https://i.imgur.com/NaBz0ll.jpg
To give some perspective:
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50 years old
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Graduated from a no-name college with a business degree (paid my own way, had about $20,000 in student loans when I graduated)
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First year out of college made $21,000. Was at $58,000 when I was 29. Highest year was about $125,000, but have averaged around $100,000 for the past 10 years.
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Pretty much all from putting as much as I could manage, or was permitted, into 401K and IRAs. About 65% of the total is traditional retirement, 30% ROTH, and 5% non-retirement.
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I bought cheap used cars when I was under 25. But then bought a new car and drove it for 20 years.
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The only "bonus" along the way was I had a job that I got 6 months severance (around $35,000) and got another job right away, so I had "double income" for that 6 months.
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100% self-managed, primarily through an E*Trade account.
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I pretty much buy and just let it sit. Last time I sold anything was about 3 years ago when I last rebalanced. I held all through the 2009 recession and lost about 60%. I've always invested pretty aggressively, so I got hit hard when it went down, but I've recovered well as it's gone up.
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I pretty much focus on mutual funds now after getting my ass handed to me on individual stocks a few times. The few I have left are "sentimental". The SIRI and MSFT I've owned since 2001. The FB I bought in the IPO. BABA was bought shortly after the IPO.
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I opened my first brokerage account with $2,000 in Ameritrade in 1997 thinking I was going to jump on the internet bubble. I bought and sold weekly and rode that baby down. I basically never made any money, and when the whole thing crashed, my $2,000 literally got down to like $37. So many internet stocks that just evaporated.
Also, this post is a guarantee that the DOW is dropping 1800 points tomorrow
Submitted January 23, 2018 at 07:59PM by ThrowawayMillionToda http://ift.tt/2F7Y2Xk
