Author Topic: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?  (Read 104234 times)

catccc

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #50 on: October 24, 2013, 02:28:01 PM »
I started tracking net worth in Nov 2007, almost 5 years into my career, and it was $155K at the time.  I think maybe I hit $100K around year 4.

2008: 203K  (+46K, which includes a $23K boost from getting married and combining finances)
2009: 247K  (+44K) 
2010: 281K  (+34K)
2011: 306K  (+25K)  lots of unpaid maternity leave.
2012: 375K  (+69K)
Current: 444K  (+69K and counting, goal set at beginning of year was to hit $450 by year end.)

Current salary is 89K, saving about 50%.  Want to improve on that.  Can't wait to hit the 1/2 million mark and keep going!

It didn't seem hard at the time, but 4 years seems like a long time to save $100K.  My career started at 36K, so it's really not bad.  But I also lived at home for several years, so I could have done better.  But when you look at the last couple years, it seems slow! 



dude

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #51 on: October 25, 2013, 08:36:05 AM »
Had forgotten when I hit that milestone, but remember being pretty damn happy about it -- though I'm talking about $100K of 401k assets, not net worth.*  I checked back and found that it was at the end of 2005, after 8 years of working (with a regularly increasing salary and concomitantly increasing 401k contributions). 

Now, 8 years later, that account is over $400K.  On pace, with a 5% return and present contribution+matching+future catch-up contributions, for @$800K in the next 7 years (yes, barring any major meltdowns).  But of course, I'm secretly hoping for 7%, so I can break the $1M mark!  Yeah, like a lot of people, I'm enthralled with the idea of having "a million in the bank," so to speak (even though I should reach FIRE at well below that). 

Lord how I wish I'd stashed some money in an IRA when I was 20 and in the military (rather than, quite literally, "spending like a sailor")!  As one retirement seminar instructor put it recently, "I'm increasingly convinced that the most powerful force in the financial universe is an enlightened 20 year-old."  Amen to that.

* net worth between the wife and I now @ half a mil.

« Last Edit: October 25, 2013, 08:40:22 AM by dude »

dantownehall

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #52 on: October 25, 2013, 01:30:08 PM »
I would have hit it $100,000 this month, but I took out a good sized chunk earlier this year for a 25% down payment on my first house.   I'm not complaining though, that was the best decision I ever made (cheaper than renting an apartment in my area, and that's before I collect rent from renting out a room in the house!).

I have about $86,000 in invested assets, though, and it's taken me about 2.5 years.  That seems about right to me, not really quick but a pretty good start, I think.  I definitely have some room for improvement, though. 

I need to elminate some driving and some eating out, and that would really put me on the way.  I know my net worth is over $100,000, but I'm more interested in tracking invested liquidish assets, as that gives me a better indication of current income.

wakkowarner

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #53 on: October 25, 2013, 04:31:30 PM »
I just checked Mint to see how much longer I have till that milestone.

$104,281.70 in investments alone and that is not including our HSA since Mint can't connect to HealthEquity.  I knew we were getting close, didn't know we had already gotten there!

There's also some equity in the house, but only about 20k (but my interest is only 3.375%, so I'm aiming for investments that I hope yield higher than that rather than pay down the house sooner).

dorkus619

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #54 on: October 26, 2013, 08:36:22 AM »
Congrats Dantownehall on the house and awesome downpayment. If I could go back in time I would have been way more responisble when purchasing my first house. But alas I was young n dumb.

Congrats Wakkowarner on hitting the milestone! Awesome!

I really like reading this thread, I find it helpful, inspiring, and motivating to try to hit 100k sooner

coffee_sipper

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #55 on: October 26, 2013, 09:49:50 AM »
Well, we have not hit it quite yet. At the end of this month, the wife and I will be at a networth just shy of $71,000 which does not include physical assets like items owned within the house we live in or our vehicle. As of right now, I am 21 and she is 22. I would expect to be able to hit our 100K mark in cash/investments within the year of 2015.

Only time will tell obviously, but we are hoping for the best and trusting that the market will continue to climb. If only I would have invested our money earlier.

tomatoprincess

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #56 on: October 26, 2013, 02:02:36 PM »
If all goes according to plan, I should hit it by the end of this year after working full time for 2.5 years. It's been hard mainly cause I realized I was close to the 100k mark 2 months ago and can't help checking with every pay cheque.

I wonder if there's a nice length of time one should wait between checking accounts to make the accumulation seem effortless...

RootofGood

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #57 on: October 26, 2013, 02:27:29 PM »
I wouldn't say it was "hard" for us.  But it is true that the first $100k was the hardest.  I don't even pay attention to crossing $100k thresholds now since it happens fairly often (up or down!). 

I didn't start tracking net worth until December 2004 when NW was $44,000.  I began my first post college "real" full time job in May 2004.  By November 2005, my wife had also graduated and commenced work.  By March 31, 2006 we crossed the $100k threshold with a NW of $107,000.  So about 22 months after starting full time work, we crossed the $100k mark (at age 25). 

I used to only track net worth quarterly, and looking back to the last 10 quarters, we saw a net worth change of $100k+ in roughly half the quarters.  One negative movement, 4 positive movements, with an average quarterly NW growth rate of $49,000. 

toodleoo

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #58 on: October 27, 2013, 05:20:32 PM »
I just checked Mint to see how much longer I have till that milestone.

$104,281.70 in investments alone and that is not including our HSA since Mint can't connect to HealthEquity.  I knew we were getting close, didn't know we had already gotten there!

There's also some equity in the house, but only about 20k (but my interest is only 3.375%, so I'm aiming for investments that I hope yield higher than that rather than pay down the house sooner).

Are you sure about Mint not being able to connect to HealthEquity? My account connects with no problems.

Sebastian

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #59 on: October 28, 2013, 10:32:45 AM »
Seems "hard" to me. But really "hard" is just me being HIGHLY impatient. I have an issue with expecting instant results!

But I'm so early into this. Just stared a 401k this year with NO understanding of what I was doing (saving at 6% just enough to get my full match). Then I just found MMM and started making goals and improvements a couple months ago. Currently I've got about $3,400 in retirement accounts and I get excited when I see that my little employees made $11 all on their own! Overall I am in negative "net worth" because I'm WAY underwater on my house ::LAME::

I probably need to control myself and stop checking the damn accounts every day.

lol dorkus i'm in exactly the same position as you minus the house. i check my accounts everyday and it kinda wears on me because i just keep thinking man this really isn't that fast!

ichangedmyname

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #60 on: October 28, 2013, 10:53:20 AM »
It will probably take me 10 years LOL Mine just barely broke $10k.

Snowboard junkie

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #61 on: October 28, 2013, 11:13:48 AM »
Don't get hung up on net worth.  Valuations change (both stocks and real estate) based on factors beyond our control.  It's a bad idea to let your happiness depend on that. 

Focus on:
  1. Consistent passive income
  2. Limiting expenses and future liabilities.
  3. Planning ahead for major (expected) expenses

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."  - charles dickens


wakkowarner

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #62 on: October 28, 2013, 11:34:38 AM »
I just checked Mint to see how much longer I have till that milestone.

$104,281.70 in investments alone and that is not including our HSA since Mint can't connect to HealthEquity.  I knew we were getting close, didn't know we had already gotten there!

There's also some equity in the house, but only about 20k (but my interest is only 3.375%, so I'm aiming for investments that I hope yield higher than that rather than pay down the house sooner).

Are you sure about Mint not being able to connect to HealthEquity? My account connects with no problems.

Ok, well they used to not connect to HealthEquity.  Hadn't checked in awhile, but yeah, can do so now.  Thanks!

clutchy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #63 on: October 28, 2013, 11:42:43 AM »
In March of 2009 our net worth was barely negative.

Now as of October 2013 our net worth is $205,000.

with invested equities of $137,000.


Mostly our net worth was increasing about $25,000 to $35,000 per year but over the last year (and this might be a mustachian effect) but our net worth has increased over $82,000 this year alone.

We're making a bit more than last year and our spending has basically been frozen so any additional savings goes to invested assets or cash.

We do have some debt about $260,000 which is mostly our house but the highest rate we're paying is 3.25% so I'm going to leverage that and let it run...


I feel pretty good about where we are currently.  Decent sized emergency fund.  Investing a decent amount and our savings rate is pretty decent as well.  Could we do better?  yes, marital bliss gets its own line item on our budget...

jrhampt

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #64 on: October 28, 2013, 02:06:14 PM »
The first 100k took ages for me - over 10 years - but that's because I wasn't trying or paying attention.  Once I started trying, it only took 2 years to get from a negative net worth to 100k.  The second 100k only took a year. 

cash_lemur

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #65 on: October 29, 2013, 07:10:11 PM »
Congratulations! My goal is to reach 100k by the end of the year. I've been tracking my finances since December 2010. At that point I had a net worth of -$17,000. -$20,000 in student loans and $3,000 (Ay!) in cash.

This year I landed job working in personal finance, and after spending all day everyday learning about budgeting and saving, I've really changed my habits. I stick rigidly to my budget in Mint, and I've saved $65,000 this year. The big changes are not spending on unnecessary objects, picking up extra freelance work, and above all raising my freelance rates significantly. I have way more money in, but am not changing my lifestyle. Super cheap rent living with many roommates. I don't let myself go out a ton anymore, and I don't splurge on clothes. In August I paid off my student loans, woooo!

Can't wait to join you in the $100k net worth club - this is my big goal.


tomatoprincess

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #66 on: October 29, 2013, 09:35:52 PM »
What an awesome graph cash_lemur!

steveo

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #67 on: October 30, 2013, 12:54:13 AM »
We have a mortgage of about 180k right now and savings of about the same amount in Super (I'm Australian) which can't be touched until we are 55.  Our home is worth about 600k.

We could therefore be considered up about 600k but all I see is the debt we owe. Once we pay that off though we will be up our savings however this isn't something that we can utilise until later in life.

So for me the first 100k will be extremely hard because it will entail paying off the mortgage and then saving 100k in accounts that we can access. I figure though from that point on we should be able to reach FI reasonably quickly.

gooki

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #68 on: October 30, 2013, 01:13:13 AM »
About 2.5 years after we'd paid of the mortgage. Interest rate on mortgage was 7.4%, so that's where all our spare money went. We also dropped to one income 3 years ago, so damn proud.

And as others mentioned, there's no feeling as though we live a spartan lifestyle.

Charlotte

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #69 on: October 30, 2013, 04:37:22 AM »
It took us about three or four years to accumulate our first $100k. It was hard because we had to work those frugality muscles. Now I don't even want to spend money that I need to spend. Eventually we used that $100k as a down payment on a house. [Sigh] I miss it....

Looking forward to doing it again! (Probably in another 3-4 years!)

Melody

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #70 on: October 30, 2013, 09:40:17 AM »
I am on track to have increased my net worth by $100k in 3 years (start of Jan)... however I haven't hit $100k yet as I started behind the 8 Ball (aka in debt). I suspect the next hundred k to take roughly half that time (one of the three years was in a job that paid significantly below average and I had the miracle of compound interest working against me. I also have a payrise due in Jan. The cool thing is I managed this without being particularly hardcore about saving (taking international holidays, buying tonnes of clothes, living in a cool neighborhood etc) and making average (for Australia) wages in the last two years of working. It kind of makes me wonder what a lot of my friends are doing wrong?  (Disclaimer... yes I earn more than them.... they make about what I was making in the first year, however, while I managed to pay down $8k of debt, save $8k of cash and pay for an international holiday that year, they seem to be sinking deeper in debt - without living obviously luxurious lives (no holidays, no funky neighborhood, etc etc).
I guess that's why I am here though - to be inspired by people who are way more hardcore than me, so the next $100k can come fast!

apoclater

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #71 on: October 30, 2013, 09:44:38 PM »
Wow, some of the <25 people are impressive.  I'm a single 25 year old guy, started in the workforce at 23 and have ~30k in net worth but still wish I had found out about MMM earlier.  I made $60k and save about 25-30k a year so I'm hoping to hit 100k by 2015 or 2016!

dorkus619

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #72 on: November 05, 2013, 07:24:22 AM »
I'm 25 and just started saving this year, I make $40k and have a monster mortgage that's underwater. Just found MMM 3-4 months ago, and I'm off to a slow start. I think it will take me quite a while to get to that 100k but I'm just so excited to keep moving forward and I know that it will snowball faster as I go.

acroy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #73 on: November 05, 2013, 10:59:52 AM »
Congrats!
I got there mostly by inaction: maxing my 401k (with nice company match) and selecting 'aggressive' model as soon as I entered the workforce in 2001. I did not start saving anything besides the 401k till 2006
100k in 2006 - 5yrs
200k in 2010 - 4yrs even with the financial pop
300k in 2012 - 2yrs
400k in 2013 - 1yr
should hit 500k net worth (counting only 401k + savings, ignoring 60k in house, 20k in cars etc) by year end

the snowball effect is fun. Money*Time = Stash!

chasesfish

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #74 on: November 06, 2013, 05:55:25 AM »
It took us five years for the first 100k!  We've added about five times that in the next five years.

Income is lower, small one time expenses are higher, and there's no money working for you.

oldtoyota

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #75 on: November 06, 2013, 01:06:43 PM »
Congrats!
I got there mostly by inaction: maxing my 401k (with nice company match) and selecting 'aggressive' model as soon as I entered the workforce in 2001. I did not start saving anything besides the 401k till 2006
100k in 2006 - 5yrs
200k in 2010 - 4yrs even with the financial pop
300k in 2012 - 2yrs
400k in 2013 - 1yr
should hit 500k net worth (counting only 401k + savings, ignoring 60k in house, 20k in cars etc) by year end

the snowball effect is fun. Money*Time = Stash!

I like this illustration and how it shows time decreasing between each 100K as the money increases.

Reepekg

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #76 on: November 08, 2013, 04:54:45 PM »
I probably need to control myself and stop checking the damn accounts every day.

A watched 401k never... boils?

This is my favorite quote in MMM history.

First $100k was 4 years after finishing grad school. I started from $0 with no student debt, but average pay, high COL, and not trying/investing was slow going. After combining incomes and living expenses with DW, savings rate went up. After finding MMM, savings and investment rates really went up. Second $100k took 7 months. At $220k now and not looking back...

oldtoyota

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #77 on: November 09, 2013, 07:47:25 PM »
I probably need to control myself and stop checking the damn accounts every day.

A watched 401k never... boils?

This is my favorite quote in MMM history.

First $100k was 4 years after finishing grad school. I started from $0 with no student debt, but average pay, high COL, and not trying/investing was slow going. After combining incomes and living expenses with DW, savings rate went up. After finding MMM, savings and investment rates really went up. Second $100k took 7 months. At $220k now and not looking back...

Seven months? I am impressed. Have any tips to share?

Reepekg

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #78 on: November 10, 2013, 12:21:52 AM »
I probably need to control myself and stop checking the damn accounts every day.

A watched 401k never... boils?

This is my favorite quote in MMM history.

First $100k was 4 years after finishing grad school. I started from $0 with no student debt, but average pay, high COL, and not trying/investing was slow going. After combining incomes and living expenses with DW, savings rate went up. After finding MMM, savings and investment rates really went up. Second $100k took 7 months. At $220k now and not looking back...

Seven months? I am impressed. Have any tips to share?

Don't do what I did? I put 5% of net worth in TSLA for fun and it quadrupled. I then shifted to 5% net worth in Vestas which tripled. I recognize this was mostly dumb luck, and is not the proper way to invest for long term growth. Still, you have to be invested in the first place to earn returns.

Other than that, going down to 1 car, maxing every retirement account, and a 60% savings rate on two high incomes really does work its magic.

Zaga

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #79 on: November 10, 2013, 09:02:03 AM »
Looking just at investments and debts, our net worth took 5 years to go from negative $114K to $0. 

After that it was 1.5 years to positive $100K.

That last milestone was a few months ago, and the goal going forward is to increase net worth (really net investable assets) at least as much each year as the year before.  Or, if that's not possible due to stock market fluctuations, at least keep our savings rate the same or better each year.

jpap

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #80 on: November 12, 2013, 06:15:56 PM »
Not hard, just a lot of time.  First 100k took about 8 years.  When I first started working, there was a 403b representative that took the newbies out to lunch to sell us on the advantages of investing with him.  I had no idea about anything that he told us, but I noticed that my friend signed up to have $150 per month deducted from his paycheck.  I didn't want him to end up wealthier than me in the long run, so I signed up for $200 per month.  My paychecks ended up being $1400 per month at the time. 

iris lily

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #81 on: November 12, 2013, 10:40:18 PM »
I married mine. :)  DH had a net worth in investments (mostly real estate) of $100,000 when we got married. Mine has always been the "big" salary but it was his initial nest egg that allowed us to buy a house with cash and never, ever, pay interest on anything.

congrats!

HappierAtHome

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #82 on: November 12, 2013, 10:59:47 PM »
I married mine. :)  DH had a net worth in investments (mostly real estate) of $100,000 when we got married. Mine has always been the "big" salary but it was his initial nest egg that allowed us to buy a house with cash and never, ever, pay interest on anything.

congrats!

I guess that's true for me as well! The BF probably had a net worth of $200k when I met him. Mine was -$10k ish? Not sure.

But back to the original question: I should hit $100k in January, at age 26, having worked in a "real job" full time for 5 years (almost to the month). The early years of spending too much have a lot to answer for. Those milestones will just get closer and closer now.

oldtoyota

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #83 on: November 13, 2013, 09:11:56 PM »
Yeah, it really depends on when you start paying attention.  My first $100k was "easy" because it was on autopilot 401k deductions that I didn't really watch, because back then I was expecting to work until 67 or whatever.

Now that I'm actually watching my investments and counting down the months to FIRE, it's going extremely slowly (partially due to underperformance of investments).  Even though I'm saving more than ever.

Similar situation here. I do not even know when I passed the first 100.

sleepyguy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #84 on: November 14, 2013, 09:45:35 AM »
What an unlucky bunch... no lottery winners :)

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #85 on: November 15, 2013, 11:27:11 AM »
The first $100k was relatively easy because I kept contributing to my 401k without worrying.  Even my first job out of college making $28k allowed me to save some small amount. Five years and a few jobs later I broke $100k in retirement accounts. I've since become obsessed with growing my retirement accounts so time (and compounding interest) seems much slower now.

I need a Sleepless in Seattle event to happen to me so I can wake up in 10 years and see a larger number in my 401k

iris lily

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #86 on: November 16, 2013, 08:47:33 PM »
...I wonder if there's a nice length of time one should wait between checking accounts to make the accumulation seem effortless...

We do a networth snapshot once a year, each year on January 1st. That way I'm not too obsessive about it.

I am near retirement age (traditional retirement age) and only recently did I even start to look at my 401k with any kind of frequency. I've been throwing money in it and forgetting it for decades.

NinetyFour

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #87 on: November 16, 2013, 09:17:13 PM »
Wow, it's hard for me to go a week without calculating my net worth!  (Of course, it only appeared on my radar about 3 months ago.)

Strawberrykiwi75

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #88 on: November 17, 2013, 03:13:28 AM »
I just worked it out that between my main super fund and my savings account, it'll take me 3 years from today to reach 100k in liquid assets. I am very fortunate that I have property equity from my late mother, so I'm technically already at about 160k, but somehow I don't count the equity since I can't yet use it.
I hope that between my other investments options and pay rises to get there sooner!

happy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #89 on: November 17, 2013, 05:50:33 AM »
My first 100k was effortless. I bought my first home unit for $72k with a 50k mortgage. Its value doubled in <12months resulting in $94k equity. I had around 8K or so in superannuation (retirement account) at that time. Those were the days, Sydney real-estate in the 1980s! Sadly never to be repeated.

Zaga

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #90 on: November 17, 2013, 07:43:59 AM »
Wow, it's hard for me to go a week without calculating my net worth!  (Of course, it only appeared on my radar about 3 months ago.)
I have a system in place to check on the 15th and last day of the month.  I don't always follow it perfectly, but it's supposed to keep me from being too obsessive about checking my accounts.  Once a month would probably be better.

NinetyFour

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #91 on: November 17, 2013, 07:51:01 AM »
Maybe I will push myself to change from weekly to once per fortnight.  Then once a month?

Thanks.

hoppy08520

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #92 on: November 17, 2013, 06:04:34 PM »
OP, thanks for starting a good thread. I looked up my records and it took me FOURTEEEN years to get to $100K. I can't believe it took that long and I wish I had saved more early on to benefit from the 8th wonder of the world (compounding), but I can't change the past.

Here's why it took 14 years: the first five years, I was living in Washington DC (high cost of living area) and making very little money. I started at $18,000 salary (in the early 1990's) and ended at around $30,000. Even so, I had around $23K saved in my retirement account after those five years. Then, in years 6 and 7, I was in graduate school and hardly making anything, and I was actually going into debt (student loans). Then, in the late 1990's I finally started making some money---but then got hit with the dot.com crash in the early 2000's. I stuck with it and finally hit the $100K mark in the mid 2000's.

The good thing is, that base, coupled with much more savings and increased income, has now grown to more than $300K. Here are the years it took me to reach each milestone:
$100K - 14 years
$200K - 4 more years
$300K - 2 more years.

Granted, going from $200K to $300K was not all my contributions, it was earnings from the stock market coming back after the Great Recession. But I hope this trend will continue...

gecko10x

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #93 on: November 17, 2013, 06:53:23 PM »
We should hit $100k within the next 2 months... Which means it will have taken us just under 10yrs since college (!). However, we are now on pace to hit $200k in less than 4 yrs.

wakkowarner

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #94 on: November 19, 2013, 11:00:53 AM »
The first $100k was relatively easy because I kept contributing to my 401k without worrying.  Even my first job out of college making $28k allowed me to save some small amount. Five years and a few jobs later I broke $100k in retirement accounts. I've since become obsessed with growing my retirement accounts so time (and compounding interest) seems much slower now.

I need a Sleepless in Seattle event to happen to me so I can wake up in 10 years and see a larger number in my 401k

You need your wife to die from cancer and to go talk on a national radio show so that you can meet your next love on top of the Empire State building?  How will that help you wake up in 10 years?  It's "Sleepless" in Seattle, not "Sleepy" in Seattle.

NW Girl

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #95 on: November 19, 2013, 12:43:36 PM »
Definitely, the first 100k was the hardest!  My husband and I got to it as 26 yos living frugally in Queens while working in Manhattan on one salary (our "surprise" first baby kept me home during this time!) We really worked hard and sacrificed to pay off all our student debt and save that money. I worked side jobs whenever I could and my husband worked tons of well-paid overtime.   I sort-of lost track of our net worth for awhile after that, continuing to save.  Ten years later and two moves we are at 575K of investments and ~400K of real estate equity.  I should feel secure but I don't.  Still feel like that newlywed scrimping and hustling.  Not sure if that is a healthy thing or not.

Ironfist

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #96 on: November 20, 2013, 04:00:38 PM »
About 1/3 of the way there including my 401k and stocks.  If I could sell my old house that would free up a lot of cash every month but the market around here really sucks.

kamikazejello

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #97 on: November 22, 2013, 02:35:20 PM »
You need your wife to die from cancer and to go talk on a national radio show so that you can meet your next love on top of the Empire State building?  How will that help you wake up in 10 years?  It's "Sleepless" in Seattle, not "Sleepy" in Seattle.

Ok I must admit that your knowledge of this movie goes far beyond what I remember about it.  In that case let me rephrase that I need a Sleeping Beauty moment to happen to me. That'll do the trick.

wakkowarner

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #98 on: November 25, 2013, 08:10:15 AM »
You need your wife to die from cancer and to go talk on a national radio show so that you can meet your next love on top of the Empire State building?  How will that help you wake up in 10 years?  It's "Sleepless" in Seattle, not "Sleepy" in Seattle.

Ok I must admit that your knowledge of this movie goes far beyond what I remember about it.  In that case let me rephrase that I need a Sleeping Beauty moment to happen to me. That'll do the trick.

Honestly I didn't remember it that well, but nothing you said reminded me of it so I looked its plot up on Wikipedia (which brought all the details back).  The real thing that made me think it was wrong though was the title itself.  "Sleepless" being the opposite of sleepy.

Sleeping Beauty works well though.  Even better is Futurama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fishful_of_Dollars

greenmimama

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #99 on: November 25, 2013, 10:29:17 AM »
We are at $89k so not there yet, this is only retirement accounts and emergency funds, not counting our equity in any of our home or things.