It always helps me to see real, actual dollar numbers when reading other people’s posts. Something about seeing hard numbers makes it more real. So here are ours. I started with 2012 because that is when we started using Schwab and it’s pretty easy to pull the data together.
These are gains, not the capital itself. I like to look at it this way since it shows what it earned without the distraction of the capital.
| Year | Investment Gains |
|---|---|
| 2012 | -$5,870 |
| 2013 | $62,390 |
| 2014 | $125,788 |
| 2015 | $122,577 |
| 2016 | $100,002 |
Stats
| Total | $404,867 |
| Average | $80,973 |
Wait, why do you have negative gains in 2012? Well, I was moving into individual stocks and changing brokerages to Schwab. You can see my timing strategy did not work. That’s okay, it more than recovered in the next 4 years.
Looking at the stats helps me stay focused and validates we are on the right path. If that $80,973 was in a normal brokerage account (not 401k or Roth) and we had $0 of regular income, we could pull that money out tax-free each year…. legally. Did you say $80,973 in income with $0 in taxes? Yep, more on that in another post.
Something to think about.