Earlier this month, I put together two posts looking back at the past decade of my life (which you can read here and here). I’ve had a lot of important and formative events happen to me over the past decade – graduating law school, starting my first job, meeting my wife and getting married, quitting my job, etc. – so writing those posts was a helpful reflection about what led me to where I am now. If you went back to the 2010 version of me, there’s no way he would have guessed that the 2020 version of him would be out here doing the stuff I’m doing now.
What might have been most interesting, though, was looking over my income for the past decade. The Social Security Administration helpfully keeps track of all of this information for you on their website and when I looked at my income, I saw that I made a little over $600,000 over the 10 years spanning from 2010-2019.Â
That’s a surprisingly high amount of money – more than I realized I’d made. And this led me to an important question – after making all of that money, what do I have to show for it?
What I Made Over The Past DecadeÂ
First, let’s take a look at my income history. Here’s a table listing my yearly income over the past decade:Â
| Year | Income |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $75,000 (Estimated) |
| 2018 | $76,479 |
| 2017 | $76,676 |
| 2016 | $98,140 |
| 2015 | $114,478 |
| 2014 | $106,675 |
| 2013 | $41,963 |
| 2012 | $20,160 |
| 2011 | $526 |
| 2010 | $10,822 |
I compiled this information by looking at my earnings records on the Social Security Administration website, which keeps track of all of my taxed social security and medicare earnings in my lifetime. It might not be exactly perfect, but I think it provides a fairly decent record of what my income has been over the last 10 years – especially since I don’t have much income that isn’t subject to social security and medicare tax. According to the Social Security Administration, my total income from 2010-2018 was $545,919.
Since I haven’t done my 2019 taxes yet, I don’t have the exact numbers for this past year, but a cursory estimate suggests that it’ll be similar to my income in recent years – about $75,000. I’ll use that as my estimated income for 2019. So, including my estimated 2019 income, I’ll have made a total of $620,919 over the last 10 years of my life.Â
There are a few things to note about my income history.
- First, I was in law school from 2010 to 2013, which is why my income during those first four years was so low. I got my first real job in the Fall of 2013 – and that’s when I started making the big bucks.
- Second, I got married in 2017. Before that, my wife and I kept our finances separate – we split the bills and generally paid for our own stuff. After we got married, we combined finances (we’ve been lazy and still have separate bank accounts, although we think of it all as one big pool of money).
- Third, my wife didn’t finish her residency until 2018 and she didn’t start working until mid-2018. Before that, she made zero income (in fact, she actually had to pay tuition in order to do her residency). So, for half of 2018 and all of 2019, my income technically would include my wife’s income – which is a significant amount. I haven’t included her income in my decade earnings, primarily because we haven’t relied on her income to live at this point and are actually saving almost all of it for student loan purposes. That’s going to change a lot as we enter this new decade.
With all that said, making $620,000 over the last decade is actually a lot more than I thought I had made. For some reason, when you’re earning money in the moment, it never really seems like all that much.Â
What Do I Have Left After A Decade?Â
Now that we know approximately what I made over the past 10 years, the question becomes, what do I have to show for it? I will say that, as a millennial, I think I’m doing very well – although probably below average compared to your hardcore FIRE person that would probably be retired by now (note: this is sort of sarcasm, but sort of not sarcasm either).
Here’s what my investment accounts look like (approximately) as of the start of 2020. This is obviously all subject to change due to market conditions, but it gives a decent peek into what I’ve managed to put away over the past decade of my life.
- 457 Plan: $85,000
- Solo 401k: $45,000
- Roth IRA: $37,000
- HSA: $7,000
- Other Miscellaneous Investment Accounts (529 plan; taxable accounts): $2,700
Total Invested Amount: $176,700Â
That’s pretty interesting. After a decade, I still have about 28% of what I made. At first glance, it sort of feels like I don’t have that much to show for myself after 10 years and over $600,000 in income. In a normal world, I’d definitely be killing it. But, I’ve put myself in this FIRE world and given the super saving nature of a lot of FIRE folks, it’d seem like I should have $300,000 or more put away at this point.
One defense I have (if a defense is needed) is that I spent a lot of the early years of my career paying off student loans. I graduated from law school with about $87,000 worth of student loans and from 2014-2016, I paid a little over $102,000 in order to bring that balance to $0. I broke down the exact payments and everything I made in this post, so check that out if you want to see what sort of payments it takes to pay off $87,000 of student loans in 2.5 years.
When you add in the $102,000 I paid towards my student loans, I’d actually be pretty close to $300,000 saved – so maybe I’m not as much of a slacker as I thought.Â
I also have a decent amount of cash set aside in my $42,000 emergency fund. If you include half of that emergency fund in my savings totals, I have more like $200,000 remaining from the approximately $600,000 that I’ve earned over my life. I think that’s pretty good.
Do Your Own Calculation And See Where You StandÂ
I thought this was a pretty interesting exercise and if you’ve never done this before, it might be worth pulling up your income records to see what you’ve made over the last 10 years or so.
Once you’ve done that, look at your savings and investments and see what you have to show for yourself after 10 years of work. Money comes and goes so quickly, so I bet you’ll be surprised at just how much money has gone through your bank accounts over the years.
I’m obviously nowhere near financial independence, but I’m still happy with what I have to show for my decade of income – some decent money in the bank, a paid-off student loan, and (hopefully) the ability to generate more income in the future. The great thing is that I’ve put myself in a position where the next decade could get me to that financial independence point. We’ll see what happens in the coming years.
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- SoFi Money ($325) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $300 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Upgrade ($300) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $300 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $300 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
This is a great calculation and Millionaire Next Door has a similar salary-based ratio where they calculate Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth v. Average AW v. Under AW, and it’s based on the assets you have now compared to how old you are times your average annual salary. The thinking is that PAWs manage to have 2 times the Average and UAWs have less. These are useful signals to know you’re going in the right direction. Factors like how early you start earning (grad school has an opportunity cost beyond tuition), how expensive your city is (including local tax rates), if/ when you decide to have children, if you need to care for extended family, and your own priorities and goals all impact that number too. Our net worth is a good percentage of what we have earned so far, but that’s not b/c we saved all of that — we’re late 40’s so have had market appreciation on our paper assets and real estate helping our contributions grow.
Ah yeah, the PAWs and UAWs. It’s always difficult to calculate when you’re a professional that starts a career later. I suspect that in another 10 years, we’ll probably be closer to the PAWs side just of how we do things.
I remember on one of the early Afford Anything episodes, Paula talked about running this calculation. I made a note to run it myself, but never got around to it until reading this post. As a percentage of net worth, my calculation comes out to 45%!
I graduated and got my first “real” job late in 2015, but have some part time income dating back to 2012. After graduation and having an income for the first time, I wasn’t very interested in savings. However, since it was so easy to get credit card sign up bonuses at the time, that helped supplement my lifestyle. I actually started budgeting because I needed a way to know when I was about to hit minimum spend on a card so I could order another. Then, I started saving cash because bank bonuses seemed easy, and I needed to have enough cash to float around/hold in accounts for the minimum # months required to avoid clawbacks. It wasn’t until late 2016 that I started contributing to my 401k, when I became eligible for a company match. And even then, I only put in the minimum required to get the match.
Once the banks started tightening up the rules for bonuses, I found the FIRE community and decided to give investing a try. It’s a lot less work 🙂
That’s great that you’re doing so well! And yeah, investing is definitely less work. The thing about bank bonuses, credit card churning, and the like is we do it because we like it. I find them lucrative, but more than anything, I just find them fun to do and to figure out how it all works. It’s like a game.
Hi, I have been enjoying your blog for a while. You have been amazing in figuring out side hustles.
In today’s analysis, I noticed there is no mention of your house. Don’t you have some equity in it? Or is it a rental? Perhaps you don’t consider home ownership a good idea. I live in San Francisco area( Berkeley near the university ), and the equity in my house with 3 rental units which we have owned for 31 years is a huge part of my retirement plan. It’s not for everyone, but if you can stick it out, the payoff can surpass any other investment. We are considering selling the property this year and retire from land lording. It is about time to stop worrying about maintaining a 124-year old Victorian! We expect to net well over a million after commission, taxes, repairs and other various fees. It will help pay for many decades—I hope— of enjoying the simpler things in life.
Wish you and your wife a very prosperous and healthy New Year!
Good point. So my housing situation right now is a little unique. My wife bought her house in 2010 and was house hacking by living with 3 roommates while she was in school (roommates paid the mortgage). When we moved in together, we lived in an apartment and she rented her house out. We moved back into the house in 2016 and split the mortgage, and then we started doing Airbnb to house hack some more.
Long story short, I don’t include the house because I really had nothing to do with the value of it since my wife got it before she met me and my goal with this post was to sort of look at what I did during the 2010s.
I think the amount someone has saved is more due to consistency, not luck. Of course there’s an element there of luck, but if one saves regularly you can deal with the occasional “bad luck”. Also important is doing your homework on what you do with those savings- take some but not ridiculous risk. I’m very new to the savings process but I’ve managed since October (when I paid off last of biz startup expenses) to save 3 months of living expenses (question! I only have 1 netspend, and it’s not letting me get more- what gives?), and also contribute $6k to my 2019 IRA and ~$1400 to my IDA for a first-time homeowner program (they match 2:1, you have to establish a regular savings routine). Now that for the first time in my life I have extra income and am not paycheck to paycheck (career change) and I’m using these programs like the IDA and IRA, it really becomes like another expense to me and a non-negotiable.
Also! I have a partner now that is on the same page as me financially, we really encourage each other to save (tho are not “cheap”- just spending only on the experiences we both actually value). We’ve both definitely motivated each other a lot with real gains. Having friends, family, or loved ones (or even participating in an online community) really helps reinforce the savings habit.
It’s a combination. One thing is, a lot of the luck of the draw makes it so unlucky things aren’t as unlucky for us. When I was 16, I crashed my parents car into a car in my neighborhood. Depending on my parent’s situation, this could’ve been devastating, but my parents had money, could afford to pay to get the car fixed, and I was fortunate enough to live in a wealthy neighborhood where the person I hit had no need to run a scam or do anything like that. It could have turned out a lot different in another life.
Sure, definitely. Tho- this is what your emergency fund is for (a concept I had never even heard of until about 2 years ago, and it took me this long to save it. Luckily my overhead is low too).
Totally unrelated but I cannot WAIT until my city (dirty Philly) and state finally approve scooters here so I can charge ’em up and start that side hustle. A lot of your other gigs I haven’t been able to do, but this one seems right up my alley. Of course our streets are too junked up here and they have to develop scooters with heavy duty wheels, haha
Yeah – the scooter game is interesting because some of the biggest cities in the US – New York, Chicago, Philly, still don’t have scooters. It’ll be interesting to see if they can ever figure out how to get into those places.
Good insights. I’ve got to do my own analysis and see what I’ve come up with. But I think somehow my net worth is higher than my total gross income earned since 1999. But that’s due to Lucky Investments and San Francisco real estate, the stock market, and Stocks like Amazon, Tesla, and Google.
I think the amount of wealth someone has is mostly due to Luck.
Keep getting lucky!
Sam
Yeah, no doubt. I definitely was lucky in that I had parents that were able to pay for my college (thus reducing the loans I would’ve had). Haven’t had any health issues either. I do think certain choices I did helped me, like living in a lower cost of living area (I’m from a high cost of living area originally, but moved to a less “prestigious” city when I went to school and started working), but ultimately, a lot of the financial position I’m in was a result of being born in a situation that gave me that opportunity.,
After reading your post, just for fun I went through my last decades of earnings on the Social Security site as well. After calculating what I made over the past 10 years, I found that I saved almost 30% of what I earned in savings and investments. That’s not too shabby, but nowhere near what I wanted to save or should have. I can see that my savings rate has skyrocketed in the last few years as my side hustle income grew, and I can see myself saving closer to 60-80% or more in the coming years. It’s so much easier to save when your disposable income is higher.
It is a motivating, yet sobering exercise to undertake. It made me realize that I made over a million dollars in the past decade and I can’t imagine where almost half of it went. I’m curious to dig through my spending records and find out, but it may just leave me depressed! Here’s to the new decade, and kicking the savings rate into high gear!
It’s really interesting to see – like where does all our money go? Obviously a big chunk to taxes, but then the rest often seems to just disappear into who knows what.
At the same time though, it’s important to remember that we’re still doing very well. I know I have a skewed perspective of saving and money given that I’m in this personal finance and financial independence community.