Total Savings/Net Worth Forum

[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.

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…

I'm pretty sure this was me, and I'm now down to $1.9ish mil net worth. Live by the market die by the market.

[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.

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…

I'm pretty sure this was me, and I'm now down to $1.9ish mil net worth. Live by the market die by the market.

Yeah I lost a fuckton on the most recent slide.

Also, I'll do mine:

~$18m equities (this was over 20m before the most recent slide; dominated by S&P)
~$5m real estate (main house, investment land, lake house)
~$4m non-traditional investments (mostly minority stakes in small businesses)

(Yes, it's all inherited wealth)

Probably need to rebalance away from equities in the coming years. Planning to do a few years in BK, then set out on my own. May need to do a stint on either the buyside or sellside to lock down the skills (really annoyed that I didn't do anything quant-y enough in college to get a banking offer that wasn't TTT cap markets, but here we are).

Also, high key a long-term play that I would consider if you have access to capital: midwest urban real estate. Climate change makes Chicago/Detroit/Minneapolis/Milwaukee/etc likely to outperform compared to major coastal markets, and even with the pandemic I think structural trends towards urban living are still gong to be present.

[Anonymous User]

C/o 2010, Biglaw to present. DINK, NYC area.

NW: $2,392,000

Breakdown:
$1,220,000 in equities ($970,000 in an automated portfolio, $250,000 in individual stocks and funds)
$425,000: 401K. (Target date fund)
$47,000: IRA (Stocks)
$700,000: Cash (b/c $400,000 for down payment)

The above doesn’t include anything for my partner. No magic here, and this is in spite of bad decisions and major costs ($70K lost on a bad investment, keeping funds in cash until like four years ago etc). I saved a bit of money between college and law school and law school summers by living at home. Exited law school at ~$60,000. I’ve split a one bedroom with another person since graduating, so that’s really helped keep rent at less than $1500 throughout this time.

Like a number of posters, I made the mistake of leaving my money in cash/bonds and I want to BEG people who are doing this not to. I hugely regret not investing, even into a simple index fund. A lot of that came from fear of losing on investments. Reflecting on why, I really thought I’d flame/burn out of doing in a few years since I find work really stressful and am not good at it. Since I’m in a specialized practice, I figured whatever I did next would be much lower-paid, so therefore whatever I’d managed to save during Biglaw would be it. I’ve tried to course correct in the last five years by using automated investing (I know the returns could be better, but it’s something) and DCFing into VTSAX and other funds.

Annual spending for just me is $70,000, including taxes due in April (SALT cap sucks). Lifestyle is the usual mix of frugal with some areas of spend. Eating out and groceries we don’t even think about spending on, and we (pre-COVID) took a couple of nice international vacations a year. But the car is really old, haven’t bought a new laptop since 2015 and don’t spend money on clothes, shoes etc. My partner is pulling around $350-$400K total, but that’s a more recent thing and they’ve got some student debt.

Moving out of NYC to NYC-adjacent really helped by eliminating city tax especially since comp has shot up in the last two years. Increases in NW the last two years have been wild between the market and comp increases. We’re purchasing a condo, probably in the -$2.0M range. At some level it feels nuts to spend that much on a home but with COVID/WFH we need space but don’t want to be too far from work/social life in NYC. Ideally I can do this for another 10 years and throw money into the home and pay it off, but if it’s really unbearable I am thinking of quitting in five years and we can pay off the home over time. Would really like to FIRE with minimum of $3.5M and the paid off home but I also really want to be done - my biggest fear is one of us getting terminally ill from the crap lifestyle off our jobs (no exercise, stress) before even having a chance to enjoy things. Still, I know we are both really, really lucky.

[thisismytlsuername]

gtfoh no one cares. The estate tax should be 100%.

[Anonymous User]

I'm amazed at all the *associates* ITT who have managed to surpass $1m in liquid investments without inheritance. My guess is they do have spouses who make a significant income and don't have a mortgage. I have the latter and don't have the former, but still feel like I've done okay:

c/o 2016
$120k cash
$200k stocks/mutual funds/bonds
$130k 401k
$20k stupid investments (art, crypto)
$550k home equity

~1m total N/W

I, like many associates, have been stupidly conservative and avoided the market, but rather than hoard cash I've put a ton into extra mortgage principle. Maybe because I'm from an immigrant family, I've always grown up to hate debt, so the idea of having no mortgage by the time I'm in my 40s has been really appealing. Feels like I'd have the freedom to take a lower-paying job. Over the past few months though have realized how dumb it is to so strongly favor home equity over market.

Also I'm about to quit biglaw, so that should simplify my decisionmaking since I'll just max out my 401k and won't have extra cash to put in the market *or* my mortgage!

[Anonymous User]

gtfoh no one cares. The estate tax should be 100%.

No kidding, who the heck comes onto a thread like this and flexes their inherited wealth???

Anyway, old thread but interesting to see updates given the market so far this year.

c/o 2011, still in biglaw:

Married w/1 kid, spouse doesn't have a paid job (anyone that says the stay-at-home spouse of a biglaw person doesn't "work" needs a freaking reality check!)

I have some different ways of calculating NW. It's ~$2.6M if I ignore taxes, include home equity, and exclude college savings of ~$200k and anticipated college costs of ~$400k. When I look at my own NW I normally subtract the net shortfall for college savings, so ~$2.4M.

Equities: ~$1.5M (all just funds), + ~$490k in 401(k) that's in a very long-dated target retirement fund so it is ~90% equities. Of the $1.5M, ~$320k is in Roth IRA or HSA. The ~$200k of college savings is also in equities.

Cash: $50k actual cash and $20k of iBonds. This is a heavier cash position than I normally have, but I'm acclimating to a different cash flow profile so I'm keeping a buffer since I don't quite know how things come together this year.

Home Equity: ~$640k (I have no mortgage; this assumes my house in a major city has not appreciated at all since I bought it, which is actually a reasonably fair assumption because home prices here got no benefit from the recent increases--in fact this may be understating a bit).

Paid off my student loans years and years and years ago. No other liabilities. While I've never calculated it, I don't want to think of how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I cost myself by paying off my student loans and mortgage early, but, I also still don't regret it. Made me more willing to take risks to make my career what I want it to be, and that has given my biglaw career longevity it wouldn't have had otherwise, so it more than paid for itself.

I crossed the $1M threshold (after having paid off my student loans etc) as a mid-level associate.

[Anonymous User]

Banal question: what software/app do you all use to track all your various asset and liabilities values?

I used Mint for a long time, but found it clunky. I'm basically tracking my checking/savings account balances, 401ks, mortgage, student loans and brokerage all in a spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a much better way. The dream would just be some program that actually worked that would auto-update across all those different data inputs.

[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.

Chiming in with an update.

NW: $1.42M, liquid investments/cash $1.22M, about $200k home equity.

I increased investments/cash by $86K over 6 months, even though I also spent $20k on a one-off big purchase.

If the market stays decent, I’m hoping to hit $1.6M NW / $1.4M investments/cash in the next 6 months by August. Fingers crossed.

[Anonymous User]

I'm amazed at all the *associates* ITT who have managed to surpass $1m in liquid investments without inheritance. My guess is they do have spouses who make a significant income and don't have a mortgage. I have the latter and don't have the former, but still feel like I've done okay:

Why the bold? One's primary residence has been a massive wealth-growing tool in this country (U.S.) for decades, with the exception of the '08 crash. Putting 0-20% down (we put down 10% and it actually turns out that most people nowadays don't put down the traditional 20%) on an asset that can gain 2-5% annually in a typical year, but sometimes more, is an amazing return. Yes, maintenance can be awful (we've had some major projects costing tens of thousands of dollars) but even taking that into account, you would only have to have owned a house for a few years or so in the past decade in most major Biglaw markets to have seen a pretty good return.

For reference, I'm a mid-level in a VHCOL market, my spouse doesn't work and came into the marriage with a barely positive net worth, and we have a kid and a house. Not counting home equity our net worth is ~$1.25 million; with home equity it's ~$1.55 million. I finished law school with a net worth in the very low six figures, no debt (due to a combination of a merit scholarship, prior savings, working during school, and yes, some small gifts from family), so that's an accumulation of over 1 million not counting home equity - which itself has been a good investment despite maintenance costs.

[Anonymous User]

Banal question: what software/app do you all use to track all your various asset and liabilities values?

I used Mint for a long time, but found it clunky. I'm basically tracking my checking/savings account balances, 401ks, mortgage, student loans and brokerage all in a spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a much better way. The dream would just be some program that actually worked that would auto-update across all those different data inputs.

Co-sign this question! Also curious about budgeting tools people use — I've heard good things about the YNAB app...

[Anonymous User]

Banal question: what software/app do you all use to track all your various asset and liabilities values?

I used Mint for a long time, but found it clunky. I'm basically tracking my checking/savings account balances, 401ks, mortgage, student loans and brokerage all in a spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a much better way. The dream would just be some program that actually worked that would auto-update across all those different data inputs.

Co-sign this question! Also curious about budgeting tools people use — I've heard good things about the YNAB app...

I love YNAB for budgeting and swear by it, but it's pretty useless for wealth tracking across several investments/investment platforms. That said, I only track those investments once every couple of months, so I go the excel spreadsheet route for that purpose.

[Anonymous User]

I thought I had done this before, but couldn't find it, so it's either time for an update or a first post:

c/o 2012 (counsel at an amlaw 100 for a couple of years where comp is similar to a senior associate), non NYC major metro, single/no kids

Cash: $200,000
401(k): $300,000
Investments (vanguard index funds): $500,000
Home equity: $130,000

I definitely could be more aggressive at investing (and not have so much cash) but I'm naturally cautious and went to law school during the recession (and had $150k in student loans). Grew up in a middle class family with zero safety net that was too often on the brink of losing the house due to outside market forces (or poor financial decisions by the parents), or they were always working their way out of a mountain of debt (which they usually could get out of). Early adulthood recession + family experience = trying to protect myself as much as possible from the "big bad" at the expense of long term gains. Therapy is certainly cheaper than keeping $200,000 in cash at all times but who has time for that?

[Anonymous User]

This is fun. Too many rich people here.

c/o 2017.

NW: Probably $105k
Cash: $20k (thank you home downpayment and remodel projects for burning all my cash)
Home Equity: ~100k, probably ~200 after we finish our remodeling this year.
401k: ~70k
Crypto: ~5k
Student Loan Debt: ~90k (was originally ~210k)

Was out of biglaw just got back in. Should have debt paid off in about 8 months, followed by aggressive savings for 1-2 kids over the next 3-4 years.

Not counting my SO's income/assets since we keep things completely separate except for home equity which I am only counting half of. Hoping our combined net worth will hit $1 mil over next 12-16 months.

Neither of us come from any family money of any kind.

[Definitely Not North]

I will never not be shocked by how many lawyers think they're making a good long-term financial decisions by keeping huge sums of money out of the market (i.e., broad equity index funds). Even the guy on this page saying he massively regrets it still has over $200k in cash. Makes no sense.

[Definitely Not North]

Imagine worrying about your marginal property tax burden while leaving 7% average yoy compounding returns on a quarter million dollars on the table.

[Anonymous User]

Imagine worrying about your marginal property tax burden while leaving 7% average yoy compounding returns on a quarter million dollars on the table.

I have about $85k sitting in a savings account too, and completely agree with the logic that leaving money outside the market is a poor long-term decision, but life feels like it never stops being too complicated and contingent to do that. My partner has been applying for jobs in a different city for almost a year, and may find one in the next 12-18 months. That would likely trigger selling our current place and buying a new one. We don't currently need a car, but we might need at least one if we move. Her parents are always a little financially insecure, and there's talk of going in with the siblings to get them a home in a LCOL city. It just creates this general sense that in the next 1-3 years a lot of high-expense events may come to pass, so it's hard to justify putting those savings in an asset that is unreliable in the short-term. We don't even have kids yet, but might in that timeframe also. If I were single and life was simpler I'd dump all that cash in too, but it can be more complicated.

[Anonymous User]

~$540k ($30 cash, $60k in taxable brokerage for down payment goal of about $130k; rest is in various retirement/tax deferred accounts; pretty much all stocks with some i bonds I recently purchased); worked pretty lucrative job for 1-2 year out of undergrad; went to T14 law school for free; first year big law in LCOL city. Wife makes low six figures.

I loathe big law, and am debating quitting in a year. Really my goal is to retire/quasi retire at around 50.

[Anonymous User]

C/o 2018, big law in a secondary market. Salary pay scale is close to market rate, bonuses/special bonuses are not. I was fortunate enough to graduate debt free with about 50k NW at that time.

NW: About 600k
Approximately 400k brokerage, 75k 401k, 25k crypto, and 100k in cash.

I have invested very aggressively since graduating, but have kept a larger cash reserve than most.

[Anonymous User]

I will never not be shocked by how many lawyers think they're making a good long-term financial decisions by keeping huge sums of money out of the market (i.e., broad equity index funds). Even the guy on this page saying he massively regrets it still has over $200k in cash. Makes no sense.

+1. That's why their goals are to retire at 50 as "early." I'm looking to retire at 32.

[Anonymous User]

How are you mid-levels reaching 1M NW?

Anyways... Graduated with max loans (180K), class of 2017, market big law.

NW: ~320K
Home equity: ~130K
Cash: ~33K
Index funds: ~47K
401K: ~33K
Crypto: ~80K

No student loans as of about two years ago, VHCOL, purchased home about a year ago. Trying to beef up my market portfolio and move away from Crypto. Goal is to reach 500K by year-end.

[Anonymous User]

c/o 2016. Big Law. Spouse with income between 70-100k.

Assets
Bank Accounts: ~ 25k
Brokerage Accounts: ~240k
Home Equity: ~400K
401k and other misc retirement: ~260k

Liabilities, excluding mortage
Student Loans: 20k
Car and other Misc. Loans/debts: ~45k

Net worth:
w/ Home Equity: ~925k
w/o Home Equity: ~525k

[papermateflair]

No better way to encourage folks to comment on this than to take them to task for making financial decisions you don't agree with! I've found this thread tremendously helpful, and I hope everyone keeps commenting even if it means some of us get taken to task for our personal decisions.

[Sackboy]

No better way to encourage folks to comment on this than to take them to task for making financial decisions you don't agree with! I've found this thread tremendously helpful, and I hope everyone keeps commenting even if it means some of us get taken to task for our personal decisions.

I don't think anyone should be a dick about it, but some folks should be nudged to significantly reduce their cash reserves if they are sitting on anything >$25k and not saving for a home.

[Definitely Not North]

No better way to encourage folks to comment on this than to take them to task for making financial decisions you don't agree with! I've found this thread tremendously helpful, and I hope everyone keeps commenting even if it means some of us get taken to task for our personal decisions.

Oh boo hoo lol. This thread has been great for putting a spotlight on how a lot of lawyers are overly risk averse to the tune of millions in lost returns. Sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash/bonds is an objectively terrible decision that will delay retirement by decades (and kids' inheritance, etc.). If someone feels too attacked to post, maybe they could spend that time reading the Bogleheads wiki instead

[Anonymous User]

Banal question: what software/app do you all use to track all your various asset and liabilities values?

I used Mint for a long time, but found it clunky. I'm basically tracking my checking/savings account balances, 401ks, mortgage, student loans and brokerage all in a spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a much better way. The dream would just be some program that actually worked that would auto-update across all those different data inputs.

Co-sign this question! Also curious about budgeting tools people use — I've heard good things about the YNAB app...

I found TrueBill pretty good for tracking investments/Cash/Debt across several accounts.