Re: SoCal Will Journal
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 6:32 pm
I understand, it does feel like the wealth accumulation is slow for a long, long time. That's why I called it the grind, for so long it just feels like you're working so hard to scrimp and save and the payoff is agonizingly slow.
You just have to get into a routine, don't be dogmatic or over the top with the deprivation, and stop thinking about the FIRE/ERE stuff all the time. Or I had to do that anyway. I found that a constant focus on it, long after I'd sort of optimized my strategies for balancing financial security and savings with a reasonable level of comfort and safety, weren't helpful because it kept a focus on the hardship and suffering side of reaching the goal. After a few years of just doing my thing and not focusing on FIRE or reading any books, website, etc about it anymore (even though I maintained the habits), I look up and am suddenly adding 100k+ a year and it feels like the payoff has arrived. It's just another form of compound interest curve, right? That old cliche that "the first million is the hardest".
For you, I think you're well ahead of your peers of the same age, and that should provide some comfort.
I'm fortunate to have a good paying job, not huge money, but more than 90% of my country (literally, my salary falls between the 90th-91st percentile on US individual income stats). So I'm able to save a relatively large portion of my income. My annual expenses run in the $32-36k range and take-home after tax pay is about $62k. When you're adding 30k from cash savings, 25k from 401k additions, another 20-30k pension addition/growth, plus the growth of your existing assets, it starts to add up quickly. On track for millionaire by 48. That was a long term milestone, and one that I'll actually celebrate (even though "millionaire" doesn't mean what it used to).
You just have to get into a routine, don't be dogmatic or over the top with the deprivation, and stop thinking about the FIRE/ERE stuff all the time. Or I had to do that anyway. I found that a constant focus on it, long after I'd sort of optimized my strategies for balancing financial security and savings with a reasonable level of comfort and safety, weren't helpful because it kept a focus on the hardship and suffering side of reaching the goal. After a few years of just doing my thing and not focusing on FIRE or reading any books, website, etc about it anymore (even though I maintained the habits), I look up and am suddenly adding 100k+ a year and it feels like the payoff has arrived. It's just another form of compound interest curve, right? That old cliche that "the first million is the hardest".
For you, I think you're well ahead of your peers of the same age, and that should provide some comfort.
I'm fortunate to have a good paying job, not huge money, but more than 90% of my country (literally, my salary falls between the 90th-91st percentile on US individual income stats). So I'm able to save a relatively large portion of my income. My annual expenses run in the $32-36k range and take-home after tax pay is about $62k. When you're adding 30k from cash savings, 25k from 401k additions, another 20-30k pension addition/growth, plus the growth of your existing assets, it starts to add up quickly. On track for millionaire by 48. That was a long term milestone, and one that I'll actually celebrate (even though "millionaire" doesn't mean what it used to).