How many 55yo that you know in DMV have $3M+ NW?

[Anonymous]

My husband bought Apple stock when he was a young adult, before we met. It took a looong time to take off, but now constitutes the bulk of our portfolio. I bought Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, Tesla (before Elon went off the deep end), Nvidia. They've done very well too. We were poor and could only invest very little, otherwise we'd have much more than 20M now, PP! You don't seem to grasp Apple's valuation over the years.

I'm the PP you responded to. It's kind of a stretch to say I don't grasp Apple's valuation, when I had no idea that was the bulk of your portfolio until you said that. But I am with the others who have replied to your post . . . you have been incredibly and unusually lucky with your investments, and it's completely disingenuous to suggest that everyone who makes $150k could be in your shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People with the top 1% of net worth in the U.S. in 2025 will have $11.6 million in net worth
The top 2% will have a net worth of $2.7 million
The top 5% will have $1.17 million
The top 10% will have $970,900
The top 50% will have $585,000

Kiplinger.com

It looks like Kiplinger's data comes from WealthX, so there may be 2 different data sources being discussed in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you have 5-10M net worth and are in your 50’s. Can you describe how you got there? Just curious. And only if it’s self made. No parent money to start you off.

That is us. One of us started off with debt from undergrad and grad school (about $120k), so we prioritized paying that off quickly while also buying our first house ($350k) and having kids. We maxed out each of our 401ks as soon as we started working. Loans were paid off within 10 years. We both worked for 12-14 years, then DW stayed home with kids. DH's career started to really take off at about the same time. We saved aggressively for college because we wanted to be sure it was funded if HHI changed; once those accounts were in good shape, we started investing in taxable accounts. In hindsight, it would have made more financial sense to save less aggressively for college in those years and save more for retirement, but it all worked out because HHI took a big jump in our mid 40s so we caught up with retirement savings. This is the biggest key, really - high HHI makes the rest of it much easier.

Kids were in public school until high school and all went to private colleges. We moved from our "starter" home to a bigger home after five years and have stayed in that house even after HHI increased. We did buy a vacation home just before covid and were lucky that it has doubled in value. We keep our cars until they start needing regular repairs (8-9 years usually). We are at the point where we could definitely save more now, but try to strike a balance with continuing to put away money and enjoy that we have enough to do the things we want to do while we are both healthy.

Moving up in career is also not possible everyone. It isn’t as easy as DCUM makes it seem. DH went from CEO candidate progressively back down to worker bee despite best attempts. Buyouts and not being in the ‘in’ group always left him on the outside. Also, let go just before payouts twice. He’s not the only person we’ve known that have experienced this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not much at all. I can’t think of a single friend or neighbor that is this poor in their 50’s.

Yeah I mean in Bethesda 😩

I’ve lived in Bethesda for 20 years, am in my 50s, and our household net worth is about $3m. How would you know what your friends’ and neighbors’ net worths are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I assume a lot of that wealth is concentrated in major cities, including DC.
We have about 20M, depending on market fluctuations, but never earned more than 150K a year in household income. If we could do it, I assume many others can.

Please explain to me how this is possible. With 150k HHI, after taxes and living expenses for a couple without kids (and most people have kids), how are you investing more than 40k (at the high end) a year? With kids and associated expenses, in including college, saving 40k a year would be almost impossible on your salary. If you are mid 50s and have done than for even 30 years, how does that turn into $20m? The math does not seem to work.

My husband bought Apple stock when he was a young adult, before we met. It took a looong time to take off, but now constitutes the bulk of our portfolio. I bought Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, Tesla (before Elon went off the deep end), Nvidia. They've done very well too. We were poor and could only invest very little, otherwise we'd have much more than 20M now, PP! You don't seem to grasp Apple's valuation over the years.

DP. While that’s all well and good, your first post said “if we can do it, anyone can.” Sounds like your DH got very lucky with Apple. It could have easily gone the other way.

PP you replied to. There is a part of luck in all the outcomes we experience, PPs.

My husband will tell you that because he worked with Apple computers, he knew it was a superior product, and with Steve Jobs and his knack for sales and design, it was bound to work out. He did his research and decided to invest. I think it was part technological knowledge, part business acumen, part luck. All your own achievements, so-called, have also had their portion of chance encounters, right-time-right-place elements. I have a special interest in high tech, and didn't pick my stocks blindly either.

I hope you're open-minded enough to recognize this. The people who just shrug off others' stock market successes and tell themselves it was luck just seem jealous, to be honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you have 5-10M net worth and are in your 50’s. Can you describe how you got there? Just curious. And only if it’s self made. No parent money to start you off.

That is us. One of us started off with debt from undergrad and grad school (about $120k), so we prioritized paying that off quickly while also buying our first house ($350k) and having kids. We maxed out each of our 401ks as soon as we started working. Loans were paid off within 10 years. We both worked for 12-14 years, then DW stayed home with kids. DH's career started to really take off at about the same time. We saved aggressively for college because we wanted to be sure it was funded if HHI changed; once those accounts were in good shape, we started investing in taxable accounts. In hindsight, it would have made more financial sense to save less aggressively for college in those years and save more for retirement, but it all worked out because HHI took a big jump in our mid 40s so we caught up with retirement savings. This is the biggest key, really - high HHI makes the rest of it much easier.

Kids were in public school until high school and all went to private colleges. We moved from our "starter" home to a bigger home after five years and have stayed in that house even after HHI increased. We did buy a vacation home just before covid and were lucky that it has doubled in value. We keep our cars until they start needing regular repairs (8-9 years usually). We are at the point where we could definitely save more now, but try to strike a balance with continuing to put away money and enjoy that we have enough to do the things we want to do while we are both healthy.

This describes my family situation, too, EXCEPT our careers never took off, dh is underemployed (like a pp said, he was once gc and ceo candidates, but all it takes is a couple of misses and aging and you reverse faster than you’d think) - so we are an example of mid 50s with net worth around $4m and no extras lije you describe of second home, keep our cars longer, etc. We did prioritize our private hs and college for our kids and in hindsight I wish we’d sent them to publics and invested that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I assume a lot of that wealth is concentrated in major cities, including DC.
We have about 20M, depending on market fluctuations, but never earned more than 150K a year in household income. If we could do it, I assume many others can.

Please explain to me how this is possible. With 150k HHI, after taxes and living expenses for a couple without kids (and most people have kids), how are you investing more than 40k (at the high end) a year? With kids and associated expenses, in including college, saving 40k a year would be almost impossible on your salary. If you are mid 50s and have done than for even 30 years, how does that turn into $20m? The math does not seem to work.

My husband bought Apple stock when he was a young adult, before we met. It took a looong time to take off, but now constitutes the bulk of our portfolio. I bought Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, Tesla (before Elon went off the deep end), Nvidia. They've done very well too. We were poor and could only invest very little, otherwise we'd have much more than 20M now, PP! You don't seem to grasp Apple's valuation over the years.

DP. While that’s all well and good, your first post said “if we can do it, anyone can.” Sounds like your DH got very lucky with Apple. It could have easily gone the other way.

PP you replied to. There is a part of luck in all the outcomes we experience, PPs.

My husband will tell you that because he worked with Apple computers, he knew it was a superior product, and with Steve Jobs and his knack for sales and design, it was bound to work out. He did his research and decided to invest. I think it was part technological knowledge, part business acumen, part luck. All your own achievements, so-called, have also had their portion of chance encounters, right-time-right-place elements. I have a special interest in high tech, and didn't pick my stocks blindly either.

I hope you're open-minded enough to recognize this. The people who just shrug off others' stock market successes and tell themselves it was luck just seem jealous, to be honest.

Do you know how many versions of stories there are like this where the stock did not take off like Apple, even though it was a great product with a visionary founder. Making millions from stock purchase of an individual company is mostly luck. - NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I assume a lot of that wealth is concentrated in major cities, including DC.
We have about 20M, depending on market fluctuations, but never earned more than 150K a year in household income. If we could do it, I assume many others can.

Please explain to me how this is possible. With 150k HHI, after taxes and living expenses for a couple without kids (and most people have kids), how are you investing more than 40k (at the high end) a year? With kids and associated expenses, in including college, saving 40k a year would be almost impossible on your salary. If you are mid 50s and have done than for even 30 years, how does that turn into $20m? The math does not seem to work.

My husband bought Apple stock when he was a young adult, before we met. It took a looong time to take off, but now constitutes the bulk of our portfolio. I bought Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, Tesla (before Elon went off the deep end), Nvidia. They've done very well too. We were poor and could only invest very little, otherwise we'd have much more than 20M now, PP! You don't seem to grasp Apple's valuation over the years.

DP. While that’s all well and good, your first post said “if we can do it, anyone can.” Sounds like your DH got very lucky with Apple. It could have easily gone the other way.

PP you replied to. There is a part of luck in all the outcomes we experience, PPs.

My husband will tell you that because he worked with Apple computers, he knew it was a superior product, and with Steve Jobs and his knack for sales and design, it was bound to work out. He did his research and decided to invest. I think it was part technological knowledge, part business acumen, part luck. All your own achievements, so-called, have also had their portion of chance encounters, right-time-right-place elements. I have a special interest in high tech, and didn't pick my stocks blindly either.

I hope you're open-minded enough to recognize this. The people who just shrug off others' stock market successes and tell themselves it was luck just seem jealous, to be honest.

And the people who invested in Betamax because it was superior to VHS didn’t win. Yes, luck plays a role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you have 5-10M net worth and are in your 50’s. Can you describe how you got there? Just curious. And only if it’s self made. No parent money to start you off.

That is us. One of us started off with debt from undergrad and grad school (about $120k), so we prioritized paying that off quickly while also buying our first house ($350k) and having kids. We maxed out each of our 401ks as soon as we started working. Loans were paid off within 10 years. We both worked for 12-14 years, then DW stayed home with kids. DH's career started to really take off at about the same time. We saved aggressively for college because we wanted to be sure it was funded if HHI changed; once those accounts were in good shape, we started investing in taxable accounts. In hindsight, it would have made more financial sense to save less aggressively for college in those years and save more for retirement, but it all worked out because HHI took a big jump in our mid 40s so we caught up with retirement savings. This is the biggest key, really - high HHI makes the rest of it much easier.

Kids were in public school until high school and all went to private colleges. We moved from our "starter" home to a bigger home after five years and have stayed in that house even after HHI increased. We did buy a vacation home just before covid and were lucky that it has doubled in value. We keep our cars until they start needing regular repairs (8-9 years usually). We are at the point where we could definitely save more now, but try to strike a balance with continuing to put away money and enjoy that we have enough to do the things we want to do while we are both healthy.

This describes my family situation, too, EXCEPT our careers never took off, dh is underemployed (like a pp said, he was once gc and ceo candidates, but all it takes is a couple of misses and aging and you reverse faster than you’d think) - so we are an example of mid 50s with net worth around $4m and no extras lije you describe of second home, keep our cars longer, etc. We did prioritize our private hs and college for our kids and in hindsight I wish we’d sent them to publics and invested that money.

Yep. But people will tell you that you weren’t smart and didn’t make good decisions. Reminds me of Band of Brothers when the one well-liked guy who carried the ammunition to troops on the front line went one way and the less liked guy went the other. The well-liked guy got killed and the other guy lived only because … luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s not much at all. I can’t think of a single friend or neighbor that is this poor in their 50’s.

Definition of “bubble”. Your neighbors likely have as much or more than as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know for sure, but many have $$$ and take multiple vacations per year, but cry poor and don’t have enough to retire. Makes me wonder if they are truly living hand to mouth but give the illusion of having a lot of money with the lifestyle they are living.

In DCUMlandia it seems everyone has HHI of $400k* though the statistics for the area beyond DCUM show that’s higher than most households here.

So what is going on? Are they claiming “poor” or middle class just to fit in? Or are they overspending significantly.

FWIW only 1% of American households have a NW of $3M by the time they are 55.

False.
1%NW is about $13Million in the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read the millionaire next door, OP. Those who are spending for show generally are not the ones with a high NW. It’s the ones living in a modest home driving non-flashy older cars who have/are building wealth.

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

We’re 55 and don’t have even $2M in NW unless you count home equity and a federal pension value (which seems less certain now). Got a late start earning due to advanced degrees. I didn’t even contribute to social security until I was in my 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have 5-10M net worth and are in your 50’s. Can you describe how you got there? Just curious. And only if it’s self made. No parent money to start you off.

High income.
Live below your means.
Save. Save. Save.
You don't need fancy cars or other consumables - i.e., no fast fashion.
Quality over quantity.
Teach your children how to save AND spend.
Homes can be money pits or piggy banks - know the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have 5-10M net worth and are in your 50’s. Can you describe how you got there? Just curious. And only if it’s self made. No parent money to start you off.

I suggest reading the Millionaire Next Door.