re: What’s a great net worth by 45?

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Does she make sandwiches though?

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She makes a damn fine sandwich

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What is your household income?

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With my wife's full time job, we are probably about $180k.

My take home is about $60k/yr. As my income increased, we were able to pretty much maintain our lifestyle without increasing our budget (throwing more into 401k, HSA, and brokerage account).

I am also fortunate that my employer has a small pension.

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$500k?

$1m?

$1.5m?

Stocks, cash, home equity, etc

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I don't think the actual number is that important.

I think what is important is that folks do as much as they can early.

I've tracked/logged my net worth for the past 9 years. The net worth doubles every 26 to 42 months (36 months being best "average").

When times are "good", get as much as you can invested. Because doubling every 40 months can go a long way if given enough time.

I’ve got about 3.50 million but I’m 35

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My take home is about $60k/yr.

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You have 4 children, a wife that did not work for 10 years, take home $60k per year and have a $950k net worth at age 45? That is pretty freaking awesome.

Eh, there’s not a right assumption…I went with:

3% inflation, 7% growth, and 3% SWR

I sure hope you’re right!

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All of those count in a traditional sense. I tend to take it a step further and exclude home equity and personal items, simply because they’re not very liquid and the fact that you need shelter/vehicles/etc.

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Shout out tb08

I cut back on my 401k contributions in 2021. I was in my late 40s, with >$4MM in liquid assets, and decided it was time to live a little after doing some calculations to see how much doing so would impact the bottom line. Relative to how much my assets were projected to make, the amount of wealth I would generate with continued high contributions was not significant enough for me, so I backed off how much I invested.

Then the crash came in early 2022. My assets dropped, so I didn't feel like I had "made it," and I also recognized the crash as a buying opportunity. I upped my investing again to where I currently am today. I've pretty much recovered, but given the state of the world, I will continue investing unless I get to eight figures.

My family and I live commensurate with our salaries and not our wealth. When we get old enough, we will have access to considerably more assets than we have now. I find it strange that the only option I have now for "qualified" funds is to pay a 10% penalty. I get wanting to dissuade people from "stealing from their retirement," but once you've made a certain amount of money should that still be necessary? Yeah, poor me.

The average American retires with essentially nothing saved and relies almost 100% on SS, so OT expectations notwithstanding, one should temper some of these numbers by focusing on median versus average outcomes.