"Windfall"

[obstinate]

That feeling when

• you're looking over your assets and you realize your wife's 401k
• which she has been maxing since you got married nine years ago
• with a 50% match from the company
• invested in Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 (90% stock)

isn't even being counted. It kinda feels like someone just handed me a few hundred large. This is excellent news!

Have you ever realized you're further ahead than you thought, but not from winning the lottery or anything like that?

[Socmonkey]

How did you not think of that all this time?

[PowerMustache]

That's incredible. I had a similar experience on a much smaller scale with my HSA, which I forgot to count for a couple of years in my net worth and ended up with a pleasant ~$5,000 surprise one day.

[marty998]

That's a lot of coin to have no idea about...

[thd7t]

Congrats on marrying someone who gets saving, but doesn't make a big deal about it!

[obstinate]

How did you not think of that all this time?

We went over it the last time she changed companies and got it all set up correctly. It just wasn't on my dashboard, so over the five years or so she's been there I kind of forgot about it. Gives a new meaning to "set it and forget it."

[TheAnonOne]

Wow, a few hundred grand has got to put you close to your mark! For most here that would be nearly a 50% FIRE boost

[Davids]

I still have some shares from my former employer that i got as part of a stock grant that i have not sold which i have never been including in my net worth calc. The total value is about $1,500 i am omitting.

[Ozlady]

My disorganised DH who worked 4 years in a big UK company and who did not realised he had a defined benefit pension...he left the company like 25 years ago...and we moved continents and countries...

Hmm...let me call the company on a whim...10 minutes later...."yes, Mrs X..we do have your DH's name on our computer...it's been compounding real nice for 25 years.."

Yes, it is worth (gulp!)...160 000 pounds lump sum or if you like 8000 pounds  yearly pension from next year for the rest of his life ...

Now how good a windfall is that!

[TheMoneyWizard]

haha, that has to feel amazing!

I had a brief moment of this back in May. I was preparing a net worth update for my blog, and I realized the NW formula on my spreadsheet had not counted my cash for the past three monthly updates. My net worth jumped $10,000 that day!

[Aelias]

I'm stuck on that 50% match--holy crap, that is sweet.

That would be a very pleasant surprise indeed.  Like finding an extra couple bucks in your pocket, times 100,000.

[PhrugalPhan]

Five years ago I reconnected with an old girlfriend and we have been very very solid since.  About 6 months in and we were very sure the relationship would work so we discussed our finances.  I figured she might have 25% in her TSP compared to what I had in my 457 plan.  Instead she had almost double my amount (I had $250,000 at the time)!  It was all in the bond fund, so I got her out of that and into stocks and we have both enjoyed the bull market since.

Yeah, its her money, but being with someone that you know will have plenty is really great.

[Dicey]

Yeah, its her money, but being with someone that you know will have plenty is really great.

I married for the first time in my mid-fifties. DH was a recent widower. I knew him from a distance for over a decade. Frankly, I was fairly certain that Mr. Right wasn't coming and that my retirement was going to be 100% self-funded. I had been saving like mad and was just trying to figure out how to pull the trigger. I approached him with the idea of becoming domestic partners on paper so I could get health insurance through him. Eventually, we discussed it over dinner, and what's happened since feels even better than something out of a movie.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that our net worth numbers were nearly equal. Suddenly, combined we have more than we ever dreamed possible. DH says he has a rich wife and I say I have a rich husband. I'd never thought of it as a windfall before, but that's exactly what it is, in so many ways. Great, indeed!

[With This Herring]

How did you not think of that all this time?

We went over it the last time she changed companies and got it all set up correctly. It just wasn't on my dashboard, so over the five years or so she's been there I kind of forgot about it. Gives a new meaning to "set it and forget it."

I can see this happening pretty easily.  Especially if they don't send out paper statements.  That's why most numbers professionals like to have others check their work.  It is too easy to overlook your same omission, poor assumption, or miscalculation repeatedly.

I recently realized that a private stock that I had been carrying on my books at a couple grand actually has a basis around five times that and is probably worth more still...whoops.

[2lazy2retire]

That feeling when

• you're looking over your assets and you realize your wife's 401k
• which she has been maxing since you got married nine years ago
• with a 50% match from the company
• invested in Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 (90% stock)

isn't even being counted. It kinda feels like someone just handed me a few hundred large. This is excellent news!

Have you ever realized you're further ahead than you thought, but not from winning the lottery or anything like that?

Easy tiger - it ain't your cash, sounds like the missus wanted keep quite about it;)

[Guesl982374]

Knew a low level employee (think manufacturing floor) who barely spoke English and was never formally educated. She worked the same job for 40+ years and didn't believe she had enough to retire. Finally, a trusted colleague confronted her and said that based on how much the company was putting into pensions and retirement accounts that she HAD to have enough at this point. She allowed said colleague to look at her accounts and they realized that she thought she had 1/10 of what she really had ($3M vs. $300K). She retired that week.

Now that's a windfall! It's a real shame that she spent so many extra years working...

[SweetTPi]

That's incredible. I had a similar experience on a much smaller scale with my HSA, which I forgot to count for a couple of years in my net worth and ended up with a pleasant ~$5,000 surprise one day.

Hey, I just realized that I haven't been counting my HSA either!  Sweet, I'm $10k richer!  Thanks!

[With This Herring]

That's incredible. I had a similar experience on a much smaller scale with my HSA, which I forgot to count for a couple of years in my net worth and ended up with a pleasant ~$5,000 surprise one day.

Hey, I just realized that I haven't been counting my HSA either!  Sweet, I'm $10k richer!  Thanks!

*narrates* "And, in an epidemic that swept the forum, formerly ignored HSAs, 401ks, and IRAs were added to Mustachian net worth tallies, increasing the gross calculated net worth of forum participants almost $1M.  Collective FIRE edged closer, and employers shuddered."

[kitkat]

Ha! I don't include my credit card cash back sitting in the account, currently around $180... does that count? :)



But actually I have been wondering about my pension account. Every month I am forced to contribute 7% of gross pay, and my employer contributes something like 11% of my gross pay (yes, MORE than I contribute). However, I don't think the 11% is in any way, shape, or form "mine". As in, if I leave the company and take the lump-sum payout, it will only be my 7% deposits. However, my employer recently started a "Savings" retirement option for new employees that acts like a 401k and includes a match. So I'm here wondering, am I getting a total rip-off (no match or even the option of switching to the new program) since I will likely not draw a pension? I'm 26 and don't see myself working here that much longer. The other possibility is that the employee contributions to my pension, or at least some portion of them, are in fact mine when I leave.. which would be a crazy-awesome windfall!! Anyone have thoughts on this? I should probably schedule a meeting with HR...

[BTDretire]

The bank gave me my balance when I made a deposit.
I said "no, that's not right, it's $10,000 to much", the tell assured
me that it was correct and that my wife probably made a deposit
I wasn't aware of. I tried a little more to push the issue but the teller
wasn't going to listen, so I left.
 Three days later I got letter saying "deposit in error" and they removed
my windfall, as expected!

[MoneyCat]

My mother sent me a check for $10 for my wedding anniversary. Is that the kind of windfall you are talking about or is this more of the "rich people patting themselves on the back" kind of stuff that regularly gets posted on this forum?

MOD NOTE: Please read forum rule #1.

[Dicey]

My mother sent me a check for $10 for my wedding anniversary. Is that the kind of windfall you are talking about or is this more of the "rich people patting themselves on the back" kind of stuff that regularly gets posted on this forum?

MOD NOTE: Please read forum rule #1.

Tone aside, MoneyCat, congratulations! You received $10 more than we ever did from either of our parents. We eloped and our parents probably figured we didn't need anything. They were right.

Now my parents are both dead, and I will inherit about 30k. I'd rather have my parents back.

If that's patting myself on the back, then I'm guilty as charged. You bet I'm rich. Rich as hell, in all the ways that matter.

[obstinate]

My mother sent me a check for $10 for my wedding anniversary. Is that the kind of windfall you are talking about or is this more of the "rich people patting themselves on the back" kind of stuff that regularly gets posted on this forum?

MOD NOTE: Please read forum rule #1.

This is a forum for people to talk about early retirement. There are going to be some wealthy people on here.

[ender]

One thing I like about Mint is that it aggregates everything into once place, makes windfalls less exciting though.

[Lagom]

My wife recently told me about a small annuity she had received in her divorce that she thought was inaccessible until she was 59 1/2. I looked at the details and it turned out it was available for a penalty-free cash-out to the tune of $25k. It has now been reinvested comfortably in much better returning assets. As we are not anywhere close to being rich people patting ourselves on the back--we both had debt from our past marriages that we only recently finished paying off--this was a very nice little kick-start on the path to FIRE!

[Ozlady]

Oh dear!  How strange!  I would never consider myself "rich" or "pat myself in the back"...

i just hope that by posting my story, may jolt the memory of someone else to check their old frozen pensions,  that's all!

I certainly do not want to come across as "bragging" !!

[ender]

One thing I like about Mint is that it aggregates everything into once place, makes windfalls less exciting though.

i just hope that by posting my story, may jolt the memory of someone else to check their old frozen pensions,  that's all!

.... though I have a small pension that's not included in Mint that this thread DID remind me of (NPV was about $25k a year ago) which I'd forgotten :P