Today I have updates from two previous millionaire interviews.
I’m letting three years pass from the initial interviews to the updates, so if you’ve been interviewed, I’ll be in touch. 😉
Fun fact about today’s millionaires: they both live overseas.
We’ll begin with Millionaire 26.
Her update was submitted in October.
As usual, my questions are in bold italics and her responses follow…
OVERVIEW
How old are you?
Both my husband and I turned 50 this year, and we’ve been married 15 years.
Do you have kids?
We have three kids: a son who is 14, and a son and daughter who are 12 years old.
The boys attend an English-language international school in Beirut.
Our daughter has severe learning disabilities, so her education is a mix of a part-time school for special needs kids, special tutors and therapists, and home schooling.
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
I’m an overseas American. My family and I currently live in Lebanon. My family lives in Beirut.
I spend weekends with them, and the workweek I spend in rural Lebanon working for a development organization.
What was your original Millionaire Interview on ESI Money?
I was Millionaire Interview 26, and my interview was published 30 October 2017.
Is there anything else we should know about you?
I’ve spent most of my life working for development organizations in countries of the “Global South”.
I’m the sole breadwinner in my family. My husband is from Eastern Europe, and he’s a stay-at-home dad, running the household and helping with the kids, our special-needs daughter in particular.
NET WORTH
What is your current net worth and how is that different than your original interview?
Our current net worth is $4.4m, an increase from my October 2017 interview when it was worth $3.4m.
What happened along the way to make these changes?
Our net worth is almost all in indexed Vanguard stock funds.
It’s increased almost entirely thanks to the increase in the markets.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
We’re not touching our savings at all. We’re living solely off my salary, and leaving the nest egg alone.
We hope both it and the markets will continue to increase.
EARN
What is your job?
I’m an aid worker.
I’m the Country Manager for a development organization in the field of economic development. I oversee about 30 staff.
What is your annual income?
My nominal salary is $75,000 per year, although total compensation is around $110,000 thanks to additional hardship pay, danger pay, travel allowances, and an occasional outside consultancy.
I also receive housing and education allowances, but I don’t count those in my salary (although the IRS certainly does).
How has this changed since your last interview?
I’m in the same job, and my salary has increased only slightly because of cost-of-living adjustments.
Have you added, grown, or lost any additional sources of income besides your career?
Our family has only one source of income, my salary. It’s been that way for the last 10 years.
Consistency and patience have been the key to the success in our situation.
SAVE
What is your annual spending and how has it changed since your interview?
Our spending patterns haven’t changed.
When our kids were born, our expenses went up and our savings went down. Since then we’ve spent almost all of my salary.
Right now we spend around $90,000-$100,000 per year, with around a fifth of the total for medical and special education expenses for our daughter.
We only save $5,000-$10,000 per year these days, a minimal amount that we’re committed to for symbolic reasons, since the actual effect on our nest egg is minimal.
This year (2020) our expenses are slightly lower because of the pandemic, since our travel expenses are lower (i.e. we haven’t taken the family to our home countries).
What happened along the way to make these changes?
Early in my career I saved a huge percentage of my income. The dollar amounts weren’t always high, but because I’ve been saving for so long, and because I went all-in with indexed stock funds, the total has increased and compounded to much bigger numbers.
As I mentioned above, our savings went down because of family expenses after our kids were born. It took some mental adjustment to consume more and save less, but now we’re now okay with that.
Our nest egg is big enough, and we enjoy our lifestyle without feeling like misers.
Most importantly, we have enough money to meet our daughter’s special medical and education needs, and we won’t skimp on her.
INVEST
What are your current investments and how have they changed over the years?
All of my savings have always been in Vanguard index mutual funds, almost all in the S&P 500.
My return on income (ROI) has averaged 8.5% per year. That’s not spectacular, and is roughly the same as the S&P500 over the same period.
I’m happy with it.
What happened along the way to make these changes?
It’s the most simple and boring method of investing. I buy Vanguard and hold–forever.
The last time I sold any of my holdings was around 20 years ago. I’m occasionally tempted to sell when market volatility is high, and also when I see an exotic investment. But in the end I’ve always resisted the impulse.
MISCELLANEOUS
What other financial challenges or opportunities have you faced since your last interview?
There was a moment of terror when the markets plunged deeply at the beginning of the pandemic. From peak to trough our net worth went down well more than a million.
But I simply stopped looking. I didn’t touch anything, and the markets recovered and went on to set new records.
Overall, what’s better and what’s worse since your last interview?
What’s better: the value of our nest egg is higher!
What’s worse: My job.
I think one effect of having such a comfortably large nest egg is that my tolerance for work problems and politics has gone down.
What are your plans for the future?
We have no concrete plans to change anything.
I imagine eventually I’ll leave my job. My employer might ask me to transfer, or something like that. At that point we’ll make a home in the USA, and we’ll both be full-time homemakers with part-time jobs to keep us busy.
Given that you have a bit more wisdom and experience, what advice do you have these days for ESI Money readers?
The same advice I’ve always had: save lots, and save it as soon as you can so compound interest will do its magic.
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Next we have Millionaire 30. His update was submitted in November.
OVERVIEW
How old are you?
Age is 47, spouse of 13 years is 40.
Do you have kids?
We have two kids – a daughter age 7, and a toddler son age 16 months.
We tried to have a second child for some time before being successful.
Even though they have an age gap they are very fond of each other.
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
We live in an urban major metropolitan area in Southeast Asia.
What was your original Millionaire Interview on ESI Money?
The original interview was done back in November 2017 and I did it with my father.
I was Millionaire #30.
Is there anything else we should know about you?
I’m also one of the Millionaire Mentors under the ESI forum.
I have been providing advice on dividend growth investing, career management, early retirement and living abroad as an American Citizen.
Here is an article on Dividend Growth Investing.
I also wrote up a retirement interview earlier this year following when I went into semi-retirement.
NET WORTH
What is your current net worth and how is that different than your original interview?
In my earlier interview my net worth was around $4 million and today it is between $4.5 – 5 million, mostly depending on what is happening in the stock market.
I stopped working full time about 18 months ago so the growth in net worth has really slowed down.
I’m more focused on having robust and growing cash flow that is well in excess of our current and future expenses.
What happened along the way to make these changes?
In late 2017 I lost my job as a senior executive at a large employer. I found another job working in Healthcare in the Middle East and made the move in 2018, with my family following me a few months later.
It was a assignment as my position as an Executive Director was eliminated and given to several nationals as part of the directives from the government (it was a public / private partnership). I knew it would happen eventually but thought the role would last a few years.
We moved back to Southeast Asia in 2019 a few weeks before our second child was born.
It turned out to be a real blessing in hindsight as if we stayed out there we would have been locked down in the apartment all summer during the blazing heat and it would have been very hard mentally with the children. Out here the number of COVID cases are extremely low across the country and while the borders are closed to travelers, you have some freedom of movement and to be able to go about daily life here so that’s been wonderful.
Since 2019 I’ve been doing some part time consulting work. I was contacted by a few full time corporate level jobs and got to the final rounds of interviews only to not get chosen twice. I suppose that was a good thing as I may have been tempted to take another job somewhere else and it is a silver lining to spend more time with family under these circumstances.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
Consulting work as it comes up. It pays far less than working full time but it is also much less hours. I really enjoy the challenge and the variety of the work.
One of the things I didn’t enjoy with full time work is that I was always oversubscribed and was often in inadvertent competition with other workaholics and that was often a source of stress. I find I’m a lot more relaxed and can still perform at a high capability in this environment.
I also continue to invest as I find opportunities come up.
EARN
What is your job?
I am helping both healthcare providers and medical device manufacturers do several things: improve operations, improve quality and reduce rejects (for manufacturing), writing patents for new products and technologies and putting together business plans and analysis.
What is your annual income?
I really don’t have much predictability of income from consulting. It could be between $30k – $100k. This year has come in closer to the latter.
On top of this I’m receiving investment income through dividend growth investing and this has been growing steadily.
Back when I did the interview in 2017 my passive investment income was around $80k and in 2020 this is now up to $120k+ so there has been good growth. That being said, I’ve slowed down my rate of new contributions so would expect this to keep pace with inflation or perhaps outpace it slightly.
2020 has been a tough year and I’ve endured some dividend cuts, suspensions and a lack of increases. 2021 may be difficult as well. Nevertheless it has been a successful source of income.
How has this changed since your last interview?
In my last interview I was earning $250 – $400k a year from my career and this source of income is gone as I’ve moved into semi-retirement.
I’ve done a retirement interview with ESI last year.
Have you added, grown, or lost any additional sources of income besides your career?
I’ve lost my career income but increased my passive income from dividends.
I’ve also been working on a side hustle by coaching and helping people lose fat and getting into better health. It doesn’t pay significantly as I charge under $2k per client but I’ve been able to slowly build up my client base and it is enjoyable to help other people.
SAVE
What is your annual spending and how has it changed since your interview?
Annual spending is around $100k per year, in a normal year but this year it will be closer to $80K since there is very limited travel and no travel abroad since COVID-19 hit. I believe this has gone up since my daughter has joined a more expensive international school ($30K a year) and we are already paying for a number of activities for our toddler son.
What happened along the way to make these changes?
I knew there would be inflation in our expenses after another addition joined the family. We prioritize spending on activities that help build on the intellectual and social development of the children and many of these cost money.
We also had a number of one off costs that have come up – one is to replace all three elevators in our aging building over the next 3 years and that will need to be budgeted.
On the positive side, I’ve been able to pick up some additional income from different consulting jobs. Two of these seem to have potential to continue as the rest seem to have low potential for repeat business. Maybe some of the others will need something else done and come back for assistance.
INVEST
What are your current investments and how have they changed over the years?
The main investments are in the stock market with a very well diversified portfolio of companies that mostly pay dividends. There are non-dividend payers in the portfolio but it is weighted towards having a mix of companies that do pay dividends as this cash flow will be used to fund our lifestyle in retirement.
I’ve been following this strategy the last 6-7 years and it has been holding up well, even during where we are in the pandemic at this time. While I’ve had companies in the portfolio suspend or cut dividends due to prioritizing cash flow back into operations, I’ve also had a number of companies continue to raise their dividends.
Passive income from dividends is exceeding our household annual expenses and the rest is being reinvested.
What happened along the way to make these changes?
Since moving into semi-retirement, I have had to slow down the rate of investing. I was probably holding too much cash coming into the pandemic so deployed some of this into the market back between February – April 2020. Some of this was lucky to catch the big drop in stocks in March but not all of it.
As long as I can re-invest at some level while still being able to live of the cash flow produced by investments things should be fine.
Currently we have about 2-3 years of expenses in cash at present and will look to maintain at least 1-2 years in liquid cash available for the foreseeable future.
MISCELLANEOUS
What other financial challenges or opportunities have you faced since your last interview?
I went through a period of feeling like I was missing all the benefits of being in a high powered career: besides the big paycheck there was the social interactions from work and networking with customers. I like being busy and feeling productive so this felt lacking for a period of time.
This has been offset with increased time spent with the family and that has been very rewarding but in a different way. It was easier to handle the uncertainty around COVID-19 while being in this position, although that has also been challenging for us as I’ll explain more in a moment.
Overall, what’s better and what’s worse since your last interview?
My father, who is 76 years old, has been facing a number of health episodes. While he has been able to receive high quality care he does need to rely on family members to help him as his mobility has decreased. I wanted to go there to take care of him but with COVID-19 and international travel shutting down this has been a hard challenge to face.
I do plan to spend a few months with him early next year. They live in the Mid-Atlantic part of the country so it will be a shock traveling there from the tropics straight into the middle of winter.
I can say that I wouldn’t be able to take a few months off to look after family had we not been in such a position financially or post career as we are now.
What are your plans for the future?
I’ve had a small business around coaching people to reduce fat and improve their health and fitness and have given this more effort and time.
I am seeing some positive results in influencing more people and hope to keep at it to grow the business.
Given that you have a bit more wisdom and experience, what advice do you have these days for ESI Money readers?
While you are working seek to maximize your career potential and savings from this. It may seem like to goes on forever but it will eventually end and often this will be at a moment not of your choosing (I speak from working in the private sector here).
Look to experiment with retirement when you are ready and consider a semi-retirement approach. Find things that fill your time that give you energy versus draining you and put more effort to cultivate these into creating a second life and ‘career’ for you and your family.
Life is ultimately about giving back and learning continually and that doesn’t stop when retirement hits – rather it changes gears and goes into a new level.
The Millennial Money Woman says
I thought it was incredible to read your story – living on the other side of the globe (relative to my location) and the job you do. It sounds like you have it figured out: investing in simple, stress-free Vanguard indexed funds and letting your net worth grow and ride the increase in the stock markets. It’s one of my favorite ways to invest and I think it’s certainly a proven strategy. Incredible to see how your net worth has increased by $1MM since your last interview.
Keep up the incredible work and I look forward to reading more from you soon.
Cheers,
Fiona
M26 says
Your and ESI’s comments mean a lot, since successful personal finance writers can amplify the message: earn, save, invest, and don’t touch (or even look!) at the money. I think it’s helped to spend my whole career outside wealthy countries. The direct and systematic exposure to poverty makes me more grateful for what I’ve got, and less prone to ratchet up the ever-more-stuff-and-services lifestyle ladder.
RI26 says
MI26, what a great job you’ve done building wealth over time! You are a textbook example of how to build wealth the ESI way. From a FIRE viewpoint, you pretty much already have the FI part down, which has put you in the enviable position to decide if you want to do the RE part. It sounds as if you and your husband have already given some consideration to retirement (or semi retirement) in the next few years depending on how things play out with your career, so good luck in your deliberations.
Out of curiosity, was your family significantly affected by the horrific explosion in Beirut in Aug 2020? How is the city (and the rest of Lebanon) coping now, +/- 6 months after the explosion? Has that affected your family’s desire to continue living in Beirut, or perhaps moving elsewhere?
M26 says
The explosion affected everyone in Beirut somehow. It happened right in the downtown, so everyone knows someone who experienced it personally. None of our friends were hurt badly, fortunately, but we’re only a couple of degrees of separation from victims. Has it affected our decision to live here? Not directly. It’s just one more another example of the country’s and region’s instability, and it underlined that we’re not here long-term!
MI16 and RI01 says
MI30, your story (and commenting history) is something I’ve enjoyed and learned from on this site, and FMF. Keeping good thoughts for your father, I also did an ESI MI interview with my father on FMF and have updated it periodically at ESI. My father passed after a long decline filled with struggle, so I appreciate the time constraint you must feel. One thing I did that has been helpful to the family, is to start writing down memories as soon as I learned of his diagnosis. I think about him every day, and the written memories help me remember him with gratitude for his actions. My brothers and mother sometimes slip into remembering his struggle near the end, and that is unproductive.
Also, admiring the way you have transitioned your worklife, and eased into advantageous consulting work (while avoiding the other kind). Continued success to you!
MI26, congratulations on maintaining your family life and growing your NW. Your commitment to your special daughter is admirable. I have a special needs sibling, currently on hospice, and hopefully your other children will observe you and your husband’s commitment, and take that example in their later years.
All I know is what I read, but the messages being sent (i.e. port of Beirut, Ein Qana just south of Beirut, etc.) must be a big part of your increasing work dissatisfaction. There must be remarkable pressure on your institution regarding obtaining funding, and distributing that money. When you make the decision to relocate, it will be the right time and appreciate your planning to provide that option. Keeping good thoughts for your family.
Mike H says
Hi MI16 / R101,
Thanks for your kind words. I’m so sorry to hear about your father.
Yes, you are right. I need to start to capture some of his memories. I did that with my grandmother when I visited her for her 91st birthday and she passed the year after that. I’m glad that I had the chance to do that.
Best wishes,
MI30
MI236 says
MI26 – +1 on “I think one effect of having such a comfortably large nest egg is that my tolerance for work problems and politics has gone down.” I read another MI who called it the F-u money.
It is also deeply interesting for me to note that your income is less than most millionaires’ accounts that I have read here but your net worth is the same or higher – awesome job and shows the power of saving early, aggressively and let compounding take care of the rest.
I will be quoting your example to my daughters. Thank you!
M26 says
Thank you for encouraging your daughters!
You’re exactly correct that saving early and aggressively is key. I invested $40k/year for 15 years, and then $15k/year for 10 years, and then coasted. My annual return, mostly through Vanguard’s S&P500 fund, was 9%. I just plugged those numbers into an Excel spread sheet to verify the numbers, and it still seems like magic!
charlie @ doginvestor.com says
I’m inspired by the financial growth of just earning and saving it per M26. It’s amazing the power of compounding – but also looking at points in time – if you were to look at it during 2002 or 2009 it’s interesting how the compounding would’ve made it look like it was far less than the 9%. It’s great that the time in market allows you to bounce back as well as just keep investing high or low.
Great story. Enjoyed hearing from folks living outside the US and non-US investors too =)
M26 says
Love your “doginvestor” handle!
About your comment on 2002 and 2009, I agree. My 9% return is unique to my investments and investing period, and it’s amazing how adjusting either one so dramatically affects the average return! However you’re also correct that time heals all wounds. I just did some math with the S&P500 historic numbers, and starting to invest in 2002 would have been a wild ride, but by 2020 the average return would have been 5%, which isn’t too awful.
M26 says
Thanks ESI for the great photo of Beirut!