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What would you do with $1 million dollars in your 401k?

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“Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there“. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

Happy Saturday! It’s the last day of May 2025. As I write this, I am closing in on $500,000 in investments.

It made me take pause and reflect on the journey I had been on to get to that number.

The sleepless nights wondering how I was going to pay the bills and how I would afford to pay for retirement was over. Even with a return of investment of less than the stock market average of 10 percent over the last 30 years, I would still hit the $1 million nest egg milestone before I retire. So it made me think, what would I do with $1 million dollars of investments?

With that type of money, if you wanted to, you could buy a house with cash depending on where you want to live. This includes places inside and outside of the United States.

The cheapest places to buy a house in the U.S. include states like Iowa, West Virginia, and Mississippi, as well as cities like Scranton, PA, Weirton, WV, and El Paso, TX. This year, West Virginia has the cheapest homes in the country, with an average house price of $146,578. Several countries also offer affordable options for buying a house outside the US, including Colombia, The Philippines, Italy, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

I even heard Italy was letting people buy homes for $1! That’s a pretty sweet deal! Bravo, Italy. It makes me want to pack my bags and say ciao bella!

Even if staying in the U.S. is what you want, you do have options on where you live and what you do in retirement.

That is enough scratch to start a business, travel the world, start a charitable foundation for college scholarships or to help donate to meals on wheels. The possibilities are almost endless.

I may not be able to give away billions, but I sure could start a college scholarship fund for underprivileged kids with $10,000 starting capital for $500 each one towards books or other education related expenses. Maybe I could do something for medical students and start a scholarship that pays for med school application fees or supplies.

The point is that you have options. Many options. Especially, if you have a paid off home and no debt.

I remember Dave Ramsey saying that most people acquired their first million by consistently investing in their 401k’s and paying off their primary residence. In addition, the people they did a study on became millionaires from five professions: teaching, law, management, accountant, and engineering. So if your in one of those five fields, then you got a real good shot kid of being a becoming a millionaire.

Just taking stock of myself, I did pay off the personal and auto loans. Then redirected that money to my savings and investments. The auto loan was $450 and the personal loan was $333. The goal is to get to a savings rate of 50 percent . I then want to direct my attention to paying off my mortgage and having no home payment. That allows me to be in the driver’s seat of my future time after punching the clock.

So what would I do with all that free time and one million dollar nest egg? I think I will start a second career. What would I do if money was no object. Maybe voiceover acting. I was told once I had a great voice for radio! I was also once a background actor for a Hollywood movie. I could expand my creative pursuits outside of blogging.

I could teach personal finance and home economics at the local library.

I could backpack through Europe.

To be specific, I could buy a first-class ticket to London, stay at the Ritz Carlton or Savoy and have high tea while also taking in the sites of places in the Ian Fleming novels and have my martini shaken not stirred. I could visit the home towns of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

Maybe I will go to visit the fictional town of Stars Hollow from the show Gilmore Girls.

In the book “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Edmond Dantès (the Count of Monte Cristo) lives in several locations. He lives in Rome and Auteuil, outside of Paris. The author of the book, Alexandre Dumas, also built a mansion called Château de Monte-Cristo in the French countryside, which was a real place. Maybe, I’ll go for a looksee.

“What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

The point is to have goals and have some fun. Go on adventures. Dream big. Hard work should be rewarded. It can take decades to build a million-dollar portfolio. Live a little. The most successful retirements are the ones of which people retire to something.

To quote the author John Green, “The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightening, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands.” However, I can fly to Paris on a Monday, have high tea in London on Wednesday, and stay at the Palace in New York City like Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.

You can check out my post on the show called Money Advice from Gossip Girl.

My miracle may not have been to live next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman like the protagonist in the book Paper Towns in which the quote is borrowed from, but I still can create my own miracle. The gift of free time and financial freedom. A life that is well-lived and leisure that is earned.

So with all that said, the question you are to ask yourself, “what would you do with a million in retirement?”

Would you sail around the world?

Would you visit the Louvre in Paris, see the pyramids in Egypt?

Or maybe you would try out your Spanish language skills you learned on Babbel in Spain or Barcelona?

Or would you visit the beaches in Rio?

As for me, maybe I will visit all the places The Chipmunks went to see in the 1987 film The Chipmunk Adventure.

I could buy a Porsche 911 with cash.

I could rent out a beach house on the California coast.

I could stay at the same hotel as James Bond in Montenegro.

I could buy a season ticket to see the Yankees or the Knicks play.

I could buy a ticket to ComicCon in San Diego and go meet my favorite actors from the Marvel Comics films. (Just FYI…I got to meet Orlando Bloom aka Legolas from Lord of the Rings at a comic convention and he was an absolute gentleman!)

I could buy a front row ticket to a concert.

I could fly in to whatever city they decide to visit to get my replica Book of Shadows signed by the cast of Charmed!

Yes, I’m a comic nerd, sue me.

I even have a Betty and Veronica fridge magnet. Yes, from the Archie Comics. Maybe I’ll have a lost weekend like they did on Riverdale and dance the nite away at a club in Vegas. I might even steal Veronica Lodge’s dance moves!

I once flew in to ATL for a day just to go to Six Flags over Georgia!

I have never swam with the dolphins or run with the bulls. However, I did get to meet the iconic actor Val Kilmer and got to be in a Hollywood movie as an extra! Both were pretty cool.

I once even decided on a whim to take the train to New York on a weekday afternoon so I could sip cocktails at the Plaza Hotel.

Just know whatever it is, it will be epic!

About The Author

Miriam started Greenbacks Magnet in 2016 to keep a scorecard of her goal of $1M in investable assets. Armed with a Master in Management (MiM) and a calculator, she teaches readers how to achieve financial independence while also helping them learn how to smell the roses along the way. The palpable response she got from sharing her personal finance goal in a public speaking course at Georgetown University encouraged her to share her story and teach finance on her website. She invests in AI companies as artificial intelligence is the new iPhone of the moment as she likes to invest in companies that are disruptive.

Investing, Retirement

Stock CEO

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Free Boss Executive photo and picture

Merriam-Webster definition: Rockstar: a famous and successful singer or performer of rock music.

Greenbacks Magnet definition: Stockstar: a successful investor of stocks and index funds.

I knew there were only six ways to get rich rich: marry money, inherit money, build a successful business, exploit a talent, get lucky i.e. win the lottery, and spend less than you make and invest your savings wisely over a long period of time. That is basically it. The rest are details.

There are many roads and paths to wealth, but all of them come down to six once you weed out all the details. Wealth has to be pursued. It will not just fall into your lap. You have to work for it. The result of hard work is success. The success is measured in dollars. Even though money is just a tool and one barometer for measuring success it is the yardstick that lets you keep tabs on how far you can come in a job done well.

But as we all know building wealth is easier said than done.

It can be as elusive as getting those Taylor Swift Eras tour concert tickets! And like her, I have a blank space and I’ll plan to write millionaire after my name. Ha!

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After reading books like The Automatic Millionaire, The Simple Path to Wealth, Your Money or Your Life and a ton of celebrity autobiographies, it occurred to me that even on a modest income, you can rise out of the poverty ashes and rise like the phoenix to wealth.

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You just need a plan. If you tried your hand at the first five ways to wealth and failed, you could always be working on the sixth path of saving and investing your way there simultaneously.

If I could not be a ballplayer, rapper, or business owner, I could always invest my money and be the CEO of my stock portfolio. I could be a stock CEO. I could be a stockstar. No college diploma required.

There are 5.3 million millionaires and 770 billionaires living in the United States. Millionaires make up about 2% of the U.S. adult population. Therefore, if you make it to $1 million in investable assets, you are wealthier than 98% of the U.S. population.

Statistics show that the top 2% of the United States population has a net worth of about $2.4 million. On the other hand, the top 5% wealthiest Americans have a net worth of just over $1 million. Therefore, about 2% of the population possesses enough wealth to meet the current definition of being rich. Having $1 million will put you in a very exclusive club. The double comma club.

Although, the top 1% can earn as much as $955,000. Those annual earnings can seem far out of reach in a country where less than 10% of all households earn more than $200,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Working toward $1 million is still a lofty and worthy goal. Forbes reported in 2022 that the bracket’s minimum net worth is much higher — a cool $11.1 million. That would mean to be in the top 10% would be a minimum net worth of $1.1 million. This is an achievable goal. See some of my investments below.

My index funds are shown in dollar and my individual stocks are shown in shares.

Stock Portfolio

Investments2012201820202022/23
VTSAX$20,000$100,000$158,000$220,000
Amazon102
Apple2050100
Google330

Over time, I have increased my exposure in individual stocks while also investing in my index funds. I also decided to open up four different retirement accounts: Traditional IRA (Rollover from a previous job), Roth IRA, 401k and Roth 401k. I was able to get both the Roth and regular 401k from my employer(s) over the years. The IRA’s are what just happened over time.

Each retirement vehicle offers different benefits. In order to have more flexibility with my money I have two of each IRA and 401k. See below for definitions and pros and cons or the Roth 401k and IRA and more her from Empower.

What is a Roth 401k?
A Roth 401k is an employer-sponsored retirement plan. But unlike a traditional 401k, contributions are made with after-tax dollars.

The Roth 401k was introduced in 2006 to give Americans a new type of retirement savings vehicle to complement the popular Roth IRA, which was introduced in 1997. Roth IRAs and Roth 401ks are similar, but there are some pretty significant differences you should understand when deciding which one is right for you.

Pros and cons of a Roth 401k
A big advantage that the Roth 401k has over the Roth IRA is the possibility of an employer matching your contributions up to a certain percentage. Employer matches are the closest thing there is to “free money,” so if you’re deciding between a Roth 401k vs. a Roth IRA — keep this in mind. It’s also important to note here, though, that if you receive an employer Roth 401k match, the matching funds could also go into a traditional 401k.

A con, however, is that a Roth 401k account can sometimes have fewer investment options than a Roth IRA.

Pros and cons of a Roth IRA
On the flip side, Roth IRAs generally offer more investment options than Roth 401ks. With a Roth IRA, you generally have a large number of investments to choose from, including stocks, bonds, cash alternatives, and alternative investments. With a Roth 401k, you are limited to the investment options offered by your employer’s 401k plan.

However, one con of a Roth IRA is the income limit associated with this type of account. If you earn too much money, you won’t be able to contribute to this option. Roth IRAs also aren’t sponsored by an employer, which means that there is no employee contribution match.

The most distinguishing characteristic of 401(k)s, whether Roth or traditional, is the high contribution limit, allowing employees to save up to $22,500 per year in 2023. For workers over age 50, the ceiling is $30,000.

Meanwhile, annual IRA contribution limits are $6,500, while workers over 50 years old may contribute up to $7,500 per year.

A Roth 401(k) has a required minimum distribution beginning at age 73, but starting in 2024, the minimum distribution requirement will be eliminated entirely for Roth 401(k)s thanks to the SECURE Act 2.0, which was passed at the end of 2022. Previously, Roth 401(k) account holders could roll their plans into a Roth IRA and avoid the requirement entirely.

That means if you are one of the lucky ones with access to the Roth 401k, then you can essentially put money away for retirement with after-tax dollars and pay nothing on the earnings when you begin your withdrawals and no tax period in your retirement.

I knew that if I could make sure to always focus on investing a portion of my income that I could build wealth no matter what.

My definition of a stockstar is listed above. However, I have a barometer to measure my goal as well.

In order to be a Stock CEO and be one of the big boys, I looked at the compensation packages of CEOs in America. And CEOs are paid! The average salary of a Fortune 500 CEO is $15.9 million per year. The highest-paid Fortune 500 CEO is Elon Musk. In 2021, Musk saw compensation worth around $23.5 billion. He achieved this by exercising Tesla stock options given in a 2018 multiyear moonshot grant.

CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,460% since 1978.

CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021; that is up from 366-to-1 in 2020 and a big increase from 20-to-1 in 1965 and 59-to-1 in 1989.

The average CEO salary in the United States is $821,100 as of May 25, 2023, but the range typically falls between $620,600 and $1,057,900.

However, some CEOs like Warren Buffet accept a salary of $100,000. Some have gone so far as to take a salary of $1. For example, in 2010–11 Oracle’s founder and CEO Larry Ellison made only $1 in salary, but earned over $77 million in other forms of compensation. In some cases, in lieu of a salary, the executives receive stock options. Top CEOs like Elon Musk & Mark Zuckerberg take 1 dollar salary. and know the history of a $1 salary & perks that comes with a one-dollar salary.

Why do CEOs make $1?

The CEOs can afford to earn $1 as they make money through other ways like stocks and equity. This also helps them in avoiding taxes.

Who are the CEOs in the $1 salary club?

Some of the CEOs who take a $1 dollar salary are: Elon Musk (Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta formerly Facebook), Meg Whitman (Quibi), Larry Page Sergey Brin (Google).

Once I did my homework, I decided that I was going to be a stock CEO.

I may not be running a billion-dollar Fortune 500 company, but could manage a million-dollar stock portfolio.

Every dollar I invest would be my employee.

I would unleash these little worker bees to do their thing and help me build wealth with the power of compounding. That would be my equity pay package and golden parachute when I left work behind.

For example, Presidents / CEOs at companies that have raised Over 30M typically get between 250K and 5M+ shares. However, smaller companies that have raised Under 1M are more generous with their stock compensation as it ranges between 2 and 40%+ for Presidents / CEOs.

Therefore, I could reckon that a CEO of a small firm could get around 100K and between 10K-200K shares. Let’s say a small cap company like Ethan Allen, which has a share rice of $26.40 and a market cap of $667M, then a CEO would have between $263K and $5.28M in stock.

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Therefore, if I had bewteen1K and 10K in stocks or index funds such as GOOGL at $125 a share or the VTSAX at $101 a share, I would have $100K to 1.25M in investments. This is a CEO stock equity level right there. Having 10K in shares or $100K-1M in investments means you are a stockstar.

At 550K in investable assets, you are in the top 20% in net worth. At $1.1M, you are in the top 10% of net worth individuals. Think of it like this, if you can’t be a rap star, baller, or Rockstar, you can be a financial Rockstar. Just keep investing.

Like Rihanna, said:

To be what you wish
You gotta be what you are
Only thing I’m missin’
Is a black guitar index fund

hey baby I’m a Rockstar stockstar!

Financial Freedom, Retirement

Couple Making $500,000 has no Retirement Savings

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Burning Money, Dollars, Cash, Flame

After reading about a couple earning half a million dollars, I could not believe they did not have anything saved for retirement. Especially considering the couple were ages 65 and 59.

You don’t just start in at the top making that kind of money. Oh no. You have to toil in the salt mines for YEARS to make that kind of dough!

All their money is tied up in their home. They have a home worth a million dollars but a stock portfolio worth $0.

That is the type conundrum that just baffles those that are way lower on the income scale.

That would mean making $500,00 for just four years, they have earned $2 million dollars and not ONE RED CENT went to their retirement accounts.

Euro, Seem, Money, Finance, Piggy Bank

I didn’t read anything about owning any vacation or rental property, old savings bonds, having a few shares in Apple stock, nada.

This couple is burning through money faster than those kids were buying chocolate bars in Willy Wonka. And if you saw the 1971 movie, you saw what pandemonium that was.

I mean where is the money going?

There has to be some sort of financial household accountability and management. Once all the expenses are tracked, you can look for ways to cut. At this income level, I find it hard to believe they do not have a financial advisor or accountant.

This couple could save a small fortune, if they sold their home, ate out less, and sold the pricey cars.

Wallet, Credit Card, Cash, Investment

THE STRUGGLE IS REALLY NONEXISTENT

As soon as they earn the money, its spent. We have a serious cash flow problem here. We gotta stop the bleeding. This is a sinking financial ship and we have to plug those leaks. There has to be ways to save.

The couple own a home that will be paid for in 7 years, and at this time is worth around $1.4 million. They stated, “If we sold it tomorrow, we could net $1 million in equity. Home prices are going up faster , so it would be difficult to find a home for less than $750,000 (if we were lucky).”

One word: move.

Drop the financial anchor that is your home and move on. Is this home really worth you living today with nothing?

Take the $1 million in equity and but a modest $300,000 home with cash, then pay off any other debt you owe and start maxing put your retirement accounts. Keep a minimum $100,000 cash high yield savings account and start investing the rest.

If the couple does this, they could stash away $22,500 in a 401(k) and $7,000 in a spousal IRA for 7 years and have over $300,000 with the stock market average return of 10%.

If they can max out two 401k’s, then that would be the equivalent to investing $45,000 per year. Using the same factors as above, that would net the couple a col almost half-a-million ($500k) in retirement savings.

Just simple math.

Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Retirement, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

Coasting to FI: Compounding my way to Coast FIRE and $1 Million

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Reading, Read, Peaceful, Woman, Dusk

“One minute of patience, ten years of peace.”  – Greek Proverb

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy

It was a hot summer day. Same as any other. I was busy working as usual.

I have been working so hard since I was like 5 years old. That was the age that I decided I was going to be rich.

I used to go outside and play on the playground every day. Those were some of the most important days of my life. I learned so much on the playground. The virtue in helping others, sharing, caring, making friends, solving conflicts and exercise.

Nothing came easy. You had to earn every inch when playing sports with other kids whether it was jumping rope or running. You played to win.

I was always pretty good at academics so I put a lot of my energy into that. I figured that could be my path to riches. It turns out I was right.

I was working 8-hour days and studying up to 8 hours a day in college. At one point, just a couple years ago I was reading 25-50 books a year.

I had a hunger for knowledge; especially, personal finance.

Once I learned what compound interest was, I knew I found my road to wealth. I would save and invest money consistently until interest would do the rest for me on my journey to $1 million dollars.

I had been grinding it out so long that sometimes the days blurred and I feel asleep at night from pure exhaustion. Then one day I looked up and realized I had made it to Coast FIRE.

Coast FI refers to saving enough to “coast” to financial independence. This allows participants in this version of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) to take jobs with less stress or pay due to reaching a certain amount of money needed to retire earlier than age 65.

Coast FIRE is a sub-genre of this early retirement movement. This version calls for having enough invested or saved so that without adding another penny of contributions to your retirement portfolio it will still grow to fully support retiring at a traditional retirement age. Your nest egg, simply put, has reached a tipping point so that it will “coast” to the target amount needed for retirement.

People who have successfully achieved their Coast FIRE (like me) still need to work, but they only work to cover current living expenses – not to build up their savings or investments for a future retirement.

The thing about Coasting to FI is that you must first do this before you can get to any of the other versions of complete financial independence; never having to work again – such as Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, or Barista FIRE. Where compounding does the heavy lifting for you.

FIRE requires you to save up at least 25 times your anticipated annual spending and you have got a 97% or better chance of that money lasting at least thirty years. 

Fat FIRE typically means a budget of $100,000 a year, which requires a retirement savings of $2.5 million.

Lean FIRE typically involves being frugal and living in a lower-cost area, or even other countries with a lower cost of living with a budget of $30,000-$50,000 a year, which can require a retirement savings of a minimum $500,000 to $750,000.  

Barista FIRE is a hybrid between Fat FIRE And Lean FIRE. Barista FIRE is being able to retire before the conventional age of 60+, but taking on a part-time job for supplemental income and potentially health insurance. You will need to have at least $1 million in retirement accounts.

Coast FIRE requires you to save a certain dollar amount that will allow you to coast to FI such as saving $200,00, which will allow you to coast to $1 million in 15 years with a 10% rate of return.

 Coast FIRE formula for determining how large the participant’s nest egg must grow would begin with a regular FIRE number (estimated in the example below at 25 times annual spending of $50,000). In the formula below, note that “Years to grow” is an exponent.

25 x $50,000 / (1 + annual growth rate)Years to grow = Coast FIRE number

Suppose someone estimates they need 30 years to reach their Coast FIRE number and an average annual growth rate over those 30 years of 7%. The calculation would then be:

$1,250,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $164,209

In this example, the Coast FIRE number would be $164,209, which would grow over 30 years (given the above-stated estimates) to the target figure (or regular FIRE number) of $1,250,000.

I like to use the $1,000,000 target for my estimate. The calculation would then be:

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $131,367

If you want to retire sooner, then just see what a different target number will do or by shortening the number of years.

For example, $1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)20 years = $258,419. That means your Coast FIRE number would be $258,419.

Once you reach this dollar amount, you could stop investing in your retirement accounts and reach $1 million in 20 years. The higher the compound interest rate, the quicker you are able to get out of the rat race.

Once I hit $300,000 in cash and investments, I knew that with a 10% rate of return that it could turn into $1 million in 12.5 years.

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.10)12.5 years = $303,802.

Paying off debt faster and more aggressively plus investing those funds and more could allow folks like me to get to $1 million in less than a decade.

I can now put on my eye mask, kick back and coast to $1 million. If I can do it, then anyone can.

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I started with $0 in retirement savings. I started stashing money into my 401(k) and then opened a Roth IRA to start saving even more.

If you want to coast to FI, then let compound interest do the heavy lifting for you, save $100k because the first $100k is the hardest, and allow it to coast you to $1M in 30 years.

Happy wealth coasting!

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Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Investing, Retirement, Wealth

Flip of a Coin: How I Decided to Own A $250K 401(K) Vs A $250k Mortgage

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House, Garage, Driveway, Architecture

This is not a post for the faint of heart. So some of you out there may need to do what you did when the nurse swabbed your arm with alcohol right before she gave you the Covid-19 shot, turn your head away and close your eyes!

It was years ago, but I had to make a call. I had to make an executive decision. Would I like to buy a $250,000 home or become a 401(k) Quarter of a Millionaire.

It was almost like flipping a coin. Do you choose heads or tails?

Heads and be a $250k homeowner.

By the way, home values over 30 years have risen about 4% on average but stocks have been able to return 10% over that same time period.

Now back to the coin toss.

Tails and have $250k, that’s right a quarter of a million bucks, in your 401(k).

I chose not to go with the path of least resistance, which is the American dream of being a homeowner, and to put my money in stocks. Best decision I ever made.

After watching the housing crash or 2008-09, it dawned on me to put some money into businesses that pay you dividends instead of a mortgage that you have to pay. Missing even a single payment on a mortgage and never being able to catch up could put you on the short list to foreclosure. Nobody wants that.

Fast forward 10 years later and Covid-19 is not only derailing retirement savings but also increasing the likelihood that many renters will be evicted.

According to CNBC, 20% of renters in America are behind on rent and owe an astounding $57.3 billion. The average amount owed by each renter is $6,000 and they are a minimum of three months behind.

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Once you get that far in arrears, rental companies and landlords are quick to start the eviction process.

Especially, mom and pop landlords that cannot afford the losses. They depend on this income to pay their own bills and fund their retirements. I knew after watching millions of Americans lose their homes to foreclosure in 2009 that I did not want to be in that predicament.

Therefore, I made the conscious decision to keep fixed low housing costs and to put my money into stocks. I put my money into index funds because they consist of thousands of stocks. All those businesses are not going to go bankrupt at the same time so it gives your money some security as opposed to putting all your money in one stock and then you lose everything.

The S&P 500 and other indexes will remove any stock that is not meeting its standards. Therefore, you do not have to do this on your own with stock picking. This also insures that your money stays invested in firms with a good balance sheet as the ones that are not pulling their weight are dropped from the index. Thus, you do not lose all your money as you would being invested with only one stock or placing your bets in speculative investments like cryptocurrency and bitcoin.

I actually know someone who says they invested all their money in bitcoin and lost all of their money! What were they thinking? If you are going to invest in bitcoin, then it with money, you can afford to lose and only invest more than 5% of your savings. That is all the risk that is adequate with bitcoin, in my opinion.

Not enough to money to become a bitcoin millionaire, but also not enough to lose your life savings, your home and all your possession in case you bet the farm on a losing investment.

Let us learn from the recently deceased creator of McAfee software founder who invested $25 million in Lehman Brothers bonds and lost every penny after they collapsed and went bankrupt in 2008.

You can read more about the demise of Lehman Brothers in my post called Don’t Trust the Commission-Based Advisor in Wall St Cubicle 23

I decided to just put my money into the VTSAX because it includes the total stock market. Want some Tesla stock? Drop some money in the VTSAX. It will only cost you $107.

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Instead of buying stocks one by one, you can just get them all for one price. That way you do not have to pay $685 for one share of Tesla.

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Don’t even get me started on the S&P 500. One share in this stock will set you back $4,267.

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If you have that kind of money just burning a hole in your pocket, then be my guest and buy some. However, if you want a piece of the whole market then just start buying the VTSAX.

I sleep like a baby knowing that my money just can’t fall to zero because the every stock in the fund will not blow up overnight. Even if businesses tank, the fund will correct this by replacing them with a better stock, and I still keep making my money.

I think of it like this, a home you have to feed but your 401(k) feeds you.

As a homeowner, you cannot realize gains until you sell. Therefore, you must feed the beast until you do!

take my money gif - Flywheel Coworking

Considering that most American homeowners only stay in their homes for an average of 9 years, all the money spent on maintenance and repairs is burnt if you are foreclosed on. However, according to Fidelity, many 401(k) millionaires keep their accounts for open for 20-30 years to amass that type of fortune. That means people are holding on to stocks longer than homes!

Therefore, on my path to millionaire status, I decided to go for stocks over real estate. Don’t get me wrong, you can make a fortune in real estate, but you have to maintain the property until you sell. I can make my fortune in index funds simply by breathing and automatic investing.

Seeing and listening to the stress of homeownership versus the ease of index investing I think I made a good choice going with stocks. My low housing costs allow me to invest more. This also allows you to pay off debt faster and travel more. However, it is always your call. This is just my 2 cents.

I mean who wouldn’t want to be a Quarter of a Millionaire. I’ll take that any day of the week over being broke!

And just so you know, if you let that money sit and ride it out in the market, you would have $1,000,000 in 14.5 years with a 10% return. That is without adding another cent.

How many homes that were bought for $250k do you think will be worth one million in the same amount of time? None.

I have no problem at all with being a 401(k) millionaire. None whatsoever!

Budgeting, Retirement

How I Paid Off $85,000 of Debt

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Accounting, Report, Credit Card, Payment

It was a dark and stormy night in the bayou. No wait…I’m just joshing you. Ha ha! This story doesn’t start off like a ghost story you tell beside the campfire or even in a bayou. I mean who do I look like, Bayou Billy?

For those who don’t know who that is, Bayou Billy is a fictional character in an NES game from 1988.

Adventures of Bayou Billy ROM Download for NES

As a 90’s kid, I liked playing all types of Nintendo games. What I loved about video games is that not only are they entertaining and fun to play, but they teach you critical thinking and problem solving skills as well. Nevertheless, I digress. Now back to how I paid off this $85k of debt.

Paying down massive amounts of debt involves sacrifice, effort, planning, hard work and fortitude. It doesn’t really happen by accident or luck It is consistent effort over time to keep paying your debt obligation while at the same time not continuing to borrow more of it. This is what I had to do to make it happen.

The number one thing I had to figure out was how much I owed. Opening up bank and credit card statements showed me this. I had to get this debt off by back: a $20,000 personal loan, $30,000 car loan, various credit card, and other debt of $35,000.

Those credit card statements showing me how much to pay over three years before it is paid in full really motivated me. Therefore, I would just put my head down and work. I worked on paying off one debt at a time.

Then I would go to the next one and concentrate all my time and energy on that one until it was gone. It took more than eight years to pay off all that debt.

I had to pay $448.65 monthly on my car note, $333 monthly on my personal loan, and additional over $500 on the other debt. Paying all that money out every month motivated me to do two things: 1) Not to get any more personal loans; and 2) Not to get anymore car loans.

I paid off my car in 2009. I am happy to report that as of 2021, I have not had another car note since. I kept my old car for 17 years total and then the next car I bought, I paid cash for it.

Instead of siphoning off my money to service debt, I began to invest that money in myself. I went back to school and starting dumping my money in my retirement accounts. Got an extra $5. Put in in the Roth IRA. Got a raise or bonus. Put more money in my 401(k).

All these years later and I am still contributing to my retirement accounts.

I have read more than enough articles on the retirement crisis and the shortage in Americans retirement accounts to know I had better take this seriously. I didn’t want to wake up one day and be 50 with no money saved for my golden years.

I know that those years feel like they’re in a galaxy far, far away, but trust me, no one stays young forever.

Zeit time galaxy GIF - Find on GIFER

I want you to protect your 401(k) as Luke Skywalker protected Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Debt are the storm troopers. Your ability to avoid debt is your use of your strong will over your spending. Your checkbook is your light saber.

Your control over how you wield these funds is your Jedi mind trick over all those who try to part you from your money.

I hope that this post helps awaken the sleeping giant within that lets you choose financial freedom over spending.

May the fiscal force be with you.