How and when did you do it - to get to 1 Million

[JBTX]

Early saving in career, rented and had roommate, expenses were modest, contributed to 401ks, IRAs and taxable accounts, married and had kids later than average (which wasn't part of any financial plan, it just happened that way). Spouse also works. One house for over 20 years that is far below what most of our "peers" occupy. Reasonably modest cars, often low mileage used, driven to 150k to 200k miles, Also stayed the course through two major market drops and didn't panic. Due to one of them I had the privilege of entering the two comma club twice.

Saving early helps a lot. The amount saved and subsequent appreciation over my first 12 years of career accounts for at least half of our current net worth 20 years later, maybe as high as 2/3.

[tennisplyr]

Never reached the number and probably never will but I ain't complaining. Life is good and I am grateful for what I have

[mrspock]

I find it interesting that the people who responded where primarily split between 2 camps: saving diligently for a long time or working/saving incredibly hard for a short time. There's not a lot of "I got lucky" or "my plan wasn't working, so I changed it" or other means.

I'm roughly 15% of the way to a million. I'm in the save diligently camp. I'll report back here in about 2 decades (according to a crude 10 sec calculation).

So I'm a mix of "working/saving incredibly hard for a short time" and some luck. Personally, I think everyone has a bit of luck, but those that are lucky probably did something to put themselves in the position to be lucky. For me, I remember the day I looked out the office window in September of 2010, I was brooding after being shot down for a raise by my boss. I decided then and there, I was going to figure out what I'd need to do/learn to get a job with a big tech company in Silicon Valley (my original dream after University). Long story short, ~8 months later, to my surprise (and of my boss)....I did. In some way, him turning me down for that raise completely changed my life in a way I didn't realize at the time. So that's the "luck" piece.

Once I was here, I worked 10-12 hour days....I just out worked everyone. I was not going to screw this up. I didn't care if you went to MIT or Stanford... I would stay and work longer, get more done and quicker just through sheer will/grit. Of course, I was told many times I'd burn out, but I made sure I got sleep, exercised like an athlete might (5x week) and made sure I ate properly. No burn out, quite the contrary...I was like a kid in a candy store with the resources to do & build the things I always dreamed of doing. That's the hard work part.

(Aside: One trick is to figure out your "edge". If you are single and others are married/kids...you have an edge. If you went to MIT or a top school... you have an edge (halo effect, wisdom/education from the best in your field). If you just don't ever give up...you have grit...you have an edge. If you are young & energetic... you have an edge. If you are underpaid .... you have an edge (you'll be willing to take more risks!). You get the idea....figure out what kind of advantages you have and leverage them. Often some aren't obvious like being underpaid, the underpaid person is way more likely to risk working for a scrappy start-up which then turns out to be a rocket ship than the comfy well paid engineer at Intel.)

The other piece was savings & investing, I lived on a single pay check, saved the other, saved my bonuses and any RSU vests. I basically treated this, like going into a pro sports league: when you get there, you can make big money, but the careers are typically short, so don't blow all your money. I also discovered Bogleheads, and that brought my financial literacy to a completely new level.

As for when... I think maybe in my early 30s I hit $1M NW, mid 30s liquid $1M invested.

[sambb]

I think it is key to have 100% in stocks early in one's 20s-30s in savings, or at least 80/20. It is hard to be that disciplined and not time the market in one's 20s-30s i bet. So the few that did, they did pretty well. Savings is key, and investing that savings in bull markets is key. But during this time, it is hard to have savings (marriage, kids, divorce, school loans, etc.). Also helps to increase one's income at do the 401k thing early.

[alexfoo39]

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. I read TMNS when I was 18 and again about 5yrs ago, and I have given it as a gift about a dozen times. We live way below our means, saving over 50% of gross while cash-flowing wife's school, daycare for 2, and making double payments on our 15yr mortgage. We're saving about 3yrs in expenses per year right now and that is ramping up very fast. It's highly likely we'll be in a position to call it quits with about 95% chance of not outliving our savings in about 7yrs - when I am 45 and wife is 40. But we both like our careers so we'll probably work at least another decade. We'll have several times what we need. I don't plan on dying with it, so yeah, it's likely our kids will be starting out their adult lives standing on third base because we were successful; but until that point they'll know nothing but our very modest lifestyle and won't have a clue we have money. If you want to call that "economic outpatient care", I very much disagree, but you're free to have your opinion.

I'm glad that you're already much ahead than what I initially perceived. Your children is best lived under the environment of a financially modest home, something TMNS encourages and something that you did =)

It's so that the children can learn the hardship and discipline of earning, saving, and investing. They will not live a lifestyle 'above' their means now because they know that down the line a huge financial gift is awaiting them

Thank you for sharing your journey. I'm much younger than you and I suppose to sit down and learn from you instead. Do you think helping them with a paid-for-home is good down the road? Or maybe just a 10% downpayment and let them learn the grinding and discipline?

[HomerJ]

Hmm ya, but you might have to have invested through the 90s?

My wife and I hit our peak earning years right around 2007-2008... We saved a ton in 2008 and 2009 and 2010. Almost all of which has doubled. The money we saved in 2011 and 2012 hasn't done too bad either

But yeah, I'd love to see my money grow 4x like it did in the 90s. I'm only 44, so I figure I'll see at least one more big bull someday... maybe it's already started, but if we crash again or go sideways for a while, that's all right... Maybe it will start when I hit 55, and I can start my retirement at the beginning of a 15-year bull market.

Heh, I got my wish... The post above was 6 years ago. I wished for one more big bull someday, and I got it.

Congratulations!!
That means you finally hit "the number"???

j

Pretty close... I got a kid to get through college, so I'll work until he graduates... but yeah, after that I'm retiring...

[flyingaway]

$1M today is probably the minimum for a young person to declare financial independence, in order to pursue other interests.

It really depends on what you are comfortable with. Someone who is happy to live the “van life” is very different from someone with two kids in day care.

A "van life" is not a real life for the majority of the people. Someone could be a panhandler for life and declare financial independence if you want to go to the extreme.

[eldinerocheapo]

I lived as a wild surfer dude well into my mid 30's before reality kicked in, and I buckled down. A better job, a house, wife, kids and everything that goes with it convinced us to study investing and employer sponsored plans. We got into IRA's and 401k's at about 10% of gross income, then bumped up to 20% when the recession hit. $1 million then came fairly quickly in my early 50's, then double that a few years later. All of this while putting two kids through college, and paying off the mortgage in small increments. I look at the VG statements and really have to pinch myself sometimes. We are so fortunate that hard work, hope, and continuous investing can and does pay off.

[stocknoob4111]

I'm hoping to reach this figure but it's tougher than it seems... people throw around the figure so casually these days like it's nothing, but to actually save a million takes a ton of time and diligence. I'm about 60% of the way there but it's unbelievable how much one has to save and how much time it takes. I am anticipating reaching the mark in about 5 years from now.

And just for the record, some people, many with hardly any savings say $1M is not much, which I find really amusing! I think $1M is a very large sum compared to what the average savings rate is here in the US. It is definitely a huge milestone even today. Just my $0.02.

[lkar]

For me, the best thing I ever did was probably a little different from what others on this board might recommend. It was simply to find set and forget investments and dollar cost average into them. I am now completely passive in target date funds. I put in the max deductible allowed and supplement with backdoor Roth conversions and just recently an HSA each year. I’m self employed so I get to contribute a lot. It is a large portion of my income and limits my discretionary income but it gets deducted automatically and I just treat it as never mine in the first place.

This has completely eliminated any tendency toward bad behavior. It has taken emotion completely out of the game for me. Market goes up, market goes down, my number goes up, my number goes down, whatever. It’s entirely irrelevant to me. I have circled on my calendar to think about it when I am 60. Once a year, give or take, I look at how my two target date funds compare to similar products.

I’ve made a bunch of mistakes. In my 20s, I paid student loans slowly and took outrageously expensive forbearance. I bought too much house at the worst time and paid for it with an interest only loan. I treated my first rollover IRA after leaving a job like I was a dot.com churner on a bender.

But since my early 30s until now (51), I have made it simple and as set and forget as possible and I have completely bought into the idea that nothing at all makes any difference until the day I need to start withdrawing. I’ve cleaned up other stuff. My mortgage is under control. I drive cars until they are literally falling apart. I’ve learned the art of credit card churning and travel hacking to vacation beyond our means. But none of it compares to treating my max retirement contributions as though they don’t exist and never looking at the market or my balances.

Again, not for everyone and there is no doubt I am leaving money on the table that a more active approach might capture. But it has worked for me.

[Ron Ronnerson]

I'm hoping to reach this figure but it's tougher than it seems... people throw around the figure so casually these days like it's nothing, but to actually save a million takes a ton of time and diligence.

Perhaps sometimes. We had a negative net worth in 2008. As of last week, we’ve reached a net worth of seven figures. I’m a public school teacher and my wife is a stay-at-home parent. We're in the 12% federal and 2% California income tax brackets. We’re 44 years old and no inheritances are involved.

In no particular order, it took luck, leverage, and frugality. In 2009, we purchased a home in the Bay Area that cost 5 times our income and we only put down 3% (no PMI involved, though). We slept in a tent for 3 days to purchase a new home that was being built in the depths of the Great Recession because the seller was putting homes on a fire sale. It's a nice-sized home in a great neighborhood with terrific schools. A couple of years later, interest rates dropped and we refinanced from 5.25% to 3.25% (30 year fixed). Our mortgage payments dropped while the home value took off.

We currently have a 50% savings rate. Due to my expecting a pension of $100k/year (enough to cover our retirement expenses), we were able and willing to take risk. We were invested 100% in equities until the last couple of years. The markets over the past decade have been very kind.

I expect the tides to turn at some point and am not celebrating. Crossing $1M doesn’t feel different at all. I cut a coupon to save $1 on a sandwich at Subway just this afternoon.

[stonerolled]

I'm hoping to reach this figure but it's tougher than it seems... people throw around the figure so casually these days like it's nothing, but to actually save a million takes a ton of time and diligence. I'm about 60% of the way there but it's unbelievable how much one has to save and how much time it takes. I am anticipating reaching the mark in about 5 years from now.

And just for the record, some people, many with hardly any savings say $1M is not much, which I find really amusing! I think $1M is a very large sum compared to what the average savings rate is here in the US. It is definitely a huge milestone even today. Just my $0.02.

It is a lot of money. Imagine $40,000 back in the forties and then now, most here would still gladly take 40k into their accounts.
Of all the nice habits mentioned, I believe by far the most important is savings rate, funding the accounts. Returns means nothing until the accounts are funded and then left alone for a long period of time. My small savings rate increased over time as I understood this, fueled by wanting to maximize tax savings also. I first maxed the work IRA, then I maxed a personal Roth. Then I began funding the Roth as soon in the year as possible. Then as I approached 50, I began putting the catch up for both in after tax savings because I didn't want the shock at age 50 because I knew I would immediately max those to the age 50+ limits. Then when the HSA was available, I contributed to that, but by then I was worn out and did'nt max but it still is in good shape and growing about as fast as the withdrawals. Lastly, I like to keep a running balance of 5k in checking and anytime it gets over 6, I just sent it over to vanguard taxable account to 500 index or balanced index. This prevents me seeing a large sum and help realize and solidify the lbym payoff.

[stoptothink]

I'm hoping to reach this figure but it's tougher than it seems... people throw around the figure so casually these days like it's nothing, but to actually save a million takes a ton of time and diligence. I'm about 60% of the way there but it's unbelievable how much one has to save and how much time it takes. I am anticipating reaching the mark in about 5 years from now.

And just for the record, some people, many with hardly any savings say $1M is not much, which I find really amusing! I think $1M is a very large sum compared to what the average savings rate is here in the US. It is definitely a huge milestone even today. Just my $0.02.

It is a lot of money.

It may not be a lot on Bogleheads, but in my circle (extended family, friends and peers), $1M in savings is an almost unimaginable amount of money. $100k in savings (not in home equity) is a ton of money to most of the people I am usually around.

[Meaty]

Hello everyone,

Have been learning a lot on the forum and have been trying to plan for the future (I'm in my mid 20s), starting out with a new job.

For those in the two comma club and those that have "won the game," could you share how you got there? How much you put away, when, where, and how long it took? Any other pointers?

So far, I've been doing a lot of reading and have set up an asset allocation and basic 3 fund portfolio and plan to max out my retirement accounts and save as much as I can. Since I am just starting out, I thought the advice, experiences, and real stories of those than have been in the race a lot longer than me would be very helpful.

Thanks

(1) Paid off debt quickly, from student loans to home mortgage; avoided other debt such as credit cards and car loans.

(2) LBYM and saved 30%-60% of my salary.

(3) Single and childfree.

(4) Lucky enough to have peak earnings in the 1990s when the stock market boomed.

(5) My former company's stock value rose by 3000% (yes, that is thousand) in 11 years.

Retired at 45, nearly 5 years ago.

If you’re willing to share, what’s your withdrawal rate? I’m hoping to retire at around the same age but realize I’ll have to be conservative with withdraws given the length of retirement. Your real world experience over 5 years would help point me in the right direction

[scrabbler1]

Hello everyone,

Have been learning a lot on the forum and have been trying to plan for the future (I'm in my mid 20s), starting out with a new job.

For those in the two comma club and those that have "won the game," could you share how you got there? How much you put away, when, where, and how long it took? Any other pointers?

So far, I've been doing a lot of reading and have set up an asset allocation and basic 3 fund portfolio and plan to max out my retirement accounts and save as much as I can. Since I am just starting out, I thought the advice, experiences, and real stories of those than have been in the race a lot longer than me would be very helpful.

Thanks

(1) Paid off debt quickly, from student loans to home mortgage; avoided other debt such as credit cards and car loans.

(2) LBYM and saved 30%-60% of my salary.

(3) Single and childfree.

(4) Lucky enough to have peak earnings in the 1990s when the stock market boomed.

(5) My former company's stock value rose by 3000% (yes, that is thousand) in 11 years.

Retired at 45, nearly 5 years ago.

If you’re willing to share, what’s your withdrawal rate? I’m hoping to retire at around the same age but realize I’ll have to be conservative with withdraws given the length of retirement. Your real world experience over 5 years would help point me in the right direction

You quoted a post I made nearly 6 years ago. My WR is about 2%, of my entire portfolio. As a % of only the taxable part, the only part I am using until I reach at least 60, it is around 3%. Things only improve late on, when SS, my frozen company pension, and the IRA kick in. Those are my "reinforcements."

[AerialWombat]

$1M today is probably the minimum for a young person to declare financial independence, in order to pursue other interests.

It really depends on what you are comfortable with. Someone who is happy to live the “van life” is very different from someone with two kids in day care.

Having once lived in a van (down by the river, of course) by necessity, and intending to soon do it again (much, much nicer van this time!), I will say that this statement is true.

My accounting balance sheet net worth (aka, on paper) hit the two comma club maybe a year ago (from private equity in a software company). But my liquid assets may never reach a million, unless there is an exit, and I’m ok with that. Between retirement accounts, taxable securities, cash, and rental real estate equity, I’m barely halfway to $1MM.

With my standard of living, I can go rock that #vanlife with the cash flow from rentals. I don’t understand the obsession with the million dollar number. My target is another $125k on top of what I have, and I’m good.

[jello_nailer]

which time?

[Top99%]

which time?

True for me. Went to $1m and back 2 times...
The first time was during the tech bubble with some stock options that went took us to from $400K to $2.4M and then on Oct 17, 2000 at 5:01 PM went to zero... So, we were back to $400K but a lot wiser.
The 2nd time was by saving a lot of money and from 2000 through 2006 over-weighting REITs since they were dirt cheap. Then during the 2009 financial crisis we went back under a $1m but rebalanced into equities all the way down which paid off in the end. My point is luck can make a difference and if you have the stomach, combination of job security and/or savings when the next asset class "sale" occurs loading up can shorten your time. I am sure the market timing police will write me up a ticket for it but buying assets "on sale" can help if you have the ability and willingness to take the risk.

[MindBogler]

I am sure the market timing police will write me up a ticket for it but buying assets "on sale" can help if you have the ability and willingness to take the risk.

Pull that portfolio over...

[The Casualty]

Nothing that difficult, LBYM and consistently put as much cash in the market as possible starting in 1983. We were 95% equity until about 5 years ago when we retired and semi-retired. I was 41 years old when we hit a million, 51, 2 million, 61, 3 + million. My goal was 1.5M and a paid off house so we did far better than I would have thought possible. Some of it was luck in the market, some of it was being 95% equity, some of it was having very little International, but most of it was just patience, persistence, and LBYM.

[Broken Man 1999]

Wife and I had to do it twice. The Great Recession dropped us, but we didn't sell and the portfolio grew again, and despite spending a great deal it is still growing.

We used 401k plans, Spousal IRAs, accident injury proceeds, accelerated death benefits from life insurance (I didn't even have to die, sweet) and an inheritance.

I think the biggest influence to our amassing a solid portfolio was always having savings removed from every check automatically. That plus never getting into the habit of needing both paychecks to sustain our lifestyle. That allowed wife to be a SAHM until the youngest daughter was in school. And she dropped out of workforce at age 55 to raise grandchildren. The grandchildren were a hoot to have around, I missed the pleasure of watching little ones grow as I was a wage-slave when our daughters were little. So having the little ones for hours in our home kept us pleasantly occupied and kept us out of stores and spending money.

One last thing, the last few years of my career I was part of an account team with a substantial part of my pay coming from commissions. Our budget was built on my ordinary salary, so commissions were added to savings, and some non-recurring additional spending for vacations and such. I never considered my commissions as a source of ongoing spending. So, while we enjoyed the commissions, we didn't need the commissions.

Broken Man 1999

[rj342]

Arguably kinda sorta almost there now at age 54, depending how you count things. Not ideal progress though the years but ok I think.

$335k in my accumulated Rollover IRA & current small 401k at new employer ( 2 yrs)
$150k modest paid off home in LCOL area in the South. Don't expect to rise above inflation.
$750k (this is tricky) - wife drawing $30k annual teachers pension w/ me getting same as survivor (no auto COLA)
I come up with 750 from treating the 30 as 4% off the top per year indefinitely
...but thats not quite right since no value to heirs at end so not sure how to model better
just plugging in numbers so principal declines, seems worth $550k fund equivalent at least
assuming a modest rate of return, and the 30k being a bit more than that, stretched out 40 years.

Wife worked 28 years w 5% pulled for pension (5% of modest salary)
I always did 401k to full emp match through the 90s. Missed upside of the crawl back after .dot com bubble, since I was teaching at Univ in 2000s. Did not make it to full vesting of 10 years. That money went dormant after several years in state system (had a window where you could rejoin state system and continue). After recent job changes a couple years ago changes pulled that modest amount, took tax penalty, and paid off house at 5.5%. 8 years between the university and current job I got where I was putting in 10% before match (50% at 6%). At elast this time I benefited from the recovery since 2007.

[FI4LIFE]

The year I turned 38 we hit the 1 million mark. About $680k in retirement accounts, $300k in home equity, various taxable accounts made up the rest. I also vested in my pension that year, which is probably worth another $400-500k as a lump sum (conservatively). Good year. We currently save about 27% of our income, not including pension contributions or wife's 401k match.

[james22]

Expatriate Premium

[richard37]

Morning all. Lots of interesting replies here. Thanks for sharing stories. Always helpful to hear the advice of others.

Couple of questions as I consider my own situation.

Are we talking about net worth here, retirement accounts or total invested?

When you talk about the percentage of income saved / invested are you talking about gross income or net?

Cheers!

[Yohanson]

Morning all. Lots of interesting replies here. Thanks for sharing stories. Always helpful to hear the advice of others.

Couple of questions as I consider my own situation.

Are we talking about net worth here, retirement accounts or total invested?

When you talk about the percentage of income saved / invested are you talking about gross income or net?

Cheers!

I haven't posted even though my net worth is now 7 figures at 54 years old. But that counts the $705,000 I have in retirement accounts, HSA, and savings. I get to the $1 million mark when I count my home equity-sellers fee + the lump sum amount of my pension if I retire tomorrow.

I am currently maxing out my 401K contribution plus the catch up. I've never been able to afford to max out the 401K but I was within a few hundred dollars last year with nothing ever going to catch up before that (I have maxed out my Roth IRA in some of the previous years...not sure if I'll be able to do that this year and I have not contributed anything to 2019). I've also been maxing out my HSA for about 7? years now (since Obamacare became settled law...my mega corp immediately went to only high deductible health plans after that SCOTUS ruling) and I haven't touched the money in there for a few years now. It was just prior to the 2016 elections when I discovered that I could invest all but $1000 of my HSA in about 30 different funds and that's when I elected to put it into 3 different equity funds which mirror TM combined. That turned out to be pretty good market timing even though unintentional.

[Spedward]

Late last week....

Pretty sure the market likely took it away from me. Oh well. It shall return.

[RobLyons]

So some takeaway lessons:

1. You don't have to earn 6-figure salaries.
2. You don't have to start before age 28.
3. You don't have to live in a low cost of living place.
4. You don't have to be childless.

^ This

[gmc4h232]

I wonder if this is where Dave Ramsey got his data for his largest study of millionaires ever conducted.....

[mtmingus]

Briefly reached 2mil (with home equity), before that Sunday tweet.