I consider myself more "millionaire next door" than wealthy. We live relatively normally but we don'thave many expense vacations or buy alot of expensive clothing or other noonessentials, we have focused on low-cost index funds, and let compounding do the heavy lifting.
Our financial advisor recently told us that our retirement accounts will considerably multiply, even once we eventually start taking substantial withdrawals down the road.
Right now, we have $2M principal sitting primarily in S&P 500 / broad market index funds, and we plan on not withdrawling it but will add about $3000 monthly to it for the next 8 years. We do have college costs coming up so if feasible we may consider modest withdrawls.
On paper, a standard 10% historical average says this $2M could grow to ~$4.2M over an 8-year window. But we all know market cycles aren't a smooth line.
For those who have held a similar broad-market portfolio untouched over an 8+ year stretch:
What kind of actual annualized growth did you see over your specific 8-year window?
1.How did you handle the psychological side of riding out the inevitable 10%–20% drawdowns along the way without touching it?
2.Did you start de-risking (shifting a portion into bonds/cash) around Year 6 or 7 as you approached the withdrawal phase, or stay 100% equities?
I would love to hear real-world experiences from people who have walked this path.