Millionaire Interview Update 78

Today I have an update for you from a previous millionaire interview.

I’m letting three years pass from the initial interviews to the updates, so if you’ve been interviewed, I’ll be in touch. 

This update was submitted in March.

As usual, my questions are in bold italics and their responses follow…

OVERVIEW

How old are you?

I’m 60 and my beautiful wife is 63.

We’ve been married for 31 years.

Do you have kids?

We have a daughter that is 29 and a son that is 26. Both graduated from in-state universities with no debt.

Our daughter is a chemical engineer and a plant manager for a specialty gas company (oxygen, nitrogen and argon). Our son is a mechanical engineer and is a project manager for a commercial construction company.

Both have significant others but are not married yet. Hopefully, soon.

Both kids are off to a good start with investments. Our daughter has over $600,000 in investments and our son is somewhere over $150,000.

We’re very proud of both for getting off to a good start. We will also help them out with funding different things in their young lives.

For example, down payment help, college funding for kids and family travel.

What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?

We live in a nice suburb of Seattle. We’ve been in our home for 30 years and have seen quite the price appreciation.

We bought our home in 1996 for $189,000 and now it is worth about $1,300,000. Please note that the $1.3 million is a $300,000 decrease from my original interview when comparables were about $1.6 million.

Prices exploded here during Covid and have come down a little since.

In the original interview, we stated that we would likely move to a smaller town. We still think about moving but we also would like to be near our kids as they start their families.

Both kids are okay with having us nearby but not too close. If they leave the greater Seattle area, we may purchase another residence wherever they end up.

What was your original Millionaire Interview on ESI Money?

Number 314 on June 27, 2022.

Nearly four years ago. Time flies.

Is there anything else we should know about you?

Little did I know, right after our original interview, that I would be laid off six months later. I thought that I would just retire but decided to continue selling advertising through my own company.

Kind of a side hustle to move into retirement where I only worked a few hours a week. I did this for three years and closed the business in December of 2025.

It turned out to be a good way to ease into retirement. It was a nice way to bring in about $50,000 gross per year, which was about a quarter of my prior income.

My wife also retired in 2025. She did pick up a couple short term projects in 2025 and realized she didn’t love it any longer. It was time to move on.

NET WORTH

What is your current net worth and how is that different than your original interview?

Our current net worth in early 2026 is about $5.7 million. It was $4.7 million in 2022. Here are the changes:

• Cash was $162,000 and is now $285,000
• Brokerage was $141,106 and is now $338,131
• 401K/IRA was $2,164,448 and is now $3,165,761
• Home was $1,600,000 and is now $1,300,000
• Rental condo was $700,00 and is now $600,000

I really did enjoy adding to our investments while working. I do miss buying when the market was down over 2.5% on any given day.

It was kind of like market timing, but it made investing a little more fun. I always kept extra cash in my 401k for days with large market sell offs.

What happened along the way to make these changes?

We bumped up our cash due to playing the ACA health insurance game. We are keeping our income low (under $84k) for the next few years.

I did receive a severance that we put directly into our cash and brokerage accounts. We put more into our brokerage accounts to live off before 59 1/2 but we overshot that since we already passed 59 1/2.

You will note that our home and rental property did decrease. The housing market got way overheated and has come back to earth.

Our 401k/IRA did increase by about one million dollars in four years. Obviously, we are thrilled with that growth.

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?

Three years ago, we started to de-risk our stock/bond and cash holdings. Our portfolio slowly changed from 90/10 to 80/20 and is now at about 60/40.

We are letting the market do its thing without jeopardizing our retirement. We have about eight years of spending in cash and bonds.

That works out to be about $150,000 per year. We are letting our plan work and will cut back on spending if something really goes wrong.

Our home and rental property are paid off so we don’t have that hanging over our heads.

EARN

What is your job?

My job now is chief money manager for our family. I’m actually very busy everyday and am thrilled that I don’t have to work any longer.

I had a very stressful career and was really happy to make it to the retirement starting line.

What is your annual income?

We don’t have earned income any longer. Our rental brings in about $30k and we make some income on interest and dividends.

We will start pulling a bit of money from IRA’s to make sure we are above the $30k poverty level so we don’t end up on Medicaid. This may include Roth conversions, but we are waiting until the end of the year so we don’t go over the $84k mark for the ACA subsidies.

How has this changed since your last interview?

We were at about $300,000 per year during my last interview so this is quite the drop in income. It was difficult to get used to when I first left my corporate job.

I remember looking at a pair of $150 running shoes for a month before I bought them. I was a good saver so turning that around was difficult at first. Now, I’m more of a free spender.

Have you added, grown, or lost any additional sources of income besides your career?

Our rental is still bringing in monthly dollars. We sign two-year leases to protect us from turnover, and it protects the renter from rent increases.

It’s located across the street from Microsoft, so we don’t have any problems keeping it rented.

We haven’t added any new investments as a source of income. One rental is enough for us.

SAVE

What is your annual spending and how has it changed since your interview?

Here’s a look at our spending from 2002 and from 2025. Every category has increased.

Our net worth has increased and we’ve lived a fun life. I’m sure inflation has some to do with this increase as well as just living larger.

We planned for it, we earned it and now that we are in our sixties, we feel free to spend more. We laugh that we still use coupons at the grocery store.

That part of being frugal hasn’t changed.

We have taken higher priced vacations. Cruises are not inexpensive but they sure are convenient for just unpacking once.

We have added a landscaping company to take care of our yard. I like doing it but it sure is convenient to be on vacation and come home to a nicely mowed yard.

• Restaurants: $14,000 now $14,900
• Property taxes: $13,000 now $15,000
• General Merchandise: $8,200 now $11,000
• Vacation: $7,500 now $25,300
• Insurance: $7,000 now $8,900
• Entertainment: $6,000 now $8,700
• Groceries: $3,700 now $6,416
• Home Improvement: $3,200 now $4,700
• Utilities: $3,000 now $5,300
• Cable/Internet: $2,600 now $2,800
• Gas: $1,600 now $1,725
• Clothing: $1,200 now $4,250
• Pet: $600 now $1,900

What happened along the way to make these changes?

We’ve learned to enjoy our money a little more. We were in building mode but have now hit a point where we can enjoy it.

We’ve traveled to Europe four times since our last interview and that includes a Mediterranean cruise in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and Turkey and a Viking river cruise through Germany, France and Switzerland. We’ve also gone to Oktoberfest in Munich two years in a row.

INVEST

What are your current investments and how have they changed over the years?

Like I said earlier, we have de-risked our asset allocation to 60% stocks and 40% cash/bonds. We’ve also consolidated some accounts and are now only with two investment management companies.

We’ve made it to where we are and don’t want to screw it up. We’re happy with our allocation.

Just about everything is in low-cost index funds. Obviously, we could be more aggressive but we really don’t need to be.

What happened along the way to make these changes?

The Covid drop in 2020 was the biggest factor in changing our allocation. We were too aggressive for our liking.

We also looked at where we were and decided that we had made it. Let’s not move backward.

MISCELLANEOUS

What other financial challenges or opportunities have you faced since your last interview?

Both of us leaving corporate life has been the biggest change. We’ve had to learn about the ACA and how to play that game.

It’s an expensive mistake if you don’t do it right. We’re glad that we received some quality advice from professionals in the industry.

The book Tax Planning To and Through Early Retirement by Cody Garrett and Sean Mullaney has been very helpful.

The book is great guide for various topics when entering retirement. I highly recommend checking it out.

Overall, what’s better and what’s worse since your last interview?

Leaving corporate life has been huge for me. I was just done with it all.

I love skiing in the winter, so I bought an Epic Pass and ski a ton throughout the western USA and Whistler in British Columbia, Canada. I certainly don’t miss commuting every day.

I used commuting as my podcast time but now I listen during daily walks. We’re focusing on staying in good shape as we age.

It’s amazing how many people in their early sixties have broken down. That’s certainly not in our plans. We have too much to do and see.

What are your plans for the future?

Continuing to travel is our biggest thing right now. For this year we are going to the Midwest, Hawaii, Germany, SoCal, Austin, Texas, and a cruise around Italy.

We’ve already booked another small boat luxury cruise in 2027 to Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.

After traveling, we will see where our kids land with potential marriage and homes. Lots of exciting things to look forward to.

We also look forward to helping both kids financially along the way. We’d rather see them “inherit” money now then when we are gone.

We’re not sure about future housing. We have a big house that we really don’t need. Hopefully, we’ll downsize in the future.

Given that you have a bit more wisdom and experience, what advice do you have these days for ESI Money readers?

My biggest advice to those prior to retirement is to create a long-term plan, invest as much as possible, but still enjoy your life. Life is a journey meant to be enjoyed through fun experiences.

Don’t spend all your time saving and investing. Live for the day as well.

I’d also shoot for retiring at 50 since the corporate world tends to get rid of people over 50. Any amount of time working after 50 is a bonus.

This thinking would also lead to making sure that you have investments in a brokerage account and not just in retirement accounts. This will bridge you to 59 ½ to get into those retirement accounts.

We realized when we turned 50 that most of our money was in retirement accounts so we adjusted and added to the brokerage accounts. We realize you can use the rule of 55 but we wanted to keep things simple.