Since January 2022, I’ve been reviewing the 23 steps to my Money Manifesto that I wrote in 2014. Some have gone really well. Some have not.

And a few were actually a little weird and maybe not Money Manifesto level goals.

But I’m definitely surprised at the impact 9+ years of tracking my finances, trying to make good choices, and improving my financial literacy has done for my bottom line.

The final point on my Money Manifesto was that if I stuck to my guns, I’d apparently be a millionaire by 2048.

25 more years from now.

It’s a little alarming how fast 9 years of that goal sped by. I definitely notice time moving at a much faster speed than when I was younger.

I read somewhere that this happens because when we’re young, a month or a year is a large span of time in the grand scheme of our life and as we get older, it’s actually a much smaller span.

Which is kind of crazy. 24 hours is 24 hours, right?

I guess not.

Well, the CNN calculator I used to first run these numbers in 2014 doesn’t seem to exist anymore, so I did my check in with this Monevator calculator, which also tells you grim things like a million won’t be worth that much by 2048.

If the interest rate remains close to 5%, I’m still right on track with my current savings by saving $6,000 a year. Which is a little crazy. Right now, in grad school, that’s a difficult number to set aside, but for a large portion of my 30s, I did manage to double that. And I’m hopeful that after graduating, I will again.

If I manage to keep my savings to $9,350 which is an IRA and an HSA maxed out, I’ll hit a million around 56.5 years old, which is 8 years ahead of schedule around 2040.

What’s crazy is that saving double that ($20,000) gets me to a million only about 3 years earlier.

Though the idea that I would be a millionaire in about 14 years is a little nuts. Also $20,000 in savings is absolutely not happening for the next two years. That would take a miracle.

And that draws my Money Manifesto updates to an end. If you’re interested in checking out the rest of the series, you can find them here:

1. ) I will pay off all my debt. 
2. ) I will tithe 10%
3. ) I will save at least 15%
4. ) I will build up a $10,000 emergency fund.
5. ) I will max out my IRA every year.
6. ) I will put effort into learning how the stock market works better.
7. ) Then I’ll invest in it.
8. ) I’ll put effort into learning how REITS work.
9. ) And then I’ll invest in it. 
10. ) I will own a home and it will not be a McMansion. 
11. ) I will pay for cars up front, in cash.
12. ) I will write a book. About a little man named Jorge who lives in a jar in an antique shop. He has a mustache. 
13. ) I will keep on learning thrifty and frugal ways to live and then actually use them.
14. ) I will make good decisions about how to spend my money, but I also won’t sacrifice all of the now for later.
15. ) I will travel. A lot. All 7 continents someday.
16. ) I will learn to side hustle. Especially to pay for #15.
17. ) I will start a roller derby team.
18. ) So I will always have good health insurance. And any other reasonable insurance to keep from bankrupting myself because of an accident or act of god or a drunken lunatic driving a car into the living room of my house.
19. ) I will be careful about who I date and open with my finances with them when it gets serious – so that we can come up with good money plans for our future together.
20. ) I will not panic when the stock market and housing value and any of my investments fluctuate over time, because they’re going to do that. And I’m just going to ride it out.
21. ) I will remember it’s better to save in advance rather than charge it.
22. ) I will see out people who know more than I do about how to handle your money well and not be afraid to ask them how they got that way.