Just became a millionaire 11 November 2021 at 10:09PM edited 11 November 2021 at 10:14PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 168 replies 17.7K views

Mistermeaner

Just some random musings after my net worth (dc pensions + isas + House equity) tipped the 1million Mark at age 42

- Save hard and save early ; i earn well but not mega bucks. I'm a middle manager not director. 10 years ago I was recently divorced with 1 kid and earning 35k. Now I have 4 kids and earn around 90k + bonuses but it's only in the last 5 years I've been in the 60k+ bracket

- Been 'lucky' with stock market performance in last 10years and no doubt this will drop some time but I did things right in investing cheaply and globally 100% in equities and didn't mess around changing investment s or timing drops e tc 

- Been very tax efficient maximising annual allowances and Lisa's etc .... I feel like I could ease off pension contributions but just can't bring myself to pay taxes to get at my hard earned

- I live well below my means : I have a nice house and buy good food but no fancy clothes holidays cars etc - material goods bring fleeting pleasure , family very much share same values - kids want for nothing and aren't bothered about competing for fanciest football boots in the team e tc. I'm typing this on 8year old kindle hence all the typos

- Goes without saying but no drugs, very little alcohol , plenty of exercise and sleep

- Learned so much from this forum and others like it - take time to research and learn them follow great advice

- don't rush to pay off the mortgage - that is good cheap debt. don't however get cars and other rubbish on credit

- Pick partner carefully , my first wife was a financial liability - I'm lucky we split young and only had one kid

- Hitting big financial milestones early bring s an element of peace of mind but not necessarily freedom - we still.Got bills to pay and I will keep working in fairly stressfu! Job for now - tax remains a massive anchor and remains and incentive to save into pension

- That said we are hoping that the missus can start back work part time in a couple of years and then hopefully I can do the same . A couple earning modestly is way more tax and time efficient than one big earner

- Having achieved an element of future security our plan will.now be to make sure we have good quality of life with plenty of free time - money important but only to a point and not worth sacrificing quality of life for too much .

- saMe goes for health - I've been hospitalised with stress related conditions - never again 

- StreTch - do yoga , never too late to start

- Get rid of or severely limit tv . It's all pretty rubbish and repetitive : read instead, draw , do something else

- I Don't feel rich, probably because I'm not but I am probably in the top few % of wealth for my age - but advice above  no fancy job, no inheritence, just work hard save well spend smart and invest

NannaH

Put this exact post on Mumsnet AIBU - I dare you 🤣

jamesd

NannaH said:

Put this exact post on Mumsnet AIBU - I dare you 🤣

One other attribute of many successful people: not following others or dares or similar, just getting on with a good life.

Mistermeaner seems to have done many of the classic things, notably a commitment to more frugality than income would permit and a commitment to objectives. As well as possibly living in the SE of England. Nice earnings helps a lot with speed but only if you're not increasing spending as you increase the earnings.

The SE is where most of the UK's millionaires live, courtesy of housing values and the jobs paying enough to buy those homes then them inflating in real value over many decades. Doing it outside that area is more of a challenge.

I idly wondered about acquiring a million but ended up retired first. Might still make it but probably not. Dollar millionaire is closer, though. My potential income now is more than I ws spending while working so my challenge is different: making it to a million is a form of failure because I'm supposed to be spending it, not growing it.

The more than 50% of the population who are net tax takers rather than tax payers for their lives will find it a far, far harder challenge. A net tax taker is a person who receives more in all state benefits combined than they pay in taxes over their lifetime. Since the state doesn't wish to subsidise luxurious lifestyles that tends to imply not having sufficient excess income to achieve high savings objectives. Saving more than a pittance is more of a challenge for many in this group.

Prism

Just to be a little pedantic - you say my net worth, don't you mean our net worth? Having a million each and having a million shared are quite different.

jamesd

Mistermeaner said:

Just some random musings after my net worth (dc pensions + isas + House equity) tipped the 1million Mark at age 42

Congratulations!

You're right that you're not rich. There were 2.4 million US Dollar millionaires in the UK in 2020, kept down partly by the exchange rate being towards the lower end of its range. You're not high net worth because that's often defined as a million Dollars in investable assets. You're merely mass affluent.

michaels

jamesd said:

NannaH said:

Put this exact post on Mumsnet AIBU - I dare you 🤣

One other attribute of many successful people: not following others or dares or similar, just getting on with a good life.

Mistermeaner seems to have done many of the classic things, notably a commitment to more frugality than income would permit and a commitment to objectives. As well as possibly living in the SE of England. Nice earnings helps a lot with speed but only if you're not increasing spending as you increase the earnings.

The SE is where most of the UK's millionaires live, courtesy of housing values and the jobs paying enough to buy those homes then them inflating in real value over many decades. Doing it outside that area is more of a challenge.

I idly wondered about acquiring a million but ended up retired first. Might still make it but probably not. Dollar millionaire is closer, though. My potential income now is more than I ws spending while working so my challenge is different: making it to a million is a form of failure because I'm supposed to be spending it, not growing it.

The more than 50% of the population who are net tax takers rather than tax payers for their lives will find it a far, far harder challenge. A net tax taker is a person who receives more in all state benefits combined than they pay in taxes over their lifetime. Since the state doesn't wish to subsidise luxurious lifestyles that tends to imply not having sufficient excess income to achieve high savings objectives. Saving more than a pittance is more of a challenge for many in this group.

Prism said:

Just to be a little pedantic - you say my net worth, don't you mean our net worth? Having a million each and having a million shared are quite different.

Nearly 10 years older but we as a couple have only just reached the position of total assets divided by 2 greater than 1 million but house price inflation and latterly a stock market bubble has done all the heavy lifting and I am sanguine enough to know that what goes up can easily go right back down again.

Choosing your lifestyle based on your needs rather than what your income supports (or slightly more) is what makes all the difference to asset accumulation especially as I have never been able to persuade my DW to return to work.

Alexland

Prism said:

Just to be a little pedantic - you say my net worth, don't you mean our net worth? Having a million each and having a million shared are quite different.

My thinking is that to become millionaires we need to get to the point where our half of shared assets plus our individually held assets are for each of us worth at least a million.
Our house is shared and ISAs perfectly match but pensions differ, which we are part addressing in our long term contribution planning, but still it probably won't be until we reach around £2.4 million that my wife will herself be worth a million.
Also given we are talking net worth so presumably subtracting any mortgage shouldn't we also subtract a lump sum estimate of future deferred tax likely to be paid from the anticipated profile of drawing the pension?

cfw1994

Congrats, OP!     
With a divorce behind you & 4 offspring continuing ahead, you've done very well: I know many for whom either one of those has severely restricted their ability to build wealth 🤷🏼‍♂️

I always wanted to be able to live off the interest of my interest 🤪
Then I found the only chance of that was to win the lottery.  Maybe I should meet my aspiration half way, & actually buy a ticket 🤣 

Remember: Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery 👀

& as you rightly allude to; health is worth more than any wealth assets: keep investing hard in the former 💪😎

Workerdrone

But he is right about choosing your partner carefully. It's no good being frugal and a prudent investor if, as he says your other half is a financial liability. Lots of those about.

Ibrahim5

Not sure about typing on the Kindle. Sounds a bit depressing to me.

Ibrahim5

jamesd said:

NannaH said:

Put this exact post on Mumsnet AIBU - I dare you 🤣

As well as possibly living in the SE of England. Nice earnings helps a lot with speed but only if you're not increasing spending as you increase the earnings.

The SE is where most of the UK's millionaires live, courtesy of housing values and the jobs paying enough to buy those homes then them inflating in real value over many decades. Doing it outside that area is more of a challenge.

Oh yes you don't get millionaires in the North. It's too grim. Get rich in the South and stay there please. I think some of them have moved to the Lake District pushing up property prices. Bad move. It's very grim there. Cold and rainy all the time. Best to stay down South where life is good.