No holding back here on 1500 Days with the questions we ask of you Readers. Today, we ask a doozy, but first, we must get to last week’s answers when I asked about prenuptial agreements. I asked Mrs. 1500 for one and she was less than happy:
If you want to know more about prenups, The Vigilante is a wealth of knowledge:
If you do get a divorce and you don’t have a prenup, guess what? The decisions you could have made together as a couple, when you loved one another, will now be made by the “prenup” built into the divorce laws of your state! And, most likely, the interpretation of those divorce laws and application of them to your divorce will be determined primarily by your own choices (as an emotionally upset divorcing spouse!) and the attorneys who will be hired to represent your best interests under those laws. Personally, I’d rather have that decision be made by two people who care about one another rather than by an adversarial proceeding involving strangers and laws that might be inapplicable to our lifestyle choices!
Read his whole comment here. It’s really good.
Fervent Finance’s thinking echoes mine:
Getting a prenup does not mean you plan to fail. It just means you plan to figure things out ahead of time.
Bingo!!!
Gwen from Fiery Millennials is kicking ass in life and says yes to the prenup:
Single lady here. I will absolutely expect to sign a prenup. I have worked very hard to get where I am today. In my age group, I’m definitely in the top 5%. Finding a guy with equal status is doable, but difficult. So to protect myself, a prenup will be signed.
Reader Steve saved a lot of hassle because his dad had a prenup:
I thank my lucky stars that my dad had a prenup when he remarried. I regard my step-mother fondly, but administering his estate is hard enough with just my siblings without the extra drama of adding step-brothers and step-sisters
Most of you didn’t get a prenup including Reader Jeff from Jersey:
We have been married for 10 years at this point, and have a three year old son. Before we got married we dated for about 7 years, so we knew each other pretty well. While I am from a divorced family, never thought about needing to have a prenup.
The Tako family also didn’t get a prenup:
A prenup (or even talking about one) definitely sends the message that divorce might be a real possibility…and that’s not going to be a terribly popular conversation topic.
That would certainly be Mrs. Tako’s reaction if I had ever brought it up.
Finally, I laughed hard at Mr. Zero’s comment:
I did however come off with a doozy while on our honeymoon drive to Key West. We were talking about having children… something we had discussed before and agreed we both wanted.
Me: Don’t you think it would be a good idea to wait a few years to have kids. You know, just to make sure we are solid.
Mrs. Zero: [laser beam eyes through the side of my skull while I drove]. WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY? I can’t believe you just said that to your wife of 18 hours!
Me: Uh, well, cough, cough, ummm……. hey, I see a sign for a DQ up ahead. Want to stop for ice cream?
And now on to this week’s question:
What is your net worth?
I know I know, you may be uncomfortable right now. I hope you’re not squirming in your chair considering clicking this browser tab. It’s OK, you can do it. Or maybe you can’t.
It’s funny how uncomfortable most people are talking about money. It’s just money. It shouldn’t define you. If it does, you have issues.
It’s not healthy to avoid the topic either. If we were all a little bit more transparent and open, we’d all be better off. Money is a stepping stone, not the end goal. Don’t idolize it. Quietly accumulate it and then use it to fuel your dreams.
If you can’t bring yourself to tell me your net worth, here are some others questions from one of the best movies ever, Airplane. Surely you can answer at least one of them. (And don’t call me Shirley.)
Hmmm, that’s creepy. How about this one instead:
Forget that, how about this:
Never mind, I don’t want to know. Forget them all; just answer the one about net worth and let’s move on.
Join the 10s who have signed up already!
Subscribing will improve your life in incredible ways*.
*Only if your life is pretty bad to begin with.
Not counting both kids college funds and the value of our home we plan to relocate to, (zero mortgage) it’s 33x our planned withdrawal rate from our portfolio to meet expenses. Why are we still working, you may ask? Good question and if you or readers have any good answers, please share them!! 🙂
Mr. PIE recently posted…2016 Year in Review: It’s a PIE Life
Hey Mr. PIE, so glad that you’ve returned!
“Why are we still working, you may ask? Good question and if you or readers have any good answers, please share them!!”
Ha ha, I ask myself the same thing every day!
> 400 < 500. Buying a house bumped it up a lot! I don't count my credit card as liability but I also don't count my checking account that is used to pay the credit card. I also have no idea on items around the house, but I doubt it would make a big difference. (Beanie babies value is 'cute' not $.)
I was having coffee with a friend yesterday and he said his net worth is $1 million. I gave him a high 5 and now I know one in real life!
Beanie Babies! I still remember when someone told me they were part of their retirement strategy. Not kidding, unfortunately…
The closest you’ll get is its 25x what I consider a bare minimal livable amount but not 25x my expenditure rate or my planned expenditure rate in retirement. Ie a bare essential of what I define as financial independence.
Airplane sure is a great movie. Mrs. FTF claims she’s never seen it.
Never seen Airplane? Surely, you can’t be serious.
I am serious..And don’t call me Shirley
At the time of this writing our investments hover around 225k without our (nearly paid off) primary residence.
In some ways I’m proud of this number. I’m a high school teacher and my wife is a commercial photographer. Our earning potential from our careers is capped. We own a rental property with a healthy cash flow, have less than a year on our primary, and stuff money into investments.
Still, while we seem to be on much more solid footing than even our high-earning peers IRL, I feel behind in the FI community. We’re in our early 30s and have been thinking aggressively for fewer than five years (I spent most of my 20s in unhappy careers, bouncing between low-paying jobs).
We’re making up ground fast, but damn I’m jealous of some of you out there.
I think you’re doing wonderful. A cash flowing property removes the need for a some net worth. I need a big egg because I have my post-tax investments throw off less than $1,000 per year in income. In the next year or so, I hope to turn some of my next egg into cash flow.
I love Airplane! “Nervous?” “yes.” “First time?” “No. I’ve been nervous lots of times.” Bwahahaha
I have no actual clue what our net worth would be because we don’t calculate it. With no debt but the house, this would be my stab at it. If you took our savings and minused out the house I think it would still be in the double comma club. That’s without adding in what the house may sell for, has it appreciated (probably but who knows) or car values because well, I don’t count cars as assets, just things that cost me money. I’d say with the 529’s we’d still be pretty solid in the double comma club though. Huh, that was sort of anticlimactic. I just realized we’re fairly solid in our savings and yet there was no jubilant sound of trumpets or anything, What a pisser… 🙂
Mr. SSC recently posted…I STILL Have a Spending Problem
OMG, when we meet, we’re watching Airplane together. Can’t hardly wait.
I hear trumpets on my end. Oh wait, that was just a fart, sorry.
Closing in on the first million. As of January 1st, net worth was $966,532.00. Zero debt of any kind.
Nice work on the big egg and zero debt!
We are 60% on our way to FIRE. The past year we went from 40%-60%, so we are excited and motivated to keep pushing through. I’ve never seen the movie Airplane, but I think that needs to happen soon.
Mustard Seed Money recently posted…Roth 401K- Does Switching Make Sense?
Never seen Airplane??? Do it!
And nice work on your FIREy status!
My net worth is around 120 – 130k.
I should have a more detailed number once the month ends, but I think I’m doing pretty well for myself only being two and a half years out of college. I didn’t have much debt when I graduated though, only had $5,500 as most of it was covered through scholarships and grants.
Hey SP, those are incredible numbers for your age. You’re going to be completely set before you hit 40. Hell, maybe even 30.
But have you see Airplane?
Airplane! One of my all time favorite. Do you speak Jive?
We track our net worth monthly. Current sitting at about $330K It’s great to have the 10,000 foot view of your money as well as tracking with a budget.
Brian recently posted…DRIP Investing Explained
Hey home’, I can dig it. Know ain’t gonna lay no mo’ big rap up on you, man!
Hey jive turkey, we’re coming to NYC in July. Since you’re near, maybe we could meet up? We’ll spring for pizzas so we don’t adversely affect your net worth.
You diggin’ it?
Mr. 1500 Days recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is your Net Worth?
Jus’ hang loose, blood. I’ll catch ya up on da rebound.
Count me in, you dig?
Brian recently posted…Net Worth Update: January 2017
Currently just over 200k, but I’m also in my 40s, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I would love to somehow magically be in the 300’s by next year. Mathematically possible? We’ll see!
“Currently just over 200k, but I’m also in my 40s, so I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Perhaps, but you’re also near the beach and in my book, that is priceless.
By the way can’t believe how many people shared!!! Wow.
We are at 211 just put up my update this month and crawled up a few spots on j.Money’s net worth tracker.
You can do it!
Don’t loosen the belt too much.
More important than Net Worth is what I call “Retirement Liquidity”. It’s our Net Worth minus non-spendable assets (think house, car, etc). Our “Retirement Liquidity” could provide ~$65k of annual income as of 12/31/16. Due to health care inflation concerns, we’re working until June 2018 to “build a buffer”. At that point, we expect our “Retirement Liquidity” will fund ~$80k annually.
Wow, that is some nice RL! Way to go!
Health care scares us too, but check out Liberty Shares. It is run by a church, but you don’t have to be that religion or religious at all to join.
I am more concerned with the amount of passive income my savings and investments are able to generate. Depending on the type of investment, a $500,000 net worth could generate massively different levels of passive income. Also, as a real estate investor, I can only estimate the actual selling value of my properties, further complicating things would be estimating the costs needed to clean up the property once the tenants moved out.
Gentleman of Leisure recently posted…$1,500 Lost!
Gentleman of Leisure recently posted…$1,500 Lost!
Yep, great point GoL; passive income can completely replace a nest egg. As I said in a previous comment, I have a large nest egg because I have no passive income. I’m trying to trade some of it in for real estate.
>1M, retired 5 years and trying to live off 4% witdrawal. With 45/55% equities/bond index funds in IRA we have higher net worth than when i retired in 2012. Life is good.
“Life is good.”
So true, especially in your case. Only improvement would be an NES Classic!
Ours is hovering right under $330k right now. And since we don’t own a house and don’t count our cars, it’s all retirement funds, taxable investment accounts, and cash.
We’re currently working on a “$500k in 5 years” plan that seemed like a stretch goal when we designed it, but actually looks within reach if the stock market doesn’t tank. And, hey, even if the stock market does tank we’ll just buy up some cheap stocks!
Ellie @ The Chedda recently posted…My Most Profitable Side Gig
Ha ha, my guess is that you’ll be buying some cheap stocks in the very near future!
OK, cover your eyes….
We’re worth a little over $2.5 million these days, and $2.1 million of that is in liquid assets (stocks, bonds, cash, etc).
I like to think we live a pretty normal life too… the details of course are over on my blog.
Mr. Tako @ Mr. Tako Escapes recently posted…The Weighing Machine
$2.5 million! Those are some big tentacles.
Ha, that’s funny!
Team CF recently posted…Real Estate Report – January 2017
$3,629 Net Worth
I’ve never been a natural saver. I always thought that you get your paycheck, pay the bills, and spend the rest. Before I discovered FI when I was 30 I quit my factory job to finish college since I had dropped out of after only finishing a semester and a half right after high school graduation. I wanted to change my life and changing my career by moving into knowledge work was the start. I graduated in April of 2013 with about $40,000 in student loan debt.
Since graduation I’ve doubled my income so even though I took on debt to get my degree, it’s been worth the investment (it also drastically change my outlook on life). One fateful evening in April of 2015 I stumbled onto gocurrycracker.com and the FI community. I committed almost right away because I was so attracted to Jeremy and Winnie’s locationally independent lifestyle. I’ll have my student loan paid off by March of this year without any other debt.
Although my net worth number is minuscule right now I’m super proud of what I’ve accomplished since quitting my factory job and going back to school. I moved above the $0 net worth mark in December of 2016 and I’ll be debt free in a couple months.
I’ve found that FI isn’t about the money at all. My path to FI has increased my happiness by helping me discover what really matters to me. A true exercise in self-awareness. It’s all thanks to this community and you amazing people. Thank you!
“I’ve found that FI isn’t about the money at all. My path to FI has increased my happiness by helping me discover what really matters to me. A true exercise in self-awareness.”
yes. Yes! YES! Hell YES!! That is what it’s all about. Beautiful. I’m so glad you found this community and turned it around! Life is good.
We have not updated for January of 2017, but as of December we were at $528,000. In some ways this is a huge improvement from where we were just 5 years ago at the end of 2012 with $42,000. But in another way it reminds me of the long road ahead on our way to $10M.
2016 was the largest increase yet, with an increase of $210,000. We can pretty much count on increases to this magnitude going forward, based on our income alone.
Net worth target for 2017 $730,000 before any market gains/losses. Just based on savings.
Gen Y Finance Guy recently posted…Equity Portfolio Update #5 [+21% @ 12-31-16]
Nice goals Gen Y! Keep killing it!
3.2m
Haven’t hit FI quite yet and still years from retirement mainly due to 3 kids and living in expensive east coast city. It would be easier if it was just the 2 of us for sure. Until then should have the house paid for and let compounding interest do the work for us and continue to trim/cut budgets back.
Whoah, nice nest egg there. Would you consider relocating after the kids are out of the house?
YES. Last one off to college and the for sale goes up. Would like to move over seas for a while but taxes will get us so probably look at a split 1/2 time Europe and 1/2 time someplace in the US with a lower cost of living.
Yeah, there are so many great places, even here in the United States, where you can get by for pretty cheap. Plus, after the kids are out, a small place would probably suffice.
Net worth = $1,170,000
This includes $970,000 in taxable and tax-advantaged investment accounts, and a ton o’cash… roughly $400,000 in cash that I saved over the years. Interest rates are rising and I’ll consider myself mostly ‘FIred’ when I can earn a safe 5% interest on that cash, or $20K per year. Prevailing rates on 5 year CDs are a smidge over 2% now, so nearly halfway there.
The conservative market value of my home is $435,000, and I’m carrying a $288,000 mortgage at 3.4% interest.
I have no other debts, and I don’t include any other assets in my net worth calculation.
That is a substantial nest egg Paul, nice work!
Currently 26 with net worth of -$12k.
Growing by an average of $1700 per month between payments to student loan principle, after tax savings and 401k contributions. $1700 doesn’t include any investment appreciation.
I was there not so long ago. So cliche, but it seems like yesterday. Before you know it, you’ll have more money than you know what to do with.
I was 27, divorced and left with a house 80k underwater thanks to the financial crisis. I had about 20k in cash and could save 1k a month if i tried really f’ing hard. Ignore 401k since that’s off limits.
I’m 34 now, remarried and have 60k equity in the house (conservatively) with another 120k in investments and cash. I did well at work and married an awesome person but no money from heaven was given my way. If this helps any all i can say is just keep with it.
45, $1.7 million, married 3 girls, college years coming fast.
Nice work.
Wade – you married three girls?!? What state do you live in? 🙂
Great work on your savings too.
Not including any real estate equity (still have a mortgage on our townhouse), we are currently at $2.9m. Split roughly 30% tax-deferred (401k, IRAs) and 70% in taxable accounts (cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc). Outside of the mortgage, we do not have any other debt.
Wow, nice egg.
What an incredible turnout and such honest/open responses for your question! You should be really proud of the following you have.
Additionally, find this really motivating and encouraging to hear from so many people from such various age demographics and backgrounds about where they are on their financial journey. I am often guilty of getting too focused on a specific number to achieve and get frustrated by life in general, that I need to remember it is a journey and not a destination and to enjoy each stage along the way.
The amount of transparency from this community is really remarkable. Cheers!
Yeah (and holy bovine), this post set a record for comments. I thought that it would turn out the opposite, with very few willing to share.
“I am often guilty of getting too focused on a specific number to achieve and get frustrated by life in general, that I need to remember it is a journey and not a destination and to enjoy each stage along the way.”
Very wise. I’m completely guilty of ignoring the journey. And it’s really ridiculous and unwise to focus on the destination. We all must strive to enjoy every single day, not just the one years down the road.
Net worth is somewhere in the $1.2 million range. This includes $750,000 in combined 401(k), IRA’s, etc., $250,000 in liquid assets and about $200,000 in house equity. I turn 50 this year and am playing catch-up in my 401(k). I have 2 adult kids (1 in college and 1 just graduated with BS) and both are pursuing professional degrees. I intend to help with living expenses to keep their debt to a minimum, so I still have a few years of financial commitment with regards to education. I’d like to exceed $1.6 million within 5 years.
That’s a wonderful gift that you’re giving your children. I remember my debt out of school ($60,000). It was suffocating.
Thanks… I was lucky enough for both of my children to receive scholarships (1 full, 1 half). Basically, both kids will run about $30-$40k in total for their undergraduate degrees. So they saved me about $120k overall… The money was already set aside, so I’m just deferring it for future use. I also have 2 of the most frugal kids on the face of the earth… I like to think THAT was the best gift I could have given them. 🙂
Wow, you should write a course! Do you do consulting? 🙂
Dink couple here. I’m 26.7. Hubby is 27. $330K net worth. This does include home equity, however, no home appreciation. Goal is to hit $500K by the time we hit 30….Dec 2020.
SavvyFinancialLatina recently posted…Focusing on my health in 2017
Nice. You’re killing it!
Thanks, it helps to be motivated by bloggers like you 🙂
SavvyFinancialLatina recently posted…Focusing on my health in 2017
Wow, you’re doing really well for a young couple. I still remember when you started. Awesome. 🙂
I know Joe! You were one of the first blogs that introduced me to FI. Last year of college (technically grad school for me), I was 21!!!!
SavvyFinancialLatina recently posted…Focusing on my health in 2017
Solo I’m up to 125k finishing up my fourth year out of college. It was great to cross the six digit waterline in 2016 as a confidence booster that all the hard work is making a difference. Planning a wedding is cutting into the trajectory this year but with my savings rate it’s not the worry that many people seem to struggle with!
If you add in my fiance, together I think we’re in the ballpark of 250k. All those discussions about how people have joint accounts or partial splits have been very helpful for us to figure out what we’re comfortable doing!
Ah, a wedding. I think we spent about $3,000 on ours including the honeymoon.
And 250K is pretty great for a young couple. Hell, it’s pretty great period.
The budget for ours is more. Wedding budgets seem to be a strange topic in the FI blogs. I’d like to find a discussion that doesn’t turn into a one-upping game of who spent the least. My fiance and I are prioritizing this as something important to the both of us (we want to get our far spread family together and make sure that grandparents that can’t travel without assistance are able to come) and we are happy to smartly spend to make it happen. It’s great that other people are able to spend <5k but that's not in the cards for us. We're making a big effort to to make all spending reasonable but have the planning process remain fun as we're in the great position of still being able to fit it in while maxing out all retirement accounts and having already having eliminated all debt.
As long as you’re aware of and smart about it, it’s all good, Unless you’re spending $80,000 on some mega-wedding with 300 people and a castle, to each his or her own.
My wife and I have of a net worth of $1.87M not including our midwest home, split across taxable investment accounts, tax deferred retirement accounts, now-tax free (roth 401k) retirement accounts, 529 plans for our children, checking, and my older son’s piggy bank. With Zillow estimates for the equity we have in our home, our net worth is $2.08M. I’m 34, my wife is 31. We have been very lucky to mix a little bit of hard work along with our parents working hard and saving to pay for each of our college tuitions, while also teaching us the value of living well beneath our means. I continue to work full time and she continues to work part time because I have no idea where the finish line is or (more importantly) what it looks like.
Wow, you’re doing awesome, but this really intrigues me:
“I have no idea where the finish line is or (more importantly) what it looks like.”
Are you thinking of a finish line defined by net worth or post-work lifestyle?
That’s a big part of the unknown. I’ve just waded into the forums over at Rockstar, and my first post there was mostly about this. I don’t hate my job and I like the comfort the income provides to my family, but I’ve also looked forward to being work-free since I started working about 12 years ago. There are lots of things I could do to fill my time without work, but are any of them better than just continuing on with the work I mostly enjoy? I’m not working crazy work weeks and have a good amount of time to spend with my young children. I also enjoy occasionally spending money on somewhat nicer trips and material things. While our lifestyle is far from lavish, I don’t know how much we would realistically have to downgrade without earned income. So…I have this urge to not be working, but also an urge to keep working. What tips the balance?
You’re still young, so no need to make any rash decisions. You have a very, very good situation.
“What tips the balance?”
For me, it was learning how much I enjoyed my own passions. I have a post coming up about it that I’ll publish soon. It took time off for me to realize it though. Until recently, I had never had more than a week off of a work. An unexpected month off was a real eye-opener.
Perhaps you can find some kind of compromise? What about a short sabbatical? Take 3 months off and see how you feel at the end of it?
Thanks for your time and thoughts – great ideas indeed. Related question – why do you suppose people in the FI community are so supportive and encouraging about such a personal topic that can generate so much jealousy and greed, especially when transparency is introduced? The broadly consistent positivity is fascinating to me.
I think that even though we write about money, deep down, we downplay it. It’s only a tool to achieve something better. If you look at it this way, we believe that it’s better to help others acquire the tool so we can just move on to a better life.
It’s like my nail gun. I spent $200 on it to build a fine house. I’ve always let people borrow it and am happy to teach others how to use it. And now that I’m done building, I may donate it. The end goal was never the tool.
29k at 26, living with my partner who is 35 with a somewhat larger (undisclosed) net worth thankfully. I really need to figure out a way to make more money as I’m currently stuck at making 28k/year before tax with my expenditures hovering around 12-14k with travels.
“I really need to figure out a way to make more money as I’m currently stuck at making 28k/year before tax with my expenditures hovering around 12-14k with travels.”
Keep hustling. Airbnb, Uber, blogging. Start small. Perhaps try to get into some form of real estate.
I think about $580k right now. But it seems arbitrary. We have enough passive income to cover all our bills. So we only do the kind of work we want to do, as much as we want, when we want to. Some of the work we trade for money, some increases that net worth (I spent all weekend tiling my master bath shower), and a lot we do without compensation just because we love it (I gave a speech last month, and have one this month, each taking about 15 hours of prep in exchange for a thank you card!) . We traveled 8 weeks last year and will do about 4-6 this year. We hike on the weekends. We create things and help people. Honestly I feel like we are living the dream. The money is just takes care of the details. =)
AWESOME –>> “We create things and help people. Honestly I feel like we are living the dream.”
My wife and I have a net worth of ~ 2.4 million, with about 50% of that total being real estate equity, and the rest residing in retirement/savings accounts. We have no debt, except for our mortgage. Our net worth 7 years ago was only 200k, and now at age 41, there is enough money to make choices based on our values, instead of always optimizing around $. We still save aggressively (35-50% of our take home income), but mostly out of habit now instead of applied will power which was required in the early years. We have also been quite lucky in our careers and investments, and we are therefore extremely grateful to be in our current position. Unfortunately, we live in a high cost area, so we aren’t financially independent, yet. However, if the next 7 years are as good as the last 7, then we will be!
“We have also been quite lucky in our careers and investments, and we are therefore extremely grateful to be in our current position.”
I’ll bet that luck came with a lot of hard work and dedication!
We’re hoping to crack the million dollar ceiling by my 40th birthday next year. Which isn’t that an amazing story except that ten years ago I was WIC-eligible living in subsidized student family housing and our income was barely above the federal poverty line. Our total assets were under $15k for a family of four. A couple years later we were gifted a sizable fellowship (okay, my husband got the fellowship) and a little cash for a down payment for a home and combined with a state university professorship position we were elevated to the middle class. Our net worth was about $125k (including home) for the next 3 years or so.. until my husband left academia for the high tech industry in Seattle. When we arrived in WA we had a year’s worth of “sticker shock” as we adapted to the COL, but we also had a lot more cash coming in, about double what we had in the midwest. It was the end of 2013, about a year after buying our condo, when I sat down and started learning about personal finance and investing. Our net worth at the time must have been around $230k. I came across MMM and I set our course… full steam ahead!
Holy cow SJ, what an awesome and inspirational story. That’s awesome that you found MMM. He changed my life too.
Man, it is inspiring to see how well people are doing here in the comments. FIRE is in reach for so many readers.
We’re at about $860k net worth (including equity in various RE), and $660 liquid as of December (haven’t run this month’s numbers yet). We still have a way to go!
“Man, it is inspiring to see how well people are doing here in the comments.”
I know, right? So many awesome people.
As of the end of January 2017, my net worth is just north of $135k at age 26. My stretch goal for the end of the year is $200k, which means either the market needs to do well or I will have to hustle extra hard. Or both! It’d be fun to have $300k by the end of 2019. I’ll let you know how that goes lol.
Thanks for asking this question – I’m a voyeur for other’s net worth numbers. They’re so inspirational!
Gwen @ Fiery Millennials recently posted…Career and Life Update Jan 2017
“I’m a voyeur for other’s net worth numbers.”
I know, right? I wish I had a superpower that allowed me to see everyone’s net worth; like an augmented reality app that put the number above their head.
Me and my wife are in our mid 30s and our net worth is EUR 135k. Might not be jaw dropping, but this is a result of 2-3 years. Thinking seriously about personal finance has made the change.
Thanks for bringing up Airplane! I haven’t watched it for at least 10 years; time to do it again!
135K in under 3 years is pretty great. Almost as great as Airplane!
Great question! It’s very interesting to see all the answers.
I’m 43 and have about $2.3 million in combined net worth which should be plenty for ER.
I don’t feel wealthy and still live a low key lifestyle. Hopefully, I can convince Mrs. RB40 to retire early in a few years. That’s our next goal.
$2,300,000 is a good chunk of change. Can I borrow some money?
You can tell me, I’m a doctor.
Single income, married with 4 boys. My wife and I are in our early 30’s with a net worth of roughly $350k. Approximately $250k in 401k/IRAs/taxable accounts. We have really focused on growing our net worth over the past year or so and really appreciate blogs like this that allow us to learn with you.
Thanks AnActuary for the kind comment.
You’ll be surprised at how fast the money snowball grows once it gets moving.
Working on my second million…
Dividend Growth Investor recently posted…14 Dividend Growth Stocks Rewarding Shareholders With a Raise
Nice.
Currently, net worth is $376k. That number is pretty conservative, though, I think — I ignore about $3k in a 529 account for our kid, count our primary residence at the amount we paid for it in 2015 (the condo above ours just sold for nearly $30k more, and Zillow has ours up $34k in value), and count our new 2016 Ford Explorer’s value as equal to the amount of the car loan principle (per KBB, it’s worth about $6k more, minimum).
Ignoring our primary residence (both value and mortgage debt) and 529 accounts entirely, though, and we’re at $290k, conservatively — that’s about the amount that I’d have if we sold our rental house, and paid off all our outstanding (non-primary mortgage) debts. Of that, $235k would be in traditional 401k/IRA accounts.
Work has been very good, though, lately, so hoping some upcoming (reasonably anticipated) bonuses help push all those numbers up quickly.
I should add, my wife and I are 37. Since we combined our accounts in April 2014 (about 2 years after getting married), this has been our net worth progression:
April 2014: $61k
April 2015: $96k (which is crazy, since I was unemployed from May 2014-March 2015 and had our son in September 2014 — we cut costs like crazy, and even moved in with my in-laws for awhile, and it worked!)
April 2016: $230k
January 2017: $376k
About to have our second kid — with wife taking 6 months maternity leave and then increased day care costs, that rate may slow down a bit, but very blessed for both of us to have great jobs, supportive families, and general agreement between my wife and I on financial goals (and what we don’t agree about, we still discuss and come to some plan/approach on).
Wow, you’re growing by leaps and bounds! Nice work on the savings and cutting costs!
Thanks. Haven’t kept up the cutting costs quite as extremely (bought a condo and a car that we needed, etc.) but still managing to do pretty well while we kill student loan debt/car loan debt and save in tax-advantaged retirement/taxable accounts and emergency accounts (we actually saved up a separate “maternity leave” fund for my wife’s 6 months of maternity leave…anything we DON’T spend from there we’ll invest/use on debt paydowns….)
Bad memories in a Turkish prison. It was shank or be shanked.
My goal was to hit $50k net worth last year and I’m at about $57k. I’m single and don’t make a ton, so it’s progress :). I’m going to max out retirement accounts this year and try to focus on getting more of my house renovated. Goal is $75k by the end of 2017, but I think I could hit $80k. Didn’t include my mortgage.
Kyle recently posted…2017 Goals and 2016 Reflection
Nice work, but I know you’re a smart dude. You’re probably limiting yourself a little bit with your job. Perhaps you could ask for a raise or move on? You may do a lot better in a bigger city too.
~600K USD. Growing each month by 5 digits and aiming to “The Million” in 3 years
5 digits month, whoah! Nice work.
We’re currently around 530k not counting equity. But, we’re picking up steam on our road to FI! We were at -250k with school loans a little over 4 years ago. Currently hoping to hit FIRE in around 4.5 years at our current rate. A little later than all of these FIRE all-stars, but I’m so excited to see our time approaching.
Our goal is not true retirement, but the ability to be location independent and live international. I plan to leave my nest egg alone to grow until true retirement and earn enough to support my family doing things that my wife and I enjoy without having to worry about saving for retirement anymore. Our plans include doing some international medical relief and linguistics work. Crazy to see our goals getting closer!
Location independent is huge. It would be awesome to go abroad as well. You can live for dirt cheap in some parts of the world.
I’m at 76k , and I saved really hard for it (around 50 to 60% saving rate)
My income is not that great so it’s been hard to save and live with the comfort I want (I can only afford renting a room in basement if I want to reach that savings rate)
I will try my best, but I do feel discouraged sometimes, I will keep trying to grow myself career wise as well
D
PS I haven’t seen airplane
No Airplane! Ack!
Keep at it. You’ll hit a point where your money will start really working for you and the snowball will be out of control. Until then, hustle hustle hustle.
Thank you, I will keep at it!..
Holy crackers, you have some very rich readers Mr 1500! Quite the list of millionairs.
We got a late start but are catching up and are on our way to 65% on the Cheesy Index by the end of this year. Which would be well over €500k. Thought we were doing good, but seeing the above comments, it suddenly seems pretty modest……a well, more motivation 🙂
Team CF recently posted…Real Estate Report – January 2017
I know, right? Whoah. I haven’t heard anyone say $10,000,000 yet though. Come on, can we see $10,000,000? And if you’re out there, can I borrow some money?
I’m 39, my wife is 38. Our net worth is approx. $135k excluding equity from investment properties. 4 years ago, our net worth was negative. A bad business deal 10 years ago, and dealing with its continued aftermath is the reason we are not much, much further along. The choices you make, and whom you choose to do business with, are as important as the type of business you go into.
Though our net worth is low, especially compared to many of the people responding to this post, the future outlook is positive. At the rate we are going now, 8 years will retire all business/investment mortgage debt. This in addition to still contributing to retirement funds and other investments. At that time, even if our net worth is not where we want it, passive income will help make up some of the gap.
Regardless of our net worth, I feel we are striking a better balance between saving money for the future, and ensuring we enjoy the time we have together now. We put aside money every month for travel, and make sure we use it throughout the year. I feel that is as big a benefit to our well-being as watching our net worth number increase!
Thanks for continuing this blog, it is very inspiring, both financially and from a quality of life perspective!
Thanks for the kind comments Russell, much appreciated.
I’m sorry to hear about the bas business deal. That sounds like a horrendous thing to have gone through, both emotionally and financially.
34 here, family of 4. Given the Vancouver housing market is a bit insane right now, we have more net worth tied to our house than liquid assets. Not counting deprecation assets like cars and stuff, we’re about $500k or so above your # Carl.
Tawcan recently posted…Recent Buys – ABBV, XTC.TO, SRU.UN
Can I borrow some money?
Lol. We can talk about that at Fincon. 😉
I’m 51 and spouse is 52. Net Worth ~ $1.4M.
Investment & cash accounts $1.07M. House is valued at $350k, with zero mortgage. Four cars (three of which are 12 years old, but always well maintained) valued at $35k total, with zero loans. Two kids thru great state colleges, both with zero student loans. Stay at home wife/mom for 23 years, priceless.
The above has not been achieved thru any financial expertise our part, but instead by the word “always” over the course of 27 years:
– Always contributing the annual maximum to retirement plans (IRAs & 401Ks).
– Always paying off in full the credit card each month.
– Always trying to pay cash for new or used vehicles (we did need loans early on, but have paid cash for the last five.)
– Always setting aside monthly contributions to college savings accounts.
– Always paying a little extra each month on the mortgage.
– Always ensuring major purchase decisions include both of us, and that we’ve done everything possible to build time into the process so we’re not rushed.
Nice work. Love this:
“Four cars (three of which are 12 years old, but always well maintained) valued at $35k total, with zero loans. Two kids thru great state colleges, both with zero student loans. Stay at home wife/mom for 23 years, priceless.”
54, married, still have two pre-teen boys at home. Net worth, minus personal property and home equity, = 1.8 M. No debt except for modest mortgage balance. Based on current consumption levels, I could probably retire, but will likely keep working until early 60s. That darn health insurance issue, and two young boys, keep my from saying adios….
Hmmm, health insurance… Have you ever considered this: https://www.libertyhealthshare.org/
I know some folks who are on it and all are very happy with it. Just no smoking or obesity.
Liberty Health Share looks like an interesting idea. The monthly “share” amounts are certainly less than typical health insurance. I especially like the requirement that folks with certain “life style” caused preexisting conditions are expected to contribute more. With typical health insurance the young and healthy subsidize the old and unhealthy irrespective of life-style choices. It always bothers me that their are smokers in the risk pool of my employer.
I’m not completely clear on how medical bills are handled by Liberty, but I’ll continue to review their website and look for on- line reviews, articles on the service, etc. Thanks for the suggestion.
Check out Holly Johnson’s post for more information: http://clubthrifty.com/liberty-healthshare-review/
She’s been on it for a couple years and likes it. She’d probably answer your questions too.
Two weeks from my 30th birthday!
Our net worth sits around the $215K mark (our exact total is on a spreadsheet at home), with much of that sitting in retirement accounts and a house downpayment fund (more on that in a moment). We were higher a year ago, but this is after we took a year off work to travel around the world (got back at the start of the year), which we felt was a worthy trade-off 🙂
Our financial world will be changing soon as well, as we just bought a house (closing this week) and we are due with Baby #1 in June. Interesting times!
Wooo, fast times JR! World travels, turning 30 and a baby! Nice work on all counts!
I don’t share my NW in specifics anymore. The last time I did was July 2011 and it was hovering around $130,000. I’m now aiming for our first $2M divided between retirement accounts, cash, personal property, investment property, and a dividend-bearing portfolio.
We have a bit of a way to go still, but if we can improve exponentially like we did in the last five years, that could happen soon!
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Slow goals are long term goals
$2,000,000! Can I borrow some money?
Sure, but there’ll be some interest on the return 🙂
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Slow goals are long term goals
Like many others here we are quite open about our financial situation, mostly online though. But honestly, I don’t know our net worth… And that might be even weirder in this community than not sharing it.
We never really needed to know. Having a high net worth or even reaching FI is not the goal, like you said. It’s more about the way of life.
But in order to plan ahead and know where to go in order to reach the FI status (and still work longer then probably needed). I’ve made it a new years resolution to map all our financial assets in order to get some more insight and be able to plan ahead. Currently still in the process, so this question came just a bit too early 🙂
Wow, unfortunately, I’m obsessed with my numbers. That may sound bad, but it’s a game to me.
Our net worth is around 370k Euros (at least I hope it, we know for sure in a few days when I did the final calculations and blogged about it). 2015 was a spectacular year and I’m hoping each year to replicate it 😀
It’s interesting that some readers have a couple of millions and are still not there. My target number is 600k and I hope to be there by 2020 at latest.
EurFI recently posted…Answering questions about my part-time work
I need a bit more than you because of my damn habit with the white powder. Snowboarding, not cocaine.
But yeah, I don’t know what I’d do with a couple million. More snowboarding?
I have been on the FIRE train for about a year and we are sitting at around 150k aiming for $1mill, having a 1 year old with a second on the way and just purchased a new house is going to put a slow on things for the next few years.
FamilyDollarMan recently posted…Family Dollar Man explained – Part 1 – Who are we?
$150,000 is a pretty good place to start. You’ll be surprised how fast that snowball starts to grow…
As of 1/28, our net worth is $960,000. About 60% is in equities, 10% is home equity, 20% is cash and the remaining is bonds (I count my company cash pension as bonds). Some of you might say, good grief, why so much cash – that seems stupid. You would be right. I’m working on correcting that mistake.
Mr. 1500, I love this statement, especially the fuel your dreams part:
“Money is a stepping stone, not the end goal. Don’t idolize it. Quietly accumulate it and then use it to fuel your dreams.”
– Zero
Forgot to mention. I am 43 years old and Mrs. Zero is 29 (wink, wink).
Our net worth was negative just over 10 short years ago. Wish we had seen the light sooner like some of the people above.
We are at about 250k….but as someone else said we are in our 40s and we have a long way to go. We probably won’t hit the 2 comma club for a decade. If I only knew now 20 years ago.
Mrs. Need2Save and I are both 44 and she took about six years off after having our sons in rapid succession (almost Irish twins!)
According to Mint, our net worth is around $1.7M if you count the home equity. If you take away the home equity, we are around $1.3M. We don’t include college savings and we are in good shape to fully cover in-state tuition, room, and board.
Part of the reason I feel we can’t retire yet is that our taxable accounts aren’t large enough to cover us until 59 1/2. And no significant passive income to speak of.
Mr. Need2save recently posted…Filling Your Time In Early Retirement
Well, -$50k here.
Just three months into this FIRE journey, I’ve focused the last 10 years on reducing our debt while making sure to take advantage of our 401k match. So, $90k in student loan and credit card debt has become $20k of just student debt. House is on a 15 yr note @ 3.25%, with about $165k left. I knew two things when we bought, I wanted it paid off early with as little interest paid as possible.
What that has done is set my magic number at 45. I’m 31 now, and I’d like to get to $1.5 mil by the time the house is paid. Our retirement accounts add up to $135k as of today, and we’ll add $30k this year. My wife is a teacher, so we have 3 $18k yearly buckets to fill (my 401k, her 403b and 457), plan is to get those filled over the next 8 years through her scheduled raises. Goal for this year is $0 net worth, might need a big payment on the student loans, but we’ll watch the market and see what happens.
Got started into FIRE with this blog, which pointed me to JLCollins stock series. Couldn’t stop reading it, but now that I’m finished, I’m back here on a regular basis. Thanks guys for the help!
My net worth is sitting at $110k right now. Mid-30’s. Co-habiting with my boyfriend and currently keeping finances separate.
Got out of debt a few years ago and have been saving like a mad woman ever since.
Your readers are incredibly rich, Mr. 1500! I can’t wait for the day I’m closing in on a million.
Linda@Frugal Turtle recently posted…A (Mostly Financial) Look Back at 2016
$120k, half from equity, half from other investments. I don’t feel too cashed up compared to the other commentators, but I’m only 25!
Also, did you know Airplane was called Flying High when they released it in Australia?
“The Red Zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, and there is not stopping in the Red Zone”
I don’t share my net worth on my blog anymore because I’m a big sissy. But I’ll share here since you were one of the first FI blogs I started following back in the day. I just crossed $225k. One of the reasons I stopped sharing is because my income has kind of popped in the past year or two and I’m honestly kind of embarrassed a little bit. I feel like if I share my net worth, I should also share my income as that is the main driver behind the increases.
Why do I feel that way? Maybe I just don’t want to be judged I guess. I know a lot of people have student loans and other debt and are struggling to pay those back due to lower income. I don’t want it to come off as boasting or anything. But others in the community have much higher incomes than myself and they seem to have no problem sharing. Maybe I just need to suck it up.
Fer recently posted…Time, the Ultimate Commodity
50 Year old Mr and 49 year old Mrs. Our networth is about $1,600,000 with about $1,050,000 of that in investments, cash etc. And the rest the estimated value of our house. We also live in a HCL Canadian city. So that amount has us close to FIRE but not there yet.
$120k, half equity half ‘actual’ investments. Not much compared to the other commentators, but I’m only 25! Although I’ve been idolising FI since I started my first office job.
Also, did you know ‘Airplane’ was released as ‘Flying High’ in Australia?
“The Red Zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the Red Zone”
Boring answer alert:
Our total net worth is about £210,000 which is about $270,000
However, excluding house equity it’s only £132,000 and excluding our retirement accounts it’s only £60,000
I’m concentrating on getting that last one up to around £100,000 if I can at which point I’ll declare myself “FI enough” to quit my day job and pursue other ventures, if I so wish. Screw the 4% rule! 🙂
Now for the fun stuff :
This woman needs to get to a hospital
A hospital? What is it?
It’s a big building with patients in it, but that’s not important right now.
Mr. 1500, I’m hitting the big 40 this year… soon I can’t claim to be a 30 something anymore… wahhh wahhh.
Anyhow, a good chunk of our NW is in real estate (primary home and 3 investment properties). Last time I checked, we were hovering around $1.7M.
I’ve got 10 years to figure out how to grow that to $10M. 🙂
Michael @ Financially Alert recently posted…So, what do you do? uhmmm…
$2.1M excluding home equity and 529 funds. Me 43, wife 38 and kids of 6 and 4. We are FI, but not RE. Damn that one more year syndrome…
Out by 202o is the plan with hopefully a clearer path to the future healthcare landscape.
Living in Amsterdam NL, with a house back in Canada. No Kids, married we are 45 and 39 yrs old. House $625,000 (no mortgage). Registered and non-registered investments $1,220,000. Total ~$1.8MM. All in Canadian dollars. 18 months before I go part-time (hopefully). Great post. Mark.
For better or worse – posted for the whole world to see over at Freedom40Plan.com.
Currently we’re at about $1.25M.
Next update will be on 2/1 or 2/2 – will we be up or down?
Freedom 40 Plan recently posted…Paying off Student Loans – 15 Years Later!
34 with a family of three (wife 34, daughter 6), net worth today ca. 15k EUR, just liquid assets no home equity whatsoever. Just learned about the whole FIRE movement last November and have been devouring all the big blogs since then (jlcollinsnh, MMM, yours :), … )
We seem to never have been able to save anything in our family, so this is our first conscious effort to do so. We’re making about 40k EUR between us after taxes, which is ok for where we live (Austria).
First million here we come!
Have seen Airplane, but can remember nothing but Shirey 😉
$5M to add to a $1.5M recent inheritance. Retired 6 yrs (54 & 64). Monthly income $18K (pension & deferred comp $ payout). No kiddos. Always have & always will live simply & well below our means. Love spending $ on our family, though! Just treated the nieces/nephews to a week on St. John, USVI this past summer. Figure we may as well make some memories with them! 🙂 We’ll also help them with college expenses when the time comes.
If the market returns 2.5% or higher and contribution rates hold constant this year, we will be at just over 1 million. This number only includes the typical stuff (not cars, toys, jewelry, etc).
Currently happily retired at roughly 75x my annual burn not including my paid for home or fun toys. Today was a great day Kilauea was spewing a firehose of lava into the pacific and I got burnt with lava…yes I can highly recommend early retirement!
Cool to read everyone’s stories! Working off my Mint account, I’m at $1.4M. Heavy real estate, need more liquid investments. $60k cash, $475k investments, $1.8M value in 4 properties (including primary) w/ around $950k in outstanding loans. Working on paying off the rentals now and hope to keep adding to our investments. Work to live! i.e. ski, climb, fish, and bike in CO!
I’m 58, stay at home mom, taking care of my elderly dad since my mom passed away. Husband is 48 and the (mostly sole) bread-earner for the past 17 years. We have a 17-y/o sophomore in college; due to scholarship and scrambling to pay cash, we currently only have a $2k debt on her studies. We have a mortgage balance of about $190k on our home, with about $20k net equity in the place. Our 401k is worth about $50,000. We have one leased vehicle (bad move but yep, there’s a story behind it) and one company- supplied one. We have virtually no cash; no other investments. No joint credit cards, but my husband has one from prior to our marriage that I *think* has about a $4k balance. I’ve struggled to live debt-free for years, and interest my husband in furthering our financial interests, but he thinks it can’t be done, so here we are. Our net worth? Let’s just call it $sad.
Why would I post this, you might be asking? Two reasons. As I read everyone else’s strong-and-improving situations, I felt worse and worse. Figuring there must be others in our leaky boat who might appreciate knowing they’re not alone, I’m throwing this out there. Also- I honestly can’t figure out how to improve our situation. Tips appreciated. Thanks.
I’m sorry that you’re struggling.
Every little bit helps. If you’ve already focused on cutting expenses (cell phones, insurance, cable bill), look for little ways to increase your income. Can you rent a room out with Airbnb? How about driving for Uber or Lyft one evening a week? What about making $13/hour (starting) to work from home supporting You Need a Budget: https://ynab.recruiterbox.com/jobs/fk0hl74/
These jobs may not be glamorous, but an extra $250-$500/month over time will start to add up, especially if you’re able to invest it.
I appreciate the reply more than you can know! Cutting all we can, no cable, shop at Goodwill and rarely, registered as an Uber driver but with a leased vehicle and mileage allowances that was dumb on my part…my husband refuses to rent out one sometimes-extra room in our small home, and I will *definitely* check out You Need a Budget right away! 🙂
The thing is, I’ve tried to live the Dave Ramsey lifestyle for years, no credit cards, don’t buy it unless it’s in cash, etc, and although my husband makes pretty good money now ($120k), we’ve had a few medical setbacks, have probably been a little more generous to those in need than we could truly afford, and living all-cash, paycheck to paycheck has never left space to invest or get ahead. I’m feeling pretty desperate due to my age, what feels like zero marketable skills…and a little extra every month, while gratefully welcomed, won’t help unless I know exactly what to do with it. Any tips in that direction? Or other advice, lol- don’t hold back, I’m throwing it all on the table trying to make up for misdirection and much lost time! Thank you again.
$120,000/year is healthy income unless you live in a high-rent area like San Francisco or New York City. I’d be curious to see your monthly expenditures. We try to keep our spending below $3,000 per month.
You’re correct in that your age is working against you. However, your college expenses will be gone in time and that will ease things up. What I’m about to say is controversial, but it wouldn’t be a crime to have your daughter take out loans for her school. Most financial advisors recommend taking care of yourself first. Your daughter has loads of time to pay for school and you do not.
Social security will be there for you too. And at some point, you can downsize homes to make your dollar go a little further.
I’m uncertain exactly what you’re including in the $3k monthly expenditures, but I can tell you that our monthly net income is about $6200, our mortgage/prop taxes/insurance run $2k on a 15 year loan, and yep- college expenses, which we stupidly didn’t plan for, are running us about $1,500 per month. College caught us off-guard- our child began at the age of 15, and instead of having waiting a year and applying for the scholarships we counted on, she decided in Feb to graduate in May, and we’ve been scrambling ever since. The auto lease is $375 monthly, medical/dental/eye etc expenses avg out to $800 monthly, and about $1k goes to car/life insurance, utilities/phones, gas, and donations, and the leftover is food, clothes, etc. No vacations- ever. We’ve tried not to saddle our child with debt at her age, especially after preaching a lifetime message of no cash/do without. I can easily figure out everything we’ve done wrong, but aren’t sure how to move ahead from here. Oh, and the $120k income is a recent jump. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time to answer me- I keep thinking I’m missing the boat somewhere, but cannot even seem to figure out which harbor it’s sailing from. Many thanks.
Lin — thanks for sharing, it takes courage. White light to you. There are no easy answers, but it would seem your recent increase in income is a step in the right direction. There are a lot of competing priorities, and I think the hardest part can be deciding what to put first, second, third. But probably you need to tackle these one at a time somehow to feel like you’re getting ahead.
I’ve been talking about this with my cousin — we write a blog together and we are completely income inequal — she has $173k in student loan debt and they make $40k per year. Her approach is to pay that off aggressively, but it’s not easy. I keep trying to figure out how she’s no panicking, but she has an interesting optimistic perspective.
I kind of agree with Mr. 1500 that you might consider getting yourself squared away first, and then help your daughter. From what you’ve said, your daughter is clearly bright! She’ll be earning an income in no time, and the more you can help yourself now, the better you can help her later. Just a thought but I completely understand your desire for no loans. Do you think the Dave Ramsey approach has held you back with the intense focus on cash?
Again, thanks for sharing and best of luck to you. –R
And your daughter can always take out loans and you can help pay them back. This gives you a safety net.
Thanks, Rich, you’re absolutely right about competing priorities- a little here, a little there, and pretty quickly we’re balancing on that tightrope, feeling like we’ll never get ahead. We really are in a much better position than we were 10 years ago, and I’m very grateful for that, but I seriously wonder now whether my blind insistence on cash-only-always has restricted us, and ensured that we’d tread water forever. And that’s why I’m hanging out here, reading and asking questions- I’m convinced we can still *get there* ( although I admit *there* is definitely not the same place it would be if we were just getting started!).
Just as a point of info, too: We did let our daughter take some small student loans, which I have diligently worked to pay off as we go. (That’s my inner Ramsey kicking in- hard.) She started college at 15, and I just couldn’t see saddling her with debt before she was even 18, due to poor planning on our part.
By the way, great blog- you have a new subscriber! 🙂
Our house is paid off with a low end value of $225k. We have $160k+ in investments and $10k liquid. So, all in, about $395k.
On an average of 40k a year and 3 kids, this isn’t terrible. We are 40 and started a business 2 years ago that has doubled in incone each year, so our potential income is going way up for the first time ever. Very exciting time for us.
35/35 with 3 little dudes. We’re right under the $1M number at $980k. We really started focusing on this in the last 2 years and were able to bump our yearly net worth increase figures. Most of ours is in retirement accounts, and we don’t count the 529’s but play to get the 3 through college debt free and then release them into the wild. Only debt is the house and we’ve decided to make a push to pay it off before turning 40. The only thing likely to keep me going is ensuring the little dudes have their education paid for (private religious school experience we wouldn’t trade for anything right now) and insurance (although I’m fearing that less and less).
I’d be interested in hearing plans from people who don’t want to use passive income in retirement. My plan is to have enough to just sit back and relax and have the spending habits that allow me to fluctuate with the market. I’m not saying I’d never earn a dollar after retirement, but the idea is to not have to mess with owning a business/rentals if possible.
The following need to be considered to make a net worth number meaningful:
1) what is your current age?
2) Are you married and is the net worth for the family or per person?
Totally agree. Considering #1, a 25 year-old with $150,000 is more impressive than a 34 year-old with $1,500,000 in my book.
Long time reader, first time commentator here.
First, love the great work you produce – and am always jealous when I think of you and Mr. Moustache in my old neck of the woods (went to high school in Ft. Collins).
Not exactly sure what my net worth is – my wife and I have aprox $450k in liquid assets, a 3 flat that we live in and rent out (aprox cash flow neutral) with I’d guess $100k in equity, plus I co-own about 20 properties in Detroit & environs. Most of those are extremely ill-liquid so it’s hard to figure out value, but are rented out and have a fairly intense cash-flow. I’d guess I’m nearing the double comma club, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it, since we’ve been moving a lot of our liquid assets to real estate over the past 5 years.
Hey Conan! You shouldn’t be jealous at all; I think you’re doing wonderful. When it comes down to it, a huge net worth isn’t required when you have lots of semi-passive income. You’re kicking ass.
Thanks so much for you kind words. It sounds cliche, but comments like that make all of this worthwhile. I hope your 2017 is the best yet!
New subscriber here!
I’m new to the FI community, but have to admit, I’m really following along for the financial advice. At 28 years old and a mere $7k net worth (I still have $22.5k of student loans I’m working to pay off, which nearly offsets the $25k I have in investments), it feels like I’ll be lucky to retire in my mid-sixties. I don’t have much room to invest from my income (and I hate quite often that I live in Maryland which has a high cost of living like much of the northeast), but I’m working hard to make better financial decisions and to slowly start putting more of my income into my 401K. Thanks for the inspiration and information 🙂
You do like to ask personal questions, don’t you, Mr. 1500.
Coming soon on Ask the Readers: What is the length and circumference of your third leg in various stages of turgidity?
I don’t publish numbers on my own site, but this is not my own site. $2.75M, give or take, and donor advised funds from which to donate from with ~ $190K.
Drops mic.
Physician on FIRE recently posted…Top 5 Ways for Physicians to Attack Student Loans
!!!!!!
I’m not touching your mic.
You should report people’s net worth in Super Bowl ad seconds. I’ve got 15 seconds worth, which puts things in perspective.
$1.3 plus home equity at ages 51 and 53.
Advantages: No kid$ (just didn’t work out), a high employer match of 13.5% and 8% for my wife in our 30s and 40s, somehow getting on the Vanguard Total Stock Index train early.
Disadvantages/Boneheaded Mistakes/Ignorance: We’ve been house junkies and spent too much on 4 of those literal sponges of investable assets; We thought the rule of thumb “Save 15% of your salary!” was thought up by “Actual Smart People Who Know What They Are Talking About”; We didn’t have any vision that FIRE in our 40s or early 50s was possible without a hit record so, for us, it was all Hi Ho, Hi Ho….; Mr. Money Mustache and JLCollins and the rest of you folks weren’t writing until just a few years ago, so the fact that I’m still making my lunch and trudging off to the office is really all you guys’ fault. 🙂
I’m 24 and have saved 30k. 28k invested and 2k in cash not sure if that is a bad ratio….
Half I’ve invested and half is from money my parents put away for me from when I was a child. I have not had a salary yet. I graduate from nursing school in a year and then hope I can really get into putting money away. Really happy to have found your blog!
I will probably move to NYC when I graduate I am from the area and all my friends and family live around there. I have lived away from them since I was 18 so I am longing to go back. I am worried about how to keep saving with the cost of living.
And no I have not seen Airplane….
I love this thread. It’s inspiring to see where everyone is at.
We’re at $500K. That includes house (65% – mortgage free), investments (30%) and cash (5%).
We have a daughter, one income and recently relocated (for work) to a fairly high cost of living place, but are working hard to stick to a 17%ish saving rate. So it’s building slowly.
At a place where I am thinking how do I get to the big $1M? But at the same time, I really just want to enjoy my life and not always be chasing stuff. So, I may end up just shifting to a low cost of living, take a decent paid but low stress job which is flexible and really get a much better balance in life (I’m in a exec type of role at the moment).
Love to know your thoughts!
Oh man, don’t forget to enjoy the journey. I have to tell myself that all. the. time. You’re already doing very well for yourself, so don’t sweat it.
Dunno what to do about your job though. Your investments will double every 7-10 years if you don’t touch them, so if you cut back, you’re still going to have a big egg some day.
Hey Mr 1500! Surely, you must be joking about sharing net work online.
Happy to share, just calculated yesterday on my blog (click over there for, ahem, the nitty gritty detailed money porn).
41 years old, goal is to hit $1MM by the end of age 45. As of today: $578,348.
NET WORTH TOTALS 2/3/2017
Retirement $373,605
Investments $206,410
Cash $24,183
Debt -$25,850
Total $578,348
“net work”. Ha, me no spelly two gud.
I’m stuck between being impressed by all the folks here who have worked so hard and are so close to being FIRE and feeling out of place with my piddly little $10k net worth, most of which is currently in cash savings as my emergency fund. I’ll be satisfied to know that compound interest really has my back – I started last year at 19!
This year I’m working hard at maxing out my Roth for the first time in my life. It might be a bit of stretch since maxing that out will be a 25% savings rate for me… but here’s to hoping!
Great start. You have the most powerful wealth building tools of all. A plan and….Time!
Avid follower, 1500, first time post.
41, single, no kids. Started FIRE journey early last year but have always been a saver and lived within my means. Net worth currently at $890,000. Improved 272K last year when I started focusing on it!
2017 starts the peak earnings years for me. With that being said, I could wrap up in 1 year but will work 3 more to avoid a tax hit on an early out with my Deferred Comp plan.
Now to just find a cutie that “gets” the FIRE lifestyle and doesnt spend $200/month to get her hair done. Ha!
Keep up the great work!
$6 million net worth, reached last Thursday (unsure if we are still there today – I don’t recalculate this daily, really!).
My wife and I are both 48, have 3 offspring in various stages of childhood. My wife paused her career when we started the family, which has been very helpful when one of the kids was diagnosed with autism and needs extra attention.
Characteristics:
– We live frugally (but not extreme). A simple life is a happy life.
– Own a good home in an expensive state, do most household repairs ourselves
– Buy our cars new, drive them for 10-15 years / 200k miles+
– Maxed out 401(k) contributions for 20+ years, now worth $850,000
– Do annual backdoor roth conversions
– Charge as many of our expenses on credit cards as possible, pay off in full every month
– Use a donor advised fund for charitable contributions (eg: donate appreciated stocks)
– Involve our children in financial discussions and decisions
– Built a self-managed residential real estate business (31 units), putting all proceeds back into the business. We’ve ridden interest rates down through refinancing, and plan to carry this (relatively) cheap debt long term until depreciation runs out at which point we’ll 1031 exchange
– Have tracked our net worth from the negative balance when we married 24 years ago to now (assets, liabilities, % change YoY, record this quarterly)
– Took 11 years to make our first million
– Parents helped us with a down payment on our first house (2 bedroom condo), inherited a $350k house recently. Everything else was from the sweat of our own brows and investing. No lottery tickets.
– Have a $1 million line of credit (secured by our non-retirement stock portfolio) used to support the real estate business (down payments, major rehab work, all-cash offers)
I have a good job which I enjoy, but is high stress and comes with silver handcuffs. Over the last year or so we are starting to look more seriously at my exit plan. Big areas of concern are funding college for the kids, losing access to 30 year fixed loans for <5 unit properties, paying down the line of credit before the next big market correction, and converting the real estate business from reinvestment mode to retirement income. A great salary and benefits create a big headwind towards making the jump to financial independence.
AWESOME.
$6,000,000! Holy hell! Nice work! And in only 24 years? Holy cow.
Life is short friend! Those silver handcuffs would be easy to unlock with your net worth. How much more do you need?
Thanks for sharing your story. I’ll bet you worked (and continue to work) very, very hard for it.
Some very hard work, and being able to ride out the big recession and start acquiring real estate during that time at low prices.
I think we are there, probably past where we need to be. I think my challenge is getting the courage to leave my W2 behind.
It’s not easy…
Do you know what it’s like to fall in the mud and get kicked…in the head, with an iron boot?
$1.3 mil NW at 43, single dad raising two boys. $1.15 liquid in qualified and non qualified accts. $320k in real estate, two mortgages totaling $176k netted out, interest rate 1.25% on mortgage debt. All after 50/50 split divorce. Great motivator for FI. Cash flowing college expense for MB2. Will work for 8 more years, MB3 will finish college, SS will be maxxed and then switch to nonprofit career for pension and benefits.
Our net worth right now is right around $50,000. But if you take out my 401(k), we would probably have a negative or break-even net worth. We are working on paying down our debts so they don’t outweigh our assets, but like all good things, it takes time.
We’re currently at $4.1M. I’m currently 47 and hubby is 52. We make a great income (about $500K per year) and manage to save about 40% of total income yearly (last year, we saved about $200K). Of the $4.1M, about $1.9M are in retirement accounts, $2.7M in 11 pieces of real estate (of which there’s still a $700K mortgage balance across all of them), $100K in College 529, and $100K in Cash. We live a very comfortable life but I wish we can save more. Our passive income is about $100K now from all our rental properties. We hope to retire in 6-7 years when our youngest go off to college. We’re targeting a passive income of about $150K by that time.
You are totally getting there with the rentals. Keep using cheap debt to leverage them.
Is it too late to answer? 33 year old single male, $375k in assets, no debt. Planning to drop to part-time work as soon as I cross $400k later this year. Life’s too short to stare at a screen 8+ hours per day!