Tweet
Given the people who write in the forum, it may come across that a lot of us are bragging, but my purpose is to show people who are just starting out how well you can do as long as you have a plan and stick to us, even if you perceive that the year was terrible financially (many people will say that 2020 was terrible economically, and while the markets are not the economy, as of today the markets are up by quite a bit compared to Dec 31, 2019).
Age: 39
I gotta be honest, I thought it would be a stretch goal to reach $1m by the end of the year. Then March and April happened and I didn't think that stretch goal was going to be possible at all now. But I learned I get very excited when the market falls, and just want to invest more because I take the viewpoint that the market is on sale. On the other hand, I generally don't get excited by sales when I walk into a store. We do not front-load retirement contributions and just invest with each paycheck into tax-advantaged retirement accounts. We are 75% tax-deferred, 25% tax-free, and 0% taxable. My wife is an internist, so relatively small doctor salary.
Note when we made our financial plan in 2016, the retirement balance was $290k. I assume 6% growth/yr and yet we've exceeded that. Back in 2016 when I did my projections I expected us to have $835k by the end of 2020, and here we are quite a bit above that even though 2020 happened.
Other milestones from this year: Grew NW by ~$400k (still under $1m because we owe a tad more on the house than what I think it's worth, but we'll pass $1m NW by the end of Q1 2021 if the market doesn't collapse again), paid off student loans after 11 years, and HELOC after 8 years, grew EF by $30k. I switched jobs during a pandemic, my wife “suffered” through a 6-week furlough. Through my job change I lost access to the mega backdoor Roth IRA, so sad!
Goals for 2021: : ~$100k into retirement accounts, $3k into 529s, $10-$15k to start a taxable account, pay extra $60k (I suspect we’ll do even better), to mortgage to get below jumbo in order to re-fi to a better rate
Mistakes we've made in the past to show you that you can screw up and still do well: took 11 years to pay off $220k of med school loans, NOT maxing out retirement accounts for 4 years after starting as an attending, and bought a doctor house 6 months after residency long before student loans were gone. We're still in the same house.
Age: 39
| Quarter End | Retirement Balance | Change from Previous Qtr |
| Q4 2019 | $746,000 | |
| Q1 2020 | $615,000 | -21% |
| Q2 2020 | $765,000 | +20% |
| Q3 2020 | $868,000 | +12% |
| Q4 2020 | $1,013,000 (!!!) | +14% |
Note when we made our financial plan in 2016, the retirement balance was $290k. I assume 6% growth/yr and yet we've exceeded that. Back in 2016 when I did my projections I expected us to have $835k by the end of 2020, and here we are quite a bit above that even though 2020 happened.
Other milestones from this year: Grew NW by ~$400k (still under $1m because we owe a tad more on the house than what I think it's worth, but we'll pass $1m NW by the end of Q1 2021 if the market doesn't collapse again), paid off student loans after 11 years, and HELOC after 8 years, grew EF by $30k. I switched jobs during a pandemic, my wife “suffered” through a 6-week furlough. Through my job change I lost access to the mega backdoor Roth IRA, so sad!
Goals for 2021: : ~$100k into retirement accounts, $3k into 529s, $10-$15k to start a taxable account, pay extra $60k (I suspect we’ll do even better), to mortgage to get below jumbo in order to re-fi to a better rate
Mistakes we've made in the past to show you that you can screw up and still do well: took 11 years to pay off $220k of med school loans, NOT maxing out retirement accounts for 4 years after starting as an attending, and bought a doctor house 6 months after residency long before student loans were gone. We're still in the same house.
Comment