Just calculated my/our net worth for the first time at 32 y/o

[deek]

Just feeling good about this, and open to hearing more tips or words of encouragement for the path forward.

Currently sitting at about $220k, and I can't be more proud of myself and my wife. We're not event sure if we want to RE in the future, but are just focused on FI. These last several years have really flown by, but in early 2018, I had basically no money to my name, and a student loan. I'm talking I secured a 16.50/hr job when my checking was literally at about $30 (26 years old). This was after moving back from Oregon after 10 months (forced myself to get out of my comfort zone).

Since then, I've learned how to take action to earn higher pay, vouch for myself, and take calculated risks.

What really helped me take off was when I started buying and selling sports card at the height of the hobby (during covid). I was educated about it, but I was also lucky. Those activities have all but stopped as that market has been cool for quite awhile. This allowed me to pour funds into Vanguard and build up savings while I was re-investing a little back into that hobby.

The rest is really history, my money has been working for me, and I've simplified my strategy. I only carry a $15k balance on my student loan as my only debt, and my wife is debt free. I can thank this place for a lot of the things I've learned about how to manage money and job hop when necessary.

I'm really excited for what the future holds. I'm not going to wish away time, but I'm really excited to see where we're at 5 years down the road and how much fun we'll be having as a family.

Lastly, this has got me thinking about the things I want to focus on when I'm FI. They are as follows:
- Love my wife and future children more than ever (I love my wife now, chill ;p)
- Play lots of golf
- Stay fit
- Explore the world
- Learn the keyboard/piano (specifically blues and rock)

CHEERS

[Ron Scott]

No debt is nice. FI should be a major goal. Family first. RE? Optional.

[hernandz]

I attribute a lot of our current financial success to finding blogs where they tracked and periodically revealed their net worth numbers.  Budgets are sexy not only revealed his own net worth on a monthly basis, but grew to have a list of other PF blogs that revealed their numbers. 

I started keeping my own net worth spreadsheet late in 2011 (me age 45, hubby 55).  Back then, I calculated our net worth was $245K .  Hubby and I were DINKs in a HCL area, with plans to each retire at around age 62, with some modest post-FIRE travel plans, along with some parental caretaking expectations.   Our house came with a long commute, but was small enough for me and in an environment my husband loved and I liked. 

By late 2014, we were no longer underwater with the house/mortgage, and my husband retired with a disability pension and RRB benefits (much like Social Security).  The net worth number was then $460K.  We were extremely lucky that my paycheck and his retirement income was more than sufficient for our lifestyle -- so we could keep saving and didn't have to touch the already-accumulated assets.  In March 2020, just as the first cases of COVID were becoming news, our net worth was estimated at $1M. For April 2024, I estimate our NW at $1.9M.

My spreadsheet is 100% homemade. The data sheet has all my monthly updates on a single tab. I've added and subtracted rows as our assets change. Every January, I make a copy and archive the old file.  This allows me to keep all my history in the file, while not worrying too much about file corruption.  Besides the "data" tab, I have tabs that help calculate my FIRE number and show a graphic progress line of our retirement account

[stealthwealth]

Just feeling good about this, and open to hearing more tips or words of encouragement for the path forward.

Currently sitting at about $220k, and I can't be more proud of myself and my wife. We're not event sure if we want to RE in the future, but are just focused on FI. These last several years have really flown by, but in early 2018, I had basically no money to my name, and a student loan. I'm talking I secured a 16.50/hr job when my checking was literally at about $30 (26 years old). This was after moving back from Oregon after 10 months (forced myself to get out of my comfort zone).

Since then, I've learned how to take action to earn higher pay, vouch for myself, and take calculated risks.

What really helped me take off was when I started buying and selling sports card at the height of the hobby (during covid). I was educated about it, but I was also lucky. Those activities have all but stopped as that market has been cool for quite awhile. This allowed me to pour funds into Vanguard and build up savings while I was re-investing a little back into that hobby.

The rest is really history, my money has been working for me, and I've simplified my strategy. I only carry a $15k balance on my student loan as my only debt, and my wife is debt free. I can thank this place for a lot of the things I've learned about how to manage money and job hop when necessary.

I'm really excited for what the future holds. I'm not going to wish away time, but I'm really excited to see where we're at 5 years down the road and how much fun we'll be having as a family.

Lastly, this has got me thinking about the things I want to focus on when I'm FI. They are as follows:
- Love my wife and future children more than ever (I love my wife now, chill ;p)
- Play lots of golf
- Stay fit
- Explore the world
- Learn the keyboard/piano (specifically blues and rock)

CHEERS

Congratulations on a good start getting your thinking around money right.  You started out in almost exactly the same financial position I was in at your age about 20 years ago.  Depending on yours and your wife's salaries and spending habits down the road, you could very realistically find yourself in a similar position to where we are today, which is about $2.5M net worth, $2.2M invested assets/$300k house (in the midwest, mostly paid off).  I'm looking at 2025 due to a significant stock award vesting schedule, but we're basically FI currently, and could be RE except for the vesting, and my wife really likes a new job. 

[LD_TAndK]

Nice, at 220k, if invested, you'll start to feel your money working for you.

Even if you never contribute another dollar to retirement, you'd still have a nice retirement stash at 62!

[Gone Fishing]

Nice. As long as you keep an eye on lifestyle creep, your net worth growth rate should only accelerate over time.

[deek]

@Gone Fishing Definitely aware of the creep potential. We've talked about it together and have prioritized short monthly meetings to look into finances and set little and big goals. Neither of us have ever been material people and I'm thankful for that.