Net worth of 100k at 29

fips · Post by **fips** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:33 am

The bogleheads started yet another net worth thread (allegedly, many of them are millionaires by now). This one focused on when you reached your first 100k.
On page two of the thread, someone even came up with a chart of the poll, on average (if what they say is true) many of them reach their first 100k at the age of 29:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... st=1724753
Just thought it's an interesting poll to provide orientation on what's possible.
And accordingly, I just saw another discussion on financial habits

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... st=1724819

aussierogue · Post by **aussierogue** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:31 am

30 - zippo, zero, nada

32 - first 100k 32

38 - FI

bulgaria · Post by **bulgaria** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 11:31 am

25: -36k euro's (college loan)

35: -18k euro's (college loan)

37: 90k euro's. I hope to get to the first 100k before I'm 38.
I made some big changes financially when I was 35. So I'm 2 years in the program and 7/8 years remaining. I discovered ERE a year ago. I hope to collect 100k every two years (should be easier due to interest etc). I'll probably keep working after I'm able to retire, but I don't want to work till I'm 70.

m741 · Post by **m741** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:08 pm

I don't know how informative it is, but I hit 100k at 22, after working for 2.5 years. (Well, ignoring high school jobs/internships).

dalralmi · Post by **dalralmi** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:34 pm

I'll hit 100k at 26, should have been 25 after working 4 years. More realistic I hit 100k at 24... but I'm not including things... I'm also not including my mortgage in this calculation.... Either way... I think if you start early 100k can easily be achieved much earlier than 29....

noskich · Post by **noskich** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:57 pm

29 - 20k

30 - 100k

31 - 170k
Plan is:

32 - 250

33 - 340

34 - 450

35 - 500 ERE
Not including retirement funds which are approximately plus 10% on the amount.

fips · Post by **fips** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:03 pm

m741, the sheer number+age is probably not very informative in a sense of educational. One would need a lot more information (work years, gifts, inheritances, current job, living situation ... so to say it goes complementary to someone's ERE journal). This thread has more of an entertaining character/is rather poll-like.
I consider any age below 25 incredible or close to impossible. I am 25 right now, had no student loan and worked right out of high school and I am nowhere close to 100k yet. I don't think I lived very wasteful either .. but it seems like I have (compared to these polls). But then again, some of my income goes into my retirement plan, which is not comparable to Roth IRA accounts. I have to contribute a certain percentage of my income to the state. So I don't really have a number and see that account compounding, I just know what the state will pay me when I retire at the age of 76. Therefore, I haven't figured out how to account for this number in my net worth yet, so I simply leave it out. Come to think of it, maybe that's not a bad thing to do - going bankrupt seems to be a popular thing to do among states nowadays

Also, one needs to account for inflation to compare your net worth to different years .. so older people's net worth of 100k was worth more back in the days.

dalralmi · Post by **dalralmi** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:44 pm

@fipsfugal it also depends on what you base you 100k mark as. Some people include retirement accounts or home equity. If you are not including those totals then obviously it's harder. When speaking with ERE people it's very arbitrary. Anytime a question gets asked about a specific number int he forum it seems we don't know how to answer because we all base our numbers on arbitrary facts. (mortgage equity, 401k amounts, investments, net worth of items we own, etc...) Each person will answer the question differently based on if they include their ROTH investment in the number... or mortgage in the number... etc...
I remember a topic on here about how much do you save (percentage) and the number changed drastically on whether people included overpaying or not.
I wouldn't beat yourself up over not having 100k at 25. You are here and that means you are obviously saving and doing the right things. You will hit it eventually and you are striving for it which is more than a lot of other people in the world right now.

steelerfan · Post by **steelerfan** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:00 pm

My 16 year old son has a NW of about 30K in investments (Not from me). Of course he is largely unaware of it as it has been given to him. Which raises the question - if you were going back in time would you rather have had that money for school or would you rather have paid your way as you went and have it to invest? I am pounding him hard to be frugal and to think hard about wants versus needs. I am driving a paid off car that I will give him at 17 if he can keep a job and support it's expenses along with regular deposits into savings. In general he seems a lot smarter than I was at that age so I hope he avoids the mistakes I made....

jzt83 · Post by **jzt83** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:25 pm

I am 30 and could have had a net worth of $100k by now. By the time I was 21, I had $10k and was able save $10k per year very easily. But I constantly moved and worked sporadically. I am now saving like a mad squirrel and have $14k saved up. Since moving into my own apt, I am now only saving around $6k a year. I just have to be more frugal and work harder.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:33 pm

I think the time when you reach this particular milestone is pretty meaningless because it depends more on income than anything else. You can hit 100k in two years pretty easily if you make 100k and save 50% of your income. Savings rate is, IMO, a much more important figure to track than hard dollars.
Kind of like bragging about making $1,000 on the stock market isn't as impressive as making, say, 15%.

Aaldert · Post by **Aaldert** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:51 pm

I've gone up to about 100k euros (now 34) in about 10(!) years, saving 30-35%. Given that there's hardly any interest on it - especially after our capital tax, even ignoring inflation - I can see getting it upto 200k taking another 10.
Over here in Europe, and in the Netherlands in particular, I don't see any reasonably risk-averse way at the moment to even have any significant capital gains. Perhaps in German stocks/bonds as their economy isn't in the toilet as much as ours. But (European) interest is historically low, real estate (including mine) has been dropping for 6 years in a row, bankruptcy, unemployment and budget cuts are the daily news items and have been so for years now.
Not to say that it isn't a commendable milestone, but it's a lot easier on $200k/y @ 20% tax.
(Also, I don't feel that savings rates scale quite linearly, as it's easier to save the same percentage on 200k/y than it is on 2k/y).
Pardon the derailment

chicago81 · Post by **chicago81** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:19 pm

I keep a Google Docs spreadsheet of all my assets and liabilities on a monthly basis, along with a graph of my net worth. I broke the 100k mark in 2007 at the age of 26. Today, at the age of 31, I just recently cleared the 500k mark.
I am including 401k and real estate in the net worth calculation. (I do not have any mortgages.) There is probably some un-accounted for liability on future 401k income taxes that I could be tracking on my balance sheet... but that is very difficult to predict. Of course, I do also have some "intangible" assets that aren't accounted for on the balance sheet too -- my college degree...

pathguy · Post by **pathguy** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:23 pm

Wow, this thread is an eye-opener, and really motivating.
I am 25 and currently at ~$-80,000. Should be at about -$45,000 in a year with accelerated student loan payments and 401k contributions/match.

Post by **jacob** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:59 am

What's possible is a function of
1) how long you've been earning real money... big difference between starting at age 20 and age 28.

2) how much you've been earning... big difference between making $25k and $150k.

3) what your savings rate is... absolutely enormous difference between 15% and 80%.

4) what the stock market did when you did most of your savings ... big difference between making most of your money between 2005 and 2008 compared to 2009 and 2012.
If you want to win the 100k race, then start your career at age 19 during a stock market crash as a software developer, oil rig worker, or UPS delivery guy while adhering to the ERE principles. You'll reaching 100k in savings within a year or two.

OTCW · Post by **OTCW** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:30 am

To the best of my memory, I had a few grand in the bank, a car loan of about 12k, a 401k balance of about 20k, and an apartment full of junky furniture and other standard belongings.
I'm 40 now and my net worth is north of 600k with my paid off house valued at about 80k. Plus I own just about everything I care to own (although I am looking for a good deal on a kayak), and I have no debt. Never had a 6 figure income, just woke up around age 33 and got my act together.
So, long story short, I'm not sure if age 29 tells you anything about the future.

champ0608 · Post by **champ0608** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:37 am

I'll get there at age 32 (14 months from now) having started at age 27. I make about 30k a year, and save 20k of that. Compared to my peers (most of whom are still in student debt, many of whom now have mortgages, children, and a few even have costly divorces already) I'm quite happy with the decisions I've made.

Sclass · Post by **Sclass** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 6:00 am

29 is a meaningless number. Young dudes, don't let this shake you. Investments can be very non-linear.
I recall a conversation (Jonathan Higgins digression here) at a bar during my first four years at HP with a bunch of guys who had the same profile, four years out of grad school working for $100k/ yr back in 2002. One guy had $100k in stock from a two year stint at Applied Materials during the boom. He spoke condescendingly to the rest of us, "don't worry, I know it seems far off but you too will save up $100k."
How meaningless? He went on to lose 90% of it chasing a optical telecom stock rebound that never happened. Easy come easy go. He still works there fearing the next spinoff/merger.
A lot can happen in a decade if you are nonlinear. I keep thinking I should go down and have lunch with the same guys ( they all still work for HP) but I don't need the shot of self esteem. I'd also rather sit on my porch reading my kindle rather than explaining to a bunch of idiots how I managed to ERE while they try to refute my reality. It's like when Luke tells Yoda he cannot believe he lifted the X-wing from the swamp. "that is why you fail."
Do not worry about some magic number at 25. Live frugally and invest. I got to the point where my passive income exceeded expenses pretty fast by basically doing what is described here on this forum since 1998. I only had math to guide me but heck it worked!
Btw I hit my one year anniversary of saying FU to tech prostitution.

Spartan_Warrior · Post by **Spartan_Warrior** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:13 pm

"It's like when Luke tells Yoda he cannot believe he lifted the X-wing from the swamp. "that is why you fail.""
LOL
I agree, the metric of 100k @ 29 is useless without more information. My net worth crossed over to six figures earlier this year at age 26--but that's counting retirement accounts and home equity. Taking away those, it's probably more like 20k. (Which, as I reflect on it now, is a little alarming, but never mind--the point is the number can vary hugely based on what goes into it.)

arebelspy · Post by **arebelspy** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:12 am

It's really all in how early you get started.
I turned 28 this month and crossed 400k this month as well. The wife and I are both teachers, grossing about 40k each at our main W2 jobs.
I lost around 100k playing the stock market around age 23 (2008-2009 crash), or I'd have hit it right around age 23-24 and would be at a much higher level by now. Instead that set me back so it took me until age 26 to hit the 100k. But being dedicated for a number of years, you'll hit it fast.
If you graduate with six figures in student loans, you'll have two (in essence) save 200k to hit it. If you skip college, you'll have a huge head start.
If you hear of ERE principals when a teenager, you can hit it in your early 20s. If you don't hear of the idea until you're in your 30s, and were a mindless consumer before that, you obviously won't hit it by 29.
More meaningful is how many years it took you to achieve after you focused on it, not at what age you hit it at, because that's just tied to what age you started.