Two Comma Club

[MariaT]

Congratulations, Carl Z, on reaching a milestone. It is indeed a great feeling.
All the very best as you plow ahead.

Warm regards,
Maria

[BudgetForWealth]

Congratulations. I hope to get there someday

Just curious, how old are you?

[CarlZ993]

Congratulations!

After your steak dinner, consider opening a bottle of Bogle wine and raising a toast to the person who motivated this forum.

Jerry

Our Bogle wine comes in a cardboard box. Does that count?

[CarlZ993]

Carl:

Thanks to all the learned posters & authors on this forum.

And we mustn't overlook our mentor, Jack Bogle, for whom this forum is named.

Pat and I frequently say: "We live in our home that Jack built."

Best wishes
Taylor

Thanks Taylor. I won't. I think I've got every book he wrote. I can't count the number of people I've steered to Vanguard and this forum.

[CarlZ993]

Congradulations!

Just curious...everyone counts it differently. Some people count home equity, some do not. Some count traditional 401K and traditional Roth, while others discount it for future tax liabilities. Some count 529, some not.... you get the idea. What did you use as your base?

I used money - savings, checking, CDs, I-Bonds, Mutual Funds, etc. For net worth (including house & 'stuff'), I've been '2 Comma Club' for several years. This is the first time I've been over the 2 CC in money. I cleared it by a whopping $69.

[CarlZ993]

Re: 2 Comma Club
by CarlZ993 » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:26 pm

Congrats! Feels great, doesn't it?

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=102330&p=1483258#p1483258

Can I ask, been there before or just knew what it feels like in advance?

Regardless, congrats!

I haven't been there before. I just knew that it would feel great. Surprisingly, I don't feel much different. I just got there quicker than I expected. I kept waiting for the Market to pull the rug out from underneath me at any moment. Even if it did, I'd just rebalance and keep the course. I must admit that rebalancing in 08 & 09 was quite difficult.

[CarlZ993]

Don't get too excited about such short-term accomplishments as they can go away just as quickly.

Oh, come on! It's a great accomplishment, regardless of whether tomorrow's market takes him slighly below his current level. Reaching 7 figures is a huge milestone for anyone who works for a living. Congrats, a huge congrats.

Just trying to add a dose of reality to the thread. Of course it is a great individual accomplishment. I cannot recall when I crossed that magical barrier so it must not have been that important in the long-run.

I know that crossing an arbitrary financial line is just that. I just keep doing what I'm doing: living beneath my means, paying myself first, and managing my debt wisely (...wait, I have no debt!). And not telling my relatives that I've crossed this arbitrary threshold. But that's a topic for another time.

[CarlZ993]

Congratulations!!! You have every right to be proud.

Although I'm not in the 2 comma club YET. I paid off my mortgage this year and the emotional satisfaction of hitting these goals are worth all the delayed gratification in the world.

I will definitely post when I hit the 2 comma club.

The only thing is I might go for lobster instead. : )

Thanks for posting this, it really encourages others.

P.S. While 99% on these boards offered their congratulations when I posted about paying off my home, there was that 1% who were negative and tried to squash the excitement I felt. Ignore those people, I call the dream stealers.

Paying off my mortgage early allowed me to retire on my terms. In 98, my wife & I both got substantial pay raises. We sat down and went through the options with this money - invest, pay down mortgage, spend it, a combination of these, etc. We decided to pay down the mortgage (I was maxing out on my 457 plan but my wife wasn't maxing out hers). It took us 37 mo to pay down the final 62K of the mortgage. After that, we maxed out our 457s as well as our Roths until we both retired (wife in 05 and me in 06).

[CarlZ993]

Congratulations on this major milestone. Not many have the discipline to stay the course the way you have done. You didn't inherit it, did you?

No major inheritances.

[EyeYield]

Please ignore.
Thank you,

[CarlZ993]

Congratulations, that is a great accomplishment! Would you be willing to share more details of how you got there? For example, at what age did you start? How long did it take? Did you get any windfalls, like an inheritance or gifts?

I starting saving in earnest in 83. Each time I got a pay raise or paid off a loan, I'd increase how much I saved. My goal was to max out my contributions in my 457 as soon as possible. I did that in 1990 (which was only 7500 back then). When Bush upped the limits, we gradually maxed out our investment accounts.

On our parents, we inherited a little money from three of them. The largest was 25K. Much less from the other two. None from my Mom (Visa & M/C took a hit on my Mom when she died). So, inheritances really didn't provide a big boost.

Since I retired, I've been saving about 34K / yr from our pensions. We also save a lot of money into various savings accounts that are targeted for future spending - vacation account, car repair account, property taxes account, quarterly income taxes account, new car fund, etc. In general, those accounts have been either stable or gone up over time. Mainly, we benefited by staying the course.
Thanks Taylor!

[CarlZ993]

This topic always makes me recall my wife and my days in the no-comma club, and then the intervening 30 years to get to the two comma club. Keeps things in perspective, and helps stay the course.

I remember those days! When we got married, my folks gave us a check for $1,000. We were so happy to have a comma. I was a starving Grad student at the time who worked part-time and had some GI Bill money coming in.

[CarlZ993]

Does collecting commas fall under:
- That Frugal Thing You Do ? or
- That Extravagant Thing You Do(*) ?

Victoria

(*) Extravagant as in the 3rd, 4th, etc., commas.

Frugal, for the most part. We do eat out a lot, though. Something we enjoy.

[CarlZ993]

Could you give a bit more story on how you reached it? Like when did you start saving, average returns, asset allocation?

And tell us about your mistakes along the way. We often learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

Thank you and best wishes.
Taylor

I guess the main mistake I made early on was in diversification. I thought I was diversified in my funds, but I wasn't. I had many different funds that mimicked each other. I also probably had my asset allocation a little too high for most of the time (80% stocks/20% bonds) and I never rebalanced for about a dozen years or more. I had some wild rides up and down. I kept telling myself that I didn't need this money for a long time and the market will get better. I learned a lot from reading books by Jack, Rick, Larry, and others. I slowly righted my financial ship.

[Frugaldude]

Don't get too excited about such short-term accomplishments as they can go away just as quickly.

Is that you, Charlie Munger?

[peppers]

The first two commas are always the hardest.

And the third is easy?

Her one comma and my two commas make three commas. No?

[BigFoot48]

I remember those days! When we got married, my folks gave us a check for $1,000. We were so happy to have a comma. I was a starving Grad student at the time who worked part-time and had some GI Bill money coming in.

Wow, you were rolling in dough! We got $100 from my mother and $100 from her parents and after paying about $75 in wedding costs we had about $350 to our names. Luckily I worked at a pizza joint while going to college and we had plenty to eat! The owner loaned me $500 when I left for my first job out of college which paid the rent until I got my first paycheck. God bless Richard Dermer.

[CarlZ993]

I remember those days! When we got married, my folks gave us a check for $1,000. We were so happy to have a comma. I was a starving Grad student at the time who worked part-time and had some GI Bill money coming in.

Wow, you were rolling in dough! We got $100 from my mother and $100 from her parents and after paying about $75 in wedding costs we had about $350 to our names. Luckily I worked at a pizza joint while going to college and we had plenty to eat! The owner loaned me $500 when I left for my first job out of college which paid the rent until I got my first paycheck. God bless Richard Dermer.

I also had the good fortune to win a $100 gift card to a grocery store just before we got married. We used that pay for the food at our wedding reception (best man's apartment party room; he reserved it for free). The wedding money from my folks was unexpected but greatly appreciated.

[VictoriaF]

Should the club be called Two-Commical ?

Victoria

[NAVigator]

Should the club be called Two-Commical ?

Or perhaps Too-Commical?

I think we should have 2CC T-shirts or at least a coffee cup.

Jerry

[BolderBoy]

At end of market day 1/23/2013, I joined the 'Two Comma Club.' One million dollars. Wow!

Heartiest Congratulations. Very few make it to the 3 Comma Club, but you can set your sights realistically on getting to the 8 figure club next.

Well done, take a bow and enjoy the fun of watching it oscillate around a bit until it stays in the 7 figures going forward.

[The Wizard]

What's interesting about this is that Carl hit the $1M mark AFTER he retired.
Many retirees worry about spending down their assets so this is somewhat refreshing...

[travellight]

Congratulations, Carl! That is stringent criteria you use if it is 1M in money, not counting real estate.

I agree that the 3 comma club is quite a reach. I don't think I can achieve it with speculating and investing. I think you have to create something very successful to do that.

The 8 figure club is within reach though.

[scrabbler1]

It can be tough to stay in the 2-comma club. I first got there in investments (excluding my residence) in the spring of 2010, then fell below when the market dropped midyear. Later in 2010 I got back to the 2-comma club only to briefly drop below it again in August of 2011. In early 2012 I broke the $1.1M mark and have not been close to dropping out of the 2-comma club.

I should add that I am an early retiree so I have had no wage income to add to my portfolio in the last 4 years.

[VictoriaF]

Should the club be called Two-Commical ?

Or perhaps Too-Commical?

I think we should have 2CC T-shirts or at least a coffee cup.

Jerry

Some T-shirt ideas, also serving as a secret handshake:
B,H,
BH,,
BH2(,)

Victoria

P.S. BH3(,) for sscritic.

[sscritic]

I have been thinking more about commas. The distance from 2 to 3 is so large that we need fractional commas. So what is a comma? A comma denotes a power of 10, more specifically a power of 10 to a multiple of 3.
1 comma: 10^(3x1) = 10^3 =1,000
2 commas: 10^(3x2) = 10^6 =1,000,000
3 commas: 10^(3x3) = 10^9 =1,000,000,000

The path is now clear.

2.5 commas is 10^7.5 = $31,622,776.60
2.2 commas is 10^6.6 = $3,981,071.71
I am still trying to get to 2.1 commas.

We need a comma poll: how many you got?

[Cosmo]

Don't get too excited about such short-term accomplishments as they can go away just as quickly.

Oh, come on! It's a great accomplishment, regardless of whether tomorrow's market takes him slighly below his current level. Reaching 7 figures is a huge milestone for anyone who works for a living. Congrats, a huge congrats.

Just trying to add a dose of reality to the thread. Of course it is a great individual accomplishment. I cannot recall when I crossed that magical barrier so it must not have been that important in the long-run.

How's this for a dose of reality. That $1,000,000 milestone you set out to achieve 20 years ago? You would need to have around $1,600,000 in today's dollars to have the same amount of purchasing power as back then.

P.S. This is not intended to be directed towards the OP.

[CarlZ993]

What's interesting about this is that Carl hit the $1M mark AFTER he retired.
Many retirees worry about spending down their assets so this is somewhat refreshing...

Almost 7 years after I retired. I'm fortunate that both of us have pensions. If we didn't have pensions, we'd obviously be making some withdrawals from our investments (or still be working).

[Joe S.]

Congratulations.
Buy one of these on E-bay and you can be in the 4 comma club...


http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Trillion-Zi ... 19d83a8947

[VictoriaF]

2.5 commas is 10^7.5 = $31,622,776.60
2.2 commas is 10^6.6 = $3,981,071.71
I am still trying to get to 2.1 commas.

Here is a cheat sheet:
2.0 commas is 10^6.0 = $ 1,000,000.00
2.1 commas is 10^6.3 = $ 1,995,262.31
2.2 commas is 10^6.6 = $ 3,981,071.71
2.3 commas is 10^6.9 = $ 7,943,282.35
2.4 commas is 10^7.2 = $ 15,848,931.92
2.5 commas is 10^7.5 = $ 31,622,776.60
2.6 commas is 10^7.8 = $ 63,095,734.45
2.7 commas is 10^8.1 = $ 125,892,541.18
2.8 commas is 10^8.4 = $ 251,188,643.15
2.9 commas is 10^8.7 = $ 501,187,233.63
3.0 commas is 10^9.0 = $ 1,000,000,000.00

Victoria

[MnD]

It can be tough to stay in the 2-comma club. I first got there in investments (excluding my residence) in the spring of 2010, then fell below when the market dropped midyear. Later in 2010 I got back to the 2-comma club only to briefly drop below it again in August of 2011. In early 2012 I broke the $1.1M mark and have not been close to dropping out of the 2-comma club.

I should add that I am an early retiree so I have had no wage income to add to my portfolio in the last 4 years.

A similar story here. I have and had wage income going in to help on the plus side, but also had a very major unexpected educational cost starting in 2011(private HS). Combine that with the market making major moves both up and down, and I rounded-tripped the two comma club several times in 2010 through 2011. Not till the 2012 rally got rolling did I really get some breathing room between us and $1M - blew right past $1.25M around New Years in fact.

I do appreciate this board. There's really no place else in my life to discuss this sort of thing. In our case it took 26 years of systematically living below our means and saving/investing the difference to accomplish this. We were married right out of college (lived together last year of college) so when we both started full-time jobs, we were able to improve our material lifestyle (buying a new compact car, washer-dryer, color TV, began occasionally dining out) while simultaneously take our savings rate from zero in college to around 30%. Many of our past fixed costs (tuition, fees, rent, food, utilities) either dropped dramatically or stayed fairly level, while our starting salaries, despite being modest were much higher than the starving student lifestyles we were accustomed to with part-time job income, modest family assistance and significant college costs.

Key advantages in addition to a systematic savings mindset over the 26 years were no debts at graduation/marriage, following the "one wife, one house" approach, waiting a few years to establish our careers before having kids and buying a house, willingness to relocate nationwide multiple times for financial reasons and and neither of us having extravagant needs/wants or desires to live in very high cost regions.

That said, neither of us is particularly frugal, nor do we carefully budget/monitor our expenses. We pay our selves first and have no trouble spending the difference, sometimes frivolously. Even now with a 7-figure net worth we can spend ourselves to pretty broke some months. For almost a week in January I think we had $1.57 in our primary checking account. In some regards we fool ourselves into thinking we are fresh out of college with zero net worth and living paycheck to paycheck, despite the fact we have that the $1.57 is now backed up with a lot of financial resources and credit. We just don't think about that as "available" unless something really major hits the fan.

I'd love to hear some other stories........

[travellight]

I think we should define the criteria though. I think real estate holdings should count, including your primary residence. I will be making no gains on my "number" for the next five years because I am shunting all my money to pay down all mortgages. Someone else would be taking that money and counting it and growing it with pathways that "count" such as stock investments that can go up and down as well. I would define it as net worth which is all assets (liquid and illiquid) minus all debts.

[travellight]

The variation in my case is 3 million. If you don't count real estate, my number is X. If you count RE, it is X plus 3 million, not an insignificant number.

[JupiterJones]

Here is a cheat sheet:
2.0 commas is 10^6.0 = $ 1,000,000.00
2.1 commas is 10^6.3 = $ 1,995,262.31
2.2 commas is 10^6.6 = $ 3,981,071.71
2.3 commas is 10^6.9 = $ 7,943,282.35
2.4 commas is 10^7.2 = $ 15,848,931.92
2.5 commas is 10^7.5 = $ 31,622,776.60
2.6 commas is 10^7.8 = $ 63,095,734.45
2.7 commas is 10^8.1 = $ 125,892,541.18
2.8 commas is 10^8.4 = $ 251,188,643.15
2.9 commas is 10^8.7 = $ 501,187,233.63
3.0 commas is 10^9.0 = $ 1,000,000,000.00

And for those of us who still have a bit longer to go...

Code: Select all

1.1    $1,995.26
1.2    $3,981.07
1.3    $7,943.28
1.4   $15,848.93
1.5   $31,622.78
1.6   $63,095.73
1.7  $125,892.54
1.8  $251,188.64
1.9  $501,187.23

Incidentally, the formula to go the other way around and determine the number of commas for any given value is log10(x) / 3

I think we should start using this system everywhere. That cup of Starbucks? Only 0.23 commas. Transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2, Queen's Grill class? A mere one comma more per-person at 1.23 commas.

And can you believe that first-class stamps are going up to -0.112 commas? Yeesh...

JJ

[stemikger]

Could you give a bit more story on how you reached it? Like when did you start saving, average returns, asset allocation?

And tell us about your mistakes along the way. We often learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

Thank you and best wishes.
Taylor

+1

[stemikger]

Congratulations.
Buy one of these on E-bay and you can be in the 4 comma club...


http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Trillion-Zi ... 19d83a8947

LOL. Great, you found a shortcut. No more investing books for me. LOL.

[sscritic]

I think we should start using this system everywhere. That cup of Starbucks? Only 0.23 commas. Transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2, Queen's Grill class? A mere one comma more per-person at 1.23 commas.

And can you believe that first-class stamps are going up to -0.112 commas? Yeesh...

JJ

I agree. It makes a lot more sense to measure your money in commas rather than measuring your money in months as some posters on this board do. The translation of commas is easy, as you demonstrate. I still don't know what 2.2 months is really worth.

[mickeyd]

playing with a sword - the road is littered with those who have crashed and burned.

I was not an English major but is this what is known as a mixed metaphor? Just askin...

[VictoriaF]

playing with a sword - the road is littered with those who have crashed and burned.

I was not an English major but is this what is known as a mixed metaphor? Just askin...

With the sword it would be sliced and eaten?

Victoria

[jbk]

At end of market day 1/23/2013, I joined the 'Two Comma Club.' One million dollars. Wow!

Somewhere a Boglehead angel has earned its wings!

[TravelforFun]

In our case it took 26 years of systematically living below our means and saving/investing the difference to accomplish this.

I'd love to hear some other stories........

It took me 30 years of working, saving, and investing to reach my 1st million (starting from 0) and looks like it will have taken me 8 years to get the 2nd million. Once the ball starts rolling, it's not very hard to keep it rolling.

[NAVigator]

Somewhere a Boglehead angel has earned its wings!

Priceless!

Jerry

[sscritic]

Somewhere a Boglehead angel has earned its wings!

Priceless!

Jerry

How many boglehead angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Answer: more than the number of ordinary angels. Bogleheads don't dance, they just count commas. Counting commas doesn't take up as much room as dancing.

[VictoriaF]

How many boglehead angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Answer: more than the number of ordinary angels. Bogleheads don't dance, they just count commas. Counting commas doesn't take up as much room as dancing.

If the head of a pin is shaped like a comma, there is more room to dance than if it is shaped as a period. Of course, the head of a pin could also be shaped as an exclamation point, forcing angels to jump over a cliff.

Victoria

[baw703916]

Should the club be called Two-Commical ?

Or perhaps Too-Commical?

I think we should have 2CC T-shirts or at least a coffee cup.

Jerry

Some T-shirt ideas, also serving as a secret handshake:
B,H,
BH,,
BH2(,)

Victoria

P.S. BH3(,) for sscritic.

Maybe a wink icon but with commas on both eyes?

[VictoriaF]

Should the club be called Two-Commical ?

Or perhaps Too-Commical?

I think we should have 2CC T-shirts or at least a coffee cup.

Jerry

Some T-shirt ideas, also serving as a secret handshake:
B,H,
BH,,
BH2(,)

Victoria

P.S. BH3(,) for sscritic.

Maybe a wink icon but with commas on both eyes?

And those with three commas would get an extra one for the mouth?

Victoria

[Don Christy]

Congrats!

The distance from 2.1 to 2.2 seems like such a long way in the low yield world...

[baw703916]

And those with three commas would get an extra one for the mouth?

Victoria

They get to hang out with the mascots of the company that makes the T-shirts!

[family_doc]

Congratulations and welcome to the Club!

family_doc

[stemikger]

Congratulations!!! You have every right to be proud.

Although I'm not in the 2 comma club YET. I paid off my mortgage this year and the emotional satisfaction of hitting these goals are worth all the delayed gratification in the world.

I will definitely post when I hit the 2 comma club.

The only thing is I might go for lobster instead. : )

Thanks for posting this, it really encourages others.

P.S. While 99% on these boards offered their congratulations when I posted about paying off my home, there was that 1% who were negative and tried to squash the excitement I felt. Ignore those people, I call the dream stealers.

Paying off my mortgage early allowed me to retire on my terms. In 98, my wife & I both got substantial pay raises. We sat down and went through the options with this money - invest, pay down mortgage, spend it, a combination of these, etc. We decided to pay down the mortgage (I was maxing out on my 457 plan but my wife wasn't maxing out hers). It took us 37 mo to pay down the final 62K of the mortgage. After that, we maxed out our 457s as well as our Roths until we both retired (wife in 05 and me in 06).

Thanks for the inspirational story. It's stories like these that keep us all going when we are having one of those days.