Victory Lap Observations

tldr: very long meandering story of a rich guy who got lucky. not interested? move on to the next post...

We recently had an exit that took our NW over $18M, and I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some reflections for those on the path.

Progress and history
We're a family of 4 with the parents in their later 40s and kids 11 & 9. We live in a HCOL/VHCOL location, are well educated, and have had full careers working W2 jobs.

Our NW has largely been accumulated the boring way. We both established good financial discipline in our 20s that is based on earning good salaries, spending less than we make, and investing in index funds. As our salaries, bonuses, and equity grants increased over time, our spending increased at a much slower rate which allowed us to grow our savings exponentially. At our peak, we were probably putting away 70%+ of our income while living a very good lifestyle.

The icing on the cake came through three main components. First, we had great luck climbing the corporate ladders. This career advancement, and corresponding rewards, came from consistently being top performers and busting our asses. Next, there was a string of public and private liquidity events that were each meaningful, but no crazy outsized Nvidia type events. Finally, we built good networks that supported us with new opportunities and ensured we were taken care of when the seas turned rocky. This relative safety net enabled us to stay the course with investments and savings through a few tough cycles.

While we were on an amazing earnings path, we were consistently investing and seeing our investments compound. We scraped together a pretty significant downpayment on a house that turned out to be a good investment. We were able to parlay a stock vesting to a downpayment that allowed us to keep that first house as a rental as well. From there, our slow and steady approach to index investing did what it was supposed to do. And most importantly, we stayed consistent even when we started seeing $100k daily swings in our portfolios.

Here and now

Retirement was always a goal that was years off in the future. The combination of growing careers, youth, and intentional lifestyle creep gradually moved the goalposts. We managed to walk the line between burnout and progress / grinding for a long time. For me, it was a decade of executive positions where I was constantly working on really tough projects and problems and finding a way to come out the other side. This included trips to the other side of the world where you spend less time on the ground than you did in transit. But through it all, I didn't miss birthday's, holidays, or other meaningful life events, so it was sustainable.

Over the course of it, we tested the boundaries of where we wanted our spend to land. In some particularly high earning years, we spent upwards of $400k. We took our family on a private charter in Europe. We've eaten at the best restaurants in the world. We've helicoptered over erupting volcanos in Hawaii. Through that, we figured out where we get real value, and where we are feeing a culture of excess. That is a deeply personal line that everyone must find on their own. Once we found it, the math said we were done with a NW ~$7.5M. When you start adding safety buffers and everything else, I said it didn't make sense to keep working once we got to a paid off house and $10M invested.

Well, here we are in the end zone. We've crossed the goal line. There isn't a single upgrade left to make. I love our home. We are finishing our vacation home. I've got the toys and the experiences and everything else. Our finances are bedrock solid. We've been totally blessed along the way, but we never won the lottery, crossed an ethical boundary, or accomplished a high-risk landing.

For those of you on the path, keep going. The biggest advice is to build and execute a strategy that works for you. Enjoy the steps along the way and balance the consumption with the savings. Keep work and life in a long-term sustainable balance even as you navigate the ebb and flow of careers, relationships, and economic cycles. Build and deepen your personal understanding of your goals, principals, and boundaries. For me, achieving the financial goals were more hollow than I expected, but the growing safety and optionality are priceless. I still feel like the kid driving around in grandma's hand-me-down car and buying extra cans of beans when they are on sale. These feelings are irrational, but they are part of who I am, and they will never leave.

From here, I'll probably take a break relatively soon. I'll sit on the couch and play video games. Take long walks with my wife and dog. Workout. Cook, clean, and putter. Then I'll go back to work. I may start or buy a business. I may go work with some friends. I may stay on the couch playing video games. These are the true choices that are the privilege of achieving our financial goals.