Race from 500k to 1M!

[Acorns]

End of 2007: $71,000
...
2015: $644,000
2016: $740,000.

Not bad! A increase of $95,000 in investable assets over last year. I suspect this next year might have a rise in expenses, but I am hoping to cross the $1M threshhold by 2020.

[onlykelsey]

Alright! I am (technically, barely) here. Picking up the 500K --> 1M thread calculated on overall net worth (including my condo and associated debts).  Tracking invested assets elsewhere.  I've reproduced my history in the 250K --> 500K thread below.  Hopefully the market won't pitch me back below 500K before the end of the month, especially since I'm going out on maternity leave and have a several thousand dollar payment to a cabinetmaker coming up....

As a reminder mostly to myself, in this thread I am tracking personal assets (not shared or soon-to-be kid's college savings) using personalcapital.

December 2013: 142K
March 2014: 178K
June 2014: 191K
September 2014: 205K
December 2014: 231K
March 2015: 232K (I self financed half a wedding this quarter, and began subsidizing now husband)
June 2015: 249K
September 2015: 272K (a new~30K in debt showed in this quarter from the first half of a 60K roof assessment I didn't have cash on hand for)
December 2015: 326K
March 2016: 342K
June 2016: 389K
September 2016: 457K (began booking a 4540K "liability" that I would incur if I wanted to liquidate my condo, which I include in this NW total)
December 2016: 511K (+185K year on year)

Bookmarking, hope to see you in a year or 15 months or so!

Or possibly late this year, at this rate.  Come on, market!

[onlykelsey]

Exciting, ClosertoFree.  Having crazy earnings obviously moves things along. I just found MMM a year ago, and am up 185K in my first year. 

It's crazy how many of my law school friends (we're five years out) are squandering it.  Are you both lawyers?

[CloserToFree]

I know, right, onlykelsey?! It's really shocking.  I've seen several of my (lawyer) friends buy $1.5+ million houses this past year and I continue to be surprised they are buying into the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality.  And these aren't even the more materialistic friends- it's just people who think, "I'm a successful attorney and my spouse is a successful professional and we are starting a family so of course we need/deserve/can afford a mansion-like 4br house in a swanky neighborhood furnished with all new furniture from Room & Board/ Crate & Barrel/ Pottery Barn." Part of me wants to tell them about MMM/Fire principles but I'm pretty private about our finances and am worried they'd be offended/ would think it's not my business.

Husband is not a lawyer but has a graduate degree and a white collar job.

Good for you for making such awesome progress in year 1!!

[Roboturner]

June 2016:
LNW: 528k

October 2016:
Liquid NW: 652k
Total NW: 845k

YE 2016:
LNW: 685k
TNW: 893k

keep cruisin

[boarder42]

Joining slightly earlier than planned but hit a NW of 500k June 24 2016.  invested at the time was 362k

6/24/16 - 362k / 500k NW
12/1/16 - 404k / 550k NW
1/1/17 - 450k / 600k NW

Should hit 500k invested by June 2017 and 1MM NW by August 2019 and 1MM invested by July 2020.

[catccc]

I'm in the middle here, currently at $712K NW and hoping to hit $1M before August 2019, when I turn 40:

2016 Ending NW $712K
End of year goals for-
2017: $815K
2018: $945K
2019: $1,075K

[Mathew675]

I'm in! Currently at $574 investible assets.

Haven't been adding much lately, but the stock market growth pushed us over $600K. About to really start piling it on this year. Our goal is to get up to $700K before 2018. Good luck all!

[UnleashHell]

Oct 16: 500k
jan 2017: 548k

guess i should join this thread now...

not sure if i'll get to 1m quickly as i'll probably quit work soon but its good to have targets right?

[boarder42]

6/24/16 - 362k / 500k NW
12/1/16 - 404k / 550k NW
1/1/17 - 450k / 600k NW
2/1/17 - 462k / 607k NW

[MayDay]

I am officially a member of this club.  503K as of the end of January.  Between 40 and 6K of that will be going in a house DP sometime this year (hopefully) and won't be liquid, so I have to decide how to count that.  For now its all retirement accounts and brokerage accounts.  Our cars are POS's so I don't assign them a value. 

We doubled from 250 to 500 in 2 years 4 months.  Should be interesting to see how long the next doubling takes. 

[dreams_and_discoveries]

6/24/16 - 362k / 500k NW
12/1/16 - 404k / 550k NW
1/1/17 - 450k / 600k NW
2/1/17 - 462k / 607k NW

Some great jumps there boarder.

I am officially a member of this club.  503K as of the end of January.  Between 40 and 6K of that will be going in a house DP sometime this year (hopefully) and won't be liquid, so I have to decide how to count that.  For now its all retirement accounts and brokerage accounts.  Our cars are POS's so I don't assign them a value. 

We doubled from 250 to 500 in 2 years 4 months.  Should be interesting to see how long the next doubling takes. 

Welcome, congrats on your 500k.

[boarder42]

6/24/16 - 362k / 500k NW
12/1/16 - 404k / 550k NW
1/1/17 - 450k / 600k NW
2/1/17 - 462k / 607k NW

Some great jumps there boarder.

Yeah i get my huge bonus(read: deferred salary) in Dec.  its over 20% of my gross pay now and will climb to 30-50% depending on performance over the next few years. Plus we get company ESOP cash contribution every december - plus my parents transfer wealth ... so between all of that plus the trump rally it did pretty well.  I always have slower growth this time of year as i hold cash out of traditional investments to buy opening day tickets which i sell for around 100% profit ... havent found an index fund that will do that for me yet.  haha.

[ObsessedFIer]

First post here! Long time MMM reader (since I was 23 or so, I just turned 28 last month) and I've just hit the $500k milestone. My mindset changed when I read the books "Your Money Or Your Life" and "The Millionaire Next Door". I was always very savvy and frugal with money but these had a profound impact on me. Seeing the reality of who has money vs. who doesn't and also what you're giving up by spending on material objects was enlightening. I'm content with very little, my old car and basic items make me happy. No debt and all of my investments are through vanguard index funds :) JLCollins showed me the light...really looking forward to $1M.

On to the numbers:

1/2017: $502,338

[Roots&Wings]

^ Nice! Welcome to the forum and congrats on being off to such an amazing, early start :)

And great progress everyone!

[Trifle]

Count me in!  We are at $570k invested assets, ~$850k NW including house equity.   Cannot wait to hit a million!  I guess we will celebrate it twice-- when the NW crosses, and then when the invested assets go over.  Yay!

[dreams_and_discoveries]

Count me in!  We are at $570k invested assets, ~$850k NW including house equity.   Cannot wait to hit a million!  I guess we will celebrate it twice-- when the NW crosses, and then when the invested assets go over.  Yay!

I'm with you for a double celebration :)

[Cooper62]

So excited!  I checked my 401k balance and it hit $500,000 today.  If I add in equity in my house, emergency funds and 529s for two kids I'm around $650,000.
I don't really consider the home equity, savings and 529s as part of my retirement funds though so in my mind I'm just starting this phase.  Wish I'd learned or thought about MMM lifestyle earlier as I'm in late 40s and two coming up on college.  The good thing is we don't have any debt other then the mortgage.  It will be a challenge get the savings levels up to what many here are at as we'd like to help with a lot of college costs.  However, I'm thinking in a different way about money after reading the MMM forums often so challenging myself to see what costs we can cut to up the savings to get to $1 million faster.  I used to really enjoy my job but after going through a merger the new company just isn't the same and want to leave the workforce earlier than originally planned.

[DailyGrindFree]

Date             Net Worth
06/19/2016   $480,510
07/09/2016   $490,393
08/06/2016   $494,437
09/05/2016   $498,539
10/05/2016   $503,766
11/04/2016   $501,749
12/05/2016   $512,731
01/05/2017   $518,988
02/04/2017   $527,725

Roughly about $200K is house equity. Rest is in investments and cash.

[BeanCounter]

As of today we are at $820k invested assets and cash (probably too much cash). NW is $878k. We both turn 40 this year.
I'm curious if we'll hit $1M in 2018 or 2019. We have been saving about $70k-$100k per year but I've really got the itch to do some expensive home renovations.
I've noticed that as the balance creeps up it gets harder to have the motivation to save on the little things and not spend money.

[Trifle]

Ok, I just realized yesterday that I have never included the kids' 529 accounts in my NW calculation.  Not sure if I really should be including that, but if I do we are just over $1M!  I am shocked to write that.  It doesn't feel real.

I'm definitely staying here in this group for a while.  I'll wait til our invested assets plus house are over $1M (next year) before I 'graduate' up to the next thread.  :) 

This is fun.   We get to celebrate multiple times, depending on how we are measuring.   

[Roots&Wings]

^ Congrats Trifele!!! Multiple celebrations are totally okay :)

[MrGreg]

I am inching toward the 1M benchmark and am presently at about 963K including home equity.

However, I have a significantly leveraged portfolio in equities (borrowing a little less than 200K) so a downturn in the market could push me back considerably.  Further, I have various ongoing cash investment obligations that are going to take about 3 years to pay off before I can fully deploy FIRE mode.

[boarder42]

12/1/16 - 404k / 550k networth
1/1/17 - 450k / 600k NW
2/1/17 - 461k / 607k NW
3/1/17 - 479k / 628k NW

Probably about 20k higher in both categories right now but waiting on private stock evaluation and have some investments in opening day baseball tickets that havent been sold yet. and dont appear in networth calcs.

[ObsessedFIer]

First post here! Long time MMM reader (since I was 23 or so, I just turned 28 last month) and I've just hit the $500k milestone. My mindset changed when I read the books "Your Money Or Your Life" and "The Millionaire Next Door". I was always very savvy and frugal with money but these had a profound impact on me. Seeing the reality of who has money vs. who doesn't and also what you're giving up by spending on material objects was enlightening. I'm content with very little, my old car and basic items make me happy. No debt and all of my investments are through vanguard index funds :) JLCollins showed me the light...really looking forward to $1M.

On to the numbers:

1/2017: $502,338

I've been looking forward to updating this, what an amazing month it has been! I am so excited about the future, regardless of how far out my FI date is. I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel and I have FU money to protect my wellbeing until that day.

1/2017: $502,338
2/2017: $536,490

1-Month Increase: $34,152

[Trifle]

Congratulations Obsessed!!  You are doing GREAT!  Wow. 

[BeanCounter]

This market is making this crazy. I hope continues. Or maybe backs off a little so I can invest some cash I have on hand.

Investments as of 3/1/2017-             $832,402
Plus kids 529's (which I forgot about  $34,352
Equity in house (conservative est)      $50,000
HRA balance                                     $5,200
Savings account                                $9,000
Total  Net worth                           $930,954     

I'm going for three celebrations- 1) when total NW hits $1M, 2)when investments hit $1M, 3)when investments hit $1.5 and we're officially FI

[Libertea]

Ok, I just realized yesterday that I have never included the kids' 529 accounts in my NW calculation.  Not sure if I really should be including that, but if I do we are just over $1M!  I am shocked to write that.  It doesn't feel real.   

No, I wouldn't count the kids' 529 accounts as part of your stash since it's not earmarked toward your own retirement.  In fact, to make this reasoning even more obvious, consider my situation: I'm single with no kids, but I'm funding college accounts for my niece and nephew.  I think most people would agree that this 529 money is clearly not an asset of MINE, even though technically I have full control over the kids' college accounts just as their parents would if their parents were the ones funding the accounts.  In fact, I consider my 529 contributions to be monthly expenses, not savings.  Because from my perspective as an aunt, that's exactly what they are.

[Trifle]

Ok, I just realized yesterday that I have never included the kids' 529 accounts in my NW calculation.  Not sure if I really should be including that, but if I do we are just over $1M!  I am shocked to write that.  It doesn't feel real.   

No, I wouldn't count the kids' 529 accounts as part of your stash since it's not earmarked toward your own retirement. 

Fair point Libertea -- I think you are right.  The 529 contributions are pre-paid expenses. 

OK, so without the 529s, we are at 902k between invested assets and house equity. :) 

[DailyGrindFree]

Ok, I just realized yesterday that I have never included the kids' 529 accounts in my NW calculation.  Not sure if I really should be including that, but if I do we are just over $1M!  I am shocked to write that.  It doesn't feel real.   

No, I wouldn't count the kids' 529 accounts as part of your stash since it's not earmarked toward your own retirement. 

Fair point Libertea -- I think you are right.  The 529 contributions are pre-paid expenses. 

OK, so without the 529s, we are at 902k between invested assets and house equity. :)

Why wouldn't you include 529? It is still an investment account. You don't know if you are going to use it for college or not. Your kids may have full scholarships. Then it becomes investment, right?

What about this scenario? You could invest all your money in a taxable account with a possibility of using it for college if needed. Then you would include it in your net worth. For those reasons, I include 529 in my Net Worth.

[Trifle]

That's also a fair point, Daily Grind.  I'm not an accountant, but it seems like you can make the argument either way, depending on what your Plan B is if your kid doesn't end up using the money.  Would you take the money back for yourselves, paying the penalty?  Or would you then pass it to another kid or family member? 

[BeanCounter]

Ok, I just realized yesterday that I have never included the kids' 529 accounts in my NW calculation.  Not sure if I really should be including that, but if I do we are just over $1M!  I am shocked to write that.  It doesn't feel real.   

No, I wouldn't count the kids' 529 accounts as part of your stash since it's not earmarked toward your own retirement. 

Fair point Libertea -- I think you are right.  The 529 contributions are pre-paid expenses. 

OK, so without the 529s, we are at 902k between invested assets and house equity. :)

Why wouldn't you include 529? It is still an investment account. You don't know if you are going to use it for college or not. Your kids may have full scholarships. Then it becomes investment, right?

What about this scenario? You could invest all your money in a taxable account with a possibility of using it for college if needed. Then you would include it in your net worth. For those reasons, I include 529 in my Net Worth.

It just depends on what your plans on before or during retirement.
If you  are planning to retire before or while you have kids in college then you are using the 529 plans to pay for tuition costs that would be part of your annual expenses to be funded out of your other investments. Just a different pot of money.
Your home equity probably should be included unless you are planning to sell your home before retirement or unless you can refinance and access the money. Otherwise you are not going to be able to draw 4% of the value.

[CloserToFree]

First post here! Long time MMM reader (since I was 23 or so, I just turned 28 last month) and I've just hit the $500k milestone. My mindset changed when I read the books "Your Money Or Your Life" and "The Millionaire Next Door". I was always very savvy and frugal with money but these had a profound impact on me. Seeing the reality of who has money vs. who doesn't and also what you're giving up by spending on material objects was enlightening. I'm content with very little, my old car and basic items make me happy. No debt and all of my investments are through vanguard index funds :) JLCollins showed me the light...really looking forward to $1M.

On to the numbers:

1/2017: $502,338

Obsessed, major hats off to you for getting to 500K at such a young age!! That's awesome.  I wish I had found MMM when I was in my early 20s rather than early 30s!

[benSquared]

Good luck all!   I am giving everything I've got to this race.  It has been a long, long battle.  Quit my job and moved overseas without a job for two years just months before 2008 crash... bad timing (but I didn't touch my investments).  Marriage, two kids, buying/renting/selling houses along the way as a result of having to change jobs and location frequently.  Worked at a startup that stopped paying me for 6 months - but thankfully have mostly recovered that backpay.  Now renting, zero debt, at a stable job and trying to lock in efforts to drive down spending and plan the escape!  Working moonlight hours to make another run at a web service for additional revenue stream. 

Jan 2017  $588k NW 
Feb 2017  $624k NW  (backpay catch-up)
Mar 2017  $647k NW  (backpay catch-up)

Jan 2018  $750k  projected
Jan 2019  $870k  projected
Jan 2020  $1M  projected

Perhaps this graph will give a better sense of my trials and tribulations.  :-)

[onlykelsey]

As a reminder mostly to myself, in this thread I am tracking personal assets (not shared or soon-to-be kid's college savings) using personalcapital.

December 2013: 142K
March 2014: 178K
June 2014: 191K
September 2014: 205K
December 2014: 231K
March 2015: 232K (I self financed half a wedding this quarter, and began subsidizing now husband)
June 2015: 249K
September 2015: 272K (a new~30K in debt showed in this quarter from the first half of a 60K roof assessment I didn't have cash on hand for)
December 2015: 326K
March 2016: 342K
June 2016: 389K
September 2016: 457K (began booking a 4540K "liability" that I would incur if I wanted to liquidate my condo, which I include in this NW total)
December 2016: 511K (+185K year on year)

March 2017: 599K (I am guessing on numbers for the end of the month, but should be +/- 2K, +142K year on year)

I am towards the end of maternity leave.  I am sure the saving/investing pace won't keep up when I start paying daycare (and maybe working a 70 or 80% schedule for a couple months), but not too bad for being off work!

[FireHiker]

I think this is the NW race where I belong, since I don't count our primary residence equity in the equation (We tentatively plan to use that for our retirement home purchase and college for the younger two...our equity is $523k currently).

We crossed the $500k line in October of 2015, for net worth not including our house. It is currently $667k. I do not include our HSA in the total because it doesn't have much in it yet, I have kids who play sports, and our insurance sucks. According to my calculations, we SHOULD cross the 1M mark by the end of 2019. We have been making a number of frugal changes in our lives recently, so I'm hopeful we can bring that date in.

[caracarn]

I'm happy to move over to this "race"!  Just crossed over $500K this quarter. 

Here's my progress thus far:

1/1/2015 - $319,018
3/31/2015 - $358,647
6/30/2015 - $350,887
9/30/2015 - $329,044
12/31/2015 - $340,246
3/31/2016 - $390,030
6/30/2016 - $408.983
9/1/2016 - $447,834
12/31/2016 - $459,043
3/31/2017 - $509,618

Our goal to retire on is $1,000,000 but will need to get to about $1,200,000 first because we want to be done with the mortgage before we call it quits.  Pretty sure we will not be able to keep up the pace as kid's college will be chewing into things for the next 10 years or so, but always good to measure.  Glad to be here!

[Roboturner]

June 2016:
LNW: 528k

October 2016:
Liquid NW: 652k
Total NW: 845k

YE 2016:
LNW: 685k
TNW: 893k

Q1 2017:
LNW: 800k
TNW: 1.01MM

WHOOP! passed the first hurdle - now just need the LNW up - hopefully around this time next year!

[sw1tch]

I'm jumping into this race:

3/2017 - 515,000
4/2017 - 524,000

More to come!

[Chairman]

Joining the club. Currently about 720k investible, 200k owed on mortgage, about 250k home equity. Not sure when/if I'll get to 1m; may semi-FIRE before then.

[Roots&Wings]

Q1 2017:
LNW: 800k
TNW: 1.01MM

WHOOP! passed the first hurdle - now just need the LNW up - hopefully around this time next year!

Congrats Roboturner!!! Awesome progress and looks like you'll soon be celebrating the LNW milestone too :)

Good luck all, keep on going...

[fidreamer]

I'm joining too!  I am not including house or 529's.  Just focused on investments and a little cash which is at around $871,000.  Trying to climb the mountain to 1 million.  Maybe in 2019.  Every purchase is weighed against this goal.  We are all doing amazing things.  It's exciting!

[dreams_and_discoveries]

I'm joining too!  I am not including house or 529's.  Just focused on investments and a little cash which is at around $871,000.  Trying to climb the mountain to 1 million.  Maybe in 2019.  Every purchase is weighed against this goal.  We are all doing amazing things.  It's exciting!

You are close there, keep up the great work.


I also found when I started challenging every purchase in a Marie Kondo type way (does this bring me value/happiness), my spending decreased.

[DailyGrindFree]

Date             Net Worth
06/19/2016   $480,510
07/09/2016   $490,393
08/06/2016   $494,437
09/05/2016   $498,539
10/05/2016   $503,766
11/04/2016   $501,749
12/05/2016   $512,731
01/05/2017   $518,988
02/04/2017   $527,725
03/04/2017   $542,234
04/04/2017   $555,085

Roughly about $200K is house equity. Rest is in investments and cash.

[fidreamer]

I'm joining too!  I am not including house or 529's.  Just focused on investments and a little cash which is at around $871,000.  Trying to climb the mountain to 1 million.  Maybe in 2019.  Every purchase is weighed against this goal.  We are all doing amazing things.  It's exciting!

You are close there, keep up the great work.


I also found when I started challenging every purchase in a Marie Kondo type way (does this bring me value/happiness), my spending decreased.

Thank you!  I feel like the closer I get the less I spend!

[asauer]

Yay!  I finally get to join this challenge!  We're right at 500k now and 1M is our ER number, so I'm eager to get started.

[randompants]

We joined the club earlier this year. Market seems very expensive right now so we're holding more than a third in cash. There were a few very large one-time expenses last year that ate up our savings-rate but glad all those are behind us. Hoping to get to 1m by 2020.

Our savings rate is good given that we live in an HLOC area. We splurge on vacation travel here and there -- rationale is that we're happy to pay for experiences we'd most likely be making just once in our lifetime.

[SEAK]

Going to join the fun! The numbers below do not include $65k in kiddos 529s, $150k in home equity, or 20 years service in a state sponsored pension plan.

Jan 1, 2016-   $482k
Jan 1, 2017-   $627k
Apr 23, 2017- $675k

[Roots&Wings]

Updating

April 2016: $500k -----> saved $54.8k (~75% of income), 90/10 allocation
April 2017: $651k

Gain of $23k this past month alone. These insane market returns cannot continue.

[NinetyFour]

My NW is at $662K.  Not sure I will ever hit $1M, but it's nice to think about!  I'm aiming for $800K when I retire in June 2018.

Now up to $709,418.  :)