Love that. I'm 34 and hit 7-figures in investments in December.
millionaires
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Last: 10 hrs ago by Dr T and the Women
Kenneth_2003 said:
Several months ago a younger new hire asked me if I thought I'd be a millionaire before I retire.
A bit about him... 25 years old (now), HS diploma, older siblings, but no father figure present, and mom isn't much of an influence.
So I chuckled a little at the question and told him that yes I certainly do expect to not just be a millionaire but do be so several times over. I actually crossed 7 figures in 401(k), IRA, and after tax brokerage earlier last year. That's still independent of checking, savings, emergency fund, and illiquid home. I've tried several times to talk him into getting that 401(k) setup at work if only to realize that he's leaving 4% on the table that the company is freely willing to give him.
So last Friday I caught him again and showed him a spreadsheet.ZERO Annual Investment increase
- Again he's 25 so 40 year investment horizon, retirement @ 65
Starting balance $0- $500 per month (no breakdown of match vs individual portion) KISS
- 8% annual rate of return (0.66% monthly)
- 40 year investment horizon
1.5% Annual Investment Increase
- 7 figure balance early in year 34
- $1,745,500 @ 40 years, retirement
- $240,000 personal contribution
- $1,505,500 from compounding growth
He pulled his phone out and started setting up the 401(k) with eyes as wide as I've ever seen on a young person. He's out of the office this week, but I'm going to follow up with him. I hope it made the impression that he as something that I don't have. TIME.
- 7 figure balance early in year 32
- $2,056,000 @ 40 years, retirement
- $325,600 personal contribution
- $1,730,400 from compounding growth
At that age for that kid, you literally changed his future life. Significantly.
Thanks.
I truly hope so.
We get a 4% match. If he's ONLY making 50,000/yr 4% is 166 a month. Just to make that $500 number, that's only asking someone to come up with an extra $334. That absolutely is happy hours and/or coffee territory to millionaire status.
I truly hope so.
We get a 4% match. If he's ONLY making 50,000/yr 4% is 166 a month. Just to make that $500 number, that's only asking someone to come up with an extra $334. That absolutely is happy hours and/or coffee territory to millionaire status.
Good for you. Seeing the actual numbers is always impactful. I had this same conversation with a few different people over course of my career, but I never had numbers in front of me to show them the math. Therefore, I had trouble convincing them to participate.
That young man is lucky to have you as a sounding board. Financial literacy is probably worst than actual literacy these days, which ain't great.
PeekingDuck said:
That young man is lucky to have you as a sounding board. Financial literacy is probably worst than actual literacy these days, which ain't great.
Totally worse.
PeekingDuck said:
That young man is lucky to have you as a sounding board. Financial literacy is probably worst than actual literacy these days, which ain't great.
Apparently not.
Blew stars all around.
PeekingDuck said:
Blew stars all around.
I would hope millionaires would be so generous.
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Yeah, it's pretty wild to watch net growth grow by 1M in simply a year once you get your numbers high enough. Simply through compounding interest. It's an amazing thing...math.
YouBet said:herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Yeah, it's pretty wild to watch net growth grow by 1M in simply a year once you get your numbers high enough. Simply through compounding interest. It's an amazing thing...math.
I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'll consider it a big milestone when my diversified index portfolio is finally large enough to lose 7 figures in a market downturn. Have seen it drop 6 figures plenty of times, but I'm used to that now, so ready for that next big thrill when the market dips. Math works in both directions when talking about 10+% fluctuations
aggiebq03+ said:YouBet said:herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Yeah, it's pretty wild to watch net growth grow by 1M in simply a year once you get your numbers high enough. Simply through compounding interest. It's an amazing thing...math.
I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'll consider it a big milestone when my diversified index portfolio is finally large enough to lose 7 figures in a market downturn. Have seen it drop 6 figures plenty of times, but I'm used to that now, so ready for that next big thrill when the market dips. Math works in both directions when talking about 10+% fluctuations
Hell, I'm ready to go shopping on that downturn.
Tex117 said:aggiebq03+ said:YouBet said:herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Yeah, it's pretty wild to watch net growth grow by 1M in simply a year once you get your numbers high enough. Simply through compounding interest. It's an amazing thing...math.
I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'll consider it a big milestone when my diversified index portfolio is finally large enough to lose 7 figures in a market downturn. Have seen it drop 6 figures plenty of times, but I'm used to that now, so ready for that next big thrill when the market dips. Math works in both directions when talking about 10+% fluctuations
Hell, I'm ready to go shopping on that downturn.
When it gets that bad, I feel as if I am about to catch a falling knife. For that reason, I don't like to keep a lot of cash around. I know I suck at timing the market, so I go for time in the market instead.
This April sucked badly, and I didn't have any dry powder. But I held out and didn't make any moves and it came back. I suppose it'll happen (and worse) again.
herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Congrats.
I tell people you have a choice in life. Let your money work for you while you sleep (save and invest) or have it work against you while you sleep (spend and take on a lot of non-productive debt).
Unfortunately, most people in the US don't have the discipline to let money work for you. Compounding works both ways.
I'm retired so I can't throw new money into the market when the market tanks but last year in March when everything was down I did a massive Roth conversion and paid the tax bill from cash outside of my IRA. The bill was massive and stung at the time but those positions rebounded by over 30% since the conversion making up for all the taxes and now it's all tax free forever.
I have never had a million dollar drop in account value but last March I was down about 700k from that point to today I have recovered +1.3m so a pretty wild swing in 2026
I have never had a million dollar drop in account value but last March I was down about 700k from that point to today I have recovered +1.3m so a pretty wild swing in 2026
stonksock said:
I'm retired so I can't throw new money into the market when the market tanks but last year in March when everything was down I did a massive Roth conversion and paid the tax bill from cash outside of my IRA. The bill was massive and stung at the time but those positions rebounded by over 30% since the conversion making up for all the taxes and now it's all tax free forever.
I have never had a million dollar drop in account value but last March I was down about 700k from that point to today I have recovered +1.3m so a pretty wild swing in 2026
We are likely doing a big Roth conversion this year because this will be the lowest tax rate we have...maybe ever...now and in the future.
Yeah we did a massive Roth conversion last year when the market was down. Timed it pretty well.
He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:Tex117 said:aggiebq03+ said:YouBet said:herewegoagain said:
Just want to reiterate something that has been said on this thread several times but bears repeating for the younger folks: it's far easier to make money once you have money AKA compounding magic works even better the bigger your numbers grow.
It took me many years to get my first million, and then a number more to get to my second, but when doing my year end look back I realized I went from 5-6 million this past 12 months alone. Combination of stock market and (primarily) real estate investments.
Keep going!
Yeah, it's pretty wild to watch net growth grow by 1M in simply a year once you get your numbers high enough. Simply through compounding interest. It's an amazing thing...math.
I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'll consider it a big milestone when my diversified index portfolio is finally large enough to lose 7 figures in a market downturn. Have seen it drop 6 figures plenty of times, but I'm used to that now, so ready for that next big thrill when the market dips. Math works in both directions when talking about 10+% fluctuations
Hell, I'm ready to go shopping on that downturn.
When it gets that bad, I feel as if I am about to catch a falling knife. For that reason, I don't like to keep a lot of cash around. I know I suck at timing the market, so I go for time in the market instead.
This April sucked badly, and I didn't have any dry powder. But I held out and didn't make any moves and it came back. I suppose it'll happen (and worse) again.
Oh, I'm the same. I have my set amount I put in every month come hell or high water. That way, I'm not worrying about timing the market. Just following the plan...
I did the Roth conversion last year when the S&P retreated to 5000. I Roth convert in down markets so I can convert more shares and pay lower tax than had I converted the same number of shares in an up market.
I am 31 years away from RMDs and doing nothing I could easily end up with an IRA 10x what it is today and I want to get it down to a more reasonable level by then.
I am 31 years away from RMDs and doing nothing I could easily end up with an IRA 10x what it is today and I want to get it down to a more reasonable level by then.
I'm 36 with (non-retirement) 1.7 million in the the market from savings and market growth. This would be great except houses in my metro area are $3mill for 2000 square feet. We're renting for now while we save some more before hopefully getting a loan of under a million.
I have enough humility to say all "success" has a huge luck component. But both my wife and I chose extremely stable, high income careers.
One conscious trade-off we made was to exchange low cost of living, physical space, and nice cars, for higher income, walkability, and weather. Moving to a place with relatively cool weather year round with walkable streets that are actually close to stuff makes life SO much better than sitting in traffic. Biking to work is amazing. We do have one OLD car that gets about 3k miles per year. And we're saving 15-20k a year by not having 2 car loans with maintenance, legal, and gas.
My humble thought is that there are plenty of high tax, high COL areas that MAY scare off people. But look into them. Sometimes both (or either) wages and lifestyle make them worth it. Don't write places off for preconceived notions. Certainly the people, everywhere I've been in America, are overwhelmingly friendly welcoming, helpful and largely NOT fighting any culture wars.
I have enough humility to say all "success" has a huge luck component. But both my wife and I chose extremely stable, high income careers.
One conscious trade-off we made was to exchange low cost of living, physical space, and nice cars, for higher income, walkability, and weather. Moving to a place with relatively cool weather year round with walkable streets that are actually close to stuff makes life SO much better than sitting in traffic. Biking to work is amazing. We do have one OLD car that gets about 3k miles per year. And we're saving 15-20k a year by not having 2 car loans with maintenance, legal, and gas.
My humble thought is that there are plenty of high tax, high COL areas that MAY scare off people. But look into them. Sometimes both (or either) wages and lifestyle make them worth it. Don't write places off for preconceived notions. Certainly the people, everywhere I've been in America, are overwhelmingly friendly welcoming, helpful and largely NOT fighting any culture wars.
PascalsWager said:
I'm 36 with (non-retirement) 1.7 million in the the market from savings and market growth. This would be great except houses in my metro area are $3mill for 2000 square feet. We're renting for now while we save some more before hopefully getting a loan of under a million.
I have enough humility to say all "success" has a huge luck component. But both my wife and I chose extremely stable, high income careers.
One conscious trade-off we made was to exchange low cost of living, physical space, and nice cars, for higher income, walkability, and weather. Moving to a place with relatively cool weather year round with walkable streets that are actually close to stuff makes life SO much better than sitting in traffic. Biking to work is amazing. We do have one OLD car that gets about 3k miles per year. And we're saving 15-20k a year by not having 2 car loans with maintenance, legal, and gas.
My humble thought is that there are plenty of high tax, high COL areas that MAY scare off people. But look into them. Sometimes both (or either) wages and lifestyle make them worth it. Don't write places off for preconceived notions. Certainly the people, everywhere I've been in America, are overwhelmingly friendly welcoming, helpful and largely NOT fighting any culture wars.
We are all lucky to have been born in the US where the economic opportunities are limitless compared to most countries. Outside of that, what exactly was lucky about your success or the success of others? I guess I was "lucky" to have entered the oil and gas industry at a time when things were booming, but so did a lot of my friends and yet a lot of them haven't had that much success in their careers.
A lot of success is recognizing good opportunities, acting on those opportunities, and excelling at those opportunities. Its very hard for most people to do all 3. You can give 2 people the same opportunity, yet one will blow it and the other will make the most of it.
Getting a decent paying job, living below your means, and saving/investing consistently through the ups and downs isnt being lucky, its just being smart.
Roth converted ~40K last April/May and thew a decent chunk into GOOG in the 150s-160s
Roth has a maximum annual income limit of $168,000
how are all of you multi-millionaires only making under $170k?
that is not even middle class in the DC area.
how are all of you multi-millionaires only making under $170k?
that is not even middle class in the DC area.
Oh boy…. Busted!
LMCane said:
Roth has a maximum annual income limit of $168,000
how are all of you multi-millionaires only making under $170k?
that is not even middle class in the DC area.
Lol
Moderator:
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
Backdoor Roth gets you around the income limits. You need to be careful when setting up a backdoor Roth. It would be wise to be sure you don't have any other Traditional (pre-tax) IRAs because then you'd be subject to the pro-rata rule when rolling over into the Roth.
I just did my Backdoor Roth this week for the year. Put $7,500 post-tax dollars into a Trad. IRA, then roll that into a Roth within a few days before investing it so you don't capture any untaxed gains in that rollover.
I just did my Backdoor Roth this week for the year. Put $7,500 post-tax dollars into a Trad. IRA, then roll that into a Roth within a few days before investing it so you don't capture any untaxed gains in that rollover.
YouBet said:
Moderator:
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
For Roth's what?
b0ridi said:YouBet said:
Moderator:
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
For Roth's what?
To explain how they work. There are no real income limits on Roth's. It's a very frequent question that gets asked or an assumption is made that there are income limits when there are not.
YouBet said:b0ridi said:YouBet said:
Moderator:
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
For Roth's what?
To explain how they work. There are no real income limits on Roth's. It's a very frequent question that gets asked or an assumption is made that there are income limits when there are not.
Pretty simple illustration of how insanely idiotic our tax code is.
Ducks4brkfast said:YouBet said:b0ridi said:YouBet said:
Moderator:
Again, we need a sticky on this board for Roth's.
For Roth's what?
To explain how they work. There are no real income limits on Roth's. It's a very frequent question that gets asked or an assumption is made that there are income limits when there are not.
Pretty simple illustration of how insanely idiotic our tax code is.
Yep.
txaggie_08 said:
Backdoor Roth gets you around the income limits. You need to be careful when setting up a backdoor Roth. It would be wise to be sure you don't have any other Traditional (pre-tax) IRAs because then you'd be subject to the pro-rata rule when rolling over into the Roth.
I just did my Backdoor Roth this week for the year. Put $7,500 post-tax dollars into a Trad. IRA, then roll that into a Roth within a few days before investing it so you don't capture any untaxed gains in that rollover.
Mega backdoor Roth - if your company 401k allows for it, will get you around the IRA issue. That's what I have to do.
And the limit is $72k (total, employee+employer), rather than the $7500 limit.
And yes, all these if, thens around Roths are stupid!
Yeah, I don't have access to a MBDR.
Another stupid rule. It should either be allowed for everyone or no one.
Reminds me of all the child care FSA deductions I missed out on because my employer didn't offer that.
Reminds me of all the child care FSA deductions I missed out on because my employer didn't offer that.
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