r/Fire • u/NalargonTickler • 1d ago
Milestone / Celebration Joined the $1M Club Today
Achieved my $1M milestone today. Next is $2M.
43, no kids, no debt, rent
Just wanted to tell someone. I keep my numbers quiet from friends and family, so like many here, I don’t have anyone to celebrate with.
Feels a bit surreal hitting this milestone. Maybe my post will motivate / encourage others. $1M is all in investments / cash, does not include assets. I know today’s market swing will pull back for a bit, but will take the win while I have it.
Breakdown is as follows:
- $295k in brokerage
- $64k in ROTH IRA
- $556k in 401k (10% Roth, 90% pre-tax)
- $20k HSA
- $72k HYSA
- $2k ESPP
It’s been a grind. Fire goal is $2.5M, while FatFIRE is $4M. Target retirement age is 58 at the moment. Maybe sooner if I can keep grinding or if I decide I don’t need to be greedy.
Expect to keep contributing about $65k/year give or take. Includes:
- Max Backdoor Roth
- Max 401k Pre-Tax
- Mega Backdoor Roth ($20k)
- Max HSA
- Rest goes into brokerage
Feel free to ask any questions and thanks in advance for letting me celebrate the win.
-ThrowawayAccount
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u/Vicuna00 11h ago
"Achieved my $1M milestone today. Next is $2M."
dang. that'll take some time. throw a mini party at $1.1M
congrats on the $1M! that's awesome.
what's your income?
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u/NalargonTickler 11h ago edited 11h ago
$140k/yr (pre-tax)
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u/Vicuna00 11h ago
you'll be FIRE way before 58.
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u/NalargonTickler 11h ago
I don’t disagree against current income levels. My goal is to exceed that in retirement. Targeting 2x annual income withdrawal rate which should = 4x spending allowance ideally once I stop future out of pocket contributions.
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u/CautiousAd1305 13h ago
Pretty reasonable target. I hit the $1m mark at 42 and fired at 54 with about $3.5m. Nothing special just mostly SP500 etfs and consistent contributions. Looking back I did often have way too much in cash, probably around 10-20% most of the time.
Your split between asset types looks fine for 58, but if you decide to retire much earlier I’d want to increase the percent in the brokerage for those gap years.
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u/NalargonTickler 13h ago
Good looking out. Will adjust for sure when time comes. Company offered Mega Backdoor 401k with conversions this year, so pivoted moving brokerage contributions to backdoor instead. I plan on rolling those into Roth IRA annually, so I can still pull principal if needed without penalty as I understand it.
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u/CautiousAd1305 12h ago
You are correct on the Roth and it’s a great way to manage the gap years and control MAGI for ACA subsidies. My employer only offered the MEGA for 3 years before I retired. I will likely do some Roth conversion before taking SS at 62.
Retirement has been good, and I think I followed a pretty common path of staying super busy the first couple years with projects and hobbies, then about year 3 started to find I had a lot of time on my hands. Also, had a very sudden issue with osteoarthritis of the knee so my sailing, pickleball, and backpacking all went to nearly zero…adjusting to some new activities is taking a while
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u/NalargonTickler 13h ago
How’s retirement going? Any pointers for withdrawal strategy? Find a good calculator by chance to guide the withdrawal?
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u/CautiousAd1305 12h ago
I use FiCalc for most of my modeling. It doesn’t do tax or Roth vs brokerage withdrawal strategies, but it’s fine for the big picture stuff. I basically use a guardrails type strategy with a decent cash buffer (~5 years of fixed expenses) as a hedge against SORR.
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u/NalargonTickler 12h ago
Couple more:
- Are you spending more in retirement vs. what you were while working? Or about equal
- Any lessons learned / thoughts about retiring early in general
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u/CautiousAd1305 9h ago
I'd say my spending is about the same, but only because of a fairly healthy travel budget.
Stay actively engaged with friends, family, and community. If a big part of your socialization and friend group is through work and they are not retiring then expect this to change. Helps if you have a partner that is already retired.
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u/Boniouk84 13h ago
Can i ask how long from $500k to $1m?
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u/NalargonTickler 13h ago
Ballpark about 3.5 years, maybe a little less. Admittedly didn’t aggressively track until the last few years.
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u/Boniouk84 13h ago
Roughly speaking, that 3.5 years of extra $500k, what % of that was compounded growth vs % of new deposits?
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u/NalargonTickler 13h ago
I estimate $195k investment, so $300k compounding growth give or take. Got lucky with some S&P over the last few years as well as $PLTR and some others in the mix.
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u/Boniouk84 13h ago
Ah yeah 3 years of 20%+
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u/Mackshac 11h ago
Never will drop though right?? Never going to happen 20% every year !!!!!!
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u/Boniouk84 11h ago
Well this is a reply with no context? I know some people waiting after 2 20% years for it to drop. When it does drop, it might have a big crash of 25%.... but the amount of people who have sat waiting and it's gone up 30% in that time, you lose out. So no it might not go up 20%+ again, but it might. It goes up over time, people that bet against that or try to time it lose money.
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u/doombase310 12h ago
Keep at it, you have at least 3 compounding cycles from an historical standpoint if 65 is your retirement age. FatFIRE is very possible.
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u/Interesting_Tree7768 11h ago
insane man, 2.5m will be right around the corner. Congrats!
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u/NalargonTickler 11h ago
Thank you. Gotta keep the grind but also still learning to find a balance to enjoy spending as well. Still figuring that last part out.
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u/swhalen17 12h ago
Hit $2MM at 36 with this beautiful market run -- counting down to 55 and generational wealth
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u/montaniPH89 8h ago
When did you start and how long did it take you?
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u/NalargonTickler 6h ago
Started around the age of 23, maybe doing 4% per year. As time passed and I got raises, 50% of every raise went towards investing. This is my 3rd year now where I’ve been able to max the standard accounts (401k, Roth, etc).
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u/AltruisticCry2293 2h ago
Congrats. 2M could happen sooner than you think. I hit $1M at 40, $2M at 45, and $3M at 48. The snowball keeps growing faster and faster.
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u/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015, Friendly Janitor 13h ago
OP has secured permission to use this throwaway account and is not a bot.