What did your accounts look like in your 30's?

[Frugalbear]

What did your pretax and post tax accounts look like in your 30's?

Did you feel like you were ahead of the game or behind the 8 ball?

[MNGopher]

Mine were nonexistent until my later 30's. Any extra income in my early 30's went towards paying down my mortgage, because at that time I only had terrible high priced annuity products in my employer plan.

[student]

Poor. I did not have a "real" job until I was 31. Before that I was a student and a postdoc.

[9mm]

What did your pretax and post tax accounts look like in your 30's?

Did you feel like you were ahead of the game or behind the 8 ball?

In general having 2X to 3X your annual income invested by age 30 is pretty good. If you’re above that you are probably a high income earner or good saver. If you are below that you probably have some catching up to do.

I am in my early 30s and have $900,000 invested, but I make quite a bit and invest over half my income every year. It’s not about comparing yourself to others, it’s about setting a plan and sticking to it.

[stoptothink]

I was in the middle of a divorce (and a PhD) on my 30th birthday, so it started out bad (nearly broke), but my third decade of life will end in 6 months being in the two-comma club (net-worth, not quite there yet on investments alone) and with a paid off home.

[Stick5vw]

Early 30s was a bit messy relative to late 30s - would say I finally got my act together by the time I was 34 or 35.

Have always been contributing etc but portfolio itself was a mess: held some crappy multi asset funds, took punts on several active funds (the gold/commodity stock fund was a notable bomb!), and held too much cash. So on one hand I was too conservative and in the other, with the money in the market, played around too much in silly fads. Missed part of the upside from 2009-2014 or so. (But fortunately piling into passive US equity starting in 2009 was the right move!)

Fortunately when I truly began contributing serious $ (after I had paid off school loans) the portfolio had been greatly streamlined. However I still believe I’d have 10-15% more if I had been smarter about my investments from age 26-33 or so. Keep it simple.

[Day9]

I believe this has so much more to do with your career choice, savings, and personal finance habits that this thread belongs on the Personal Finance subforum and not this Investing - Theory News & General forum.

Unless you would ask what kinds of investments we had in our 30s, what was our stock & bond mix, and questions like that. My answer to that question is age minus 15 in bonds, rest in stocks.

[alfaspider]

I’m 35. Between myself and my spouse roughly:

401ks: $ 550k
Roths: $100k
Pension balance: $100k
529s: $150k
HSA: $25k
Cash: $125k
Taxable Brokerage: $75k (recently drawn down to pay for a new house)

I think we are ahead of the game by a long shot (certainly statistically so). We hope to be FI at current spending levels by 45 or so, but that’s very dependent on continued employment at similar or better incomes.

As others have said, the comparisons aren’t all that helpful as everyone has a different career trajectory and expense demands. Our savings levels have decreased over the last two years due to children and other family spending. Much easier when you are dual income without kids.

[jginseattle]

Nonexistent.

[retire2022]

op

in 1987(27) it was 2000 in IRA, by 1995 (35) it was 50K (457+IRA) by early 2000 (40) it was 400K, post internet boom it was 200K(457+IRA).

Made my first million in 2013 at 53 (457+Roth IRA) and this year 2020 (60) hit 2.023 million on 9/2/2020.

Since then market retracted, no not behind 8 ball, two time homeowner, currently 1.838 million, have pension, life is good. It was all about living below my means and saving away.

[sjl333]

Age 31 - networth ~ 370K. Probably will become a multi millionaire in my 30s (as long as the stock market doesn't tank) as I'm investing 200-250K/year (after taxed money). Don't feel ahead right now but probably will be way ahead of my peers in a couple of years.

[gonefishing01]

Despite fairly high income I was a crummy saver of after tax monies in my thirties (new houses, new cars, wasteful spending) but in a bout of uncharacteristic foresight at the time I managed to put my 401k on autopilot in mid 20s. Never tinkered with it, rarely looked at it, maxed every year to federal limits with generous employer contributions. Narrowly missed the double comma 401k on my 40th birthday. Trying to catch up in taxable and roth the past couple years. Honestly, never felt ahead or behind. Just keep moving forward.

[HawkeyePierce]

I am currently 30. No debt, gross income of $300k and an after-tax savings rate of 60%.

401k: $200k
HSA: $7k
Roth IRA: $68k
Taxable: $60k
Cash: $40k
Total: $375k

I'm pretty far ahead of the curve. Hoping to hit FI around 40-45.

[celia]

What accounts? LOL.

We had just bought a house to shelter a growing family.

[AerialWombat]

.....

[bo105954027]

I asked the same question several years ago:

viewtopic.php?t=194305

A popular topic indeed.

[fedpharmer]

DW and I are 31 and 30 y/o.

NW: $440k
401k/TSP: $135k
Roth IRAs: $36k
Trad IRA: $29k
HSA: $16k
Taxable: $63k
Pension: $25k
Checking/Savings: $12k

[Chuck107]

.....

[nisiprius]

Nonexistent. I was a graduate student for nine years--it's unusual to take that long and still actually get the degree, but I did. So from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies my wife and I were living on roughly $3,000/year, the equivalent of about $20,000, in grad student quasipoverty. So I was the "Larry Lately" in the Bogleheads' Guide example of the importance of beginning early.

First serious investments started when I was about 32 because I was at an institution with a TIAA-CREF program, which, after three years, began making automatic payments equal to 10-15% of my salary into a TIAA-CREF account; this wasn't money taken out of my salary, it was a substantial additional benefit. I also had the opportunity to contribute more voluntarily, which I took advantage of.

Very roughly, my financial life has been dominated by three major events.

1) Getting a late start. (Bad)

2) Buying a house with a fixed mortgage before inflation really heated up (Good)

3) An inheritance roughly equal to two years' salary, because my parents died somewhat young and unexpectedly (neither of them lived to collect Social Security) (bittersweet).

The main thing to notice is that not one of these had to do with my stock/bond allocation or the expense ratios of my mutual funds. And if there had been spreadsheets then, not one of them could have been put onto a spreadsheet.

[Ron]

Nonexistent.

Same here, for our early - mid 30's.

Traditional IRA's were not available to me/wife until 1982, when we both turned 34. Up to that point, we both had pensions (later eliminated) but were barred from contributions to an IRA. That was changed with the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), which allowed IRA contributions starting in 1982 for those that had a defined pension plan.

Our respective companies did not start their own 401(k)'s until years later, when we were both in our late 30's. Neither company offered Roth 401(k)'s during our employment years.

As far as other investments? None to speak of. There was no reason to prepare for our retirement years. Like our parents/grandparents, we assumed that we would also have the three stool scenario - our respective pensions, along with SS and personal savings.

As they say, there is nothing consistent other than change. We were on the bleeding edge of having to adapt quickly to the future.

- Ron

[UnLearnYourself]

What did your pretax and post tax accounts look like in your 30's?

Did you feel like you were ahead of the game or behind the 8 ball?

In general having 2X to 3X your annual income invested by age 30 is pretty good. If you’re above that you are probably a high income earner or good saver. If you are below that you probably have some catching up to do.

I am in my early 30s and have $900,000 invested, but I make quite a bit and invest over half my income every year. It’s not about comparing yourself to others, it’s about setting a plan and sticking to it.

2-3x by 40 is the track most should shoot for. humblebrag haha

[peppers]

Let's see

There was the mortgage account at 30yr fixed at 12.25%. I had six mouths to feed. My wife initially was a stay at home mom and kept the troops in line.

My employer started the 401k plan in 1979. The maximum after tax contribution (not Roth) was a robust $20.00 per payroll period with a generous $10.00 company match. Fund selection in the plan was company stock or a GIC. Guaranteed Investment Contract.

The IRA's came later. I could put $1750.00 in mine and $250.00 in hers as a spousal IRA. (Remember those?) Assuming of course I did not exceed income limits set by the government.

[ddurrett896]

Mid 30s - 3x annual salary.

[wander]

My account looked like I had enough cash for two years expenses.

[hightower]

What did your pretax and post tax accounts look like in your 30's?

Did you feel like you were ahead of the game or behind the 8 ball?

This isn't really a useful thing to ask. So many variables to consider. The biggest one being differences in income. There are 30 year olds making $500+k and 30 year olds making $50k. Additionally, there is huge variation to when people actually start working/saving. For example, there are 30 year doctors with 300k of student loan debt and they haven't even started working yet. Compare this to a 30 year old engineer who's been working hard and saving/investing since the age of 23. There will be enormous differences between the two at any stage of their lives and it will constantly change each year for a whole host of reasons. And those are just 2 examples. One could come up with about 3000 more extreme possibilities.

Plus, you're asking this question to a bunch of bogleheads. Compared to the general population, you're going to find a lot more multi-millionaires here who are super savers, super frugal, and/or super high earners. Very skewed results.

I think the key thing is that you know what your own personal goals are and you know if you are sticking to them or not. Keep in mind that in this country you'll always be behind someone else no matter what you do or how much you have.

If you want to really compare yourself, post what you make, when you started working, and how much you have saved so far. Then ask others to chime in only if they have the same salary and work history as you. That would at least be a fair comparison, though doesn't really accomplish anything because it's not a race.

FWIW, I'm 38, physician. Didn't start working until age 30. Didn't start saving or paying off my student debt until ~34. Finally finished paying off my 260k of student loans early this year. I currently have about 2x my annual income in investable assets. And my networth is probably ~3X my annual income. If I had focused on saving/paying off debt when I started working, I'd probably be quite a bit further ahead. I spent a lot of money on travel, hobbies, housing, etc when I first started working. Had fun, but I regret some of it. I don't regret the travel though.

[Frugalbear]

I asked the same question several years ago:

viewtopic.php?t=194305

A popular topic indeed.

Thanks for directing me to your popular thread! A lot of what im looking for is on there.

Im interested in knowing what your situation looks like now...care to share?

[Frugalbear]

Nothing, Paycheck to paycheck.
Just bought my first house, 2 weeks later lost my job, One child and another on the way.
Not a good time, account wise.

At what point did things change?

[h82goslw]

My account balance? 0.0

[remomnyc]

Negative $65k. I had just completed graduate school and had $65k in debt and $0 in assets. Regardless, I was able to retire 22 years later thanks to constant employment, saving, and investing.

[Frugalbear]

Nonexistent. I was a graduate student for nine years--it's unusual to take that long and still actually get the degree, but I did. So from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies my wife and I were living on roughly $3,000/year, the equivalent of about $20,000, in grad student quasipoverty. So I was the "Larry Lately" in the Bogleheads' Guide example of the importance of beginning early.

First serious investments started when I was about 32 because I was at an institution with a TIAA-CREF program, which, after three years, began making automatic payments equal to 10-15% of my salary into a TIAA-CREF account; this wasn't money taken out of my salary, it was a substantial additional benefit. I also had the opportunity to contribute more voluntarily, which I took advantage of.

Very roughly, my financial life has been dominated by three major events.

1) Getting a late start. (Bad)

2) Buying a house with a fixed mortgage before inflation really heated up (Good)

3) An inheritance roughly equal to two years' salary, because my parents died somewhat young and unexpectedly (neither of them lived to collect Social Security) (bittersweet).

The main thing to notice is that not one of these had to do with my stock/bond allocation or the expense ratios of my mutual funds. And if there had been spreadsheets then, not one of them could have been put onto a spreadsheet.

Since you got a late start...how are you faring now?

[Third Son]

I really was too busy to look. I started thinking about it in my 50s but had contributed since 23. I kept bumping up my contributions with every pay increase while raising four kids on one income. It does add up.

[Frugalbear]

Nonexistent.

Same here, for our early - mid 30's.

Traditional IRA's were not available to me/wife until 1982, when we both turned 34. Up to that point, we both had pensions (later eliminated) but were barred from contributions to an IRA. That was changed with the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), which allowed IRA contributions starting in 1982 for those that had a defined pension plan.

Our respective companies did not start their own 401(k)'s until years later, when we were both in our late 30's. Neither company offered Roth 401(k)'s during our employment years.

As far as other investments? None to speak of. There was no reason to prepare for our retirement years. Like our parents/grandparents, we assumed that we would also have the three stool scenario - our respective pensions, along with SS and personal savings.

As they say, there is nothing consistent other than change. We were on the bleeding edge of having to adapt quickly to the future.

- Ron

Im interested in knowing how you are doing now with such a late start?

[zag00]

early early 30's - 2x annual

[UpperNwGuy]

I was all in cash, but I had a good pension.

[jucor]

In my early to mid 30s I was essentially broke. Had a failed business and debt, then went back to school. Got married, both employed at mid-level jobs in LCOL area (current combined gross income of about $130k), now in mid-50s and have non-house net worth of about 30-40x annual expenses. We live well below our means, but still live well. No fancy house (comfortable and with character, and now paid off), no fancy cars (buy used reliable model, share one car between both of us, hold on to it for years -- two cars in last 16 years), do travel overseas a fair amount, (not this year!), but fairly cheaply. No kids. Pay ourselves first every month (invest and save). Looking forward to a comfortable retirement in about a decade or so.

[Skiandswim]

Fun to look back ... too many funds (15+), most were actively managed. 4X my salary in savings with 60/40 portfolio (had not really thought about my risk profile ... 65/35 now 20+ years later). I had some Vanguard funds (Windsor, Primecap, IT Corp) and began a shift to the index funds. Scudder funds were my only 401K choice at the time (times have changed). Would have been great to have an investment policy statement at the time !

[jebmke]

have no idea. First, there was no "game" at the time. There wasn't the same level of general obsession on portfolio valuation then compared to now. Second, information was infrequent; some assets were reported quarterly, the main asset was my spouses pension and we only got valuations annually. We simply focused on adhering to our savings plan, careers and various leisure activities -- and hope for the best.

[mmmodem]

Nonexistent. I was a graduate student for nine years--it's unusual to take that long and still actually get the degree, but I did.

I guess you can say I was an undergraduate student for 8+ years. I didn't get my degree until I was 27. I like to tell people that the graduation rates drop off precipitously after 5 years in school. I was somehow able to drag myself across the finish line.

Despite the duration of school I had no students loans because I went to community college and paid my way through the last two years of state university.

Not knowing what do with money after college, I joined Bogleheads after "finishing" Suze Orman's LBYM advice. Nisiprius et al said to max out Roth IRA and 401k. There was precious little for taxable savings after that. So at 30 I had $0 in taxable. And maybe $30k in retirement accounts. This was 2009 so I actually lost a little from the recession that hadn't recovered yet.

A decade later, we crossed 7 figures. Did I feel behind the ball at 30? Yes. I was literally 4-5 years behind my contemporaries. We also lived in HCOL Silicon Valley and don't have tech jobs. Neither did my wife. Neither of us made more than 6 figures.

[Sandtrap]

What did our accounts look like in our 30's?

What accounts?
Children.
Rent.
Bills.
. . . . Life.

Although we were super duper frugal (not by choice) and saved every penny ruthlessly.
New company/business. Poured every dime into it. Nothing left.
j

[Chuck107]

.....

[firebirdparts]

Great question. I was ahead of the game in my 30's. Some bad things happened that had consequences, but mostly it's been good.

- I maxed out my 401k contributions for several years before my 30's: Good
- I opened a Roth IRA in about 1999 and invested in individual stocks: Bad
- There was absolutely no way my wife could spend this money: Good
- My wife opened a taxable account in about 1999 and invested in individual stocks: Bad

The biggest thing I learned is that I might make a prolonged bad decision based on emotions. After I did so poorly with my Roth, I never put any more money in it for about 20 years. That was a terrible mistake. I did not even look at my 401k for a year or two after I lost half my net worth the first time. This was okay; not really a mistake, but it's concerning.

About my wife's accounts, I always wanted some Fidelity Select Computers. She had some, and that is the kind of thing that lost 75% from 1999 to about 2002. So that put us off tech stock investing, and that was the "wrong lesson"

In hindsight, I can certainly say that I would have been fine just be fully investing 100% in a USA stock index fund, or a combination of a stock index fund and a bond index fund the whole time.

I went back and looked at the history: At 30 I had 1X years salary and at 40 I had 2X.

[Physician101]

31, just finished first year of working as physician. Planning to put essentially 100% of investments to total stock market ETF (VTI) through age 45-50 before considering bonds. Saved 40-50% of pretax income last year, hoping to keep up to this the next 3-4 years and then will likely start saving only 15-20% as I accumulate real expenses.

250 K in investments (401K, 457B, roth IRA, vanguard taxable accounts), all funds are in total stock market index/ETF or a variation of this essentially
30K in cash
0 debt

[JD2775]

My 30's were a waste...financially speaking

I didn't value saving at all in my 30's (nevermind my 20's). I had my first 401k at age 31, with my first "real" job. I didn't add much to it, I would rather have had the money on hand to spend. My friend convinced me to open a Roth IRA when I was around 34 or so, and I maybe put $100 in there every cpl months. To add to the "waste" part, I had no kids, was single, there was no excuse why I couldn't have saved more money... I think when I was 39 years old I had maybe $100k saved up. Yes, that's not terrible but it could have been much, much more. It wasn't until my 40th birthday that I had a wakeup moment and started to take things seriously, maxing out 401k, Roth and adding a taxable account. That was right around the time I found this site as well, lucky for me.

I dont have a lot of regrets in life, but not saving more in my 20's and 30's is definitely one of them. I am 45 now and in better shape financially than I was a few years ago for sure, but it could have been so much better.

[dbr]

When I was 30 there were no retirement accounts and no pension either. A military career would have brought a pension, but that was not an actual option.

We owned some individual stocks and some farmland and some savings. One of my favorites was a few "shares of beneficent interest" in a gas trust inherited from my grandmother. I always thought it was cool to have "shares of beneficent interest." They paid well for some time until all the gas was gone and then they didn't. They were also a pain because you had to submit a state tax return for the state where the revenue was generated even if you didn't live there.

[fortunefavored]

I dont have a lot of regrets in life, but not saving more in my 20's and 30's is definitely one of them. I am 45 now and in better shape financially than I was a few years ago for sure, but it could have been so much better.

Same for me about my 20s. I saved nothing. Net worth at 30 was basically zero, yet I earned over $1M in my 20s. "oops"

I think every thread about "regrets" starts with "I wish I had started saving earlier."

Once I hit 30 I definitely felt "behind the 8ball" and got super serious about saving and earning more money. Now FI, late 40s.

[case_of_ennui]

I'm in my early thirties, started working a bit late at 24. NW is around 200k. I definitely could have done a better job saving in my 20s, but thankfully I at least took a "set it and forget it" mentality. Contributed about 7% or so to the 401k + 3% employee match and maxed ROTH contributions each year. I've stepped up the contributions lately and hope I can get some nice salary bumps over the next few years. I try to remind myself that forums such as this aren't representative of the average. I'm grateful to be where I am.

[eer_no_evil]

33 here- diligence saver, Non-tech, not a super high earner. I’m currently at 4x annual income in my various accounts- NW around 750k, the last few years have felt like a slow climb, with contributions making little impact compared to gains (or losses). Interesting to see what the next few years brings.

[zxllxz]

Non existent. I started my first 401k at age 40, when I joined a new company. That was 30 years ago. If I had only know then what I know now.

[Portfolio7]

Started the decade (age 30) with $57K in retirement assets and a 0.5 savings to income ratio.
Ended the decade (age 39) with $400K in retirement assets and a 3.5 savings to income ratio.
I'm excluding the house and non-retirement accounts from those figures. Household income was around 6 figures for most of that time.

We slowed our savings the next decade (age 40-49: kids, business investment), and ended with roughly $900K, if that helps thinking about your trajectory.

My wife and I we were each about 26-27 before starting our 'snowballs', but took different paths to that point.

The thing is, everyone has their own path. As long as you are optimizing your personal situation, comparisons don't mean a lot. I mean, ostensibly, we are in the top 5% of savers for people of our age and our income, but some people with less savings are probably more secure, and some people with more savings may be less secure. Your personal situation matters a lot in figuring it all out.

[snowox]

Way ahead of the game in income but a fool with spending