November 1, 2022. It is a day that I will always remember. My work paycheck cleared the bank. The mortgage and the first bills of the month wouldn’t be due for another day. I had finally cracked the $100K net worth mark.

At my age, it is not a particularly noteworthy number. I am far behind the point where I should be after faltering throughout most of my adult life.

However, it is an important number in the path to financial freedom. They always say the first $100K is the toughest.

The most surprising thing to me is more that I was able to achieve this goal in three years. I knew it was possible. I could see the numbers. I could do the math. But, the number seemed unattainable to someone who had never seen that much money throughout his entire life. Well, in reality, I have still never actually seen $100K. Of course, most of my assets are sitting in investment accounts and equity in my home, but I can still look at the numbers on the screen and take pride in my accomplishment.

As I wrote in Buying My Freedom in August, I half expected student loan cancellation to push me over the edge. However, that hasn’t happened yet—if it happens at all. I’m also happy to hit the goal on my own (I’ll still take that proposed $20K of debt forgiveness, though).

It only took getting serious about looking at my financial situation and sticking to a budget. I plan to continue writing about this journey and share the tips and tricks that I’ve learned. For the moment, I simply want to celebrate this small victory.

The next goal as I walk down this path is to have $1OOK invested into retirement. But, before then, I plan to continue beefing up savings.

Of course, on November 2, the mortgage came out, and the first-of-the-month bills began rolling out over the following days. I still hit the mark for that moment, and I’m sure I’ll be above it once again in a matter of days.