Race from $2M to $4M...and Beyond!

[texxan1]

Yeah, the up and down swings are huge somedays.... im not making more on the market than what my firehouse of cash from the O@G megacorp but i dont need too.... I do thank, whomever it was that told me to check the market Every single day... so when you see swings after fire it wont bother you.....

Im not bothered about much the market does, just a cycle and i can say the market definately makes me as much i would need every year....

[pecunia]

Maybe this market thing can be best expressed by what a gas station attendant tried to teach me in Walnut Creek, California a few years back:

dí-kapaní-paniwalà

It seems to fit.

[SwordGuy]

Maybe this market thing can be best expressed by what a gas station attendant tried to teach me in Walnut Creek, California a few years back:

dí-kapaní-paniwalà

It seems to fit.

[BlueHouse]

Good to see a lot of newbies in the thread. Its amazing to me how people know what they made and how much each year there portfolios went up for such an extended period of time. Just shows the lack of discipline I had and am fortunate to have gotten in this group by being self-employed and at the end finally getting my shit together. Good stuff you guys have I pass on to my kids!

Before I had my "super spreadsheet", I couldn't remember what I earned from year to year.  I had to look through old taxes (or used social security statements).  Now the IRS has it all on their website and you can download it.  pretty convenient! 

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Yeah, the up and down swings are huge somedays.... im not making more on the market than what my firehouse of cash from the O@G megacorp but i dont need too.... I do thank, whomever it was that told me to check the market Every single day... so when you see swings after fire it wont bother you.....

Im not bothered about much the market does, just a cycle and i can say the market definately makes me as much i would need every year....

Then you get to the next level of FI, not checking the market every day :)  Index funds just aren't that exciting to watch.

[farmecologist]

Hi all,

I haven't been around here for quite a while...I see the thread has really grown! 

Anyway, I fired Personal Capital up recently and liked what I saw.  We are up to 2.9M Net Worth, with 2.6M being investments ( and 1.8M in tax deferred 401K accounts ).  Most of the rest is in a brokerage account, and the rest in cash.

One takeaway from this year is that I really bumped up my stock trading activity...and had some BIG wins ( mostly in biotech )..and some moderate losses ( can't win 'em all ).  The brokerage account is what put us over the top.  What started out as 'play money' a few years ago has turned into something much more than that.  Ironically, this year has been absolutely stellar for stock trading. And I have learned a lot.  It isn't for the feint of heart though...you need nerves of steel, and that has been a hard lesson to learn.

Anyway, I guess we have 'officially' joined this group! 





 

[Bateaux]

Hi all,

I haven't been around here for quite a while...I see the thread has really grown! 

Anyway, I fired Personal Capital up recently and liked what I saw.  We are up to 2.9M Net Worth, with 2.6M being investments ( and 1.8M in tax deferred 401K accounts ).  Most of the rest is in a brokerage account, and the rest in cash.

One takeaway from this year is that I really bumped up my stock trading activity...and had some BIG wins ( mostly in biotech )..and some moderate losses ( can't win 'em all ).  The brokerage account is what put us over the top.  What started out as 'play money' a few years ago has turned into something much more than that.  Ironically, this year has been absolutely stellar for stock trading. And I have learned a lot.  It isn't for the feint of heart though...you need nerves of steel, and that has been a hard lesson to learn.

Anyway, I guess we have 'officially' joined this group!

Hey!  Welcome back.  Glad to hear from one of the old timers as well as all the newcomers.  It's great to hear the stories of how we all came here.  Many different paths, but definitely many common goals.   You guys certainly inspire me.

[farmecologist]

Hi all,

I haven't been around here for quite a while...I see the thread has really grown! 

Anyway, I fired Personal Capital up recently and liked what I saw.  We are up to 2.9M Net Worth, with 2.6M being investments ( and 1.8M in tax deferred 401K accounts ).  Most of the rest is in a brokerage account, and the rest in cash.

One takeaway from this year is that I really bumped up my stock trading activity...and had some BIG wins ( mostly in biotech )..and some moderate losses ( can't win 'em all ).  The brokerage account is what put us over the top.  What started out as 'play money' a few years ago has turned into something much more than that.  Ironically, this year has been absolutely stellar for stock trading. And I have learned a lot.  It isn't for the feint of heart though...you need nerves of steel, and that has been a hard lesson to learn.

Anyway, I guess we have 'officially' joined this group!

Hey!  Welcome back.  Glad to hear from one of the old timers as well as all the newcomers.  It's great to hear the stories of how we all came here.  Many different paths, but definitely many common goals.   You guys certainly inspire me.

Hey another old timer! 

It is also quite shocking at just how much our 401K accounts have grown....even though they are in more conservative funds ( vanguard Wellesley mostly ).   It balances out the ultra risky stock trading I have been doing.  I think it is a great example of how tax free compounding gains work.  Note that we have been maxing out our 401Ks for many years...and it was really tough to do early on.  So much so that we sacrificed the 'toys' everyone else was buying to save more.  However, even though it was difficult, it was hard to turn down 'free money' ( i.e. - company match plus tax savings ). 

[Dgmp]

Boom!  I made it. 

After 5 long years, my RSU grant of 175k vests at a value of 457k.  What a blessing.  Feels great.  Not many one can share this milestone with so going to share with you all already in this club!

Total: 2,075,000

• Cash: 25k
  Stock Investments: $1.85M
  Property: 200k

[SwordGuy]

Boom!  I made it. 

After 5 long years, my RSU grant of 175k vests at a value of 457k.  What a blessing.  Feels great.  Not many one can share this milestone with so going to share with you all already in this club!

Total: 2,075,000

• Cash: 25k
  Stock Investments: $1.85M
  Property: 200k

Congrats!

[Exflyboy]

@Dgmp Well done and welcome to the group..:)

[2sk22]

Boom!  I made it. 

After 5 long years, my RSU grant of 175k vests at a value of 457k.  What a blessing.  Feels great.  Not many one can share this milestone with so going to share with you all already in this club!

Total: 2,075,000

• Cash: 25k
  Stock Investments: $1.85M
  Property: 200k

Congrats! Have you hit your "number" ?

[Taran Wanderer]

Congratulations! Is it everything you hoped it would be? Or a bit anticlimactic?

[dacalo]

We jumped a thread and went from ~$880k NW to $3.2M a few months back due to an IPO. Very grateful but we sure don't feel "rich." Everything is still the same, our cars, our spending habits, etc. I also don't feel secure enough to just quit my job. I am in my early 40's with a family of 2 children. Wife and I haven't told anyone about our recent success.

Going to keep on going, may be one more year, and see where we are at then.

[Exflyboy]

We jumped a thread and went from ~$880k NW to $3.2M a few months back due to an IPO. Very grateful but we sure don't feel "rich." Everything is still the same, our cars, our spending habits, etc. I also don't feel secure enough to just quit my job. I am in my early 40's with a family of 2 children. Wife and I haven't told anyone about our recent success.

Going to keep on going, may be one more year, and see where we are at then.

Holy cow.. Instant FI in a few months! Good for you, I'm sure you worked very hard to make that happen.

I think most of us around here know how you feel in that calling us "rich" is just nuts.. I mean we are just like everybody else right?

What I can tell you is after a few years of RE you wonder how on Earth you keep getting more and more money.. Its insane..:)

[SwordGuy]

We jumped a thread and went from ~$880k NW to $3.2M a few months back due to an IPO. Very grateful but we sure don't feel "rich." Everything is still the same, our cars, our spending habits, etc. I also don't feel secure enough to just quit my job. I am in my early 40's with a family of 2 children. Wife and I haven't told anyone about our recent success.

Going to keep on going, may be one more year, and see where we are at then.

Congrats!

Diversify and lock in the bulk of those gains.    Doesn't matter if staying with that IPO company ***might*** end up gaining you more because it also ***might*** make you lose those gains too.

You've now "won" the money game, now your job is not to lose it.

[brooklynmoney]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

[BlueHouse]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!! 

[dacalo]

We jumped a thread and went from ~$880k NW to $3.2M a few months back due to an IPO. Very grateful but we sure don't feel "rich." Everything is still the same, our cars, our spending habits, etc. I also don't feel secure enough to just quit my job. I am in my early 40's with a family of 2 children. Wife and I haven't told anyone about our recent success.

Going to keep on going, may be one more year, and see where we are at then.

Congrats!

Diversify and lock in the bulk of those gains.    Doesn't matter if staying with that IPO company ***might*** end up gaining you more because it also ***might*** make you lose those gains too.

You've now "won" the money game, now your job is not to lose it.

Thank you, you are absolutely right. We are Bogleheads through and through and most will be dumped to index ETF and bonds. Probably will keep about 10% of the shares to see what happens. Also the numbers are post-tax using a conservative tax rate so hopefully it will be slightly higher.

Now that we are "here," I've noticed that we now have a LOT more options, such as either concentrating paying down the mortgage (but it's only 2.875% for 30 years), keep accumulating, or increase spending (which will be hard for us because we aren't spenders) or all of above.

[Bateaux]

We jumped a thread and went from ~$880k NW to $3.2M a few months back due to an IPO. Very grateful but we sure don't feel "rich." Everything is still the same, our cars, our spending habits, etc. I also don't feel secure enough to just quit my job. I am in my early 40's with a family of 2 children. Wife and I haven't told anyone about our recent success.

Going to keep on going, may be one more year, and see where we are at then.

Congrats!

Diversify and lock in the bulk of those gains.    Doesn't matter if staying with that IPO company ***might*** end up gaining you more because it also ***might*** make you lose those gains too.

You've now "won" the money game, now your job is not to lose it.

Thank you, you are absolutely right. We are Bogleheads through and through and most will be dumped to index ETF and bonds. Probably will keep about 10% of the shares to see what happens. Also the numbers are post-tax using a conservative tax rate so hopefully it will be slightly higher.

Now that we are "here," I've noticed that we now have a LOT more options, such as either concentrating paying down the mortgage (but it's only 2.875% for 30 years), keep accumulating, or increase spending (which will be hard for us because we aren't spenders) or all of above.

Now you can plan a very long retirement.  With the world mostly shut down it's a good time for thinking about what you really want to do. 

[Exflyboy]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

Its not the number of zeros that matter.. Just their position relative to non zero numbers..:)

[2sk22]

Tallying up our expenses for the year (we live in an inner suburb of New York City in New Jersey)

Home(property tax, insurance, maintenance): 23300
Food: 10000
Car (Insurance, maintenance, fuel): 8700
Utilities + Internet + Phone: 10000
Gardening + maid:   6100
Entertainment (mostly online subscriptions): 3000
Clothing: 2000
Fitness: 4000
Hobbies: 1000
Travel: 5000
   
Total   73100

Clothing and commute expenses were lower than usual. But commute expenses will be zero for me in the future! Travel was not much either, mostly one road trip and a couple of family related trips I had to make./

[Fomerly known as something]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

I’m with Blue House.  I have felt “holy crap, I’m rich” since about 2004, when it was actually holy crap I’m going to be rich.  It’s more so now when I look at what my balances are doing with me basically doing nothing and I’m gobsmacked.

[ixtap]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

I’m with Blue House.  I have felt “holy crap, I’m rich” since about 2004, when it was actually holy crap I’m going to be rich.  It’s more so now when I look at what my balances are doing with me basically doing nothing and I’m gobsmacked.

Another vote for giddy rich. Yes, we still choose to have a roommate, drive one, old car and rarely eat out, but dang if we didn't give away gobs of money and makes some lonely people very happy with reminders that we care. 1800flowers ain't cheap, but getting a phone call from my widowed aunt because she was so overjoyed by the gesture was priceless.

[shuffler]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

I’m with Blue House.  I have felt “holy crap, I’m rich” since about 2004, when it was actually holy crap I’m going to be rich.  It’s more so now when I look at what my balances are doing with me basically doing nothing and I’m gobsmacked.

Another vote for giddy rich. Yes, we still choose to have a roommate, drive one, old car and rarely eat out, but dang if we didn't give away gobs of money and makes some lonely people very happy with reminders that we care. 1800flowers ain't cheap, but getting a phone call from my widowed aunt because she was so overjoyed by the gesture was priceless.

Same.  Yesterday I started a donor advised fund and seeded it with $50k of appreciated stock.  It took all of 10 minutes to do.
Who the fuck am I?  To donate $50k in one go?  To start a "fund"?  To work tax laws to my advantage?  This is all new to me.
Yes, feeling pretty rich.

[SwordGuy]

... Yesterday I started a donor advised fund and seeded it with $50k of appreciated stock.  It took all of 10 minutes to do.
Who the fuck am I?  To donate $50k in one go?  To start a "fund"?  To work tax laws to my advantage?  This is all new to me.
Yes, feeling pretty rich.

Good for you!   Feels great, doesn't it!

We've now budgeted $14,300 to charity for next year.  It will be $16,100 if the $600/person covid package goes thru.    Probably end up that high anyway.

Crazy, isn't it?

Back in 1982 when I moved in with my soon-to-be wife (or so I hoped), we had almost nothing.  Net worth was in the $0 to $2,000 range.   

Took 6 years to get to middle class and then income skyrocketed after that because (a) I got lucky in the career I stumbled into by accident and happenstance and (b) we got lucky we weren't horribly ill or injured and (c) we both worked damn hard at it.

[Bateaux]

I'm on the third night shift of a seven night stretch.  Guys are all giddy that are working Christmas Eve and Christmas with me.  Why?  Holiday pay overtime!  I'm like WTF?  Yes I'll see it in my paycheck, but that amount is noise in my daily swings of net worth.  But then people unfortunately need the hopefully $2000 Covid relief checks coming their way to keep the lights on.  We are truly fortunate.

[Taran Wanderer]

We didn’t get the first Covid relief payment. I’m fairly sure we won’t get the second. Not too worried about it either way.

[Bateaux]

We didn’t get the first Covid relief payment. I’m fairly sure we won’t get the second. Not too worried about it either way.

We'll miss the cutoff for the checks most likely.  My grown kids will get them.

[Dicey]

We didn’t get the first Covid relief payment. I’m fairly sure we won’t get the second. Not too worried about it either way.

We'll miss the cutoff for the checks most likely.  My grown kids will get them.

We had a huge income bump in 2019. We hadn't filed our taxes yet, so we got the first stimulus check. Now that our returns have been filed, we're not going to qualify for round two, even though our 2020 income is back to normal this year. That is an MPP for sure.

+2 on the DAF. I've bumped the food bank donations significantly m and watched the remaining balance continue to grow. That's Mustachian People Fun (MPF), pandemic style. I have some highly appreciated stock that I'm waiting until next year to convert. The anticipation is thrilling, lol.

[pecunia]

I won't get it either.  I paid a lot of taxes last year.  If my tax dollars go to help people unemployed due to Covid put food on the table for them and their kids, that is good.  It's better than the war thing they seem to be so into.

[Much Fishing to Do]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

I’m with Blue House.  I have felt “holy crap, I’m rich” since about 2004, when it was actually holy crap I’m going to be rich.  It’s more so now when I look at what my balances are doing with me basically doing nothing and I’m gobsmacked.

Another vote for giddy rich. Yes, we still choose to have a roommate, drive one, old car and rarely eat out, but dang if we didn't give away gobs of money and makes some lonely people very happy with reminders that we care. 1800flowers ain't cheap, but getting a phone call from my widowed aunt because she was so overjoyed by the gesture was priceless.

Same.  Yesterday I started a donor advised fund and seeded it with $50k of appreciated stock.  It took all of 10 minutes to do.
Who the fuck am I?  To donate $50k in one go?  To start a "fund"?  To work tax laws to my advantage?  This is all new to me.
Yes, feeling pretty rich.

Yep, a DAF was one of the best moves I made, donated $100k during an unusually huge year for my business and between the deduction during that huge year and tossing away those gains on the appreciated stock I used it basically only cost me 50k.  I'll use this for most of giving during our RE years when the charitable deduction will probably be worthless to me anyway.

[brooklynmoney]

I know what it means to not feel rich. I’m basically on this thread in term of my liquid investments and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have never lived in anything larger. Well my condo has a small den like room haha.

Huh.  I feel rich.  I open up my spreadsheet and get giddy and then start whispering to myself "holy crap, I'm rich!".  Of course, I don't feel rich enough to stop working, but I see all those zeroes on my accounts and am astounded because I just never thought I'd be here.  I feel so so so fortunate, but I also feel RICH RICH RICH!!!

I’m with Blue House.  I have felt “holy crap, I’m rich” since about 2004, when it was actually holy crap I’m going to be rich.  It’s more so now when I look at what my balances are doing with me basically doing nothing and I’m gobsmacked.

Another vote for giddy rich. Yes, we still choose to have a roommate, drive one, old car and rarely eat out, but dang if we didn't give away gobs of money and makes some lonely people very happy with reminders that we care. 1800flowers ain't cheap, but getting a phone call from my widowed aunt because she was so overjoyed by the gesture was priceless.

Same.  Yesterday I started a donor advised fund and seeded it with $50k of appreciated stock.  It took all of 10 minutes to do.
Who the fuck am I?  To donate $50k in one go?  To start a "fund"?  To work tax laws to my advantage?  This is all new to me.
Yes, feeling pretty rich.

I meant it more from a stealth wealth perspective. From the outside you would never know. But I have  the same sense of wonder when I look at my net worth. But then I feel weird about it and just go on with life.

[dacalo]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

[Fomerly known as something]

I'm on the third night shift of a seven night stretch.  Guys are all giddy that are working Christmas Eve and Christmas with me.  Why?  Holiday pay overtime!  I'm like WTF?  Yes I'll see it in my paycheck, but that amount is noise in my daily swings of net worth.  But then people unfortunately need the hopefully $2000 Covid relief checks coming their way to keep the lights on.  We are truly fortunate.

Same here, working 12s until “next” year.  But I’m on a day shift.  3 holidays plus 2 days off in addition to an extra 4 hours every day. 

[Fomerly known as something]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

[BECABECA]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

And since you don’t need a donation receipt because you already claimed the tax break when you transferred it to the DAF originally, you can give anonymously and stay off all the mailing lists.

MPP: I think we will end up with less money left at end of life to go to charities if we start doing roth conversions (since it’s not looking like we are going to need any funds from our traditional retirement accounts to live on). I think the way to go might be to designate charities as the traditional IRA beneficiary so it all goes tax free. And apparently up to 100k of required minimum distributions can be donated tax free each year once RMDs kick in at 72.

[SwordGuy]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

And since you don’t need a donation receipt because you already claimed the tax break when you transferred it to the DAF originally, you can give anonymously and stay off all the mailing lists.

If you get audited, wouldn't those donation receipts be pretty important in establishing you didn't give it to yourself?

[Dicey]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

And since you don’t need a donation receipt because you already claimed the tax break when you transferred it to the DAF originally, you can give anonymously and stay off all the mailing lists.

If you get audited, wouldn't those donation receipts be pretty important in establishing you didn't give it to yourself?

No. You can't give it to yourself. The whole giving process is simple and streamlined, and it leaves a lovely paper trail. My favorite parts of a DAF are watching the remaining balance grow and having a complete history of my charitable giving. It really is a mustachian kind of fun.

[BECABECA]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

And since you don’t need a donation receipt because you already claimed the tax break when you transferred it to the DAF originally, you can give anonymously and stay off all the mailing lists.

If you get audited, wouldn't those donation receipts be pretty important in establishing you didn't give it to yourself?

No. You can't give it to yourself. The whole giving process is simple and streamlined, and it leaves a lovely paper trail. My favorite parts of a DAF are watching the remaining balance grow and having a complete history of my charitable giving. It really is a mustachian kind of fun.

Right, once it’s in the DAF, it’s technically not your money anymore. You only need the receipt for the initial transfer to the DAF for an audit. You can’t get the DAF administrator to make a disbursement to yourself or any non-charity organization. You (the “donor”) are just “advising” them on where you’d like them to donate the money.

[Much Fishing to Do]

DAF? Great suggestion. Once our situation is more clear, wife and I talked about giving more (both financially and time wise).

What’s great is once it’s in there I find it makes it easier to give.  I can’t use that money for anything else.

And since you don’t need a donation receipt because you already claimed the tax break when you transferred it to the DAF originally, you can give anonymously and stay off all the mailing lists.

If you get audited, wouldn't those donation receipts be pretty important in establishing you didn't give it to yourself?

No. You can't give it to yourself. The whole giving process is simple and streamlined, and it leaves a lovely paper trail. My favorite parts of a DAF are watching the remaining balance grow and having a complete history of my charitable giving. It really is a mustachian kind of fun.

Right, once it’s in the DAF, it’s technically not your money anymore. You only need the receipt for the initial transfer to the DAF for an audit. You can’t get the DAF administrator to make a disbursement to yourself or any non-charity organization. You (the “donor”) are just “advising” them on where you’d like them to donate the money.

That's right, I was actually unaware it was like this when I first looked into it.  I assumed it would work like contributing to a 529 where you stayed the owner, and you could cut yourself or another a check that you would then have to make sure follows the rules (and have evidence to that fact) or you would owe taxes/penalties.  But its much much easier than that, you no longer own the money, can't get it back, and its administered by someone else (like Vanguard), so its totally care-free.  Beyond just making for a easy way to take advantage of a huge deduction in a high income year, for anyone thinking of setting up a foundation or the like that is really just gonna give money away over time to other charities this is the zero headache path. 

[farmecologist]

Tallying up our expenses for the year (we live in an inner suburb of New York City in New Jersey)

Home(property tax, insurance, maintenance): 23300
Food: 10000
Car (Insurance, maintenance, fuel): 8700
Utilities + Internet + Phone: 10000
Gardening + maid:   6100
Entertainment (mostly online subscriptions): 3000
Clothing: 2000
Fitness: 4000
Hobbies: 1000
Travel: 5000
   
Total   73100

Clothing and commute expenses were lower than usual. But commute expenses will be zero for me in the future! Travel was not much either, mostly one road trip and a couple of family related trips I had to make./

23K for home related stuff..*not* including mortgage?  I'm assuming most of it is property taxes?  If so, I've heard that prop taxes are insane out east...but that is just...insane.  :-)  Of course, you didn't point out how large your house is....the 'gardening plus maid' makes me wonder...haha.

[tooqk4u22]

The I feel/don't feel rich comments are a weird feelings.   I know I am rich, by virtue of being in this thread automatically makes you/me rich by definition.   On the other hand as others have said I live in a nice but modest house (certainly relative to NW) but is average for my area, I drive a 14 year old car that has some dings and bruises and many people say I should get a new one (but it only has 100k miles and fits me like a glove), I have 3 kids that are in a variety of expensive activities that sometimes makes the cash flow seem like its not enough (btw it is and was always part of the budget), and we have many friends that are high earners and spenders with all the fanciness that that affords - so sometimes we can feel not rich but we know we are.   

One thing that did contribute to me not feeling rich was the forces of comparison as it related to my job when I had it as my clients were extremely HNW - most were worth more than $50mil and had a couple billionaires, the ones that had $10mil were viewed as "poor" or "inadequate"....to think $10mil as inadequate....hahahaha. 

But it feels very fortunate to be able to meet the expression of "You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want?"  The second part of that though is what keep so many on the treadmill.   

A thing that achieving high income and high worth has robbed me of is the joy I used to get in high school when I would get my paltry paycheck from my part time job - I was always excited and felt rich on pay day. 

[lhamo]

The amount people pay in property taxes in some places astounds me.

Because we have a low on-paper income (currently living primarily off savings) and SO now is old enough to apply for the senior citizen tax exemption we were able to drop our property tax bill from over 8k to just under 2.5k.  On a house valued at around 1 mill.   Nice perk if you qualify and it isn't that hard since they raised the limit -- discounts start at just over 58k of annual household income (65% of the county median income), used to be just 40k.

[2sk22]

Tallying up our expenses for the year (we live in an inner suburb of New York City in New Jersey)

Home(property tax, insurance, maintenance): 23300
Food: 10000
Car (Insurance, maintenance, fuel): 8700
Utilities + Internet + Phone: 10000
Gardening + maid:   6100
Entertainment (mostly online subscriptions): 3000
Clothing: 2000
Fitness: 4000
Hobbies: 1000
Travel: 5000
   
Total   73100

Clothing and commute expenses were lower than usual. But commute expenses will be zero for me in the future! Travel was not much either, mostly one road trip and a couple of family related trips I had to make./

23K for home related stuff..*not* including mortgage?  I'm assuming most of it is property taxes?  If so, I've heard that prop taxes are insane out east...but that is just...insane.  :-)  Of course, you didn't point out how large your house is....the 'gardening plus maid' makes me wonder...haha.

Heh - Chez 2sk22 is about 2500 square feet and our entire plot is 75 ft by 100ft. Truly we belong on the "the lifestyles of the rich and famous" :-)

We don't have a mortgage - paid it off a few years ago. Property tax is undoubtedly high compared to most of the country but we can afford it without any problem. The way I see it, the whole point of FATFire is to be able to live wherever I want. Schools are great and I love the location. I can see the tips of the new supertall buildings in Manhattan from my house and yet its really quiet in my neighborhood.

[JoJoP]

Haha yeah and that $20k is roughly what we pull from our investments for an entire YEAR of spending..

The farrier was over a couple of weeks back and in the time she took to trim the horse's feet (about an hour) I had made roughly $10k..:)

It really is hard to remain quite so uptight about money beyond $2M saved.

Sounds like you should buy some more horses!  ;)

Ha ha.  Here's an old joke: 
Q: " What's the best way to make a small  fortune in horses?"
A: "Start out with a large fortune!"

Horse poor is a common state of affairs.  In spite of my Mustachian ways, I'd say that my horses have reduced my NW by at least 1MM over my lifetime.  It's an expensive passion.

[BlueHouse]

2020 wasn't all bad.  I'm looking at DAFs now to figure out how to share some of my riches.

12/29/2019    $1,831,601
1/30/2020    $1,976,480
2/19/2020    $2,016,318
3/5/2020    $1,899,966
4/6/2020    $1,632,518
5/19/2020    $1,855,858
6/29/2020    $1,955,450
7/15/2020    $2,083,885
8/27/2020    $2,185,125
9/27/2020    $2,164,086
10/29/2020    $2,230,486
11/27/2020    $2,387,808
12/31/2020    $2,484,749

[Fomerly known as something]

Hello you people, I said I hoped to be able to “officially” be here in 2021, but even without being able to see my TSP until tomorrow I am at $2,003,xxx today.  I now longer count my pension with fuzzy math to get me here, but I do count the ~29k I would get if I “cashed out” my pension.

[rmorris50]

Hello you people, I said I hoped to be able to “officially” be here in 2021, but even without being able to see my TSP until tomorrow I am at $2,003,xxx today.  I now longer count my pension with fuzzy math to get me here, but I do count the ~29k I would get if I “cashed out” my pension.

Congrats, welcome to the club! I count my lump sum pension as well in my NW.

Stock market up yet again, how long can it go...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Exflyboy]

Hello you people, I said I hoped to be able to “officially” be here in 2021, but even without being able to see my TSP until tomorrow I am at $2,003,xxx today.  I now longer count my pension with fuzzy math to get me here, but I do count the ~29k I would get if I “cashed out” my pension.

Nice.. I too have noticed I no longer count the "value" of our pensions or the value of the house now that wealth has increased..:)