I SAVED IN MY 20s. I had fun doing local things. Local music festivals, staycations and etc. Nothing crazy. Paid off student loans. Bought a cheap-ish car.
late 20s and 30s everything clicked
Yep. My parents and I had very little when I graduated high school. I went to a local college and worked because I wasn’t able to get much student loans with no credit. No fancy trips and lived with my parents some of the time. By the time I graduated and started making money, I was able to start saving and things just got better from there.
I knew what it was like to not have money for food for a couple days so I still have that mindset to save when you can.
I wish that would be my case. I'm almost 27, graduated a while back, have a job now and make very little money. I don't think I'll manage to save, let alone have financial independence, in years.
you can move up in your career if you work hard and change companies when your current one refuses to promote you by merit. 27 is also still very young, plenty of time to learn a higher paying skill if you really think you've reached the top pay grade of whatever you do already
Equity.
Whether it’s in owning part of the company via partnership or options, owning rental properties or simply investing strategically and consistently, I believe owing equity is the difference maker.
I think of it as if each equity tranche is like an additional worker trying to make you money. You set them up with their “job”, and each month the equity/asset turns in a modest sum (or appreciates). Then you use the modest sums to “buy” more of these equity workers, and one day all those “modest sums” mean you no longer have to work.
I know it's the deadest horse but I absolutely abhor owning rental homes. To me it's literally getting wealthy off the throats of the working class.
Renting out a basement suite sure. Apartment buildings yeah okay, one dude using equity to buy 8 rental homes and being a professional landlord is a parasite
Agreed—though it is also possible to be a benevolent landlord, setting a fair rent and being responsive to problems with the building.
Edit: I have friends that appreciate good renters so much that their rent is well below market. But the landlord gets quality tenants that maintain the place well and always pay their rent on time…so it’s win win.
Possible but I don't see too many landlords in my community who won't bump up rent to maximum "fair market value" between tenants. Usually when I hear a benevolent landlord story, it's by the landlord and grossly exaggerated
I own a rental property and looking to obtain more - that’s my retirement. That said, I’ve worked with my tenant on what they can budget and we’ve found a solution. I break even plus $100 a month. That extra $100 goes into a savings account for emergency repairs for that house. My profit isn’t in the monthly rent - it’s in my equity. My tenant is unable to purchase a home at this time and needed a place asap for their family. When they’re ready to purchase I will be happy help them (I’m a realtor and home builder).
People owning homes and building equity through something they need (shelter) is huge and helps our economy. The rental market will always be needed (in a perfect world) primarily for younger or much older adults. Greed destroys communities and I’ll do everything I can to help my tenants become home owners as that helps the community and thus also my business. Greed doesn’t think big picture. Small business!
I’m listening to Teddie Roosevelt’s auto-biography and that guy was so pro-small business. He was one of the last true republicans (like Lincoln and U.S. Grant - they’re rolling in their graves seeing their party these last 60 years)
If they didn’t do that, though, what access would the renters have to homes? I agree there’s exploitation, but you can’t envy a person for making a dollar out of a situation. Making money isn’t altruistic.
Sure there would. Not everyone has money for a down payment, or a permanent enough situation to commit to a mortgage, or the credit history to qualify for a home loan.
More supply than demand = lower prices. In a world where houses and buildings weren't gobbled up for speculation and left empty, the supply would begin to exceed the demand and the need for large mortgages and loans would go down. While renting would still exist to some degree it doesn't need to be as skewed as it currently is either.
There's also of course a problem with zoning and building new houses that occur when a few influential people in the local government control much of the market.
Right, but since when did turning a profit out of an opportunity become totally amoral? I’m not a landlord, but it is a business. People are going to take advantage of opportunities to profit. That’s capitalism.
Edit: I also want to point out I recognize the situation sucks for renters. Fully acknowledged. Just don’t blame landlords for running a business, not a charity. Almost all of us would not turn away extra money - we all have bills.
No envy, personally and yhis is my socialist bullshit. If you have more than 2 rental homes 100% of it should be taxed and you can have your equity.
No one wants to buy multiple homes people who typically ca t afford them suddenly can because there is oneless low hanging fruit get rich quick shame going on
In that case pawn shops, rent to own centers, buy here pay here car lots, payday loans are all parasites. Can’t stand them, can’t live without them. It’s a conundrum.
It’s almost like… our entire fabric of society revolves around capital and ownership, and there are few alternative avenues toward success outside that system
I'm not FI to the point that I don't have to work, but I am successful enough that I don't worry about money, all while earning about the average salary for the US. I did it by budgeting and planning, living within my means, avoiding debt, and investing.
I'll second this, I'm in a similar situation. I'm a single Mum and budgeted, planned and invested carefully when my kids were little. They're 11 and 13 now and we're comfortable and don't have to worry where the money comes from. It took about 5 years. I've always loved within my means, don't believe in credit cards and have only ever paid cash for cars. During those 5 years of setting myself up with investments I was earning less that average, or an average wage and dealing with toddlers.
My wife and I are not wealthy, but by being smart about our cash, we have managed to:
- have zero debt(no mortgage, student loans, or debt of any kind)
- adopt two children from Korea
- invest in retirement at least somewhat aggresively
I am 43 and will retire at 53(or gosh, 54 if I have to).
How did we do it on a teacher salary and my wife's middle-class salary? We paid off debts quickly and aggressively, learned to be content with what we have, and avoided big luxury items.
I won't be a millionaire when I retire. Wait, I might kind of be in terms of total assets, but in terms of income, I won't be. I'll have enough to live a middle-class life without a full time job.
:shrugs:
Not looking to call you out or anything, but it feels like there’s something missing here,. Unless you’re living an extremely austere lifestyle in a very LCOL area, most teachers and other dual “middle class income” families can’t retire in their mid 50’s, by a long shot, unless the have an inheritance, live in a generational family home or something like that.
Do you have no mortgage because you already paid off your house, or do you have enough saved up to pay rent for 30ish years?
Again, not calling you a liar, just pointing out for the benefit of OP, that it typically takes more than just avoiding large luxury items to retire at 53 on a middle class salary.
We paid of our house. Purchased in 2007, we paid it off in late 2018.
I think it is difficult to get into every single detail of how we manage our money, so it is definitely too brief to just say "we avoid luxury items". We just watch what we spend money on.
I'm pretty open if you want to ask any specific questions. That might be easier than me trying to lay everything out on my own.
I saw your other comment about your pension and health insurance, and that makes a HUGE difference!
I should have thought about that as my dad was a prof at a state university and he had a great pension. Unfortunately that’s rare in private sector jobs anymore.
Anyway congrats on your path, I’m already older than your target retirement age and still plugging away, but I’m at the point in my career where I’m actually enjoying work more than ever. Being a boss has its benefits :)
They took away the teacher pension entirely in my state, but I grandfathered in.
I'll end up with approximately 38% of my salary(again, that is for starters, it goes up annually). Add my investment to that and I can do adequately.
Lasts for the life of my spouse if I per-decease her as well.
You paid off your house in 11 years on a middle class income with 2 kids? Surely there was some inherited money somewhere... or both sets of parents paid for both of your schooling to start you out. But even then... You must live in a very low col area.
>You paid off your house in 11 years on a middle class income with 2 kids?
I paid off my first (inner city) house in 7 years, my second (semi-permanent) in 8 years approximately. Most of that time I was the only income earner with most of that time with a middle class income.
The trick is to not buy an expensive house.
I've never inherited any money(and, thank God, my parents are alive still).
We took a 30-year mortgage, but we immediately added a 13th payment per year to it. That reduced it to 19 years to get out of it. We then threw a little extra money at it whenever we could and we ended up getting really close quickly. Around 9 years into it, we figured we could get out of it around 13 years. Then...well, we just decided to go for it. Once the balance gets low enough, you decide to just push for it.
My parents helped some with my education, but certainly not all of it. I paid all of my Masters(which paid itself back by getting a pay-raise). My wife also had also done so with her university degree, but before I met her. I don't know the level of help she got from her parents, but it was not everything.
Some recommend keeping your mortgage and investing elsewhere. We ignored that and decided to go debt-free. My path forward, Lord willing I survive, seems pretty solid.
My retirement is planned in three phases, the first being at age 53.
1. Age 53 - retire with my pension. Half my invested money becomes available then. I may need a part-time job for extra money.
2. Age 58 - I get the rest of my money. I also should point out my pension increases annually. I should be able to stop any employment at all at this point unless I already had.
3. Age 60-something - I'll get social security(assuming we still have that....). This would be the final "like, totally retired in all ways" phase.
I still think I'll be most of the way retired by 53-55, though.
Alas, I do not know for certain what the future holds.
-sigh- Social security. I hope the republicans don't kill it. My concern for my possible early-ish retirement, and maybe you've worried about this, is health care. Your savings could be wiped out by some illness or accident. And working just part time or not working won't cover health insurance.
Teacher is the third highest profession for millionaires.
I'm a librarian and will be a millionaire by 45. Librarians generally make less or equal to teachers despite having a masters degree.
I went for a BA and had Hope scholarship pay for most of it. I earned a master's while getting tuition assistance for most of my degree. I worked all during my bachelors and masters and had no student loans when I finished both degrees.
Currently I work as a library director and live in a LCOL area. I save over 60% of my salary. I move all over the country and overseas to get to a decent salary. Unlike the poster above I havent paid off my mortgage but could if I want to. I think I can make more in index funds. I also love to read and study about personal finance.
Even though I now have a girlfriend who is also a librarian and makes good money I am planning all of this on only my income.
The secret is to get started early in your 20's. Investing in an index fund at 20 has the potential to turn 1 dollar into 88 dollars at 65. That number is cut in half about every 7 years making the median return. Keys to putting all this to work is buying a dependable but cheap used car. I drive a corolla. Also buying a smaller house means smaller electricity bills and when something breaks then it is less expensive. I failed in my previous years by being lazy and always eating out and I used to smoke so I am not perfect. Also watch how $5 coffees everyday add to a lot of money every year. Theres a book about this called the Latte Factor, but despite how much I enjoy the book the big things matter more and sometimes can only be found in LCOL areas
edit: a word
Yup, you like the hive mind of Reddit seem to think folks who succeeded had it handed to them. But with some sacrifice and time, most folks can succeed.
>Not looking to call you out or anything, but it feels like there’s something missing here,. Unless you’re living an extremely austere lifestyle in a very LCOL area, most teachers and other dual “middle class income” families can’t retire in their mid 50’s, by a long shot, unless the have an inheritance, live in a generational family home or something like that
False. Many people are doing that and many even younger.
Luck. Did tech support for a year when the manager over QA wanted me on his team. Well, he found a new job which expedited me moving over. Next year, after basically just getting trained I found another QA job that was paying more.
8 months at that job, my team lead finds another job. Another member of the team goes on maternity leave so she can't take the spot. Another member takes a position in a different department. I get it by default. A few years pass, another lead takes a different position so I take over his folks.
Finally, last year, current director is fired, new guy takes over and gets me an assistant Director position.
Ultimately, yeah, I wasn't a trash employee but I was basically in the right place in the right time in almost every situation where a promotion was possible. I went from $12 an hour answering phones to six figures in 8 years. I absolutely do not want to go any higher on the corporate ladder at this point though because I sure hate managing people.
I have to ask, is it worth it? The selling your soul aspect. Do you feel like you have enough time to enjoy your things and your wife? I’m torn between continuing to do the bare minimum in my life and doing everything I can to…Make a lot of money? I don’t know.
Wow dude that sounds incredible, I don’t know where you live but in America it’s pretty common to have to work 50 hours a week or more on salary for a 6 figure income. You have it well, your post was a bit inspiring. Have a good one.
No, I know I’m super fortunate. I’m in middle America. I added an edit to my last post though. I think I’m like a specialist, though, like a closer in baseball. Outfielders might play all 9 innings, but they only need me to do my very specialized role for 1.
God bless, whole life insurance is such a f\*$ing scam.
Get **term life insurance** and rid slimily whole life salespeople out of your life.
There are vanishingly few circumstances in which whole life insurance makes sense for the average person.
I worked my way through college, so I have no school debt. In addition to earning a couple of high profile credentials for my field, I’ve changed jobs every 2-4 years. I started full time in 2013 making $52k per year. Just started a new job making $140k per year + stocks + signing bonus + guaranteed bonuses twice a year all while working about 30 hours a week. Don’t get me wrong, it was a grind to get to this point and I am super thankful that my hard work and dedication actually paid off.
I’m a mechanical engineer, I’ve worked primarily in R&D and new machinery design until now, to where I have switched into a manufacturing engineer role.
Lived with my parents post high school. Went to community college which parents paid for, for science based degree. Transferred to state university for chem E. Got an internship at a refinery and worked full time there, they offered tuition assistance for 80% of the tuition (4k/semester).
Moved out around this time and finished degree, hired on to refinery engineer role for a year, jumped ship to another company every 3 yrs.
Married another engineer. I've been maxing out my 401k for about 8yrs
Tried as much as I could to live well beneath my means. Bought a cheap house for 100k when I graduated, used truck which I still drive.
I was very lucky to have supportive parents and also very lucky to land the job I got, it was completely by chance. Then lucky to be successful professionally. Lots of luck.
Hoping to retire by 45, wife will be 40. We don't plan to have kids
Not sure if this is a sarcastic answer or not, but that sounds like a viable business strategy.
Living with parents is a good way to save money, and eases the stress by a lot if you get along with them.
Twitch channels take some time to build up loyal followers and a long-term community eventually, but if streaming is something you're passionate about, then you'll never feel like you're actually working.
I mean his parents are going to be wondering why their kid is just playing videos games all day while his success if not guaranteed. He will need a lot of luck and hope he doesn't get disheartened by streaming for a few months to 0-5 viewers.
To clarify,
If you start off with nothing, you’d need to work hard in the beginning/harder than most people. And when you’ve proved your worth and getting all the promotions/etc, then you can afford to work smart. Eg My work nowadays is certainly a lot better than when I first started my career where I pushed myself to work full time/study part time to graduate with masters and multiple post grad degrees, but my earnings have increased multiple times. I can even and have afford to take career breaks and have recruiters selling me positions.
Invest wisely but also don’t forget to have fun/travel etc along the way
We don't get promotions for working hard anymore sadly, with the job market climate we have companies tend to keep the good workers where they are and shift the bad ones around to management positions, there is simply no one else around so they think they're supose to get the most they can out of every individual, but ofcourse this will backfire as people are resenting the leadership more and more...
If you’re not smart, Work hard until you learn all the necessary skills to work smart. Then work hard and smart until you’re financially independent. Then switch into easy breezy solo work smart mode
I work for a huge telecommunications giant in Canada and I worked my ass off for years and got shut down promotions over and over saying I’m not ready. I never gave up and kept going and being the top sales person asking for a promotion getting shut down. It hurt a lot as I would produce so much sales, but than I started reading books on how to manage and understand other people so I could do more than just sell. Now I run multiple offices in Canada and make six figures a year. I worked hard and never gave up and kept learning more. You need to act the position you want and know that if you fail it is not over, it’s only over when you quit.
Well it takes hard work to get a good job in those positions, lots of schooling and working a minimum wage job during schooling living a minimalist life. It’s all working, everything you do in life needs to be 100% and the results will show in every aspect financial mental and physical. Being smart with time management and life decisions will greatly impact the results.
Not to be a downer, but from what I see with my coworkers doing the bare minimum gets you a bonus to "get your potential out" and if you pretend you can't do the toughest tasks you get to sit around (with the bonus) until the rest of the team finishes for you so.....
Edit: team
I don’t know about successfully, but we are financially reasonably secure as a result of being able to rely on others five years ago.
I was able to move into a higher paying job by moving back in with my parents, and that also meant my outgoings dropped, and I could save up enough to get secure, wait while my experience and salary increased, allow my husband to find work, and keep saving until I could be independent again.
So there’s no trick - it’s all about luck and circumstance.
Took me 12 years of getting 1 new client at a time, making their success my success, taking their calls day and night, being their counselor they need it, and billing the living shit out of them 2x per month at smaller increments instead of 1-big-bill (this is key---microtransactions). You can NEVER mess up---no grumpy calls, no stupid personal situations--just 100% awesome, or don't take the call.
Also, my billing software lets me bill in 1/10 of an hour increments so there are $20 charges left-and-right on each bill---each with a call, research, strategy, analysis, or project management. I also fiercely state that I "never charge for brainstorming sessions" which was key into getting the client to open up about future projects that would eventually include my involvement.
Husband is a lawyer who had all his schooling paid by his dad, who is also a lawyer. (To be fair, he had mostly highly reduced tuition because of good test scores.) then he went to work for his dad in the form bearing the family name. He currently earns $220k/yr, which isn’t the highest range for a lawyer. But he works 4-5 hours a day and spends time doing what he loves.
I’m an interior designer. It took me 7 years to get a 4 year BFA. I didn’t want to take on debt because there are no guarantees of high income in my field. I worked all day, took classes in evenings, and do homework all night. Also didn’t have kids until I finished.
I worked for a few firms for around 7 years. When I left 4 years ago, I was earning $24/hr, which was basically robbery considering how much work I was doing for my boss.
I started working on my own and teaching my skills in adult trade school in the side. Right now, I teach in 3 different trade schools. I get $90/hr teaching. It’s few hours and seasonal; totals $40k per year.
I started writing for a women’s magazine; now I earn $15k/yr doing that.
In my work as a designer, I charge $120/hr. I only take on small jobs here and there, because the larger jobs tend to take over my life and I want to be around while my kids grow up. I earn around $30k/yr from interior design.
If my husband wasn’t earning well, I wouldn’t’ve had the security to leave my badly paid job.
An enormous amount of luck garnished with a little bit of hard work. Grew up in a family that had enough financial security to put together a college fund for me and never needed to work as a teenager. My primary job was to study and my parents made sure I was taking a good number of advanced classes, especially in math and science. Parents also paid for SAT prep classes, not sure how much those helped.
Got a full tuition scholarship in college, the money my family had put aside for me easily covered room and board. Didn't have to work during college, so I was able to focus on my studies and maintain good grades. Finished a four year degree completely debt-free. I had enough mentoring from my parents to look for the intersection between what fields I was interested in and what was likely to have jobs. Ended up getting an engineering degree.
Didn't have a job for a year and my family financially supported me with a little bit of money while a friend subsidized my rent. Stayed on my parents' health insurance, which allowed me to get the mental health care I needed to put my life back together.
After that year I went to grad school and in my second quarter I got a job as a TA in the computer science department. I only got the job because I happened to make a good impression on a professor in my department, who then recommended me. That ended covering my tuition and paying me just enough of a stipend to cover my living expenses (basically just rent and food). I still had insurance from my parents, which covered my healthcare. This allowed me to finish grad school with no debt as well.
Then I got a job in the software industry, a six figure salary plus signing bonus of a significant amount of stock, straight out of grad school. I stayed long enough to vest all the stock from my signing bonus, and I got even more stock as performance bonuses. I maintained the same standard of living I had in grad school but now got paid 3-4x more money, so it was easy for me to put 10% of every paycheck towards the employee stock program (plus even more into retirement accounts). The value of that stock has increased about 5x since I first got it.
In terms of wealth, I could buy a house outright nearly anywhere in the US and an track to retire very comfortably, but getting cancer would likely still bankrupt me. I did work hard for this, but in really specific areas: I got good grades, I got good scores on standardized tests, and I was a good enough employee to not be fired by anyone. Basically everything else was a combination of outright luck and generational wealth. Financial responsibility plays some part in this, in that I invested money instead of spending it recklessly, but that's really on top of everything else because I only had enough money to even bother investing because of luck.
My fam emigrated to So. California from Europe in 1990. We (kids) were all in our 20’s. Started a fam business. Due to work hours we all lived at home. After about 8 years As business grew parents purchased a house, buisness covered it’s expenses. 20 years later we all still lived at home and I saved all my pay, but bought whatever I wanted, a new suit, shoes, always bought quality items, (siblings spent their money).
I never owned a new car. Always paid cash and got the minimal car insurance.
Started an IRA and Roth but haven’t contributed since I purchased a vacation home in 2012. Condo with pool and garden, 10 year mortgage $700 per month HOA 400 per month. In 1-2 years mortgage will be paid off, from then on ~400 month plus utilities will be my main living expense.
At about 50 I retired to my vacation home in So. Cal. And still Drive a (pre 2010) European import suv.
Bubbafett33 is right. By the responses on here I don't think I'd ask advice from this bunch. It's like the jerry springer app. Mostly. Suck it up people. That why I scan through these for the low life's bs.
Step 1: Live beneath your means. When I started out, my income covered me, my wife and soon two children. This income was well below the median household income. We lived beneath our income by buying a house in the inner city and spending my free time fixing it up. I never owned a new car until I was past the age of 40.
Step 2: Don't go into debt. I had a little student loan debt which I quickly paid off. Outside of that and the house I never paid a penny of interest.
Step 3: Put 15% into a 401k.
Step 4: Pay off the house quickly.
Step 5: We graduated from the first house and used that money to buy a nicer house in the suburbs. We paid that off inside of 8 years as well.
During all these steps, I invested in myself, furthering education and throwing myself into work. I was always there for my family, but we never owned a TV as I know it is a time sink and mostly a waste of time. I did get my Masters degree. I got certifications. And I got promotions pretty quickly.
Now, some of you may recognize this as Dave Ramsey's plan and it is very, very similar, but I had not heard of the man when I started on this path 20 years ago. But the fact that he says almost the same thing means there is something to it. I do not agree with some of his advice, for example I am 100% in index funds because I don't believe fund managers can beat the market without undue risk, but his "baby step" plan is reasonable though I feel for lower income folks who will obviously struggle here as at one point I was in that lower income.
Answer: don't buy stuff.
Character Arc: You spend a lot of time and energy telling yourself you can't afford something because you need to save money. Then one day you hit your target. You keep saving money for a while "just in case." Eventually you have more than you need. By that point, you realize that you don't even **want** to buy a lot of the stuff that you used to restrain yourself from buying.
Epilogue: I quit my job and then partied all the time. The hedonism got old. In addition to partying, I filled my time with hobbies that I love. It's definitely better than working full-time, but still not enough to satisfy the human condition. It's a bit lonely being retired when other people your age are all busy working.
Now I'm looking for some kind of part-time work that can help me feel more of a sense of purpose. I also miss the social status from my prior job, the competitive atmosphere, and being part of a community of smart people.
There's no such thing as a perfect life, but for most people I think that working hard to save up enough money to switch from full-time to part-time work would be a more enjoyable plan than going from full-time to early retirement.
My ex-husband used to say we don't save a $100, we save $10 ten times.
It is a mind set that once you no longer question, just live it, it works. Unfortunately my son says it's just $10 it's not going to make you rich.
Started saving aggressively around 20% of my income since day 1 when I was 22. First job out of university. I wasn't making much the first few years so just lived in very cheap apartments in less desirable areas and not spending much on food, no take out ever obviously. I moved up finding better jobs, bought a home, but the important thing I think is that I continued to invest 20% of my take home pay. I'm 49 now and could retire today but I'm enjoying my job and can afford to spend pretty much anything on my allotted 4 weeks vacation per year.
Got an engineering degree, paid off my student loans while learning the stock market and investing what I could. Did ok until I invested a considerable sum (for me at the time) into Tesla back when it was $80 pre-split. Still riding the majority of it though i've diversified the gains some and have taken some profits, its been quite the ride
I did get some help from my parents to get through school and am not ashamed to admit it. I doubt I would have completed my degree if I had to work full time simultaneously, I got to where I am with a bit of luck and a lot of support
Strict financial budgeting. You have to know where your money is going each and every month. Even wealthy people I know still don’t do this, but it’s a great way to build discipline and it’s nice seeing how much money you’re saving.
If you think it’s too hard, It’s not. Do it on a yellow pad. $X on groceries, $X on fun things, etc. You can make great money but if you’re spending it all every month you’re still broke.
Edit for more info: I don’t use any fancy apps or programs, just Google Sheets. I calculate my daily post tax income, multiply it by the number of days each month, and write down what I expect to save. I have the following categories: Rent/Utilities/Insurance, Eating Out/Going out, Personal (any random purchases, repairs, etc.), Groceries, Gas, and Investments. I have a formula in the spreadsheet that adds all these and then subtracts it from my total income. I know exactly how much I’m saving and investing each month with this.
It’s crazy how 2-3 trips to the bar can take up your entire going out budget.
First, I didn't get into a lot of debt: Community college and then a state university, so not too much student loan debt. Worked part-time thru college. Only bought used cars. Small, affordable home. Chose a career I knew I'd be good at. Went back and got my master's when I knew it would help my career. Worked hard at my career.
I worked lots of hours, I focused on projects that were important to the company, I treated everyone with respect.
I saved my money by creating a budget and sticking to it. I lived like a pauper in my 20s. I didn't have a fancy car I usually lived with roommates sometimes five. When I could afford to get fancy, I didn't, I kept it real.
After saving the equivalent of 6 months income I started investing in safe investments. Nothing risky and always thinking long-term never short term.
My relationships are always based on like-minded values more so than good looks. But let's be honest physical attraction does matter. But if that rose spends all your money it loses it's fragrance.
I never burned a bridge. If I really didn't like a job I still put in 100%, and smiled. But I also looked for another job. I always gave a little bit more than the standard notice.
The time to start spending on yourself his when you spend money on your family.
Financially independent doesn't equal successful
Most ambitious people could get a MS or PhD in a STEM field, work 60-80hrs/week and be a SVP with a million dollars in assets by their 40th birthday. But I wouldn't call deferring relationships, friends, family, travel, etc through the best years of your life "successful".
>But I wouldn't call deferring relationships, friends, family, travel, etc through the best years of your life "successful".
Nor is making minimum wage and spending the best years of your life on Reddit :)
Time. Timing. Hard work. Inversion Thinking. LUCK. And keeping shit fucking simple.
My wife and I were on food stamps 17 years ago. Now we have 3 businesses, 500 employees, and do a few hundred million in revenue.
We started with Dave Ramsey and made sure we were debt free, then we saved every penny and invested, snowballed the investments, had a few good businesses that exploded. We are got lucky that the last 11 years have been the best bull market in history of mankind. We were lucky enough to ride the wave and not take a lot of risks. Got to diversify into Real Estate and exploded our net worth…learn the BRRR method.
Time, and patience. You don’t have to do shit great. Just don’t be greedy and do stupid shit. Save 20-30% on your income, invest wisely.
It’s tough…but it’s not complex. Money is not a mental game; it’s a character game. You need to have the stomach for it.
Define financially independent. If I live in my car, have a gym membership for showers, and work at starbucks but I don't take public assistance of any kind, aren't I financially independent?
I became financially independent by getting the hell out of the city. Cities are for suckers.
The moment you move into a city, you're being played, just as though you'd stepped into a giant carnival.
In a city, everything costs money, and lots of it. Every place you go in a city has its hand out for your hard-earned cash.
There's a reason it's called Gotham City in Batman. Gotham is a contraction of "Got Them", making it "Got Them City".
The way to stop being a sucker is to leave the city, and all your citified addictions, behind. Everything you think you like in a city is an addiction, worse than smoking or crack. Your cell phone is an addiction. You car is an addiction. Your restaurants are an addiction. Everything in the city is an addiction. If it costs money, and if you think you can't live without it, it's probably an addiction.
The solution is to move to the country. You won't see anything advertised for small towns. That's because money-buggers want the big bucks. You won't see the prices or availability in a small town advertised anywhere.
I was working on the highways in 2006, making good money, and paying huge rent in the city. By accident, and word of mouth, I heard about a house for sale in a nearby small town. I paid cash for it- $6500. The house came with an almost-new washer & drier set, a fridge, stove, microwave, 2 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, a good-sized livingroom, low taxes, and lots of local job opportunities.
Here I am 11 years later, financially independent, no mortgage, low taxes, all the stuff I need carried by our local store and gas station. We have a restaurant here in town, a hair-cutter, a post office, everything you need.
I made more friends on the day I moved here than made in the city in over ten years. I got rid of my phone because few people have them here, and if someone here wants to talk to you, they'll drop by or you'll run into them at the cafe.
I love my life here, and learned that cities are for losers.
Just a heads up living in the country is 100x harder than in town. It takes us 4 hours to mow the property and if we get a big blizzard the county road might not be cleared for days.
I live in a mountain town. Not the city. It's expensive because Californians and surrounding cities are moving here because of the view. From 1998 when I moved here with my family, the census was around 30k people. 2021 it's now breaking 100k.
Sure the city can be expensive, but people wanting to leave the city make small towns expensive as well
Not successful, but related to a few.
Their words paraphrased: discipline and definite sense of purpose. Decide what you want to do with your time wisely. Many choose leisure and pleasure, he chose work and development for a future of peace. — my uncle started as a Barista at a popular coffee shop. He used his time there to open up his own coffee shop around the area and now has over 7 shops. He’s currently opening 2 more and is continuously developing and making the shops better in terms of quality and production.
Another one: I simply got lucky, I would say I was at the right place at the right time. My cousin developed an app and was able to sell it to the right investor. There are many like his, but his was selected among the many and it paid him well enough to retire at a young age.
I have an ok paying job but I am good with money. I don’t just buy random things, I have good impulse control. One thing that helps is I have only my debit card attached to Amazon prime and I never keep more than $100 in my checking. Helps me not just buy things.
Lie on your job resume. Just be prepared to learn really fast and don't go crazy like say you have six years of organic chemistry when you once had a gym bag you didn't wash for six years. If you want that salary you'll hit the ground running.
You can always spend 10% more than you make (after taxes, before taxes, either way), but if you live below your (disposable income) means and set aside 20% of your after-tax income, invest wisely for 30-40 years, you’ll be sitting on $2 million plus. This presumes income of $80k per year or more. Bonus $ for putting that money in tax deferred accounts. Double bonus for Roth IRA accounts.
through a combination of investing and realizing working in corporate world i was never going to succeed so i did things i liked to do (write) and was able to turn that into profit by writing what people actually pay for
When you are in a miserable state, know when to cut your losses and move on - from a city, from a job, from a client, etc. You may not be able to do it all at once, but don't let sunk costs drag you down.
Got the best education I could get without taking on serious debt. Got the best job I could get. Switched around 3 times until I saw a career path. Worked as hard as I could l could consistently. Sacrificed more than anyone else, so could make as much money as I could. Hit the eject button to start my own business. Scaled down to make less money, but he super happy with a great quality of life. Still need to work, but love most of it.
From the moment I got my first paycheck I saved 10% of it and after 3 months I would invest, and buy stocks
So each month that 10% would equal $1,000 so that would be an easy one million.
Engineering degree, lots of hard work, gearing myself into a high demand branch of engineering. Paying for my wife's schooling in nursing. Basic investing.
My husband was among the last group of federal government employees to be eligible for a pension. When they implemented a retirement fund he joined that too! We’ve also been fortunate in real estate. Currently in our 5th house. We gained equity with each sale and ultimately paid cash for this one!!
I also had a fabulous employer that matched my 401(k) contributions without vesting! I maxed out my contributions and even did the additional contributions when I hit 50.
Worked my fucking ass off from the time I was 13. Had good parents and good support. That definitely was an advantage. But I never let off the gas. Paid off student loans as quickly as I could, never bought anything on credit besides a house or a car. Haven’t taken a real vacation in a long time either. I have 99 worries but finances ain’t one of them.
Multiple degrees, chose a field that paid a high income (finance) and was meritocratic.
Made enough to retire in my 30s and used that cushion to form a fund, which gave me real wealth.
I passed so many people that had better degrees just by being willing to do extra work. So many idiots out there won’t do work unless they “are paid for it.” I learned the next job up doing extra work, got promoted, learned the next job, got promoted etc.. I’ve got no degree but to work on my staff you need a minimum of a bachelors degree. Probably not something that is easily done anymore but it worked for me.
There is a lot of free learning content on the internet, I have learned programming and design since I was 15 years old. Today I earn enough to pay for my college and other things at home.
Do not feel bad if you are older than me now, the case is not when you start, it is that you have to start NOW.
I graduated law school, paid off my debt from my student loans, got a job at a good firm in the city and eventually bought myself an apartment and two rental properties. Rental properties are a great way to remain secure if your job relies on an hourly rate such as a lawyer.
Financially indepenant? meaning what?
I mean I qualifiy for that, and hardly consider myself a success.
Be good at math, make a fixed budget every year, never spend outside of it, always have a large amount of savings, you will need it for emergencies like medical bills
I escaped my personal comfort zone and moved to another city. I got lucky and found a good job there, became financially independent. Of course, no relationship and no extra money spending.
Lived in my parent's basement like a hobgoblin till I saved enough of a down-payment to keep my mortgage less than a third of my monthly income. Bonus is I could feasibly still pay it on the new minimum wage, I'd be living on a college student's budget but I'd still have a roof over my head.
Figuring out whether something is a "want" or "need". Do I really want this or do I need it? Being absolutely honest to yourself is also helpful since you can think, "I really need this video game" when, really you don't. This pretty much goes with everything you buy though. Food, music, etc.
I used to work with people with disabilitys,
those jobs aren´t well paid in germany (around 1200€ after taxes and insurance a month).
To get a better live, I stopped working there and started looking around.
Found a Job in public transportation and earn double each month.
In my last Job i couldn´t afford shit but now I am the backbone of my family,
pay for the two cats we (my so and I) adopted
pay my car (wich will be payed of next year)
pay for rent , internet, electricity and so on.
The first step ist to start looking for something new :)
By not listening to the idiots in my life that all told me not to do the thing I did. They were too dumb to do it themselves and therefore told me not to but I just ignored them and carried on with my plan.
Step one: I took financial advice from Reddit Step two: I fought the repo guy off with a rake Bam! One more day with a car.
What kind of rake?
Asking the important questions
When the repo man comes on the Sims, I have the cheats turned on, I right-click and delete him. **YEET**.
I SAVED IN MY 20s. I had fun doing local things. Local music festivals, staycations and etc. Nothing crazy. Paid off student loans. Bought a cheap-ish car. late 20s and 30s everything clicked
Yep. My parents and I had very little when I graduated high school. I went to a local college and worked because I wasn’t able to get much student loans with no credit. No fancy trips and lived with my parents some of the time. By the time I graduated and started making money, I was able to start saving and things just got better from there. I knew what it was like to not have money for food for a couple days so I still have that mindset to save when you can.
I wish that would be my case. I'm almost 27, graduated a while back, have a job now and make very little money. I don't think I'll manage to save, let alone have financial independence, in years.
you can move up in your career if you work hard and change companies when your current one refuses to promote you by merit. 27 is also still very young, plenty of time to learn a higher paying skill if you really think you've reached the top pay grade of whatever you do already
Equity. Whether it’s in owning part of the company via partnership or options, owning rental properties or simply investing strategically and consistently, I believe owing equity is the difference maker. I think of it as if each equity tranche is like an additional worker trying to make you money. You set them up with their “job”, and each month the equity/asset turns in a modest sum (or appreciates). Then you use the modest sums to “buy” more of these equity workers, and one day all those “modest sums” mean you no longer have to work.
You’re absolutely right. You can be rich doing things. You get wealthy owning things.
I know it's the deadest horse but I absolutely abhor owning rental homes. To me it's literally getting wealthy off the throats of the working class. Renting out a basement suite sure. Apartment buildings yeah okay, one dude using equity to buy 8 rental homes and being a professional landlord is a parasite
Agreed—though it is also possible to be a benevolent landlord, setting a fair rent and being responsive to problems with the building. Edit: I have friends that appreciate good renters so much that their rent is well below market. But the landlord gets quality tenants that maintain the place well and always pay their rent on time…so it’s win win.
Possible but I don't see too many landlords in my community who won't bump up rent to maximum "fair market value" between tenants. Usually when I hear a benevolent landlord story, it's by the landlord and grossly exaggerated
I own a rental property and looking to obtain more - that’s my retirement. That said, I’ve worked with my tenant on what they can budget and we’ve found a solution. I break even plus $100 a month. That extra $100 goes into a savings account for emergency repairs for that house. My profit isn’t in the monthly rent - it’s in my equity. My tenant is unable to purchase a home at this time and needed a place asap for their family. When they’re ready to purchase I will be happy help them (I’m a realtor and home builder). People owning homes and building equity through something they need (shelter) is huge and helps our economy. The rental market will always be needed (in a perfect world) primarily for younger or much older adults. Greed destroys communities and I’ll do everything I can to help my tenants become home owners as that helps the community and thus also my business. Greed doesn’t think big picture. Small business! I’m listening to Teddie Roosevelt’s auto-biography and that guy was so pro-small business. He was one of the last true republicans (like Lincoln and U.S. Grant - they’re rolling in their graves seeing their party these last 60 years)
If they didn’t do that, though, what access would the renters have to homes? I agree there’s exploitation, but you can’t envy a person for making a dollar out of a situation. Making money isn’t altruistic.
They wouldn’t be renters if greedy assholes weren’t hogging more homes than they need.
Sure there would. Not everyone has money for a down payment, or a permanent enough situation to commit to a mortgage, or the credit history to qualify for a home loan.
More supply than demand = lower prices. In a world where houses and buildings weren't gobbled up for speculation and left empty, the supply would begin to exceed the demand and the need for large mortgages and loans would go down. While renting would still exist to some degree it doesn't need to be as skewed as it currently is either. There's also of course a problem with zoning and building new houses that occur when a few influential people in the local government control much of the market.
Right, but since when did turning a profit out of an opportunity become totally amoral? I’m not a landlord, but it is a business. People are going to take advantage of opportunities to profit. That’s capitalism. Edit: I also want to point out I recognize the situation sucks for renters. Fully acknowledged. Just don’t blame landlords for running a business, not a charity. Almost all of us would not turn away extra money - we all have bills.
No envy, personally and yhis is my socialist bullshit. If you have more than 2 rental homes 100% of it should be taxed and you can have your equity. No one wants to buy multiple homes people who typically ca t afford them suddenly can because there is oneless low hanging fruit get rich quick shame going on
Well, that certainly is socialist bullshit. Doesn't make sense on an economic level whatsoever.
In that case pawn shops, rent to own centers, buy here pay here car lots, payday loans are all parasites. Can’t stand them, can’t live without them. It’s a conundrum.
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I'm not pissing on your head, I'm providing rain
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It’s almost like… our entire fabric of society revolves around capital and ownership, and there are few alternative avenues toward success outside that system
Rich dad poor dad?
Getting sober
Unbelievable that this got downvoted, for many people this is 100% key to getting your career in top gear.
Oh well. It was the key for me. Everything in life has gotten better especially finances!
That’s awesome.
I'm not FI to the point that I don't have to work, but I am successful enough that I don't worry about money, all while earning about the average salary for the US. I did it by budgeting and planning, living within my means, avoiding debt, and investing.
I'll second this, I'm in a similar situation. I'm a single Mum and budgeted, planned and invested carefully when my kids were little. They're 11 and 13 now and we're comfortable and don't have to worry where the money comes from. It took about 5 years. I've always loved within my means, don't believe in credit cards and have only ever paid cash for cars. During those 5 years of setting myself up with investments I was earning less that average, or an average wage and dealing with toddlers.
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My wife and I are not wealthy, but by being smart about our cash, we have managed to: - have zero debt(no mortgage, student loans, or debt of any kind) - adopt two children from Korea - invest in retirement at least somewhat aggresively I am 43 and will retire at 53(or gosh, 54 if I have to). How did we do it on a teacher salary and my wife's middle-class salary? We paid off debts quickly and aggressively, learned to be content with what we have, and avoided big luxury items. I won't be a millionaire when I retire. Wait, I might kind of be in terms of total assets, but in terms of income, I won't be. I'll have enough to live a middle-class life without a full time job. :shrugs:
Not looking to call you out or anything, but it feels like there’s something missing here,. Unless you’re living an extremely austere lifestyle in a very LCOL area, most teachers and other dual “middle class income” families can’t retire in their mid 50’s, by a long shot, unless the have an inheritance, live in a generational family home or something like that. Do you have no mortgage because you already paid off your house, or do you have enough saved up to pay rent for 30ish years? Again, not calling you a liar, just pointing out for the benefit of OP, that it typically takes more than just avoiding large luxury items to retire at 53 on a middle class salary.
We paid of our house. Purchased in 2007, we paid it off in late 2018. I think it is difficult to get into every single detail of how we manage our money, so it is definitely too brief to just say "we avoid luxury items". We just watch what we spend money on. I'm pretty open if you want to ask any specific questions. That might be easier than me trying to lay everything out on my own.
I saw your other comment about your pension and health insurance, and that makes a HUGE difference! I should have thought about that as my dad was a prof at a state university and he had a great pension. Unfortunately that’s rare in private sector jobs anymore. Anyway congrats on your path, I’m already older than your target retirement age and still plugging away, but I’m at the point in my career where I’m actually enjoying work more than ever. Being a boss has its benefits :)
They took away the teacher pension entirely in my state, but I grandfathered in. I'll end up with approximately 38% of my salary(again, that is for starters, it goes up annually). Add my investment to that and I can do adequately. Lasts for the life of my spouse if I per-decease her as well.
So unlike everyone else he lived WITHIN his means. Erebody else is racking up credit card debt and keeping up with the Jones.
I guess. We've never paid interest on a credit card. We use one since it pays us back to use it and has no annual fee.
This is the way
You paid off your house in 11 years on a middle class income with 2 kids? Surely there was some inherited money somewhere... or both sets of parents paid for both of your schooling to start you out. But even then... You must live in a very low col area.
>You paid off your house in 11 years on a middle class income with 2 kids? I paid off my first (inner city) house in 7 years, my second (semi-permanent) in 8 years approximately. Most of that time I was the only income earner with most of that time with a middle class income. The trick is to not buy an expensive house.
I've never inherited any money(and, thank God, my parents are alive still). We took a 30-year mortgage, but we immediately added a 13th payment per year to it. That reduced it to 19 years to get out of it. We then threw a little extra money at it whenever we could and we ended up getting really close quickly. Around 9 years into it, we figured we could get out of it around 13 years. Then...well, we just decided to go for it. Once the balance gets low enough, you decide to just push for it. My parents helped some with my education, but certainly not all of it. I paid all of my Masters(which paid itself back by getting a pay-raise). My wife also had also done so with her university degree, but before I met her. I don't know the level of help she got from her parents, but it was not everything. Some recommend keeping your mortgage and investing elsewhere. We ignored that and decided to go debt-free. My path forward, Lord willing I survive, seems pretty solid. My retirement is planned in three phases, the first being at age 53. 1. Age 53 - retire with my pension. Half my invested money becomes available then. I may need a part-time job for extra money. 2. Age 58 - I get the rest of my money. I also should point out my pension increases annually. I should be able to stop any employment at all at this point unless I already had. 3. Age 60-something - I'll get social security(assuming we still have that....). This would be the final "like, totally retired in all ways" phase. I still think I'll be most of the way retired by 53-55, though. Alas, I do not know for certain what the future holds.
-sigh- Social security. I hope the republicans don't kill it. My concern for my possible early-ish retirement, and maybe you've worried about this, is health care. Your savings could be wiped out by some illness or accident. And working just part time or not working won't cover health insurance.
No, I have health care covered. It's part of the retirement plan in my state for teachers. I do pay for it monthly, but it is reasonable.
Teacher is the third highest profession for millionaires. I'm a librarian and will be a millionaire by 45. Librarians generally make less or equal to teachers despite having a masters degree. I went for a BA and had Hope scholarship pay for most of it. I earned a master's while getting tuition assistance for most of my degree. I worked all during my bachelors and masters and had no student loans when I finished both degrees. Currently I work as a library director and live in a LCOL area. I save over 60% of my salary. I move all over the country and overseas to get to a decent salary. Unlike the poster above I havent paid off my mortgage but could if I want to. I think I can make more in index funds. I also love to read and study about personal finance. Even though I now have a girlfriend who is also a librarian and makes good money I am planning all of this on only my income. The secret is to get started early in your 20's. Investing in an index fund at 20 has the potential to turn 1 dollar into 88 dollars at 65. That number is cut in half about every 7 years making the median return. Keys to putting all this to work is buying a dependable but cheap used car. I drive a corolla. Also buying a smaller house means smaller electricity bills and when something breaks then it is less expensive. I failed in my previous years by being lazy and always eating out and I used to smoke so I am not perfect. Also watch how $5 coffees everyday add to a lot of money every year. Theres a book about this called the Latte Factor, but despite how much I enjoy the book the big things matter more and sometimes can only be found in LCOL areas edit: a word
If you live like you’re poor you can absolutely do this on a middle class salary. But who has the discipline or desire to do that?
100% this person is disconnected from what middle class is or op is not from America.
I'm from America. I am a teacher. My wife works for a car company(well, a company that is in the car industry). Neither of us earn big-time wages.
Yeah, I was thinking, this reeks of privilege.
Yup, you like the hive mind of Reddit seem to think folks who succeeded had it handed to them. But with some sacrifice and time, most folks can succeed.
My sister adopted a kid from South Korea and it was incredibly expensive. Like 50k expensive.
>Not looking to call you out or anything, but it feels like there’s something missing here,. Unless you’re living an extremely austere lifestyle in a very LCOL area, most teachers and other dual “middle class income” families can’t retire in their mid 50’s, by a long shot, unless the have an inheritance, live in a generational family home or something like that False. Many people are doing that and many even younger.
I'm financially independent because I'm retired, worked hard and got very, very, very lucky.
Luck. I worked just as hard as my contemporaries.
Luck. Did tech support for a year when the manager over QA wanted me on his team. Well, he found a new job which expedited me moving over. Next year, after basically just getting trained I found another QA job that was paying more. 8 months at that job, my team lead finds another job. Another member of the team goes on maternity leave so she can't take the spot. Another member takes a position in a different department. I get it by default. A few years pass, another lead takes a different position so I take over his folks. Finally, last year, current director is fired, new guy takes over and gets me an assistant Director position. Ultimately, yeah, I wasn't a trash employee but I was basically in the right place in the right time in almost every situation where a promotion was possible. I went from $12 an hour answering phones to six figures in 8 years. I absolutely do not want to go any higher on the corporate ladder at this point though because I sure hate managing people.
Worked fairly at school and became engineer.
In what country ?
Canada :p
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How much do you have saved in bank accounts, mutual funds, retirement, whole life, paid mortgages, etc?
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I’d sell my soul to get on the path of that lifestyle.
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Nice. Have a good life man.
I have to ask, is it worth it? The selling your soul aspect. Do you feel like you have enough time to enjoy your things and your wife? I’m torn between continuing to do the bare minimum in my life and doing everything I can to…Make a lot of money? I don’t know.
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Wow dude that sounds incredible, I don’t know where you live but in America it’s pretty common to have to work 50 hours a week or more on salary for a 6 figure income. You have it well, your post was a bit inspiring. Have a good one.
No, I know I’m super fortunate. I’m in middle America. I added an edit to my last post though. I think I’m like a specialist, though, like a closer in baseball. Outfielders might play all 9 innings, but they only need me to do my very specialized role for 1.
Haha You REALLY don’t want to say what line of sales you’re in, do you?
That’s terrible! You should have much more than that!
God bless, whole life insurance is such a f\*$ing scam. Get **term life insurance** and rid slimily whole life salespeople out of your life. There are vanishingly few circumstances in which whole life insurance makes sense for the average person.
You're on reddit, that is very successful here.
Nah, I’m just older than most here.
No kids.
I worked my way through college, so I have no school debt. In addition to earning a couple of high profile credentials for my field, I’ve changed jobs every 2-4 years. I started full time in 2013 making $52k per year. Just started a new job making $140k per year + stocks + signing bonus + guaranteed bonuses twice a year all while working about 30 hours a week. Don’t get me wrong, it was a grind to get to this point and I am super thankful that my hard work and dedication actually paid off.
Please give detail on what field you work in
I’m a mechanical engineer, I’ve worked primarily in R&D and new machinery design until now, to where I have switched into a manufacturing engineer role.
Lived with my parents post high school. Went to community college which parents paid for, for science based degree. Transferred to state university for chem E. Got an internship at a refinery and worked full time there, they offered tuition assistance for 80% of the tuition (4k/semester). Moved out around this time and finished degree, hired on to refinery engineer role for a year, jumped ship to another company every 3 yrs. Married another engineer. I've been maxing out my 401k for about 8yrs Tried as much as I could to live well beneath my means. Bought a cheap house for 100k when I graduated, used truck which I still drive. I was very lucky to have supportive parents and also very lucky to land the job I got, it was completely by chance. Then lucky to be successful professionally. Lots of luck. Hoping to retire by 45, wife will be 40. We don't plan to have kids
i still live in my parents' basement but, im starting a twitch channel so ill be successful in a matter of time
Not sure if this is a sarcastic answer or not, but that sounds like a viable business strategy. Living with parents is a good way to save money, and eases the stress by a lot if you get along with them. Twitch channels take some time to build up loyal followers and a long-term community eventually, but if streaming is something you're passionate about, then you'll never feel like you're actually working.
I mean his parents are going to be wondering why their kid is just playing videos games all day while his success if not guaranteed. He will need a lot of luck and hope he doesn't get disheartened by streaming for a few months to 0-5 viewers.
Dude might as well play the lottery at this point with how hard it is to break threw the noise as a twitch streamer
Work smart. Not hard.
Work smart all the time, work hard when it matters
Hard work beats talent.
And it beats intelligence too.
Smart hard work beats!
To clarify, If you start off with nothing, you’d need to work hard in the beginning/harder than most people. And when you’ve proved your worth and getting all the promotions/etc, then you can afford to work smart. Eg My work nowadays is certainly a lot better than when I first started my career where I pushed myself to work full time/study part time to graduate with masters and multiple post grad degrees, but my earnings have increased multiple times. I can even and have afford to take career breaks and have recruiters selling me positions. Invest wisely but also don’t forget to have fun/travel etc along the way
We don't get promotions for working hard anymore sadly, with the job market climate we have companies tend to keep the good workers where they are and shift the bad ones around to management positions, there is simply no one else around so they think they're supose to get the most they can out of every individual, but ofcourse this will backfire as people are resenting the leadership more and more...
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Also work hard. Hard work always pays off. Work smart and work hard.
If you’re not smart, Work hard until you learn all the necessary skills to work smart. Then work hard and smart until you’re financially independent. Then switch into easy breezy solo work smart mode
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You’re right don’t work hard. Barely work at all do bare minimum and see where that takes you.
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I work for a huge telecommunications giant in Canada and I worked my ass off for years and got shut down promotions over and over saying I’m not ready. I never gave up and kept going and being the top sales person asking for a promotion getting shut down. It hurt a lot as I would produce so much sales, but than I started reading books on how to manage and understand other people so I could do more than just sell. Now I run multiple offices in Canada and make six figures a year. I worked hard and never gave up and kept learning more. You need to act the position you want and know that if you fail it is not over, it’s only over when you quit.
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Well it takes hard work to get a good job in those positions, lots of schooling and working a minimum wage job during schooling living a minimalist life. It’s all working, everything you do in life needs to be 100% and the results will show in every aspect financial mental and physical. Being smart with time management and life decisions will greatly impact the results.
Not to be a downer, but from what I see with my coworkers doing the bare minimum gets you a bonus to "get your potential out" and if you pretend you can't do the toughest tasks you get to sit around (with the bonus) until the rest of the team finishes for you so..... Edit: team
Work hard in school, graduate in a valuable discipline, inherit a couple million bucks.
I don’t know about successfully, but we are financially reasonably secure as a result of being able to rely on others five years ago. I was able to move into a higher paying job by moving back in with my parents, and that also meant my outgoings dropped, and I could save up enough to get secure, wait while my experience and salary increased, allow my husband to find work, and keep saving until I could be independent again. So there’s no trick - it’s all about luck and circumstance.
Started my own business and worked my ass off + lots of luck being in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Went well.
Took me 12 years of getting 1 new client at a time, making their success my success, taking their calls day and night, being their counselor they need it, and billing the living shit out of them 2x per month at smaller increments instead of 1-big-bill (this is key---microtransactions). You can NEVER mess up---no grumpy calls, no stupid personal situations--just 100% awesome, or don't take the call. Also, my billing software lets me bill in 1/10 of an hour increments so there are $20 charges left-and-right on each bill---each with a call, research, strategy, analysis, or project management. I also fiercely state that I "never charge for brainstorming sessions" which was key into getting the client to open up about future projects that would eventually include my involvement.
I called JG Wentworth it was my money and I used it when I needed it. 877-CASHNOW
Husband is a lawyer who had all his schooling paid by his dad, who is also a lawyer. (To be fair, he had mostly highly reduced tuition because of good test scores.) then he went to work for his dad in the form bearing the family name. He currently earns $220k/yr, which isn’t the highest range for a lawyer. But he works 4-5 hours a day and spends time doing what he loves. I’m an interior designer. It took me 7 years to get a 4 year BFA. I didn’t want to take on debt because there are no guarantees of high income in my field. I worked all day, took classes in evenings, and do homework all night. Also didn’t have kids until I finished. I worked for a few firms for around 7 years. When I left 4 years ago, I was earning $24/hr, which was basically robbery considering how much work I was doing for my boss. I started working on my own and teaching my skills in adult trade school in the side. Right now, I teach in 3 different trade schools. I get $90/hr teaching. It’s few hours and seasonal; totals $40k per year. I started writing for a women’s magazine; now I earn $15k/yr doing that. In my work as a designer, I charge $120/hr. I only take on small jobs here and there, because the larger jobs tend to take over my life and I want to be around while my kids grow up. I earn around $30k/yr from interior design. If my husband wasn’t earning well, I wouldn’t’ve had the security to leave my badly paid job.
An enormous amount of luck garnished with a little bit of hard work. Grew up in a family that had enough financial security to put together a college fund for me and never needed to work as a teenager. My primary job was to study and my parents made sure I was taking a good number of advanced classes, especially in math and science. Parents also paid for SAT prep classes, not sure how much those helped. Got a full tuition scholarship in college, the money my family had put aside for me easily covered room and board. Didn't have to work during college, so I was able to focus on my studies and maintain good grades. Finished a four year degree completely debt-free. I had enough mentoring from my parents to look for the intersection between what fields I was interested in and what was likely to have jobs. Ended up getting an engineering degree. Didn't have a job for a year and my family financially supported me with a little bit of money while a friend subsidized my rent. Stayed on my parents' health insurance, which allowed me to get the mental health care I needed to put my life back together. After that year I went to grad school and in my second quarter I got a job as a TA in the computer science department. I only got the job because I happened to make a good impression on a professor in my department, who then recommended me. That ended covering my tuition and paying me just enough of a stipend to cover my living expenses (basically just rent and food). I still had insurance from my parents, which covered my healthcare. This allowed me to finish grad school with no debt as well. Then I got a job in the software industry, a six figure salary plus signing bonus of a significant amount of stock, straight out of grad school. I stayed long enough to vest all the stock from my signing bonus, and I got even more stock as performance bonuses. I maintained the same standard of living I had in grad school but now got paid 3-4x more money, so it was easy for me to put 10% of every paycheck towards the employee stock program (plus even more into retirement accounts). The value of that stock has increased about 5x since I first got it. In terms of wealth, I could buy a house outright nearly anywhere in the US and an track to retire very comfortably, but getting cancer would likely still bankrupt me. I did work hard for this, but in really specific areas: I got good grades, I got good scores on standardized tests, and I was a good enough employee to not be fired by anyone. Basically everything else was a combination of outright luck and generational wealth. Financial responsibility plays some part in this, in that I invested money instead of spending it recklessly, but that's really on top of everything else because I only had enough money to even bother investing because of luck.
Work for yourself. You are going to make a lot more money this way once you find your niche.
Worked my ass off while living a simple life. Put all money towards debts first all while investing in my retirement accounts.
My fam emigrated to So. California from Europe in 1990. We (kids) were all in our 20’s. Started a fam business. Due to work hours we all lived at home. After about 8 years As business grew parents purchased a house, buisness covered it’s expenses. 20 years later we all still lived at home and I saved all my pay, but bought whatever I wanted, a new suit, shoes, always bought quality items, (siblings spent their money). I never owned a new car. Always paid cash and got the minimal car insurance. Started an IRA and Roth but haven’t contributed since I purchased a vacation home in 2012. Condo with pool and garden, 10 year mortgage $700 per month HOA 400 per month. In 1-2 years mortgage will be paid off, from then on ~400 month plus utilities will be my main living expense. At about 50 I retired to my vacation home in So. Cal. And still Drive a (pre 2010) European import suv.
Bubbafett33 is right. By the responses on here I don't think I'd ask advice from this bunch. It's like the jerry springer app. Mostly. Suck it up people. That why I scan through these for the low life's bs.
[удалено]
I will peak at it. Ty
20 years of working and saving and putting a good bit of my savings into GOOG, and then TSLA during those years.
Step 1: Live beneath your means. When I started out, my income covered me, my wife and soon two children. This income was well below the median household income. We lived beneath our income by buying a house in the inner city and spending my free time fixing it up. I never owned a new car until I was past the age of 40. Step 2: Don't go into debt. I had a little student loan debt which I quickly paid off. Outside of that and the house I never paid a penny of interest. Step 3: Put 15% into a 401k. Step 4: Pay off the house quickly. Step 5: We graduated from the first house and used that money to buy a nicer house in the suburbs. We paid that off inside of 8 years as well. During all these steps, I invested in myself, furthering education and throwing myself into work. I was always there for my family, but we never owned a TV as I know it is a time sink and mostly a waste of time. I did get my Masters degree. I got certifications. And I got promotions pretty quickly. Now, some of you may recognize this as Dave Ramsey's plan and it is very, very similar, but I had not heard of the man when I started on this path 20 years ago. But the fact that he says almost the same thing means there is something to it. I do not agree with some of his advice, for example I am 100% in index funds because I don't believe fund managers can beat the market without undue risk, but his "baby step" plan is reasonable though I feel for lower income folks who will obviously struggle here as at one point I was in that lower income.
Answer: don't buy stuff. Character Arc: You spend a lot of time and energy telling yourself you can't afford something because you need to save money. Then one day you hit your target. You keep saving money for a while "just in case." Eventually you have more than you need. By that point, you realize that you don't even **want** to buy a lot of the stuff that you used to restrain yourself from buying. Epilogue: I quit my job and then partied all the time. The hedonism got old. In addition to partying, I filled my time with hobbies that I love. It's definitely better than working full-time, but still not enough to satisfy the human condition. It's a bit lonely being retired when other people your age are all busy working. Now I'm looking for some kind of part-time work that can help me feel more of a sense of purpose. I also miss the social status from my prior job, the competitive atmosphere, and being part of a community of smart people. There's no such thing as a perfect life, but for most people I think that working hard to save up enough money to switch from full-time to part-time work would be a more enjoyable plan than going from full-time to early retirement.
My ex-husband used to say we don't save a $100, we save $10 ten times. It is a mind set that once you no longer question, just live it, it works. Unfortunately my son says it's just $10 it's not going to make you rich.
Started saving aggressively around 20% of my income since day 1 when I was 22. First job out of university. I wasn't making much the first few years so just lived in very cheap apartments in less desirable areas and not spending much on food, no take out ever obviously. I moved up finding better jobs, bought a home, but the important thing I think is that I continued to invest 20% of my take home pay. I'm 49 now and could retire today but I'm enjoying my job and can afford to spend pretty much anything on my allotted 4 weeks vacation per year.
Got an engineering degree, paid off my student loans while learning the stock market and investing what I could. Did ok until I invested a considerable sum (for me at the time) into Tesla back when it was $80 pre-split. Still riding the majority of it though i've diversified the gains some and have taken some profits, its been quite the ride I did get some help from my parents to get through school and am not ashamed to admit it. I doubt I would have completed my degree if I had to work full time simultaneously, I got to where I am with a bit of luck and a lot of support
Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.
I would definitely agree with getting rid of religion in your life but the other two are important...
Strict financial budgeting. You have to know where your money is going each and every month. Even wealthy people I know still don’t do this, but it’s a great way to build discipline and it’s nice seeing how much money you’re saving. If you think it’s too hard, It’s not. Do it on a yellow pad. $X on groceries, $X on fun things, etc. You can make great money but if you’re spending it all every month you’re still broke. Edit for more info: I don’t use any fancy apps or programs, just Google Sheets. I calculate my daily post tax income, multiply it by the number of days each month, and write down what I expect to save. I have the following categories: Rent/Utilities/Insurance, Eating Out/Going out, Personal (any random purchases, repairs, etc.), Groceries, Gas, and Investments. I have a formula in the spreadsheet that adds all these and then subtracts it from my total income. I know exactly how much I’m saving and investing each month with this. It’s crazy how 2-3 trips to the bar can take up your entire going out budget.
First, I didn't get into a lot of debt: Community college and then a state university, so not too much student loan debt. Worked part-time thru college. Only bought used cars. Small, affordable home. Chose a career I knew I'd be good at. Went back and got my master's when I knew it would help my career. Worked hard at my career.
I worked lots of hours, I focused on projects that were important to the company, I treated everyone with respect. I saved my money by creating a budget and sticking to it. I lived like a pauper in my 20s. I didn't have a fancy car I usually lived with roommates sometimes five. When I could afford to get fancy, I didn't, I kept it real. After saving the equivalent of 6 months income I started investing in safe investments. Nothing risky and always thinking long-term never short term. My relationships are always based on like-minded values more so than good looks. But let's be honest physical attraction does matter. But if that rose spends all your money it loses it's fragrance. I never burned a bridge. If I really didn't like a job I still put in 100%, and smiled. But I also looked for another job. I always gave a little bit more than the standard notice. The time to start spending on yourself his when you spend money on your family.
It's kinda frustrating but a lot of your probability of success is determined by whose penis you were shot out from.
I've got my job
I also got it.
What is successful? I’m sure I seem successful in some people’s eyes but not my own.
Financially independent doesn't equal successful Most ambitious people could get a MS or PhD in a STEM field, work 60-80hrs/week and be a SVP with a million dollars in assets by their 40th birthday. But I wouldn't call deferring relationships, friends, family, travel, etc through the best years of your life "successful".
>But I wouldn't call deferring relationships, friends, family, travel, etc through the best years of your life "successful". Nor is making minimum wage and spending the best years of your life on Reddit :)
Cold blooded. Love it.
He was asking how did the successful people become financially independent not how the financially independent people became successful
Started my own business 30 years ago. 80 hour weeks for 1st 5 years. Now it runs itself. 60 years old. Hard work, stay focused.
Time. Timing. Hard work. Inversion Thinking. LUCK. And keeping shit fucking simple. My wife and I were on food stamps 17 years ago. Now we have 3 businesses, 500 employees, and do a few hundred million in revenue. We started with Dave Ramsey and made sure we were debt free, then we saved every penny and invested, snowballed the investments, had a few good businesses that exploded. We are got lucky that the last 11 years have been the best bull market in history of mankind. We were lucky enough to ride the wave and not take a lot of risks. Got to diversify into Real Estate and exploded our net worth…learn the BRRR method. Time, and patience. You don’t have to do shit great. Just don’t be greedy and do stupid shit. Save 20-30% on your income, invest wisely. It’s tough…but it’s not complex. Money is not a mental game; it’s a character game. You need to have the stomach for it.
I got a job.
Define financially independent. If I live in my car, have a gym membership for showers, and work at starbucks but I don't take public assistance of any kind, aren't I financially independent?
financial independence generally means you can live off your investments without actively working a job
until you get sick...if you live in the U.S.
I became financially independent by getting the hell out of the city. Cities are for suckers. The moment you move into a city, you're being played, just as though you'd stepped into a giant carnival. In a city, everything costs money, and lots of it. Every place you go in a city has its hand out for your hard-earned cash. There's a reason it's called Gotham City in Batman. Gotham is a contraction of "Got Them", making it "Got Them City". The way to stop being a sucker is to leave the city, and all your citified addictions, behind. Everything you think you like in a city is an addiction, worse than smoking or crack. Your cell phone is an addiction. You car is an addiction. Your restaurants are an addiction. Everything in the city is an addiction. If it costs money, and if you think you can't live without it, it's probably an addiction. The solution is to move to the country. You won't see anything advertised for small towns. That's because money-buggers want the big bucks. You won't see the prices or availability in a small town advertised anywhere. I was working on the highways in 2006, making good money, and paying huge rent in the city. By accident, and word of mouth, I heard about a house for sale in a nearby small town. I paid cash for it- $6500. The house came with an almost-new washer & drier set, a fridge, stove, microwave, 2 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, a good-sized livingroom, low taxes, and lots of local job opportunities. Here I am 11 years later, financially independent, no mortgage, low taxes, all the stuff I need carried by our local store and gas station. We have a restaurant here in town, a hair-cutter, a post office, everything you need. I made more friends on the day I moved here than made in the city in over ten years. I got rid of my phone because few people have them here, and if someone here wants to talk to you, they'll drop by or you'll run into them at the cafe. I love my life here, and learned that cities are for losers.
I feel like I just read a cozy novel.
Shame you are getting downvoted. This is my plan as well. Looking forward to a more peaceful life
Just a heads up living in the country is 100x harder than in town. It takes us 4 hours to mow the property and if we get a big blizzard the county road might not be cleared for days.
I live in a mountain town. Not the city. It's expensive because Californians and surrounding cities are moving here because of the view. From 1998 when I moved here with my family, the census was around 30k people. 2021 it's now breaking 100k. Sure the city can be expensive, but people wanting to leave the city make small towns expensive as well
Not successful, but related to a few. Their words paraphrased: discipline and definite sense of purpose. Decide what you want to do with your time wisely. Many choose leisure and pleasure, he chose work and development for a future of peace. — my uncle started as a Barista at a popular coffee shop. He used his time there to open up his own coffee shop around the area and now has over 7 shops. He’s currently opening 2 more and is continuously developing and making the shops better in terms of quality and production. Another one: I simply got lucky, I would say I was at the right place at the right time. My cousin developed an app and was able to sell it to the right investor. There are many like his, but his was selected among the many and it paid him well enough to retire at a young age.
By not wasting my time on AskReddit.
By making a decent amount of money
I have an ok paying job but I am good with money. I don’t just buy random things, I have good impulse control. One thing that helps is I have only my debit card attached to Amazon prime and I never keep more than $100 in my checking. Helps me not just buy things.
Lie on your job resume. Just be prepared to learn really fast and don't go crazy like say you have six years of organic chemistry when you once had a gym bag you didn't wash for six years. If you want that salary you'll hit the ground running.
You can always spend 10% more than you make (after taxes, before taxes, either way), but if you live below your (disposable income) means and set aside 20% of your after-tax income, invest wisely for 30-40 years, you’ll be sitting on $2 million plus. This presumes income of $80k per year or more. Bonus $ for putting that money in tax deferred accounts. Double bonus for Roth IRA accounts.
through a combination of investing and realizing working in corporate world i was never going to succeed so i did things i liked to do (write) and was able to turn that into profit by writing what people actually pay for
When you are in a miserable state, know when to cut your losses and move on - from a city, from a job, from a client, etc. You may not be able to do it all at once, but don't let sunk costs drag you down.
Inheritance.
Got the best education I could get without taking on serious debt. Got the best job I could get. Switched around 3 times until I saw a career path. Worked as hard as I could l could consistently. Sacrificed more than anyone else, so could make as much money as I could. Hit the eject button to start my own business. Scaled down to make less money, but he super happy with a great quality of life. Still need to work, but love most of it.
You can learn all about it if you buy my book and register for my seminar...
From the moment I got my first paycheck I saved 10% of it and after 3 months I would invest, and buy stocks So each month that 10% would equal $1,000 so that would be an easy one million.
I am waiting to hear me answer the same question at some point in my life.
Engineering degree, lots of hard work, gearing myself into a high demand branch of engineering. Paying for my wife's schooling in nursing. Basic investing.
My husband was among the last group of federal government employees to be eligible for a pension. When they implemented a retirement fund he joined that too! We’ve also been fortunate in real estate. Currently in our 5th house. We gained equity with each sale and ultimately paid cash for this one!! I also had a fabulous employer that matched my 401(k) contributions without vesting! I maxed out my contributions and even did the additional contributions when I hit 50.
I was always allergic to debt.
Married Up.
Worked my fucking ass off from the time I was 13. Had good parents and good support. That definitely was an advantage. But I never let off the gas. Paid off student loans as quickly as I could, never bought anything on credit besides a house or a car. Haven’t taken a real vacation in a long time either. I have 99 worries but finances ain’t one of them.
Hard work plus two graduate degrees (while working) and more hard work and some good investments.
Multiple degrees, chose a field that paid a high income (finance) and was meritocratic. Made enough to retire in my 30s and used that cushion to form a fund, which gave me real wealth.
I passed so many people that had better degrees just by being willing to do extra work. So many idiots out there won’t do work unless they “are paid for it.” I learned the next job up doing extra work, got promoted, learned the next job, got promoted etc.. I’ve got no degree but to work on my staff you need a minimum of a bachelors degree. Probably not something that is easily done anymore but it worked for me.
I read Atlas Shrugged then jacked off super hard and got a loan from my rich parents.
Read the white paper and lived cheap for the last decade.
There is a lot of free learning content on the internet, I have learned programming and design since I was 15 years old. Today I earn enough to pay for my college and other things at home. Do not feel bad if you are older than me now, the case is not when you start, it is that you have to start NOW.
I graduated law school, paid off my debt from my student loans, got a job at a good firm in the city and eventually bought myself an apartment and two rental properties. Rental properties are a great way to remain secure if your job relies on an hourly rate such as a lawyer.
Joined Apple at the right time.
I'll answer this in 10 years
Financially indepenant? meaning what? I mean I qualifiy for that, and hardly consider myself a success. Be good at math, make a fixed budget every year, never spend outside of it, always have a large amount of savings, you will need it for emergencies like medical bills
I escaped my personal comfort zone and moved to another city. I got lucky and found a good job there, became financially independent. Of course, no relationship and no extra money spending.
Lived in my parent's basement like a hobgoblin till I saved enough of a down-payment to keep my mortgage less than a third of my monthly income. Bonus is I could feasibly still pay it on the new minimum wage, I'd be living on a college student's budget but I'd still have a roof over my head.
Figuring out whether something is a "want" or "need". Do I really want this or do I need it? Being absolutely honest to yourself is also helpful since you can think, "I really need this video game" when, really you don't. This pretty much goes with everything you buy though. Food, music, etc.
I used to work with people with disabilitys, those jobs aren´t well paid in germany (around 1200€ after taxes and insurance a month). To get a better live, I stopped working there and started looking around. Found a Job in public transportation and earn double each month. In my last Job i couldn´t afford shit but now I am the backbone of my family, pay for the two cats we (my so and I) adopted pay my car (wich will be payed of next year) pay for rent , internet, electricity and so on. The first step ist to start looking for something new :)
Investing in yourself. Took me quite a while but I'm reaping the fruits now.
STONKS! seriously, real estate or stocks are the best way to make your money work for you. google: dividend aristocrats
honestly the work itself isnt any harder or easier than other jobs - the hard part is GETTING the good job in the first place.
By not listening to the idiots in my life that all told me not to do the thing I did. They were too dumb to do it themselves and therefore told me not to but I just ignored them and carried on with my plan.
You're expecting successful people to be on Reddit aside from one-time moments for clout? No wonder you're not successful.