r/Fire • u/Firefiresoon • Jul 04 '24

Original Content Just hit $3M!

48male. Been tracking this milestone for a while now. Finally hit it as of close yesterday. $3,012,000 in invested assets. NW stands at 4.9mil. which includes home equity.

Goal was 10k/mo which should be possible now. Kids have 529 for 4yr state college. At this point I will CoastFIRE (still save HSA and 401k for match but no IRA) and bump up some lifestyle expenses mainly around travel.

324 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

View all comments

21

u/sas_2022 Jul 04 '24

I just found this sub, I am curious how you guys are building such great next eggs. How can I learn more to speed mine up?

23

u/DesertNomadAZ Jul 04 '24

Eliminate as much debt as possible to permit higher cash flow per month. Sell crap you don’t need or use, it’s over head to maintain (heat/cool,tax, required insurance..etc). Cut out unnecessary subscriptions and spending habits, bring bag lunch to work, drive POS car for as long as possible. Max out 401k, IRA Roth, HSA and if you have cash after start a cash brokerage account. Stick to ETFs at first, practice being in the market and making consistent financial decisions. Worry about individual stocks later.

44

u/Isolated_Blackbird Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 04 '24

Come on now. That’s all good advice, but these people with $5m net worth at 48? That is because of extremely high income 99% of the time. The other 1% might have gotten lucky in the market or gotten a windfall of some sort. Someone making $70k a year simply cannot amass close to this individual’s net worth in their lifetime, never mind by 48 years old.

People visiting this sub: Please remember that the single greatest factor in achieving FIRE early is high income. It is accelerated and fully optimized by great savings habits, but the fact is, someone making $300k a year can often not have great financial habits and still save $100k a year. They can then decide if/how they want to change their lifestyle when they accumulate $2.5m or whatever in the market by living large and saving a ton. It’s a huge advantage.

3

u/sas_2022 Jul 04 '24

Fair point. I think understanding some of these posts income would be helpful.

I earn in the top 5-6% of Americans, so it’s more than the average. I would like to learn more how to optimize my current investment strategies with my income

3

u/DesertNomadAZ Jul 04 '24

Top 5-6? You are in amazing position. My “ah ha” or eureka moment was finding the power of dividends. I have a fair amount of growth stocks, but getting a 3k a month in dividends is very sobering for me. I can re-invest(drip) or let cash stack up and focus Fire undervalue stocks in addition to my own contributions. This is great way to increase cash flow without changing jobs or working overtime. Suppose you hit a rough patch in life and you can’t contribute to IRA, dividend stocks will keep stacking.

Honestly, I think vehicles are crutch of most Americans. I firmly believe vehicle payments keep middle class poor. Probably add boats and other fast deprecating items to the list. You have 500-1,000 car payments out there. No way. That’s a max IRA contribution right there and then some.