My goal is to retire early so it's nice to hit this milestone early on in my career.
I'm 33 and just about to celebrate my 10 year anniversary of being employed. Plan is to retire around 40-45 and then focus on my hobbies.
I don't bring in a ridiculous salary but have had a high savings rate and good luck with returns. I'm frugal so I can maintain a decent savings rate despite living in a relatively expensive northeast suburb. My rent is $1850 as an example although I split that cost with my Fiancee.
According to the ss.gov website, my gross income average since I started working has been $70254. I started at $45,000 when I graduated in 2008. It's doubled since then and now I can finally pump more money into individual accounts. It's pretty awesome to have a portfolio that's probably equal to my actual net income after taxes. The power of compounding!
I max out the 401k and Roth IRA each year with index funds. Index funds make up about 65% of my investment income and the rest is individual securities. I've had a great run with some individual picks that have driven results quite a bit(UNH, MKL are my two biggest holdings and I bought a bunch of UNH in the 20s all the way up to the 100s). I actually sold a bunch of UNH when it became too big a part of my portfolio in the 130s and now it soared all the way up to 220. Risk management can sometimes come at the expense of returns but I'd rather not how so much exposure to one stock. Still hold a good portion of their stock though and like the company. I've also played around with options a bit but in a very small way. Again most of my money is in index funds so my overall returns haven't been that far above the S&P 500 although I've eclipsed it a little bit.
My strategy has been to follow a strict investment plan since I started although I only got serious about tracking my asset allocation closely in the past few years. My investment plan also allows me to hold up to 10% max in cash as part of my portfolio when I can't find any good deals out there. I always have money flowing into the market though via bi weekly 401k contributions.
I'm pretty amped to get there so early due to the crazy bull market we've had and am not worried if there's a move in the other direction. I'm still likely 10+ years out and plan to keep pumping money in for a while so lower prices are better for me from a long term return perspective.
Just wanted to say YAY and show everyone that it doesn't take a ton to make things work as long as you're consistent.
Submitted March 27, 2018 at 11:07AM by timeinthemarket https://ift.tt/2IYfP5W
