Net Worth Milestone

[tcu2003]

I just updated my spreadsheet for February, and DH and I just hit $1M in NW - woo hoo!  It was my stretch financial goal for 2014, so it's a couple of months past that, but I'll take it!  Now hopefully there are no big drops in the market in March that necessitate having to hit it twice. 

DH is 38, I'm 33, we have a 2-1/2 year old, and we'll have been married for 5 years this summer.

[msventoux]

That is awesome, congratulations! 

[beergut]

Congrats!!!

What was the biggest key to your NW growth?

[TheHaitian]

CONGRATS!!!!

[TheHaitian]

Mar 2, 2015 2:48:00 GMT -5 beergut said:

What was the biggest key to your NW growth?

I second that because you are both relatively young...

[tcu2003]

Mar 2, 2015 2:48:00 GMT -5 beergut said:

Congrats!!!

What was the biggest key to your NW growth?

Luck and continued investing? I've only been tracking our NW on a monthly basis since June 2011, but at that point, our NW was about $400k, so we've more than doubled in just over 3.5 years. Part of that is our retirement accounts went from about $245k to $624k - we have a pretty good company match (5.25% match if you contribute 9%), and we have each been maxing or **really** close to matching the last 3-ish years.  Part is that we moved in 2011 for work, bought a house, and sold it last summer to move back to our company HQ (and near our families), and the house sold for $63k more than we bought it for.  Even after realtor fees to sell, we netted more than $40k on that. 

Neither of us have/will have inherited money, so everything is money we've saved and invested.  We're both engineers, and both close to six figures, but haven't crossed it yet - maybe this year, depending on bonuses, but who knows.  DH managed to graduate from an undergrad state school with no student loans (lived at his grandma's and commuted, plus worked close or at full-time).  I finished an undergrad and grad degree with about $25k in loans, but paid those off before we married.  Neither of us are car people - we're driving my 2006 Escape that still has plenty of life in it, and got a new vehicle a couple of years ago when DH's car was totaled, which we'll drive for years to come.  DH is very handy - he can and does fix pretty much anything around our house, which is awesome.

[Deleted]

Minimal student loan debt, good paying jobs and living frugally.  I think you created a lot of your "luck". 

Congrats!!

[dannylion]

Congratulations! Well done!

[Bonny]

I love stories like this!

[Deleted]

Congratulations! Now you can laugh at all those things you read about how people think millionaires live. 

[tcu2003]

Mar 2, 2015 8:45:52 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Minimal student loan debt, good paying jobs and living frugally.  I think you created a lot of your "luck". 

Congrats!!

I forgot to add we don't live in a HCOL area. We've lived in Kansas, Texas and now back in Kansas again since meeting and getting married.

And thanks!

[phil5185]

Now hopefully there are no big drops in the market in March that necessitate having to hit it twice.

OTOH, each time you go thru $1M it is fun!!   And, by the Rule of 72, you'll probably get to go thru $2M in 7 years?

Congratulations

[Deleted]

Mar 2, 2015 10:07:59 GMT -5 tcu2003 said:

I forgot to add we don't live in a HCOL area. We've lived in Kansas, Texas and now back in Kansas again since meeting and getting married.

This is huge. DH and I moved to KS from NJ when we married in 2003; I had a new job that paid about the same as my old job in NJ, but our housing expenses went way down. We were doing pretty darn well on paper before that- when we sold our houses I netted $200K and he netted $100K- but real estate is far more of a crap shoot than the stock market, IMO. Our house hasn't appreciated much at all, but the funds we were able to invest because our assets weren't tied up in real estate have done very well.

[phil5185]

I forgot to add we don't live in a HCOL area. We've lived in Kansas, Texas and now back in Kansas again since meeting and getting married.

This is huge. DH and I moved to KS from NJ when we married in 2003; I had a new job that paid about the same as my old job in NJ, but our housing expenses went way down. We were doing pretty darn well on paper before that- when we sold our houses I netted $200K and he netted $100K- but real estate is far more of a crap shoot than the stock market, IMO. Our house hasn't appreciated much at all, but the funds we were able to invest because our assets weren't tied up in real estate have done very well.

Hey Carl (TheHaitian), are you listening?


www.trulia.com/for_sale/Wichita,KS

[yogiii]

What about the old "make your money in an HCOLA, retire in an LCOLA"?  Come on ...

[mrnewengland]

Congratulations!  That is a very impressive number at your ages.  I am in between you & your husbands ages and I don't have anything close to that.  Sometimes I give myself excuses on why I am not saving and reading a story like this reminds me to just save and live smarter.  

Mar 2, 2015 10:52:53 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

Now hopefully there are no big drops in the market in March that necessitate having to hit it twice.

OTOH, each time you go thru $1M it is fun!!   And, by the Rule of 72, you'll probably get to go thru $2M in 7 years?

Congratulations

Less if they keep adding to it.  

[atlast30]

tcu2003, congratulations to you and your hubby!!!!!  TERRIFIC JOB!!

[Wisconsin Beth]

Woohoo!  Too bad we don't have a stat for number of members with more than $1M in NW.