Twenty-five years?
–sutton
older
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So at lunchtime I did the math.
I record my net worth every July 1, and have since 1992. Too lazy to compare Oct 2022 with Oct 1997, I looked at those two July firsts as a rough surrogate. Then I adjusted for inflation.
After the inflation adjustment, my net worth is 44 times what it was 25 years ago.
It would be substantially less if I 1) hadn’t bit the bullet and started my own practice a couple of years later; 2) hadn’t adhered to the one-house-one-spouse rule; 3) not summoned the courage to take a couple of other carefully considered risks of the this-had-better-work variety; 4) allowed too much lifestyle creep as the income went up
It would be a lot more if 1) I had been ungenerous to my partners; 2) restricted my kids’ undergrad to a state school; 3) been more comfortable with debt; 4) kept working instead of heading OTD as soon as it seemed almost-for-sure-I-think safe
But 44x, inflation-adjusted, is more than I would have guessed.
I credit 17% of this to the TMF community (10 of those 17 due solely to mungo - thanks, Jim, if you’re listening); 40% to received wisdom of Buffett/Munger/the synergy of the two (10, 20, 10 respectively); 10% to luck; the remainder to a patient spouse.
Enough of a lunch break. Being retired doesn’t mean standing around lollygaggin’ all day (1)
–sutton
(1) Winnie the Pooh, 1966:
Gopher: Well, I can’t stand around lollygagging all day. I got a tight schedule. [falls down a hole, screaming]
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