Any 50yo+ with retirement savings less than $2million?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:66 with 1.8 and proud to have that much (most people don’t—google it).

Oh, and no pension…but social security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:…Not including home and college savings. Just curious after reading the other thread. Thx

Probably the vast majority of 50+ year olds in both the country and the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me. I’m 56, single, with about $1.2 in retirement savings. And I think I’m doing pretty well compared to most Americans. DCUM is nothing like mainstream America.

You're doing extremely well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

The example you quote from PP (Apple) is an example of luck and survivor bias. I still remember the day, September of 2000, I walked into the Starbucks near the World Bank, saw someone on TV yakking about bad news for stocks, went back to the office and bought 150 shares of Apple and 100 shares of Starbucks. With stock splits and DRIP, those purchases have grown to about 9000 Apple and 1000 Starbucks shares, about 20% of my portfolio. Things could have very easily gone South. I just got lucky. Also, what I didn't (and most people don't) keep track of are the many losers I've had over time and the opportunity cost of holding cash hoping to time the market. All things considered, I would likely have been at the same level of net worth if I had diligently invested all my savings in index funds over time instead of picking stocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:…Not including home and college savings. Just curious after reading the other thread. Thx

Most DCUMmy thread ever.

[Anonymous]

51, $1.35M in 401k and IRAs, +$5.5M brokerage, DW 50 has been SAHM since 1999. Both kids graduated college 2+ years ago and work tech so 529's well spent.

[Anonymous]

I’m 56 and combined with my husband (also 56) we are very close to retirement and have close to 3 million. We are both federal workers - it can be done with smart investing.

[Anonymous]

I'm 52, dh 59. combined we have about 1.1 in retirement, 285k in college funds (2 kids; will probably get to 200k/each); and about 500k equity in home (but also a mortgage of 600k). We will have pensions that are the equivalent of 2 million in retirement funds though which is our failsafe (we could probably do fine if not extravagant on SS and pensions in a lcol state). I will work till minimum 65, DH 70 (life and health willing), and we are aggressively putting more away for college/retirement until then.... then we will probably downsize and buy a modest one story home outright or move to CCRC.... the biggest ? is long term care. there may be inherited funds on my side but we are not counting on it and should they come it will hopefully help kids in future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 56 and combined with my husband (also 56) we are very close to retirement and have close to 3 million. We are both federal workers - it can be done with smart investing.

That's the key to your retirement confidence, not the $3M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

The example you quote from PP (Apple) is an example of luck and survivor bias. I still remember the day, September of 2000, I walked into the Starbucks near the World Bank, saw someone on TV yakking about bad news for stocks, went back to the office and bought 150 shares of Apple and 100 shares of Starbucks. With stock splits and DRIP, those purchases have grown to about 9000 Apple and 1000 Starbucks shares, about 20% of my portfolio. Things could have very easily gone South. I just got lucky. Also, what I didn't (and most people don't) keep track of are the many losers I've had over time and the opportunity cost of holding cash hoping to time the market. All things considered, I would likely have been at the same level of net worth if I had diligently invested all my savings in index funds over time instead of picking stocks.

unicorn honest post on this forum, thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

The example you quote from PP (Apple) is an example of luck and survivor bias. I still remember the day, September of 2000, I walked into the Starbucks near the World Bank, saw someone on TV yakking about bad news for stocks, went back to the office and bought 150 shares of Apple and 100 shares of Starbucks. With stock splits and DRIP, those purchases have grown to about 9000 Apple and 1000 Starbucks shares, about 20% of my portfolio. Things could have very easily gone South. I just got lucky. Also, what I didn't (and most people don't) keep track of are the many losers I've had over time and the opportunity cost of holding cash hoping to time the market. All things considered, I would likely have been at the same level of net worth if I had diligently invested all my savings in index funds over time instead of picking stocks.

unicorn honest post on this forum, thanks

I'm the pp you responded to. My current advice to anyone who'd listen - kids, nephew/nieces, etc. - is to invest 90% of their investible money into S&P, nasdaq and small cap indexes - 25% each, 15% in international and keep the remaining 10% for speculative investments. Of course, I don't follow that rule myself. Cognitive dissonance, I suppose.

[Anonymous]

I’m 55, single and I have $1.5M plus a pension.

[Anonymous]

50, married, combined 1 million for retirement so far but we will receive 2 pensions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

The example you quote from PP (Apple) is an example of luck and survivor bias. I still remember the day, September of 2000, I walked into the Starbucks near the World Bank, saw someone on TV yakking about bad news for stocks, went back to the office and bought 150 shares of Apple and 100 shares of Starbucks. With stock splits and DRIP, those purchases have grown to about 9000 Apple and 1000 Starbucks shares, about 20% of my portfolio. Things could have very easily gone South. I just got lucky. Also, what I didn't (and most people don't) keep track of are the many losers I've had over time and the opportunity cost of holding cash hoping to time the market. All things considered, I would likely have been at the same level of net worth if I had diligently invested all my savings in index funds over time instead of picking stocks.

unicorn honest post on this forum, thanks

I'm the pp you responded to. My current advice to anyone who'd listen - kids, nephew/nieces, etc. - is to invest 90% of their investible money into S&P, nasdaq and small cap indexes - 25% each, 15% in international and keep the remaining 10% for speculative investments. Of course, I don't follow that rule myself. Cognitive dissonance, I suppose.

This is exactly what I advise. I don't follow it either. I think it's just the historical effect of prior investments and not wanting to take the definitive action to rebalance so much at any given moment (both for psychological and tax reasons). But I have drifted towards this more over time.

[Anonymous]

People with MORE than $2 million - stop posting. This thread is not for you.