1 million dollar savings goal

OK, so building on yesterday’s 2017 New Year’s resolutions, I thought I would publicly add in my savings goal for financial independence. My immediate goal is one million dollars!! Wow, ouch, OMG or other suitable words and phrases come to mind when thinking about this amount of money. Also, why 1 million (in today’s money)? Well, this will allow me to live on a 4% dividend rate comfortably, without having to work again out of necessity. I have a few ideas and plans I am implementing to reach this huge amount of cash and they are:

1) Maximize tax-deferred savings account, my 403b, 457 and IRA. For 2017 this can be 47,000 dollars for the year, if I include a 5.5K contribution to my Wife’s IRA. Assuming no increase in value, such as increasing stock prices, dividend payments, etc, this would take me 20 years, and at least give me a nice retirement a few years early. It could also give me a great retirement, assuming my pension plan and social security payments come in.

2) Minimize my tax contributions, through these accounts, in addition to other subtractions including mortgage, health expenses and childcare expenses, and use the savings to invest and create entrepreneur opportunities.

3) Maximize my earned salary, where being a professor I can earn 9 months salary (spread out of 12 months) and I can also add 1-3 months extra summer salary through grant funding for my research or summer teaching. This means by being successful in my science research, I can add up to a 25% bonus to my current salary, which as you can imagine is a big deal.

4) Start my side hustles for 2017, where work wise I can earn side income through consulting, which I aim to explore in addition to using the internet to increase my income. The big attraction of side hustles and entrepreneurship is that they can create freedom from my job much earlier than a decade or two of savings can.