Author Topic: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?  (Read 104236 times)

Megatron

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The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« on: October 22, 2013, 10:18:17 AM »
Just logged into my mint account today and my net worth just hit the 100,000 mark! not counting any physical assets, just pure investments / cash.
It took me less than 2 years starting at about 8k. I am really surprised that I can do this without really living a spartan lifestyle. Just bring lunches to work and not buying things on impulse. That NOT BUYING stuff really works! Of course the 19% return on my 401k gave it a little boost but I'll take it. I had the lifestyle-inflatinitis disease until 2 years ago when I found the bogelheads forum. which eventually led me to MMM. but holy shit, 1 year and 11 months. Now on to the 2 comma club. $1,000,000

how did you guys get to your first 100k? was it harder than you thought?


fiveoh

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2013, 10:26:23 AM »
Congrats!  I'm not there yet so I can't comment on how hard it was for me(it has seemed hard so far, but only because I'm impatient!).  Is 1mil your ultimate goal/fi number?

Megatron

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2013, 10:38:36 AM »
no my ultimate goal is FIRE in my 40s (currently 33) and travel from country to country with my fiancee (and future kids), maybe picking up odd jobs in different country and immersing myself with the culture. I think my FI number is somewhere between 600k - 750k. That 100k didn't include any of my fiancee's assets so we might get there sooner. I'll probably never stop working. I just wanted the freedom to work when I want without having to worry about where the next meal was coming from.

Cromacster

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2013, 10:56:33 AM »
Congrats! sounds like you are well on your way!

I'm not sure exactly when my wife and I hit it, but currently we're around 115,000.  So it was probably within the past few months.  This includes all of our retirement accounts, taxable investments, and cash savings.  We are both 26, so we're off to a good start.

And yes, with an average year to date return around 18% for all my investments, definitely gives it a good bump.

Updated: As to how hard it was.....it didn't seem hard as its mostly been on autopilot for the past 4 years.  Set my rates for 401(k), roth, taxable, and cash.  The leftover is what I live on and that amount hasn't changed much for 4 years.  The only significant change I have had to make was the extra expense of owning a house over renting an apartment.  Which caused a slight reduction in our cash savings rate.  Yes, the not buying crap is key to a high savings rate.  Throughout my working career I am sitting at a 32% savings rate.  With some recent optimization after finding MMM a few months ago our current savings rate is closer to 45%.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2013, 11:03:30 AM by Cromacster »

galaxie

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2013, 11:25:44 AM »
I don't know when my husband and I hit the first 100k total in our retirement accounts, but I do remember hitting 100k in my half of them at about the end of 2012.  That was after 2.5 years of working at my job. 

Since then I've added a little over $30k to my half of the accounts, and our combined retirement savings made it over $200k this summer.

The next big milestone will be having more savings than debt (not counting the value of the house as an asset) - we still owe more on our house than we have saved for retirement.  My conservative estimate is that we'll flip into the positive sometime around the end of 2016, which will really be worth celebrating. 

Mrs MM

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2013, 11:29:52 AM »
I think the first 100k is always the hardest.

mbk

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2013, 11:30:07 AM »
Congratulations. Thats very impressive. I am not there yet. It will take me another 3 years
at my current savings rate and debt levels.

limeandpepper

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2013, 11:45:10 AM »
I have a fairly low salary (especially by Australian standards), so it took me longer than it did for you and I only got there not too long ago. The first 100k is more difficult in the sense that there isn't much compounding at the beginning, but from my personal perspective it didn't actually feel difficult, probably because I wasn't thinking about it much until it got really close. Saving has always come naturally to me, and initially I didn't pay a lot of attention to how much I had, so whenever I checked it properly I'd be like, "oh, wow, that's more than I thought I have", and then one day it just ticked over the 100k mark. I suppose someone else could reach that number in exactly the same time and with the same effort as I did, yet find it harder, if they are obsessing over the goal and being impatient about it.

Jamesqf

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2013, 11:50:32 AM »
I think the first 100k is always the hardest.

By far, for me - especially if you just consider easily-convertible-to-cash things like mutual funds, not equity in houses or stuff I might sell.  Counting from high school graduation, getting the first $100K took over 20 years (at least what I hope is a permanent $100K - it went up & way down again a couple of times), another 10 years for the second, maybe 5 more for the third...

mm31

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2013, 11:57:07 AM »
Congratulations! Just got there myself this month. I've been working on and off for 5 years, but the last 2 years have been more stable with a 401k to contribute to and a nice raise. I started the year with around 70K net worth this year. I thought I would get to 100K next year but thanks to the stock market doing really well, I'm about 3-4 months early.  My stock allocation is pretty conservative compared to most people here so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Kipp

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2013, 12:59:53 PM »
Congratulations!  I am also not to the 100k club yet, but I have turned into a small net worth this year versus negative (I will probably end the year around the 4-7k area).  Looking at my situation I don't think I can crank it up to 100k in two years from a similar starting point, but I hope that I will be around 50-60k net worth by the end of 2015.  Some of that will depend on how well the market is, but a lot of it won't since I am focusing mostly on debt currently.

plantingourpennies

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2013, 01:16:06 PM »
We didn't track net worth at the time we passed 100k, so not sure...I suspect 2 years?

OP is right-the stock returns this year are making everybody look above average, but the first 100K is a big accomplishment! It gets easier...more fun too =)

Best,
Mr. PoP

ruthiegirl

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2013, 01:23:10 PM »
I don't know how long it took -- ages and ages -- 15 years I would guess.  But now that we have our shit together and know how to do this properly, money is piling up really fast. 

We are at about 130K now -- the last 30 K took less than a year to put away.  Gets easier and easier all the time. 

Cecil

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2013, 01:59:03 PM »
The first 100k in liquid investments took us about 3 years. We started with $20k in 2006 but sunk most of that into a condo, and didn't start seriously investing until mid-2009 (Good Timing!)

We crossed $100k around mid-2012 (3 years later), and as of today are at $199.5k. Come on, come on!

dorkus619

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2013, 02:25:13 PM »
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.

hoodedfalcon

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #15 on: October 22, 2013, 02:40:47 PM »
I am also pretty impatient. I just started tracking in Mint in April, but since then it has been really exciting to see my accounts jump 2K in a month when I've only contributed $500 or so. That part is neat! My net worth is still very much in the negatives, and at this rate I will probably hit 100K in investments about the same time that my net worth is zeroed out (thanks student loans!).

Frankies Girl

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2013, 02:47:19 PM »
Congrats! That's a great milestone. :)

I honestly don't remember when I hit it. I didn't even know about the concept of net worth until recently. I come from a family of savers, but I didn't pay much attention to my 401K and other accounts other than my main savings account until recently, so it's probably been a few years (maybe 4 or 5?) at least for when I hit that level.

Of course, now I obsess over the amounts (feel compelled to check it daily and I really hope that stops soon), but I am nearing my RE goal now, and it's just so excruciatingly slow! (it isn't really, just seems like it to me since I can't stop checking it!)


Zamboni

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #17 on: October 22, 2013, 03:57:20 PM »
Well done!

Mine was effortless.  Happened while I wasn't even paying attention, thanks to being used to not having money before I got a job and just automating as much savings a possible.

oldtoyota

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #18 on: October 22, 2013, 04:10:53 PM »
Congratulations!

medinaj2160

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #19 on: October 22, 2013, 05:40:13 PM »
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 good post. I only have $2734 in my 401k and my wife has around the same. I am very impatient as well and I keep looking at my tiny 401k every day. I have most of my money on my house with a networth of 150k. Hopefully I will hit 100k in two, three years.

anotherAlias

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #20 on: October 22, 2013, 05:54:44 PM »
My first 100K in liquid assets took about 10 yrs. it took me a while to get super focused on my finances.  I graduated with 50k in student loans so I was paying down that while chucking 10% of my income into my 401k.  Along the way I also saved up a down payment on a duplex.

The second 100k went a lot faster

jcandoitbig

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #21 on: October 22, 2013, 05:54:53 PM »
don't have 100k yet....but 20k after the first year of work is decent! especially considering I had veryyyyy antimustachian habits. this is quickly changing however :) working in cloud software sales certainly has it's benefits....

cbgg

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #22 on: October 22, 2013, 06:08:39 PM »
So exciting - congrats!  Two years is so impressive!

If I call the day I graduated from university day one, I accumulated my first $100k of liquid net worth in about 3.5 years.  I got to $200k about 1.5 years later.  I was incredibly fortunate to start off with a slightly positive net worth out of university and a good job market.  I've also been fortunate to have family support in a lot of little ways that really add up over the years. 

My husband (we haven't combined finances yet) hit his first $100k after about  5 years, but he started his journey off with student debt and no car (as in, had to save up for a car) so he actually had to dig his way out for a couple years before the assets started piling up.  He makes more money than me so he's now started accelerating at a rate that will likely eclipse my net worth sooner rather than later.

It was really exciting this year when we reached a combined liquid net worth of $300k!  Of course, we don't own any real estate so that's really not as impressive as it may sound.  But it is fun to think that in some markets you could buy a home with our savings.  Unfortunately not where we live, but we could always move if that became a priority.

cbgg

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #23 on: October 22, 2013, 06:15:32 PM »
Whoops, here I am just bragging and not answering the question.

It wasn't really hard, per say.  I have good strategies for savings and I actually enjoy saving.  I focus on keeping my fixed expenses low and not increasing my lifestyle as my income increases and I don't really think about it much.  For example, I drive a modest economy car for as long as it'll go and I live in an inexpensive rental apartment close to my office (when most of my friends drive newer luxury cars and live in beautiful condos or houses).  Those two facts alone pretty much make saving a no brainer.

Honestly, I often feel guilty that I don't live a more mustachian lifestyle.  My sins include driving to work every day, having a pricey gym membership, buying my lunch most days, and generally being awful at knowing my prices in the grocery store.  If I was really making the effort on those items I could cut my expenses down by several hundred dollars per month.

NinetyFour

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #24 on: October 22, 2013, 06:42:32 PM »
I didn't notice whether it was hard or easy, but that's only because I wasn't paying attention.  I do know that it took way longer than it would have had I known about MMM about 10 years ago.  I am now at about $315K net worth--but still have a whopper of a mortgage to destroy.  I, too, am at the impatient stage!

Caoineag

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #25 on: October 22, 2013, 07:12:52 PM »
Short of a serious market tank, we will hit there before the end of the year. 8 since graduation, 3 since actually starting to accumulate (with debt payoff being the primary focus until the end of this year at which point we can switch to full on savings). I expect the next 100k to only take another year. So obviously, our first 100k was definitely harder thanks to focusing on debt repayment first.

2527

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #26 on: October 22, 2013, 07:26:52 PM »
About 6 years, but that was back in the 80s and early 90s.   It took me about as long to go from 0 to $100K as it did for me to go from $1M to $2M.

imustachemystash

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #27 on: October 22, 2013, 08:55:34 PM »
It was really really hard!  We were paying down our underwater mortgage and student loans at the same time.  It took around 7 years.  Now all our money goes into investing and it's accumulating a lot faster!

ch12

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #28 on: October 22, 2013, 08:59:10 PM »
About 6 years, but that was back in the 80s and early 90s.   It took me about as long to go from 0 to $100K as it did for me to go from $1M to $2M.

Cripes. I was in the process of posting when the site told me that there had been other replies. There's hope for us poor non-millionaires yet, then, if it takes the same time from 0 to six figures as from 1 to 2 million. Good job to both of you!

I'm a recent grad and I hope to hit that in the next few years. My parents were very generous during college and I'm debt free. We'll see how things play out.

SwordGuy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #29 on: October 22, 2013, 09:14:23 PM »
I think getting to the first $100,000 is harder for three key reasons:

1) To compound your money, you have to have money to compound.  You don't have much so it can't grow as fast.  That's why the 2nd million may take the same amount of time as the first $100K.

2) You have to develop the frugality and investing muscles to both find money to invest and to invest it.

3) Most people starting off their careers don't make as much as they do 6 years later.  That extra salary - assuming lifestyle inflation doesn't gobble it up - really kicks saving into high gear.

smalllife

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #30 on: October 23, 2013, 05:36:26 AM »
And I was all excited about hitting 20k!

The hardest part is the waiting.  Rough math tells me I've got a few years to go, mostly due to debt pay down and an average income.

oldtoyota

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #31 on: October 23, 2013, 10:07:33 AM »
I think getting to the first $100,000 is harder for three key reasons:

1) To compound your money, you have to have money to compound.  You don't have much so it can't grow as fast.  That's why the 2nd million may take the same amount of time as the first $100K.

2) You have to develop the frugality and investing muscles to both find money to invest and to invest it.

3) Most people starting off their careers don't make as much as they do 6 years later.  That extra salary - assuming lifestyle inflation doesn't gobble it up - really kicks saving into high gear.

You might find this thread interesting:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/at-what-dollar-level-does-the-$$-start-compounding-fast/msg151462/#msg151462

KulshanGirl

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #32 on: October 23, 2013, 10:42:21 AM »
I am sneaking up on the $100K in investments/cash milestone.  I'm thinking right around mid January I'll hit it. 

It took around 14 years of being a dodo and 7 years of being frugal but mostly unmustachian to get to around $60K, and then one year here plus the good stock market to make up the rest. 

I will take this opportunity to thank arebelspy once again for the facepunches last fall.  Around $1670 of that is gains on money invested that I would have probably paid down my mortage with if I hadn't been enthusiastically schooled back when I started here.  I see the light.  Totally owe you a fine beverage when you venture north again, ars.  :) 

galaxie

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #33 on: October 23, 2013, 10:50:10 AM »
I probably need to control myself and stop checking the damn accounts every day.

A watched 401k never... boils?

dragoncar

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #34 on: October 23, 2013, 12:50:07 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.

hybrid

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #35 on: October 23, 2013, 01:34:47 PM »
A looooooong time.  We made a bunch of dumb financial decision in our 20s and in 2000, at age 34, I probably had a joint net worth of perhaps 30K, tops, including 401K.  Then the housing boom kicked in and our home value went up $1000 a month through no effort on our part for the better part of seven years.  We gave back quite a bit of that when housing pulled back, but certainly not all of it.  Probably went above 100K sometime in 2003.  The short term goal is to go up another 120K in the next three years.  It's much easier now that the kids are grown and we are making much more in our jobs than when we were younger.

pka222

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #36 on: October 23, 2013, 02:07:26 PM »
The first 100K? Now that you ask I realize I should have had a party or celebrated somehow as I had no idea when it happened.  In checking the records I passed that mile stone in 2011, April I think it was,  5 years after actively working toward a secure financial future. 
As for difficulty - not hard at all, in fact the 2nd 100k was harder and this next milestone of 300K is proving to be the most difficult since I want to quit and be free more every day.  The numbers keep ticking up- but my motivation to go grows correspondingly.  My wish is that I could find a way to double my savings  or halve my spending so I could be done next year... and not in 6 years. keep up the good work !!

sleepyguy

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #37 on: October 23, 2013, 02:11:29 PM »
Took awhile definitely... more in part because our asset allocation is mostly in our home.  I hit it once when I was 27 due to a large poker tournament win... which we put down on an investment condo.  Then about when I was about 32 I was back there... DW has a separate accounts and hit it far earlier than I did.

7 figures will take awhile :)

more4less

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #38 on: October 23, 2013, 03:48:58 PM »
For me it was quite easy yet it took something like 2.5-3 years. I was living on quite tight budget before I found "real" job. The best thing I didn't pick up any expensive habits and hobbies. So my lifestyle is pretty much the same as it was while I was in college.
I kind of remember the crossroad moment couple weeks after I got job-offer - I was about to buy Infiniti G35 Coupe. Luckily I stuck to my ascetic lifestyle which proven over time to be rather rewarding in terms of building wealth.

SweetRedWine

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #39 on: October 23, 2013, 04:20:11 PM »
It took 12 years from graduating college to reach 100K in my investment accounts.  It happened this year, in fact.  My account balances do seem to grow more quickly now.

For the first 5 years of my grown-up life I put 10% of my salary in my 401K.  However, my investing ignorance meant that it went directly to a money market fund and stayed there.  Between years 5 and 12 I allocated my 10% to various mutual funds, but left money in old 401K accounts when I switched jobs.   Thanks to the MMM website and forum I've cleaned up the whole situation. 


snuggler

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #40 on: October 23, 2013, 05:24:36 PM »
It felt very difficult for me. Probably because it felt like it took forever to pay off the high-interest student loans. It didn't really take that long, but there was something just agonizing about seeing the interest on that each month (wasted money!).

I find it much easier to save now that the money is actually being paid to my own account, instead of Sallie Mae's. I just hit the 100k mark a few weeks ago. It feels great! Savor the moment.

michaelrecycles

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #41 on: October 23, 2013, 05:55:42 PM »
Congrats to all who made it and those on their way!

I got there after about four years of having a real job. Two of those years were on low autopilot savings (~15%?). Two years ago, I snapped out of the Matrix and have become much more aggressive about it. As other have mentioned, the whole "not buying stuff" works marvelously. I also drastically scaled back dining out, which happened at an utterly tragicomical rate during my first two working years.

I hit the milestone earlier this summer, and I can already tell that the second 100k is going to be a lot easier and quicker.

I was very anxious to hit the milestone, so I looked at the market and my balances way too much. I don't let it affect my strategy too much, but it does take a toll on the psyche. The monitoring has become less of a problem since hitting the milestone.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2013, 09:39:48 PM by michaelrecycles »

ichangedmyname

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #42 on: October 23, 2013, 06:09:50 PM »
Thanks for sharing your stories. It's very inspiring :) And congrats to those who got there and kept going and to those of us getting there! One dollar at a time!

Abe

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #43 on: October 23, 2013, 07:31:07 PM »
It took about 2 years from finishing school through a combination of investing most of our un-needed salary and hating to shop.

AJDZee

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #44 on: October 23, 2013, 09:27:40 PM »
Just counting liquid assets I'm not there yet... I'm finding the first 100k very painfully slow!

It took me 6 freakin' years to hit $50k!!... in that time I bought a condo, a NEW car and had not come across MMM.

But the good news is since finding MMM 4 months ago I've added $10k my to net worth, so things are finally moving along.

Now if I could just not look at my balance so often...

cats

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #45 on: October 23, 2013, 09:41:56 PM »
I'm also in the "first $50k was hard" club.  I was in grad school, in a relatively high COL area, and I'll admit, had some not-so-frugal habits (like, owning a car for a while...it died during my 4th year and in retrospect that was a pretty awesome death, financially).  Once I got a job last year, getting to $100 seemed totally effortless, thanks to the enlarged paycheck and the nutty stock market returns.  I'm actually hoping to hit $150k in the next few months....

FinancialIndependenceTime

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #46 on: October 24, 2013, 12:55:56 AM »
Congrats Megatron!

It is so true that the first $100,000.00 is a great accomplishment. Take a look at that amount...

Emilyngh

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #47 on: October 24, 2013, 07:31:14 AM »
Yay!   

We are at $99k right now ourselves (just cash and investments).   My sitch sounds very similar to yours (I'm 32 and hope to retire in my 40s).

It's hard to say exactly how long it took.   7 years ago we had about $50k in debt and basically none in savings/retirement.    Since then we paid that debt all off, put $50k down on our house, and are now up to our $99k.  Most of that was front-loaded though since 2 years ago we decided for my spouse to quit his job and stay home with our daughter and I chose to take a part-time hours dream job (so our savings rate dropped from about 70% to 15%).   

However, our savings rate should bump back up in a year and a half when my stepdaughter is 18 and we no longer have child support (even helping her with college will save us significantly over cs), and then bump up again in about 3 years when our daughter is in school and day and my husband plans to bring in money at a part-time job and/or side hustle.   We plan to put 100% of the savings from  child support ending and any money my husband brings in into savings/investments.   I also have a couple side hustles in the works (it makes more sense for us now for my husband to do the full time child care and for me to be the one adding hustles to my regular job) right now to help bump up savings.

MandyM

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #48 on: October 24, 2013, 08:06:30 AM »
Congrats! I was just celebrating the $200K mark, but was doing so by myself because it felt strange to tell anyone. I was glad to see your post so I could join in:)

I'm not quite sure how long it took to get to $100K, but it was definitely longer than 2 years. I was always a saver, but I was also putting money into real estate here and there, which I'm not counting in my $200K, plus I was doing a few dumb things like buying new cars and going to the spa. I'm guessing it was something like 10 years.

The good news is that the next $100K was MUCH easier and faster. And I was just looking at how fast it is picking up from here. My FI goal is fairly low - about $400K in investments, plus a rental property. I should get there in just a few more years, well before my 40th birthday. Although, I may go PT and stretch it out some. I don't hate my job, but I don't love it either. PT sounds like a good way to balance things out better.

ioseftavi

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Re: The first 100k. How hard was it for you?
« Reply #49 on: October 24, 2013, 12:58:28 PM »
For me, about 5.5 years after college graduation / entering the workforce.

I was lucky enough to start with no debt, but unlucky enough to be in an extremely high cost city.  I also had a really good 401(k) match and profit sharing through my first job, so I added to my retirement accounts at a crazy high rate and socked away a good chunk after-tax.

Now my own new worth has stalled after getting engaged - We have a unified view of our finances, so we're doing the best thing for us, not for me.  We've shifted our focus from 'building assets' to 'hacking away at liabilities'. 

However, now that she's out of school and working, our savings rate and overall rate of increase have skyrocketed.  We're at a joint net worth of about $95k.

Based on my best guesses, we will definitely hit $100k by the end of the year.  If the stock market does around 8-9% next year (a big if), and we maintain our current savings rate, then we may hit $200k in JNW by December of 2014.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!