In our 30's we made sure to live a comfortable lifestyle and not work like crazy. In general, we have always spent less that others who make the same, and save / invest pragmatically IMO.
Presently, while we do have periods of hard work, we believe in enjoying life as you go vs. waiting to retire - we take time off often and make sure we spend quality time together and with family / siblings / parents.
Who knows how long we'll be around and who knows how long kids, siblings and parents will be around - and from experience and observation, you never know when personal tragedy may strike.
I started really late in life but I hope to build a house next year, already got the land and I think its going to be brilliant, after that I'll just continue to work, pay my mortgage, have a nice holiday every few years, drink a few beers and then expect to die alone, just like everyone else, since the beginning of time.
I do care to have that cushion-fund to allow me to get over hard times, other than that I think having death insurance is wise so you can pay for your own gravestone and maybe have an Elvis impersonator sing Amazing Grace. Which is kind of like an odd idea since I tell people they're 'not invited to my funeral' as much as I can.
In the end, it doesn't matter... as long as you've got enough for the odd BBQ with friends, the staycation, the nice steak dinner, laughs and help a friend or family here and there... Enjoy life folks, remember, you can end up in a grave with a million bucks in your bank account any single day of the lord...
Most of my money came from saving. Never worked for a FAANG or had startup equity hit, but I was doing software professionally at 17 and have saved a chunk almost every year since then.
While I could have afforded an apartment in my early/mid twenties, I ended up living with roommates and saving, then later buying a condo in early 2009.
Then I rented a room out. Always bought used furniture, found deals on cars (I did drive entry level luxury cars), was very careful about splurging on technology or entertainment. I did probably spend too much at bars and whatnot though.
So some of my net worth is due to good timing in RE, but a lot was due to working hard (enough) in my early-mid twenties that I was able to get a decent war chest and then invest it.
Networth: $3.5m USD
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Most of my networth came from investing inheritance and gifts from family. I didn’t separate their contributions from my person ones unfortunately, but I suspect on my own, I’d be at around $800k NW. I have received about $1M in gifts/inheritance that has appreciated.
I also add about $100k/yr to my savings from my employment.
This situation has made me pro-“Tax the rich”.
Late 20s, about 90k NW. 7 years ago I had about $70 of my own. About 50k of that is my 401k. 5 figure salary in IT but great benefits +pension. However I think I’d kill myself staying here so I might not get to enjoy that.
I plan to retire in South America or Eastern Europe since their food and culture match what I like the most. The US is definitely not the place to retire for me.
I rent, I have a dog, a girlfriend in grad school and I race cars. I build everything myself so the most I’ve spent in one shot is 2K in a turbo and 600 on a welder. Overall I’d say I spent 10k on the car, so not bad (trying to justify myself lol).
I think I’m pretty frugal but I end up spending money on a lot of little things for racing and such. But I don’t have an 80in tv or the latest MacBook. I run Mac on a $300 Thinkpad X1. We cook every night and we buy at Costco or Aldi. We lowered our beef consumption and we drink Kirkland Malbec for $7 (but to me it’s on par with a $20 wine).
Anyway, that’s how I’ve been doing it, low risk, low return, no gifts, no inheritance, no company stock.
https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/average-retirement-saving...
Stayed with that employer for the entire grant and left after about 5 years. The company today is worth a few billion dollars, and that value is based on the latest preferred share price, so obviously it assumes everything goes well and it will sell high enough that the liquidation preferences won’t be exercised and everything will convert to common. It could easily still all go to $0, I don’t count on it much.
The liquid portfolio is instead through boring saving, investing and fairly frugal lifestyle.
The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense.
I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work more than absolutely necessary.
I had spent years at $40/h, then upped to $60-70 after joining Toptal, but clients were paying $100+. Knowing who the clients willing to pay that much were, I found it possible to reach similar clients directly, and here I am.
I rather frequently take over really abysmally done work from previous developers. I don't think those developers are generally paid less than myself. So the takeaway appears to be that technical prowess is a minor factor in the whole picture.
But I don't think it works for me at this point. First, the math. I believe 20k gross is ~10k after tax where I live. My absolute minimum acceptable lifestyle costs 30k/year. Which leaves the possibility of saving 90k/year. So I get three free years for every year worked. Brings to mind the Ciolkowski equation.
Three years for every year worked, neglecting investments, but also opportunity cost, and the fact that I absolutely detest working for others and even a year of working full-time is a dreadful prospect to me.
Assuming life expectancy of 85 and no state pension, I would need to work full-time for about 13 years, no time-off, optimistically assuming no mental breakdown from all that work. So I end up at 45, possibly bald, with no savings except to fund what I considered the minimum acceptable lifestyle at 32. That is not good.
The opportunity cost. I now work for about 2-3 months / year (and benefit from lower tax at lower income), building a quite possibly successful business venture on the side, and devoting lots and lots of time to my hobbies.
Aging. I would not want to sacrfice a year of my 30s for three years of my 50s.
There's a huge difference between 'sacrificing' a few years if you can milk a decent gig when you're young and throwing way decades of your life being miserable.
I just got an amazingly sweet deal:
- I was remote so I lived out of my backpack in places around the world for many years (pre-COVID)
- I got my work done fast in less than 20h/week most weeks so I had plenty of time to e.g. learn another language to a conversational level
- I was able to save $15k - $20k/month
- I took 1 or 2 months of unpaid leave every year to pursue hobbies
Had I not been able to do that, I would definitely have quit earlier and taken a long break.
I just quit a few months ago so we'll see how not working for money turns out long term. So far it's been great. I've been pursuing my hobbies, volunteering, and doing some very light consulting (0 - 2h/week). In other words, I still do plenty of things, it's just that I don't get paid for them and can do them fully on my terms.
This should take me way beyond the point at which the marginal utility of money tapers off. It's really not that difficult to get wealthy(ish) in this country if you think ahead a few decades, but most people are not going to be able to do this. The secret was getting a decent employer match, and living with my parents for a few years to save >100% of my income.
How did you save >100% of your income at your parents?
I carpooled to work so that was also free. The only thing I spent money on was a couple new iphones and alcohol/dates/entertainment, which was paid with through churning maaaany credit cards.
I’m very grateful for that, and would show them my retirement account every once in awhile to prove that I wasn’t blowing my paycheck on stupid stuff.
The only real problem is that it didn’t really work because housing prices have increased much faster than the market so now I need like 1-1.5MM if I ever want to buy a decent house by Seattle and don’t really have that.
Basically FIRE approach doesn't work in the really expensive parts of the country. You need to be putting a large portion of $$$ income into housing which is not a diversified asset. We are getting 18% YOY growth now, but will not get it for the next 30 years.
401k - about 60k. Don't really care about the 401k much, can't touch it for a long time, but ill take the match.
Debt - none
HSA - 9k
Investments - nearly 300k total. mostly crypto, stocks, and about 20% is cash (should probably throw that in too).
No car. No house. No family.
I achieved this by becoming a FAANG software engineer right out of college. By my projections, and assuming no major world events occur to knock my plans off course, I should be a millionaire by 28/29 and will be able to retire by my mid/late 30s. However, the more and more I work, the more I realize that I really enjoy what I do, so we will see what happens.
Of course, I am still entry level and my job will shift as I age, so take it all with a grain of salt.
I won't be able to retire. :)