A Half-Millionaire?
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When I posted our latest net worth early this week, I didn’t realize that we have kind of reached a milestone until I was reminded by FMF at Free Money Finance. For the first time ever, our net worth (excluding house and cars related items) has passed the $500,000 or half a million mark. Having half a million in our late 30s isn’t really that exciting as I believe many out there have accumulated much more at our age. What makes me feel happy about is the time it took us to get there: less than 7 years!
When we came to the States as students nearly 10 years ago, we had almost nothing but several pieces of luggage. Fortunately, we didn’t have to pay for the tuitions as both of us got assistantships from schools we attended and that made us debt-free when we graduated, though we didn’t have any assets either. We didn’t make any serious money until 2000/2001 when we started to work. Though we had gone through some tough times during the telecom crash when, at one point of time, we both lost our jobs, our investments, which began in 2001, never stopped even when the market took a dive in 2001 and 2002. We just kept buying every month according to our plan and added some extras when the time was right. The market fluctuations didn’t make us hesitate to commit new money since we knew time is on our side. In fact, when I looked at the $500,000 we have, nearly 30%, about $150,000, are from price appreciations and distributions. Without those shares purchased when many people turned their backs on the stock markets, we couldn’t get to where we are now. For our case, early and consistent investments really pay off.
Now that we have passed the $500,000 mark, when will we hit the next milestone? I don’t really know, but hopefully it won’t take us another 7 years since now we have a much stonger foundation than 10 years ago.
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In the net worth, do you count house price and mortgage? If you count, how do you count the house price?
No I don’t include any thing related to house and car when I do the calculation because, as you said, I have no idea how much our house and cars are worth right now. Including them will likely to inflate the number, so I just don’t consider them in both assets and liabilities. What you see is the number from all our investments: cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.
Congrats Sun, I give you only 5 years to hit the Million mark. You are doing very well
Sun,
Congratulations on crossing the 1/2 million milestone. Especially, since you do not include your house, which I agree with not doing.
All the best for a much shorter time for the next 1/2 million.
I have a Chinese friend, maybe 24, that has just started investing. He is really into it - I’m very proud of him for his efforts. I’m 36, and we’re doing OK for our age, but this kid is earning a great salary (I used to work with him and did payroll) and he’s actively investing.
Now if I can just get him to take me to Hong Kong!
Congrats Sun! From nothing to half a million in 10 years, what a great example of the opportunities available in this country. Of course it takes determination, smart decisions, and hard work but its nice to know the sky’s the limit.
Very nice! I’m betting you’ll the next half-mil will be much easier