Race from $1M to $2M

[Bird In Hand]

Apr '18: TNW $1.60M, LNW $1.30M
Apr '19: TNW $1.80M, LNW $1.44M

Last year LNW went above $1.4M several times in the July-Sept period, then sat stubbornly below that starting in October.  We finally got back over $1.4M a month or two ago, and have stayed above it for a couple weeks.  I decided to post an update because TNW crested $1.8M (for the first time) on Friday.

[arebelspy]

My first million took 20 years. 2nd million took 4 years.

A lot of us FIRE'd after the first, so the second is coming along slowly versus if we still had a paycheck.

The first million took me about 5 years (about 8 years of working, but the first three years of working I had 0/negative NW because of the housing crash, so 5-8 years depending on how you count it).

Quit at 1.2MM, now almost 1.8. It has been about 4 years, and I anticipate it'll take another one, depending on market conditions. So 0 to 1MM will be similar to 1MM to 2MM, for me. I'd be content if #3 took the same amount of time.

Expenses are shooting up though, so I'm skeptical.

[talltexan]

For second tax year in a row, my wife and I exceeded the AGI to contribute to my Roth.

I just faxed in a form to remove about $4,500 in contributions. Last year I used the same form to simply reclassify them as 2018 contributions (instead of 2017), but this year I've accepted that I just need to put the money somewhere else.

RPP.

[ysette9]

For second tax year in a row, my wife and I exceeded the AGI to contribute to my Roth.

I just faxed in a form to remove about $4,500 in contributions. Last year I used the same form to simply reclassify them as 2018 contributions (instead of 2017), but this year I've accepted that I just need to put the money somewhere else.

RPP.

Backdoor Roth, baby! That is what I do, since I didn’t have a traditional IRA balance to begin with. My husband has a decent-sized traditional IRA, we don’t want to deal with pro rata nonsense nor does it make sense to convert to Roth at this point, so he just doesn’t contribute to an IRA now.

[arebelspy]

For second tax year in a row, my wife and I exceeded the AGI to contribute to my Roth.

Hah. What a great problem to have!

Our AGI is not even a third of where the phaseout starts.

[talltexan]

Indeed my wife has done the backdoor Roth last two years. I have another IRA besides my work 401K which I think prevents that.

The money will probably just wind up in a pre-tax account, which better suits the investment order anyway.

[couponvan]

I quit collecting paychecks in October 2018. Officially put myself on "smoke break" status through at least the end of Summer by quitting my job 3/29/19. (3-2-1 GO...) My original planned FIRE date was 4/1/22. 

We are at $1.71 TNW as of today while cash flowing college for the oldest.  The savings rate will slow dramatically at this point with me not working and college expenses (out-of-state tuition for the oldest - in line with our values though - and travel from West Coast to East Coast for breaks).  We're closing on a new house 5/15/19, which will also eat up some cash.  DH continues to work and earn to support our clown car fancy pants lifestyle.  I DIY, travel hack, and coupon where I can. :-)

It will be a marathon vs. a sprint for us to get to $2.0M.

[oldtoyota]

Looks like there will be a bunch of you joining those of us in the >$2M thread pretty soon.

My first million took 20 years. 2nd million took 4 years.

What a difference! Thank you for sharing this.

Did you contribute more in those 4 years or did the first million do most of the work?

[itchyfeet]

It was a combination of both

My career took off in my late 30s, so I was able to save a lot.

I also got lucky with property purchases I had made.

Finally, I became far more aware of my finances, and improved my spending behaviours. I am not so much talking about frugal living but more the big ticket items like home renovations and cars, which we stopped throwing money at.

[guelphinvestor]

Hit investment net worth of 1.1 million today

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[couponvan]

Hit investment net worth of 1.1 million today

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

SWEET!!!!

[cloudsail]

PTF. Our investable assets are at $1.68M right now. Aiming for $2M.

Does it bother anyone else that at this point in your journey, fluctuations in the market do much more to your net worth than what you're actually saving each month?

[guelphinvestor]

PTF. Our investable assets are at $1.68M right now. Aiming for $2M.

Does it bother anyone else that at this point in your journey, fluctuations in the market do much more to your net worth than what you're actually saving each month?

Yes I find the same thing

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Brother Esau]

PTF. Our investable assets are at $1.68M right now. Aiming for $2M.

Does it bother anyone else that at this point in your journey, fluctuations in the market do much more to your net worth than what you're actually saving each month?

Yes I find the same thing

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't find it bothersome at all, but yet exiting.

[guelphinvestor]

PTF. Our investable assets are at $1.68M right now. Aiming for $2M.

Does it bother anyone else that at this point in your journey, fluctuations in the market do much more to your net worth than what you're actually saving each month?

Yes I find the same thing

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't find it bothersome at all, but yet exiting.

Yes, I just meant that I noticed it.
I agree it is more exciting than bothersome

Sent from my LG-V522 using Tapatalk

[cloudsail]

PTF. Our investable assets are at $1.68M right now. Aiming for $2M.

Does it bother anyone else that at this point in your journey, fluctuations in the market do much more to your net worth than what you're actually saving each month?

Yes I find the same thing

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't find it bothersome at all, but yet exiting.

Yes, I just meant that I noticed it.
I agree it is more exciting than bothersome

Sent from my LG-V522 using Tapatalk

I guess it is mostly a good feeling for me too, just sometimes feels like what's the point of working so hard now when all we really need to do is coast until we hit our number.

Like when we used to save $10,000 a month, it was like yeah! Now it's more like, meh.

[couponvan]

It's been six years of up...the painful part is when there are downs - then you saved $10,000 when it feels like you might as well have spent it vs. having the markets eat it.  You try to tell yourself you're buying on sale, but it still hurts to not time the market. ;-)

[sisto]

My liquid NW is now solidly over the 1M hump so I will start hanging over here more now.

[couponvan]

My liquid NW is now solidly over the 1M hump so I will start hanging over here more now.

Hello!  It's a transient group this $1M-$2M....the second million is faster than the first for sure!

[Enigma]

I should have posted here a while back.

2017-Jan - NW $1.009MM
2018-Jan - NW $1.184MM
2019-Jan - NW $1.302MM

(MM for million)

I quit my full time job overseas and tried to FIRE in Oct-2018 ($1.29M).  Instead I found it pretty stressful (Rental Taxes/Ins & Personal Taxes/Ins).  Landed a job in Mar-2019 back in computers/IT.

[Cornbread OMalley]

My liquid NW is now solidly over the 1M hump so I will start hanging over here more now.

Last night we hit $1 M NW!

Good stuff!  Welcome to the thread!

[aspiringnomad]

some of the NW is Zillow enthusiasm

Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket, but we're taking the hit from that right now as we sell our primary residence. Still selling for a nice profit and it went under contract in two days which was great, but when push came to shove we landed on an asking and sale price that was about 4% less than the enthusiastic Zestimate. I had been using Zillow to calculate that part of our net worth for years and never applied any kind of discount, even for selling costs, because for a long time the Zestimate was clearly below the actual market value. Then in the past couple years it caught up and then some, and I continued to use it despite my skepticism...for consistency's sake I told myself. So even though the stock market is hitting all-time highs, our net worth is about to be rolled back approximately a month to early April (shrug). In the grand scheme, hopefully it's just a rounding error.

[cloudsail]

Uncertain real estate estimates are why I don't really like to look at net worth. We have two rental properties and a primary residence. One of the zestimates on a rental is probably about 100k more than what it would actually sell for. In that case I actually stopped linking Zillow and put in an estimated value. I generally just look at investable assets and then add our rental income on top of that.

[DavidAnnArbor]

The weird thing about Zestimate is that it had my house valued increasingly higher these last six months up to a high of around $464,000  just last week.
Then I looked at it again on Friday and low and behold the Zestimate which had been rising at a very stable moderate pace suddenly was down $30,000 to an estimate of $434,000
Yet this lowered price according to the Zestimate was an increase from the previous month, which it is not.
Just makes no sense.

[Enigma]

For the value of my investment properties and the primary house, I tend to set them at the rate I bought them.  That being said I have adjusted only a couple of times.  Once when I received an offer and the other time after a bank appraisal.  Even then I didn't jump up fast. Just a 5% increase each time.  Half was bought between 2010-2013 and the other half was bought between 2016/2017.  This helps with my capitalization rate (Around 8%) and exceeding the 1% rule rent-vs-cost ratio.

[Zoot]

Super-long time since I've posted in this thread--time for a new update!

Month/Year	Liquid Assets	Total Net Worth
Jan-17	$604K	$883K
Feb-17	$622K	$905K
Mar-17	$651K	$930K
Apr-17	$660K	$939K
May-17	$675K	$954K
Jun-17	$694K	$967K
Jul-17	$717K	$991K
Aug-17	$721K	$1,000K
Sep-17	$738K	$1,007K
Oct-17	$762K	$1,033K
Nov-17	$782K	$1,055K
Dec-17	$796K	$1,058K
Jan-18	$836K	$1,095K
Feb-18	$823K	$1,083K
Mar-18	$812K	$1,081K
Apr-18	$818K	$1,094K
May-18	$836K	$1,115K
Jun-18	$844K	$1,131K
Jul-18	$872K	$1,165K
Aug-18	$891K	$1,175K
Sep-18	$895K	$1,177K
Oct-18	$844K	$1,127K
Nov-18	$864K	$1,148K
Dec-18	$813K	$1,099K
Jan-19	$872K	$1,158K
Feb-19	$912K	$1,201K
Mar-19	$927K	$1,220K
Apr-19	$962K	$1,257K

Q4 2018 was a rough time, of course--it was hard to see "dollars" evaporating like that.  But we held our breath and kept plugging away at saving/investing.  The coolest thing to me to see in the numbers above:  we now ALMOST qualify to be in this thread on non-home-equity net worth.  ;-)

Onward!

(posting also in the $500K to $1M thread for account balance)

[Arbitrage]

some of the NW is Zillow enthusiasm

Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket, but we're taking the hit from that right now as we sell our primary residence. Still selling for a nice profit and it went under contract in two days which was great, but when push came to shove we landed on an asking and sale price that was about 4% less than the enthusiastic Zestimate. I had been using Zillow to calculate that part of our net worth for years and never applied any kind of discount, even for selling costs, because for a long time the Zestimate was clearly below the actual market value. Then in the past couple years it caught up and then some, and I continued to use it despite my skepticism...for consistency's sake I told myself. So even though the stock market is hitting all-time highs, our net worth is about to be rolled back approximately a month to early April (shrug). In the grand scheme, hopefully it's just a rounding error.

I use the Redfin estimate for my house, then discount it 5%.  I used to use an average of various online estimators, including Zillow, but quit as some of them stopped operating or became redundant with Zillow. 

Zestimate has always been terribly low for my house (judging upon actual sale price as well as nearby comps).  I believe part of the reason is that their algorithm includes comps from a neighboring city that has much worse schools, which reflects in about a 20-30% discount in reality. 

We'll see how it eventually shakes out.  I certainly don't take any house value estimates as set in stone. 

[aspiringnomad]

some of the NW is Zillow enthusiasm

Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket, but we're taking the hit from that right now as we sell our primary residence. Still selling for a nice profit and it went under contract in two days which was great, but when push came to shove we landed on an asking and sale price that was about 4% less than the enthusiastic Zestimate. I had been using Zillow to calculate that part of our net worth for years and never applied any kind of discount, even for selling costs, because for a long time the Zestimate was clearly below the actual market value. Then in the past couple years it caught up and then some, and I continued to use it despite my skepticism...for consistency's sake I told myself. So even though the stock market is hitting all-time highs, our net worth is about to be rolled back approximately a month to early April (shrug). In the grand scheme, hopefully it's just a rounding error.

I use the Redfin estimate for my house, then discount it 5%.  I used to use an average of various online estimators, including Zillow, but quit as some of them stopped operating or became redundant with Zillow. 

Zestimate has always been terribly low for my house (judging upon actual sale price as well as nearby comps).  I believe part of the reason is that their algorithm includes comps from a neighboring city that has much worse schools, which reflects in about a 20-30% discount in reality. 

We'll see how it eventually shakes out.  I certainly don't take any house value estimates as set in stone.

Yep, I find Redfin to be much more accurate and stable (incidentally, went with them as our listing agent). But I used Zillow to calculate NW because 1) that's what Personal Capital uses and 2) it was initially more conservative than the Redfin estimate.

[Tracyl-5]

Officially joining this thread... Hit $1M for the first time today!  $500K to $1M took 3.5 years.  Wonder how long for the next $500K?  Currently saving about 30% of our gross...

Mth/Yr         Liquid Assets
Oct 2015     $513K
Apr 2019     $1,020K

[Cornbread OMalley]

@Tracyl-5 Welcome to the thread!  Where do you live in Hawaii?

[Dicey]

Wondering, though, are Zillow numbers considered accurate?

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't ;-)

[Arbitrage]

The weird thing about Zestimate is that it had my house valued increasingly higher these last six months up to a high of around $464,000  just last week.
Then I looked at it again on Friday and low and behold the Zestimate which had been rising at a very stable moderate pace suddenly was down $30,000 to an estimate of $434,000
Yet this lowered price according to the Zestimate was an increase from the previous month, which it is not.
Just makes no sense.

Yes, I've definitely noticed that these online estimators 'back-correct' their data.  The numbers I record don't match up with their supposedly archived data later on. 

[cloudsail]

Here's another weird thing that's messing with our net worth. My husband has RSUs that vest over four years. He still has some years left to go. But Fidelity is showing the value of ALL the shares, including unvested. This makes zero sense to me. I've had to deactivate this account in Mint, but in a couple weeks he will have a major vesting and I don't know how to add these vested shares to our net worth.

[sisto]

Here's another weird thing that's messing with our net worth. My husband has RSUs that vest over four years. He still has some years left to go. But Fidelity is showing the value of ALL the shares, including unvested. This makes zero sense to me. I've had to deactivate this account in Mint, but in a couple weeks he will have a major vesting and I don't know how to add these vested shares to our net worth.

It depends on the brokerage. When my RSUs were with UBS they showed the unvested portion, but now they are at ETrade and are excluded. You can exclude it using filters, that's what I used to do.

[cloudsail]

Here's another weird thing that's messing with our net worth. My husband has RSUs that vest over four years. He still has some years left to go. But Fidelity is showing the value of ALL the shares, including unvested. This makes zero sense to me. I've had to deactivate this account in Mint, but in a couple weeks he will have a major vesting and I don't know how to add these vested shares to our net worth.

It depends on the brokerage. When my RSUs were with UBS they showed the unvested portion, but now they are at ETrade and are excluded. You can exclude it using filters, that's what I used to do.

Filters in Mint or in the brokerage?

[Tracyl-5]

@Tracyl-5 Welcome to the thread!  Where do you live in Hawaii?

Thanks!  We live on Kauai... 13 years now!  It's great for a lot of things, but also expensive, remote, and far from family.  We will move back to the mainland when we FIRE.  The unknown costs of living there make it difficult to know what our number is, so we'll see.  Maybe we work for another year or so once we're back on the mainland just to feel things out. 

[Allie]

I’d like to join the race...I’d love to get to 1.6 this year, but with the stuff we have planned (like surgeries and house repairs) 1.5 is more likely.  Fingers crossed for nice, steady investment growth and no unexpected emergencies!

That was an unexpected jump these last few weeks...

1/19 - TNW 1.47; LNW 1.33
4/19 - TNW 1.61; LNW 1.47

[talltexan]

I, too, was surprised to see a ton of growth when I logged into my 401K this morning. balance was approximately 10% higher than expected.

[sherr]

The weird thing about Zestimate is that it had my house valued increasingly higher these last six months up to a high of around $464,000  just last week.
Then I looked at it again on Friday and low and behold the Zestimate which had been rising at a very stable moderate pace suddenly was down $30,000 to an estimate of $434,000
Yet this lowered price according to the Zestimate was an increase from the previous month, which it is not.
Just makes no sense.

Yes, I've definitely noticed that these online estimators 'back-correct' their data.  The numbers I record don't match up with their supposedly archived data later on.

Note that Zillow never claims that chart is "archived data". It's a graph of what the house was worth over time (supposedly), not of what Zillow was claiming it was worth over time.

[sherr]

Here's another weird thing that's messing with our net worth. My husband has RSUs that vest over four years. He still has some years left to go. But Fidelity is showing the value of ALL the shares, including unvested. This makes zero sense to me. I've had to deactivate this account in Mint, but in a couple weeks he will have a major vesting and I don't know how to add these vested shares to our net worth.

Have you had a vesting event already? I have RSUs at Fidelity, and when they vest they are transferred from the RSU account into my personal account. So I do the same thing as you; block the RSU account out in Mint because that's not "my money" yet. But there's nothing I have to do to get it to show up after they vest because my personal account is not blocked.

[Cornbread OMalley]

Thanks!  We live on Kauai... 13 years now!  It's great for a lot of things, but also expensive, remote, and far from family.  We will move back to the mainland when we FIRE.  The unknown costs of living there make it difficult to know what our number is, so we'll see.  Maybe we work for another year or so once we're back on the mainland just to feel things out.

Nice!  I lived on Oahu for six years and ventured out to Kauai one time.  I would love to return to Kauai and finish the Kalalau Trail when it reopens.

[cloudsail]

Here's another weird thing that's messing with our net worth. My husband has RSUs that vest over four years. He still has some years left to go. But Fidelity is showing the value of ALL the shares, including unvested. This makes zero sense to me. I've had to deactivate this account in Mint, but in a couple weeks he will have a major vesting and I don't know how to add these vested shares to our net worth.

Have you had a vesting event already? I have RSUs at Fidelity, and when they vest they are transferred from the RSU account into my personal account. So I do the same thing as you; block the RSU account out in Mint because that's not "my money" yet. But there's nothing I have to do to get it to show up after they vest because my personal account is not blocked.

Oh, that's good to know, thanks!

No we haven't vested in Fidelity yet. Our other shares are with Morgan Stanley and my husband just recently switched to Fidelity for the next vesting.

[Tracyl-5]

Nice!  I lived on Oahu for six years and ventured out to Kauai one time.  I would love to return to Kauai and finish the Kalalau Trail when it reopens.

Cool, Oahu is my weekend getaway when I get island fever!  That Kalalau trail is a killer!  I've never gone the whole way, not sure if I'd be brave enough for the narrow part on a cliff.  It's supposed to re-open soon, but they keep pushing it back.  I do love to hike, but all the rain and mud here make it tough!

[Fomerly known as something]

In the zillow vs. redfin neither estimate my homes value well.  Both are below what I paid for my place 2 years ago in a neighborhood where sales have significantly increased this year.  For net worth purposes, I gave a slight premium to what I paid because I bought a fixer and well fixed.  But the number I use is only purchase price plus 66% of renovation costs.

[Goldy]

Well it's been fun but it's time for me to move on.....to the 2-3M race.

We cracked the multi million mark a couple days ago thanks to the incredible 2019 returns so far.  It took us 9 years to hit the first million and 3 years plus one month to hit the second.  Dual incomes is the secret in my opinion, that and starting early.  We never had silly salaries, in fact we never made 6 figure salaries until just a few days ago but having that second salary going directly into savings was key.  Now we need to get serious about deciding how much is enough.

[Enigma]

Well it's been fun but it's time for me to move on.....to the 2-3M race.

We cracked the multi million mark a couple days ago thanks to the incredible 2019 returns so far.  It took us 9 years to hit the first million and 3 years plus one month to hit the second.  Dual incomes is the secret in my opinion, that and starting early.  We never had silly salaries, in fact we never made 6 figure salaries until just a few days ago but having that second salary going directly into savings was key.  Now we need to get serious about deciding how much is enough.

Congratulations!  I cannot imagine that I can make my 2nd mil in just 3 years...  So the key is having a second salary?  I guess dating starts tonight.

[couponvan]

Well it's been fun but it's time for me to move on.....to the 2-3M race.

We cracked the multi million mark a couple days ago thanks to the incredible 2019 returns so far.  It took us 9 years to hit the first million and 3 years plus one month to hit the second.  Dual incomes is the secret in my opinion, that and starting early.  We never had silly salaries, in fact we never made 6 figure salaries until just a few days ago but having that second salary going directly into savings was key.  Now we need to get serious about deciding how much is enough.

Congratulations!  I cannot imagine that I can make my 2nd mil in just 3 years...  So the key is having a second salary?  I guess dating starts tonight.

I just spit laughed...thanks for that.  The key is having a second salary that is ALSO in the same club you are as opposed to the spending club the majority of the world is in. 

[talltexan]

My wife and I have two nice incomes. It takes a whole lot more than that to get to $2,000,000. I see a lot of two-income couples out there who are still in six-digit (or less) NW range.

[Bloop Bloop]

Well it's been fun but it's time for me to move on.....to the 2-3M race.

We cracked the multi million mark a couple days ago thanks to the incredible 2019 returns so far.  It took us 9 years to hit the first million and 3 years plus one month to hit the second.  Dual incomes is the secret in my opinion, that and starting early.  We never had silly salaries, in fact we never made 6 figure salaries until just a few days ago but having that second salary going directly into savings was key.  Now we need to get serious about deciding how much is enough.

Congratulations!  I cannot imagine that I can make my 2nd mil in just 3 years...  So the key is having a second salary?  I guess dating starts tonight.

I just spit laughed...thanks for that.  The key is having a second salary that is ALSO in the same club you are as opposed to the spending club the majority of the world is in.

I think a large aspect, as Goldy acknowledged, is having decent returns. Even if you have two earners on $100k before tax (say $80k after tax), then even with frugal living, you would not be able to save more than about $140,000 per year. So with normal compounding, that won't even get you to $450,000 after three years. You need strong returns and re-investment.

Having a second income does help a lot, though, simply because 2 people on $100k get taxed a hell of a lot less than one person on $200k, at least in my country.

[redhead84]

Officially joining the race. Here are the numbers for me and DH:

Invested Assets - $1.116M
Home Equity - $268K
Other Assets - $56K
Total Net Worth - $1.44M

We were briefly above the halfway point before the recent market activity.