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First million I felt that "I've arrived" but with the second million I felt it was never enough...

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I think that all depends on what you find satisfaction in and how you measure it. If your measure of success is having more money, the biggest house, the nicest car - STUFF - then you will never be satisfied as you will always be looking at the next thing or the next million.

For my family, we have been blessed in that we make a good living doing what we do. But we also live well within our means because we are satisfied with where we are. That doesn't mean we are going to quit our jobs, but it does mean that we don't go out and buy the nicest things just because we can. We have a nice house, but we could afford more and we do not have a need to have the biggest house in town. I would say our only "splurge" spending is that we do not live on a strict budget - but that is just a function of ease and convenience more than it is "gimme gimme gimme". We say no to our 10 year old that wants a phone. We do not go on extravagant vacations multiple times a year. We live modestly compared to what we make, and we are trying to pass that on to our kids by not giving them everything they ever ask for.

If we sold our business to do something less profitable, or even if we had to close our doors, we would be ok. We are not dependent upon our stuff to give us self worth. Sure we would have to adjust as far as our budget, but I am not going to feel unsatisfied if that is what happens.

I say all this to reinforce that if the goal of your life is to make this amount of money or reach a certain level of status, when you achieve those goals you will always look for more. You wont be happy because your priorities are out of order.

That all may have sounded a little preachy, and if so I apologize, but honestly that is the way we live. We were as happy when we made nothing as we are now.

Joined the millionaire club over the weekend due to a financial windfall. What I've learned are three basic tenets to acquire wealth:

1. Stay disclipined in savings/investments
2. Find a niche that is highly valued in the market
3. Work your f***ing ass off

My only intent is to retire as early as possible. No reason anyone needs over $5MM in wealth in current dollars.

Read this WSJ article over the weekend... "Can Money Buy You Happiness?". The conclusion that experiences, not things, leads to greater happiness rings true with me.

Not necessarily millionaire related but seems appropriate to post here.

http://m.wsj.com/articles/can-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-science-has-to-say-1415569538?mobile=y

The experiences I have with my kids are priceless and don't cost a dime.

Congrats Confucius!

Good father? FU! Go home and play with your kids.

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Begs an interesting question.what life do you want to live? Watch every penny you spend and retire at an earlier age or retire with more cash?

Or travel when you want, eat what you want to eat, and not worry about day to day spending?

Personally, not worth it for me to be a penny pincher. I like to eat good food, have nice things and travel as much as I can. Don't like the stress that constantly worrying about money brings. I live debt free, contribute to wife's 401k/mutual funds, daughters 529 plan and pay a little extra towards mortgage every month.so not saying to spend money like a fool. But what is the point of making money and working hard if you are not going to spend it?

Guess it depends on your goal.for those who seek to become a millionaire their whole life, what is your goal? You live life a frugal life for 20-30 years , finally get a $1M in assets/cash and then what? What comes next? I would think it would be difficult to break out of the frugal mentality to ever really enjoy it? Just playing a little devil's advocate here

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SO much wisdom here. Is the accumulation of wealth the means to an end or the end itself? Yes- a somewhat false dichotomy but true nontheless.

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The experiences I have with my kids are priceless and don't cost a dime.

Congrats Confucius!

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I love the experiences with my kids, but to say they dont cost a dime...

Kids are expensive and probably the fastest way to burn through money.

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Joined the millionaire club over the weekend due to a financial windfall. What I've learned are three basic tenets to acquire wealth:

1. Stay disclipined in savings/investments
2. Find a niche that is highly valued in the market
3. Work your f***ing ass off

My only intent is to retire as early as possible. No reason anyone needs over $5MM in wealth in current dollars.

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You wanna put some of that smack down for our new DC??

This thread needs to go back to the top, so bump.

Saw the thread near the top and was hoping to get the chance to congratulate someone. Still a few years away myself.

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there are many paths to becoming a millionaire and all of them involve some level of risk and of course saving/investing as much as you possibly can.

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This is how I did it - I invested heavily in housing (buy a place that needs cosmetic work -> DIY -> move and sell, repeat) + getting into rentals in a transitional area when the market was down. At the same time, maxing out the IRA and 401K while not living large didn't hurt either.

edit: I also didn't get married until my late 20s, so it was a lot easier for me to take assignments with work that were away from home for a month or three at a time. I also transferred with the company across the country three times.

And as Confucius say...

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3. Work your f***ing ass off

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It does require work, time, plan,.. Todd Tressider has an outline on the usual ways to wealth such as a personal business (favorable tax code), RE & paper assets (stocks/bonds).

I think being around like minded people helps versus the opposite. Wealth gives you options in your work, choices, life... Some would say freedom but that's just semantics.

Most people see personal finance via theses routes: frugality (scrimp, save, cut the tops off a banana as to not be weighed) or the abundance mindset (leverage, renters pay off your house/life style).

Is money a scarce resource or is it abundant?

Continue to max out your 401k's and IRA's,
Comrades. Uncle Sam will need this money in a few years.....

Don't buy a bigger house than you need, keep cars awhile, save money from the start, invest in more local options such as income producing real property, both husband and wife work. I don't worry about the specifics I just focus on making one smart decision at a time.

They way my old boss explained it was something like:

"Money doesn't always buy you happiness, but it sure is convenient"

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We all need money to achieve some level of happiness, but it has been proven that once you have enough money to provide a nice modest living for your family, the money you earn above that level starts to decrease your happiness. It makes perfect sense to me. There are typically conditions tied to that $600K house whether it is working more, having less "true vacation time (i.e. not working on vacation)" and being less available to your family which usually causes stress and marital tension. Take younger kids for example, they will likely have just a good of time in FL as they would in Hawaii. Although continuously affording that Hawaii vacation is going to cost you in some other area of your life.

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Big difference between money bringing happiness and consumption bringing happiness.

Many people who have enough money to be financially secure are happy, and why wouldn't they be? They can live their lifestyle without needing to work another minute, and that is a nice situation to be in.

Buying a $600,000 house or making multiple trips to Hawai'i? That is consuming in an attempt to make yourself happy, and it doesn't work.

bump

my brother sent this to me a week or so.

Simple calculator:

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/millionaire/index.html?sr=twmoney051015millionaire0300calculator

Me too... though common math....I'd never given much thought about it from that perspective.

This is how we did it:

1. Both contributed enough to 401k to get at least the match since first day we could with job 1 out of college. We've actually been sporadic at best with IRAs up until the past couple of years so we could have been much better off than we are.

2. Be DINKs. Im not necessarily advocating this because it's obvioualy a huge trade off. However, speeds things up vs stopping down to have kids.

3. Only buy used cars. Quick off the cuff math - haven't had a car pmt in 5 years so that's roughly $20k not wasted on car pmts that we have invested instead.

4. Get lucky with some company stock but don't let it take over your portfolio. Sell it and reinvest to diversify when it makes sense.

Feet not when other fear and take advantage of people insecurities. We have 60% YTM SLM bonds through 2022 because of irrational fear.

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This is how we did it:

1. Both contributed enough to 401k to get at least the match since first day we could with job 1 out of college. We've actually been sporadic at best with IRAs up until the past couple of years so we could have been much better off than we are.

2. Be DINKs. Im not necessarily advocating this because it's obvioualy a huge trade off. However, speeds things up vs stopping down to have kids.

3. Only buy used cars. Quick off the cuff math - haven't had a car pmt in 5 years so that's roughly $20k not wasted on car pmts that we have invested instead.

4. Get lucky with some company stock but don't let it take over your portfolio. Sell it and reinvest to diversify when it makes sense.

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Are you each worth over $1 million, or is that the combined figure?

Combined. She's close to hitting mark by herself though.

I will also say I don't take it for granted in the least. For now, it's strictly an electronic number In Quicken and Morningstar that I look and marvel at. My focus at this point is maximizing tax efficiencies which adds a layer of complexity when you have maxed all of your easier tax deferred options.

Other thing I should add to the list which I'm sure has been said multiple times: if you have a long-term horizon you should ignore near-term volatility and ignore temptation to invest in traditional bonds. We never altered our contribution rates other than to increase them over time all through the Great Recession and were and continue to be 100% in equities (although I am now looking at tax free muni bond options to my earlier point about taxes).

When we started pulling out of recession a few years ago our portfolio skyrocketed and hit the milestone way quicker than I ever imagined. It's a testament to staying the course and keep plowing money into those accounts.

You offer a lot of good advice, but this is just flat out malarkey:

Other thing I should add to the list which I'm sure has been said multiple times: if you have a long-term horizon you should ignore near-term volatility and ignore temptation to invest in traditional bonds.

Short term volatility I agree (even though the 30/90 VIX has been the best leading indicator since 2009), but to saw avoid traditional bonds with no backing isn't something people need to take to heart.

I have a client with a 100% FI portfolio that has outperformed both the the 60/40, the NAREIT, and the S&P for the last 8 years. He went long treasuries and long high yield when the market was terrified of them.

People bond understand bonds. That doesn't mean people should avoid them. If more people became educated about expected vs actual YTM, risk neutral pricing, and duration/convexity (first and second derivative of interest rate movement on price), there wouldn't be a huge uproar.

Heck, well locked in 3.5% for 7 years with a net net zero convexity and a duration. That's 2x the 7 year CMS with little to no interest rate risk exposure.

The zero convexity shows the curvature in the relationship between bond prices and yields that demonstrates how the duration of a bond changes as the interest rate changes.

Not all bonds are created equally. Know the company and the prospectus. If you know those things, they can be very lucrative.

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Feet not when other fear and take advantage of people insecurities. We have 60% YTM SLM bonds through 2022 because of irrational fear.

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What does this post say?

Do you have irrational fear?

Systemstic selling of a non-systematic event creates opportunity. Capitalize on the irrational behavior.

In the words of Warren, be greedy when others are fearful.

Whoever rode the bond from 100 to 22 9/16 and then sold them to us did. Fannie and Freddie being clipped brought down the entire agency market. SLM was getting hammered as congress passed legislation solidifying their seniority and recapitalizing.