When does contributing to your portfolio start to feel pointless?

[Anonymous]

"The stock market returns 10% on average,"

LOLOLOL, it doesn't work that way. Not at all.

But yes, at some point your returns will dwarf any contributions you can make.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t get past the 10 percent part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are able to save around 100k a year right now with current incomes and have a net worth of 1.5M. The stock market returns 10% on average, so avged out this 1.5M would grow by 150k on its own which is already more than we contribute every year. If had 5M, it would grow an average of 500k. This is 5x our contribution rate.

At some point doesn’t it kind of feel pointless put more money into your account unless your income keeps scaling with your net worth? TBH if we had 5M which isn’t quite enough to retire I might redirect that 100k of earned income into something else like a sports car or fancy vacations, and just let the 5M compound. At this level your growth is more about market performance and not 9-5 salary.

Obviously I know 10% is just a long term average and it doesn’t mean a steady 10% every year, some years it might be up or down by 20%+. But it’s averaged 10%.

Look into the book “Die With Zero” — or at least the conversations triggered by it. Thankfully for my decision making process, too much overall savings is not an issue for me.

[Anonymous]

I kinda get what OP is saying even though I don't see it that way. yes, the old money makes a lot more than any new money you put in. we have about 6 mil in the market now but still continue to put in up to the limits. today's money will make money 30 years down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$5M NW and we keep throwing money into it. It's just an automatic reflex

Similar. At this point, our NW is much more affected by the market than contributions, but we'll keep contributing until we retire. Now, contributing $23.5k into a 401k every year is like a blip, though, whereas maxing it out 20 years ago hurt.

[Anonymous]

Smaller scale but I've had the same thought about my Roth IRA. The contribution max is 7000 and I can make that much in a single good day now (I've done multiple conversions and rollovers so my balance is fairly high for an IRA)

[Anonymous]

I think it starts to feel pointless when you have enough money saved for requirement. It also depends on the ratio of contributions to your net worth. If you normally contribute 20k/year and have 1.5 mil, your balance could increase in a "normal year" by roughly 150k. At a certain point it's more about time in the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The stock market returns 10% on average,"

LOLOLOL, it doesn't work that way. Not at all.

But yes, at some point your returns will dwarf any contributions you can make.

It does though? OP didn’t say it always returns 10%, he said on average, which is correct over the long term (past century or so). Average does not mean this is guaranteed, or that you should count on it. But it’s not unlikely either.

There’s a good chance it will continue returning this amount, but it’s wise to not plan your entire financial future around the 10% figure. And obviously it doesn’t account for inflation but for the purpose of the exercise in the OP it makes more sense to pay attention to nominal figures vs the 6-7% inflation adjusted return.

[Anonymous]

Yes, $5M is more money than anyone needs. But most people with money think that more money will make them happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, $5M is more money than anyone needs. But most people with money think that more money will make them happy.

Geez, we plan on leaving some to our kids and donating some! Of course we know we can't take it with us.

[Anonymous]

Why are people LOLing the 10% average annual return? That’s absolutely been the case for a very very long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people LOLing the 10% average annual return? That’s absolutely been the case for a very very long time.

Because those investing in the US got really lucky. Nobody could have predicted that the US would out-perform pretty much every other country on the face of the earth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people LOLing the 10% average annual return? That’s absolutely been the case for a very very long time.

Because the average doesn't matter when the market crashes 20%. Or you have years of stagnation. Or you have high inflation.

Nobody should plan on 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people LOLing the 10% average annual return? That’s absolutely been the case for a very very long time.

Because the average doesn't matter when the market crashes 20%. Or you have years of stagnation. Or you have high inflation.

Nobody should plan on 10%.

Really? I started contributing to the max that I could to a 401k in 1988 when I joined Biglaw. I retired early in 2015. My entire portfolio was in the S&P 500 the entire time.

The S&P 500 returned an average of 11.09 percent for the 27 years that I worked, and since retiring ten years ago it's returned on average over 12 percent a year. So, for me at least, we're talking well over 10 percent per year on average for the last 37 years. That's a looong time. If I got a dime for every time I read that I was making a mistake -- and invested in the market -- I'd be even richer.

[Anonymous]

“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”