1M in investments at 30

[Anonymous]

My goal was $1m by 30. And when I got there I was so focused and blinded by that goal that I never had a work/life balance up to that point or a plan for what to do next.
It’s rather depressing to get there and realize $1m ain’t what it used to be. It’s great for sure. But you can’t talk about it much.

Come up with a new plan for age 33. What is the financial goal? What is your fitness goal? What other goals could you possibly weave in to better balance your pursuit?

I modeled out my NW over the next 8 years. When things were great in 2021 I thought I could do 8M by 40. But that’s looking a little lofty.

$1M by 30 is possible. Even for someone who wasn’t in tech. Good on ya, but don’t forget to balance yourself. Life is long!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the family money, OP! Your first move should be to reallocate that inheritance so that it aligns with your time horizon instead of your parents or grandparents. Your second move should be to find a reliable financial advisor. You don’t want to get too far ahead of your skis, OP. Most people sporting significant new money end up squandering the majority of it before they learn discipline and control.

Shocker there are many dinks in their late 20s/early 30s easily making $250-350k each, putting their HHI at 500-700k…particularly in DC. Finance, law or tech. If you aren’t making at least 250k in your early 30s in those fields you’re doing something wrong.


My wife and I are in that boat, late 20s/early 30s and have been over 700k HHI for the last 3 years. We save 60% as we have nothing material to spend our money on. We own a nice home (bought w/ a very low rate and big enough for multiple kids), two modest cars, and take a nice trip but outside that we barely spend money on wasteful things like fancy clothes/jewlery/michelin star restaurants.

+1. DH and I are late 20s, HHI $1.1M. Both in Tech. I work about 10 hours a week, DH is consulting at 30 hours. We have about $4M in investments. This is not rocket science folks! It’s called working hard and saving to the max.

I work in FANG, used to do tech consulting so I am very familiar with how much tech pays. But if you work 10 hrs/week, curious to know what position you have. I want to transition into it as well.

I’m an artificial intelligence algorithm architect. I write software that generates all my code and documentation deliverables for me. I spend about 3 hours a week writing and updating my generative modeling code base, another 4 hours per week editing and tweaking the generated outputs to make it look like a human created them, and an hour in staff meetings.

I may be an underrepresented white woman in the field, but I produce greater quality and quantity of work than most of my Asian and male coworkers churning out mediocre code 12 hours a day. Gives me plenty of time for investing, online shopping, and time to walk my dog Ruffles around the neighborhood.

Nice larp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the family money, OP! Your first move should be to reallocate that inheritance so that it aligns with your time horizon instead of your parents or grandparents. Your second move should be to find a reliable financial advisor. You don’t want to get too far ahead of your skis, OP. Most people sporting significant new money end up squandering the majority of it before they learn discipline and control.

That is so repulsively condescending. For all you know, OP earned that money themselves. Many do! The advice you give is ridiculous. Clearly OP is educated with an IQ above double digits and therefore knows all this already.

Gross.

Someone in their early thirties with $1M in investments would have to have dollar cost averaged $5K per month into a tax-exempt S&P500 index fund for 10 years straight (assuming 10% annual returns, as has been the case since 2014) to have $1M in investments. This is close to impossible since even the employee+employer $60K retirement contribution limit for young people like OP wasn’t reached until 2022.

If not retirement, then we’re talking after-tax brokerage. This means OP is funneling about $8.5K of gross monthly income into savings. Maybe $100K per year? That’s a lot, even for someone making $300K per year. OP can’t be a lawyer, physician, or other graduate level professional else OP would be paying down massive student loans (no family money, right?) or not have had 10 years of savings time to start.

Please…this is so obviously a case of family money it isn’t even funny. Even if it was mommy and daddy footing the bill for college, grad school, that first car, and even a down payment for a house. It’s easy to pat yourself on the back for accepting a gift and broadcasting it as a measure of personal triumph and success. This seems to be the new normal for everyone under the age of 35. Pathetic.

+1

1000% agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the family money, OP! Your first move should be to reallocate that inheritance so that it aligns with your time horizon instead of your parents or grandparents. Your second move should be to find a reliable financial advisor. You don’t want to get too far ahead of your skis, OP. Most people sporting significant new money end up squandering the majority of it before they learn discipline and control.

That is so repulsively condescending. For all you know, OP earned that money themselves. Many do! The advice you give is ridiculous. Clearly OP is educated with an IQ above double digits and therefore knows all this already.

Gross.

Someone in their early thirties with $1M in investments would have to have dollar cost averaged $5K per month into a tax-exempt S&P500 index fund for 10 years straight (assuming 10% annual returns, as has been the case since 2014) to have $1M in investments. This is close to impossible since even the employee+employer $60K retirement contribution limit for young people like OP wasn’t reached until 2022.

If not retirement, then we’re talking after-tax brokerage. This means OP is funneling about $8.5K of gross monthly income into savings. Maybe $100K per year? That’s a lot, even for someone making $300K per year. OP can’t be a lawyer, physician, or other graduate level professional else OP would be paying down massive student loans (no family money, right?) or not have had 10 years of savings time to start.

Please…this is so obviously a case of family money it isn’t even funny. Even if it was mommy and daddy footing the bill for college, grad school, that first car, and even a down payment for a house. It’s easy to pat yourself on the back for accepting a gift and broadcasting it as a measure of personal triumph and success. This seems to be the new normal for everyone under the age of 35. Pathetic.

+1

1000% agreed.

You don't need a grad degree to make a lot of money. Most finance and tech jobs don't care about a grad degree.

I had undergrad paid for, which obviously helped, but that was not how i accumulated 1M+ outside my home by 30. My wife and I save a lot ~$200k/yr. Even if I had large loans, that cost me $2k/mo, I still would save $175k/yr..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the family money, OP! Your first move should be to reallocate that inheritance so that it aligns with your time horizon instead of your parents or grandparents. Your second move should be to find a reliable financial advisor. You don’t want to get too far ahead of your skis, OP. Most people sporting significant new money end up squandering the majority of it before they learn discipline and control.

That is so repulsively condescending. For all you know, OP earned that money themselves. Many do! The advice you give is ridiculous. Clearly OP is educated with an IQ above double digits and therefore knows all this already.

Gross.

Someone in their early thirties with $1M in investments would have to have dollar cost averaged $5K per month into a tax-exempt S&P500 index fund for 10 years straight (assuming 10% annual returns, as has been the case since 2014) to have $1M in investments. This is close to impossible since even the employee+employer $60K retirement contribution limit for young people like OP wasn’t reached until 2022.

If not retirement, then we’re talking after-tax brokerage. This means OP is funneling about $8.5K of gross monthly income into savings. Maybe $100K per year? That’s a lot, even for someone making $300K per year. OP can’t be a lawyer, physician, or other graduate level professional else OP would be paying down massive student loans (no family money, right?) or not have had 10 years of savings time to start.

Please…this is so obviously a case of family money it isn’t even funny. Even if it was mommy and daddy footing the bill for college, grad school, that first car, and even a down payment for a house. It’s easy to pat yourself on the back for accepting a gift and broadcasting it as a measure of personal triumph and success. This seems to be the new normal for everyone under the age of 35. Pathetic.

+1

1000% agreed.

You don't need a grad degree to make a lot of money. Most finance and tech jobs don't care about a grad degree.

I had undergrad paid for, which obviously helped, but that was not how i accumulated 1M+ outside my home by 30. My wife and I save a lot ~$200k/yr. Even if I had large loans, that cost me $2k/mo, I still would save $175k/yr..

No one said anything about needing a grad degree to make a lot of money. Why not share a few more details so others can better understand and attempt to replicate your success?

When did you graduate college? What school? What major?

Where do you work? What sort of jobs do the two of you have?

You’re married? How did you pay for your wedding? Your honeymoon? Your engagement rings? Your wedding bands?

You have $1M+ outside your home? So this implies that you own a home. Where is it located? When did you buy it? How were you able to save up enough for a down payment? Where did you live while you were setting aside money for a down payment?

Interesting that you seem to think that $2K/month constitutes a large loan. That is a drop in the bucket for someone allegedly saving $200K/year. Most of this must be after-tax, which means your HHI is at least $375K with no expenses (impossible), more like $750K if you’re saving 50% net (unlikely). Help fill in some blanks for us. Your humblebrag of a post doesn’t seem to add up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the family money, OP! Your first move should be to reallocate that inheritance so that it aligns with your time horizon instead of your parents or grandparents. Your second move should be to find a reliable financial advisor. You don’t want to get too far ahead of your skis, OP. Most people sporting significant new money end up squandering the majority of it before they learn discipline and control.

That is so repulsively condescending. For all you know, OP earned that money themselves. Many do! The advice you give is ridiculous. Clearly OP is educated with an IQ above double digits and therefore knows all this already.

Gross.

Someone in their early thirties with $1M in investments would have to have dollar cost averaged $5K per month into a tax-exempt S&P500 index fund for 10 years straight (assuming 10% annual returns, as has been the case since 2014) to have $1M in investments. This is close to impossible since even the employee+employer $60K retirement contribution limit for young people like OP wasn’t reached until 2022.

If not retirement, then we’re talking after-tax brokerage. This means OP is funneling about $8.5K of gross monthly income into savings. Maybe $100K per year? That’s a lot, even for someone making $300K per year. OP can’t be a lawyer, physician, or other graduate level professional else OP would be paying down massive student loans (no family money, right?) or not have had 10 years of savings time to start.

Please…this is so obviously a case of family money it isn’t even funny. Even if it was mommy and daddy footing the bill for college, grad school, that first car, and even a down payment for a house. It’s easy to pat yourself on the back for accepting a gift and broadcasting it as a measure of personal triumph and success. This seems to be the new normal for everyone under the age of 35. Pathetic.

+1

1000% agreed.

Nah, there are definitely ways to get to 1M in 2024 starting in 2014 that doesn't involve family money.

If they bought a SFH before covid they could have gotten several hundred K just from the appreciation. They might have lucked out on some meme stock or crypto which is disproportionately popular with 20 something tech workers like OP. Lots of introverted nerdy types were in to bitcoin before it blew up (I remember many folks talking about it in 2012 before most normal people had a clue).

But it wouldn't necessarily need to be crypto, total SP500 return from 2014-2024 reinvesting dividends is 214.560% (over 3.1x initial) which is 12.14% annualized. They would have only needed to invest an average of $5000 a month since 2014 into the S&P to have 1M, not even including home equity. And they mentioned some of this is in pre-tax retirement accounts so you could argue it's not a "true" $1M because they can't easily touch some of it without penalty.

I'm a different poster, I did not hit 1M by 30 but had around ~700k net worth at that age a few years ago. I started at a slightly negative net worth at 23 and didn't start making 6 figures until 25 making 200-300k from 25-30. I wasn't even that frugal either. My main luck was buying a house at the right time and making about 75k in realized gains from crypto, everything else came from investing my income into index funds. If I lived like I monk I probably could have ended up at 850-900k by 30.