How much has your Net Worth increased since starting MMM?

[Metalcat]

I just realized that we're well over 1M in NW increase. Neat.

ETA: almost none of that has been market gains.

[ixtap]

I just realized that we're well over 1M in NW increase. Neat.

I assume we started adding up our total portfolio precisely because we found MMM and bogleheads, as prior to that our goal was 10x in taxable to take a long sabbatical. Anyway, we now have more increase than we originally set our goals for. Part of that is deciding that 4% wasn't really prudent for a very early retirement and part is DH just isn't ready to walk away from work. At least, most days he isn't: he is starting to make mutterings about starting to realize he probably won't miss it.

[boarder42]

hard to know for sure what i had when we started.

Found MMM at 27 in Feb 2014 had ~~125k
Today in 2017 ~ 750k networth.

well this is fun to revisit 4 years later 2.1MM

[2Birds1Stone]

These bragging threads are fun.

Discovered MMM in November of 2014.

  $75,000 - Net Worth 11/1/2014
$327,000 - Net Worth 9/26/2017

+$252,000 in just under 3 years

My income has also gone up from $49k in 2014 to ~$120k in 2017

+$440K since then.....all while working only half of those past 4 years :)

[charis]

I discovered MMM in approximately 2014 and started tracking NW in Dec. 2014 - technically we had a negative NW but I wasn't including student loans on track for forgiveness, which put us at about $63k (mostly home equity). Today we have a NW of 874k including 660k investment balance.

hard to know for sure what i had when we started.

Found MMM at 27 in Feb 2014 had ~~125k
Today in 2017 ~ 750k networth.

well this is fun to revisit 4 years later 2.1MM

I expect to hit 750k next year, that's eye popping for 4 years later.

It's interesting that many of us joined in 2014.

[boarder42]

I discovered MMM in approximately 2014 and started tracking NW in Dec. 2014 - technically we had a negative NW but I wasn't including student loans on track for forgiveness, which put us at about $63k (mostly home equity). Today we have a NW of 874k including 660k investment balance.

hard to know for sure what i had when we started.

Found MMM at 27 in Feb 2014 had ~~125k
Today in 2017 ~ 750k networth.

well this is fun to revisit 4 years later 2.1MM

I expect to hit 750k next year, that's eye popping for 4 years later.

It's interesting that many of us joined in 2014.

extracted alot of house value and invested that.  Also pivoted my investment approach about a year to 2 years ago away from all VTSAX into almost all small cap value. 

[dandarc]

I apparently joined the forum in October of 2013.  According to my spreadsheet, our net worth was:

October 2013 - $200,000
September 2017 - $625,400

This is fun. And another 4 years later $1.25 million. Can't continue to go up this fast for much longer, can it?

[frugalnacho]

May-14   $132.7
...
Apr-19   $505.5
May-19   $518.2

Dec-19     $590.3

Jun-20     $634.8

My networth shot up $68k in the last month, and $125k in the last 2 months.  Of course it also shit the bed and lost $100k in the previous 2 months before that, so mostly just getting that all back.  Some pretty wild swings.

Oct-21    $862k.  Was over $900k the previous couple of months, and I expect it back into the 900's when I update in 6 days.  Next stop $1M!

[moof]

Was around ~$500-600k about 5 years ago when I stumbled in here, but I was rudderless without a framework as to where to put money beyond the 401k, and how to translate all that money into an early retirement.  Can't say I've change my spending much, but I'm now at $1.6M and 2 years from pulling the plug.
My current job is like a pair of golden handcuffs.  I'm contemplating a downshift to something I would enjoy working at for 3 years rather than slog through a job I've come to despise for 2 more years.  I could lose 2/3 of my pay before it affected spending, which opens up a lot of options I could consider.

[LD_TAndK]

2015 - just out of college, found MMM, household net worth with future wife was ~50k
2021 - We're married, I'm retired, wife is OMY, and we're well in excess of 1M

Probably 30% or more of that was market gains.
We took two unpaid 6 month sabbaticals in that time.

[boarder42]

2015 - just out of college, found MMM, household net worth with future wife was ~50k
2021 - We're married, I'm retired, wife is OMY, and we're well in excess of 1M

Probably 30% or more of that was market gains.
We took two unpaid 6 month sabbaticals in that time.

awesome fast path to FI!

[clarkfan1979]

2015 - just out of college, found MMM, household net worth with future wife was ~50k
2021 - We're married, I'm retired, wife is OMY, and we're well in excess of 1M

Probably 30% or more of that was market gains.
We took two unpaid 6 month sabbaticals in that time.

Nice. I think number of hours is also relevant. Our progress could have been faster, if we worked more. I included combined weekly hours for my wife and I. I also included the number of hours that I spend self-managing our rentals.

During these 10 years, we averaged W2 income of 77K/year and rental income of 13K/year. We went from zero to over one million with 900K of income over those 10 years. Thanks MMM!

2011: zero (80 hours)
2012: 50K (79 hours)
2013: 100K (78 hours)
2014: 162K (77 hours) Found MMM
2015: 282K (48 hours) My wife transitioned from 45 hour weeks (full-time) to 10-15 hour weeks (part-time)
2016: 371K (32 hours)
2017: 457K (23 hours)
2018: 517K (31 hours)
2019: 650K (35 hours)
2020: 850K (35 hours)
2021: 1050K (35 hours)

[dandarc]

I like the "hours" metric! Gotta look through the records and figure that one out.

[solon]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

[Metalcat]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

Maybe I'm not reading some post properly, but why would "the public at large" have a problem with someone working part time hours?

[dandarc]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

Maybe I'm not reading some post properly, but why would "the public at large" have a problem with someone working part time hours?

I read that to mean "Normal people wouldn't believe it along side the stated financial progress." Because investing even 10% of two full-time-plus incomes is an aspirational goal for most people.

[boarder42]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

Maybe I'm not reading some post properly, but why would "the public at large" have a problem with someone working part time hours?

my guess is the public at large cant fathom cutting hours to that level and growing an investment account like that. kinda how the public at large can't even fathom what we talk about and do in this community.

[solon]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

Maybe I'm not reading some post properly, but why would "the public at large" have a problem with someone working part time hours?

my guess is the public at large cant fathom cutting hours to that level and growing an investment account like that. kinda how the public at large can't even fathom what we talk about and do in this community.

I originally typed "IRP" but I didn't want to get into a discussion about whether clarkfan was retired or not. I just meant the yahoo finance, FIRE unbelieving, naysayers.

dardarc and boarder restated it for me nicely.

[soulpatchmike]

One income(w-2), 40 hours/week for a family of 7, permanent WFH since 4/2020
Found MMM in 2015 at ~$331k - (88k/yr salary - 6k/yr rental cash flow)
As of 10-2021 ~$1.22M - (126k/yr salary - 24k/yr rental cash flow)

Roughly 900k increase since discovering MMM.

[goldthe]

I've been wanting to throw this out into the void for a while, and this thread seems like as appropriate a place as any.

I stumbled across MMM in early 2014. My wife and I had just paid off the last of our non-mortgage debt (it was about $50k total, slowly paid off over the previous 5 years). I had just gotten my first "real" job at a local software company - entry level, roughly $35k a year plus benefits. A princely sum, in my opinion. Combined with my wife's income which was a little more than my own, I knew we had a lot of money coming in, and no debt to throw it at, so I needed to educate myself on how to invest it wisely.
So in January 2014 with net worth around zero, I learned how to invest in index funds, and how to avoid lifestyle creep, how to foster a DIY attitude, etc.

Fast forward through a lot of life events, and today the investments sit around $2.5 million, and I find myself in a job that is emotionally rewarding, highly flexible, and I'm compensated something like $60k every single month I work here (salary + equity). More than twice my annual budget from a few years ago, now coming into my bank account every single month!   

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the changes since I discovered this community, but I owe a big debt of gratitude to it.

[boarder42]

I've been wanting to throw this out into the void for a while, and this thread seems like as appropriate a place as any.

I stumbled across MMM in early 2014. My wife and I had just paid off the last of our non-mortgage debt (it was about $50k total, slowly paid off over the previous 5 years). I had just gotten my first "real" job at a local software company - entry level, roughly $35k a year plus benefits. A princely sum, in my opinion. Combined with my wife's income which was a little more than my own, I knew we had a lot of money coming in, and no debt to throw it at, so I needed to educate myself on how to invest it wisely.
So in January 2014 with net worth around zero, I learned how to invest in index funds, and how to avoid lifestyle creep, how to foster a DIY attitude, etc.

Fast forward through a lot of life events, and today the investments sit around $2.5 million, and I find myself in a job that is emotionally rewarding, highly flexible, and I'm compensated something like $60k every single month I work here (salary + equity). More than twice my annual budget from a few years ago, now coming into my bank account every single month!   

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the changes since I discovered this community, but I owe a big debt of gratitude to it.

Impressive! 

Man the number of 2014 finders of this forum.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I started here in 2017, with a net worth of ~$3m. We're just over ~$6m.

We doubled our retirement investments over that time, sold our vacation & rental house, paid off our primary residence, & have had some really great property value gains. We have also been working at a company that's seem tremendous stock price growth over that time, & both receive ~50%+ of our compensation in equity.

I also took an unpaid sabbatical over that time period, and that bought me probably another year at work (renewed energy). COVID brought WFH and on international work travel, which bought me another couple of years.

[Zikoris]

We were somewhere between $0 and $5,000 when we started in August/September 2011, when we were 23 and 24. We're at $290,899 today, about six years later. Our combined income during that time ranged from around 35K to 80K, so it's not like we were rolling in cash.

We didn't really make a lot of changes. It was more making a few tweaks here and there and increasing our income from "shit" to "middle-class".

Update: About a year and a half later and we've just recently crossed tho 400K mark. Still making in the same income range - last year was about 78K. Expenses haven't changed.

Another update - we're now about 650k, with similar income and lower expenses. Getting pretty close to FIRE given our low spending needs. We're hoping to scorch-earth our way through the last few %.

[clarkfan1979]

Almost unbelievable that you and your wife together worked 30-35 hours per week over the last few years, including rental management. If I was the public at large I might have some trouble with that!

Maybe I'm not reading some post properly, but why would "the public at large" have a problem with someone working part time hours?

my guess is the public at large cant fathom cutting hours to that level and growing an investment account like that. kinda how the public at large can't even fathom what we talk about and do in this community.

I originally typed "IRP" but I didn't want to get into a discussion about whether clarkfan was retired or not. I just meant the yahoo finance, FIRE unbelieving, naysayers.

dardarc and boarder restated it for me nicely.

My job is full-time, but the hours are closer to part-time. I teach community college and my contract says 1,320 hours/year. For my first 2-3 years of teaching, I was probably close to that. However, I am now 99% done with prepping materials. I recycle the same materials and exams for everything. The applied examples are different every semester depending on current events, which keeps it fresh. I'm probably around 1,000 hours/year for my W-2. I am required to be on campus 768 hours/year. This is 32 weeks/year. I get 20 weeks of vacation.

My wife is a virtual assistant for a realtor in Denver. She works 5-10 hours/week. She does social media management for her (facebook) and also maintains her database. After every contact and transaction, the contact information goes into the database.

In a normal year, I'm probably around 100-150 hours/year to self-manage 3 properties (4 doors), including repairs. However, over the past two years, it's probably been closer to 300 hours/year. I have made the conscious decision to do some repairs when I was on break. I laid some flooring in 2020 which was 150 hours. I painted the exterior of a rental house in 2021 which was another 150 hours.

I'm planning to work until I'm 70. We will see if it actually happens.

I get value from my job. I get to "give back" knowledge to students and hang out with co-workers that have advanced degrees in all sorts of disciplines. If I want to have a meaningful discussion with someone with an advanced degree in Economics or History, I just walk down the hall.

With 20 weeks of vacation, I still get plenty of time to engage in my leisure activities and pursue passion projects.

[JAYSLOL]

Just hit $150k from basically nothing after finding MMM 6 years ago

[N]

Found MMM in Fall of 2012 when we had a NW of -1K  and a fair amount of debt.

Today, 521K NW.

Family of 4 living on my husbands full time income and my side hustles.




Past:

NW Nov 2020: 347k
NW Dec 2019: 229k
NW Dec 2018:  174k
NW Dec 2017: 168,460
NW Dec 2016: 129,892
NW Dec 2015: 98,795
NW Dec 2014: 73,369
NW Feb 2014: 61,148
NW oct 2012, -1k

[Chris Pascale]

Don't have an exact amount at the moment, but can say that it was after showing my wife an MMM talk that she told me, "I'm going back to work, and we might not do those home repairs we were planning this year."

Then last year I got over the hump income-wise to start putting $500/month into my Roth, $500/check into my TSP, and $400/check (adjunct prof) into my 403(b). Add in an inflated home value, and the increases are substantial.

She very correctly stated at the start of Pete's talk, "They had no kids and good incomes," and even after nailing that assertion, watched a bit more and slept on it, coming the above conclusion - spend less, make more, lock down some better options.

[davisgang90]

I've been following MMM since 2013 or so, but didn't have good budget numbers for NW until 2018.

In Jan 2018 NW was about $500K
As of November it is $1,046,000

During that time I retired from the Navy in September of 2018, worked another full time job for one year 2020-21 (for a ridiculously small salary).

Now I'm fully retired again.

The vast majority of the increase was market gains with a little help from a small inheritance bump. We live mostly on my pension and VA disability, so we are happy to leave our nestegg alone and let it grow.

[somers515]

I think I found MMM in 2015.
My wife and I saw our net worth grow by roughly 300-350% in those 6 years (2015-2021).
And I was able to retire in 2017.
Thank you to MMM and this FIRE community!

[Longwaytogo]

Late May 2013 -($35K)

Late May (ok ealry June, lol) 2020- $240K

So up about $270K in 7 years. Slow in some respects compared to other high earners and many on these boards.

About $320K now.

~$80K in 17 months close to $5K per month. I'll take it!!

Also back in 2013 DW was 9 years into her pension, now 17 (of 30).  I don't have the pension value included in the Net Worth but it should pay about $60K a year in 2035.

Trajectory is a lot slower then many here, but MMM has allowed me to go from "work until I die being in consumer debt the whole time" to retire pretty comfortably around 55.

[DeniseNJ]

OMG, I'm a millionaire!!!  I have $1,004,173 in cash and investments.  I'm stunned.  I know that will waiver but wow, that's a lot of money.

I found MMM Sept 2018, just over 3 yrs ago.  We had about 30K in cc debt and about 350K in my TSP.  Less than 10K in Roth IRAs.  Now dh and I have a million dollars.  It is absolutely all a direct result of finding MMM and you all on this forum.  Yes also the stock market has been bonkers, but I've also been maxing out all retirement accounts and actually saving money, maximizing each buck, not blowing money on frivolous crap we don't need, and looking to get the most for each dollar.  We have no revolving cc debt.  We have cash in savings accts. 

We made over 200K per yr combined but lived paycheck to paycheck.  I can't even imagine that now.  We were always broke but packages of stuff we "needed" came in the mail every single day.  We paid a thousand bucks to cc's every month but the balance never went down.  If we didn't have the money we'd charge it bc it was all important stuff that we needed or it was only a few dollars anyway.  The stress for years was exhausting.

Thank you all so much!  You have saved my family!!!

[dandarc]

Congratulations on your 2nd comma @DeniseNJ! With some luck and continued continued additions to savings, you might not see that "dip below" happen.

[ducky19]

Joined in February 2014 with a net worth of $115,248.95. Today's total is $907,247.99. Which means that our monthly average increase was 7.31%, yearly increase of 87.7%. Not as epic as many of you, but it's still hard to believe how far we've come in such a short time!

[Extramedium]

Mine has gone from around zero (I started reading around 2013, joined forum 2014) including mortgage to around $2.14M today in 2021.  Not exactly causal, but not unrelated, either.

[achvfi]

We reached a million dollars in net worth this year. Its been 5 years since I found MMM and we are up about $825000. Based on projections I made years ago I was to reach a million in net worth by 2024-25, growth exceeded my expectations by big margin.

Its time to project again. Its puts smile on my face to imagine growth from our million+ in assets and savings propelling us to our next million. In next five years may be??

I feel like its all on autopilot now. I find myself focusing more on other things in life, living best life.

[Samuel]

When I found MMM in Feb 2016 I was 36 years old with $146k to my name (which was still a big improvement from having $0 when I turned 30). I've just hit $650k, all done solo in a HCOL area with no real estate or windfalls. All just saving and investing from an income that has never broken 6 figures (although this should be the year).

At 36 I was fully resigned to another 30 years of grinding out a middling (for the area, and especially given I have a Sociology degree) salary in soul deadening jobs. I'm now on track to pull the plug in my mid to late 40's. Crazy.

[Purple_Crayon]

I stumbled upon MMM in 2012.

After dropping out of college in 2004 and again in 2006, I was taking a third stab at it. I was working nights and going to school during the day. I had recently read a book that had really spoken to me, and I was Googling around to see if others had been affected by it in the same way I had been. It just so happens, MMM dedicated a post to it in late 2011 (https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/02/what-is-stoicism-and-how-can-it-turn-your-life-to-solid-gold/).

I spent that 8-hour shift reading every single post that existed up to that point. I went home in the morning and told my girlfriend that I spent a surreal night delving into a blog whose meditations had a voice so eerily familiar that I was convinced I had somehow written the posts myself in some alternate reality for me to stumble upon in this one. I have frequented this community of the positive, supportive, likeminded ever since.

2012 Net Worth: ~$1000
2021 New Worth: >$1m

It is mind-blowing to me that with discipline (natural for me as I am boring as hell and don't crave material things and am largely a Luddite) and some luck (great advocates and people that trusted me with jobs that normally go to people related to the CEO), a normal dude from a shit town with no connections like me can go from $0 to FI in 8 years.

[bryan995]

We originally started with the dreaded Dave Ramsey until we completed BS2 and then promptly came to our senses.  Became acutely aware of personal finance in 2010. Have been maxing 2x401k, 2xIRA and optimizing (not trimming) expenses since 2014.

We’ve been focusing far more on increasing income than we have with increasing savings.

I like the hours metric. We would come in at a cool 70+40 worked hours per week. Planning to ramp that down eventually.

Year / Household income / NW
2010 / 72,000 / -36000
2011 / 75,000 / -24000
2012 / 80,000 / -15000
2013 / 92,000 / 0
2014 / 115,000 / 10,000 (MBA)
2015 / 120,000 / 45,000 (PhD and join MMM)
2016 / 272,000 / 139,000 (move to CA)
2017 / 235,000 / 250,000
2018 / 280,000 / 423,000
2019 / 345,000 / 625,000 (buy home)
2020 / 415,000 / 900,000
2021 / 335,000/ 1.35M (join startup)
2022 / 600,000 / ?? (wife new job, ipo)

$1.305M (or 96.6% of our NW) since joining MMM - may or may not be correlated :)

[PoutineLover]

I made my account here in Dec 2015, right after I had paid off my student loans. At that time my NW was 2.5k. But I probably started reading the blog at least a year or two before that, when my net worth was negative 30k or so.

Now, just about six years later, my personal NW is around 118k. It averages out to an increase of 19k per year, which isn't impressive compared to many here, but I have only broken 50k gross this past year, and before that I only worked 4 days a week and netted about 28k.

As a household, our income is now solidly above average so I expect the increase to accelerate. Investment gains are also starting to be be more significant so I think it'll take me less than six years to hit a quarter million.

[BobTheBuilder]

I started lurking around some time in 2015 I think, at -21k, and made my account in 2016 at -16k.
Finished my phd in the meantime :-)
Now I am at +80k and will buy a piece of land together with my fiancee.

So, that is 100k plus in 5 years, but the party really started in late 2018 with my first real job.

[gooki]

1.5 M in 10 years.

[ditheca]

2015: Started playing with FIRE

Debt free. Invested balance: $69k  (10 years into my career)

2021:

Debt free. Invested balance: $730k

While raising three kids, our net worth increased by $9180 per month on a household income that has never exceeded $7500/month. Can hardly believe it.

[Jack0Life]

I started following MMM in late 2015. I figured out our NW in late 2015 was ~$550k and half of that was equities in our 2 houses.
2014 was the very first year I broke the $100k salary and hovered around $120k until the pandemic when I got laid off.
My wife went to school and never worked until she was done in 2019 and got a job making around $50k.
So we were a DINK couple for about 8 months.
We almost hit the $1 million NW right before the pandemic.
It was the pandemic when our NW really took off.
We are now at ~$1.45 million. About $900k gains in about 6 years.
Most of the gains are from our 2 houses. Probably close to $250k.
Not bad for just 1 income but I should have dump all of our excess money into the indexes like MMM.
I kept telling my wife we should do this during the entire time but I never did until the pandemic.

[MrFire22]

Dec 2017: $30K
Dec 2021: $600K

Paid off my loans in Dec 2017, had some money saved up + my bonus and started investing. Have been doing the same since then + salary increases, etc. and here I am.

[ysette9]

My spreadsheet doesn't go back as far as my MMM forum membership but I remember we crossed the $1M mark a little after that general time period of life. Today we are at $3.6M invested, plus another ~$400k home equity. So call it an increase of $3M, give or take. Not too shabby. The markets have been very accomodating.

[Chrissy]

ME
Aug 2014:  $203k
Aug 2021:  $539k

HUSBAND
Nov 2015:  $405k
Nov 2021:  $823k

We got married summer of 2015.

[SwordGuy]

We started our MMM inspired changes in December of 2012.  Our net worth doubled by December 2015 from the changes we implemented and by then we were two years away from FIRE.   

We inherited a bunch of money in 2016 and that effectively doubled our net worth again, so it's harder to say exactly what's MMM-related after that.   We're now at 5.4 times our "starting" net worth.

I have to confess we stopped working so hard at FIRE after the inheritance.   We would probably be at 7 times if we had kept working that hard at it, but we don't need it, so why bother?

Two years later we're at 6.2 times our starting net worth.   We FIRED 3 years and 7 months ago.    At this point we're not even trying to increase our net worth.

[jaysee]

I registered in Sept 2018.

At this time my net worth was around $800k, mostly in index funds, and I was projecting to hit $1m within 1-3 years through a combination of my savings rate and modest forecasted stock returns (4%). I was working in London and having a fabulous time exploring the city while simultaneously immersing myself in the various online FIRE communities.

Fast-forward to today and I definitely hit my goal, but would never have imagined exceeding it by as much as I did! I ended up with over $1.6M! This was through a combination of new remote work possibilities opened up by COVID, very low living expenses and surprisingly good total market performance.

I'm still ready and waiting for the market to fall at any time, but much less stressed about it, thanks to the massive cash holding I've built up, the good savings habits I've developed and the apparently persistent high demand for workers in my field.

[Virtus3]

Joined in January 2018 and posted my first case study.

Net Worth
2017: $139k
2018: $208k
2019: $262k
2020: $298k
2021: $377k

So $238k growth in 4 years. This does not include another $37k+ I have in 529s.

[Travis]

Back then (late 2013/early 2014) I wasn't tracking my net worth, but it was probably in the $200-$250k range. It hit $790k on Friday.

$1,013,000 since Friday.

Ending 2019 with $1,200,000.

2021: $1,972,000