In the good old days, several friends and I liked having beers after each softball game. We got to discussing what is the one ingredient necessary for achieving financial independence at a relatively early age.

Here were some of their responses:

• Saving aggressively
• Investing in stocks
• Investing in real estate
• Earning side income
• Taking bigger risks in our careers
• Leveraging the internet
• Working ungodly long hours
• Relocating to areas with huge job growth despite the higher cost of living
• Starting a business

Many of these ingredients are great for helping all of us achieve financial independence.

However, the #1 ingredient that drove me, which nobody mentioned, was FEAR. More specifically, the fear of failure.

Let me share some examples to explain what I mean. Then perhaps you can share your own in the comments section below. 

To have a top one percent net worth is an impressive achievement. However, what is a top one percent net worth amount exactly? Further, it’s probably more appropriate to shoot for a top one percent net worth by age. After all, it’s not fair to compare your net worth at 25 to someone’s net worth at 50.

After publishing, The Top 1% Income Levels By Age Groups, there were two main responses from the community:

1. You are surprised how low the top one percent income levels are.
2. It’s not how much you make, but how much you keep.

The top on percent income levels for all the age groups looks a little light compared to the overall median top percent figure of $380,000 as reported by the IRS back in 2013.

However, the income levels are all the MINIMUM amounts you need to make in order to be classified in the top one percent. In other words, making $210,000 as a 32 year old puts you in the top one percent for your age group. So does making $350,000.

Thanks to economic growth and inflation, a top one percent income level for 2020 is now about $470,000. The income level was only about $400,000 just in 2012. Don’t be on the wrong side of inflation.

The top one percent income of $470,000 can be individual income or household income. The income is reported income to the IRS, so there is a combination of both.

I first wrote this post in 2012, soon after I had left my day job in the finance industry after 13 years. I was thrilled, but also a little worried about the unknown. The idea of this post was to capture the feeling of financial independence.

In this revised edition, I’d like to add more color eight years later. It’s interesting how our perspectives change as we get older.

The whole point of this post is to encourage everyone to save more, invest more, earn more, and pay better attention to your finances. I know we’re all tired as hell from juggling so many things while under lockdown.

However, I can assure you that the reward is worth the “sacrifice.” We must keep on going.

Are you wondering how to reduce 401k fees? You’ve come to the right place. I was paying over $1,700 a year in 401k fees until I finally did a 401k portfolio audit.

Now I’m hardly paying any 401k fees. Due to analyzing my portfolio, I have reduced my 401k fees by over $100,000 over the next several decades. My goal is to help you reduce 401k fees as well.

The sooner you start planning for retirement the better. Too many people wake up 20 years from now and wonder where all their money went. By having specific financial goals by age, your retirement will be more comfortable than if you had decided to just wing it.

I suspect being overwhelmed with choices is one of the main reasons why folks don’t start financial planning as soon as they find their first job. When you’ve got to decide between various retirement plans, various investments, and learn about various rules, it’s much easier to just hoard cash.

Heck, some people even find hoarding cash hard. It’s sometimes easier to spend all your money now on the good life instead of figuring out how to make your money grow over time.

Don’t procrastinate when it comes to retirement planning. The more time you have to let your money compound, the better.

To make retirement planning easier, let’s go through some financial goals to achieve by age. To make retirement planning even easier, I’ll just highlight one main financial goal by decade.

This post will provide a guide for how much your net worth or savings should be based on income. Too many people go through life just winging their finances. No wonder why most people end up in old age wondering where all their money went.

If you’ve been making $500,000 a year for a decade as a 40 year old but only have a $1 million net worth, you’re probably a donkey with some serious financial issues. If you’re making $80,000 as a 30 year old but have a $500,000 net worth you are a hero who is on their way to bubbles and unicorns!

I’ve written about The Average Net Worth For The Above Average Person that provides charts on where highly motivated people who want to achieve financial independence should be. The only problem with my analysis is that it doesn’t tie income levels specifically in the charts. This post will bind the inextricably important link between income and wealth to ensure as high a chance of financial freedom as possible.

To create a good net worth guide based on income can be very tricky based on variables such as how long someone has been making X income, the return on investment, and the state of the economy.

Hence, a more conservative assumption is to replace net worth with savings. Let’s first understand the current state of the world and break down our assumptions.