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2017, 09:52:06 AM »
Did you index invest the entire time or gamble a bit with individuals?

Mostly all individual stocks.  I started learning about investing long before MMM was around, so I didn't learn about index investing until recently.  In addition to stocks, I have investments in things like Lending Club, Kickfurther, and Peer Street.  I also loaned about $120K to a friend for him to buy a house, that brings in a little over $825 a month.  I also have conservative investments in CDs.   I keep more cash on hand than most people here would consider reasonable, but it helps me sleep at night and to be ready to buy during market down turns or opportunities like helping my friend buy his house. 

Currently I have about 60% in the stock market, 23% cash or CDs, 17% in alternative investments like Lending Club, Peer Street, Kickfurther and my friends loan.  Our savings and investments have grown an average of 14.5% per year over the last 12 years that I have been tracking it.     

My husband and I currently still enjoy our jobs, so we will likely keep working at least a few more years.  But we have been doing more international travel the last few years and plan to keep doing more of that.  I am excited to keep earning money that I can then give away to causes we support.

14.5% growth is fantastic!  Would you mind sharing what parts of your portfolio are kicking off the growth?  I would love to be able to get better than the 9% or so that we have averaged!


That growth includes extra savings due to extra income in some years, so not purely ROI as you might be calculating yours.  So it's growth of the value of all our accounts (bank accounts, stocks, alternative investments).  I work as a contract biologist, so some years I have several contracts and therefore more income, some years much less.  So it's a combination of skyrocketing stock market and increasing income the last five years or so.  Although last year, my income went down.   I keep track of year-over-year percentage increase for all my accounts in total and it has ranged from -8.95% (in 2008 with market crash) to 29.4% increase in 2012 with market recovery and more income.  Last year was only 9.3% increase.  But when averaged it comes out to 14.74%.  Our adjusted gross income has ranged from 20K to 80K (and that can be back to back years), so it's highly variable depending on what contracts I get.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 10:16:33 AM by HAPPYINAZ »

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #12 on: March 24, 2017, 10:04:37 AM »
here is a graph of our networth (including the house) for the last five years (note it only includes up to Jan 2017, not the last couple months).  You can see the amount I have in my stock market portfolio has doubled in the last five years, partly due to increases in stock market and partly due to moving more money into the market.  And you can see my cash on hand was way out of control in 2015.  At the time we were considering buying some property, but in the end decided to put it into other alternative investments. 
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 10:17:20 AM by HAPPYINAZ »

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #13 on: March 24, 2017, 10:45:15 AM »
And graph of cash and investments growth since 2004 (not including house).  Dip near middle is 2008 market crash.

Bones81

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Re: Finally! Hit just over 1 million in investments/cash today
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2017, 06:27:23 PM »
So excited!  We hit 1 million in net worth back in June, but that included the house.  Now we have 1 million without the house.  Exciting times.  But I gave up meat and cheese for Lent, so will have to celebrate with a healthy salad and a nice IPA. :)

This seemed to be an impossible milestone a decade ago.  So for those just starting out on your financial independence journey, keep the faith, it starts to snowball after awhile.  We make less money than most all our friends and they all say they will never be able to retire.  Makes me sad.  I try to help with those that seem interested, but you all know how it is...no one believes you can make so much money just by spending less and investing wisely.  They all think you have to have 6 figure salaries.  I spoke with a family the other day and the guy said he had worked for 29 years in a good job and would never be able to retire.  They had a giant house, giant boat, huge ATV, and multiple vehicles in their garage.  I felt so sad for them.   

Congrats on the milestone, I can't wait to get there myself someday.  Also, I gave up church for Lent.