Race from $1M to $2M

[talltexan]

Mrs. talltexan and I closed on a new house on Friday: appraised at $478,000, but we're taking on basically that much debt in order to finance it while we sell our current house. Looking at a few months of expensive repairs and a massive balance sheet.

[Blissful Biker]

                  LNW         TWN
2018 YE    $1.13M    $1.66M
1Q2019     $1.26M    $1.77M
2Q2019     $1.26M    $1.77M
3Q2019     $1.33M    $1.84M

These are little Canadian dollars.  We're pulling the FIRE PIN at $2M LNW, which will bump by at least $100K when we downsize the house.

[guelphinvestor]

Regarding the 2M LNW, what are your annual expenses ?

[Blissful Biker]

Regarding the 2M LNW, what are your annual expenses ?

$2M CDN at a 4% SWR will throw off $80K per year.  Assuming 15% tax we'll have $68K/year to spend.  That should be plenty as we have no mortgage and the kids will be off to their RESP funded university by the time we FIRE in 5ish years.  I do not include the education funds in either the LNW or TNW as it belongs to the kids.

[SEAK]

Joining the thread. 45 years old, wife 43, and two kiddos aged 12 and 10 living in a HCOL area. We're sitting at just over a 1 million in investments now not including our home equity ($225k), value of pensions ($800k), and the kids college savings ($90k). Hoping the next million doesn't take even close to as long as the first!

[BlueHouse]

This week my 401k crossed the $1M mark!  I've been at over $1M liquid net worth for a few years, so I've been trying to get this account over $1M as an interim goal to $2M NW. 

I'm giddy with excitement.  I feel so rich.  I don't know why this one account makes me feel any different and I know the value will float up and down over the next few months (No more contributions this year).  But for now....happy!

[DavidAnnArbor]

Mrs. talltexan and I closed on a new house on Friday: appraised at $478,000, but we're taking on basically that much debt in order to finance it while we sell our current house. Looking at a few months of expensive repairs and a massive balance sheet.

Wouldn't it be fun to get a house in Texas from "Fixer Upper With Chip and Joanna Gaines" ?  It would be beautiful all throughout.

[Fomerly known as something]

This week my 401k crossed the $1M mark!  I've been at over $1M liquid net worth for a few years, so I've been trying to get this account over $1M as an interim goal to $2M NW. 

I'm giddy with excitement.  I feel so rich.  I don't know why this one account makes me feel any different and I know the value will float up and down over the next few months (No more contributions this year).  But for now....happy!

I'm eagerly hoping for another 1% gain in the market which should push me over another $100,000 mark in mine.  (Still not at 7 figures in the 401k but it was my first investment account) so I totally understand your joy.

[talltexan]

Mrs. talltexan and I closed on a new house on Friday: appraised at $478,000, but we're taking on basically that much debt in order to finance it while we sell our current house. Looking at a few months of expensive repairs and a massive balance sheet.

Wouldn't it be fun to get a house in Texas from "Fixer Upper With Chip and Joanna Gaines" ?  It would be beautiful all throughout.

What they do is so much more major than what we have planned.

[sherr]

This week my 401k crossed the $1M mark!

I'm eagerly hoping for another 1% gain in the market which should push me over another $100,000 mark in mine. 

I'm curious, how did you get so much money in your 401k? Very generous employer contributions?

I've been contributing the max to my 401k for over a decade and I'm still nowhere near a million.

[chasesfish]

Failed to announce this...briefly crossed the $2mil mark in the last week of November, then as of last Friday finally set that mark in the dust!

Not bad considering I trimmed equities down and left my job this year.

[Cornbread OMalley]

Failed to announce this...briefly crossed the $2mil mark in the last week of November, then as of last Friday finally set that mark in the dust!

Good job, chasesfish!!  Congratulations!!

[Cornbread OMalley]

Posting to update that I finally reached $1.7 million in NW!  It's a good feeling!

I recently pulled the plug and FIRE'd; it's been great!  Recently, I did an estimate and projected that my total annual passive income is $92K pre-tax.  That gives me a lot of confidence going forth!

[chasesfish]

Posting to update that I finally reached $1.7 million in NW!  It's a good feeling!

I recently pulled the plug and FIRE'd; it's been great!  Recently, I did an estimate and projected that my total annual passive income is $92K pre-tax.  That gives me a lot of confidence going forth!

How much fun is it to not go to work?  Still amazing to me every Monday.

[Cornbread OMalley]

How much fun is it to not go to work?  Still amazing to me every Monday.

It's frickin' fantastic!  The feeling of total freedom is indescribable!

[aspiringnomad]

6/30/17: 1.002 million, two months shy of my 35th birthday
1/17/18: 1.219 million, 4.5 months after my 35th birthday

Feels like this crazy market has put things into hyperdrive. Hoping I've got enough buffer to remain in the two comma club through the next correction, but who knows?

Total HH net worth now at 1.281. With the market down/sideways I've been throwing any and all cash I can scrounge into stocks. Even if there's still a ways down to go, I'm thinking I'll be happy I did over the long-term.

11/1/19: $1.56M a couple months after turning 37 and officially FI! Have spent way above our planned RE budget this year mostly on experiences and time with family and friends before we embark on our more frugal adventures. Still very able and happy to go more rustic and less YOLO once the need arises.

[Zoot]

Time for another 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
May-19	$929K	$1,229K
Jun-19	$984K	$1,288K
Jul-19	$1,010K	$1,316K
Aug-19	$994K	$1,307K
Sep-19	$1,012K	$1,322K
Oct-19	$1,035K	$1,346K
Nov-19	$1,045K	$1,353K

I think for the next update I'll whittle down that table a bit--either by showing quarterly numbers for the earlier years or just removing 2017 and 2018 entirely.  The table is a relic of my post in the $500K-to-$1M thread, so it has all the older info in it.  It's just so nice to look back on the numbers and see where I've been, and marvel at the progress.

It was tough to go back into the six-figure realm (ha!) with the market dip in August, but such is the investing life--and that $16K difference was only 1.5%.  It's just so weird to say things like "only sixteen thousand dollars"--that number would have had a WAY different significance at different times in my life.

I think I may want to post either a journal or a case study (can't decide which) with some more musings.  Things are still weird at work (weirder, even, than they were last time I said that) and I'm fast approaching "done" mentally, but I am so scared of turning off the cash stream. 

The next line-in-the-sand milestone I've set for myself is a liquid asset value of "one million dollars and a paid off house"--meaning that there would be enough to stroke a check to pay off the mortgage and still have $1M left over (I won't actually pull the trigger, though, unless it makes sense to do so in some way).  That's a moving target, of course, since the mortgage value decreases over time, but my spreadsheets tell me that the number I need to hit for that is about $1.14M.  At our household savings rate, and with a conservative account growth estimate, I estimate getting there in about August 2020.

Not sure I will last that long at work, but it was a good mental exercise to do the math, and it gives me something to hang on to as I slog through the suck.  ;-)

[BlueHouse]

This week my 401k crossed the $1M mark!

I'm eagerly hoping for another 1% gain in the market which should push me over another $100,000 mark in mine. 

I'm curious, how did you get so much money in your 401k? Very generous employer contributions?

I've been contributing the max to my 401k for over a decade and I'm still nowhere near a million.

Well, first of all, I'm 51 so I've had more time than you.  But...80% of the increase has been in the past 9 years so I'll still answer.

1.  Time -- I'm old.
2.  Money -- I have had a high income for the past few years, which has allowed me to max out my contribution + the employer match (I'm self-employed)
3.  Time and distance -- I stopped moving it around trying to chase returns and started using the lazy-man portfolio.  I decided to "get rich slowly" and it happened much faster than I thought it would
 
If your plan allows it and you can swing it, you can max out to $54K or $62K with mega-backdoor Roth. 

[sherr]

I'm curious, how did you get so much money in your 401k? Very generous employer contributions?

I've been contributing the max to my 401k for over a decade and I'm still nowhere near a million.

Well, first of all, I'm 51 so I've had more time than you.  But...80% of the increase has been in the past 9 years so I'll still answer.

1.  Time -- I'm old.
2.  Money -- I have had a high income for the past few years, which has allowed me to max out my contribution + the employer match (I'm self-employed)
3.  Time and distance -- I stopped moving it around trying to chase returns and started using the lazy-man portfolio.  I decided to "get rich slowly" and it happened much faster than I thought it would
 
If your plan allows it and you can swing it, you can max out to $54K or $62K with mega-backdoor Roth.

Thanks. Yeah, having access to the employer contribution side too makes a big difference. I'm not self-employed so I'm limited to $19k of contributions a year, despite also having a high income.

My 401k does not currently allow for after-tax contributions so I can't swing the mega-backdoor Roth, but they're looking at changing that for next year. Fingers crossed.

[TempusFugit]

Just when I figured out the Mega Backdoor Roth, I was designated a "highly compensated individual" and therefore ineligible for the option.   I didn't even get a t-shirt. 

But it is the first-est of first world problems. 

[DavidAnnArbor]

If your plan allows it and you can swing it, you can max out to $54K or $62K with mega-backdoor Roth.

Way to go BlueHouse. The mega backdoor roth for the self-employed is the greatest.

[Watchmaker]

I'll join this thread, and by doing so perhaps start the next recession.

First a couple of historical data points:
6/05 -0.02 MM
8/13 0.15 MM
9/16 0.50 MM

Now:
7/19 1.02 MM

I was right. Well, we'll see if I was right about the recession, but I have dropped back below 1 MM for the time being.

I'm back!

11/19 1.08 MM

[talltexan]

Haven't posted for a while.

Mrs. talltexan and I currently own our new house ($478,000), but still have the old house to get ready for sale ($175,000 mortgage; hoping to sell above $300,000). Cash will be tight for a couple months.

The sale of the old house might really move the needle for us.

[frizzywhiskers]

I’d like to join this thread, I’m in need of some motivation!

Me age 48, Hubby age 50.  Looking to FIRE at the end of 2021/early 2022.

Total Net Worth is at $1,333,000 which consists of a $625,000 paid off house and about $708,000 in investments.  We should hit the $1,000,000 in investments mark by our FIRE date which is the goal.  We are also selling our current house and moving to a small mountain town during this time. 

Let’s do this!

[brooklynmoney]

Posting to update that I finally reached $1.7 million in NW!  It's a good feeling!

I recently pulled the plug and FIRE'd; it's been great!  Recently, I did an estimate and projected that my total annual passive income is $92K pre-tax.  That gives me a lot of confidence going forth!

@cornbread congratulations! Very happy for you on your retirement and I must declare you winner of the imaginary race as you are still ahead of me by about 12k in networth haha.

[Cornbread OMalley]

@cornbread congratulations! Very happy for you on your retirement and I must declare you winner of the imaginary race as you are still ahead of me by about 12k in networth haha.

@brooklynmoney The difference is only $12K??!!  You closed the gap really quick!  You're going to pass me by, and I'll be trailing very soon!

[zinnie]

Joining this race now! Been reading MMM since the beginning and started seriously saving 2012ish. Adjusted my FIRE number after taking a year off work and trying it out! Now I’m back in the game with a slightly lower salary and a higher COL but still a good savings rate. So here is my plan:

Current liquid: $1.18M
Current NW: $1.45M

Goal liquid:~1.6M
Goal NW: ~2M

I’d like to be done Aug 2021. I’ll walk if the numbers are even close.

It's been a good month! Update:

Liquid: $1.24M
Net Worth: $1.51M

it felt good to pass the 1.5 mark :)

[Cornbread OMalley]

I’d like to join this thread, I’m in need of some motivation!

Me age 48, Hubby age 50.  Looking to FIRE at the end of 2021/early 2022.

Total Net Worth is at $1,333,000 which consists of a $625,000 paid off house and about $708,000 in investments.  We should hit the $1,000,000 in investments mark by our FIRE date which is the goal.  We are also selling our current house and moving to a small mountain town during this time. 

Let’s do this!

Let's get it on!  :-)

[Zamboni]

Crossed into this thread. Yay! Numbers are for my beloved and me. Not sure yet if we will update monthly or quarterly. Probably should do monthly for awhile just to get in the good habit of a monthly joint budget/finances/planning discussion with my partner now that we have our eggs all in the same basket. . .

                     LNW           TNW
Nov 2019    $1.02MM    $1.18MM

[CANStache]

I've been reading MMM for years but have been indoctrinated for decades to not talk about money.  Finally feel like putting it out there since out LNW passed $1M.

Nov 2019:   LNW: $1.048M  TNW:  $2.176M

Wife and I are mid-40s, she's taking a longish break from a corporate career that could potential evolve into full-on retirement for her.  I think I probably have 5 years left in me.

[trashtalk]

I've been reading MMM for years but have been indoctrinated for decades to not talk about money.  Finally feel like putting it out there since out LNW passed $1M.

Nov 2019:   LNW: $1.048M  TNW:  $2.176M

Wife and I are mid-40s, she's taking a longish break from a corporate career that could potential evolve into full-on retirement for her.  I think I probably have 5 years left in me.

Congrats! Breaking the money-talk taboo feels great once you get past the initial discomfort. Welcome to the thread.

[Watchmaker]

I've been reading MMM for years but have been indoctrinated for decades to not talk about money.  Finally feel like putting it out there since out LNW passed $1M.

Nov 2019:   LNW: $1.048M  TNW:  $2.176M

Wife and I are mid-40s, she's taking a longish break from a corporate career that could potential evolve into full-on retirement for her.  I think I probably have 5 years left in me.

Congrats!

You say you probably have 5 years left; can you expand on what you mean by that? Because surely it's not "5 years until FIRE" with that NW. If it's you "can put up with 5 more years", why not get out sooner? If it's you'll "enjoy working for 5 more years" than great, but you don't seem excited.

Five years is a long time.

[Allie]

Yesterday, we just barely hit the 1.75m milestone for TNW.  It seemed like a number to post here!

[CANStache]

Congrats!

You say you probably have 5 years left; can you expand on what you mean by that? Because surely it's not "5 years until FIRE" with that NW. If it's you "can put up with 5 more years", why not get out sooner? If it's you'll "enjoy working for 5 more years" than great, but you don't seem excited.

Five years is a long time.

Thanks!

My work is not onerous at all - good job making good money for a good company, and the lifestyle is semi-RE already.  I work from home for the most part and get a lot of downtime.  So my family already travels a couple of times a year and engage in our hobbies, and two of our kids are still at home with us, letting us stay active with them and in our community.

So while we might be able to consider ourselves semi-FI already, I have no big push to RE just yet.  I get a fair number of perks from work as well, beyond the paycheque.  5 years will get my youngest to uni, and won't hurt our numbers, either...

[Watchmaker]

Thanks!

My work is not onerous at all - good job making good money for a good company, and the lifestyle is semi-RE already.  I work from home for the most part and get a lot of downtime.  So my family already travels a couple of times a year and engage in our hobbies, and two of our kids are still at home with us, letting us stay active with them and in our community.

So while we might be able to consider ourselves semi-FI already, I have no big push to RE just yet.  I get a fair number of perks from work as well, beyond the paycheque.  5 years will get my youngest to uni, and won't hurt our numbers, either...

Sounds like a good balance. Enjoy!

[cloudsail]

Yesterday our LNW passed $2.15M, with TNW at $3.1M. It's a little unreal. I don't think DH and I ever imagined we would have this much money.

I think I am going to officially graduate from this group and move into the next one. Hope to see you all there!

[CANStache]

Yesterday our LNW passed $2.15M, with TNW at $3.1M. It's a little unreal. I don't think DH and I ever imagined we would have this much money.

I think I am going to officially graduate from this group and move into the next one. Hope to see you all there!

Congrats!  Those numbers DO seem unreal to someone barely qualifying for this thread.  But our accumulation has definitely been accelerating, so maybe we'll meet again.... ;)

[Cornbread OMalley]

Yesterday our LNW passed $2.15M, with TNW at $3.1M. It's a little unreal. I don't think DH and I ever imagined we would have this much money.

Congratulations!

[KBecks]

We paid off the mortgage and so now this might be the place to hang out an goal-set for a while.  I have to add it up to see where we are at.  I'm guessing we are around 1.3 TNW and 1.05 LNW, but I haven't looked and I feel like we haven't been gaining lately -- we probably have, though... just need to check.
We took a spendy vacation for our 20th wedding anniversary and you know, it's OK. 
Now I am looking at sending three children to college in a few short years and I don't feel like we are well-prepared yet.

[mastrr]

How are you calculating Liquid Net Worth?  Specifically in relation to equity and debt on a primary residence.  Do you just remove the current value of your house from being an asset but still use your mortgage as a liability?

[cloudsail]

How are you calculating Liquid Net Worth?  Specifically in relation to equity and debt on a primary residence.  Do you just remove the current value of your house from being an asset but still use your mortgage as a liability?

No, as long as I'm not underwater I just remove both equity and mortgage from my calculations.

[Bateaux]

Yesterday our LNW passed $2.15M, with TNW at $3.1M. It's a little unreal. I don't think DH and I ever imagined we would have this much money.

I think I am going to officially graduate from this group and move into the next one. Hope to see you all there!

Come on in.  You'd think the 2 to 3 and beyond is the advanced class.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  For us the heavy lifting is done.  We no longer worry about buying coffee, avacado toast or fret about how old our cars are.  Most of us will never spend what we've saved.  Lots of our money will likely be given away.

[KBecks]

We paid off the mortgage and so now this might be the place to hang out an goal-set for a while.  I have to add it up to see where we are at.  I'm guessing we are around 1.3 TNW and 1.05 LNW, but I haven't looked and I feel like we haven't been gaining lately -- we probably have, though... just need to check.
We took a spendy vacation for our 20th wedding anniversary and you know, it's OK. 
Now I am looking at sending three children to college in a few short years and I don't feel like we are well-prepared yet.

I set up an automatic deposit in the amount of our mortgage payment into our brokerage account.  For now it is going into cash while I think about the possibilities.  We will sock away another $20k per year.  I also looked at Zillow, which says our home is worth about $20k more than I was estimating.  We are at approximately $1.4 TNW and $1.1 LNW. 

I should get back to Mustaschian basics and look at our total spend.  We are a little fancy pants at time and fritter away money via small purchases, lunches, convenience, etc.  I liked his recent blog post on pizza delivery vs. making your own pizza.  I have been looking at Zillow at duplexes, but managing a rental seems far off for us and I may look at selling put options as an alternative, particularly while our taxable account is accumulating more dollars.  We do not have a down payment amount at the ready just yet, and there are so many questions related to real estate -- local and self-managed?  turnkey?  local with a property manager?  Single-family?  Duplex?  Great neighborhood or merely OK neighborhood?  Which one?

The market is not inexpensive, so I do not mind waiting. My co-worker's family buys and fixes up duplexes. They put a lot of work into it. 

I also need to look at our retirement #, but I do not know if we will really retire until all 3 children are launched into adulthood.

[MishMash]

Officially closed the 2M mark.  71 of that is in our house, but on the flip side we have a large collection of antique gold coins that are worth about that much (DH inherited them from his grandfather whose mother smuggled them out of Nazi Germany) so while he will never sell them, I consider them a tangible asset. 

We are 40 and 37 and haven't really contributed anything in 1.5 years, DH is burning out FAST in the military, and I don't blame him. So we've spent more money doing fun things and spreading the wealth a bit to those around us.  We were also carrying two houses for 6 months this year. Two more years and he will be eligible for pension and health benefits and he never wants to work in an office, especially one without windows ever gain. 

[Bird In Hand]

LNW (barely) crested $1.5M for the first time yesterday, TNW is very close to $1.9M.

LNW has been a little over $1.6M for a week or so, with TNW at just over $2.0M.

[Arbitrage]

Officially entering the race!

Liquid NW / Total NW

1/1/16: $455k / 675k
1/1/17: $555k / 822k
1/1/18: $735k / 1.071M
1/1/19: $765k / 1.152M
12/1/19: $1.011M / 1.477M

[Freedomin5]

I’m also officially joining having just graduated from the 500k to 1M thread.

Nov 2019: 1.001M

[TempusFugit]

Welcome new entrants @Arbitrage and @Freedomin5 !

[Freedomin5]

@TempusFugit  Thank you! I’m excited to be here....finally!

[JGS1980]

And..... I’m also joining this next race!  Posting quarterly.  Goal is get to 2 Million in 48 months.

Dec -19 $1,009,000

JGS