DH is always saying how angry he will be if he dies young like that. I keep harping on him he needs to start thinking of his exit plan now.
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If you have made any investments at all, you will have an income, investment income. We are retired and have been living mainly on investment income which have exceeded DHâs average income in his 42 year medical career.
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By any objective measure weâve made it, but donât act like it. Old habits die hard.
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My younger brother âmade itâ ages ago but still lives very very frugally. Heâs pretty happy and only now starting to do tons of international travel, since he recently officially retired. Heâs really enjoying being fav grandpa!
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Frugality often relates to why they have âmade it.â Most persons who have a high net worth achieved that net worth by saving a good portion of their income over decades, rather than suddenly coming in to a high income.
For example, the Millionaire Next Door survey found that the overwhelming majority of persons with both $2M+ net worth and $20M net worth in todayâs $ were frugal. The author goes so far as to call being frugal the âcornerstone of building wealthâ and has a chapter named âFrugal Frugal Frugal.â In contrast persons who suddenly come in to a high income often struggle financially. For example, lottery winners and pro athletes have a high rate of being in dire financial situations, after their high income decreases. A good portion go bankrupt.
My annual spending is less than 1% of my net worth, largely due to living frugally. I take more pleasure in finding good deals/value than I do in spending wastefully. It also helps to not have particularly expensive interests. For example, I mentioned going on a full day hiking trip with dog earlier in the thread. It was in a really scenic area that was fully of green grassy plateaus with the rain. It was one of the best days Iâve had in a long time. I plan to take a similar full day hiking trip with dog next week to one of my favorite areas of the state. I enjoy going on these types of 1-2 day hiking trips with my dog a couple times per month more than I would disrupting my routine by doing âtons of international travelâ without my dog.
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I think itâs easy to live frugally as the upper middle class woman that I am.
Of course I feel we live frugally. We have no car payments, a small mortgage comparatively. It will be paid off by the time I can draw social security. We arenât spending like crazy.
But on the other hand, if we had an emergency, we have the resources to pay. We have resources to pay for modest vacations.
Not everyone has that luxury. They live paycheck to paycheck. Maybe they arenât lucky in having good affordable healthcare. Maybe they have old cars that they canât afford to fix.
There are those who overspend. Have one in my extended family. Much more comfortable with debt that we ever were. I think that in the end, we will fare better. We are able to retire earlier. They were able to go on more vacations.
But I am always aware of how lucky my life has been. Relatively Definitely made it. Easy
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I really like your line about it being easy to live frugally as a upper middle class woman.
My W and I met in college and graduated the same year. We were married 15 months after college. I know crazy. When we graduated our combined net worth was approaching six figures, but NEGATIVE. We both had good jobs after college, but we lived on the cheap. We really wanted to get past the college loans. So it was a driving honeymoon. No major vacations. But we did things that were smart financially. We bought a townhome and started to build some equity. We didnât go to concerts or sporting events. Early on it was never dinner & a movie instead it was dinner or a movie. Eating out was a treat even fast food. We both were progressing well in our careers. Got the loans paid off and boom then came D1. We bought a house, but also decided W would be a SAHM. We were back to living on the cheap. D2 came along 4 yrs later. W eventually would go back to work, but at a job she was overqualified for because it had good hours and location. It wasnât until 3 yrs ago she got back to something close to where she should be at in terms of salary.
D1 is basically launched. D2 did us a huge solid and got a full ride. So while she isnât launched she saved us some planned cash flowing of college. I changed jobs a year ago and got a big bump. Last Summer we played musical cars and ended up with one more car payment than usual. But we could handle it. After 28.5 years of marriage we finally feel like we have some breathing room. We are a little behind on retirement savings, but W has a pension she will get and we will be able to catch up over the next 9-10 years as long as I stay employed. We still look at the deals at the grocery store, use Kohls Cash, and donât eat out much.
Overall you have to have a long term mindset to be successful financially, but it can be so easy to get derailed. We have seen friends have issues and not make adjustments quick enough. Sometimes I feel lucky to have climbed the corporate salary ladder as far as I did, but also I know it took effort. I will never say I always made the optimal decision, but most were good.
About 2 years ago W stopped buying the cheapest dinner napkins at the store and leveled up. I said to her I guess we have made it!!!
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I can relate. 15 Yo poor single mom, moved a lot, went to lots of different schools, etc.
We are allowed to pat ourselves on the back for âmaking it.â
Cheers!
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So sorry for the loss of your brother, HImom.
Yes, of course. I was referring to the partnership draw/salary - which is what my H is still working through giving up. He will get there!
Really, one never knows what will happen! What stuck with me is a guy from my work retired, and then almost immediately managed to fall off his boat in the Gulf of Mexico, by himself and with no life preserver.
He was in the water overnight, for over 20 hours before the Coast Guard rescued him. Fortunately his wife reported him missing, and heâd been through Navy water survival training.
He said one thought that kept running through his head was that after working for the company for so many years, he could NOT die before collecting one single pension check!
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Money is a funny thing sometimes. By the time we finally had it, our daughter is 18 and ready to start college. Now all of our money is going to pay for college and we have to live frugal again. So did we âmake it?â The answerâŠsort of. 
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Money is a funny thing, but I believe the title of this thread is referring to how comfortable you are with your retirement position mentally and financially. In other words, have you made your nut, and how ready are you to leave your paycheck and trust that what you have amassed will support you to the end. At least thatâs how I understand the OPâs original question:
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I have never heard the phrase âmade your nutâ before this thread! Does that mean I havenât made it??? 
No. Lots of frugal people make their nut long before they even realize it? 
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I think we will have a better handle on when/whether weâve made it when all three of our children are fully launched (for purposes of this thread - when theyâve all graduated undergrad). Fingers crossed, they will all be graduates by 2028.
Weâve always been consistent savers, but have ramped it up in the last few years.
I think for us, knowing when weâve made it will be both a dollar figure and an attitude adjustment. We are currently having the âwhat do we want our lives to look like after the children are fully launched?â conversation. Having a clearer idea of what we want our lives to be going forward will give us a better idea of what kind of numbers we need to hit to feel like âweâve made itâ.
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I still have a good 20-25 years left before my pension kicks in. Thatâs a long time, and Iâm thinking the end of the world might come before that happens. Money is a funny thing
Iâm in the same position as you. Spouse is about five years ahead of me. We both still have some personal and professional goals we would like to accomplish. So, not quite there yet but we have plans thatâby grace and good healthâwill come to pass.
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I think weâll decide weâve âmade itâ when we get a grandchild. If not, then a daughter-in-law (or son-in-law). Or Iâd just settle for a kid who has a steady partner. Some time before I die.
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Continue taking those vitamins, Busdriver. The grandchildren are even MORE wonderful than you imagined!!!
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