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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would you even know someone else's net worth? Ours is about $3.5M at 55 & 62.

FWIW, I have access to a large demographics database at work and just looked it up...

In the DC region, for someone age 50-64, 12% have a net worth of $2M+ (the top breakout available).

In that age category and have a bachelor's degree, 16% are at $2M+

In that age category and with a master's/professional degree/PhD, 22% are at $2M+.

So overall, it's a pretty small share.

THANK YOU!

Reading DCUM makes it feel like the numbers are inverted, e.g., only 22% of 50-64yo in this area with at least a Masters have under $2M). The reality is that 78% with at least a masters don’t even have $2M and that saving that much is harder than many claim on this site.

I’m sure they worked hard to be ready when a job with a salary increase came a long or got lucky with investments. Many others worked just as hard or harder but didn’t land the job or have the opportunities to advance presented to them.

This site can be great but can really mess with your head in terms of what the reality is for a lot of us in this area.

Only 12% of all 50-64 have $2M or more in NW. Sometimes it seems like only people from this category post on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in our are late 40s in Tech, live in Texas. Asian immigrants who paid for their for masters with loans. NW $5M+

For us the key was to save atleast 30% of income, consistently. have high income. Suffered a couple of job losses, but got right back in the job search.

We dabbled in individual stocks, but lost big time. Index funds have served as well, almost all of our money is now in index funds, except primary home.

Bought only one home. Great school district, but smaller not updated home. Our fixed costs are low compared to HHI, kids are in public school.

Plan to retire in 6-7 years. Home stretch, so hoping we continue to retain our jobs.

That’s nice but the cost of living in TX is different that the DMV which is what the post is about. FWIW we have a similar story (our vehicles are old, one now qualifies for antique plates!), but have $2M with 2 kids.

[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.

I am 52, NW 7 mil. I think a lot of it is a result of buying a house at the right time and investing gains. We are an example of one: we bought our house in McLean in 2019 for 1.3 mil, it’s easily worth 1.9 mil, timing worked in our favor not that we are very smart or something. As for investing, yes we have our 401ks but for our brokerage account we bought Amazon and Nvidia at the right time and just last week booked a profit of 1.6 million.

I truly think luck and timing plays a huge role for lots of people. Although just one thing I will claim for myself, it’s my ability to take a decision rather quickly. You will never have 100% information for any decision, typically we have 75% information and based on that we need to decide one way or another, I have seen a lot of people waiting for 100% information or guarantee but that’s not how life works.

Thank you for your post. Seems like Apple and a couple other stocks hitting played a big role for a few posters here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don’t know but assume most people i know have more than $3m by 55 even without including their house. I have more than that just in my 401k.

I make 7 figures but don’t flash it around and am pretty frugal. I’ve lived in the same house for more than 25 years and paid it off several years ago. That’s why I have more than $10m saved.

Did you have access to a very aggressive growth fund for your 401K? I have wondered how people get that high.

I’m 62 and have paid in the max allowed tax deferred since I was in my 20s. Had matching at 2 employers, I think one was 3% and the other 6% of comp up to max. It’s mostly just time/compounding.

+1

Every 401K plan we have ever had has some choice for SP500 and then at least 1 for somewhat more aggressive. Take the company match (2-5% for us), invest the max you can afford and let it grow.
Also, invest outside of the IRA/401K as well. Key is to save and invest. If people did that, they would also have 1M (for anyone making over 150K)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like the real question is what percentage of these people got here actually on their own. Meaning their parents or other family member didn't pay for their college, didn't give annual gifts, didn't buy them a car, didn't inherit. I bet it is just a handful.

You want to see people whose parents weren't able to contribute a single cent to them post-18? At this point, just ask for people who were grew up in an orphanage.

+1

Most people posting on DCUM had their parents help some with college, as should be expected if you are MC+. Even my own LMC parents "helped" some with college. I paid as much as them plus took the Fed loans (came out with ~$12K for my 5 years of undergrad---2 degrees) But they "helped"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you even know someone else's net worth? Ours is about $3.5M at 55 & 62.

FWIW, I have access to a large demographics database at work and just looked it up...

In the DC region, for someone age 50-64, 12% have a net worth of $2M+ (the top breakout available).

In that age category and have a bachelor's degree, 16% are at $2M+

In that age category and with a master's/professional degree/PhD, 22% are at $2M+.

So overall, it's a pretty small share.

I think if you drilled down to 22207, 20815, 20816, 20817, 22101, 22102 you'd find that the numbers are much higher. I don't care what someone in 20901 or in Manassas has, I care about what's relevant to me in my community,

Never heard of it.


Don’t forget 22314 😀

[Anonymous]

turn 50 later this year, personal net worth just crossed $2mil. basically all luck, though-- money from tech stock options got me through the stock market crashes and several layoffs. supported parents for 20+ years until they passed. memory care those last few years was a beeotch, glad that outgo is done. ($16k/month)

now just have a grade-school kiddo to worry about, and my federal job. I definitely don't have enough to retire on, but we hopefully wouldn't lose our house even if a RIF gets me. i've got about 18 months of expenses in liquidish reserves.

younger spouse has around 1.5mil net worth but came from money so didn't come to the relationship with any debts. basically, in the long-term we should be doing great, as long as we can weather whatever shitstorm heads our way in the next four years. net worth is a completely fictional metric that depends on the underlying asset valuation remaining stable. And hopefully I can just keep my head down and work steadily for the next 15 years or so.

[Anonymous]

Age 55, just over $3M not including home equity of $600k. Had NW of zero at age 30 due to being in school for a long time and other life complications, so had to play catch up. But HHI recently climbed to over $700k so able to aggressively save now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like the real question is what percentage of these people got here actually on their own. Meaning their parents or other family member didn't pay for their college, didn't give annual gifts, didn't buy them a car, didn't inherit. I bet it is just a handful.

Passing for college if you can is the standard thing to do for the middle class and above. Maybe if you're extremely wealthy you skip college. But mostly boomer parents pay for their kids' college if possible. So i don't consider that a leg up. But a trust fund, inherirance, downpayment on a house, yes absolutely.

I agree with this. But they were paying for in-state, state university that back then didn't cost even close to what it costs now. Probably even weddings, which hadn't yet gone over the edge of extravagance. The test for that generation would be, as mentioned, trust funds, cars, down payment on house, inheritance.

This. 20 years ago my tuition was $5k a semester and room and board was $500/mo. I was lucky that my parents helped me pay for college (I also took out loans), but it wasn't the $100k/yearly college experience it is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:turn 50 later this year, personal net worth just crossed $2mil. basically all luck, though-- money from tech stock options got me through the stock market crashes and several layoffs. supported parents for 20+ years until they passed. memory care those last few years was a beeotch, glad that outgo is done. ($16k/month)

now just have a grade-school kiddo to worry about, and my federal job. I definitely don't have enough to retire on, but we hopefully wouldn't lose our house even if a RIF gets me. i've got about 18 months of expenses in liquidish reserves.

younger spouse has around 1.5mil net worth but came from money so didn't come to the relationship with any debts. basically, in the long-term we should be doing great, as long as we can weather whatever shitstorm heads our way in the next four years. net worth is a completely fictional metric that depends on the underlying asset valuation remaining stable. And hopefully I can just keep my head down and work steadily for the next 15 years or so.

So your household NW is $3.5 million.

[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.

We are! We have about 3.5NW including the house at 55 and 57.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would you even know someone else's net worth? Ours is about $3.5M at 55 & 62.

FWIW, I have access to a large demographics database at work and just looked it up...

In the DC region, for someone age 50-64, 12% have a net worth of $2M+ (the top breakout available).

In that age category and have a bachelor's degree, 16% are at $2M+

In that age category and with a master's/professional degree/PhD, 22% are at $2M+.

So overall, it's a pretty small share.

So this is individual networth or household?

[Anonymous]

Zero.

[Anonymous]

Having 3M by age 55 is like going to high school and getting straight As. How many kids do you know graduated with a 4.0? Not many right? But it wasn't rocket science. Some kids just studied while others didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having 3M by age 55 is like going to high school and getting straight As. How many kids do you know graduated with a 4.0? Not many right? But it wasn't rocket science. Some kids just studied while others didn't.

I think this is a really good analogy!