[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by DAB

saw a Dave Ramsey video earlier, and he had a study that found that the most significant contributor to having money in retirement was that you saved money early and often. not the rate of return, not what kind of fund you put your money into.

so i did some math (don't worry, it's not that painful).

example 1, salary of 80k, 30 years of saving/investing, set aside 15% (12k), assume 6% annual return (quite doable, moderate risk needed), you'd end up with $1,017,620

example 2, salary of 80k, 30 years of saving/investing, set aside 5% (4k), because you want to live larger, assume 12% annual return (hard to do long term, lot of risk to be taken on), you'd end up with $1,085,170

i'll stick with option 1 Alex, not that hard to live a little simpler for peace of mind and options later.

end of math...

My wife is option A, and her IRA is massive.

I turned a corner in 2014 when I got slapped up the side of my face and I was a dinosaur. Honestly, I had no clue how to get my next job. Since then, I've reinvented myself in the cloud software business and I'm relevant again. My earnings in these following 15 years will dwarf the amount my wife has amassed in her account.

And again....we have a mortgage on a house with 300k equity, and just Patty's Subaru car loan. 3 of my 4 credit cards have negative balances at the moment. I'm definitely in the savings and investing mode for sure, but my ability to build pure cash wealth is still in full swing.