« What’s the Difference Between “Fee-Based” and “Fee-Only?” | Main | Question of the Day – Spouses and Money »
Tips From a Reader
By JLP | October 31, 2006
A reader named Bryan left the following comment just a little while ago and I thought I would share it with everyone:
My wife and I are about 5 years from the upper end our our age bracket and exceed both the median and average net worth, the average by almost 4 x’s. That’s our financial net worth, not including our crap…furniture, jewelry, cars, etc. We didn’t inherit anything. We don’t make exhorbitant amounts of income. We have a financial advisor. We systematically save and invest into managed mutual funds across multiple categories. Only about 30% of our net worth comes from our home equity, we don’t live in a residential housing bubble part of the country.
Here’s the secret(s):
- live below your means
- don’t buy new cars all the time
- have a ginormous emergency fund
- have some insurance in case you get sick, can’t work, or … DIE
- don’t ever put anything on a credit card or any kind of financing or delayed payments through any retailer
- put 15% of your income into a 401k or IRA and fuhgit aboutit
it’ll happen automatically…
I couldn’t have said it any better myself!
Topics: Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »








November 1st, 2006 at 8:41 am
JLP – Do you have this “the median and average net worth” by age bracket posted somewhere? I’d be interested to see where I fall.