WaPo on Net Worth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So true. All these people identifying as upper middle class making $500K/year. There's nothing middle about it.

When I hear on DCUM “we make $300k so we’re comfortable middle class not rich” I’m like shut up, shut up, shut up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Washington Post has a calculator for net worth and HHI that just came out:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/are-you-rich-american-wealth-net-worth/?itid=hp_most-read_p009_f001_1

What I find interesting is how incredibly detached from reality this forum is. There are tons of people here who claim a net worth of, say, $2M at 40 is basically next to loserville and you should immediately jump off a skyscraper and hide your shame. Some say you need $20M at 65 to retire comfortable in today's age. This points out how incredibly idiotic and detached from reality those views are when they reflect the views of the top 97% to 99% of already the wealthiest country on planet earth. Basically, the people on this forum are living on a really rarified bubble.

Sometimes people give obscene estimates when they do not understand the value of money and have no idea what rich is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s behind a paywall for me but this forum makes me feel poor. It’s hard to be excited about my 401(k) hitting $1 million when reading about people worrying about retiring with accounts worth $6 million+.

I do feel like people on here exaggerate though because some of the people I know in real life who act the richest also have enormous 1st and 2nd mortgages and HELOCs, etc. so it’s a facade.

This is a really interesting point. The one guy I know who drives the most expensive car and lives on the most expensive house and has the biggest beach house also has huge mortgages and is constantly moving money around HELOCs and personal loans to address cash flow throughout the year.

It's actually really common for high-compensation individuals to retire with nothing significant saved. Divorces, expensive cars/toys/vacations, home improvements, etc. adds up. Eventually, they just run out of time and there's no more "next year". I've heard that story many times first/second/thirdhand at our firm.

My mom was a physician and retired with about $1 million. We have no idea where 40 years of high income went. She pissed it all away somehow.

My in-laws are both physicians. They spend so much money on things that have zero return on investment, and brag so much, flaunting their spending. At first I was envious of this lifestyle coming from a humble family upbringing. Now I am quite certain they have very little net worth as they approach retirement, all because they spent their highest earning years on superficial things, taking out a second mortgage, just so they can brag to their friends and kids or anyone that will listen about all of their nice things.
I learned they are just 2 narcissists that see money as the only way to get validation.

They are legit unhappy now and have saved nothing. They hate everyone that doesn’t bow down to them. My envy has turned to pity/disrespect. I just hope my spouse can see what they have done and learn an important lesson as we start to hit our highest earning years!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m too poor for the paywall.

Please see this link

https://www.dclibrary.org/washingtonpostonline

Would have been easier if you just cut and paste the article.

The link gives free access for 7 days. It's useful in a different way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s behind a paywall for me but this forum makes me feel poor. It’s hard to be excited about my 401(k) hitting $1 million when reading about people worrying about retiring with accounts worth $6 million+.

I do feel like people on here exaggerate though because some of the people I know in real life who act the richest also have enormous 1st and 2nd mortgages and HELOCs, etc. so it’s a facade.

This is a really interesting point. The one guy I know who drives the most expensive car and lives on the most expensive house and has the biggest beach house also has huge mortgages and is constantly moving money around HELOCs and personal loans to address cash flow throughout the year.

It's actually really common for high-compensation individuals to retire with nothing significant saved. Divorces, expensive cars/toys/vacations, home improvements, etc. adds up. Eventually, they just run out of time and there's no more "next year". I've heard that story many times first/second/thirdhand at our firm.

My mom was a physician and retired with about $1 million. We have no idea where 40 years of high income went. She pissed it all away somehow.

My in-laws are both physicians. They spend so much money on things that have zero return on investment, and brag so much, flaunting their spending. At first I was envious of this lifestyle coming from a humble family upbringing. Now I am quite certain they have very little net worth as they approach retirement, all because they spent their highest earning years on superficial things, taking out a second mortgage, just so they can brag to their friends and kids or anyone that will listen about all of their nice things.
I learned they are just 2 narcissists that see money as the only way to get validation.

They are legit unhappy now and have saved nothing. They hate everyone that doesn’t bow down to them. My envy has turned to pity/disrespect. I just hope my spouse can see what they have done and learn an important lesson as we start to hit our highest earning years!

This is so common it’s practically the norm. High-earners often find a way to spend most of their disposable income and wrack up huge debt. They’ll always have time to save ‘next year’…and then they eventually run out of runway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What I find interesting is how incredibly detached from reality this forum is."

Speak for yourself. I make $1M/year in my 40s. That's my reality. Others are worth billions. That's theirs. This board isn't detached from reality at all. What makes it great is that there are a lot of highly successful people willing to share info about managing money (and earning it) and I find it helpful and fascinating.

The poster talking about this forum being detached from reality is correct.

Also the overwhelming majority of info shared about "managing money" here is BS. It is not "helpful and fascinating"; most of the time it's textbook what not to do.

The "textbook what not to do" is exactly what made them successful. Don't you understand that taking more risk sometimes works out? If you don't want to take the risk, you're not on the fastest track, and that's perfectly fine, as long as you don't spit on all the others who made different choices.
You can be middle class and happy, but middle class and jealous is not a good look.

Are you the person supposedly making 1M a year? The posters here are not taking calculated risks and making big and unusual moves to drastically increase their returns. They’re just ignorant and don’t know anything beyond Ramit Sethi type basic finance info. It’s hilarious that you find this advice helpful and fascinating.

PP you replied to. No, I am not that poster. I don't know who Ramit is. I agree with the sentence I bolded above. The immense majority of wealthy people on DCUM have no clue how to manage their finances and do tend to waste some of it trying to keep up with their social circle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What I find interesting is how incredibly detached from reality this forum is."

Speak for yourself. I make $1M/year in my 40s. That's my reality. Others are worth billions. That's theirs. This board isn't detached from reality at all. What makes it great is that there are a lot of highly successful people willing to share info about managing money (and earning it) and I find it helpful and fascinating.

The poster talking about this forum being detached from reality is correct.

Also the overwhelming majority of info shared about "managing money" here is BS. It is not "helpful and fascinating"; most of the time it's textbook what not to do.

The "textbook what not to do" is exactly what made them successful. Don't you understand that taking more risk sometimes works out? If you don't want to take the risk, you're not on the fastest track, and that's perfectly fine, as long as you don't spit on all the others who made different choices.
You can be middle class and happy, but middle class and jealous is not a good look.

Are you the person supposedly making 1M a year? The posters here are not taking calculated risks and making big and unusual moves to drastically increase their returns. They’re just ignorant and don’t know anything beyond Ramit Sethi type basic finance info. It’s hilarious that you find this advice helpful and fascinating.

PP you replied to. No, I am not that poster. I don't know who Ramit is. I agree with the sentence I bolded above. The immense majority of wealthy people on DCUM have no clue how to manage their finances and do tend to waste some of it trying to keep up with their social circle.

Financial advantage of being a bookish introvert - I don’t care what my social circle is doing and my hobbies are inexpensive.

#winning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m too poor for the paywall.

Merry Christmas - gift link

https://wapo.st/48F5rel

According to the site, my $190K income and $845K NW make me "very high income" and "very high NW" for my demographic (single, age 42, college graduate). I knew I was doing well despite the BS I read on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

I don’t want to pay to get past the firewall. I’m worth $7.3 million. Where does that place me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to pay to get past the firewall. I’m worth $7.3 million. Where does that place me?

Places you squarely in humble brag d-bag territory

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Washington Post has a calculator for net worth and HHI that just came out:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/are-you-rich-american-wealth-net-worth/?itid=hp_most-read_p009_f001_1

What I find interesting is how incredibly detached from reality this forum is. There are tons of people here who claim a net worth of, say, $2M at 40 is basically next to loserville and you should immediately jump off a skyscraper and hide your shame. Some say you need $20M at 65 to retire comfortable in today's age. This points out how incredibly idiotic and detached from reality those views are when they reflect the views of the top 97% to 99% of already the wealthiest country on planet earth. Basically, the people on this forum are living on a really rarified bubble.

Sure. But it is their reality. You can’t attack someone else’s reality. I plan on income of 40k a month. Could I do less? Sure. But I don’t have to and it is how I live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s behind a paywall for me but this forum makes me feel poor. It’s hard to be excited about my 401(k) hitting $1 million when reading about people worrying about retiring with accounts worth $6 million+.

I do feel like people on here exaggerate though because some of the people I know in real life who act the richest also have enormous 1st and 2nd mortgages and HELOCs, etc. so it’s a facade.

This is a really interesting point. The one guy I know who drives the most expensive car and lives on the most expensive house and has the biggest beach house also has huge mortgages and is constantly moving money around HELOCs and personal loans to address cash flow throughout the year.

It's actually really common for high-compensation individuals to retire with nothing significant saved. Divorces, expensive cars/toys/vacations, home improvements, etc. adds up. Eventually, they just run out of time and there's no more "next year". I've heard that story many times first/second/thirdhand at our firm.

What kind of firm? Not biglaw. They make you save a fair amount for retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s behind a paywall for me but this forum makes me feel poor. It’s hard to be excited about my 401(k) hitting $1 million when reading about people worrying about retiring with accounts worth $6 million+.

I do feel like people on here exaggerate though because some of the people I know in real life who act the richest also have enormous 1st and 2nd mortgages and HELOCs, etc. so it’s a facade.

This is a really interesting point. The one guy I know who drives the most expensive car and lives on the most expensive house and has the biggest beach house also has huge mortgages and is constantly moving money around HELOCs and personal loans to address cash flow throughout the year.

It's actually really common for high-compensation individuals to retire with nothing significant saved. Divorces, expensive cars/toys/vacations, home improvements, etc. adds up. Eventually, they just run out of time and there's no more "next year". I've heard that story many times first/second/thirdhand at our firm.

What kind of firm? Not biglaw. They make you save a fair amount for retirement.

So these are the most talented lawyers in the world, who work for Exxon at $1,500 an hour, and they can’t be trusted to set aside some money for retirement? Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"What I find interesting is how incredibly detached from reality this forum is."

Speak for yourself. I make $1M/year in my 40s. That's my reality. Others are worth billions. That's theirs. This board isn't detached from reality at all. What makes it great is that there are a lot of highly successful people willing to share info about managing money (and earning it) and I find it helpful and fascinating. I've found people I can relate to here. I'm certainly not someone calling someone with $2M at 40 a resident of Loserville, though. My liquid investable assets are $2.3M (total NW about $4M) which, as people here will quickly point out, is low relative to my income. In that way, I recognize that I'm behind where I should be given my earnings. I don't feel like a loser, but I do feel anxious, and I don't feel rich even though some might consider me so given my income. These aren't topics I discuss IRL with anyone because that would be obnoxious. So I come here. If it feels out of touch with reality to you, then you're free to frequent other money boards, of which there are many, that cater more to the average person rather than high income and high net worth.

I’m glad you’re not trying to claim that some people are residents of loserville! That’s very generous of you.

I’m always a little skeptical when someone claims to make $1 million per year. What exactly is your field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s behind a paywall for me but this forum makes me feel poor. It’s hard to be excited about my 401(k) hitting $1 million when reading about people worrying about retiring with accounts worth $6 million+.

I do feel like people on here exaggerate though because some of the people I know in real life who act the richest also have enormous 1st and 2nd mortgages and HELOCs, etc. so it’s a facade.

This is a really interesting point. The one guy I know who drives the most expensive car and lives on the most expensive house and has the biggest beach house also has huge mortgages and is constantly moving money around HELOCs and personal loans to address cash flow throughout the year.

It's actually really common for high-compensation individuals to retire with nothing significant saved. Divorces, expensive cars/toys/vacations, home improvements, etc. adds up. Eventually, they just run out of time and there's no more "next year". I've heard that story many times first/second/thirdhand at our firm.

My mom was a physician and retired with about $1 million. We have no idea where 40 years of high income went. She pissed it all away somehow.

My in-laws are both physicians. They spend so much money on things that have zero return on investment, and brag so much, flaunting their spending. At first I was envious of this lifestyle coming from a humble family upbringing. Now I am quite certain they have very little net worth as they approach retirement, all because they spent their highest earning years on superficial things, taking out a second mortgage, just so they can brag to their friends and kids or anyone that will listen about all of their nice things.
I learned they are just 2 narcissists that see money as the only way to get validation.

They are legit unhappy now and have saved nothing. They hate everyone that doesn’t bow down to them. My envy has turned to pity/disrespect. I just hope my spouse can see what they have done and learn an important lesson as we start to hit our highest earning years!

This is a spot on assessment of so many physicians. Late to the game, financially undereducated, throw money around for the ego boost, and finally find themselves with very little assets and a massive God complex, so they hate anyone who sees through the veneer of prestige for what they are.