I'm a single guy living in a MCOL city. I graduated at the end of 2016 (computer science). I was extremely fortunate to have a year-round internship during college. The majority of my net-worth (90%) is in retirement; this has been a blessing and a curse. I'm really enjoying my career and am excited for the future. My current gross income is about $120k. I live pretty frugally, but I've definitely splurged here and there, mostly food & beer
Entered the workforce around mid-eighties. I didn't earn much until my mid-forties and was just a so-so saver/investor. I would say that I was generally not really interested in my personal finances until around 2010 when I became aware of Bogleheads. Many thanks to all of you.
Hello! First post on this wonderful board. First year medical student. Dad paid for undergrad, I'm on my own for med school.
Net worth:
1/5/20: ~-45k
Some reflections: I took 2 years between undergrad and med school to, frankly, strengthen my application with some additional classes and work as a research assistant/get published. This is the less expensive option haha. My undergrad was/is prestigious, so all of my friends in CS, even those with <3.0 GPAs, are at 200+ total comp, so I'm a little jealous seeing them living great lives. My goal in the boglehead mentality is the catch up sometime in the next 30 years.
Last edited by jxlegend on Sun Jan 05, 2020 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Soon2BXProgrammer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:18 am
Updated. With a high savings rate and this incredible bull market, I'm flabberghasted by the growth rate of our NW.
Soon2BXProgrammer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:37 pm
these are the ends of the year, and include all assets/liabilities. including house
Year - NW - Base Salary - Comments
2006 - Approximately 0 - 56k - First real job after military.
2007 - ????? - 59k - Bought House
2008 - ????? - 83k
2009 - ????? - 87k
2010 - ????? - 101k
2011 - ????? - 106k
2012 - ????? - 112k
2013 - 672k - 116k - House paid off
2014 - 818k - 122k
2015 - 931k - 138k
2016 - 1128k - 142k
2017 - 1424k - 147k
2018 - 1521k - 153k
2019 - 1905k - 158k
Wow ! , how have you managed to increase your NW almost 1 million in 4 years ? That is amazing indeed .
997TRBO wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:45 am
Here is my journey:
1992: $2000 in bank with $13K in student loans. Started job as a chemical engineer in June.
Did not really know about investing till 1997. Fortunately, I did know to live below my means.
Married in 2000. Did not start tracking NW until 2005. Wife and I always maxed out 401K. When I did get into investing, I did make some good investments in some of the now big name tech stocks. The rest of invested in solid companies that paid good dividend and had growth.
My career at work really started to takeoff in 2008 with a promotion that brings stock options as part of the compensation. My wife is a lawyer who works part time and we have saved/invested her entire take-home pay our whole marriage. The jump from 2010 onwards is due to coming out of the recession with a strong base in good stocks and investing more during the recession. The other factor is the big appreciation in the stock options from my company.. We invested in good companies like Home Depot and Apple during the recession which have had amazing returns. I am now shifting over to index and bond funds while managing/minimizing the tax consequences.
Updating with end of 2019 numbers: 8.8M
It has been an amazing year. Returns are from 1) company stock options appreciation since my company stock is having an amazing run, 2) run up of specific stocks like aapl, AMD, Nvidia and Broadcom, 3) more savings and 4) the general market bull run.
That is an unbelievable run. Congrats . Would you mind sharing your average saved amount per year over this time .
I've been hesitant to post in here for a while, since it feels like most people in here are much later in their journey than us. It took until I was 30 to remove my head from my sphincter and start investing.
This is very approximate; numbers include taxable and retirement accounts, will list approximate real estate separately. Also have approximately $500k in 529's for 2 young children
Age 44
December 1, 2019: 2.35 million + around 400k home equity; Married, 2 children
January 1, 2020: 1.42 million + around 200k home equity; single, 2 children
jabroni wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 8:36 am
It took until I was 30 to remove my head from my sphincter and start investing.
Don't feel too bad I watched my father invest in stocks when I was a kid and he had an uncanny ability to pick stocks of companies that would go bankrupt. Montana Power, Kaiser Aluminum etc. That and 2008 scared me off the stock market until I was 35. I started with a 401k at the first quality employer I found that actually offered one in my profession and then dumped my savings into to market in 2017, and also started a Roth. Untill then I had $200k in high yield savings.
I went from about
$75k in 2009
$250k in 2012
$677k in 2020 today according to Personal Capital
Mostly from being very frugal and having a high rate of savings.
alfaspider wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2015 10:58 am
This is a neat excuse to go through the exercise. I will just go through the last 10 years with annotations for life events. All amounts are year-end household net worth estimates with full value given to 401k accounts and inclusive of estimated home equity.
2005: $5,000 (in undergraduate)
2006: $10,000 (first job, low paying)
2007: 0 (started law school)
2008: -$20,000
2009: -$40,000
2010: -$65,000 (graduated & married)
2011: -$65,000 (spouse starts law school)
2012: -$40,000
2013: 0 (purchased home)
2014: $150,000 (massive home appreciation confirmed by refi appraisal, spouse starts job)
2015: $300,000 (student loans paid in full)
2016: $580,000
Bumping for YE 2017: $860,000. Hoping for 2 commas in 2018
YE 2018: 1,030,000 (barring major market moves on Monday). This will be the first year that my year end net worth was significantly below my peak ($120k north of current). A bit disappointing, but I’m very satisfied given the lackluster market. I suppose I now have some tax losses to look forward to using in April to lessen the sting of my customary “reverse refund”
YE 2019: ~1.3MM. This year's calculation is a bit difficult because I currently own two houses while one is on the market. I've also put $100k into renovations on the new house, which makes it more difficult to value. However, I am conservatively estimating the value of the new house by valuing it at purchase price with no value add for renovations. Home equity is currently $350k of that net worth number ($150k in house that is for sale).
Despite the $300k net worth rise, I would rate this as a bit of a bad year for net worth increase as the house move significantly reduced the appreciation that could have happened. Still, I can't complain about our overall situation and trajectory It's amazing looking back at this and seeing that we had a negative net worth of $65k a decade ago. I don't think I would have believed someone who told me I'd be a millionaire 10 years from graduation.
I'm a single guy living in a MCOL city. I graduated at the end of 2016 (computer science). I was extremely fortunate to have a year-round internship during college. The majority of my net-worth (90%) is in retirement; this has been a blessing and a curse. I'm really enjoying my career and am excited for the future. My current gross income is about $120k. I live pretty frugally, but I've definitely splurged here and there, mostly food & beer
January , 2020 - 1075 k NW ( age 34 ). Both me and DW graduated residency in June 2016 and working since then . Had a baby September , 2018 so wife stopped working for a while after that. No debt.
Missed the bull run in 2019 because was piling up cash for a house purchase ( hopefully by summer , 2020 ).
ForeverInvestorILL wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 9:57 am
Joined the forum in February 2017 and after a few months of reading, digesting, and figuring out a plan, started to track my net worth on a monthly basis (always update on the 5th of each month). I find this thread extremely motivating and it's very exciting to see my progress over the last 18 months:
Age -- Date -- Net Worth
23.5 -- 07/05/2017 -- $47,464
24 -- 01/05/2018 -- $67,471
25 -- 01/05/2019 -- $109,919
I'm a single guy living in a MCOL city. I graduated at the end of 2016 (computer science). I was extremely fortunate to have a year-round internship during college. The majority of my net-worth (90%) is in retirement; this has been a blessing and a curse. I'm really enjoying my career and am excited for the future. My current gross income is about $120k. I live pretty frugally, but I've definitely splurged here and there, mostly food & beer
Year-end:
2003 - $20k - 29 yo in VHCOL city. Record-keeping imprecise at this point before I got Quicken
2004 - $186k - high paying job
2005 - $355k
2006 - $511k
2007- $576k - new job but it didn't go so well
2008 - $501k - ouch. Also got laid off
2009 - $557k - all-in on equities. This was a good move
2010 - $664k - career change
2011 - $810k
2012 - $1223k - new career starts going well
2013 - $1604k
2014 - $2056k
2015 - $2583k
2016 - $2917k
2017 - $3316k
2018 - $3169k - market pullback plus wrote down some real estate investments
2019 - $3626k - 45 yo living in a different HCOL city
Graduated medical school in 2010, residency in 2015 with >$550k student loans. Aggressively paid them off, have been saving and enjoyed positive market returns
Graduated medical school in 2010, residency in 2015 with >$550k student loans. Aggressively paid them off, have been saving and enjoyed positive market returns
Wow! Great job! You must have high income but still very impressive !
snackdog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:03 pm
A better question might be - what is the long term CAGR for your net worth (including contributions)? Mine appears to be 26% over a couple decades.
Nice. I am 32.18% over 12 years.
50/20/30 US stock/international stock/bonds. Hope to semi-retire in 2022.
snackdog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:03 pm
A better question might be - what is the long term CAGR for your net worth (including contributions)? Mine appears to be 26% over a couple decades.
Soon2BXProgrammer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:18 am
Updated. With a high savings rate and this incredible bull market, I'm flabberghasted by the growth rate of our NW.
Soon2BXProgrammer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:37 pm
these are the ends of the year, and include all assets/liabilities. including house
Year - NW - Base Salary - Comments
2006 - Approximately 0 - 56k - First real job after military.
2007 - ????? - 59k - Bought House
2008 - ????? - 83k
2009 - ????? - 87k
2010 - ????? - 101k
2011 - ????? - 106k
2012 - ????? - 112k
2013 - 672k - 116k - House paid off
2014 - 818k - 122k
2015 - 931k - 138k
2016 - 1128k - 142k
2017 - 1424k - 147k
2018 - 1521k - 153k
2019 - 1905k - 158k
Wow ! , how have you managed to increase your NW almost 1 million in 4 years ? That is amazing indeed .
We spend between $40k-$50k a year, and I probably had between 0k-30k of bonus income in each of those years, so.. We have been savings $100k+ a year the last few years, that compounded with market growth, has compounded hugely. I hadn't looked at it from your lens, it is pretty amazing when you look from 2015-2019.
Basically, we live like we lived when we bought our house. This is allowing me to quit my job and pursue "purpose, mastery, and autonomy". I can't wait to get started on the next step of my journey.
Graduated college with student loans, $200 in my bank account, and a consultant job. I had always been interested in personal finance and tracked my budget with YNAB. Proud of my (small) progress so far.
2017: -30k — Graduated w/ student loans
2018: -11k — Changed jobs. Salary went from 60k to 105k
2019: 24k — Positive net worth! Maxed out 401k and IRA
Age 41/46 two kids. Bought quicken with turbo tax this year. Never calculated net worth before. Don't have much progression to offer yet. The below includes all assets, debt, etc including mortgage. Retired from the military last month, value of pension not included in net worth.
Last 7 years our HHI has increased from $90k to $180k. Wife is a federal employee and will also have a pension. All retirement assets primarily in TSP with some in Roth IRA. 401k started this year with my new contract position. We save a combined +/-25% for retirement annually.
slyboots wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:02 pm
Year-end:
2003 - $20k - 29 yo in VHCOL city. Record-keeping imprecise at this point before I got Quicken
2004 - $186k - high paying job
2005 - $355k
2006 - $511k
2007- $576k - new job but it didn't go so well
2008 - $501k - ouch. Also got laid off
2009 - $557k - all-in on equities. This was a good move
2010 - $664k - career change
2011 - $810k
2012 - $1223k - new career starts going well
2013 - $1604k
2014 - $2056k
2015 - $2583k
2016 - $2917k
2017 - $3316k
2018 - $3169k - market pullback plus wrote down some real estate investments
2019 - $3626k - 45 yo living in a different HCOL city
We are one year older than you and are track is nearly identical, you are a few hundred k in front of us. Are you the sole earner? If so, you must be pulling in 200k+ by age 30 or so to make this work, or else your investments were trending a bit higher than market average. We are combined income over 250k.
I'm not questioning your numbers, I'm just curious about your path since it is freaky similar to us.
Appreciate this thread to keep us motivated and on track! A big portion of our increase this year was due to the sale of a home. We're sitting on some of that cash, most of which will be reinvested into our home this year. We are a dual income household with two young kids. Low cost of living city.
Year Age Net worth Household Salary
2008 25 $12,927 $80,799
2009 26 $53,670 $82,799
2010 27 $73,499 $92,151
2011 28 $111,558 $90,236
2012 29 $147,361 $102,400
2013 30 $141,177 $106,067 Sold house at loss
2014 31 $218,935 $109,758
2015 32 $246,448 $147,115
2016 33 $213,314 $170,221 Major adoption expenses
2017 34 $439,508 $185,221 Sold rental house at gain
2018 35 $489,340 $215,873
2019 36 $677,322 $241,532 Sold house at gain, first year maxing out 401ks
slyboots wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:02 pm
Year-end:
2003 - $20k - 29 yo in VHCOL city. Record-keeping imprecise at this point before I got Quicken
2004 - $186k - high paying job
2005 - $355k
2006 - $511k
2007- $576k - new job but it didn't go so well
2008 - $501k - ouch. Also got laid off
2009 - $557k - all-in on equities. This was a good move
2010 - $664k - career change
2011 - $810k
2012 - $1223k - new career starts going well
2013 - $1604k
2014 - $2056k
2015 - $2583k
2016 - $2917k
2017 - $3316k
2018 - $3169k - market pullback plus wrote down some real estate investments
2019 - $3626k - 45 yo living in a different HCOL city
We are one year older than you and are track is nearly identical, you are a few hundred k in front of us. Are you the sole earner? If so, you must be pulling in 200k+ by age 30 or so to make this work, or else your investments were trending a bit higher than market average. We are combined income over 250k.
I'm not questioning your numbers, I'm just curious about your path since it is freaky similar to us.
This is just me. My spouse has a separate set of numbers that are not included here, started out ahead but now about half of where I am.
I have been a high earner throughout my career, consistently earning $200k+,including before age 30, though in HCOL and VHCOL environments. I also spend fairly freely. I suppose I'm not really a great Boglehead as I should have way more saved up than I actually do.
slalom wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2018 7:20 am
Single, VHCOL
(These are all EoY and include home equity)
2001 - ~$0 - broke, just graduated college - no loans but wanted to be in the arts
2002 - ~$0 - making enough to get by, zero savings after rent etc
2003 - “
2004 - “
2005 - ~$? - got a job in tech, but it was a small company run by a miserly CEO. No records from back then.
2006 - “
2007 - “
2008 - $12k - raises, better job,, had been putting in 6% to 401k heavy intl risk (still wasn’t much) but lost most of it in the crash
2009 - $70k - finally saving, some Paid OT/bonuses - promptly bought a fancy car like most young idiots
2010 - $77k - took me a while to get back what I spent on the car
2011 - $144k - more raises, really rolling with the saving by this time
2012 - $190k - bought a house near the bottom, which would prove to be the game changer
2013 - $300k - house went up in value hugely, plus lots more saving
2014 - $423k - more of the same
2015 - $507k - a bit of a holding pattern
2016 - $711k - big bonuses regularly, more forced saving/investing, bull market, maxing 401k
2017 - $879k - “
Hoping to hit $1m this year, a bit late at age 38 but I’m single (well, unmarried) which doesn’t help. Potential wife is kind of spendy.
2018 - $952k - My tech heavy portfolio got killed this year. Also lost some home value as market here softened. I only am as high as this because of a crazy amount of saving and deposits into investments. At some point it was $1080k. Staying at the $1 MM mark still seems unattainable.
2019 - $1.24 MM - hit the big 4-0 this year (age) - just like most others, the market helped a lot, as did two separate 50% ESPP profit trades
I have to keep reminding myself that the numbers growth are from gross actual investment returns (+savings) I was getting a little depressed comparing the numbers to my planning projections with 5.5% returns before I made that realization.
slyboots wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:02 pm
Year-end:
2003 - $20k - 29 yo in VHCOL city. Record-keeping imprecise at this point before I got Quicken
2004 - $186k - high paying job
2005 - $355k
2006 - $511k
2007- $576k - new job but it didn't go so well
2008 - $501k - ouch. Also got laid off
2009 - $557k - all-in on equities. This was a good move
2010 - $664k - career change
2011 - $810k
2012 - $1223k - new career starts going well
2013 - $1604k
2014 - $2056k
2015 - $2583k
2016 - $2917k
2017 - $3316k
2018 - $3169k - market pullback plus wrote down some real estate investments
2019 - $3626k - 45 yo living in a different HCOL city
We are one year older than you and are track is nearly identical, you are a few hundred k in front of us. Are you the sole earner? If so, you must be pulling in 200k+ by age 30 or so to make this work, or else your investments were trending a bit higher than market average. We are combined income over 250k.
I'm not questioning your numbers, I'm just curious about your path since it is freaky similar to us.
This is just me. My spouse has a separate set of numbers that are not included here, started out ahead but now about half of where I am.
I have been a high earner throughout my career, consistently earning $200k+,including before age 30, though in HCOL and VHCOL environments. I also spend fairly freely. I suppose I'm not really a great Boglehead as I should have way more saved up than I actually do.
Well.......I could say the same, have more saved. But we arrived at nearly the same point with reasonable spending. We have always put away between 20 and 25% of our gross regardless of what we earn. As we now earn between 250 and 300 depending on bonus, it means we spend more. We are not living a luxury lifestyle, but at the same time we don't really track or worry about spending. I know how much I invest yearly and am hitting goals.
Some enjoyment should be derived from what you earn, otherwise what's the point?
Revisiting this thread again. Looks like my previous post became pretty useless because the imgurl got deleted.
Here is what Quicken currently tells me since my records start in 2007 . The numbers are for 12/31 of each year.
2007 : $689k
2008 : $522K
2009 : $620k
2010 : $651k
2011 : $1070k (inheritance)
2012 : $1359k
2013 : $1540k
2014 : $1650k
2015 : $1666k
2016 : $1875k
2017 : $2099k
2018 : $2090k
2019 : $3002k (+$600k in paper home value; mortgage payoff) . Age 43.
The total includes both my portfolio and my estimated home value, which is only estimated and which I seldom adjust - but I did finally make a big adjustment of its paper value last year, hence the jump in NW by $900k in a single year. I took the lowest of 10 online home value estimators at $1.5M. The top estimator puts it at about $1.9M.
At this point, I'm completely debt-free, and my portfolio is about half my net worth, with the home being the other half, at $1.5M each.
Spending last year excluding payroll & income taxes was about $110k and I expect it to go down this year a little bit. So we have about 13.6x annual expenses saved up. This is still well short of what's needed for retirement if we want to maintain the same standard of living in a McMansion in the bay area. I expect it will take between 6-12 more years of work, on top of the 25 I have already put in, depending on whether my income can go up some more, and market gyrations.
Depressing? You are a half millionaire at age 31. Guessing you are in the top 2-3% by age in the US and top .1% by age in the world. Congrats! You are one making this thread depressing for others lol.
I hold index funds because I do not overestimate my ability to pick stocks OR stock pickers.
Olemiss540 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:34 am
Depressing? You are a half millionaire at age 31. Guessing you are in the top 2-3% by age in the US and top .1% by age in the world. Congrats! You are one making this thread depressing for others lol.
After going through my old stuff, I was able to get my net worth for past years. All net worths are for Dec 31.
2016: 141k
2017: 266k
2018: 407k
2019: 536k
I’ll play. 2008-2012 are rough estimates. Net worth skewed by outlier income years in last two years (not repeatable). Looking back, did poorly on the saving/investing front in early career. Spent too much; didn’t maximize use of tax preferred vehicles; made all the standard behaviorial mistakes.Bailed out by income luck, but BH foundation is in place now.
Year NW HH Income
2008 (100,000) 90,000 graduated law school
2009 (75,000) 90,000 buy a house
2010 (50,000) 175,000 got married
2011 (25,000) 220,000 new job at larger firm
2012 50,000 210,000
2013 120,000 240,000 new job at small firm; kid #1 born
2014 175,000 270,000
2015 350,000 260,000
2016 650,000 250,000 partner in new law firm; kid #2 born
2017 850,000 350,000
2018 1.6 mil 1.3 mil
2019 3.6 mil 2.8 mil
I regret not keeping better track over the years, but I didn't really discover personal finance or the BH way until 2014. These numbers are for me and my spouse combined. I've had to guesstimate a few of the early years for NW and income as I don't have much from Mint or PC until about 2010ish.
Date | NW | Household Income
12/31/2006 | $50,000 | $30,000 --- Graduated with 1st degree. Total guess on NW and Income.
12/31/2007 | $75,000 | $38,200 --- Married, moved states. Guess on NW
12/31/2008 | $125,000 | $30,500 --- Spouse started new job. Guess on NW
12/31/2009 | $155,000 | $38,200 --- Bought first house, then lost job. Guess on NW
12/31/2010 | $180,000 | $65,500 --- Began low paying job
12/31/2011 | $188,302 | $76,000 --- Began online 2nd degree
12/31/2012 | $226,500 | $108,375 --- a rare year with no major changes?
12/31/2013 | $260,000 | $105,500 --- 1st child born, graduated with 2nd degree
12/31/2014 | $288,000 | $112,000 --- Began work at current company, discovered BH and began personal finance revelation
12/31/2015 | $317,000 | $168,500 --- moved into a new house, had 2nd child
12/31/2016 | $473,000 | $277,500 --- promotion at work, spouse has best year ever
12/31/2017 | $644,500 | $231,165 --- significant health challenges begin in personal life
12/31/2018 | $710,500 | $209,000 --- promotion at work, spouse leaves job
12/31/2019 | $892,000 | $146,500 --- spouse begins different job
Looking back on it, its pretty clear how we have benefited in many ways. We have great families who set us up with debt free educations and other various assistance throughout the years. We live in what I would call a medium to low cost of living city, which has helped with housing. Of course the tremendous bull run helped a ton (30%ish in 2019??).
Despite the headwinds, with 2 kinds in daycare/pre-school/private school, life is very expensive. If we had done things differently, who knows perhaps we would have a higher NW. But, we could also have not learned about personal finance and be far worse off. I think in our mid 30s, we are probably far ahead of our peers, and most people we know would be shocked to know we will possibly cross into 7 figures this year. If we have a 15%-20% NW growth, which would be consistent for the last 10 years, we will hit 1M in 2020. The funny thing about that to me is that it will change literally nothing about my life. If you had told me 15 years ago that I would be a millionaire (technically) in my mid 30s, i'd have thought that was insane. But its just a number. I attribute this success to blessing and fortune, hard work, timing, luck, and passivity.
Here are our figures. Wish I had noted down the figures from earlier years from Mint before I removed the investment accounts from it. Update: Followed the post below's advice and found a few more years in the Mint emails. It took 20 years of saving to reach the 1 million mark.
Beaker12 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:55 am
Here are our figures. Wish I had noted down the figures from earlier years from Mint before I removed the investment accounts from it. It took 20 years of saving to reach the 1 million mark.
These figures are Jan 1 for each year.
Year | Age | Net Worth
2016| 41 | 1,025,000
2017 | 42 | 1,190,000
2018 | 43| 1,405,000
2019 | 44 | 1,602,000
2020 | 45 | 1,978,000
I found some old mint numbers for me in my email as mint emailed me weekly summaries. Maybe you have those too
( hopefully by summer , 2020 ).
