Poll

How long between entering the workplace to $100,000 Net Worth?

<2 years
17 (8.5%)
2-4 years
71 (35.7%)
4-6 years
46 (23.1%)
6-8 years
35 (17.6%)
8-10 years
12 (6%)
10-12 years
8 (4%)
12-14 years
3 (1.5%)
14-16 years
2 (1%)
16-18 years
1 (0.5%)
>18 years
4 (2%)

Total Members Voted: 193

Author Topic: Time to $100,000 NW  (Read 14516 times)

gecko10x

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Time to $100,000 NW
« on: February 05, 2015, 06:15:24 PM »
This was inspired by the idea that the "1st $100,000 is the hardest".

For the purpose of the poll, define NW however you like.
Edit: As pointed out, accounting for inflation would be best, which I forgot to say. So, try to answer in today's dollars.

My personal preference is: appreciating assets - all liabilities. I don't include SS. I calculate household, not individual.

Hopefully I have enough ranges. We may have had a similar poll before, but I couldn't find it.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2015, 05:05:25 AM by gecko10x »

seattlecyclone

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2015, 07:01:11 PM »
I'm pretty sure it was less than two for me. I snagged enough scholarships and internships to graduate with a positive net worth, got a full-time job in software while spending frugally, and have been building the stash ever since.

kpd905

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2015, 07:10:58 PM »
Well it took me about 1.5 years to hit zero.  Should be a little over 3 years for me to hit $100k.

AllieVaulter

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2015, 07:43:40 PM »
I gotta be honest, I'm not sure!  By the time I joined MMM (and actually started paying attention) I was already past it.  But, I'm guessing it was around 4 years.  It would have been sooner if I hadn't bought a house immediately after I started my job.  :)

nanu

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2015, 07:47:02 PM »
Haven't started a real job yet (still in college), but given current net worth ($65K) and future salary ($105K+bonus), I would deserve a massive face punch if it'll take more than 2 years.

gecko10x

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2015, 07:50:26 PM »
8-10 for us, depending on if you count from me or my wife. Hopefully the next 100 will be much quicker!

Terrestrial

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2015, 08:17:05 PM »
I am surprised to see the overwhelming majority are 4 years or under...well done everyone.  I thought I would be below the average time but as usual on this forum, my savings rates are about par for the course!

skyrefuge

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2015, 08:18:58 PM »
About 3.5 years, starting from ~$9k. But that's 2001 dollars; "$100,000" was a bigger pile in those days of yore. It was more like 2.5 years to get to $100k in 2014 dollars.

Sherry

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2015, 08:20:43 PM »
Damn, that's depressing.  I just entered 8-10 years in the poll, but started when I got my first real job after law school; include all of the years of work in high school and college, and it is much closer to 20 years.  Now I can do it in less than two years.

NumberJohnny5

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2015, 08:51:43 PM »
Since entering the work force, way too long. Quick guesstimate, about 15 years. Since actually trying though? About three years. And I think we're poorer than most here.

deborah

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2015, 10:15:52 PM »
I think it would depend a bit on how long ago you entered the workforce, and whether it was in "today's dollars". Certainly, back when $25,000 was very good money, it took a long time. And at my first job, which paid $25 a week, it took even longer!

capital

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2015, 11:54:50 PM »
Around 3 years. The $30k in debt didn't help.

Lifestyle Deflation

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2015, 12:55:39 AM »
10 years since my "working career" began.

However, 8 of those working years were paycheck-to-paycheck so it's really been about 2 years of active saving to get there.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2015, 06:24:12 AM »
4 years on a $40-50k/yr income, with some stupid mistakes along the way.

Longwaytogo

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2015, 06:31:04 AM »
I put 18> years ):

Though I'm nowhere near 100K yet I have been working for 14 years and I doubt I'll get there in the next 4. Though maybe I could just squeak in if I really kick ass in 2018 after my kids go to school and I can get back to work full time.

Though like others have mentioned I spent most of time paycheck to paycheck, accruing more debt etc. I do believe "the first 100K's the hardest" By the time I get there I will be out of consumer debt, my wife will have a few raises, kids will be in full time public school, etc. I figure/hope by the time I hit 100K it should only be another 7-10 years to FI.

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2015, 06:33:32 AM »
Took me just under seven years: beginning of 2008 to the end of 2014. I was hampered by buying a home in January 2008 (that was a $30,000 loss vs. renting) and I also had $4,000 in student loans and a $5,000 car loan when I graduated. My finances took another hit when I married my wife in 2010 (she had $36,000 in student loan debt). Once all that mess was behind us, it took about 3 years to go from $0 to $120,000.

sleepyguy

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #16 on: February 06, 2015, 08:07:10 AM »
Even though we both started with jobs making about $30-35k/yr we still managed to do it between 2-4yrs.

Really helped we had zero student loan debt (I didn't go to college, she paid her way while going to school).

We jumped on the housing market pretty early and that did help our NW quite a bit.

I would say getting to 100k NW was quite easy for us, getting to 1 Mil will be much more difficult :)

Tabaxus

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2015, 08:42:54 AM »
I started at negative $170k.  If you don't tax adjust my 401(k), I made it to $100k after about 2 years in the workforce.  If you do tax adjust the $401 (which I do), it took 3.  But I started comparatively late (~27).

None of this is house equity unfortunately.  I'm still renting:/
« Last Edit: February 06, 2015, 09:20:33 AM by Tabaxus »

Luck12

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #18 on: February 06, 2015, 08:45:34 AM »
About 5 years thanks to student loans and then having lost a job and being unemployed for 4 months.   Plus it didn't help to start investing in 1999-2000! 

nawhite

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2015, 09:01:45 AM »
Its the starting negative that killed us. Wife and I started at -$180k. About 3 years to get to $0. About 1.5 years to get to $100k from $0. We got REALLY lucky with the timing of buying our house, equity went up $30k in one year which helped a lot. Getting a new job that paid $20k per year more also helped a lot.

Angie55

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2015, 09:05:23 AM »
We started out -242k with auto and student loans. Through 2 bouts of unemployment (mine lasted 2.5 years) it took 7.5 years to reach 100k. Other than the cars which were a dumb mistake, we didn't really blow money at all. Instead unemployment and 4k a month student loan payments made the journey pretty slow.


Meanwhile, I'm projecting we could get to 200k NW by the end of the year! (1.5 yrs from hitting 100k). It sure does get faster.

pdxvandal

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #21 on: February 06, 2015, 09:57:35 AM »
Began career in 1997 with no debt and a 22k salaried job, got a 30k salaried job in 2000, bought a house in 2002 and hit 100k net worth in 2004 ... thanks to massive run-up in housing prices and a generous state retirement program.

So, about 7 years on a $hitty salary and some real estate luck. It took only another 7 years to hit 400k net worth in 2011-12. Keep saving!

MrsSmitty

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #22 on: February 06, 2015, 11:04:41 AM »
Graduated in 2006 with $20K in student loans. Got a car loan shortly after. I started really tracking my finances in January 2009. At that time my net worth was -$11K. It finally got up to +$100K in January 2013 after 6.5 years of working. Granted I was not on the MMM train at all back then. I always paid extra on my loans and put 15% in my 401k starting day 1. But I spent everything else and carried CC debt for years. If I had found the idea of FIRE earlier I could have cut that time down significantly.

iwasjustwondering

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #23 on: February 06, 2015, 12:59:17 PM »
Damn, that's depressing.  I just entered 8-10 years in the poll, but started when I got my first real job after law school; include all of the years of work in high school and college, and it is much closer to 20 years.  Now I can do it in less than two years.

Oh wow, I didn't think about it that way.  I was thinking four years, but I'm only starting from when I actually began saving and living on my own as a divorced woman.  If you count that way, it took me 4 years to get to $100K; 10 years to get to $360K. 

However, if I start from when I graduated from grad school, it's more like, gulp, 20 years.  I didn't even *try* to save money for the first 10 years, though.  It didn't occur to me that such a thing was even possible. 

Abe

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #24 on: February 06, 2015, 07:34:04 PM »
My wife and I had total student loans of:

College - me: $28k her: $0 (full scholarship)
Med School - me: $56k her: $28k (half scholarship)

Total: $112k debt

we paid it off in three years, then had $100k net worth in two years. Two years after that, around $300k. This is on a combined salary of $150k/yr.

Bateaux

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2015, 07:20:34 AM »
I'm guessing with the proliferation of huge mortages and student loans I'd guess many take 10 or more years to get to +$100,000.  Back in our day (80s) I hardly knew anyone with student loans.  Also a 100k home loan would buy a palace.  The housing bubble screwed you young people.   Student loan debt has created unsustainable inflation in the cost of education. You have a steeper hill to climb.  As least those of you here are aware of the challenge.

csr

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2015, 11:23:40 AM »
2 years post graduation working full time @ ~$40-45k, but if you include my entire working history:

- Was working odd jobs before I turned 15 - shoveling snow, helping mom with sewing jobs
- Started working part-time at 15-16 years old putting in close to 20hrs per week all through high school, close to full time hours in the summer starting at @$6.45/hr
- Worked as a T.A. for one semester, part-time assistant/analyst in an administrative office, and orientation leader during university @$11-13/hr
- Worked part time @~11/hr throughout the year during university
- Put in a cumulative 1 year of full time working time through the universities co-op program @$15-$19/hr; graduated debt free $40k tuition paid off (domestic deregulated program rate) at a public Canadian university
- lived at home throughout school and first 2 years entering the workforce
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 11:26:44 AM by csr »

data.Damnation

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2015, 11:47:14 AM »
It took me 7 years to reach $100k net worth. It took me just 18 months to go from $100k to $200k net worth, which I just achieved last Friday :).

NICE!

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2015, 11:59:03 AM »
Apparently I'm a failure...6-8 years and I left college without a negative net worth.

The next 100k took about 2 years, hoping to make that 1.5 for the next 100k.

netskyblue

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #29 on: February 07, 2015, 12:30:25 PM »
I expect it will take me 14 years from when I graduated college, or 11 years from when I got my first full-time job.  I spent the first 3 years of my adult life working part-time, married.  When I divorced, I had nothing.  7k in student loans, 2600 car loan, 1k in cash.

Then the next 5 years were living paycheck to paycheck, putting only a little into a 401k, bought a brand-new car (kind of dumb), got braces ($5k debt, but I won't necessarily say it was dumb).

Anyway, when I got all my debt paid off, going from $0 net worth to $100k, I expect will take 5 years.  On a yearly income of $39,500.  (That's not taking into account the value of any possessions I own, just savings/investments.  I don't own any big "assets," just the usual car, furniture, laptop, jewelry & miscellaneous stuff.)

3 years after I achieve that, I expect my net worth to dip back down to between $50-80k as I take out a mortgage on a house.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 12:32:35 PM by netskyblue »

Zikoris

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #30 on: February 07, 2015, 12:48:45 PM »
I'm not really sure how to answer. We have an age difference of a couple of years and he entered the work force several years later than I did. We started really focusing on saving money in August of 2011 when I was 24 and he was 23, and hit six figures last summer when I was 27 and he was 25. When we hit 100K I'd been fully in the work force for seven years (full time) and he'd been in the work force for about two (full time), though we'd been Mustachian for about 3 years total at that point.

Tabaxus

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #31 on: February 07, 2015, 01:00:22 PM »
I expect it will take me 14 years from when I graduated college, or 11 years from when I got my first full-time job.  I spent the first 3 years of my adult life working part-time, married.  When I divorced, I had nothing.  7k in student loans, 2600 car loan, 1k in cash.

Then the next 5 years were living paycheck to paycheck, putting only a little into a 401k, bought a brand-new car (kind of dumb), got braces ($5k debt, but I won't necessarily say it was dumb).

Anyway, when I got all my debt paid off, going from $0 net worth to $100k, I expect will take 5 years.  On a yearly income of $39,500.  (That's not taking into account the value of any possessions I own, just savings/investments.  I don't own any big "assets," just the usual car, furniture, laptop, jewelry & miscellaneous stuff.)

3 years after I achieve that, I expect my net worth to dip back down to between $50-80k as I take out a mortgage on a house.

Not sure that I understand how your net worth can decline from taking out a mortgage unless your house is immediately underwater (unless you aren't including your house in your NW, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense).

netskyblue

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2015, 01:10:49 PM »
I expect it will take me 14 years from when I graduated college, or 11 years from when I got my first full-time job.  I spent the first 3 years of my adult life working part-time, married.  When I divorced, I had nothing.  7k in student loans, 2600 car loan, 1k in cash.

Then the next 5 years were living paycheck to paycheck, putting only a little into a 401k, bought a brand-new car (kind of dumb), got braces ($5k debt, but I won't necessarily say it was dumb).

Anyway, when I got all my debt paid off, going from $0 net worth to $100k, I expect will take 5 years.  On a yearly income of $39,500.  (That's not taking into account the value of any possessions I own, just savings/investments.  I don't own any big "assets," just the usual car, furniture, laptop, jewelry & miscellaneous stuff.)

3 years after I achieve that, I expect my net worth to dip back down to between $50-80k as I take out a mortgage on a house.

Not sure that I understand how your net worth can decline from taking out a mortgage unless your house is immediately underwater (unless you aren't including your house in your NW, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense).

I overlooked my EF, which would change that to $60-90k NW.

Unless I'm thinking wrong?

Right before I will buy a house, I will have roughly $100k in investments, $50k in downpayment fund, $10k in emergency fund.

As soon as I buy the house, I will have $100k in investments, $50k in equity, $10k in emergency fund, and -100k to -70k in mortgage debt (150-130k home).  That's assuming I can get the seller to pay closing costs, which is relatively common in my area.

Tabaxus

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #33 on: February 07, 2015, 01:15:07 PM »
You shouldn't be subtracting the entire mortgage from your net worth but only including the equity on the asset side.  You own the entire home.  So, as soon as you buy the house, you will have $100k in investments, $130k-$150k of house, $10k in emergency fund, and ($70k to $100k) of mortgage debt.   

In other words, on the day you buy the house, the only net change in NW should be closing costs.  Same as investing on margin (though not nearly as risky, most would say).
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 01:16:48 PM by Tabaxus »

netskyblue

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #34 on: February 07, 2015, 01:41:02 PM »
You shouldn't be subtracting the entire mortgage from your net worth but only including the equity on the asset side.  You own the entire home.  So, as soon as you buy the house, you will have $100k in investments, $130k-$150k of house, $10k in emergency fund, and ($70k to $100k) of mortgage debt.   

In other words, on the day you buy the house, the only net change in NW should be closing costs.  Same as investing on margin (though not nearly as risky, most would say).

Oh... I wasn't thinking of it like that.  I was thinking I'd own 50k of home, and the bank would own 70 to 100k of home. 

rubybeth

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #35 on: February 07, 2015, 02:42:04 PM »
I selected 16-18 years, because I'm nearly 34, started working at 17, and DH and I reached a NW of $100k in 2014. But during that time, we also had a negative net worth when we were both in school, taking out student loans to get second degrees. I graduated from undergrad with no debt in 2003, but graduate school from 2006-2009 put me in the negative for some time. Between when we finished school the second time around to when we reached $100k would be about 5 years, which includes paying off nearly $54k in student loans. We will easily get to the $200k mark in another couple of years.

Fishingmn

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #36 on: February 08, 2015, 05:31:37 AM »
Got first real job at 23 and think we were 29 when we hit 100k so 6 years.

Seems like it may have been harder in the 80's when our incomes were only in the $20-35k range (and that was pretty good).

Pooperman

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #37 on: February 08, 2015, 09:02:08 AM »
It'll be either 2.5 or 3.5 depending on when I consider the start of my working career to be since I started over a year after I worked the first time. Anyways, I project I'll hit 100k by the end of next year and put down 2-4 since that covers the range anyways.

PharmaStache

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #38 on: February 08, 2015, 09:32:04 AM »
About 4 years after graduating from university and starting my first real job.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #39 on: February 08, 2015, 10:12:01 AM »
Very impressive numbers from many of you!!

robotclown

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #40 on: February 08, 2015, 11:04:49 AM »
Was at 0 four years ago.  Now at 94k.  So, between 4-4.5 years.

rocketpj

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #41 on: February 08, 2015, 01:04:17 PM »
Hmm, misunderstood the question.

For us it happened pretty fast - we bought a condo in the early stages of the 2000-2008 real estate lunacy, and our NW went up by about $150K in the first year after buying it.  Not spendy cash mind you, but the 'value' of our apartment, which of course still remains in our current home as part of our NW.

freeedom

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #42 on: February 08, 2015, 08:26:25 PM »
I am 29 and just hit 100k NW. I've been working since I was like 15.

Helvegen

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #43 on: February 09, 2015, 11:38:50 AM »
I am in my early 30s and think we will get there in about 12 more months, assuming everything goes right. I have no real estate holdings and no plans to buy any in the next 1-3 years. Really late start, but now the ball is rolling at a very nice clip.

JLee

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #44 on: February 09, 2015, 03:56:38 PM »
lol I started working when I was 11. 20 years and I'm not there yet. :P

Gen Y Finance Journey

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #45 on: February 09, 2015, 05:10:48 PM »
Well it took me 5 years from when I started my first job out of college, but I only started not being a financial moron 4 years in. So it took nearly 4 years to get to $50k, and then just over a year to get from there up to $100k.

mrmoneycleanshaven

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #46 on: February 09, 2015, 09:27:08 PM »
Well that's interesting, you don't have negative values, and no one seems to be counting their college time...

I am still in residency and technically not in the work force yet, but I crossed the 100k threshold before I even finished medical school. So I guess that means -3 for me.

APowers

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #47 on: February 10, 2015, 11:59:36 PM »
When I started my first "real job", I had about 8k in the bank from excess college financial aid grants; my wife had about 12k in her accounts when we got married. Counting from when I started at the grocery store ($8.65/hr) until now: about 5.3 years to having an ~$85k house paid off and ~$19k cash in the bank.

I just now was shaking my head at how crazy that seems. We somehow managed to save about $16k PER YEAR on average. On a wage-rate starting at $8.65/hr ($18k/yr gross) and only last year did we make it north of $40k/year gross (me working two jobs)-- before 2014, I was making $15/hr at the most ($31k gross). Somehow we managed to save...way more than it seems like we should have been able to.

eyePod

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #48 on: February 11, 2015, 10:04:27 AM »
10 years since my "working career" began.

However, 8 of those working years were paycheck-to-paycheck so it's really been about 2 years of active saving to get there.

I find it fascinating that so many people are in the same situation as you. Smack in the head and bam, 100k NW.

Kaspian

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Re: Time to $100,000 NW
« Reply #49 on: February 11, 2015, 10:17:57 AM »
Following conventional "wisdom" of saving 10-15%, using a financial advisor to buy mutual funds of high MERs, and switching it up every time an asset class underperformed (as the FA would suggest--therefore, selling low) it took 17 bloody years to reach $100K!  Following MMM, a 50%+ savings rate, converting to low MER index funds, the $200K mark was reached only 2 years later.  God, what I wouldn't give to know then what I know now...

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!