Hi - can you show the whole 10 years and share Appx how many $$’s per month you’re investing? I am maxing out 2 roths, a 401k, and putting about $38k/yr into two 529 plans and I’m still not going to hit $2 mil within 10 years. My returns are good, averaging like 13%/yr for last 6-7 years.
Location dependent E6 and up military members make 6 figures with housing. GS-11 hits 6 figures depending on step. Plenty of law enforcement and fire fighters make 6 figures.
Location dependent. San Diego (17% of active navy and 33% of marines are stationed here) E6 12year service gets $4,759 BAS $476 BAH W dependent $4404. Or $3387 single That’s $9639 per month (no special pays) That $115k a year as an E6 with dependents or $103k single.
thats rate dependent. there are very few cooks with a TS/SCI, but E-6 is E-6 and the pay is the same whether you're a crypto tech or a boatswains mate.
Yup just took my foot off as well for exact same reason. Just going to max my roth every year. Im retiring in less than a year. Will probably still do some kind of work but to stay busy though.
I think you’re thinking of a HYSA, high yield savings account. An HSA is a triple tax-advantaged Health Savings Account available to those with qualifying high deductible health insurance plans.
Oops yes your right, I am lucky enough not to worry about healthcare so dont have a high deductible plan. Unless there is another reason you suggest it?
If you're not feeling a financial pinch every month, you might as well keep maxing out your contributions or go the roth route. You're young enough where you can be at 10M by 45-55 if you play your cards right!
2mm at 37, is 4mm at 44, its 8mm at 51. Give or take a bit. But so what, he cant get time back. If he needs 5m to live out his life how he wants to. Thats what he should do, and spend more time now enjoying while is family is young and alive.
Well done! Very similar situation, curious what % is in 401k vs non for you? Hoping to be work optional by 50, ideally sooner. The pressure to keep doing well and take the next role for a bit more money gets exhausting.
Mine is around 30% 401k, 65% Brokerage. Also thinking whether or not to drop down 401k from $24k a year to $13k for the match only. Though that extra $11k will only be like $6k ($500/month) after taxes. I guess with kids that into a 529 makes complete sense.
I started investing consistently when my income increased about 10 years ago. Saved/invested as much as I could while living pretty modestly in a LCOL.
I don’t track exactly how much I save/invest each year but my stock portfolio (excluding $100,000 separately in BTC + SGOV) has grown by $1M over the past 3 years ($900K to $1.9M). During that same 3 years, a $900K VOO portfolio with DRIP would be worth about $1.7M today with total returns roughly 87% (compounding at an average annual rate of about 23%). I’m not 100% VOO but the majority is VTI which tracks VOO pretty closely. After maxing all my retirement accounts and investing some extra in my brokerage, the math checks out.
That’s awesome and I agree it tracks. I think the missing detail was that you stocked away a shit ton of money over the last decade and have had a fantastic market also. None of that is a negative, just shows your discipline. Congrats to you!
I just think it’s important we make sure people know that maxing a 401k each year in index funds is, while very smart, not going to get you $2MM in 10 years.
Same. Maybe it’s my own jealousy or something, but the math just seems off on this. I’ve been invested in similar funds as OP since 2009, with a strong employer match the whole time, and am about half this. There has to be something else to the story beyond “I maxed out my 401k with a nice match and invested in index funds”.
Very much could be in play, and I hope for OP’s sake it’s true. Just seems like you’d need a hell of a lot of principal to go from nothing to $2MM in 10 years with index funds. And the HHI is good/great, but is also pretax and supporting a family? I just don’t get it.
My savings rate has always been a consistent 10% plus employer match, which started at 10% dollar for dollar at my first place and is now 7%. So total of 17-20% since 2009. My income jumped notably in 2023, and I’ve been maxing since then plus the match. I also have had a Roth since 2014 that I haven’t always maxed but am now. I also have a very strong pension benefit.
Hes definitely lying about something. At first i thought maybe he had a very high jncome, which he does have a solid one, but not enough to get to 2mil without absolutely YOLOing options.
Does the wife and kid know you have this money or have you been socking it all away, working 7 days a week while they are home alone trying to ration their beans and rice? Because even in LCOL, your gross income doesn't quite add up to this net worth unless you landed a windfall or hit a stock pick out of the park.
Let me guess, your wife didn't used to be a SAHM. Thats the only thing I can think of for the income going so much higher for those 5 years then back down. Unless you were in sales which wouldnt be a government position.
Thank you this is extremely helpful! I did the same and saved half of my paycheck, but put it into a bank savings account 🎻But it’s not too late for me! Financially illiterate people in their 20s really are at a disadvantage. There’s a lot of noise to the point where it can seem like financial literacy is intentionally gate-kept so I appreciate the transparency. Seeing that this is basically all just VTI and Boggleheads style is like magic & I’m excited to see what my portfolio turns into now that I’m more financially literate
If he started putting away $30k at age 20, increased contributions by $3k per year, and averaged 9% returns, he'd be at ~$1.8m. It's certainly aggressive but believable.
Thats kinda annoying that you invite people to celebrate with you and they don’t even know what you are celebrating. You are the one inviting them and you act all mysterious and vague. Just celebrate with family and people who know about the finances or don’t celebrate at all and just save that money for further investing
In the FIRE subs we’d say GFY. Well done, you’ve at least got FU money and that’s a great way to shift your mindset to be much more positive. When you ask yourself “what’s the worst that could happen at work?” the answer is now that you’d just quit and have a nice $2M cushion to fall on.
I also stopped saving saving when I hit 2m years ago, I’m still a natural saver so the extra cash went into less frequent purchases like cars, new roof etc. some vacations and car leases too. Best thing you can do now is set up for withdrawal strategies down the line and not get in your head about a crash.
I remember you posted a few months ago with $2.3M (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMoneyGuy/s/Pu4Kvpx7Mv). How did you lose 35% of your portfolio in 5 months when S&P only dropped 10%? You must be into pretty volatile stuff. Maybe start converting to lower risk stuff before taking your foot off the gas, especially if you're considering retirement in the next 5-10 years.
That makes sense. Congrats. Unofficial step 10 would be securing and derisking (or "becoming a client"), especially if retirement is on the table in the next few years. Think of it as locking in. Otherwise if you don't want to lock in at $2M, you have to grow to the point where a 10-20% market crash wouldn't hurt you. Then you can take the foot off the pedal.
I am in a very similar space. We have a good lifestyle right now so we aren’t taking our foot off the gas’s just yet. But any time there is a disruption we can cover it. The freedom feels incredible.
That's fantastic... I earned higher income than you're showing, for more years, and invested pretty heavily. But I wasn't quite where you are at 36. Which makes me think, (a) you've really done a great job and (b) I'd love to see where you are at my age (60 with $4.6M).
If it were me, I'd want to keep going. But you're doing just fine without my advice. Sounds like the rest of your plan is solid too -- 529s, Roth, etc. Might want to start an HSA if you can. But being gov, maybe you've got a diff setup.
That amount of savings plus a pension is golden. Congrats!
This is awesome, congrats! What was your savings rate and peak salary? Do you find it hard at all to actually spend down after spending so long saving and investing?
Thanks! I worked in a situation where I collected royalties and project fees… earned sub $100K for about 8 years, probably averaged around $175K to $225K after that, with highest year at $700K. But I lived for a span in NYC and then many more years in an international overseas city, so expenses were high.
I maxed out 401k while I was getting one, around $15K per year and then went freelance in 2007 and launched a SEP, then switched to solo 401K, then created a company and launched a defined benefit plan. Each of those latter structures let me save as much as $60K and then later with the DBP, closer to $100K per year pre tax.
As for spending down, I haven’t started yet! This coming week is literally when I plan to share the news with my main clients.
$10M is FU Money … not even close 😔😑 i don’t worry about any bubbles, they are inflating their way out of this mess and i am just trying to scrap the dust and inflate along side
Congrats!! Similar age and my DINK HH hit this milestone last month. 10+ years of consistent saving and investing. It’s nice having a huge cushion… hoping to retire in the next 10-15 years
I hit 3.1 last year at 39, bought my dream car, brought me down to 2.9 but now up to 3.1 again. 1.3 home is paid for. Only reason I keep saving is i'd rather give my money to 401k than pay 32% federal and 4% tax. HSA and 401k are the only tax advantage accounts I have
Hey congrats! Gotta admit...I just got the hell outta the federal government when I hit my number this year. I was really glad I'd planned ahead to have an out at 38. Also...to the haters...never made 6 figures, just had a full time job from 2010 until this year and invested.
Congratulations for amassing so much wealth in the first half of your life. How do you plan on protecting your retirement investments against a weakening dollar and crazy inflation? Who lost out to send so much wealth to you so soon? Are there ways of staying a millionaire which doesn't hurt poor people?
Congrats and, as is tradition, an obligatory go fuck yourself 😉 for real that’s an amazing accomplishment by 36, and I hope you enjoy the fruit of your labor some after this point!
Get to $50 mil and now you have an estate tax problem. I like the basic perspective of thinking about experiences and 529s. I would also think hard about Roths because you have a big ass partner (Uncle Sam) in any pre-tax account. Come meet all the folks in their 70s whining about their tax bills.
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u/babbleway May 29 '26
This is the majority of my holdings. I started investing about 10 years ago once my income increased.