Total Savings/Net Worth Forum

[Anonymous User]

6th year associate. Living in Denver (previous 5 years in major markets). Married for 3 years. No kids yet. Will probably clear a million this year.

Total NW: $940,000

Retirement (401ks/IRAs/HSAs): $500,000
Home Equity: $130,000
Taxable Brokerage: $180,000
529 for kids college: $80,000
Cash: $50,000

My wife and I already also repaid our loans, which was an aggregate of $175,000 ($0 outstanding for 2 years now).

I see the taxable brokerage as our early retirement vehicle. It’s 100% invested in total-market stock ETF/mutual funds and I’m able to add about $12k/month to it. With compound growth it should be quite substantial in 20 or so years. Probably have 12 months of biglaw left in me so definitely saving while the sun is shining.

Our retirement accounts are a bit ridiculous for our age and are 100% invested in total-stock equity funds as well. My current biglaw firm 401k plan allows us to put $58k/year (37k of that post-tax basis with standing Roth conversion).

[showusyourtorts]

6th year associate. Living in Denver (previous 5 years in major markets). Married for 3 years. No kids yet. Will probably clear a million this year.

Total NW: $940,000

Retirement (401ks/IRAs/HSAs): $500,000
Home Equity: $130,000
Taxable Brokerage: $180,000
529 for kids college: $80,000
Cash: $50,000

My wife and I already also repaid our loans, which was an aggregate of $175,000 ($0 outstanding for 2 years now).

I see the taxable brokerage as our early retirement vehicle. It’s 100% invested in total-market stock ETF/mutual funds and I’m able to add about $12k/month to it. With compound growth it should be quite substantial in 20 or so years. Probably have 12 months of biglaw left in me so definitely saving while the sun is shining.

Our retirement accounts are a bit ridiculous for our age and are 100% invested in total-stock equity funds as well. My current biglaw firm 401k plan allows us to put $58k/year (37k of that post-tax basis with standing Roth conversion).

I was going to ask how you were able to load up the retirement accounts so quickly. I'm not sure how having a big retirement account at a young age can be ridiculous - the whole point is that those good good gains will continue to grow tax free for many years to come. Better to load those bad boys up now than to load them up later. Congrats on living the (financial) dream!

[Anonymous User]

Senior associate here in VHCOL location. I graduated with more than 200K in debt, which I paid down aggressively after leaving a starting gig in government. I'm now at around 1.1 or 1.2M in net worth, consisting of almost 900K in investments (mostly after-tax, but a few hundred K in retirement accounts) plus about 300K in home equity. I am a conservative and disciplined investor, and I do not have an expensive lifestyle, but I do pay quite a bit for family and for conveniences. I'm somewhat surprised by people who complain about the job but spend $$$ on things like cars, clothes, and miscellaneous toys, but to each his own -- you have to do what you have to do to be comfortable and happy enough to actually do the job that is paying the bills.

[Anonymous User]

5th year in SoCal

401k: $151k
ROTH: $33k
Brokerage: $70k
Emergency: $50k
Home equity: $150k? $200k? Who the fuck knows in this market

My wife probably has ~70k or ~80k in her various accounts and she's not a high earner.

No debt beyond the mortgage.

All in all, obviously doing perfectly fine, but always feel "behind" on savings. Then again, we wiped out student debt, got married, bought a house, etc. so that's nice.

[Anonymous User]

2016 grad with 250k in loans:

84k 401k
158k ETFs
7k crypto
32k backdoor roth
15k cash
130k student loans
$60k (in a week will receive $100k bonus which is 20k to 401k + 40k after tax on the rest)

Net Worth: $226k
Also sent $75k in help to parents since biglaw

Kudos to you on helping your parents - I've done the same. Worth it.

[Anonymous User]

~150k 401k (all S&P 500)
~1.4m additional S&P 500 at Vanguard and Fidelity
~100k in an investment property in GA (~400k value - 300k mort)
~15k cash
~12k in a 2015 SUV (which I bought used, against my will. Parking that thing is sooo expensive but my wife sometimes just wants to leave the city)
~400k in student loans (hoping for REPAYE/forgiveness still..., and there is a good chance I'll pick up 200k more when I get MBA. I genuinely believe it's -EV to pay down the loans when S&P 500 historically returns 6-9%. My balance is actually slightly higher today than when I finished law school)

Unique circumstances: Quit biglaw pretty soon after law school and went back to banking and got lucky my first two years were really good years and got 100% salary bonuses. An okayish (~20k) annuity from life insurance. Made decent side income playing poker during law school (like enough to pay tuition if I wasn't already making plans on debt forgiveness). My wife works and contributes to household spending (she puts 3k in a month, I do 6k, rough break down of the 9k is 4.5k rent. 2k vacation. 1000 misc expenses, 1500 groceries and eating out together).

[Anonymous User]

~150k 401k (all S&P 500)
~1.4m additional S&P 500 at Vanguard and Fidelity
~100k in an investment property in GA (~400k value - 300k mort)
~15k cash
~12k in a 2015 SUV (which I bought used, against my will. Parking that thing is sooo expensive but my wife sometimes just wants to leave the city)
~400k in student loans (hoping for REPAYE/forgiveness still..., and there is a good chance I'll pick up 200k more when I get MBA. I genuinely believe it's -EV to pay down the loans when S&P 500 historically returns 6-9%. My balance is actually slightly higher today than when I finished law school)

Unique circumstances: Quit biglaw pretty soon after law school and went back to banking and got lucky my first two years were really good years and got 100% salary bonuses. An okayish (~20k) annuity from life insurance. Made decent side income playing poker during law school (like enough to pay tuition if I wasn't already making plans on debt forgiveness). My wife works and contributes to household spending (she puts 3k in a month, I do 6k, rough break down of the 9k is 4.5k rent. 2k vacation. 1000 misc expenses, 1500 groceries and eating out together).

Good for you - looks great. And if you get $400,000 of student loans forgiven with a seven-figure net worth, you'll probably be the main character of some subsequent political ads.

[Anonymous User]

Former firm lawyer, spent 5 mid-level years there, 5 in other legal positions that paid less than firm rates, including in the government. VHCOL market.

NW - $1.1 million. (No kids. No mortgage. $1.05M invested.)

$250k Retirement/HSA
$800k Investment Accounts
30k Checking Accounts

Living in this period of continued macroeconomic and equities growth has been my greatest accelerator of wealth, by far. Without investing my money, I would be out hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Anonymous User]

c/o 2017. Just moved to public sector and pursuing PSLF. $215K in Student Loans. $236K in retirement/investments. $27K in cash (including emergency fund).

[Anonymous User]

2020 grad

Started out w 65k law school loans, currently down to 35k.
12k 401k
73k cash

As you can see I’ve been saving very aggressively during my year so far in biglaw, and plan to leave for a PI job after I finish up my first year (likely salary will be 60k in an extremely high COL city, so that won’t be fun).

I feel like that’s too much cash just sitting in my account - should I buy 50k of generic index funds? Pay off my remaining 35k of loans? (No interest yet, but will start accruing in September)

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone mind sharing how much they were able to save per year as junior associates? I am looking at some of the $1M+ net worth people and wondering what that required in savings/investment per year (with the assumption that the amount increases as compensation increases). For the purposes of this question, I am treating loan payments and savings/investments the same.

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

Impressive, well done. Which market if you don’t mind me asking? (Presumably not nyc because you have a “house”?)

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

Impressive, well done. Which market if you don’t mind me asking? (Presumably not nyc because you have a “house”?)

Chicago

[VentureMBA]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

Curious how you were able to amass $300k in the 401(k) in this time period.

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

Curious how you were able to amass $300k in the 401(k) in this time period.

Matching from current place of work and had $50k prior to law school

[Lukky]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

How much were your loans? You built up $1m~ in less than five years, seriously impressive. I assume your investment returns were pretty good (even relative to the bull market).

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone mind sharing how much they were able to save per year as junior associates? I am looking at some of the $1M+ net worth people and wondering what that required in savings/investment per year (with the assumption that the amount increases as compensation increases). For the purposes of this question, I am treating loan payments and savings/investments the same.

It really depends on your lifestyle and city/state. In a high COL city I was able to put away about $100k (including 401k) as a first year on the old 190 scale. My spending has gone up some as pay has but I still probably save 80% of the increased pay each year. So if it goes up $20k (12k post-tax) I’m probably saving about 9k of that.

[Anonymous User]

Ah finally, a thread like this on TLS. Shoutout to all my people who are on bogleheads.

Class of 2017 - so would be a 4th year associate now? I left biglaw two years ago though to go in-house and my pay is similar to a 3rd year (but the gap will continue to grow as I fear my income is stagnating). Also didn't get a covid special bonus like yall!

Total NW: $720k, single, NYC

Asset allocation: Equities 85%, all in indexfunds (in retirement and taxable brokerage accounts), the rest is in cash (about $105k). Stopped investing in bonds.

I missed a huge opportunity during the March 2020 crash by getting cold feet and stopped investing new money for like two-three months (luckily I didn't sell anything). As a result, my cash position kept increasing until it was a whopping 25% of my net worth at one point. I've been slowly investing more over the last 6 months and hope to bring my cash position down to 10%. Feels bad buying at the top of the market, but i guess the old adage is true, time in the market beats trying to time it.

Goals: Hit $1mm networth in the next 1.5 years and quit practicing law to do something more fun. Move to a LOCL city somewhere like Texas.

Notes: Went to college and lawschool for free fortunately. Never had debt. Networth ranged from $0-40k from 2011-2017, so all of this increase has been since I started big law. Now the part that'll blow your minds. My annual expenses are $25-30k/yr on average for the last 3 years.

Checking in 6 months later. Ah how life changes.

Current NW: $895k, still single, semi-NYC (have been working remotely from all over)
Asset allocation: 95% equities (split 70-30 between broad US and broad International). Cash position is now down to 42k and makes up remaining 5%.

I gave notice at work and am sticking around about 2 more months to hire/train my replacement. Think I should have about 920k then if market keeps up. It's been one hell of a year in the markets - I'm up about 102k in investment returns (13.29%) without doing anything crazy besides passively holding onto VTSAX and VTIAX. I feel a little anxious about my future job prospects and what I should do in the future, but hoping I will figure things out as they come and might have some flexibility to take on lower pay or try my hand in some (low upfront capital costs) entrepreneurial endeavors. Not worried about money on the day-to-day anymore, but would feel more comfortable about chilling on the beach for good if I had 2.5million.

[Anonymous User]

Ah finally, a thread like this on TLS. Shoutout to all my people who are on bogleheads.

Class of 2017 - so would be a 4th year associate now? I left biglaw two years ago though to go in-house and my pay is similar to a 3rd year (but the gap will continue to grow as I fear my income is stagnating). Also didn't get a covid special bonus like yall!

Total NW: $720k, single, NYC

Asset allocation: Equities 85%, all in indexfunds (in retirement and taxable brokerage accounts), the rest is in cash (about $105k). Stopped investing in bonds.

I missed a huge opportunity during the March 2020 crash by getting cold feet and stopped investing new money for like two-three months (luckily I didn't sell anything). As a result, my cash position kept increasing until it was a whopping 25% of my net worth at one point. I've been slowly investing more over the last 6 months and hope to bring my cash position down to 10%. Feels bad buying at the top of the market, but i guess the old adage is true, time in the market beats trying to time it.

Goals: Hit $1mm networth in the next 1.5 years and quit practicing law to do something more fun. Move to a LOCL city somewhere like Texas.

Notes: Went to college and lawschool for free fortunately. Never had debt. Networth ranged from $0-40k from 2011-2017, so all of this increase has been since I started big law. Now the part that'll blow your minds. My annual expenses are $25-30k/yr on average for the last 3 years.

Checking in 6 months later. Ah how life changes.

Current NW: $895k, still single, semi-NYC (have been working remotely from all over)
Asset allocation: 95% equities (split 70-30 between broad US and broad International). Cash position is now down to 42k and makes up remaining 5%.

I gave notice at work and am sticking around about 2 more months to hire/train my replacement. Think I should have about 920k then if market keeps up. It's been one hell of a year in the markets - I'm up about 102k in investment returns (13.29%) without doing anything crazy besides passively holding onto VTSAX and VTIAX. I feel a little anxious about my future job prospects and what I should do in the future, but hoping I will figure things out as they come and might have some flexibility to take on lower pay or try my hand in some (low upfront capital costs) entrepreneurial endeavors. Not worried about money on the day-to-day anymore, but would feel more comfortable about chilling on the beach for good if I had 2.5million.

Expenses have been trending up last 6 months because of all the travel and going-out, and have more of an annual burn rate now of about $42k. Still not bad but doesn't help.

[Anonymous User]

Looking for investment advice:

c/o 2018 (All numbers include shared asset with spouse):
- 401K: $85K (spouse's employer started matching last month so expect this to go up faster now)
- Stocks and iBonds: $15K (starting to invest in stocks again but they feel overinflated)
- Home equity ($500-600K depending on market fluctuations, carrying jumbo mortgage)
- Bank Accounts: $80K

We give my parents about $30K a year. Thinking of investing in a rental property in a few years. No kids yet. Goal is to eventually move all of our emergency fund into I-Bonds and invest the rest, but don't really know where to put it.

[Anonymous User]

$1.7mil net worth
$250k cash
$1.35mil equities (incl. 401k/IRA)
$100k crypto

Graduated with ~$65k debt. NYC biglaw 9/10th year.

This is fun, I'll do what the other poster did as well. Seventh months later:

$2 mil net worth
$1.7 mil equities (incl. 401k/IRA)
$190k crypto (no new purchases, just "appreciation")
$100k cash

Just kept dumping money into the market. If it stops going up I'll be very sad. Leaving biglaw soon to go into a legal-adjacent field.

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2016

Paid off student loans
$300k in 401k
$320k in Investments (mix of stocks I pick and mutual fund)
$80k in savings (I know it is too much)
$20k in crypto (been as high as 30k and low as 15k)
$250-$350k equity in house depending on market

How much were your loans? You built up $1m~ in less than five years, seriously impressive. I assume your investment returns were pretty good (even relative to the bull market).

Yes, I think returns have been double digit percentages every year. Luckily had a great scholarship and job during law school so had only $50k in loans that I paid off in 2 years.

[Anonymous User]

C/O 2012

NW: $1.35M, liquid investments/cash: $1.137M, about $200k house equity

Hoping to hit $1.5M by next summer (will see how markets do), before evaluating next steps and how much longer I want to keep working.

Live in VHCOL. No kids, yet anyways. Spouse and I keep finances separate (so my mortgage/house equity are my own half).

Graduated with $250K loans. Mostly hated working in biglaw. In-house now (much, much better work life balance) making $300k all-in comp a year.

[Lukky]

$1.7mil net worth
$250k cash
$1.35mil equities (incl. 401k/IRA)
$100k crypto

Graduated with ~$65k debt. NYC biglaw 9/10th year.

This is fun, I'll do what the other poster did as well. Seventh months later:

$2 mil net worth
$1.7 mil equities (incl. 401k/IRA)
$190k crypto (no new purchases, just "appreciation")
$100k cash

Just kept dumping money into the market. If it stops going up I'll be very sad. Leaving biglaw soon to go into a legal-adjacent field.

Every time I think about quitting biglaw, I come back to your post. I would be quite happy with even $1 million, so I just need to grind it out a few more years…