Guilt? What? This is a capitalistic system. You take advantage of situations as they present themselves. The next bear market is coming, whenever, and you need to adapt when that happens. The business cycle is NOT static, you make adjustments as you see change. You measure the risk with the reward. You just try to make the best choice with the info available.

(1)
Home appreciation. Mclean didn't appreciate as much even in premium areas. Older mcMansions go for maybe 500-600K more because so many new ones are built, which go for about 3m median price. The only way it could happen is if you bought a much more expensive home and/or remodeled it in a luxury way (doubtful any of this is true given your HHI of 450 and your NW of 1m back then.

we bought our house for around 1.6m, comps with similar sft and lot size now are about 2.4m

(2)
How is your retirement "fully funded" when your NW is only 4 mil including your home and 401K? That's not much for someone in their late 30s to retire on especially with the tastes like private schools and "some" nice cars. You can't possibly be financially independent given your spending and your age and a lot of your NW tied up in home equity and 401K

Its fully funded not in we can retire today and never work, we still have high expenses, but we have plenty of cushion if we need to go single income or if one of us gets laid off for a while.

(3)
How did you afford to invest and have quite a pricey lifestyle (private schools, luxury cars, travel) in an expensive home (even with a low rate) starting with 1m NW (which wasn't liquid if you had 401Ks)? If you both worked and had childcare expense especially

my husband has done quite well investing our money, he has a background in finance

Anonymous wrote:Sure I'll bite.

By pure luck, I managed to max out my 401k contribution once I left grad school (around age 25 and not making very much), and now I'm on track to have 4.5M in today's dollars in my 401k at age 65 if I keep maxing the contribution every year (which is much easier now as my income has increased). Kind of feels crazy that all I did was the bare minimum and now I'm going to have a fabulous retirement.

This. I’m 29 years old and received a $25K signing bonus 5 years ago and have maxed out savings ATB. Invested in high growth options like NVDA and TSLA and now have $6M. Should be able to retire at 35. No guilt here.

Sure I'll bite.

By pure luck, I managed to max out my 401k contribution once I left grad school (around age 25 and not making very much), and now I'm on track to have 4.5M in today's dollars in my 401k at age 65 if I keep maxing the contribution every year (which is much easier now as my income has increased). Kind of feels crazy that all I did was the bare minimum and now I'm going to have a fabulous retirement.

I never count my blessings. I always prepare for what's possibly next.

Anonymous wrote:We bought our house in 2017 and secured a 2.85% 30 year rate and the home has appreciated by close to 1 million.
Our 401k/Retirement Roth/Equity account has appreciated by a couple of millions, and our retirements are fully funded even under conservative assumptions.
Not even 40 yet and we are close to being financially independent despite having two kids in private schools and some nice cars and plenty of vacations. Something has to give right? This doesn't seem normal.

Your story doesn't seem normal or real. Especially if you read more of your comments. I call fake. Numbers don't add up.

(1)
Home appreciation. Mclean didn't appreciate as much even in premium areas. Older mcMansions go for maybe 500-600K more because so many new ones are built, which go for about 3m median price. The only way it could happen is if you bought a much more expensive home and/or remodeled it in a luxury way (doubtful any of this is true given your HHI of 450 and your NW of 1m back then.

(2)
How is your retirement "fully funded" when your NW is only 4 mil including your home and 401K? That's not much for someone in their late 30s to retire on especially with the tastes like private schools and "some" nice cars. You can't possibly be financially independent given your spending and your age and a lot of your NW tied up in home equity and 401K

(3)
How did you afford to invest and have quite a pricey lifestyle (private schools, luxury cars, travel) in an expensive home (even with a low rate) starting with 1m NW (which wasn't liquid if you had 401Ks)? If you both worked and had childcare expense especially

Is this supposed to be some hypothetical scenario to explain the increase in appearance of wealth all around?

Anonymous wrote:Hope the golden horseshoe up your rear doesn't puncture anything.

+1. OP was going for genuine and incredulous but landed on smug and annoying. As another poster said, wait until you get older, running out of steam as everything gets more expensive, and your spending power diminishes every year. You won’t know what hit you.

401k and home equity is not real money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know what you mean, OP. Yes you worked hard and did things right but you/ we have been simply super lucky to have hit the jackpot of timing on several variables (tech and housing) at once. I do t see your statement as a brag as much as just kind of astonishment that you went from “there” to “here” so quickly. I know what you mean. This whole super low interest environment made me a
TON of money at the apex of my career. I happened to be right age and salary to be able to fill 401ks and already be in a house with proceeds from my last. I benefitted from easy earnings and didn’t have time to let lifestyle creep happen during the COVID era - now my money continues to make money and it gives me a lot more options.

That’s not a brag- I’m trying to acknowledge that we got really lucky, mostly. Some work.
Mostly just timing. And yes, amassing that kind of wealth before 40 on that salary was previously impossible. This last decade was different. Big gains. Obscene ones. The rich getting richer has been super apparent to me since about 2018 or so. Like a rocket ship. They can’t build 2-5M houses fast enough here in the western state I live in . It’s astonishing.

OP here, I am not trying to brag, I am just surprised by how much things are going right for me and people in my social circle for the past 6-8 years. It seems somewhat surreal.

This happens frequently in economic cycles and is nothing new. Countless people felt exactly the same way in June 2000 as well as in June 2007. The bigger they are, the harder they fall – and this is one of the biggest overblown economies in the history of mankind.

This.

We are a decade older and at some point were in her shoes, but then things turned around and it got harder to compete for high paying jobs, I developed health issues halving my income, and in the long run some of our hot investments didn't perform as expected. We were on a high horse even earlier in life than OP in our 30s and this wasn't easy money or fast anything like OP describes. The only positive about it is that we don't have high expectations anymore about continuous growth and wealth that's indestructible and lifestyle that keeps "upgrading".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought our house in 2017 and secured a 2.85% 30 year rate and the home has appreciated by close to 1 million.
Our 401k/Retirement Roth/Equity account has appreciated by a couple of millions, and our retirements are fully funded even under conservative assumptions.
Not even 40 yet and we are close to being financially independent despite having two kids in private schools and some nice cars and plenty of vacations. Something has to give right? This doesn't seem normal.

How much do you have?

adding together home equity/other properties/investment accounts/physical assets, ~4 million. We didn't feel like we were rich back in 2016-2017, maybe had 1 million in total assets, I feel like my networth has exploded over the past 5-7 years from just owning some tech stocks and a house

I agree but on the other hand, I think many others in our demographic / situation (like you, OP) are in similar boats, so expenses/costs have also ballooned for the types of things that cater to this demographic. E.g. the cost and availability of vacation homes, renovations, eating out, nice hotels, nannies, private tuition, camps, services like family photography, IVF etc. have also ballooned or become harder to access since 2017. Not complaining as I know we are still more fortunate than many, but just observing...

Yep, pretty much. Economy will figure out how to squeeze you out of your money and keep you working. It already sucks for those who are older and even have assets but aren't' able to keep up with the raising cost of living, higher property taxes, higher prices on literally everything. People unable to fix their houses while others are glad to overpay for all sorts of frivolities. One day OP may end up in similar shoes when getting older, out of energy and finding harder competition in the workplace and harder time making easy money off investments while paying more for things she needs.

If you have extra to spare I’d love to use it for my family (and I’m not below asking).

Sounds wonderful, OP, so lucky and no I don’t think anything has to give, money fixes everything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know what you mean, OP. Yes you worked hard and did things right but you/ we have been simply super lucky to have hit the jackpot of timing on several variables (tech and housing) at once. I do t see your statement as a brag as much as just kind of astonishment that you went from “there” to “here” so quickly. I know what you mean. This whole super low interest environment made me a
TON of money at the apex of my career. I happened to be right age and salary to be able to fill 401ks and already be in a house with proceeds from my last. I benefitted from easy earnings and didn’t have time to let lifestyle creep happen during the COVID era - now my money continues to make money and it gives me a lot more options.

That’s not a brag- I’m trying to acknowledge that we got really lucky, mostly. Some work.
Mostly just timing. And yes, amassing that kind of wealth before 40 on that salary was previously impossible. This last decade was different. Big gains. Obscene ones. The rich getting richer has been super apparent to me since about 2018 or so. Like a rocket ship. They can’t build 2-5M houses fast enough here in the western state I live in . It’s astonishing.

OP here, I am not trying to brag, I am just surprised by how much things are going right for me and people in my social circle for the past 6-8 years. It seems somewhat surreal.

This happens frequently in economic cycles and is nothing new. Countless people felt exactly the same way in June 2000 as well as in June 2007. The bigger they are, the harder they fall – and this is one of the biggest overblown economies in the history of mankind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know what you mean, OP. Yes you worked hard and did things right but you/ we have been simply super lucky to have hit the jackpot of timing on several variables (tech and housing) at once. I do t see your statement as a brag as much as just kind of astonishment that you went from “there” to “here” so quickly. I know what you mean. This whole super low interest environment made me a
TON of money at the apex of my career. I happened to be right age and salary to be able to fill 401ks and already be in a house with proceeds from my last. I benefitted from easy earnings and didn’t have time to let lifestyle creep happen during the COVID era - now my money continues to make money and it gives me a lot more options.

That’s not a brag- I’m trying to acknowledge that we got really lucky, mostly. Some work.
Mostly just timing. And yes, amassing that kind of wealth before 40 on that salary was previously impossible. This last decade was different. Big gains. Obscene ones. The rich getting richer has been super apparent to me since about 2018 or so. Like a rocket ship. They can’t build 2-5M houses fast enough here in the western state I live in . It’s astonishing.

OP here, I am not trying to brag, I am just surprised by how much things are going right for me and people in my social circle for the past 6-8 years. It seems somewhat surreal.

Hopefully you use this awareness to build some good karma and help those who are currently experiencing downswings and bad luck. What goes around comes around.

Anonymous wrote:Hmm, we have a 2.675 30-year jumbo. Why is your rate so high?

Rates fluctuate at least 1/8th week to week. It matters when you locked in and between 2.875 and the absolute bottom of the 30yr rates it wouldn’t have made sense to refinance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought our house in 2017 and secured a 2.85% 30 year rate and the home has appreciated by close to 1 million.
Our 401k/Retirement Roth/Equity account has appreciated by a couple of millions, and our retirements are fully funded even under conservative assumptions.
Not even 40 yet and we are close to being financially independent despite having two kids in private schools and some nice cars and plenty of vacations. Something has to give right? This doesn't seem normal.

How much do you have?

adding together home equity/other properties/investment accounts/physical assets, ~4 million. We didn't feel like we were rich back in 2016-2017, maybe had 1 million in total assets, I feel like my networth has exploded over the past 5-7 years from just owning some tech stocks and a house

This^^^

Your home value means nothing unless you want to leave the DCUM area. You still have to live/own a home in the DCUM area. Buy now and you won't have sub 3% rates. So you would only Geta home worth less for same monthly cost