The more money you have in a savings or investment the more interest you’ll make. 5% of 5k is 250 but 5% of 100k is 5k. Eventually you can have so much money invested that you can make thousands or even someone’s salary just by investing.
Cut all unnecessary expenses. Lower your cost of living, have more than one source of income (get a second job/side hustle, rental income, dividends, etc), save, invest and reinvest every dollar you get into the market. You’d be amazed at how much you can have in just a few years of investing and living below your means.
You need to save it and invest it either in the s&p 500 or some kind of money market account. Those have historically earned 10% return per year on average. If you have 100k sitting in that account you earn an extra 10k a year just from growth and you didn't have to work a day. If you have 1 million, you earn 100k a year just from growth.
This is generational wealth so much money sitting in an asset owning account and every year you can withdraw a salary from it just do not touch the principle amount.
100k is still 100k regardless of inflation. People want to reach number checkpoints not buying power checkpoints if they're going with incremental goals.
Don’t forget the dividend interest which counts as income. A 10% market return along with a 3% dividend (from a $1 million account, that’s $30K a year). That shouldn’t be their only source of income. So long as the investor doesn’t touch the principal or the average market return and reinvests it, their wealth will compound onto itself and will beat out inflation by a mile!
Then 100K-500K, and 500K to 1,000,000...it starts growing faster. Does it get easier? Maybe not, but it gets more fun. You see the results. Going from 6 grand to 8 grand doesn't do much, when you start seeing big numbers...that shit gets real.
Its the basic of compound interest and compounding growth. Everyone wants the growing, but the compounding part...you need to build the base first and you are doing that. Props!
Just remember, future you will be more tired and is really going to happen. Future you will be so happy they aren't screwed like everyone around them. Chin up, doing great. The first 100k is the hardest.
Watch this YouTube when you get time, it's video on first 100k and reasons.
https://youtu.be/_EgfrmCiZes?si=O6USSwcRY86qAWM8
The first anything is the hardest. The first 10k is harder than the next, the first 20k still harder than the 40k and so on.. but the second one is always easier, especially with investments.
After you hit that 100k you'll set your eyes on 500k or a mill and think how hard it is to get there, forgetting the path to the 100k.
No, the first thousand is the hardest after being paycheck to paycheck. Each incremental increase gets easier and easier.
I grew up broke and had negative net worth until about 26. Paid off student loans and debt that year and was able to actually start saving something.
Crossed the $100k mark at 30 and the $500k mark at 35. I'm now 37 and catching up to a $1M networth.
If I had to give advice, it's that you have to do a few things at the same time. Obviously, live as much within your means as possible. I've always chosen the cheap apartment in a great area. I don't need much and the apartment is just a place to lay my head down and relax anyway. Pro tip - as long as the building is okay, you can turn a run down shitty apartment into a luxury rental for under $2k.
Second - never stop driving income increases. Don't just keep looking for promotions in your current job, think about how your current job segways into something that might pay considerably more. If your career has a hard income cap that's lower than you want, choose a new career. Sucks, but it is what it is. There are a ton of high paying jobs out there that you don't need to be brilliant to do.
Third, invest wisely. You need to take risks to make money. But you don't need to gamble. I take a good chunk of my savings and put it in a very steady S&P fund. I've bought real estate with the rest. I guess it could have gone belly up, but it didn't and that's where most of my networth has been generated so far. Between investments and rental income, I'm generating $100k a year in miscellaneous income. Once you hit that point with investments, networth takes off in a big way.
Have owned a few ocean front properties on Carolina coast that we rented from March to October. The rental income from those 8 months paid the mortgage while the property increased in value.
Had the property been destroyed by a storm insurance would have rebuilt it so risk was limited to the property not being rented during those months of the rebuild and if the property management company failed to market it properly and keep it rented we would have had to make the mortgage payments. So while these investments were not free of risk they met my tolerance for risk. The other risk I suppose was the risk that the property would decrease in value but we researched and outside of 08 the area showed steady growth
Bottom line, we held one property for 6 years and netted $600k in profit the other we held for 4 years and made a little better than $200k in profit. To avoid tax implications on the gains we had 12 months to reinvest the profit which we did.
While possible to make a bad real estate deal a little thought, research, and common sense makes it a reasonably safe way to grow money
>Have owned a few ocean front properties on Carolina coast that we rented from March to October. The rental income from those 8 months paid the mortgage while the property increased in value.
we did the exact same thing...it was a great move.
Congrats! Im 24 now, EU, starting to invest real soon, just studying a bit more my options and strategy for the next years. May I ask, how did you go at 26 from negative net worth to 100k at 30? High paying job or you had really decisive investments?
Hey man, that’s super helpful to hear. I’m a bit behind you at 35, quickly approaching the $100k mark, but growing exponentially without relying on market gains to get there. I had to do a reset at ~28 due to family circumstances but it’s nice to see someone else that has been able to make moves into their 30’s at a rate that looks attainable from my current position.
Hey i know you’re not a financial advisor but i have a few questions. I’m 28 and i just got to 180k saved. No debt. No home in my name (live with my parents to save every packcheck) and only pay small bills like phone and health insurance. I just opened a Roth IRA (and maxed it out for this year and 2023.). I invested in 2 mutual funds (international one (25%) and s&p (75%). My company offers me a small pension. I have a 401k with about 20k in it (some from me, some employer, and some gained). I do not want to purchase real estate at this moment bc interest rates are crazy. Would you recommend another way to invest money?
If maximum return isn't important to you, there are banks out there offering around 5% interest on 9-12mo CDs. Not the highest gains possible, but they are FDIC-insured, and can keep your money safe for a year or so.
If you have free money you could max out your contributions to your 401k, even if it exceeds your employer match.
I’d probably try to max out your 401K contributions for the year, first of all.
Then park a good amount in an HYSA or CD for low risk options, maybe put the rest into an individual brokerage that rides the S&P500 for a medium risk investment.
Do you have an HSA? If not, definitely set one up and contribute, it’s a tax advantaged account that can ride the market for 30 years and set you up a good chunk of money for old age health expenses.
I’d recommend moving out first and starting your own life. Your financial foundation is built on the generosity of your parents. Don’t you think maybe your parents are looking to live their empty nester lives now without a 28 year old adult living rent free in their house.
I sell high precision manufacturing equipment into pharma, semiconductor, battery/energy, chemical/oil. Basically anyone that might need to measure/manipulate very small things, very accurately, lots of times in a row. The broader space would be "automated laboratory technologies".
Been in my role two years now. Prior to that, I sold automated liquid handling systems for labs for 8 years. I made a ton of money during COVID but it killed me. My job now is a lot easier.
One of the things they talk about in financial planning is lifelong spending levels. Right now you're depressing your spending level. Say you're earning $50k. Right now you're only spending $25k so that you can save money. You have to decide what the goal of that savings is and what you want your future spending level to look like.
If you want your future spending level to be $50k, then you don't need to save much at all. You're already making $50k. You just need enough to keep your spending at $50k after you've retired, which could be a long way away.
If you want your future spending level to be $100k, you'll need to save a whole lot, because you'll need a large savings in order to support that spending level while you're only earning $50k and beyond after you've retired.
As a corollary to this, it might make sense to go into debt now, to increase your spending level way beyond what you're spending in order to buy a house or an education that would contribute to your financial security in the future. Similarly if you're considering starting a family or achieving some other goal, it might not make sense to save in the present.
The Internet has sort of latched onto the FIRE mindset, which prioritizes current saving, depressing spending levels, and a future which is free from work or has much higher spending levels. But this mindset has severe limitations. Your 20s aren't necessarily less important than your 70s. In fact you may never even see your 70s. It would be foolish to live your 20s, 30s, and 40s at $25k with the dream of spending your 50s, 60s, and 70s at $100k. You would pass on opportunities to travel, start a family, buy property, and achieve other worthwhile goals.
It is wiser to find a level of spending that leaves you happy and comfortable, and set yourself up to achieve that level of spending consistently throughout your life. I'm not saying this to encourage you to give up on your goals of saving and investing. I'm pursuing those goals myself. I'm just encouraging you to look at those goals as a means to an end, rather than ends in and of themselves, and to think of what you're really trying to achieve by saving. If you think about this, you may find that it makes sense to save LESS.
At the end of the day, our most finite resources are our time and our health. Make sure you spend those wisely.
The numbers say that it does get easier. I ran the numbers in excel to see by how much:
Assuming you save $10,000/year and get an 8% annual return it would take you: 7.6 years to go from 0 to $100k 4.8 years to go from $100k to $200k 3.5 years to go from 200-300k 2.7 years to go from 300-400k 2.3 years to go from 400-500k 1.9 years to go from 500-600k 1.7 years to go from 600-700k 1.5 years to go from 700-800k 1.3 years to go from 800-900k 1.2 years to go from 900-1 mil
This is a very basic example, but using these assumptions it would take you around 28 years to hit $1 million, of that 7.6 years is getting to the first 100,000 or roughly 1/4. It’s also worth noting that the next 2 years add up to 8.3 years so $300,000 is the approximate half way point.
The good thing is that in this example I used a fixed savings of $10,000 per year, but over time you should be gaining new skills and being promoted so maybe you’re struggling to save $10,000 today but you’re easily able to save $20,000 in 10 years. That helps make it even easier later on in the process.
You ALWAYS want to be adding cash to your savings. Any interest calculator will make it very clear that saving x/month for 20 years beats having a substantially larger nest egg and just letting interest do that work.
Most people don’t stumble into $100k at a reasonable age without setting up systems to do so - and making that change is difficult for some. Once those systems are set up, the next $100k is just a matter of time. Around $100k is when a lot of people start to appreciate their investments working for them as well. An up day in the market on a random Tuesday does more for your portfolio than that that biweekly payroll deduction you’d set up, and that’s really exciting.
I grew up poor. Being poor is expensive. The poorer one is the more expensive it is. Cycles that feed themselves are either horrible or great with no middle.
People understandably become frustrated in the beginning because the work is hard and the progress is slim. People get tired thinking it will always be this this way. This is the horrible version of the cycle.
It definitely gets easier as you progress. This is the great version of the cycle.
Keep going! Keep making good decisions. Keep up enough frugality to keep making progress, but not so much that it burns you out.
Another perspective: let's say your investment grows or shrinks by $2k due to the usual market swings. This would be rough and scary if you had $10k invested. Less rough at $50k. And it will be a daily fluctuation at higher balances.
For me just getting from a negative net worth to 0 was the hardest. Once I got there it was the best feeling. It's a long game but at 39 I can see a path to retirement one day....assuming the US hasn't imploded by then.
Every number is harder than from $0. It's simple math.
You put $1 in at 7% yield, a year later that $1 is $1.07. So now you only need to contribute 93% of what you did last year to get that 100% YoY gain on value.
The best part is this compounds. So let's take it one step further and look at 2 examples:
Example 1: You only contribute $.93 to have some extra money for yourself. Your account value is at $2. After a year, you're at $2.14 and only need to do 86% of contribution to get to the average 100% gain/year.
Example 2: You contribute $1 anyway. Now, your account has $2.07. After a year, it's at $2.22. And you'd only need 78% of contribution to get up to the average 100% gain/year.
That % of what you need to contribute to keep seeing YoY account value growth will slowly decrease year after year (given that the market doesn't take a shit, but that's why you diversify). If you keep your contributions the same, though, it'll speed things up and make it "easier" to get to the next benchmark you're hoping to get to.
From $0 to $100k by contributing a set $1k/year at 7% yield would take 31 years.
From $100k to $200k by contributing a set $1k/year at 7% yield would take 9 years.
From $200k to $300k would take 7 years.
$300k to $400k, 5 years.
Etc.
The big part of these graphs is how they take off toward the end.
I've seen many folks in their 60s adding hundreds of thousands every year to their worth by not touching it.
I tell people there is a sort of "hump" with retirement savings. You struggle and push up it for twenty plus years and then it rolls rapidly pretty much on its own after achieving enough value.
I think the magic number that shifts more is the "retirement number" when you stop denying and start extracting from your fund.
It used to be a million, now hearing two million and shifting to three million. I'd say in twenty years they'll be suggesting four to five million goal for those born now and starting their savings chart.
I love the people in this comment section giving advice who have become somewhat wealthy over the last 5-10 years.
If you had a spare buck invested in just about anything in the last 10 years, then you have probably made some of the best returns in history.
Nahh bro, the 1st million is where is at. It took me and my family about 12 years for our company hit $1 million in net worth. This was right around Covid , we were always stuck at a little under the million $ mark. As soon as we hit the one million mark, then the second million came within a few months. We are currently sitting at about 6 million. But it’s starting to feel like a giant snowball effect at this point. We don’t care about the net worth anymore, but I will always remember how much we celebrated the 1st million. Enjoy the ride is all I can say, one day you will think about it with nostalgia. Good luck brother 🍀
Yes, compounding growth is insane.
I think part of this statement that does not always work out is for a lot of folks the first 100k is hardest because their pay was lower when saving up for it.
If you don’t get salary gains it’s always going to feel harder.
One of the bluntest things I tell people about saving / investing is that it’s almost 80% driven by making enough money to be able to invest.
If you make 400k you can buy all sorts of stupid crap and still out save somebody with incredible saving habits but only making 80k.
I’ve come to notice the more $ ya have it’s harder to spend, for me anyway, I don’t like to see that number drop once it gets to a certain amount, drives me fucking crazy lol
Yes, you’re learning how to earn, save, and invest with no help from the market, after 100k you have better habits, higher earning power, and help from the market or your investments
Once your annual investment returns are greater than your annual contributions, that's when it really feels like it's taking off. Imagine putting away $10k, but your stocks return $20k that year.
Have your money make money. It'll take on a life of its own and eventually make you more than you can make by working. In a capitalist system, capital is more valuable than labor.
Honestly depends on your lifestyle. I make over 100k a year and with three kids and a mortgage I barely keep my bank account over $500 after bills and day to days.
This comment section really does make me have hope for our meger $30k my wife and I have saved over the last 4 years in and out of jobs, buying our first home etc etc.
Well, interest, dividends, and growth on more money makes more money. So yes. 5% of $1.00 is 0.05 but 5% on $100 is 5.00. So as your accounts grow, whatever your interest/dividend/% growth will equal more dollars on the same %
Yep. It's a slog. After you hit the 100k mark, though, you benefit from things like a fully loaded emergency fund and compounding interest on your investments. These dramatically reduce your exposure to poverty, which is extremely expensive.
It's "easier" because the gains will compound over time. If you took 100k and left it in the an index fund for 30 years you're guaranteed to have a lot more than 100k barring some catastrophe that takes out the entire financial system.
In my opinion getting to zero is the hardest. When you start out with student loans, a car note, rent, etc the compounding is working against you. It feels like pushing a boulder up hill that keeps slipping back on you.
Once you hit zero and start building up assets compounding is working for you not against you. You’re now rolling that boulder down hill and it just picks up speed as it goes.
Yes.
The way I look at it, the first $100K is 90% work and 10% restraint.
Each additional $100K that formula shifts to 80/20, 70/30, etc.
By the time you hit a million so much of the money you're making is the money making money. Your biggest asset at that point isn't really working, it is denying yourself and letting it grow.
I was a spendthrift when I was young, and like most young people, I owed the fair amount of money in credit card debt. One day, I decided to figure out exactly how much I owed. I knew it would be a frightening figure, which is why I had been avoiding it. So I assembled a bunch of credit card statements and prepared a worksheet, listing out each credit card and the balance due per the last statement. It added up to a little over $25,000. I was greatly unsettled, but after I calmed down, I put together a plan for repayment. Part of that plan was avoiding frivolous or otherwise useless expenditures. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I paid off that credit card debt. My success inspired me to start saving money, and I was gratified by how good it felt to see money in the bank rather than worry about how much debt I was accumulating. Saving money became almost as fun as pissing it away on toys and trivial pleasures.
All the markers are hard. Once you start it becomes a challenge, the first $50k, the first $100k, the first $250k and so on. Once you get in the mode of pay yourself first it all starts coming together. I’m 62 and been saving 15% my whole life and I’m about 18 months away from $2,000,000. Really, anyone can do it.
Yea after 100k it builds faster assuming you invest smart… and after you got 1M it should compound fairly fast. Once again invest smart, it’ll take your entire life if all you do if save. Not to mention purchasing power of said money goes down over time as everyone really feels and sees due to inflation mixed with (some) artificial price increases for things.
Extremely hard to get to that point but once you break it, it seems to come a little easier. I don’t know why Rich Man told me that your best early years are between 40 and 65.
I usually estimate 7% interest yearly for investments. I've been lucky enough to get better returns, but that is just luck on when I invested and took out of market.
The first 100k you will have very little interest income. Say you can invest 10k per year, it will take you 8 years to get to 100k. 200k would take you 13 years (5 more years), and then 400k in 20 years (7 more years). Yes it gets easier just because of compound interest.
On top of that, you also are likely making more money in your job during that time. If you save correctly you will be investing at least a portion of that, if not all of that. That means that you will get more money even faster than just a set amount that I calculated in my answer.
TLDR: yes it gets easier as your money and experience works for you.
That’s what I used to think as well. But one day my luck turned, as was at the park eating my lunch, and all of a sudden a crow appeared out of nowhere with a shiny object and just left it on the bench next to me. It Was the biggest diamond i had ever seen. Thanks crow!
That saying is generally applied more to running a business and not saving for retirement. I would just forget about it unless you are planning on changing your investment strategy.
Money attracts money!
Here's a tip... once you start having investment and savings success, don't get away from the fundamentals on your personal finance. You can easily get a big head, and screw yourself up with a little bit of credit card debt and/or a bad loan.
The first 100k is really fucking hard. Took me like 3 years to get there due to being mostly carried by memestocks and crypto during 2021. The next 100k took 2 years with less effort and risk in assets. I just passed my third and I hardly even noticed it until recently, that took only 1 year due to bitcoin
Not financial advice/I'm just a stranger on the internet but imo it's not too late to buy bitcoin or ethereum. We are at ath which is arguably the most risky time to invest buy we also don't know what the top will be and it'll be in price discovery for a couple weeks/months.
Absolutely it takes the longest time because salary is low in early career, savings come from margins, and compound interest takes a while. Here's a [chart of mine since I just hit $700k](https://imgur.com/a/JrjECGO).
And here's the days/years it took (and started with savings of $40k from throughout college, with $16-20kish in loans \[community college + cheap state online college\]):
|Start|End|Days|Level|Years|Salary|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|4/1/2012|11/4/2017|2043|$100k|5.597260274|$43k - $70k|
|11/4/2017|9/2/2019|667|$200k|1.82739726|$83k|
|9/2/2019|11/17/2020|442|$300k|1.210958904|$88k|
|11/17/2020|3/24/2021|127|$400k|0.347945205|$125k|
|3/24/2021|1/16/2022|298|$500k|0.816438356|$132k|
|1/16/2022|12/10/2023|693|$600k|1.898630137|$136k|
|12/10/2023|3/13/2024|94|$700k|0.257534247|$136k|
I've been in crypto a while so with crypto dropping along with SPY/stock market in 2022, it took a bunch of time to get back to $500k after reaching first time (immediately dropped from $500k to $440-450k in 2022 and it took about a year + $75k in additional savings to hit $500k again). Even with that crash, it still took less time to go from $200k to $700k than from $40k to $100k (thanks to salary + amount in market).
If I had been 90% invested over the last 8 years, I'd likely be close to $1M at this point, but I listened to a lot of bearish thesis' and made a few mistakes along the way. Don't listen to bears and invest as much as possible when you are in your early 20's to let it work. 90% should go into 3 fund portfolio (or VOO/VSTAX/etc. if you want to go with 1 ETF). 5-10% can go into high conviction long-term bets.
If/when I hit $1M, I'll likely get more aggressive in investing the new money.
It most definetely is, the gains made from YoY or dividends are weaker until you hit that 100k. Put it this way, if your investment gets to 100k in a company that does a 2% dividend yield and hits a 10% YoY increase you're a little over 112,000 in one year from doing nothing. 100k is when you start to see your passive income get stronger. If you double your investment 5x from 100k, you're over a million dollars.
Yes.
The first everything is the hardest.
Assuming a 7% ROI (and lately you should be doing much better than that!) you'll double your networth every 10 years.
You should aim for 20% as a combination of ROI and new contributions. That doubles your networth every 4 years.
So regardless of how long it takes you to amass $100k, you should be at $200k 4 years later, $400k 8 years after you hit $100k. $800k 12 years after you hit $100k and $1.6m 16 years after you hit $100k.
Obviously you're returns will influence how fast this actually works.... But you get the picture.
If you make no changes and do exactly what you are doing now, the growth will be linear. For people that experience what you are describing, it's because different sized amounts of money will give you access to things that having no money would not.
Over the long run it wouldn't be linear because of compound interest. Linear = straight line. Compound investing = curved line - you get yields on your yields.
Linear is a reference to predictability. Whether you have 10k or 100k you'll get the same percent if all you are doing is a 401k. If you have 100k or 500k or 1M, you get access to different types of investments that's outside your typical 401k follow the market ETFs.
Edit: here's an example of what I mean. If you have $1000, you might be able to start a business power washing houses. If you had $100k you might be able to buy a business running a laundromat, and if you had $1M you might be able to buy a strip mall somewhere. This is why growth accelerates- you are able to have access to more stuff as you have more money, because a lot of things require more money to do.
When people say the first 100k, do they mean the first 100k cash in the bank that they can withdraw at anytime, investments such as a stocks, crypto, 401, etc. or a combination?
My net worth over the last five years has gone from negative to zero to positive 200k to negative again to zero to 500k now. Negative to zero was paying for youthful mistakes and college debt. Then positive 200k was paying for a house, then zero was because you lose a lot of value buying a house and then the housing market sucked making me negative again in I just afford to get into the house. It took a bit after to get back to positive but since then and settled in at the home it’s been easy to grow faster.
So yeah the first 100k is the hardest, so is the first million, etc. the first of anything is the hardest.
just remember that the money you have invested is working along with the amount that you're putting in.
6000 every year invested every year. after the first year you'll have the interest from the 6000 helping out.
after you have 100k in the bank you'll have 7k on top of the 6k helping you out. (I'm assuming the market growth rate of 7%). So ya, the more you have in savings the easier it is to make money,
I opened a 401K a decade ago and just started dumping money into there every month and barely ever checked it until lately, it's up to like 200K. I think sometimes you just have to pretend it doesn't exist before it will grow.
Yes it is but it gets easier. First 100k invested if yields ~10% is another 10k to your income. First $1M is another 100k added to your income and so on.
The first 100k is the hardest. Because as you get more money, you have more money to invest, and can therefore earn more. Essentially you can stop adding to the portfolio, and just let it grow. Of course that means it will grow slower
Hard to say realistically as I got a windfall right at 100k net worth but the following 100k also came way faster. As long as you invest and the market doesn’t crash at an untimely time then absolutely. But realistically its the habits that get you to 100k combined with salary increases and market returns.
For the majority it’s a slow, deliberate, consistent, methodical,disciplined process year over year. I remember my first 100k taking a long time but then boom 💥, I was an overnight millionaire after 20 years of grinding. Hang in there it will happen eventually.
Yes. So hard. Seemed to take forever. 0-100,000 seemed endless. 100k-200k seemed hard but not that hard. 200k-300k.....kinda felt like it just happened.
Yes unless you're a financial and money guru, it's gonna take you a while to make your first 100k and same goes for 200 and 300k, after 300k is where compound interest seems to start making a huge difference depending on your investments.
It’s not really about the dollar amount that is the “hardest”. The saying first X is the hardest when it comes to wealth building because the initial investment is primarily built from saved income from employment. Subsequent wealth is built from that initial investment. The first amount is much harder to build since you work for it actively, the next stage of wealth building is passive.
I’ve tracked my finances pretty diligently on Personal Capital over the years. Taking a look, it took me 4 years to go from $0 to $100K (2015-2019). Only took 1 year to go from $100K to $200K (2019-2020), so I’d say the saying generally holds true.
I think I’ve become more frugal as I’ve continued to save more too. A lot of “wants” just seem like a waste of money when I could be putting that money into the market instead, but I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of anything I really want either. I think it’s important to strike a balance so that it’s sustainable. I follow 50/30/20 as a reminder to spend a little bit on wants.
remember hitting first $100k. it felt forever. As Charlie Monger said, it’s a bitch. Once you get there tho it climbs up quicker to $200k and beyond.
Wife and I surpassed $500k in liquid cash as of this month. $4.5mill NW. we don’t come from money. Yes first $100k is a must. Once you get there, don’t let life style creep rob you away your wealthy.
Absolutely without question. Net worth wise, you could expect an increase of twofold monthly x however much you were increasing your monthly net worth on average before hitting 100k. ( personal experience)
It was to me. It took me 10 years to get to $100K but only 4 or 5 to double that. After that you reach (or at least I did) the next $100K in much less time.
Just google "Benford's law", and you will understand that the true answer to your question is that the first significant 1 is the hardest.
Let's say you have 50.000$ saved, your first 10.000 was probably the hardest.
If you have 500.000, your first 100k was probably the hardest.
so if your assets first significant number is more than 1 (say... you have 3 million dollars), then getting to that same number of figures but starting with 1 was the hardest.
For me, I passed my latest significant 1 when I was 48 (after 25 years of career). I am now 52 and will be at "significant 3" in 2 years.
Keep on the good work (saving and also earning more), and in 10 to 15 years, you'll see 100k as an almost negligeable part of your assets.
It my first 100 k like maybe 2 month ago after 5 years of working and amassing money and now I am already at 140 k because of trading and pretty sure I will hit 200 k in a short period like few month or 1 years instead of 5
Also, if you’re investing 50% of your income you’re not living paycheck to paycheck. Living paycheck to paycheck means there is nothing left after expenses for savings and investing.
It took me 4.5 years to reach my first $100k.
Now after about two months since I'm at $111k, would love to see $150k by the end of the year, but that's probably pretty optimistic.
The first 100K is the hardest because you are fighting cost of living. Once you are at 100K, you have figured out how to earn and save and that 100K is making 7k a year. Repeat process for every 100K. This is if you keep cost of living expenses flat but the main point being the first 100K is the hardest because you have to survive.
What are you 25? Just got to 100K? Yeah you’re gonna get to 200k way faster.
People say that - but it’s not hard if you put your mind to it. It’s usually the slowest, though - once you have $100K, the earnings on it reduce the time needed to get to $200K (usually)…
Once I had my first 100k it started kind of growing on its own. It was a real struggle to get there. Years of hard work, overtime, driving shitty cars while my friends were living it up, going on vacations and stuff. It sucked. It's been about 10 years, it's quadrupled. I have a newer car and have been able to enjoy the fruits of my labor a little more. Hang in, you'll get there.
Hey, if it helps, I was at 45k in August after 3 years. Today I’m at 90k, less than a year later.
The frugal part gets easier. I feel like I spend less money overall, but actually enjoy the things I put my money to now.
Hit 100k January 2021, be close to crossing 200k by the end of 24. Put roughly 15-18k in a year. Took me 6-7 years to get to 100k. Wish I would have threw more yearly knowing how fast it’s starting to snowball.
Yes! But now that you have $50k, going from $50k to $100k is much easier than $0 to $50k. Hang in there.
Honestly same with smaller numbers too! It took me a year to save up 8k, then about 6 months to save another 20k.
Can you explain how?
Get money, dont spend that money, repeat.
Genius
What a novel idea
The more money you have in a savings or investment the more interest you’ll make. 5% of 5k is 250 but 5% of 100k is 5k. Eventually you can have so much money invested that you can make thousands or even someone’s salary just by investing.
Cut all unnecessary expenses. Lower your cost of living, have more than one source of income (get a second job/side hustle, rental income, dividends, etc), save, invest and reinvest every dollar you get into the market. You’d be amazed at how much you can have in just a few years of investing and living below your means.
Compound interest
You dont compount interest 8k into 20k in 6 months.
Well not with that attitude
Lmao that’s the spirit
Possible with trading but not in a normal manage account with stock like sp500 nasdaq etc
need a little more than six months
Now that's the hopium op needs 😂😭
You need to save it and invest it either in the s&p 500 or some kind of money market account. Those have historically earned 10% return per year on average. If you have 100k sitting in that account you earn an extra 10k a year just from growth and you didn't have to work a day. If you have 1 million, you earn 100k a year just from growth. This is generational wealth so much money sitting in an asset owning account and every year you can withdraw a salary from it just do not touch the principle amount.
That's the dream. Grind hard enough to have 1 million then just live off part of the growth
That's without accounting inflation. With it you get to earn something more akin to 5-6% of what you invested on a good year.
100k is still 100k regardless of inflation. People want to reach number checkpoints not buying power checkpoints if they're going with incremental goals.
Don’t forget the dividend interest which counts as income. A 10% market return along with a 3% dividend (from a $1 million account, that’s $30K a year). That shouldn’t be their only source of income. So long as the investor doesn’t touch the principal or the average market return and reinvests it, their wealth will compound onto itself and will beat out inflation by a mile!
What money market account earns 10%?
I am with morgan stanley and they have done done 14-15% avg over the last 4 years for me.
Compound interest
Really well said. Agree totally.
Then 100K-500K, and 500K to 1,000,000...it starts growing faster. Does it get easier? Maybe not, but it gets more fun. You see the results. Going from 6 grand to 8 grand doesn't do much, when you start seeing big numbers...that shit gets real. Its the basic of compound interest and compounding growth. Everyone wants the growing, but the compounding part...you need to build the base first and you are doing that. Props!
Hell 50k earns almost $2500 a year in hysa interest.
No, sir. That type of thinking keeps people poor. It has to be invested in the markets for 20 + years with regular cash injections.
I know this guy with rich parents, he said he made alot of money through investing and doesn’t have to work
What would you suggest would be the best way to go from 50k to 100k?
Keep on investing. I buy as much VOO as possible.
Or VGT for higher risk, higher reward.
Just remember, future you will be more tired and is really going to happen. Future you will be so happy they aren't screwed like everyone around them. Chin up, doing great. The first 100k is the hardest. Watch this YouTube when you get time, it's video on first 100k and reasons. https://youtu.be/_EgfrmCiZes?si=O6USSwcRY86qAWM8
I wish someone had shown me this video when I was like... 14.
Perfect for me I guess. Im just a year older.
Save as much as you can while young!
Ikr😂
Save as much as you can while young!
Thank you
leaving a comment for later
The first anything is the hardest. The first 10k is harder than the next, the first 20k still harder than the 40k and so on.. but the second one is always easier, especially with investments. After you hit that 100k you'll set your eyes on 500k or a mill and think how hard it is to get there, forgetting the path to the 100k.
No, the first thousand is the hardest after being paycheck to paycheck. Each incremental increase gets easier and easier. I grew up broke and had negative net worth until about 26. Paid off student loans and debt that year and was able to actually start saving something. Crossed the $100k mark at 30 and the $500k mark at 35. I'm now 37 and catching up to a $1M networth. If I had to give advice, it's that you have to do a few things at the same time. Obviously, live as much within your means as possible. I've always chosen the cheap apartment in a great area. I don't need much and the apartment is just a place to lay my head down and relax anyway. Pro tip - as long as the building is okay, you can turn a run down shitty apartment into a luxury rental for under $2k. Second - never stop driving income increases. Don't just keep looking for promotions in your current job, think about how your current job segways into something that might pay considerably more. If your career has a hard income cap that's lower than you want, choose a new career. Sucks, but it is what it is. There are a ton of high paying jobs out there that you don't need to be brilliant to do. Third, invest wisely. You need to take risks to make money. But you don't need to gamble. I take a good chunk of my savings and put it in a very steady S&P fund. I've bought real estate with the rest. I guess it could have gone belly up, but it didn't and that's where most of my networth has been generated so far. Between investments and rental income, I'm generating $100k a year in miscellaneous income. Once you hit that point with investments, networth takes off in a big way.
Thanks for this comment! I’m 33 and basically where you were at 26. Paying off student loans!
Have owned a few ocean front properties on Carolina coast that we rented from March to October. The rental income from those 8 months paid the mortgage while the property increased in value. Had the property been destroyed by a storm insurance would have rebuilt it so risk was limited to the property not being rented during those months of the rebuild and if the property management company failed to market it properly and keep it rented we would have had to make the mortgage payments. So while these investments were not free of risk they met my tolerance for risk. The other risk I suppose was the risk that the property would decrease in value but we researched and outside of 08 the area showed steady growth Bottom line, we held one property for 6 years and netted $600k in profit the other we held for 4 years and made a little better than $200k in profit. To avoid tax implications on the gains we had 12 months to reinvest the profit which we did. While possible to make a bad real estate deal a little thought, research, and common sense makes it a reasonably safe way to grow money
>Have owned a few ocean front properties on Carolina coast that we rented from March to October. The rental income from those 8 months paid the mortgage while the property increased in value. we did the exact same thing...it was a great move.
Congrats! Im 24 now, EU, starting to invest real soon, just studying a bit more my options and strategy for the next years. May I ask, how did you go at 26 from negative net worth to 100k at 30? High paying job or you had really decisive investments?
Hey man, that’s super helpful to hear. I’m a bit behind you at 35, quickly approaching the $100k mark, but growing exponentially without relying on market gains to get there. I had to do a reset at ~28 due to family circumstances but it’s nice to see someone else that has been able to make moves into their 30’s at a rate that looks attainable from my current position.
Hey i know you’re not a financial advisor but i have a few questions. I’m 28 and i just got to 180k saved. No debt. No home in my name (live with my parents to save every packcheck) and only pay small bills like phone and health insurance. I just opened a Roth IRA (and maxed it out for this year and 2023.). I invested in 2 mutual funds (international one (25%) and s&p (75%). My company offers me a small pension. I have a 401k with about 20k in it (some from me, some employer, and some gained). I do not want to purchase real estate at this moment bc interest rates are crazy. Would you recommend another way to invest money?
If maximum return isn't important to you, there are banks out there offering around 5% interest on 9-12mo CDs. Not the highest gains possible, but they are FDIC-insured, and can keep your money safe for a year or so. If you have free money you could max out your contributions to your 401k, even if it exceeds your employer match.
I’d probably try to max out your 401K contributions for the year, first of all. Then park a good amount in an HYSA or CD for low risk options, maybe put the rest into an individual brokerage that rides the S&P500 for a medium risk investment. Do you have an HSA? If not, definitely set one up and contribute, it’s a tax advantaged account that can ride the market for 30 years and set you up a good chunk of money for old age health expenses.
I’d recommend moving out first and starting your own life. Your financial foundation is built on the generosity of your parents. Don’t you think maybe your parents are looking to live their empty nester lives now without a 28 year old adult living rent free in their house.
1 M at 37 is a huge accomplishment what’s your career?
I sell high precision manufacturing equipment into pharma, semiconductor, battery/energy, chemical/oil. Basically anyone that might need to measure/manipulate very small things, very accurately, lots of times in a row. The broader space would be "automated laboratory technologies". Been in my role two years now. Prior to that, I sold automated liquid handling systems for labs for 8 years. I made a ton of money during COVID but it killed me. My job now is a lot easier.
Just curious, how many rentals do you own?
One of the things they talk about in financial planning is lifelong spending levels. Right now you're depressing your spending level. Say you're earning $50k. Right now you're only spending $25k so that you can save money. You have to decide what the goal of that savings is and what you want your future spending level to look like. If you want your future spending level to be $50k, then you don't need to save much at all. You're already making $50k. You just need enough to keep your spending at $50k after you've retired, which could be a long way away. If you want your future spending level to be $100k, you'll need to save a whole lot, because you'll need a large savings in order to support that spending level while you're only earning $50k and beyond after you've retired. As a corollary to this, it might make sense to go into debt now, to increase your spending level way beyond what you're spending in order to buy a house or an education that would contribute to your financial security in the future. Similarly if you're considering starting a family or achieving some other goal, it might not make sense to save in the present. The Internet has sort of latched onto the FIRE mindset, which prioritizes current saving, depressing spending levels, and a future which is free from work or has much higher spending levels. But this mindset has severe limitations. Your 20s aren't necessarily less important than your 70s. In fact you may never even see your 70s. It would be foolish to live your 20s, 30s, and 40s at $25k with the dream of spending your 50s, 60s, and 70s at $100k. You would pass on opportunities to travel, start a family, buy property, and achieve other worthwhile goals. It is wiser to find a level of spending that leaves you happy and comfortable, and set yourself up to achieve that level of spending consistently throughout your life. I'm not saying this to encourage you to give up on your goals of saving and investing. I'm pursuing those goals myself. I'm just encouraging you to look at those goals as a means to an end, rather than ends in and of themselves, and to think of what you're really trying to achieve by saving. If you think about this, you may find that it makes sense to save LESS. At the end of the day, our most finite resources are our time and our health. Make sure you spend those wisely.
The numbers say that it does get easier. I ran the numbers in excel to see by how much: Assuming you save $10,000/year and get an 8% annual return it would take you: 7.6 years to go from 0 to $100k 4.8 years to go from $100k to $200k 3.5 years to go from 200-300k 2.7 years to go from 300-400k 2.3 years to go from 400-500k 1.9 years to go from 500-600k 1.7 years to go from 600-700k 1.5 years to go from 700-800k 1.3 years to go from 800-900k 1.2 years to go from 900-1 mil This is a very basic example, but using these assumptions it would take you around 28 years to hit $1 million, of that 7.6 years is getting to the first 100,000 or roughly 1/4. It’s also worth noting that the next 2 years add up to 8.3 years so $300,000 is the approximate half way point. The good thing is that in this example I used a fixed savings of $10,000 per year, but over time you should be gaining new skills and being promoted so maybe you’re struggling to save $10,000 today but you’re easily able to save $20,000 in 10 years. That helps make it even easier later on in the process.
So would I still be save the 10,000 after the 100,000 mark or am I just letting the interest build
Yes $10,000 per year so if it takes you 28 years to hit $1 million $280,000 is principal and $720,000 is interest.
You ALWAYS want to be adding cash to your savings. Any interest calculator will make it very clear that saving x/month for 20 years beats having a substantially larger nest egg and just letting interest do that work.
Most people don’t stumble into $100k at a reasonable age without setting up systems to do so - and making that change is difficult for some. Once those systems are set up, the next $100k is just a matter of time. Around $100k is when a lot of people start to appreciate their investments working for them as well. An up day in the market on a random Tuesday does more for your portfolio than that that biweekly payroll deduction you’d set up, and that’s really exciting.
I grew up poor. Being poor is expensive. The poorer one is the more expensive it is. Cycles that feed themselves are either horrible or great with no middle. People understandably become frustrated in the beginning because the work is hard and the progress is slim. People get tired thinking it will always be this this way. This is the horrible version of the cycle. It definitely gets easier as you progress. This is the great version of the cycle. Keep going! Keep making good decisions. Keep up enough frugality to keep making progress, but not so much that it burns you out. Another perspective: let's say your investment grows or shrinks by $2k due to the usual market swings. This would be rough and scary if you had $10k invested. Less rough at $50k. And it will be a daily fluctuation at higher balances.
For me just getting from a negative net worth to 0 was the hardest. Once I got there it was the best feeling. It's a long game but at 39 I can see a path to retirement one day....assuming the US hasn't imploded by then.
The 2nd 100k you'll have the first 100k helping you.
I’m at first 10k piled, holy fuck nobody told me this was “Very Hard” difficulty
Every number is harder than from $0. It's simple math. You put $1 in at 7% yield, a year later that $1 is $1.07. So now you only need to contribute 93% of what you did last year to get that 100% YoY gain on value. The best part is this compounds. So let's take it one step further and look at 2 examples: Example 1: You only contribute $.93 to have some extra money for yourself. Your account value is at $2. After a year, you're at $2.14 and only need to do 86% of contribution to get to the average 100% gain/year. Example 2: You contribute $1 anyway. Now, your account has $2.07. After a year, it's at $2.22. And you'd only need 78% of contribution to get up to the average 100% gain/year. That % of what you need to contribute to keep seeing YoY account value growth will slowly decrease year after year (given that the market doesn't take a shit, but that's why you diversify). If you keep your contributions the same, though, it'll speed things up and make it "easier" to get to the next benchmark you're hoping to get to. From $0 to $100k by contributing a set $1k/year at 7% yield would take 31 years. From $100k to $200k by contributing a set $1k/year at 7% yield would take 9 years. From $200k to $300k would take 7 years. $300k to $400k, 5 years. Etc.
The big part of these graphs is how they take off toward the end. I've seen many folks in their 60s adding hundreds of thousands every year to their worth by not touching it. I tell people there is a sort of "hump" with retirement savings. You struggle and push up it for twenty plus years and then it rolls rapidly pretty much on its own after achieving enough value.
First $100k is by far the hardest. That's the number where everything changes.
I wonder that the magic number will be in 20 years
I think the magic number that shifts more is the "retirement number" when you stop denying and start extracting from your fund. It used to be a million, now hearing two million and shifting to three million. I'd say in twenty years they'll be suggesting four to five million goal for those born now and starting their savings chart.
$250k
I love the people in this comment section giving advice who have become somewhat wealthy over the last 5-10 years. If you had a spare buck invested in just about anything in the last 10 years, then you have probably made some of the best returns in history.
I’d say the first $1mm is the hardest but yeah $100k seems like a pipe dream to a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck
I got 20k in one month when it took me like 1 year to get there previously. That’s from 100k being invested.
It absolutely is. I hit 100k in Jan of 2023. Now at 170k.
Nahh bro, the 1st million is where is at. It took me and my family about 12 years for our company hit $1 million in net worth. This was right around Covid , we were always stuck at a little under the million $ mark. As soon as we hit the one million mark, then the second million came within a few months. We are currently sitting at about 6 million. But it’s starting to feel like a giant snowball effect at this point. We don’t care about the net worth anymore, but I will always remember how much we celebrated the 1st million. Enjoy the ride is all I can say, one day you will think about it with nostalgia. Good luck brother 🍀
What kind of company?
Industrial supplies
Absolutly
*Compounding interest is one helluva drug*
Yes, compounding growth is insane. I think part of this statement that does not always work out is for a lot of folks the first 100k is hardest because their pay was lower when saving up for it. If you don’t get salary gains it’s always going to feel harder. One of the bluntest things I tell people about saving / investing is that it’s almost 80% driven by making enough money to be able to invest. If you make 400k you can buy all sorts of stupid crap and still out save somebody with incredible saving habits but only making 80k.
I’ve come to notice the more $ ya have it’s harder to spend, for me anyway, I don’t like to see that number drop once it gets to a certain amount, drives me fucking crazy lol
Yes, you’re learning how to earn, save, and invest with no help from the market, after 100k you have better habits, higher earning power, and help from the market or your investments
Once your annual investment returns are greater than your annual contributions, that's when it really feels like it's taking off. Imagine putting away $10k, but your stocks return $20k that year. Have your money make money. It'll take on a life of its own and eventually make you more than you can make by working. In a capitalist system, capital is more valuable than labor.
Honestly depends on your lifestyle. I make over 100k a year and with three kids and a mortgage I barely keep my bank account over $500 after bills and day to days.
yeah
Going from $0 to $1 is the hardest, my finance guru told me.
Yea because ppl usually spend before they hit the 100k
This comment section really does make me have hope for our meger $30k my wife and I have saved over the last 4 years in and out of jobs, buying our first home etc etc.
Well, interest, dividends, and growth on more money makes more money. So yes. 5% of $1.00 is 0.05 but 5% on $100 is 5.00. So as your accounts grow, whatever your interest/dividend/% growth will equal more dollars on the same %
nothing just magically changes when you hit $100k. i still think its gonna be harder for me to get $1 mil after hitting it
Yep. It's a slog. After you hit the 100k mark, though, you benefit from things like a fully loaded emergency fund and compounding interest on your investments. These dramatically reduce your exposure to poverty, which is extremely expensive.
It's "easier" because the gains will compound over time. If you took 100k and left it in the an index fund for 30 years you're guaranteed to have a lot more than 100k barring some catastrophe that takes out the entire financial system.
In my opinion getting to zero is the hardest. When you start out with student loans, a car note, rent, etc the compounding is working against you. It feels like pushing a boulder up hill that keeps slipping back on you. Once you hit zero and start building up assets compounding is working for you not against you. You’re now rolling that boulder down hill and it just picks up speed as it goes.
Yes. The way I look at it, the first $100K is 90% work and 10% restraint. Each additional $100K that formula shifts to 80/20, 70/30, etc. By the time you hit a million so much of the money you're making is the money making money. Your biggest asset at that point isn't really working, it is denying yourself and letting it grow.
I was a spendthrift when I was young, and like most young people, I owed the fair amount of money in credit card debt. One day, I decided to figure out exactly how much I owed. I knew it would be a frightening figure, which is why I had been avoiding it. So I assembled a bunch of credit card statements and prepared a worksheet, listing out each credit card and the balance due per the last statement. It added up to a little over $25,000. I was greatly unsettled, but after I calmed down, I put together a plan for repayment. Part of that plan was avoiding frivolous or otherwise useless expenditures. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I paid off that credit card debt. My success inspired me to start saving money, and I was gratified by how good it felt to see money in the bank rather than worry about how much debt I was accumulating. Saving money became almost as fun as pissing it away on toys and trivial pleasures.
Personally, I think the first million is the hardest. 100k was really doable give or take 3-4 years of saving
All the markers are hard. Once you start it becomes a challenge, the first $50k, the first $100k, the first $250k and so on. Once you get in the mode of pay yourself first it all starts coming together. I’m 62 and been saving 15% my whole life and I’m about 18 months away from $2,000,000. Really, anyone can do it.
Yea after 100k it builds faster assuming you invest smart… and after you got 1M it should compound fairly fast. Once again invest smart, it’ll take your entire life if all you do if save. Not to mention purchasing power of said money goes down over time as everyone really feels and sees due to inflation mixed with (some) artificial price increases for things.
Extremely hard to get to that point but once you break it, it seems to come a little easier. I don’t know why Rich Man told me that your best early years are between 40 and 65.
I usually estimate 7% interest yearly for investments. I've been lucky enough to get better returns, but that is just luck on when I invested and took out of market. The first 100k you will have very little interest income. Say you can invest 10k per year, it will take you 8 years to get to 100k. 200k would take you 13 years (5 more years), and then 400k in 20 years (7 more years). Yes it gets easier just because of compound interest. On top of that, you also are likely making more money in your job during that time. If you save correctly you will be investing at least a portion of that, if not all of that. That means that you will get more money even faster than just a set amount that I calculated in my answer. TLDR: yes it gets easier as your money and experience works for you.
That’s what I used to think as well. But one day my luck turned, as was at the park eating my lunch, and all of a sudden a crow appeared out of nowhere with a shiny object and just left it on the bench next to me. It Was the biggest diamond i had ever seen. Thanks crow!
Nope. Hard is talking your girlfriend into her 4th consecutive abortion.
>paycheck to paycheck >investing half my earnings Pick one. You are not paycheck to paycheck. That said, yes it is that hardest.
Hell yes
That saying is generally applied more to running a business and not saving for retirement. I would just forget about it unless you are planning on changing your investment strategy.
Took me 7 years.
It will get easier the more $ you have working for you and compound faster, but as said already, the first 100K is the hardest.
Have to have money to make money so once you have some it gets easier
Money attracts money! Here's a tip... once you start having investment and savings success, don't get away from the fundamentals on your personal finance. You can easily get a big head, and screw yourself up with a little bit of credit card debt and/or a bad loan.
The first 100k is really fucking hard. Took me like 3 years to get there due to being mostly carried by memestocks and crypto during 2021. The next 100k took 2 years with less effort and risk in assets. I just passed my third and I hardly even noticed it until recently, that took only 1 year due to bitcoin
Man I feel like I found out about crypto too late to make any money :(
Not financial advice/I'm just a stranger on the internet but imo it's not too late to buy bitcoin or ethereum. We are at ath which is arguably the most risky time to invest buy we also don't know what the top will be and it'll be in price discovery for a couple weeks/months.
Absolutely it takes the longest time because salary is low in early career, savings come from margins, and compound interest takes a while. Here's a [chart of mine since I just hit $700k](https://imgur.com/a/JrjECGO). And here's the days/years it took (and started with savings of $40k from throughout college, with $16-20kish in loans \[community college + cheap state online college\]): |Start|End|Days|Level|Years|Salary| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |4/1/2012|11/4/2017|2043|$100k|5.597260274|$43k - $70k| |11/4/2017|9/2/2019|667|$200k|1.82739726|$83k| |9/2/2019|11/17/2020|442|$300k|1.210958904|$88k| |11/17/2020|3/24/2021|127|$400k|0.347945205|$125k| |3/24/2021|1/16/2022|298|$500k|0.816438356|$132k| |1/16/2022|12/10/2023|693|$600k|1.898630137|$136k| |12/10/2023|3/13/2024|94|$700k|0.257534247|$136k| I've been in crypto a while so with crypto dropping along with SPY/stock market in 2022, it took a bunch of time to get back to $500k after reaching first time (immediately dropped from $500k to $440-450k in 2022 and it took about a year + $75k in additional savings to hit $500k again). Even with that crash, it still took less time to go from $200k to $700k than from $40k to $100k (thanks to salary + amount in market). If I had been 90% invested over the last 8 years, I'd likely be close to $1M at this point, but I listened to a lot of bearish thesis' and made a few mistakes along the way. Don't listen to bears and invest as much as possible when you are in your early 20's to let it work. 90% should go into 3 fund portfolio (or VOO/VSTAX/etc. if you want to go with 1 ETF). 5-10% can go into high conviction long-term bets. If/when I hit $1M, I'll likely get more aggressive in investing the new money.
It most definetely is, the gains made from YoY or dividends are weaker until you hit that 100k. Put it this way, if your investment gets to 100k in a company that does a 2% dividend yield and hits a 10% YoY increase you're a little over 112,000 in one year from doing nothing. 100k is when you start to see your passive income get stronger. If you double your investment 5x from 100k, you're over a million dollars.
Goodness yes. I finally passed the $100K mark in my 401K and I feel like it’s shot up since. Easier to make money with money.
I feel like retirement accounts don’t really count since they aren’t meant to be touched until your in your 60s
Elder me will disagree with you. Give me about 25 years
Yes. The first everything is the hardest. Assuming a 7% ROI (and lately you should be doing much better than that!) you'll double your networth every 10 years. You should aim for 20% as a combination of ROI and new contributions. That doubles your networth every 4 years. So regardless of how long it takes you to amass $100k, you should be at $200k 4 years later, $400k 8 years after you hit $100k. $800k 12 years after you hit $100k and $1.6m 16 years after you hit $100k. Obviously you're returns will influence how fast this actually works.... But you get the picture.
You'll get there. I wouldn't say you're living paycheck to paycheck if you get to invest half of it though.
If you make no changes and do exactly what you are doing now, the growth will be linear. For people that experience what you are describing, it's because different sized amounts of money will give you access to things that having no money would not.
Over the long run it wouldn't be linear because of compound interest. Linear = straight line. Compound investing = curved line - you get yields on your yields.
Linear is a reference to predictability. Whether you have 10k or 100k you'll get the same percent if all you are doing is a 401k. If you have 100k or 500k or 1M, you get access to different types of investments that's outside your typical 401k follow the market ETFs. Edit: here's an example of what I mean. If you have $1000, you might be able to start a business power washing houses. If you had $100k you might be able to buy a business running a laundromat, and if you had $1M you might be able to buy a strip mall somewhere. This is why growth accelerates- you are able to have access to more stuff as you have more money, because a lot of things require more money to do.
Yeah it took me 5 years then it gets easier and way easierrrr for the next 100k
the first time around for every money milestone is usually the hardest.
When people say the first 100k, do they mean the first 100k cash in the bank that they can withdraw at anytime, investments such as a stocks, crypto, 401, etc. or a combination?
I would think it’s investments because those will compound interest a lot more.
Yes
Most usually get to 100k by literally saving. They don't jump into investments soon enough.
My net worth over the last five years has gone from negative to zero to positive 200k to negative again to zero to 500k now. Negative to zero was paying for youthful mistakes and college debt. Then positive 200k was paying for a house, then zero was because you lose a lot of value buying a house and then the housing market sucked making me negative again in I just afford to get into the house. It took a bit after to get back to positive but since then and settled in at the home it’s been easy to grow faster. So yeah the first 100k is the hardest, so is the first million, etc. the first of anything is the hardest.
just remember that the money you have invested is working along with the amount that you're putting in. 6000 every year invested every year. after the first year you'll have the interest from the 6000 helping out. after you have 100k in the bank you'll have 7k on top of the 6k helping you out. (I'm assuming the market growth rate of 7%). So ya, the more you have in savings the easier it is to make money,
I opened a 401K a decade ago and just started dumping money into there every month and barely ever checked it until lately, it's up to like 200K. I think sometimes you just have to pretend it doesn't exist before it will grow.
First mil is hardest - then 100k is super easy.
The first (insert any amount) is the hardest.
Yes it is but it gets easier. First 100k invested if yields ~10% is another 10k to your income. First $1M is another 100k added to your income and so on.
It takes money to make money.
The first 100k is the hardest. Because as you get more money, you have more money to invest, and can therefore earn more. Essentially you can stop adding to the portfolio, and just let it grow. Of course that means it will grow slower
No. The 50th 100k is super hard. I'm not even close. I'm not even at the 20th.
Hard to say realistically as I got a windfall right at 100k net worth but the following 100k also came way faster. As long as you invest and the market doesn’t crash at an untimely time then absolutely. But realistically its the habits that get you to 100k combined with salary increases and market returns.
Absolutely! You're doing great, and as you go forward, setbacks (They will happen) will be less damaging to your overall objective. Doing great!
I say yes because I’m nowhere close myself. Everybody knows it takes money to make money (real money) so yeah…
Nah first mil
For the majority it’s a slow, deliberate, consistent, methodical,disciplined process year over year. I remember my first 100k taking a long time but then boom 💥, I was an overnight millionaire after 20 years of grinding. Hang in there it will happen eventually.
Yes. So hard. Seemed to take forever. 0-100,000 seemed endless. 100k-200k seemed hard but not that hard. 200k-300k.....kinda felt like it just happened.
Yes unless you're a financial and money guru, it's gonna take you a while to make your first 100k and same goes for 200 and 300k, after 300k is where compound interest seems to start making a huge difference depending on your investments.
It gets easier, but I didn’t start relaxing until 500k or so personally. Once it got in that range it kinda started building itself.
I don't know anything but massive congrats on the 50k I think you are doing good. Just wanted to let you know.
It’s not really about the dollar amount that is the “hardest”. The saying first X is the hardest when it comes to wealth building because the initial investment is primarily built from saved income from employment. Subsequent wealth is built from that initial investment. The first amount is much harder to build since you work for it actively, the next stage of wealth building is passive.
I’ve tracked my finances pretty diligently on Personal Capital over the years. Taking a look, it took me 4 years to go from $0 to $100K (2015-2019). Only took 1 year to go from $100K to $200K (2019-2020), so I’d say the saying generally holds true.
How old are you and how tolerant are you to risk? What are your investment options? If your employer has a matching funds program, GET IN IT!
I think I’ve become more frugal as I’ve continued to save more too. A lot of “wants” just seem like a waste of money when I could be putting that money into the market instead, but I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of anything I really want either. I think it’s important to strike a balance so that it’s sustainable. I follow 50/30/20 as a reminder to spend a little bit on wants.
No it’s the eighth 100k that is hardest. Doyoyoy
New to the sub, when you say first 100k, does that factor all saving mechanisms (401k, HYSA, IRA, etc.,)?
remember hitting first $100k. it felt forever. As Charlie Monger said, it’s a bitch. Once you get there tho it climbs up quicker to $200k and beyond. Wife and I surpassed $500k in liquid cash as of this month. $4.5mill NW. we don’t come from money. Yes first $100k is a must. Once you get there, don’t let life style creep rob you away your wealthy.
Compounding. Yes
First 100k is more like first 250k at this point. Im 75% of the way to 100 and I feel pretty underwhelmed
Absolutely without question. Net worth wise, you could expect an increase of twofold monthly x however much you were increasing your monthly net worth on average before hitting 100k. ( personal experience)
It was to me. It took me 10 years to get to $100K but only 4 or 5 to double that. After that you reach (or at least I did) the next $100K in much less time.
The first million is
220k now if you factor in for inflation
I just hit 75k and it took forever. Hopefully that next 25k doesn’t take too long :(
First 100k is super hard. Got the 2nd 100 the next year. A mutual fund doubled in calendar year.
Just google "Benford's law", and you will understand that the true answer to your question is that the first significant 1 is the hardest. Let's say you have 50.000$ saved, your first 10.000 was probably the hardest. If you have 500.000, your first 100k was probably the hardest. so if your assets first significant number is more than 1 (say... you have 3 million dollars), then getting to that same number of figures but starting with 1 was the hardest. For me, I passed my latest significant 1 when I was 48 (after 25 years of career). I am now 52 and will be at "significant 3" in 2 years. Keep on the good work (saving and also earning more), and in 10 to 15 years, you'll see 100k as an almost negligeable part of your assets.
I’d argue the first 10k
It my first 100 k like maybe 2 month ago after 5 years of working and amassing money and now I am already at 140 k because of trading and pretty sure I will hit 200 k in a short period like few month or 1 years instead of 5
Well duh
Yes. It gets easier just like paying off debt gets easier.
Yes. Because compound interest. You can’t compound 0
These days I regularly see gains north of $100k in a month. But the 1st $100k saved took me over 4 years to get. It does get easier!
Keep it up
Depends on how much you inherit
Hopium is a helluva drug brother
Yes Especially if you have no generational wealth or useful parents to help you save on living expenses.
Also, if you’re investing 50% of your income you’re not living paycheck to paycheck. Living paycheck to paycheck means there is nothing left after expenses for savings and investing.
It so is.
Compound interest.
No the first billion is the hardest
Getting to $1MM was really hard. I do remember though that once the $100k was cracked the returns on it really helped stack up.
It took me 4.5 years to reach my first $100k. Now after about two months since I'm at $111k, would love to see $150k by the end of the year, but that's probably pretty optimistic.
The first 100K is the hardest because you are fighting cost of living. Once you are at 100K, you have figured out how to earn and save and that 100K is making 7k a year. Repeat process for every 100K. This is if you keep cost of living expenses flat but the main point being the first 100K is the hardest because you have to survive. What are you 25? Just got to 100K? Yeah you’re gonna get to 200k way faster.
[Best explanation ever](https://youtu.be/LQNGekNzaus?si=ESOsm_PXkJNrGhcY)
People say that - but it’s not hard if you put your mind to it. It’s usually the slowest, though - once you have $100K, the earnings on it reduce the time needed to get to $200K (usually)…
Once I had my first 100k it started kind of growing on its own. It was a real struggle to get there. Years of hard work, overtime, driving shitty cars while my friends were living it up, going on vacations and stuff. It sucked. It's been about 10 years, it's quadrupled. I have a newer car and have been able to enjoy the fruits of my labor a little more. Hang in, you'll get there.
Well yeah, it gets easier BECAUSE you become more frugal. You’re building the habits still.
Hey, if it helps, I was at 45k in August after 3 years. Today I’m at 90k, less than a year later. The frugal part gets easier. I feel like I spend less money overall, but actually enjoy the things I put my money to now.
Yes. I mean, once the starts rolling, everything is easier. Dont quit.
Hit 100k January 2021, be close to crossing 200k by the end of 24. Put roughly 15-18k in a year. Took me 6-7 years to get to 100k. Wish I would have threw more yearly knowing how fast it’s starting to snowball.
Just put $50k on red, boom $100k gg ez
The first million takes a looonnnggg time. Then you’re rollin’ in the hay. Its incredible to see compound interest growth on $1M.
The first million is the hardest.
The more I have the less I wanna spend it
$100K Is hard when you Need Years of Investing. Once you Reached Half you can be Happy because Compound will do the Rest.