Why You’re 53, Have Had A Six-Figure Income For 20 Years, And Have A Negative Net Worth

Why You're 53, Have Had A Six-Figure Income For 20 Years, And Have A Negative Net Worth

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Dave @ Accidental FIRE

I reached financial independence and semi-retired in my mid-40's through hard work, smart living, and investing. This blog chronicles my journey and explores many aspects of personal finance including the psychological and behavioral factors that drive our habits.

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44 Responses

  1. Kristine says:

    It’s not a monstrosity, it’s a brand new convertible 🙂

  2. i have an avocado toast category. is that bad? tastes better when taken to-go in my monster s.u.v. replace one toilet with a sweet teal blue bidet and you got something. i have one for sale.

  3. Tonya says:

    I know this is meant to be funny and it’s a cute pie chart! 🙂 But, maybe it’s because I’m having a difficult financial time at the moment, I wish high income earners, FI’ers, early retirees, etc, would just, for a moment, consider there MAY be other factors why someone who is a high income earner, or someone in their 50s, or both, may be broke, or in debt. People make so many assumptions about people without really ever getting to know the real situation. We assume it’s the nice car, big house, or Starbucks. But could it be that there was a medical diagnosis that wiped the family out financially? Or some other reason? Not trying to pick on you because I like you and your writing, but I just sometimes feel this personal finance world is too quick to judge or is full of assumptions. Just some food for thought for your Saturday! 🙂 Written with love! 🙂

    • Dave @ Accidental FIRE says:

      Fully agree Tonya! It’s just the folks with legitimate reasons to be in debt don’t make for good humor 🙂

      • Wait. I’m late to the game here, but it does say you’ve had a six figure income for 20 years. I know what Tonya is saying is true — that the FI police are sometimes quick to judge. But with the six figure income for 20 years, if the person didn’t purchase health insurance or have an emergency fund, I think it’s fair to say that the 5 toilets may have been involved. Or those toilets might be related to the medical diagnosis. You know, I play a doctor sometimes at FinCon.

        • Dave @ Accidental FIRE says:

          Just the idea of cleaning 5 toilets is enough to make me never want 5 toilets…. or something like that.

  4. Your house has five toilets 😂😂

  5. I told you about that Vegas trip in the strictest confidence!

    The five toilets struck close to home.

  6. Chris Roane says:

    I love this graphic! Is this based on data or is it a rough guess? I’m curious if these proportions hold true in most cases.

    • Dave @ Accidental FIRE says:

      No this is just me being silly. I think the money-blogging ecosphere need more lightheartedness and humor. Glad you liked it!

  7. Steveark says:

    Wow, we have four toilets and two SUV’s. It’s a miracle we retired early! One more bathroom and we would have been sunk.

  8. I did some math and found that a 20 year old who buys an expensive smartphone, who then buys an expensive brand purse or watch when they are 30 and then buys a brand new luxury car when they are 40 winds up with $400k less in their retirement account when they are 65 than if they hadn’t bought those three things! Just three things! Imagine all the bad buying decisions people make in a lifetime and what that does to their retirement account!!

  9. Gars says:

    It’s OK to do all that stuff! Just put your retirement in place first each month.

    And remember, there’s never a good reason to waste money…

  10. At last! A FI graph that even someone who’s scared of numerals can understand!

  11. Travelin'Dad says:

    Ha ha awesome thanks for the laugh. I think if this was a bubble chart, there’d be a lot of overlap between Vanity and Monstrosity (and Look in Your Garage). I live in a rural area on a small family farm, so I don’t bike to my job in the city, but I just bought a car that I feel slightly self-conscious in (because it’s so tiny, and I’m over 6 feet tall) but I do love seeing it say “average 40 mpg” on the dash display. Plus now that I’m in that tiny thing, I see them everywhere I go. Maybe “high mpg” is going to gradually supplant “has big tires” for the best indicator of having a trendy vehicle in the South.

  12. That’s a really, really expensive vanity. Must be one helluva bathroom .

    Great chart.

  13. Xrayvsn says:

    This pie chart gives me more confidence that I can FIRE than any retirement calculator out there (and 53 is actually the age I’m shooting for to retire) 🙂

  14. Dr. McFrugal says:

    But… but… what if I house hacked and Air BnB’d those 5 toilets? Does that still count?

  15. Tawcan says:

    It’s called a brand new Tesla Model S. :p

  16. Evan says:

    That pic is fantastic! It is so frustrating when you run across high earners with zero assets

  17. GenX FIRE says:

    That is a hilarious, and far too truthful graphic.

  18. Kids? Kids will destroy your net worth. Maybe it’s a subset of vanity.

  19. genymoney.ca says:

    This is hilarious. i”m surprised Whole Foods aka Whole Paycheque isn’t a bigger slice of the pie! I’m including this in my round up, love it.

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