How did you reach a net worth of $1,000,000?

[trimatty471]

Owning your business?

Investing?

Saving?

Real estate?

Gambling?

[swamp]

Yes, yes, yes, no, if winning $2 on a scratch off counts. 

[kittensaver]

Real estate. We bought our first house in 1983 for $102k, sold it six years later for $178k; bought house #2 in 1989 for $279k and sold it in 2001 for $495k. Bought this house in 2001 for $500k and 2 months ago it hit $1.05 million on Trulia and Zillow. The equity plus 30 years of married life saving/investing in 401ks and 403bs for retirement = 1 mil plus. Slow and steady wins the race. We always rolled our equity forward and never pulled any of it out for remodeling, cars, vacations, toys, etc. Ditto with retirement savings: we never pulled anything out of it for loans, etc. Slow and steady is not glamorous, but it works.

[dannylion]

First million from a combination of savings, investments, and real estate. The second million was an inheritance. The third was ROI on the first two. Working on the fourth now.  I'm 65, so compared with many, this is not a particularly remarkable achievement. 

[HoneyBBQ]

Aug 11, 2014 21:13:06 GMT -5 dannylion said:

 I'm 65, so compared with many, this is not a particularly remarkable achievement. 

You're crazy!! That is absolutely remarkable under any circumstances!


I have a million (if you count home equity, and I do) based on savings and investments. Home investment wise I've made money and lost money so I'm calling it break even on that.

Start early, contribute often. 

[souldoubt]

Lol not remarkable?  A net worth of 3M puts you in roughly the top 4% of your age group and top 0.5% of the population.  I guess spending a lot of time here can make some feel inadequate as far as investments and net worth go but YM is not indicative of the general population. 

[MN-Investor]

Investing in the stock market. It has been very good to us!

[micky]

Equity in my house, bought first condo for $90k, sold it 5 years later for $190k. Started 401(k) at age 21. Company stock and a good investment manager investing into my stock portfolio. Really just a combination of years and years of trying to be responsible with my money. Slow and steady does win the race. There are no quick shortcuts to building wealth. That said, I have relatives that just don't seem to understand that you can nickel and dime yourself to poverty, they can't understand why my husband and I never have money worries and they are always a step away from the poor house. I keep tight grip on monthly budget and track every penny we spend. We still enjoy a comfortable life, but no one would guess how much money we have in the bank because we do tend to live modestly, comfortable but modest.

[bookkeeper]

Invest with every paycheck. Don't get out of the market when the market falls. Live in a home you can easily afford. Drive cars you can easily afford.

DH had a career with a pension after 30 years. The value of that pension made it possible for us to pass $1M and then $2M. We did our part with deferred compensation savings and 401k savings during that same time.

[ArchietheDragon]

Keep going guys.   Love these threads!

[Wisconsin Beth]

I'll let you know when we get there! 

Mostly stocks so far. 

[The Captain]

We're not there yet.  But like others said slow and steady wins the race.

Save and invest until it hurts - diversify your portfolio (we were too heavy in techs before the dot.com crash) even when one sector is hot.

Put 50% of every raise into savings until you are at the 20-25% mark.  If you were able to live on your income before the raise, you can live at the same level (and a little better) with half the raise.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Aug 12, 2014 7:56:48 GMT -5 The Captain said:

We're not there yet.  But like others said slow and steady wins the race.

Save and invest until it hurts - diversify your portfolio (we were too heavy in techs before the dot.com crash) even when one sector is hot.

Put 50% of every raise into savings until you are at the 20-25% mark.  If you were able to live on your income before the raise, you can live at the same level (and a little better) with half the raise.

We just finished paying off our land and our son is in his last few weeks of day care.  The 2 cost us around $750 a month.  I want to route $500 of that to savings and $200 to college funds for the kids.  Because as Drama's mentioned numerous times - I have no idea where the dcp money was going prior to kids but it's nauseating to  realize we blew $6K-$10K a year for several years prekids and can't tell you where it went. 

I did talk to DH about it.  He was non-committal but does agree we need to save more.  He's hot to do 529s for the kids and God only knows what colleges are going to look like/cost in 12-15 years.  

[The Captain]

Aug 12, 2014 8:04:36 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Aug 12, 2014 7:56:48 GMT -5 The Captain said:

We're not there yet.  But like others said slow and steady wins the race.

Save and invest until it hurts - diversify your portfolio (we were too heavy in techs before the dot.com crash) even when one sector is hot.

Put 50% of every raise into savings until you are at the 20-25% mark.  If you were able to live on your income before the raise, you can live at the same level (and a little better) with half the raise.

We just finished paying off our land and our son is in his last few weeks of day care.  The 2 cost us around $750 a month.  I want to route $500 of that to savings and $200 to college funds for the kids.  Because as Drama's mentioned numerous times - I have no idea where the dcp money was going prior to kids but it's nauseating to  realize we blew $6K-$10K a year for several years prekids and can't tell you where it went. 

I did talk to DH about it.  He was non-committal but does agree we need to save more.  He's hot to do 529s for the kids and God only knows what colleges are going to look like/cost in 12-15 years.  

One thing DH and I did that I'm very grateful for (like you're planning) is playing with the daycare money (we only have one kid, but in a HCOLA).

Infant care around here is between 225 and 250 a week.  That drops to 200 when they start pre-school and eventually drops to 145 a week by the time they are in school full time.

With every decrease in daycare expenses DH and I socked almost 100% of it into DD's 529.  We didn't have that money before, so it wasn't that painful.  The 529 is at over $55K now and DD is 11. She is ageing out of daycare this year which will free up another $500 a month or so. If we bank 100% of that we'll have almost all of her college covered.

I'm told there are additional expenses with teenagers so that plan may get blown out of the water.  We'll see.  I will continue to put at least 200-300 a month away for her college at a minimum.

[thyme4change]

I have a million if you count my home equity.  I had a million 5 years ago, but not 3 years ago.  I had a million in Jan, but not in April.  

Saving and investing is my big nut.  My house is too busy doing other things to be usable cash flow.

[Deleted]

I've got a long way to go to get to a million!  I think once I hit it I'll quit!  I'll probably be old enough for SS then anyhow.  LOL

I'm plugging along and counting on some daycare help too.  The majority of my daycare expenses are covered by my FSA at work.  I'll have to max it again next year, but after that, I'm going to adjust 401K percentage to take up any decrease in FSA contribution.  This will keep my tax savings rate the same too.  College savings will have to take a back seat, but our EFC should be pretty low anyhow.  I think we'll have enough to cover it with the savings we have.

[Deleted]

Aug 11, 2014 21:09:33 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

Slow and steady wins the race. We always rolled our equity forward and never pulled any of it out for remodeling, cars, vacations, toys, etc. Ditto with retirement savings: we never pulled anything out of it for loans, etc. Slow and steady is not glamorous, but it works.

Worked for me, too.  Saving and investing my entire life, and not taking $$ out for anything, also helped.

My Ex inherited $300K in 1984 and $100K of it went into a down payment on a house.  (The rest got spent on toys and, during a period when he was unemployed, went for living expenses even though  I was working FT because he  had very expensive tastes.)  When we divorced, my 40% of the net was $100K.  I put that into a new house with a $250K mortgage and netted $200K when I sold it 6 years later.  DH and I needed almost nothing from that when we married in 2003 and moved to a LOCOL area, and he netted another $100K when his house finally sold in 2004.  We hit $1 million in late 2005 and $2 million 7 years later through a combination of saving and investment results.

We're at $2.7 million now but I retired.  Under some pretty reasonable assumptions it could keep going up (I think we'll need less than 3% annually), but a drop in the market could slow it way down.

There were points where I could have bought a boat or a condo in FL or a red convertible and I didn't.  No sum is so large that it can't be squandered.  You just have to stay disciplined and choose your splurges.  Ours is travel.

[Deleted]

I'm only 2/3 of the way there but the one person in my family who has made it there is my grandfather and I have used him as my biggest financial role model. He made it as a farmer, I'm guessing he crossed the millionaire threshold in his 40's when he paid off all his land. He is 84 now and is still farming, I'm pretty sure this is his last year. He did it by:

1. Not taking out any debt besides land. He never had newer machinery until his land was paid off.

2. Investing profits in stock and muni bonds after everything was paid off.

[jd2005]

Aug 12, 2014 7:55:34 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I'll let you know when we get there! 

Mostly stocks so far. 

 (Plus our house)

[ArchietheDragon]

I am about halfway there.  So far investing in the stock market via 401k and ROTH and living below our means is what we have done so far. 

The house has been nothing but a money suck. 

[TheHaitian]

Aug 12, 2014 9:24:01 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I am about halfway there.  So far investing in the stock market via 401k and ROTH and living below our means is what we have done so far. 

The house has been nothing but a money suck. 

I want to be like you when I grow up... Minus the house being a money suck

[whoisjohngalt]

I am curious - for those who count your house towards your "number" - how often do you adjust it?  Are you counting as the price you paid for it?  The assessed value?

[ArchietheDragon]

Aug 12, 2014 9:27:03 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Aug 12, 2014 9:24:01 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I am about halfway there.  So far investing in the stock market via 401k and ROTH and living below our means is what we have done so far. 

The house has been nothing but a money suck. 

I want to be like you when I grow up... Minus the house being a money suck

: )


When I think about how much more money we would have if we still lived in the apartment that we moved from....     makes me a little crazy, but I guess money isn't everything, right?

[Wisconsin Beth]

Aug 12, 2014 9:29:05 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

I am curious - for those who count your house towards your "number" - how often do you adjust it?  Are you counting as the price you paid for it?  The assessed value?

I count the assessed value of the house minus the mortgage = house equity.

[happyhoix]

DH and I are around $750,000, will probably hit $1,000,000 prior to retirement, if everything holds together and we don't hit any major bumps. We live in a LCOL area, always bought less house than we could afford, got a 15 year mortgage on the last house and paid that off last year, bought mid priced cars and drive them until the wheels fall off, always invested some portion of our salary in 401K's, always had some money pulled from the checking account monthly to fund the emergency account/vacation account so we didn't have to borrow money to cover either situation. Funded DS's college account so we didn't have to borrow to pay for his college degree, and neither did he (helped that he got a scholarship, too). 
 
We aren't wizards with the stock market, the 401K took a couple big hits. Our house, which is supposed to be a solid investment, took about a 60K loss when the tornado gutted our neighborhood in 2011 - took all the trees down, lots of overgrown lots around us now, and the neighbor across the street dug a big house size hole in his yard last October and then left it. We're not planning on selling the house for another ten years so hopefully the neighborhood will not be as ratty looking by then and we can get a good amount for it. DH and I never earned stellar salaries, so what we've accumulated has been simply from stowing back whatever free cash we had, over the last 30 years or so, and a lot of it has been from DH, (Mr Cheap) who is very good about frugal shopping and only buying what we need.

[siralynn]

We're 36 and 38 and hit our first million earlier this year. Keys:

1) Saving/investing - contributed to Roths even through lean grad school years. Maxing 401(k) and 403(b) accounts for almost 10 years now. Sticking with the plan all the way through the ride down and therefore have really benefited from this ride back up over the past several years.

2) House - dumb luck. Owning a home looked like a pretty dumb decision when we lost 20% on the house we sold in 2009. It now looks like a pretty smart decision on the house we bought in 2010 that has appreciated something stupid like 40% in the 3.5 years since we bought it. Currently have ~$250k equity if you believe the assessment number from the refinance we just closed.

I'm happy that we're doing very well, but we've got a long way to go to retirement and true financial independence, largely due to the fact that we live in one of the most expensive counties in the country and our daughter is only 1, so lots of expenses to go yet.

[Deleted]

Aug 12, 2014 10:02:42 GMT -5 siralynn said:

2) House - dumb luck. Owning a home looked like a pretty dumb decision when we lost 20% on the house we sold in 2009. It now looks like a pretty smart decision on the house we bought in 2010 that has appreciated something stupid like 40% in the 3.5 years since we bought it. Currently have ~$250k equity if you believe the assessment number from the refinance we just closed.

I'll agree with that.  DH and I did well on our houses in 2003/2004 and my Ex and I did well on the house we sold when we divorced in 2007, but the house I owned prior to that was pretty much breakeven.  The house DH and I own now will probably also be breakeven when you consider the improvements we put into it.  No regrets- I'm just glad that when we made the move from a HCOL area to a LCOL area we didn't buy the biggest, fanciest place we could afford.

[mrnewengland]

Aug 12, 2014 10:02:42 GMT -5 siralynn said:

We're 36 and 38 and hit our first million earlier this year. Keys:

1) Saving/investing - contributed to Roths even through lean grad school years. Maxing 401(k) and 403(b) accounts for almost 10 years now. Sticking with the plan all the way through the ride down and therefore have really benefited from this ride back up over the past several years.

2) House - dumb luck. Owning a home looked like a pretty dumb decision when we lost 20% on the house we sold in 2009. It now looks like a pretty smart decision on the house we bought in 2010 that has appreciated something stupid like 40% in the 3.5 years since we bought it. Currently have ~$250k equity if you believe the assessment number from the refinance we just closed.

I'm happy that we're doing very well, but we've got a long way to go to retirement and true financial independence, largely due to the fact that we live in one of the most expensive counties in the country and our daughter is only 1, so lots of expenses to go yet.

I am thoroughly impressed.  I am 36 (single) and I don't even have half a million in assets... let alone net worth.  I save a decent amount of my salary every year as well.  Real estate has not been good to me... but even if it was I wouldn't be close to that.  


If you're comfortable expanding on this post I would be very interested in reading more.  

[Tiny]

I'm close if I count everything retirement accounts, savings, house(s), possessions...     By far my retirement accounts are the biggest peice, then real estate, then savings, then possessions.    

I doing it via a combination of: investing, saving (by living beneath my means), and real estate.    I was in a good financial place when the recession/housing bubble pop happened.   That allowed me to buy rental properties at good prices.    I kept investing right along - slow and steady wins the race.

If the housing bubble hadn't happened - I'd probably just have a paid for primary house and would have put more money into retirement/after tax investments. I don't think I could have swung the 'rental property' or 'second home'.    It didn't really matter what the stock market did - I was committed to investing.   So, I might be in the same place or close to it (I'm only now starting to see increasing equity in my rentals (prices are going up) and my primary home).

[phil5185]

Invest with every paycheck. Don't get out of the market when the market falls. Live in a home you can easily afford. Drive cars you can easily afford.

We max'd my 401k from the time they were invented until retirement (1998), it had about a million in it when I retired. Consistently carried considerable debt  - whenever I could get low rate, long term loans I took them (cars, mortgages, etc), that allowed us to prioritize the 401k, the taxable fund, rental house investing. 

1. Owning your business? About 85% fail leaving a bk or years of fighting old cc bills. A few get wealthy - and they earn it.
2. Investing? Yes
3. Saving?  No, a wage earner cannot save their way to a million, the math simply doesn't work. Even if you could afford $30k/yr, you'd have only $900k in 30 yrs, not a good plan.
4. Real estate? Yes - but mainly as a way to build seed money for #2.
5. Gambling? lol - never works for me.