Feb 13, 2020
Free Month
Contribute to the database and get 1 month free* Full online access!
$0
Contribute and get 1 month free!
1 week free for intern submissions
Most Popular
WSO Premium
Full database access + industry reports: IB, PE, HF, Consulting
$8.08 per month billed annually
...or $19 month-to month
Includes All Industry Reports
25k Interviews, 39k Salaries, 11k Reviews
IB, PE, HF Data by Firm (+ more industries)
Real Estate Modeling Course
- Real-life RE Modeling Tests from actual Interviews
- Various asset classes including multi-family, commercial and more
- Huge discount - until more tests and cases added
Related Content
See moreTotal Avg Compensation
January 2021 Investment Banking
-
Director/MD (9) $911
-
Vice President (31) $349
-
Associates (141) $232
-
2nd Year Analyst (88) $152
-
3rd+ Year Analyst (19) $150
-
Intern/Summer Associate (90) $144
-
1st Year Analyst (348) $132
-
Intern/Summer Analyst (299) $82
Upcoming Events See all
-
Jan02
-
Jan16
-
Jan02
Comments (193)
$1.0MM by 35 is my target...it becomes fairly easy to build from there (e.g., living on base salary and saving / investing 100% of annual bonus, maintaining an aggressive asset allocation of ~90% equities until mid-40s, maxing 401k contributions / employer match for tax advantages, generally living well below one's available means, etc.).
Around the target for me - maybe 32-33, but same ballpark. Lot of big life events coming up (marriage, purchase of home, kids, etc.) so who knows how it'll eventually shake out.
Your username is great.
Also same boat for me. My fiancée and I are saving up for a duplex to live in and rent out the other half. So long as we can do that 2-3 times over the next ~8ish years I'm happy. Beyond that we'll see how it shakes out.
Very informative!
$100MM by 35.
$10 by 40.
Commercial Real Estate Developer
$15MM by 30
$50M by 40
$100M by 50
At a couple million right now @ 26. It gets WAY easier once you have cash coming in on a regular basis to invest. The first $50K in "investable" funds is definitely the hardest to make...
How did you make so much in real estate at a young age?
Also very interested in how they plan to go from $2MM in net worth to $15MM in 4 years
Derp. Used new posts not browse by forum to find this. In PE/entrepreneurship not RE.
Umm you inherit it from Daddy, duh.
His parents gave him a teeny tiny loan of $2MM, and he's rounding down to be humble.
How did you get to that point? Some inputs would be appreciated!
read his AMA from 2018. entrepreneur. little seed capital, paid himself like shit for a few years, cold called his ass off, and now runs several businesses (scale). he is the unicorn for when I tell people to seek independence.
kudos to you m_1 , seeing a young buck like you absolutely crush it (and doing so the right way) is great. keep it up
Very informative and motivating!
i am shocked that this post got so much ms lol, we should not be HATERS - we should be CELEBRATORS, it is badass that there are people on the forum who are absolutely crushing it.
Currently 25 with a ton of student loan debt and a handful of real estate investments
Age 30 - student loans paid off with equity from real estate investments (or progressive socialist president cleans the slate)
Age 35 - $1M+ in gross real estate value - leveraged and cash flowing enough to cover majority of living expenses
Age 40 - $5M in gross real estate value - flexibility to walk away from my 9 - 5. Start raising capital from family and friends for larger residential/commercial deals
Age 50 - Re-evaluate meaning of life
this is a level headed one. thanks.
Good one! I started reevaluating the meaning of life after one to many happy hours and niw, guided by faith, it's a daily process!
Reasonable. Don't wait though; start re-evaluating life every year.
I think that comment was more satirical than anything...
My real answer; currently 22.
Net Worth: -170K
25 - Paid off 150k in student loans and 20K in personal loansafter working 3 years in MF. Will have 10 - 20k to my name after it's done.
Net Worth: 15K
30 - Ideally working in either MF or UMM as a VP by now, putting away a couple hundred thousand. Should be able to start working on RE deals with friends and family. I'm lucky to have a strong network of U/HNW friends despite my lower middle class origins.
Net Worth: 500K
35 - Exit my first deal, probably in commercial (office or industrial). Hopefully will have saved $1.5M working as senior management in MM, and made another $700k from the RE deal. Slowly going down the AUM chain as I take higher positions an better hours. Will have kids around now as discussed with my fiancee. She will also have graduated medical school and working as a dermatologist or neurosurgeon (the current plan), decreasing my personal family expenses.
Net Worth: 2M
40 - Kids cost a lot of money, but I've been doing more and more deals as time goes on, exiting assets every 1-2 years as I have raised more capital from friends and family in the past 10 years. Start an angel investing side hustle, throwing chunks of 50k - 100k at startups, expecting all my money to go to waste.
Net Worth: 10M
45 - Things will go one of three ways. I either strike gold with a startup or deal, or at this point I've lost all the money I've invested in startups, or I cruise by with some decent GPreturns.
Net Worth Upside: 50M
Net Worth Base Case: 20M
Net Worth Downside: 5M
50 - Too far to think about. But a man can dream for 100M.
30 - 50 will be my golden years. Ideally I'll be buying a deal or two every year starting from the age of 30, growing my net worth exponentially. I've seen it happen with my fiancee's family friends who went from 5M to 100M in 10 years. Looking to replicate that model. I'm in a lucky spot. Grew up in a lower middle class family, having both my parents save approximate 20K total by the time I got into college. Took on all the student loans myself, but ended up in a good place to get those paid off while also sending thousand dollar checks back to my parents every month to keep them afloat as well. I never want to have to worry about money ever again--fear is a crazy motivator.
Real Estate Professional Network Discord Server: https://discord.gg/xxWQ2nC
What do you mean bu "buying" a deal or two? You make it sound pretty easy lol
I'm in a slightly different position than most as many of my close (extended family) network is in real estate already. They commonly invest in commercial real estate (offices, fringe products) and will continue doing that for the foreseeable future. I don't think it's far fetched to say I can get in on those deals as a GP if I start looking for deals in my late 20s and bringing my own capital in my early 30s.
Real Estate Professional Network Discord Server: https://discord.gg/xxWQ2nC
Dermatologist or neurosurgeon...whichever...lmao
With student loans, I'm still trying to get my net worth to not have a negative sign in front of it.
lmao I love how very few factored this into their answer. Maybe people are getting through school w/o loans?
i'd like to employ the hendrix/cobain model of success.
25:
start music career.
net worth: $0
26:
blow the fuck up online and become major artist.
net worth ~$1M.
27:
die horribly.
net worth ~$1-2M
28+:
immortalised by fans. value of my estate increases several fold overnight.
net worth: tens to hundreds of millions.
I'll be your drummer.
you son of a bitch. i'm in.
That 27 club is real
thx amy winehouse
Median retirement savings for a 55 y/o in USA is ~100k. Judging by the comments we have a remarkable sample set in either potential wealth or delusion.
1st year associate's bonus in MF REPE is 100k by itself.
Real Estate Professional Network Discord Server: https://discord.gg/xxWQ2nC
Median HH income in the U.S. is also like 40k sooooooooooo.....?
yeah if this was Walmart Staff Oasis then he'd have a valid point
Real Estate Professional Network Discord Server: https://discord.gg/xxWQ2nC
That's because most people don't save. It's fairly pathetic if you can only save 100k by the time you are 50. My grandmother only made about 40k a year and she has 500k in retirement
On point.
Yeah but she was making 40k at a time when a bottle of coke and a candy bar was less than a quarter. That same combo is probably close to three dollars or more now a days. This isn't even close to comparable. Also if she was making 40k back then, THATS A TON OF MONEY. For instance just as far back as 1970; 40K dollars a year would be equivalent to almost 250k now.
Just to add on to this, the national household savings rate of post-tax is about 8% currently. That is significantly weighted up by high-earning households, though, with the bottom 60% of HH retaining savings near zero in line with historical norms. Personal savings rate for finance people like us can be closer to 30-50% of post-tax income based on higher incomes yielding more discretionary income. Some people spend that discretionary income now, some save and invest and spend it later.
Yes to both?
Commercial Real Estate Developer
This forum is not made up of people who want to live in the realm of average. Overall that is what makes WSO such a valuable resource. There are people here from widely different backgrounds but we all want more than the status quo and we use the forum as place to gain knowledge that helps in that pursuit while having a few laughs along the way. That is what makes this place great.
well put. it's great that this community strives for the best as corny as it sounds.
Agreed.
Sincerely the former. Most of us on this forum are quite young and possess more financial knowledge than prior generations. The wealth parity will continue to increase and most of us here will be the benefactors.
How do people retire with $100k? Assuming they've got another 30 years to go, either you've got to be slumming it out in poverty, investing with more insider information than Steve Cohen, moving out of country to Mexico or Bali, or relying on your kids. I don't see another alternative. Other than not retiring and working until your time is up.
Social Security + paid off house + extremely low cost of living town?
I don't know. I couldn't do it.
Commercial Real Estate Developer
Retiring in Bali sounds dope, ngl...New plan - moving to Maldives for retirement (low COL), insider trading (non-extradition to US), and collecting remittances from kids I have yet to have!
This is WSO bro.
Seriously though, it's not difficult to save 100k by your late 20's even if you aren't making six figures out of undergrad. People have problems in life and life is expensive in general, but people are also shit at saving.
I don't tend to think of things in a NW perspective.
Currently 26.
At 25 I wanted an emergency fund of ~9 months expenses and a downpayment on my house (check)
At 30 I want my retirement safety net to be fully funded. Assuming my house is paid off I want about $60k in todays dollars using a 4% withdrawl rate ($1,500,000 in 2020 dollars). Assuming I will work for another 30 years and my portfolio returns 7% net of inflation this means I need roughly 200k sitting in my 401k at age 30. Even if I never contribute another dollar I should be ok. Currently at 100k with 4 years to go. Should be no problem to hit it. I also want to have roughly 100k invested in real estate. Should be feasible with bonuses etc.
Beyond 30 tough to say as who knows what life will bring. If I have kids I will probably be more conservative and want more liquidity. Maybe I will want to risk it all and go the entrepreneurship route and try to hit 10MM by 40.
I wish you well but I think your targeted real (!) return of 7% is probably high by at least 200bps. We're 10 years into a bull market, PEs are high, and bond yields are low. Most market forecasters - who, I'll be the first to acknowledge, get it wrong at least as often as they get it right - are guiding investors to expect low/mid single digit nominal returns on equities and less than that on fixed income for the next decade+.
Well obviously I don't intend to stop funding at age 30, but having a safety net in place based on a 7% real return is a good start. I also plan to make some real estate investments.
S&P500 Real returns from 1950-2009 were 7% which included two decades of negative real returns (70s and 00s). 10s have been unreal but 20 of the next 40 years could be pretty shitty and it would probably still work out.
I really like the retirement funded in present value terms. Obviously there's financial independence with actual retirement, but knowing you could work for less pay, cut your hours, etc (take less bs you don't want to in general) because you could theoretically not invest more into retirement and be ok, while having to only cover your regular expenses would minimize a lot of professional life stress.
To some of the people in here acting like it's crazy most of us see ourselves having a net worth easily over a million. This is a IB forum guys we are not Wal-Mart employees it's not far fetched to get there
i'm a walmart employee :(
Walmart Labs pays their software engineers pretty good money. It's not FAANG but it's definitely very good pay, objectively speaking
Outside of those who have family money I foresee quite a few disappointed future 30 year olds here.
For real. People who think they will have the ability to GP a deal and exit before 30 allowing them to be worth $5mm are smoking the good shit.
how about 35?
Real Estate Professional Network Discord Server: https://discord.gg/xxWQ2nC
They haven't realized that net worth and liquidity requirements are going to really limited their financing options on these early deals.
I'll be honest: I am 51. Single, no kids, renter. Not a trader. Was doing ok on savings and then was 'downsized' at end of '15. Three weeks later my father became ill and I spent a lot of time with my family in Midwest. Then I traveled. I didn't work for 2 years. I drained all but 8k from my 401k before I took a job. Those 2 years were GLORIOUS and really changed my view on life, money, work, etc. So I started from scratch basically. I'm maxing my 401k every year, I've moved out of my beautiful market-rate midtown apartment to Astoria, and saving on the side to buy something/somewhere (prob NOT NYC, I'll be dead before I have $ for 20% downpayment). Life happens, its great to have a plan and kudos to all who are killing it. I could have done those 2 years better, I made a couple of big errors but, now I do what I can to put myself in a better position. GLTA
Corporate Finance here, so this one will be in stark contrast to the rest of you.
Currently 25, NW of 66k as of today. 3.5 years into my career, and I started my career with a NW of negative 40k between student loans and car loan. Looking to have a NW of 80k when I hit my fiscal year end (this July). Likely going to start my MBA this fall, so my NW will not increase for 2 years as I pay for that.
I'm gunning to be a manager at 27/28, a director in my early to mid 30s, and VP eventually. Those are my aspirations, but for forecasting purposes, I conservatively assume I'll top out at Sr. Manager and pull ~180k all in.
Planning to hit 100k NW at 28 (shortly after finishing my MBA)
30: $200k. Should be a manager for a year or two, so I'll be able to save a lot more for retirement and will likely get a house at this point.
35: $500k. I'm an agressive saver, and am conservative when forcasting when I'll hit promos. I hope to get to director around this time, but am not forecasting it.
40: $1MM. This been my goal for a while- hit a million by 40.
50: $2.5MM. It's more realistic to hit director in my 40s, but if that happens in my 30s then these numbers will hopefully be a lot higher. I haven't even made a model that assumes I hit VP at any point.
65: $8MM. Comfortable retirement, hope to be a snowbird. Hope to only pull 50-100k from my nestegg yearly and will either leave plenty to my family, or get a sweet yacht. Depends on how much of a late-life crisis I have.
The big unknowns to this are if I decide to be an entrepreneur, or if I get some real estate on the side. As a true FP&A guy I like to sandbag my forecasts as long as they still land me in a comfortable spot.
Are you planning on working during that MBA? It's a bit difficult to pay for a master's and save at the same time - I've done it.
Yeah, I plan on going PT since I'm looking for a career boost but not a career change. The yearly cost of the MBA is more than I save in a year, but it should be offset by continued debt payments and 401k contributions.. so that's why I expect my NW to be flat while I get the MBA.
As someone in accounting/corp fin, I'm very similar to you except I have a slightly delayed timeline due to an unforeseen medical problem that set my career back a year or two. I want to hit 7 digits by 40 and hopefully hit director by early 40s. I figure once I hit those two goals, everything else will fall into place. As a Director, I should be pulling in more than enough in salary to live comfortably outside of NYC/SF and have enough passive income through dividends/savings in non-retirement accounts to pull me through if/when I lose my job in a recession.
Given I had medical problems, I think I'm also different than a lot of people on these forums in that I value my time more than making a killing or more digits to my name. Life is short and after a certain point, I don't think more money makes it any more meaningful. I used to want to be in IB and had a bit of a chip on my shoulder for only being in (at the time) TS while my friends started out in IB and were worth multiples what I was. Well, laying in a hospital bed thinking you're going to die makes you realize how worthless all that shit is. I only worried about what people would think of me as a person after I passed and frankly for how long. I ended up exiting TS (being on call was making me miserable), declining a boutique IB offer, and am now doing boring advisory work at a Big 4 firm that'll hopefully allow me to make decent money as a controller/CFO someday. Biggest thing is that so far, people are much more laid back than people in M&A and I'm much happier by not working with sociopaths that kept asking me to work 65 hours a week and only charge for 40 of them
My question to you though is do directors really only top out at 180K including stock options and whatnot? I'm pretty surprised by that because even when I was recruiting for manager, I was getting quoted at $115K + 20-30% bonus after only 5 years of experience + a CPA.
I forecast hitting senior manager and topping out at $180k. Director comp (from what I've seen at my prior company, which was F100ish) is closer to $200k-300k base and 25% bonus it seems.
By 40, Be divorced and live in a van down by the river.
25 (today): $110k
Own condo w/ ~$90k in equity. Renting for a 1 year. Covering 90% of costs (ptax/utilities/etc.). Have ~$20k in the bank.
30: $250k
Assuming salary goes up by ~$10k/year and I save 20%/year, that's $65k in savings. Equity in condo increased to ~$260k. So, extra $170 + $65 + original $20 = $255
35: tough to say w/ wife + kids a factor. Probably making $200k to $250k/year. Probably have to buy a house (HCOL city), so townhouse more likely really.
40: $1 M liquid? Equity in house probably another $1 M
45: $3M
Ideally at this point have financial flexibility to be investing in RE
60: $10M
~Deleted~
Shit there are some rich 25yo on this board.
Being rich at 25 is cool and all, but being rich at 78 is way cooler.
I'm 27 now with a NW of $200k. Hoping to hit $700k by 35 and use this as seed money invested indexes. Then exit the soul sucking world of RE high finance and break even in a career that I feel like I'm positively impacting people. Planning on working, hopefully with increased flexibility, until I physically can't.
love this.
8 figure net worth by age 40. It won't be easy but I know I can do it if I just keep trucking along.
I gave up on specific goals. There's so much randomness and luck involved if your not following a beaten path, especially in volatile industries.
There was a guy I had dinner with that worked at ServiceNow pre-ipo and said if he had held his stock until now he'd have 20 mil or so.
Instead he used it to buy a house in the south of france in cash.
well, clearly patience would have served him well then
This. The more down to the letter a person has stuff planned, generally the younger and more inexperienced they are. Exception being if you're liquid af then you have a lot more control, generally speaking.
It's nice to have goals. My nephew who is 16 listens to a youtube video everyday before going to bed saying "I have a billion dollar in my bank account" - or some other vapid bull shit.
Good on him - but it's not helping him with his grades or getting there in the first place.
Money goal are not great, as they are just empty - better put career goals in place. Or having done a deal by age x etc... That's more concrete. Your ex-wife will take most of your networth anyways at some point if you marry the wrong woman.
What is everyone's liquid net worth to to walk away from your 9-5 and say forget it? I'm not an RE guy but all this RE you guys plan to own sounds like a lot of work to me. I'm talking about truly having enough cash and low touch cash generating investments to stop grinding and find a job you enjoy that is pretty much only to keep you busy and makes your life somewhat normal to your kids. I know a couple of guys who are in their 40s who have enough to walk away and are sick of it, and basically keep going to work so their kids understand some value of hard work, now these guys are not grinding like they used to and are basically waiting to get laid off. I'm thinking 10MM by 40 assuming a normal lifestyle (kids, house, etc.) and you can walk away.
It's not just about making enough $. I mean, what do you do after work? Golf all day? Few people I know can do that non-stop before it gets old. Romp with the wife and have some kids. Cool, done. Now what? Travel around and go to the islands. Yup, done. Now what? Literally no one that I know who has made enough money has been able to sit still for long. Maybe 6 months of retirement is the most I've seen anyone pull off. It's insane to work a job you hate waiting to just make money so you can retire, and then be bored once you retire. Better to find something you like doing (or at least, don't hate) so that you can do that instead.
I think you are missing my point here, I am not talking about totally walking away and doing nothing but doing something that is not as many hours that you actually enjoy. Due to the age that people are living to these days and the fact that we are taking better care of our brains and bodies retirement is kinda a dead concept and I think you are going to see people retire in stages. Finance is grind relative to most of the jobs but it also pays and allows me to have a lifestyle that is better than 99% of the regular 9-5 working population. I think everyone has the "If money did not matter, this is what I would do in mind" My question is what is your number to actually do it.
10 by 30
50 by 40
100 by 50
Die at a billion
When I was younger, I used to make goals like this. Now, my goal is simple - live below my means and put the excess (minus some emergency funds that stay in very liquid and stable assets) into the market.
Einstein supposedly said that compound interest is the "eighth wonder of the world."
A dramatic (but not completely far-fetched) example: $100,000 turns into approximately $100,000,000 if you can compound at 18.85% for 40 years.
That's only possible if you are Warren Buffet, you say?
Not necessarily, in fact, since you are managing much smaller amounts of money in your personal portfolio, you could potentially make even greater returns, but let's say you compounded at just 11.7% for 40 years instead (the return of the S&P 500 over the last 40 years with dividends reinvested) - you end up with ~8.3 million
The takeaway - live below your means, put the excess in the market, and let the magic of compound interest do it's thing. The sooner you start the better.
Bingo. This is exactly what I do. The only other thing I'd add is learning to have less wants has been huge for me. Besides being financially prudent, having less wants has really improved my mental health because I focus more of my energy on things that make me happy, number one of which I've found to be relationships with friends/family and as well as splurging occasionally on travel (I love learning about different cultures).
I think we're all pretty lucky to be in finance, assuming you enjoy it, because even lowly FP&A/CPAs like me earn more than enough to satisfy the basic necessities and plenty of luxuries. Whenever I think about my friends that earn more, I always count the lucky stars that I'm not innately passionate about the arts or something like that because it's much harder to make ends meet in that field.
Currently 30 with ~$750k. Kids and wedding are cleared.
Targets:
-35: $2-3m
-40: $5-10m
-45: $15-20m
-50: $25-30m
Planning to reach targets mainly due to bonuses (100% going towards investments), carry and shares at corporate level of my firm. We'll see how it goes.
You must be anticipating some seriously impressive bonuses and/or returns to pencil out that kind of trajectory, especially if it's after tax.
It's a function of multiple things:
30 : with ~1m$, savings/bonuses + 5k startup investment that became 450k
35 : 2-3m$, more bonuses and potential exit on the startup at another x2-3
43 : 5-6m$, leave finance after 20y with all the deferred. Chill.
Did you invest directly in a friend's company or through some platform?
You know what I don't get? How someone who is 40 can have four kids, a wife who doesn't work (teaches yoga for her Westport moms during her free time and trying to make a business out of it when we know it's more a cult following), live in a three million dollar house in Westport and commute an hour and a half to the city on train. Yes, I know plenty of traders who live like this, well exactly like this (Credit Trader at JPM), cough... how much money does someone have to be bringing in annually?
They probably bought it before it was worth $3 million.
Pretty interesting to see the difference between Europe and the US when it comes to net worth. Overall, looks like it is much easier to build your net worth quickly in the US, but certain life events (e.g. Illness, higher education, divorce...) can and will make you burn a lot of cash quickly while education and health care tend to be "relatively" cheap here.
Hard to run a like-for-like comparison between Europe and the US for the reasons mentioned above, not to mention that on average real estate is way more expensive across Europe (aside from NYC, SF and a few other cities), marginal tax rate is rarely below 50% for top earners (> $125-175k) and kicks in pretty quickly making it very difficult to save a lot of money, high COL, and there are few(er) or no tax efficient investments.
In a previous message, I shared with WSO the net worth of a few investment bankers after a decade on the Street or in the City. Below is an average for someone who worked in IBD for a few years and then decided to move to a small PE fund, a Tech company or a MM advisory firm. This excludes options / sweet equity / (potential) carry / inherited money.
25: average net worth anywhere between $(45)k and $25k. Keep in my that most European people tend to join the job market around 23-25yo
30: average net worth of $150-350k
35: average net worth of $300-650k
40: average net worth of $400k-$1.3m (you can see the impact of kids, first divorce, mortgage repayment, etc)
This is for illustrative purposes only, but should give you a pretty good idea of the net worth of c.20 people around me now based in London / Milan / Paris / Madrid / Stockholm
Hope this is helpful.
Camondo
As someone who lives in Europe, these numbers made me feel a lot better (after initially reading people's 8 figure targets). It does seem the numbers are smaller and come later around here. Thanks for the contribution
$13k at age 24.
I expect to be in the $50-60k range at 25 from maxing out 401k, Roth IRA, and HSA.
I expect to then invest $60-100k annually collectively with GF from there-on with about $60k into tax-advantaged accounts.
I'm 20 and I have about 382.90 in my checkings account, I have $75 in a vanguard account, $195 in a TD Ameritrade account.... I'm starting a job at TD bank and hoping to dump my earnings in mutual funds i vanguard. i don't know what my net worth goal is, should I?
No. Have it in cash. You want liquidity at this point. Increase your earnings. Build up your cash pile. Then start investing
I come from nothing. I send my mother $1k a month and my father $1k a month. They are divorced.
Unfortunately, that means for my analyst years I was operating cash flow negative.
I am 25. My goal by 30 is to be debt-free and have $150k in assets.
By 35, my goal is to hit $500k. By 40 $1.5mn.
I am fortunate in one respect - my father has 3 brothers that have paid off their houses, all on Long Island (each worth $500k+). I will inherit each of their assets. This combined with my own savings will put me in a strong financial position by the time I turn 40. If I hit my target of $1.5mn saved in my own right + my inheritance from my uncles and appreciation in the valuation of their assets, I should be worth about $4mn at 40. From there, life happens. I hope to have kids and a family before I turn 40. At a minimal return of 3% per year in dividends, I should be able to generate $120k a year off of my assets, which I can reinvest.
You come from nothing yet have $1.5 million in residential real estate earmarked for you to inherit? I wish I came from nothing
Array
As of today, yes - a lot can happen that could change that.
None of which changes the fact I started working full-time at 14 years old out of necessity.
Currently 19- in semi target
22-analyst at BB (100k net worth have invested 20k already from internships)
25-make associate (200k saved) (maybe a Bschool in here somewhere)
30- make VP in buy side on west coast (800k saved)
35- MD (3 million saved)
40- start own REPE fund (6 million saved)
50- worlds first trillionaire, Knighted by queen, sultan in Middle East, married to Madison Beer. Donate all my inheritance to Alma matters. Be like Bobby axelrod but just better. Owner of 6 nfl teams
60- peacefully live out my life rotating between vail, my yacht in the exumas, NYC until I'm cremated on mars
I am 23. I am a PE associate. I structure deals and monitor portfolio companies. My responsibility at the firm is growing quickly. Came from humble beginnings and never lost the hustle.
My net worth objective by age 25 is $1.0MM.
My net worth objective by age 30 is $10.0MM.
You may ask how I made this possible, I would be glad to elaborate.
I'll bite, how?
We're supposed to want to know how you "made possible" something that hasn't even happened yet? Tell you what - come back in two years if you actually have the $1m in net worth and let us know how you got there. And definitely check back in 7 years if you're up to $10m by then...
lmao I forgot how full of boners this website is
28: $1,000,000
What concert costs 45 cents? 50 Cent feat. Nickelback.
I'm about to turn 35 and will crest over 600k in a couple of months. I could have saved more, but the ~250k I've spent on vacations/cars/fun shit over the last decade is what makes life worth living. I don't want to die at my desk having never experienced the life that my money could pay for (also, I don't intend to have kids, so I plan on spending it all myself).
That said, with the new job and including retirement matches/investment dividends, I'm on target to put away about 150k a year for the foreseeable future. If all of that works out, then I should be retiring at 50 with about 3M.
Currently 26 @ net worth of ~$170k
Assuming investments grow at a nominal 6% y/y, my NW Goals are :
27: $200k
30: $300 - 350k
35: $500 - 600k
40: $1.0mm
50: $2 - $2.5mm
25 sitting on 25 mill
Amusing number of people with amusingly aggressive goals. For RE professionals, very few of us seem to have a clear-eyed view of career trajectory in this industry.
I am older than most of you on the board, but follow as a hobby and use what I learn as a part-time investor. This piqued my interest so thought i would share my story and how it has gone for me.
Came from nothing and joined the military at 17. Military paid for my college education and got out to get an MBA which was largely paid for by a good fellowship and veterans benefits. Second Master's Degree (non-business) paid for by company after working 10yrs. Thus I never had any college debt which was a huge advantage compared to many of you who have posted..
Technical background and save most of what I earn which is well above average but not stratospheric. Personally invest my savings with little outside help.
First $1M saved at 35 and that was by far the hardest.
Currently 50 with a net worth of $7M and no debt. Goal of $14M by 65.
The keys for me and for anyone willing to listen:
Just my thoughts on this topic.
Very informative post - helpful to hear the first $1mm is the hardest in the context that you're currently at $7mm by 50 (very impressive so congrats). It's not a competition, but this gives me a concrete example / goal to shoot for in the future so appreciate it.
Ooohhh I'm liking this thread:
Currently 27:
50-60K in investments / employment retirement.
Bought multi family investment property @ 26 worth 465K.
Currently look at a flip that will hopefully net an additional 200K
Only 1K left in student loans.
And this is all without a stress inducing job on Wall Street. You guys are giving half of that away to the gov't and killing yourselves in the process, be wolves, not sheep.
But 50% of you just want to flex at Nobu for the gram, so to those, I pity you.
How did you buy a half million dollar multifamily property at 26?
I saved for 4 years, and don't buy Starbucks coffees every morning.
Might be a little more modest compared to some monkeys on here, but currently making 60k all-in for context...
Net worth of zero by age 26, 100k by 30, 300k by 35, 500k by 40, 1 million by 45, and 1 million relatively liquid by 50.
I think it's somewhat conservative on the whole but pretty aggressive between 35-45. I read that once you hit 300k in the market it snowballs much more quickly and your contributions matter not as much.
45 3mm (preparing for retirement with Investments in real estate and living comfortably)
50 4mm (semi-retired with real estate passive income)
70 6mm (retired, no real estate passive income or fully operated by 3rd party property managers)
Looks like a lot of you are planning on winning the lottery.
I'm in IB, not RE, but here is how it's actually played out for me. Got into banking late, average bonuses, above average but not extravagant spending for my income, rode the market like everyone else, but no major home run investments, wife and kids in the rear view mirror..
22: ($30,000)
25: 0
27: $150k
30: $400k
32: $700k
35: $1.6m
Hope to hit $3mm by 40 and get out
By get out to do you mean leaving banking for a corporate job (40-50 hour week limited travel), totally get out and just retire or do some fun job to keep yourself busy?
Take a corporate job soon, and then do whatever I want (or nothing, or volunteer) once I hit $3mm
Do you live in NYC?
Nope, next cost tier down. I'm actually curious how these figures match up with others my age in IB.
Currently 22, Finishing Undergrad
Net Worth: $130K~
You might wonder, how did I accumulate so much while only in undergrad?
Simple. My parents paid for my college and rent. My dad built me some equity in his business (for tax reasons) where I receive ~$2K monthly cash flow .
I also did multiple internships at technology company which paid insane monthly sums for interns, but it's primarily from my parents.
Looking at the long-term I want to use an FHA long to possibly purchase a 4-plex, and then maybe BRRRR some houses and maybe get into multifamily value-add.
Hopefully, but age 30 I have leveraged $2M cash into $10M worth of real estate investments.
Currently 21, turning 22 in a few months. NW:$60k. I went to my local flagship state school that 40k for all four years. Luckily my parents paid for it which is very nice. after my IB stint I want to work at multi manager so I don't necessarily have Nw goals given I save and invest over 50% of my take home pay.
26, my current net worth is like... $3k? Aiming to reach $50k by 30, MBA, $200k by 35, $1M by 40.
Planning to be just south of $1m by 30. Planning farther than that right now is kind of pointless since I could get some blockbuster real estate deals at 40% IRRs or sit on a savings account for three years at 2%. Gonna take a break ~30 to travel for a year or two, though, and then reevaluate my goals. Net worth isn't the primary motivator for me - my motivators are being able to develop/redevelop interesting real estate projects, travel, and not deal with office BS.
This thread has been a fascinating read. Long time lurker here...in fact, back in college I aspired to be a wall-streeter or fellow Excel monkey.
I am 29. Graduated school with 80k in student loan debt. At age 22 got a job at a fixed income life insurance fixed income fund in their real estate group making $60k annually. I lived with mom and dad to assist in my paying off of debt.
Worked from 7-7 at the fund, and worked from 8-2 on my real estate portfolio. Just overall worked a shitload and when I was 23 I didn't have anything else to do. It paid off.
I now own my own real estate investment shop with 11 employees located in a midwestern city. I am worth just shy of $2.5mm and will likely realize some gains by YE 2020 to get to $3mm or just shy. The real estate market being on fire, coupled with low interest rates, has been incredibly beneficial to me. Just plain luck.
I live in a $500k house that is paid for, have another $1.5mm in paid for, cash-flowing real estate, and about $500k in cash for a rainy day. I have an incredibly boring investment strategy and like predictable cash flow. No leverage.
For those looking to have a balance sheet of net $1mm by the time you are 30--it is ENTIRELY possible. Quit buying dumb shit to impress people you don't like.
Be well!
Not to be an ass, because this is a super impressive story... but didn't writing this paragraph terrify you? You're in one of the hottest, longest lasting real estate markets of all time. Interest rates are at all time lows. And you're net worth is only $2.5mm? That would be extremely, extremely impressive nonetheless if it weren't for the fact that you're running an 11 person staff. You own the business... which means you own those liabilities. At 50k a piece all in (which is almost inconceivably low for salary plus benefits, I don't care where you live), you're running probably $600,000/yr in overhead, without considering money set aside for deposits, for diligence, etc. Most likely a lot closer to a million all in.
Again, I don't mean this to be accusatory, but how do you justify such an enormous level of staffing and overhead when the deals these people are working on aren't worth much? Unless you pass through overhead to the individual deals? I'm just thinking, if you're 10% of the equity on these things, that's $25mm in equity in the deals you have now. A 2% management fee covers half a million bucks... you're coming out of pocket on the remaining several hundred thousand dollars of overhead a year? I guess if you can help explain the math on the overhead that would be interesting.
You don't sound like an ass at all...all fair questions.
Did this paragraph terrify me...no. I think the depiction of my company below will clarify some things for you.
Of all of the real estate I own (11 single family homes, an apartment building, a warehouse, and a small office building that we occupy), I do not have a single penny of partnership money, equity partners, or leverage of any kind. I don't believe in partners, and if I did, I would take out leverage. 10 year treasury rate was at 1.37 today when I looked...insane. I'm not oblivious to that...just not for me. I like an extremely risk-adverse life and that is fine with me.
My staff is composed of 4 commission only 1099 contractors, 5 salaried employees, and 2 combos of both hourly pay and commission. My monthly fixed overhead hovers around $40,000 or so. My business is largely fee-based, to the tune that we are routinely bringing in ~$250,000 in fees a month, in conjunction with the portfolio assets we decide to buy. In essence this is done by optioning the real estate we don't want to buy and making a fee for doing so. Our bottom-line net operating income is somewhere around $150k per month after marketing costs. Yes--we operate at a 50% profitability ratio, but my business is not sellable unfortunately due to the transaction-based nature of what we do. This is a story for a different day.
I usually have a hard time explaining to folks who work in NYC or Chicago what we do...and that I can own discounted, cash-flowing real estate with no partners and no debt. We crank out $10-$20k fees 20 +/- times a month to ensure that bills are paid and income is steady. From there, we cherry pick the quality deals that we want to hold on to--simple as that.
Now, when the correction comes, and it will...yes, my business will change. Fees go down because buyers go away, and an oversupply in the market will decrease price and make our lives harder. At the end of the day we simply serve as a giant residential real estate acquisition magnet. From there, we made the most prudent investment decision for our investors (me) that we can. To wrap some financial lingo around it...we are an asset management group/family office that manages my cash. Just so happens that we also control the discounted real estate supply in the marketplace.
Perfect? Nope. Risky? Not in my book. The paid for real estate that I own services the employee overhead regardless of whether or not we generate fees. Hopefully that clears things up.
Curious on a financial minds' take on my business as it is laid out above. Appreciate the comment!
I am currently 25 (bday tomorrow so really 26), two semesters of my MBA left. Current Networth:
Retirement Accounts: $25K
Savings: $5K
I owned a house in a tier 12 city, but sold it to pay for my MBA because it was too far for me to feel comfortable maintaining. I have no debt, but not a ton else. I work in PE at the same time, but in the EU and so my income isn't that crazy. I got married this year as well, and don't plan on having kids for about 5 years. Unfortunately because I didn't work IB/PE pre-MBA I was makin sub-$100k so savings weren't too high prior to studies.
My goals:
26 - $30K; get a job post-grad hoping for a combined income of $200k w/ wifey
30 - $300k-$400k+ with maxing 401k + $20k-$25k in taxable a year at 7% roi per annum
35- $1m - if I'm successful within my firm and my wife has moved up as well
50 - $5m-$7m - hoping to have 3+ properties invested in
55 - retired and hopefully if all goes well between $7m - $10m
This is obviously best case scenario, but this is what I have modeled out.
Any advice on anyways I could start a side hustle now to improve my outlook?
Really impressive what some of the RE guys in here are doing. Makes me second guess some of my career choices...
Dropping in with another PE perspective:
After my 2 years banking + 3 PE associate years I'll be at about $450-$500k in a year depending on how investments do. Big question then is whether I do MBA or not. Assuming I don't:
30: 1M
40: 4M
50: 10M
55: 15M
Massive scale back how much time i put into work somewhere in the 10M-15M range and then enjoy some time with my family / spend it all.
Hoping by age 35 and moving forward I'm saving 150k of income per year on average (will be bumpy of course) and making 7% on my investment portfolio over the long haul. Seems doable but probably an above average outcome for where I'm at.
If I do MBA everything gets backed up 3 years.
Yeah RE there are a lot of way to co-invest early and get some of that sweet sweet GP equity. Which as of lately means every deal was coming out to 5-10x after promoted interest.
This I think has expectations very high.
currently 25 with NW north of 500k. Goal is to get 100M at 35
ok
Ok, so are we putting in inheritance? (cause then I am doing real great at 19)
Yeah... net worth can say a lot about a man, but should we focus just on the money or is the idea were pushing here more important than the money itself. Your business could experience a "boom" sometimes in later stages. Few years may be like suffering but you just might have a late bloomer on your hands. I'd just like to be no ones slave modernly called a "employee", and to have control over myself, I don't care when it explodes as long as it is a decent amount of money where I can afford some expensive trips or some good looking car I'm fine with it. Money is only a number, money not spent is wasted. Regarding all this I'd say 300000$ at 30, 700000$ at 40 and from there I would go for a million by my 65th circle around the sun.
deleted
Goals are $250k by 30 and $2mm by 40. Will figure out a goal for my 50s when I get into my 30s.
Here's where I was:
22: $36k
23: $53k
24: $92k
25: $133k
26: $161k
Not too sure where I'm at with the recent stock meltdown, but I would assume I was around 185-190 before that. Hoping my income starts going up a lot more in the next few years so I can really start saving and investing. Am expecting to be right around $200k at 27.
27: ~$201k
My take is that everyone wants a level of wealth but when it REALLY comes down to it, most people are not willing to work for it. There will be several times people get fucked with work, especially the older they get, and will just back out of it due to a lifestyle expectation or idea that they should be working "x" amount only when they reach a certain age. It takes a pretty differentiated mindset to get past a lot of tough professional obstacles one faces. Most people on this forum feel they fit into this mentality so I won't even try and persuade the college kids here but remember to evaluate whether or not you possess this mentality after 4-5 years working in high finance. It really makes a difference to your mental health whether or not you can accept this for yourself. Realize that not being a high finance "baller" doesn't make you less or anything. Not trying to come off assholey but it really needs to be said and realized by those who grind day in day out slipping into some kind of mental demise
Also I'm not saying that not being in finance won't yield you the wealth you desire. It's more about realizing or recognizing what you'll enjoy and what will make you work towards whatever it is you're doing rather than being driven by an idea of wealth you've read about in BI or Forbes
agree. and the risks (career, financial, relationship) and scacrifices. life is not a straight line.
Lots of interesting comments. I know this will be buried but as at 2 am in the UK - 9th March:
-currently 21 undergrad- 238 GBP in my bank account
Goals by 25? Rent a nice one bedroom apartment. I've never had a nice room even though I dont come from a piss poor family (so dont feel bad). Would be awesome to decorate it myself and invite friends/girls and not feel embarrassed. Also would be nice to have enough money to take care of some medical stuff. I'll be optimistic and say earning 50k GBP a year. Maybe I'll complete a masters who knows. Likely to be at negative net worth because of loans and helping family with my savings.
30: at this point maybe i will have saved up some money and maybe i should be earning about 70-80k? That seems wild to me but who knows. At this point i should have a gf and perhaps a mortgage? Net worth may be positive but highly unlikely to be over 100k GBP
Beyond that idk, how could I forecast life? i'll consider myself well off if im worth like 2m by 65. Very well off 10m.
This is more like a note for me to revisit in a few years.
made new unrelated account - dont reply or message as i never use it.
Great topic to discuss. I feel a lot of good can come from these types of topics when discussed openly and honestly...
Personally, I am interesting in hearing how other late 20 year old's have built wealth over the last half decade / decade since joining the workforce, and are planning for the future (family funds or not)...
I started out of college in '14 in San Francisco when most people in the real estate world thought that was the height of the market. Since I joined the work force in '14/'15, national rental prices have increased by 11.1% (according to this https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/national-rent-data/). I have been fortunate to work hard and "climb" a couple rungs of the lader and make better money, but it is no where near the amounts needed to save or buy myself a home or an investment property. My only true savings is my 401k, a couple grand in my personal equities trading fund from when I was in college, and my ability to continue to make more money in the future (living the semi-retired life right now, post mass layoffs, but ill digress in this thread), which isn't as consistent or guaranteed as you'd think when in a role..
My point: I am curious to hear how other youngsters in the Real Estate realm are building wealth today with high rents, expensive food/transportation costs, low wage growth, and an extremely tight labor market? What is your plan to build wealth through real estate and how does your career / personal savings dictate how you execute or expedite this process?
Look forward to any info and some good conversation!
I think this is a place where you use the common sense test if you read a statistic that makes no sense. Rents have grown in aggregate by 11.1% (according to your source's methodology), not annually. 11.1% annual rent growth isn't technically impossible, I suppose (runaway inflation?), but it's hard to imagine any practical situation in which it would happen
Thanks for the catch. Didnt mean to say annually, but good catch nonetheless.
Any suggestions on the purpose of the post?
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Want to Unlock by signing in with your social account?
Array
What concert costs 45 cents? 50 Cent feat. Nickelback.