But SS is not a guarantee! it can/could change at any time. But having $1.1M in the bank is a guarantee, it's yours and you can invest it how you see fit. However, I do agree while SS is not part of your networth, you can estimate you will get $45K/year to use to fund your retirement. Most normal people plan on that (or some portion---I personally don't expect to get the full amount when I turn 67 in 10+ years). |
| Of course your pension is included. It has a cash equivalent value. |
$9.5M; 60/55; Does not include home equity. Unless you live in a downsizeable home (i.e. live in a $5 mil house when you could get by in a 1.5 mil home) pointless to include, despite what all the "that's what the definition says" pedantic idiots say. |
So does my social security. So I'm $1.1 million richer than I thought. |
| People who insist that home equity should be included in their net worth are just trying to inflate their numbers. |
Not true. It's the standard. |
For how long have you been making the $350k by yourself? I have 1.6 million at 43, and I think that's pretty good. However, I lived a fun life when I was younger (traveled, took jobs I was interested in, moved to new cities by myself, etc.) and made less than 6 figures for most of my career. Now I make $135k. |
Most people can/could "downsize" if they truly needed to. Also, when you are 75-80+, you might prefer to rent rather than have to deal with maintenance/repairs/shoveling snow/etc. And even in expensive areas, you can rent a 1 bedroom place for ~$2-3K/month. When you factor in taxes/repairs/maintenance/etc, it most often is more expensive to own than rent. If you are out of money, then you downsize and live more affordably. |
Insane. There is literally a definition of net worth you can look up. In your mind, someone who owns a 10 million dollar home outright should be considered to have an equal net worth who owns a 1 million dollar home? |
To that point, we have millions tied up in home equity, and we're not going to die in this house, as it has multiple levels and is a pain to maintain, so ignoring it would be bad planning. |
Yup!!! You must have a plan for where you can live once mobility becomes an issue. Maintaining a home is a pain, unless you can afford to outsource it all, it's nicer to live in a condo/TH where maintenance is someone else's responsibility |
Since early 30s (first salary was around 100K in my mid 20s, just before financial crisis). I also have a rental business on a side so my total income fluctuated between low 300K to mid 400K in the last 5 years |
You can cash out MANY but some you can’t. Tax issue is irrelevant because this thread is not about maximizing tax benefits. Try “what” again? |
Thanks. DH has always been an underpaid startup tech guy so our stable HHI never exceeded $700K even when were both working. There was one year when he had a larger equity sale (between $1-2M total after tax). His peers in big tech have done mostly better financially with way less risk and better WLB, so we don't consider this a significant exit, we're hoping for the next company! Regardless, this plus my consistent mid six figures legal job helped us get to $3M invested by 2021, and the rest has been mostly the work of the markets, which has been up nearly 100% since then -- more when slightly weighted for tech stocks like us. Other factors -- we graduated with no student debt (thanks parents) and delayed having kids until recently due to factors beyond our control, which allowed us to stay in our small condo for a long time and live below our means even while enjoying a luxurious DINK lifestyle with frequent travel and eating out. We're also a one car household with a walkable city lifestyle. |
Ok, fine, so by your logic it makes sense to include the value of a cashed out pension when you plan to cash it out. But otherwise it doesn't. |