[...] my wife and I graduated from University, we had major debt.  We set a goal of paying off all the debt in a short period of time, so we lived frugally and [...]

[...] my wife and I graduated from University, we had major debt.  We set a goal of paying off all the debt in a short period of time, so we lived frugally and [...]

Good on you for having this goal. I have the same goal, but I’m taking it one step further by being financially independent by age 40 in 8-10 yrs.

My net worth was about $2million by age 30, and has since sunk to about $1.6mil due to the correction. I’ve got about 700k split between cash, 401k, and company stock. The rest is in the equity in my home, rental property, and vacation properties.

My goal is to amass $2million CASH in 8-10 years, and revisit selling a property then. I’ve already taken the 20-30% write-down, and hope things will rebound by then.

I recommend you try and accumulate 1 million dollars in liquid assets, and don’t include property or locked up investments.

Hope you can have a look at my blog too.

Best,

RB

Rich By 30, Retire By 40

Best of luck and I will be checking in often!

[...] I have explained in our financial story before, we graduated university with a boat load of debt.  However, we kept our expenses low by [...]

We started similar way like yours. Right after the university in 1993, we were in debt of about 80k. 50k in student loan and 30k in BRAND new car loan. (what not to do!! lol)

Worked like crazy, lived frugally, and finally got out of debt in 1998. This joy of being debt free inspired us to have a dream of retiring early. At first we wanted to retire by 60, then that became “Freedom 55″, and now we are looking at 50 or possibly sooner. We purchased our home in 2004 and we are on target to pay it off in 2011. So hopefully we can save lot more towards our retirement right after that.

Your two comments summarized our financial lifestyle. We, too, adhere to “Paying Yourself First” and we learned to identify “needs” and “wants” in our spending habit. We are building our nest egg based on those two concepts. They work for us.

Anyways, good luck and all the best in your journey…

Congrats on getting ahead! I think the real key is to make sure that your mortgage payments are within reason. Personally, the maximum mortgage that I would ever get is 2x gross family income. That will help keep costs lower, thus hopefully keeping your savings up while maintaining your lifestyle.

I just stumbled across this site today when I typed “how to save money” into google. I’ve looked through a bit of the site and have already learned a great deal. I’m 25 years old, engaged and we are about to buy our first home. We’ve been watching house prices slide over the past 6 months or so and have decided that now is a great time to build a new home. The mortgage payments are not going to be too bad but a house has other expenses that our current apartment does not have. We will still be able to afford the house but it doesn’t leave much room for savings. What do you think would be the best way for us to keep saving without having to give up too much of the lifestyle that we love.

i’m 20 years old i feel the same way you do really passionate about investing and retiring early. My current etrade account is at $14,000 and my investment goal is to invest in conservative dividend paying companies buying at well, a time like this. I began investing 5 or so months before oil peaked.

i found the smith manoeuvre very interesting. i havn’t bought my first house yet and my parents are still allowing me to sponge off them rent free. i make $2400 a month as a plumbing apprentice after tax and have a $500 a month car payment. no debt whatsoever.

FT, Your Newfoundland heritage appears inescapable! ;) Though I believe correct usage is: ” ‘Ave a gander at the archives”

For the uninitiated, a translation follows:[insert British Accent] “Please review the archives”

In jest,
DAvid

I’ve been following your blog for a few months now and I’ve learned a great deal of information. Thanks ! Although so far, most of it are only my knowledge and not being applied yet.

Looking at your net worth updates it’s very encouraging for reader like me to follow suit. I am recent grad (Spring 2008) and currently have a full time job. What I am interested to know more is how you get yourself from your position of recent graduate in 2003 to having your net worth as in 2006.

Within 3 years, you already have 2 properties, 2 vehicles and significant amount of RSP and other investment. I wonder how did you get that far in such a short period of time? If you can enlighten me, that would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been working for around 6 months now and I consider myself very frugal.
I packed my lunch and I dont go shopping. However, I am nowhere near getting to position like yours. I am still renting a place, and living in Toronto makes it really expensive (1 bedroom apt – I know this is not the most frugal decision but after 5 years in University/co-op life of sharing a room/apt, I feel like having my own freedom and privacy).

The key for us was that we kept our expenses very low, invested in real estate and the stock market, and banked our raises.

Hope this clears things up.

Here’s to a Happy and Prosperous 2009!
FT

Keep it up and happy new year.

Yes, I understand your skepticism. Net worth = assets – liabilities. Upon graduation, I purchased a rental property and lived in the one of the apartments which kept expenses very very low, basically mortgage free. A couple years after, I purchased a second rental property which I still hold today. The first rental property/primary residence was sold a couple years ago to build a single family home.

I have been posting my net worth updates regularly since late 2006, early 2007. You can follow them here: http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/category/net-worth-updates.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

The stock market capital gains, I’m not sure how you invested to make an additional 160k, but it had to be high beta (high risk stocks).

Since you do not mention your name on this website, it would be interesting to see how you came out to the net worth you have. Frankly it does not add up..

This is a great site for someone close to 30 to compare his savings and net worth to another person. However having 300k net worth after only 5 years since graduating and a 105k gross (70k net), is incredibly difficult to believe.

Let us know more how much capital gains from stock and from your investment property you made.

Thanks,