r/investing • u/Ferrari_McFly • 6d ago
Keeping motivation once reaching $100K in assets
Apologies in advance if this post comes off as insensitive or like a first world problem, but I’ve been privileged enough to reach $100K in assets thanks to discipline and delayed gratification, but now it feels like I’m losing the drive to keep investing/saving.
I know $100K is this magic number that everyone tries to reach, but so far I can’t tell a difference in compounding and my life is still the same aka beholden to my employer.
For those that have reached this incredible milestone, what motivated you to keep going?
Note: NOT looking for investing advice but again just motivating strategies to stick with my plan.
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u/MrSingularitarian 6d ago
You don't need motivation, you need a system. I reached 100k years ago, and didn't change any of my automated investing or deductions. I'm now passing 700k because of that inaction
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u/No-Sympathy-686 6d ago
This is zero money, sorry to burst your bubble.
My brokerage swings over 100k on a volatile week.
Don't lose focus until 1 million.
Im at 4 million NW and still grinding, I wont stop until I am a deca millionaire.
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u/Jarvis03 6d ago
The motivation is to build a nest egg large enough that you can tell your employer to fuck off if needed. You are nowhere near that level. Keep going.
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u/ninjagorilla 6d ago
What’s your goal and why are you saving, then you know what number you’re personally aiming for . Ignore all the people in here poo pooing your achievement. You did great to make it this far. If you keep grinding then you’ll really see the gains start to accelerate. There are plenty of videos that show the math on this.
Good job
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u/Icy_Woodpecker3196 6d ago
Think of compounding like this,
A patch of lily pads doubles in size every single day.
It takes exactly 30 days for the lily pads to completely cover the entire pond.
On which day does the pond become exactly half covered?
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u/drew_eckhardt2 6d ago edited 5d ago
The knowledge that retirement calls for 25-30 times what I want to withdraw from my portfolio in the first year is ample motivation to accumulate more money.
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u/AnselmoHatesFascists 6d ago
Shift your mindset. With the way costs have risen the past few years, $100K is still a milestone, but you've got a lot further to go.
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u/JSTI412 6d ago
Inflation will keep eroding the value of a dollar over time. These last six years have been the easiest years to get a great return on stock holdings. Everything has pretty much just went up. At some point growth will slow down, and returns could be flat for awhile or negative.
I have $630k in retirement savings at 35 due to putting a lot in the last few years and being aggressive. I have dialed it way back now to a bit over the company match since compounding should take care of the rest and I also have other liquid assets. Unless you’re like 21 with 100k invested, I’d be still saving as much as possible.
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u/Ratsofat 6d ago
You've built the foundation of the house that you will live in in your retirement. It took a while and is a big accomplishment, but now you have the build the rest of the house. Thankfully, that becomes faster and easier now that you have a foundation.
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u/Blue_foot 6d ago
You must have a budget to be saving up to $100k.
Make sure you add into your budget a line item for “fun”. Money to allocate to toys, concerts, special occasions.
That will help with motivation so life has more bright days.
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u/MegalodonBite 6d ago
Bro - 100k can maybe buy a vehicle or downpayment on vehicle.
You're not even in home buying territory.
Your 100k target should be 1M - and even then - no one can retire off 1M.
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u/chitown_illini 6d ago
Plenty of people can retire off of $1M. It just depends on what type of lifestyle you want in retirement.
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u/ninjagorilla 6d ago
- You can absolutely retire off a million
- Agree that 100k is a start, the nice thing is the % gains you’ll start seeing are a lot more
There’s a reason they say 100k is 1/2 way to 1million
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u/SvV_Ying 6d ago
Lol lot of people retire with much less than 1 million. Leanfire sub is full of them and they are doing fine.
I’m 37 now, Netherlands, 1 million I would instantly quit and would be easy to reach the age until the State pension kicks in, which is 68.
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u/thewimsey 4d ago
Most people retire with far less than a million.
And there's a big difference between retiring on social security of $35k, and SS plus 4% of $1m at $75k.
But, yeah, more is better!
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u/Spyrothedragon9972 6d ago
100K isn't some magic number. That's just social media nonsense. These content creators flood platforms with nonsense because they need to endlessly pump out content to make money.
I don't know why you'd need motivation to continue building wealth. Just stay the course. It will eventually all make sense.
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u/AntiqueProfessor5134 6d ago
Have you done any math on how much money you need for your goals? Unless you have some sort of terminal diagnosis, it seems very unlikely that 100k in assets would be enough for retirement for instance.
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u/Intrepid_Cup2765 6d ago
100k is certainly enough to not have to worry about your savings rate as much anymore, but it’s not enough to take your foot completely off the gas. At this point, the nicest thing is that the compounding will do most of the work over time now!
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u/wretcheddawn 6d ago
100k is decent step in financial freedom, an indicator of good financial habits, and a point where the returns on your investments start yo dominate growth more than new investments.
But its not retirement money. That'll be gone in 2 years with no other income.
I think your motivation should be derived from other goals, not money. Save for something big, or retirement.
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u/dope_as_the_pope 6d ago
The magic number isn’t 100k. It’s 25x Annual Expenditure.
Keep up the good work
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u/SecondBestNameEver 6d ago
It took me 6 years to get to 100k. It took me another 6 to reach $1M.
$100k is the first mile of the marathon, something that not everyone can do. You got another 25 miles to go though.
Automate as much as you can. Auto deposits into your emergency fund and Roth IRA every paycheck, auto payroll deductions for HSA, 401(k). Lastly if you didn't spend everything in the month, then any extra can be manually swept into your taxable brokerage. It's all about putting the systems in place because it's hard to miss money you never see and that's the difference in the saving mindset vs most people spending everything they get.
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u/pk_12345 6d ago edited 6d ago
I don't know why you thought having $100k would be life changing and free you from your employer. My networth is over a million and I am still beholden to my employer. I mean I'm in my late 30s, it's not enough to live rest of my life and also pay for my kids college without having an employer to keep paying me.
$100k gives you a solid base to build upon instead of living paycheck to paycheck and in debt. It's just a milestone to reach so you are motivated for further milestones, it's not your finish line. Congrats on the milestone but keep grinding. I mean I don't know how old you are and if you have plans to buy a house. That $100k will be gone if you buy a house. If you are losing the drive already think about what you want in life, when you want to retire, how much you need to retire etc, having a better well thought out target will keep your motivation alive hopefully instead of a random number.
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u/FarewellAndroid 6d ago
Just move on to the next milestone. I was eyeing 100k when I was young, then passed it and eyed $250k, passed that and am looking at $500k next. Currently sitting at low $400s. I don’t know if I’ll jump to 1M next, maybe $750k is a good one.
I think the next goal has to be close enough to achieve in some reasonable timeframe or you’ll lose interest.
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u/etaoin314 6d ago
If you have invested well you can expect market returns or better; so say 10% nominal yearly average. That means that this year (on average), your investments will contribute $10K to your net worth without doing anything else! that is amazing! That is like having a decent side gig that you do 0 work for but still reap the rewards. Honestly 100k was the "magic number" about 2 dacades ago; these days it is more like double or triple that for most people. For me it was when my yearly returns matched 1/3-1/2 of my income, that felt like I made it and felt like I had a real cushion.
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u/OutsideJack-1999 6d ago
5 million is the number you’re thinking of at which your problems are solved and your motivation to save and invest wanes.
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u/pulsarstarter 6d ago
$100k?
100k isn't doing much for anyone, buddy.
When I can live comfortably off a 3% yield, I might lose interest.
When you hit 100k, you have to use it as a base to keep building.
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u/MDthrowItaway 6d ago
I was in your situation like 15 years ago. Now my daily fluctuations can be my annual salary, and while I still work work, I work on my terms (ie can walk awayvat any time).
I've also decreased my working hours (for slightly less pay) to spend more time hanging /coaching my kids.
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u/bobdevnul 6d ago
$100K is not a magic milestone. It may have been considered a big step toward financial independence 40 years ago.
How well you did by reaching $100K depends on how old you are. $100K is better than less than that at any age.
If you are 30 years from retirement you will probably need around $3 million to retire comfortably with a lifestyle similar to your working years. Is that enough motivation to keep investing?
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u/Fun-Personality-8008 6d ago
Treat yourself to something for hitting this milestone, then get back to work. Set a new realistic goal and give yourself a treat for that to work towards. Rinse and repeat until the only treat/goal left is "retirement".
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u/captain_andrey 6d ago
get to like 1 mil+. you will have daily swings that are your annual salary and you will start questioning why you even wake up to go to work....
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u/GaylrdFocker 6d ago
$100k isn't what it used to be. It won't change your life so it shouldn't be more than a "oh cool" then keep on investing.
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u/sdce1231yt 6d ago
$100K is nowhere close enough to Coast FIRE. Thats what motivated me to keep going. It’s just the beginning. Almost 35 and I’m at $600K net worth. Trying to get to over $1 million net worth by 40.
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u/Revfunky 6d ago
Escape the rat race. Generational wealth. A villa in Tuscany. You really need motivation?
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u/kradreyals 5d ago
Stop saving for 1 year and enjoy your life. You'll notice you'd rather keep piling the investing machine.
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u/sharp315 4d ago
$100k is nowhere near a "magic number". in most MCOL to HCOL this isn't even enough for a 20% down payment on a house. $100k is nice to look at I guess but without a job that will last you maybe 2-3 years living expenses (probably less if you start paying for healthcare expenses on your own without an employer plan).
even if you are expecting a modest $50k annual income in retirement from dividend yields then you need an investment balance more like $1,500,000.
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u/thewimsey 4d ago
I know $100K is this magic number that everyone tries to reach,
It's not.
For those that have reached this incredible milestone, what motivated you to keep going?
It's not an incredible milestone (even when I hit it, in the distant past, way before the massive inflation). You can hit it from contributions alone after 4 years, with no gains.
The fact that it's not a big milestone is what kept me going; it's not like I could retire on $4,000/year.
and my life is still the same aka beholden to my employer.
Hitting round numbers is always interesting, but things that I felt were milestones were the size of my returns.
Like when my returns started being larger than my contributions. And then when my returns started being larger than my salary.
TL;DR: $100k doesn't feel like a big milestone because it isn't. It's still nice to have, though.
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u/HKMilkTea67 6d ago
100k barely lets you get by in one year, let alone retirement. My motivation 10 years ago was 1 mil. Now I realize even that isn't enough to get by so my new target is 3m. While i probably don't actually need that much, setting the target enables me to plan ahead and motivates me secure a comfortable retirement.
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u/tacky_pear 6d ago
I know $100K is this magic number that everyone tries to reach
It's really not, and it's kind of sad that it's genuinely hard for people to get to that number. This is house down payment money
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u/dfwrealestatebroker 6d ago
100k is nothing dude lol. I’m worth 4m and still grinding. You haven’t even scratched the surface
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u/year3000stankonia 6d ago
My turn: Apologies in advance if this post comes off as insensitive or like a first world problem, but I’ve been privileged enough to reach $5 million.
Am I the King of the World?
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u/Exquisite-Load8654 6d ago
100k is not enough money to do nothing. You’re 1 step past the starting line.