This blog journey really started out when I crossed that $100,000 net worth line back in January of 2018. It took me 34 years of life to get there. I knew from this great article that the research showed that the first $100k was the hardest, but after that, your money starts really working for you and each subsequent $100k comes faster. The second $100k took 17 months, and I thought that was amazing! I crossed $200k sometime around July of 2020 after the markets recovered from their March mini-bear session. The next $100k? It only took 10 MONTHS. Talk about speed!
Savings has been a key component of that. In that 10 month period, I've saved $47,000. That's a lot of money! The market did the rest, providing $53,000 of the boost. My money is working harder than I am. To me, that feels pretty incredible. But I have an army of soldiers, each one a dollar, and each of them is working for me more than I am working for myself for the first time in my life.
Each month that passes puts me further over the line of needing to work for income. It keeps knotching me up the ladder of comfort level and country for where I can retire. And it keeps reinforcing the fact that I don't want to stop teaching. I still love it. It makes me much more comfortable to know that if something bad happens, I can handle it. I don't have to worry about ingratiating myself to a boss, or taking on extra responsibilities I don't want because it will give me a raise I don't need, or the most worrisome, that a job I like changes due to external factors or new co-workers to one that is insufferable, then I just can quit without worry.
As a supplemental piece of information, the past 3 months I've saved about $13,000, with a savings rate going between 60-75% each month. That's fantastic.
I've already invested over $33,000 this calendar year as well, which is much more than I had at this point last year. Each dollar I invest is like giving myself a little raise, and should keep pushing up the net worth even faster, depending on the stock market.
Things are going according to plan, and I will do everything I can to keep that up.
So, key takeaways:
Saving a high percentage of your salary and investing it prudently really does seem to work if your goal is increasing your net worth!
When you figure out a routine that works for you, you can just keep doing it. Don't seek change for the sake of change.
Believe in the math.
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