First 100,000

Saving The First $100,000. The Hardest?

The First $100,000

In our May update, we mentioned the possibility of breaking $100,000 in June. It seemed surreal, but definitely possible. Cheers to Amber Tree Leaves for this comment:

Would it not be great to reach 100K while enjoying a holiday. I hope you reach that milestone

This comment blew my mind.

May was crazy busy getting ready for our big trip to the United Kingdom and Paris. We planned to spend 5 weeks away from home and away from work. That involved a lot of preparations and I really didn’t have time to sit down and think about the possibility of breaking $100,000 WHILE ON VACATION. As soon as I read that comment, I wanted it to happen. I wanted to prove that amazing things can happen while taking a rest on a moving sidewalk.

Saving $100,000 On Vacation!

During the month of June, Mr. T still received regular paychecks (as he just utilized his amazing amount of PTO). I, on the other hand, am paid hourly. If I work no hours, I get no money. Because I didn’t work at all for the month of June, we made less money than we have all year. And we STILL managed to break $100,000. I got home from vacation, logged into my trusty Personal Capital account, and saw 6 figures!

Money begets more money. It’s true. I’ve proven it. Despite Brexit, the market ended slightly up and we tipped the scales.

I’ve read over and over again that the first $100,000 is the hardest. Since we’ve now hit that number, I hope this statement is true. Smooth sailing from here on out, right?! I don’t have anything to compare it to (since we haven’t saved our SECOND $100,000), but I can say it’s hard to start. The first $100,000 is saved dollar by dollar. And it requires hard work because there is less money in the account to compound.

Just like most things, starting is always the hardest. Once you get your feet under you (or save your first $100,000), you’re in the groove. You gain momentum. And there’s more money to compound, so we earn more money doing nothing!

Breaking $100,000 on vacation has changed everything. I didn’t check my accounts once on vacation. I enjoyed time away. I traveled. I lived life. I did what I wanted to do. And when I got back from a month of living like we’re already retired, I was rewarded with big numbers. If that can happen, we can do anything! Saving our first $100,000 has boosted my confidence. We might actually be able to save enough to fully retire early! We might actually be able to achieve our lofty financial goals for the year! And time away has allowed us to clear our heads and figure out where we really want to focus our efforts in Q3, Q4* of 2016.

Markets might tank, and we could easily be kicked out of the 6 figure club tomorrow, but we did it. And markets tanking just means we still have the same number of shares for when the stocks go back up!

We caught a glimpse this month of what it must feel like to have our money work for US instead of us working so hard for our money and it made us even more committed to saving more of it so we can experience that freedom all the time!

Here’s to the next $100,000!

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*That’s right, now we’re talking about our finances like we’re a business! See what $100,000 does to you!?

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44 Comments

  1. Congrats – I’m very excited for you guys!

  2. Love that it happened while you were on vacation and not hovering over the accounts!

  3. Congrats on the milestone! Onwards and upwards!

  4. Green Revelation

    I hit 100k on my retirement accounts *just* before Brexit, at which point I was immediately kicked out of the 6 figure club. Anyways, the post-Brexit craziness was enough to put me back over. Ha! Congrats!

    • MaggieBanks

      I probably did as well, but didn’t even look once whilst traveling!

  5. WOW – Awesome news! I still love your analogy about the moving sidewalk.

    I can only imagine what it will feel like when we hit our first $100k, but we will, we definitely will 🙂

    • MaggieBanks

      I totally just proved myself right with the moving sidewalk analogy!

  6. That’s the magic of investing isn’t it? Having your money working hard for you so you don’t have to. Congrats on breaking the 100k mark. The market certainly has been hot lately, definitely noticed that with our portfolio value as well.

    • MaggieBanks

      I know, it’s all the market, but it sure is fun to see that big number!

  7. Chris @ KeepThrifty

    Congrats on hitting the milestone! Great timing 🙂

  8. Congrats on hitting a huge milestone! The next $100k is definitely easier due to compounding as well as the confidence that comes from knowing you are more than capable of doing this 🙂

    • MaggieBanks

      Thanks, Kate! I’m really looking forward to the next $100,000! I’d like to do in 2 years (though the market could just collapse… but barring that…)

  9. Congrats on reaching that milestone. Way to go!
    Saving and on holiday. Man you raise the bar 😉

    Cheers,

    Pollie

    • MaggieBanks

      Thanks so much! I know… right? Hitting milestones on vacation is the best!

  10. Awesome; congrats! Beautiful photo, too. Though we’re not too much further along, I believe it does get easier.

  11. So awesome! Woot woot! Happy dance! Our first $100K was definitely the hardest, too, but now you have everything in place to accelerate that progress — strong savings habits, the power of compounding, the ability to grow your income over time. I know the next few 100K increments will come faster and more easily for sure. 🙂

    • MaggieBanks

      Thanks, friends. I’m pretty much feeling like anything is possible these days!

  12. Very cool. We’re over here breaking new net worth milestones while on vacation too ($1.6 million). It’s still mesmerizing to think we can keep doing nothing and most likely watch the net worth creep up. Even while we’re out gallivanting around the world.

    • MaggieBanks

      I’m so excited to be there. I love following your continued climb to whatever is ABOVE the top! 🙂

  13. What an awesome milestone! Congrats!

  14. And because of the time difference, you might have even been *sleeping* when you hit the 100k$ mark!
    The first 100k$ is the hardest because from now on, you have a process in place and your assets will generate more and more income for you.
    Congrats!

    • MaggieBanks

      Oh man… SLEEPING and on vacation! BEST NIGHT EVER! 🙂 I still feel like such a baby on this journey, but I feel like we just took our first steps and now we’re at least walking!

  15. Kim from Philadelphia

    This is the essence of “making your money work for you!”

    Money begets more money, just like you said. It truly is a snowball, and once it gets “rolling” and picks up
    momentum, your financial situation gets better and better all the time!

    • MaggieBanks

      YAY for being on the upswing of net worth! It’s so exciting!

  16. zeejaythorne

    What a wonderful milestone while you are busy enjoying your life! Starting is difficult, but inertia works for you once you get that ball rolling. Money and science are the same!

    • MaggieBanks

      So true. my daughter declared last week: “I realized everything is science!”

  17. So awesome! Now that 100k will be working for you on the way to 200k, 300k, and beyond. The markets are being kind to us right now; I’m at an all-time high in spite of not having worked for over 5 months now. Hard to complain about that!

    • MaggieBanks

      I know… and when that market tanks, I’ll be sort of sad to miss out on big numbers, but pretty excited to still be pouring money in on sale. The question is… when will that happen?

  18. SO exciting and inspiring! I’m quite a ways away from that number, but I’m so proud of y’all!

    • MaggieBanks

      Thanks Kara! If it wasn’t super obvious, I’m pretty excited as well! 🙂

  19. The Green Swan

    Amazing, congrats!!! I love the idea of making money while not working 🙂 Keep it up and enjoy the milestone… There will be many more!

  20. Congratulations! 100K is a big number. We just passed 2 this year and it seems like it will be a few years before we hit the 3.

  21. Congrats guys! Here’s to the next $100k! 🙂

  22. That’s so exciting! Yeah, I bet investing feels a lot different when there’s more compounding happening — less like a savings account and more like something that’s actually doing work for you on its own. Hope you’ve been able to settle back into your routine at home after your awesome trip! 🙂

    • MaggieBanks

      Thanks so much! We’re working on getting back in the groove of things.

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