Author Topic: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated  (Read 6478 times)

fuzzy math

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Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« on: March 06, 2019, 08:59:15 AM »
By the time you FIRE, what will your numbers be? I think for the sake of consistency, consider your first year of full work at an adult wage, however you define it but try to be specific.

I hope to achieve FIRE in 8 years. At that time my work history will include:

4 years of active debt (ages 23 - 26) with no personal contributions toward wealth accumulation. I did receive safe harbor 401k contributions for part of that time. Ended with about $15k

7 years of working and squandering money (ages 27 -33) while not actively in any significant debt. I made minimal retirement contributions of about $1k per year plus a couple more years of safe harbor elections. Ended with about $60k

12 years of working (ages 34 - 45) while actively accumulating wealth. I max out all possible accounts during these years. Hoping to be > $1MM

Steveray7071

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2019, 12:58:02 PM »
Started with an adult wage at 20, ending at 36 (3 more years).  So, 16yrs working/$1.2MM saved.  Currently at 13 yrs/$900k saved.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2019, 01:10:23 PM »
I’ve seen threads like this before. Depressing. I’ve beaten myself up enough over coulda, woulda and shoulda. Not going to make it worse by spending time thinking through all the money I pissed away. Thankfully on the right path now and future is bright. Fuck the past.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2019, 01:30:54 PM »
Total years of adult work = 11, current wealth = $1.1m (AUD)

I plan to retire in 14 years and by then I will need a wealth of $4.5m so I have a long way to go

The $4.5m figure is approx 60x my "with-children" yearly expenses - or about 110x my "without-children"yearly expenses (I currently have no kids but will want them at some stage) - I know the wisdom here is to only save up 25x expenses but I want to have a buffer and be able to indulge in my hobbies which are kinda expensive

Fortunately my earnings are increasing, my partner is starting to have a decent salary too (she's younger than me so she's just started her career) and our expenses have not grown much. I guess the main thing I'm hoping for is the power of compounding + passive income to help with my active income.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 01:51:21 PM by MikeBT »

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2019, 01:32:06 PM »
Hmm, started my career on March 20th, 2010.

I'll be pulling the plug July 1, 2019.

9 Years, 3 months, 12 days of career type work.

Will be at roughly 25x my current low expenses ($18-20k/yr), not enough to FIRE for life, but damn close.

wageslave23

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2019, 01:40:19 PM »
Hmm, started my career on March 20th, 2010.

I'll be pulling the plug July 1, 2019.

9 Years, 3 months, 12 days of career type work.

Will be at roughly 25x my current low expenses ($18-20k/yr), not enough to FIRE for life, but damn close.

Thats almost my numbers exactly.  9.5 yrs, $500,000.  25X expenses and will probably work occasional interesting part time jobs at that point.

Greystache

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2019, 02:31:58 PM »
My wife and I retired at age 55 after 33 year careers (1982-2015). Between the two of us, we earned $3.5M (not adjusted for inflation). When we retired, our portfolio was $1.1M plus a $0.5M lump sum pension payment and around $0.6M home equity. Not that impressive, but we did live in a HCOL area and raised a couple of kids.
If we had it to do over again we probably could have retired much earlier. We made a bunch of mistakes along the way, but nothing horrible. It just never occurred to us that retiring before 55 was an option. More than anything else, we suffered from a lack of imagination.

CoffeeAndDonuts

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2019, 06:06:53 AM »
Couple, early 40s, 5yo son.

Currently at $1.55m net worth $1.05 liquid if we paid off the house. Adult salaries for 20y.

Extrapolated forward a couple years and I'd expect it to be $1.8m nw and $1.3m liquid if we paid off house. I'll be very comfortable declaring FI then.

In general, I earned early and cash flowed college even while saving around 15-20%. My wifes family covered undergrad for her and she borrowed for grad school so she had a later start and debt when we married whereas I'd met my first fire goal (*) before I'd ever heard of fire by age 28. The last 12 or marriage years have seen us double our net worth in 5 years, again in 3, again in 4.

(*) My first goal was $100k by age 30. Adjusted for inflation, this would be about $140k today I'd guess. My thinking was that it was enough that I could coast to retirement around 60, take a sabbatical, start a family, go to grad school, or generally just choose a different direction. It was all about options. I didn't read anything that led me there. I was just sitting in an econ class and the math was pretty obvious. And I was living a college lifestyle on a bigger than college income. I can't imagine coining it myself but my mantra was "save til it hurts, then back off a little bit. Test periodically. Forgive mistakes and reset."

Minor edits of dumb phone autocompletes.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2019, 06:09:57 AM by CoffeeAndDonuts »

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2019, 06:54:22 AM »
@wageslave23, that's my plan exactly. Take 2 years off to travel/unwind and figure out what passion projects or cool gigs I could find. Even an extra $1k/month is a game changer at our spending levels.

jim555

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2019, 07:04:06 AM »
31 years, 18 to 49.

Dicey

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2019, 07:17:02 AM »
I’ve seen threads like this before. Depressing. I’ve beaten myself up enough over coulda, woulda and shoulda. Not going to make it worse by spending time thinking through all the money I pissed away. Thankfully on the right path now and future is bright. Fuck the past.
I made a shitload of sub-optimal decisions, but I had cancer early in my career and didn't want to miss out on the now since the future is not a given. I was also a comparatively low wage earner in a HCOLA. I was house poor for years and years. I stumbled my way to FIRE at 54 and you'll get there too, @MrThatsDifferent.

I can tell you from experience that once you amass enough that compound interest really kicks in, the woulda, shoulda, couldas will mostly disappear. Did I need to go to Europe or buy that Burberry Trench coat or fly down for dinner on my mother's birthday and then home again the same night? No, but I'm glad I did.

I've been RE for six years. It was worth the journey.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 07:49:41 AM by Dicey »

Gyosho

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2019, 09:20:34 AM »
I started working as an adult when I was 31. Had $23,000 worth of student loans.

Never had any children. I was in a long-term partnership with someone who was more frugal than I was. No doubt this helped me to get to retire last June, at 56.


I worked 25 years. Paid off my student loans the first few years, then saved as much as possible, while still giving myself a fun allowance. What helped the most was:

- Not having a spendy partner. We shared expenses, and had a lot of (mostly inexpensive) fun together.

- Sharing an old, beater car. I walked to work or rode my bike for most of those 25 years. Cars are expensive!!!

- Not having children. Just my personal choice, but when a friend tells me she is spending $1500 to send her 10-year-old daughter to 3 days of French camp, I say - "What?"
« Last Edit: March 07, 2019, 11:06:19 AM by Gyosho »

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2019, 09:50:33 AM »
I’ve seen threads like this before. Depressing. I’ve beaten myself up enough over coulda, woulda and shoulda. Not going to make it worse by spending time thinking through all the money I pissed away. Thankfully on the right path now and future is bright. Fuck the past.
I made a shitload of sub-optimal decisions, but I had cancer early in my career and didn't want to miss out on the now since the future is not a given. I was also a comparatively low wage earner in a HCOLA. I was house poor for years and years. I stumbled my way to FIRE at 54 and you'll get there to, @MrThatsDifferent.

I can tell you from experience that once you amass enough that compound interest really kicks in, the woulda, shoulda, couldas will mostly disappear. Did I need to go to Europe or buy that Burberry Trench coat or fly down for dinner on my mother's birthday and then home again the same night? No, but I'm glad I did.

I've been RE for six years. It was worth the journey.

If all goes as planned, I’ll hit FIRE at 54 too, which I’m fine with.

secondcor521

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2019, 10:41:35 AM »
I worked a total of 22 years full time over the 23 year time period between age 23 and 46.  I had three different time periods of approximately 4 months each where I was not working.  The first was looking for a job right out of college, the second was when I took a voluntary severance package to go back to graduate school, and the third was after getting fired from a job for being lazy (not my proudest moment, obviously).

I hit ~25x expenses at about age 44 and FIREd two years later.  I am now at about 38x expenses if you exclude side gig income, and at about 72x expenses if you include that sort of thing.

That covered our living expenses, raising three kids up through 4 years of state university, and an ex who left with about half of our then net worth at age 37.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2019, 11:02:24 AM »
the third was after getting fired from a job for being lazy (not my proudest moment, obviously).

You are my hero. Could you elaborate? I tried this last year and ended up getting a 35% raise, and then moving to another company for an even better offer.

secondcor521

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2019, 01:06:38 PM »
the third was after getting fired from a job for being lazy (not my proudest moment, obviously).

You are my hero. Could you elaborate? I tried this last year and ended up getting a 35% raise, and then moving to another company for an even better offer.

Really?  Again, not my proudest moment.

I was working as a contract engineer at the local site for a large, well-known tech firm.  This firm had some weird rules, most notably that employees were not to be trusted, and contractors were to be trusted even less.  So I had to jump through more than the usual amount of baloney just to get my job done.  In addition, I didn't really respect my host manager.

Eventually I started surfing financial and news sites on the web at work to try to make the day go by faster (that doesn't work very well for me, by the way).  One day my host manager walked into my cube and obviously saw what I was doing.  He didn't say anything about it and we talked about whatever work thing he needed.  After he left, I went back to surfing.  He came back about 5 minutes later and caught me again.  After he left, I went back to surfing.  He came back a third time and caught me a third time.  This was all in the course of about 15 minutes total.  He of course took a dim view of his company paying me, so they terminated their contract with the contract engineering company I was working through.

So technically I wasn't fired, but practically speaking I was.

I didn't care too much about that company.  I did learn that I didn't do well when I was unhappy (duh) for whatever reason.  I did decide that I wanted to develop a work ethic.  I did feel bad about the contract engineering company - it was a two-person operation and I was working under the CEO, who I really liked and respected and who had done a lot for me.  So I apologized to him.

About three or four months later, another tech company in town was hiring and the hiring manager was a coworker at another company we both had worked for.  He knew me by reputation from that company and I'm not sure if he knew about my firing from a few months prior.

I got hired for that job, worked diligently every day until I developed a decent work ethic (it's mostly just practicing good habits).  I found that the days went by faster and that I liked it there better.  I worked there for about a year and did good things.  This company ended up giving me stock in lieu of pay which ended up getting bought out for 2x what I "paid" for it about seven years later.

After that I moved to another tech company and worked six years until I retired.

My salary through that whole period did approximately double, and while I'm not proud of what I did, it did end up getting me to get myself to a good place.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #16 on: March 07, 2019, 02:12:58 PM »
That's a great ending!

Yea, really. But if you knew the backstory, you wouldn't feel bad for my former employer. It involved a bait and switch, followed by the termination of my hiring manager, managing out the fire-er, all in a few weeks, and then leaving me to the wolves with no oversight in a wfh position, took them 6 months to fill the spots, where I found another job, quit, got a sweet counter, accepted, and then left anyway when my company dismantled several months later.

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BicycleB

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #17 on: March 07, 2019, 04:15:33 PM »
About 19 years (spread out over 25 years or so). 390k. FIREd for several years; now 480k.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2019, 04:29:29 PM by BicycleB »

middo

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #18 on: March 07, 2019, 05:08:48 PM »
I’ve seen threads like this before. Depressing. I’ve beaten myself up enough over coulda, woulda and shoulda. Not going to make it worse by spending time thinking through all the money I pissed away. Thankfully on the right path now and future is bright. Fuck the past.

Quoted again because...

Hoping to fire by 52.  Could have fired by 40.

But still better than working to 67.

peeps_be_peeping

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #19 on: March 07, 2019, 07:05:47 PM »
I estimate my lifetime earnings since age 22 to be close to $900,000. I'm 40 now with a stash of $350,000. Hope to FIRE at age 45 with $800,000-$900,000 invested plus $100,000 home equity.

I started investing in mutual funds right out of college at age 21 in tiny amounts. Didn't contribute much beyond gift money during law school. I got my first real job after law school at age 28. I paid off ~$160,000 in law school debt with help from the parental units by age 35. I then took two years off work. So I have worked 9 years in reasonably high paying jobs and plan to FIRE after having worked about 15 years.

frogstomp81

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Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #20 on: March 07, 2019, 09:10:21 PM »
I've been working almost 11 years. Currently at around 760k. Plan to FIRE at 1-1.2 mil. Didn't discover the FIRE idea until 2015 though, so not as close as I coulda been. Hoping 15 years of work total gets me there.


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« Last Edit: March 07, 2019, 09:13:26 PM by frogstomp81 »

sol

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #21 on: March 07, 2019, 10:02:55 PM »
We have discussed this topic at great length in previous threads, even going so far as to propose various equations for how much money you "should" have as a function of income and age (where age is understood to be a proxy for years worked).

As I recall, it was around the ten year mark where total assets tended to exceed total income.  That's in line with generic mustachian recommendations to save approximately half of what you earn, and try to save up 25x your spending by investing it in mostly stock index funds that average about 9%.

Complications were largely due to unequal rates of wage inflation.  Some people quadruple their income over ten years, while others may start higher but only get 1% raises.  Using career average salary doesn't help, because early wages are worth so much more than later wages due to compounding.

And of course you have to get lucky with the timing.  People who graduated in 2008 did not have the same opportunities or earning potential as graduates in the class of 2007, so which decade you get to spend your career in makes a big difference.  People who started working and investing in 2000 saw net negative returns for the first ten years of their careers, and that kind of environment is harder to FIRE in.

CoffeeAndDonuts

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #22 on: March 08, 2019, 01:26:11 AM »
Thanks for the great summary of prior discussions Sol! I was thinking about a lot of those things as I read this thread.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #23 on: March 08, 2019, 04:11:03 AM »
@sol, I'm going to say your memory isn't that great.

Being to lazy to dig up the old threads (someone can fact check me), I'm going to go out on a limb and say anyone whose

current assets = or > lifetime earnings

worked longer than 10 years, and 10 years would make them an outlier, by a significant margin.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll let someone else do the work.

The Keen Saver

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2019, 08:07:46 AM »
Working almost 9 months -> Net worth approximately 16K

sol

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #25 on: March 08, 2019, 08:28:28 AM »
@sol, I'm going to say your memory isn't that great.

Being to lazy to dig up the old threads (someone can fact check me), I'm going to go out on a limb and say anyone whose

current assets = or > lifetime earnings

worked longer than 10 years, and 10 years would make them an outlier, by a significant margin.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll let someone else do the work.

Well let's just do the math real quick.

Below is a chart of the last ten years of historical stock market returns (including dividends).  For the sake of round numbers and simple arithmetic I assumed you made 100k each year and invested a mustachian half of it, and then got that year's stock market performance on the accumulated total each year.
         
                annual    total
year   return   income    assets
2009   27.11   100,000   63555
2010   14.87   100,000   130440.62
2011    2.07   100,000   184175.74
2012   15.88   100,000   271362.85
2013   32.43   100,000   425580.83
2014   13.81   100,000   541258.54
2015    1.31   100,000   599004.03
2016   11.93   100,000   726430.21
2017   21.94   100,000   946779.00
2018   -4.42   100,000   952721.37


As you can see, a person who worked these ten years, ending on Dec 31 2018, and only invested 50% of their income would be at 95.27% of their total lifetime earnings in total net worth.  To have more than total assets, you would have needed to save 53% of income, worked ten extra weeks in 2019 (up another 8% YTD), or invested in something other than straight up index funds.  Maybe you bought a house shortly after you started working in 2009?  That would totally do it.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 03:11:43 PM by sol »

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #26 on: March 08, 2019, 08:57:00 AM »
Your assumptions that the average person earns $100k/yr immediately upon starting their career AND saves 50% of their GROSS is extremely optimistic, or naive.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #27 on: March 08, 2019, 08:58:17 AM »
Also, in year one, this person magically had $50k on Jan 1 to invest?

Also, someone earning $100k in year one likely started with a net worth <$0

I expected better from someone like you......

SimpleCycle

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #28 on: March 08, 2019, 08:59:06 AM »
I've been working since 1997 and my average annual earnings from 1997 to 2018 are $26,500 per year.  It's just since 2011 (when I graduated from graduate school) that my earnings have been above average.  That said, that's lifetime earnings of $583k, so I could have built substantial wealth during that time if I had been more focused.

But oh well, I'm investing seriously now and we'll reach FIRE later than some but far earlier than average.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #29 on: March 08, 2019, 08:59:16 AM »
And you're using one of the highest CAGR 10 year periods possible......

sol

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #30 on: March 08, 2019, 09:16:47 AM »
I expected better from someone like you......

Feel free to do the math some other way that you like better.  Keep in mind that the numbers work identically if you're making $10k per year or $100k/yr.  The simple math is about percentages, not dollar amounts.

I already mentioned most of the complications that you brought up (which 10 year period to use, rising wage inflation, etc) in my first post.  Yes, the problem is complicated.  But you can at least see that it's not totally unreasonable to have assets exceeding your total income over a ten year window.  Over fifteen years it's virtually guaranteed, as long as you're saving 50% or more.

Keep in mind that roughly 35% of rolling 10-year CAGRs are higher than the most recent 10 years (CAGR=13.15%).  So yea, it's been a good decade but not anywhere near the best one. 

Honestly, your posts are coming across kind of whiny and complainypants.  "It's too hard!  It's impossible, you can't do it!"  This whole website is about teaching people that it's not impossible.  You can make the hard choices, and make great things happen in your life, if you can tune out all the negativity and naysayers in your life and just follow the simple math.  Step one:  save and invest at least half of your income.

Is there a chance that your visceral objections to the simple math are because you feel like you're "behind" somehow, like you've wasted the last ten years by not saving 50% of your income between 2009 and 2018?  Don't feel bad, we all come to see the light at different moments in our lives, and you can't beat yourself up for what you didn't know at the time.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 09:29:50 AM by sol »

TexasRunner

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #31 on: March 08, 2019, 09:22:34 AM »
5 Years in (Counting 2013 as the first full year working) / 42k total net worth. 

Averages out to 8.4k added to the stash each year but that is including student loans and raising kiddos.

Up from negative net worth.
Based on new income levels (post MMM drive) set to FIRE in 10-13 years.
Disappointing but I'm still only 27, so I guess I'm glad I found MMM at 24 or so...

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #32 on: March 08, 2019, 09:24:29 AM »
I've had a 75% savings rate the past 6 years, and I'm at 27x expenses at age 31......the proof is in the pudding that this works.


We have discussed this topic at great length in previous threads, even going so far as to propose various equations for how much money you "should" have as a function of income and age (where age is understood to be a proxy for years worked).

As I recall, it was around the ten year mark where total assets tended to exceed total income.

Again, I'm just saying that these would be outliers, and even for the self selected high earners/savers on these boards the vast majority would not in fact have a net worth equal to or higher than their lifetime gross earnings after 10 years.

Comparison is the thief of joy, and if someone holds themselves to your standards, I just want to make sure they understand it's not the norm, even around here.


TexasRunner

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #33 on: March 08, 2019, 09:34:50 AM »
I already mentioned most the complications that you brought up (which 10 year period to use, rising wage inflation, etc) in my first post.  Yes, the problem is complicated.  But you can at least see that it's not totally unreasonable to have assets exceeding your total income over a ten year window.  Over fifteen years it's virtually guaranteed.

I have found this to be very true...  Getting rid of the debt pushing back against you makes savings much easier when you aren't fighting an interest rate (and even better when you are being pushed forward by compounding).

Using the last 10 years, a 50% savings rate would net you more in savings than your total income combined for those years- its just how compounding works.  It won't always be this nice, but most of the time it will be comparable.

clarkfan1979

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #34 on: March 08, 2019, 10:17:00 AM »
I got a Ph.D. and didn't get my first real job until August 1, 2011, at age 32. After 7.5 years, I have grown my net worth from $20,000 to $630,000 on a relatively low salary. I was able to do this mostly through real estate. I do have a wife and count her 401K, which is about 60,000. I love my wife, but she is more of a spender. If I was single, my number would definitely be higher.

When I got my first job, my net worth was around $20,000. I had $56,000 in student loans, but about $76,000 in real estate equity because I bought a house close to the University and got 3 roommates to pay the mortgage.

Year            Age                               Networth
2011            32            45,000            20,000
2012            33            46,300            40,000
2013            34            47,500            80,000
2014            35            50,000           165,000
2015            36            55,000           275,000
2016            37            63,000           385,000
2017            38            61,000           465,000
2018            39            63,000           550,000
2019            40            69,500           630,000
   

BicycleB

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #35 on: March 08, 2019, 02:49:52 PM »
Cool post, @clarkfan1979

wageslave23

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #36 on: March 08, 2019, 03:13:23 PM »
I already mentioned most the complications that you brought up (which 10 year period to use, rising wage inflation, etc) in my first post.  Yes, the problem is complicated.  But you can at least see that it's not totally unreasonable to have assets exceeding your total income over a ten year window.  Over fifteen years it's virtually guaranteed.

I have found this to be very true...  Getting rid of the debt pushing back against you makes savings much easier when you aren't fighting an interest rate (and even better when you are being pushed forward by compounding).

Using the last 10 years, a 50% savings rate would net you more in savings than your total income combined for those years- its just how compounding works.  It won't always be this nice, but most of the time it will be comparable.

I thought that seemed idealistic.  But I just calculated starting yr1 salary of $50k, $50k in debt, 50% savings rate, 5% yearly raises, 7% return on investments and it ends up being about 2x earnings.  Most people don't have 50% savings rate when starting out, but still.  That's what I would tell high schooler's to shoot for!

Arbitrage

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #37 on: March 12, 2019, 03:48:37 PM »
Hmm, worked at an adult wage for 13.5 years so far, goal is to cut the cord at 16 years. 
DW will be one year fewer for each, as she was unemployed for our first year after grad school (and started working for a pittance; only in the past 2 years or so has her salary become significant).

Our total gross income over that time has been about $2.1-2.2M.  Current net worth is ~$1.25M, and we started the post-grad school period with a NW of -$85k. 

That gives us a NW increase of $1.335M over a period in which our gross income was $2.15M.  I've never put those numbers together before.  Given that the taxes we've paid would account for a significant chunk of the difference, not too bad.  Obviously, investment earnings have played a role. 

At FIRE, I'm targeting a NW of ~$1.7-1.8M, including house, after 16 years. 
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 07:59:13 AM by Arbitrage »

dude

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #38 on: March 13, 2019, 06:47:11 AM »
22 working years, household net worth of $1.9mil ($1.24mil = invested assets/savings). Might have been larger if didn't have a pension coming (i.e., the need to save more would have been greater). If I factor what I'd need to have saved to fund my pension income stream under the 4% rule, NW is equivalent to $3.4mil.

Gyosho

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #39 on: March 13, 2019, 08:49:24 AM »
Interesting thread.

I downloaded my lifetime earnings from Social Security, and the total came to 2.1 million over 41 years of working - including the 15 years that I was a slacker and made under $10,000 a year.

I retired last year and expect never to have "earned income" again, but I am happy to report that my current net worth > my lifetime earnings.

rantk81

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #40 on: March 13, 2019, 09:02:05 AM »
I have about 15 years working at a career, post college.  I've kept a spreadsheet of all of my W-2 data for that time, along with all actual taxes paid.

The sum of all my gross W-2 wages over that period is about 1.7M.
My net worth is about 1.5M.
No substantial gifts or inheritance -- it's all self-made.

Not bad, considering the headwind of fed+state+fica taxes -- I've paid about 500K in federal income, state income, social security, and medicare taxes.  (This includes taxes paid on investments too, obviously.)  Probably another 50K or so in property taxes paid on primary residence and rentals.  I'd have to look at all old tax filings to dig this up... but don't feel like it right now.  Also live in one of the highest sales tax locales nationwide too.

« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 09:16:43 AM by rantk81 »

GoHokies

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #41 on: March 13, 2019, 09:28:47 AM »
I have worked full time for 5 years now coming out of college with about $20k in student loan debt. According to my social security profile, which includes random minimum wage jobs I had throughout high school and college, I have earned a little over $500k.  This does not include wages earned thus far in 2019 and interest/dividends not subject to social security tax.   My most recent NW number was approximately $295k (no inheritances outside of a small $5k inheritance from my grandparents).

Hoping to scale back (not necessarily retire) around $500k, which I hope get to in the next 3-5 years. 

SpareChange

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #42 on: March 13, 2019, 12:30:34 PM »
Interesting. I looked up the numbers for my current career. A few bumps along the way, but a little persistence pays off.

Year           Compensation      Comments                                                          Net Worth
2011            $13,078             Hired as a PT extern in May while a student.         At time of hiring Probably around -$52,000. About $9k of that was credit card debt. No investments.
2012            $37,783             Graduated in May. Hired as PRN. No benefits.       
2013            $60,970
2014            $74,018             Became FT employee in March.
2015            $92,230
2016            $88,400
2017            $89,013
2018            $95,511
2019            $23,859                                                                                     As of today...$316,473.

Total:           $574,862

Kay-Ell

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #43 on: March 15, 2019, 02:37:31 PM »
Started working full time at 19, with no college degree (and no debt). Worked full time until right before my 30th birthday (about 10.5 years). Semi-FIRED at the end of 2017. Total lifetime social security wages of 594k (not including some small amounts of work I’ve done since semi-firing). Total networth, including equity on three properties and a small inheritance of 8k, is 590k. And while I really like those numbers they are a bit deceptive considering some of my income has been in the form of rent and capital gains. Stil, it’s nice to be worth almost as much as I’ve ever earned from my 9-5. It’s also nice to be an example of someone who doesn’t have a college degree, never made crazy high salaries and isn’t part of a duel income family being able to live frugally, save, invest and gain their freedom at an early age.  In 4-6 years I’m hoping to liquidate my rental properties and be fully fired on a stock portfolio alone.

Threshkin

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #44 on: March 15, 2019, 06:04:12 PM »
Interesting way of looking at it.  Including savings and the efforts of my little green men I saved roughly $5,600 a month over my working career.  For most of that time I earned MUCH less than that per month.  Gotta love those little green men!

I only discovered MMM about 5 years ago.  I shudder to think what I could have saved if I had discovered it earlier.  (Note, while I only discovered MMM recently, I was a saver early on.)

Bateaux

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #45 on: March 16, 2019, 09:02:29 AM »
Based on the hours we've worked in our lives combined,  our savings is worth about $20 an hour worked.  Not too shabby.  It's tens of thousands of hours though.

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #46 on: March 16, 2019, 09:17:06 AM »
Guys, don't beat yourself up about not having become super-savers earlier in your careers. Until very, very recently, the kind of information you find on this blog and forum was not widely available or advertised anywhere. You'd have to have stumbled across something like "Your Money Or Your Life" at your public library and since you wouldn't have been actively looking for it, you probably wouldn't have found it. Don't worry about it. Better late than never, I always say.

SpareChange

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #47 on: March 16, 2019, 01:58:10 PM »
Started working full time at 19, with no college degree (and no debt). Worked full time until right before my 30th birthday (about 10.5 years). Semi-FIRED at the end of 2017. Total lifetime social security wages of 594k (not including some small amounts of work I’ve done since semi-firing). Total networth, including equity on three properties and a small inheritance of 8k, is 590k. And while I really like those numbers they are a bit deceptive considering some of my income has been in the form of rent and capital gains. Stil, it’s nice to be worth almost as much as I’ve ever earned from my 9-5. It’s also nice to be an example of someone who doesn’t have a college degree, never made crazy high salaries and isn’t part of a duel income family being able to live frugally, save, invest and gain their freedom at an early age.  In 4-6 years I’m hoping to liquidate my rental properties and be fully fired on a stock portfolio alone.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

KathrinS

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Re: Total years worked / total years wealth accumulated
« Reply #48 on: March 16, 2019, 03:23:09 PM »
Started my freelance career in September 2017 but was at full-time by February 2018, so that will count as the start date. Found Mustachianism in the fall, so it's been about half a year. I'm 25 now.

A lot can change until then, but here are the two options I'm currently considering:
- Full FIRE at £400 000, which is achievable in about 13 years, so at age 38.
- Semi FIRE at £300 000, which should be achievable in 9-10 years, so around 34-35. This would mean that I'd still work maybe 2 days a week, but I'd probably want to do that anyway, so I'm definitely considering this.