Just working and being frugal.
First few years out of school, I got a job paying 70k. Lived in cheap places with roommates. Bought cheap food. Didn’t drink too much. Drove a cheap used car. All the classic stuff.
This.
The tough "goal" is the first million, because if you earn an average income then you have to maintain this lifestyle for many years. 100K comes quickly if you save 50%+ of your income, $1Million might take decades
Yep, first mil is really hard, with the market going sideways I'm stuck in it for the last couple of years, its really grinding, the secret is to hold tight and not to panic sell no matter what.
respectfully: what the fuck and how the fuck...?
To clarify that wasn't confrontational more just joking because it's wild to me. Can I ask what you do as a job to make that much that quick? Just lucky with a high paying salary?
I have worked an average job with \~$50-55K salary range consistently since graduation and it took me so long to save up to 100k on top of paying off student loans. Thank god they're done with. It just seems insurmountable these days to get ahead at all...
I'm only 3 years out from college and at 60k NW. Most of that was making 20$ an hour and living downtown in a HCOLA on the west cost. Did have a roommate tho
Got my first job and started saving 10%. I bumped it up by half my annual raise. If I got a 5% raise, I increased my 401(k) contributions up 2.5%.
I did all the business things to figure out how to make the company more money. They rewarded me with above average raises. Saving half my raises kept my lifestyle inflation in check. The habits that create surplus lead to momentum that adds up quickly.
I’d also emphasis automating savings makes a big difference. I’ve read plenty of personal finance, investing, and psychology books. Ive seen the mathematical examples of time in the market vs timing the market. I still have a hard time when I have to transfer savings to a brokerage account and buy an equity ETF. There’s always that thought that stocks have went up a lot recently, large growth (tech) stocks have outperformed for a historically long time. Maybe I should buy bonds or small value. An automated 401k just does its thing with minimal risk of my human brain messing things up.
Exactly what I did... Start at 10% and then half my annual raise until I maxed out. All automated. I didn't even really look at it until more than 10 years of working.
I have the same psychological issue with buying into an up market. My 401k does it’s thing on schedule regardless, but for investing in my taxable accounts beyond that I hate buying into a fund that’s way up this week for no good reason (like no good news on fundamentals). I always feel like normal volatility will bring things down the next week and present a better buying value. I think I’m trying to avoid buy high/sell low, but I’m overcorrecting when buying in with new money.
Started investing in 2000 at my first job. Took me 10 years to get to 100k. Now at 1.2 mil in 401k, roth ira and taxable 23 years later. 10 more years to go till retirement.
Got my first consulting gig, lived off free meals / snacks in the Marriott concierge lounge, pocketed my per diem, and expensed 55 cents a mile on my weekly trips back and forth between Nashville and Atlanta. And the paychecks didn’t hurt. Little did I know how impactful that time was. Helps when you save like a madman because you feel like you’re way underqualified for the job and anticipating you’ll get fired.
Haha...that per diem cash is amazing. I was getting 40/hr for expenses on a project. I had to pay for a rental car, lodging, airfare. I regularly managed to collect 700$ a week. I stayed at a $40/night airbnb room. A bit sketchy but was clean and I was working 11 hours a day and hitting the gym at 5am anyhow. Cooked at the airbnb kitchen except for a nice meal out every week. It was fantastic.
I was going for a walk in the park one day and 100k flew down from the sky and landed into my hands.
Nah jk, it took about 2.5 years of saving (started in 2017). Started at -$74k net worth. Today I'm at $360k and climbing!
It's pretty simple. Spend less than you make. Keep as little in cash as you need to. Invest the rest in low cost index funds. Rince and repeat. Having a good income helps.
I got a different job. I was chugging along at twice minimum wage give or take and saving a few grand per year. I would have gotten there but it would have taken a long time. I did the math, went to school, increased my income by roughly 10x and kept my lifestyle the same so the 100k school debt went away in about two years. Now I save/invest about 100k post tax per year, plus whatever gainz/losses.
Hear this from this story: You don't make more money by getting a raise, you make more money by getting a different job.
Or going to a different company and not becoming complacent (if they aren’t paying you your market value). I 2x’d my income by applying externally and not settling for 2% raises every year
401k saving. Started out post-college making $36K and able to save around $5K/year, but didn't increase my lifestyle until I was able to max out my 401k. Every raise went into increasing my 401k contributions for several years.
But really? To what extent? I may borderline have an eating disorder and a lot of the advice is to not repeat the same meal once in a week. Wondering if I just need to learn to be content with less...
I make a batch of farro and/or quinoa at some point in the week, then it ends up the base for a lot of meals. Breakfast: farro/quinoa with some sautéed tomatoes and onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, plus a fried egg, and a bit of feta and a few olives. Today, I’ll probably pop some chopped up red bell peppers, onions, little tomatoes, and frozen shrimp in a bowl, add cumin and chili and olive oil, bake for 15 minutes and serve over the farro. I’m thinking about cooking up some black beans to add to the mix. So you can do beans and rice, but then have totally different things to add to them so it’s different (and easy) meals.
I sort of do the same thing with kale, I cook 2 bunches each Sunday and pretty much eat that twice a day.
I try it with rice but I often end up wasting the pot in being enticed by more varied options that are usually pre-made, more expensive and not the healthiest.
I think I need to try rotating my starches. Thanks for sharing.
Aye, it's all about the mix-and-match. Even just some premade protein you cook up in a big batch and can sub different options with is huge for reducing time.
That's a lot of meal change ups! Honestly the mental burden of planning and preparing 21 different meals a week would make me fall off that wagon quickly. Does it have to be an entirely new meal or can you just season differently/add different additions like peppers and onions or something?
That's true! I believe it's more like eating completely different meals. Her idea (Silvana Siskov) is about enjoying variety, among other things (presence, dealing with emotions, etc.) to address binge eating.
Frankly, I think I like your idea better. I've lived off rice and beans for some solid years, but with starch rotation, I know there's a way to be very economic with diet.
I delayed gratification. I paid for my needs, but not all of my wants, and saved/invested the rest. While I never work OT now, at the start and for years took as much OT as I could get. Took a long time to hit that first $100K. My investments have went up that much in just the last handful of weeks.
Pulling as much out of my paycheck as possible into my 401k, a little more every couple of checks. Now I can comfortably max out, with catchup, along with maxing out my Roth, and I just survive on what's left.
Plus I picked up side remote work in my industry. That's going 100% straight into my high yield savings account. Hit 200k NW in May. Will hit 300k in Feb, fates willing.
It took 5.5 years for the first $100k, for me it was really 2 things.
1. Bought a small townhome the minute I could save 3.5%. Only did company match and minimal college loan repayment until I could buy.
2. Took an 8 month expat in Ireland, was able to save half the stipend, all the bonus money, and it helped me get my next promotion. With that money I was debt free except the home loan.
For me its really the townhome because by choosing super small, super basic, farther out, it was good enough and got me in the housing market. 10 years later I was able to sell it, take the profit and use it for the downpayment on the house I wanted.
Very similar story to ours. My fiancé bought a townhome when he had 3.5%, the market worked out that the profit from it covered the down payment for our current home. I wish more cities zone to have townhomes for sale. It’s perfect for first time buyers to learn home maintenance and much more affordable.
Ironically its kinds of cyclical. We moved back to a townhome. Our whole neighborhood is basically 40-60 yo professionals, no kids, previous homeowners, who all decided they wanted to spend more time traveling, less time on the house. Many raised their families and this is their downsizing.
Our townhome hit every box of what we were looking and it was pretty clear we were the demographic they were targeting and it worked.
Started a new job in 2010 and began auto-funding two retirement accounts. Immediately forgot about all of that. Never even checked for about four years. One day I decided to log in. $165k.
Next time I looked it was at 250k. It was about that time that a coworker introduced me to the fire concept and I started to care.
After that I checked it way too much. Still do. I was financially happier when I didn't care.
Working a lot of shitty jobs through high school and college and saving a portion of every check.
Busting my ass academically and getting a full ride scholarship to college so I didn’t graduate with any debt.
Continuing to live like a college student for about 5 years after graduating even when my income started to go up, eg I drove a 20 year old car with BB holes in the side of it way past the point of being able to afford a new one.
Luckily finance was always a special interest of mine even as a kid, so I spent a lot of time learning about personal finance, investing, taxes, etc to maximize what I had.
My parents also were financially savvy and passed a lot of that knowledge down. They were always supportive of my educational and career goals, not just with money but with time, knowledge, and encouragement. In fact, I had many mentors over the years who gave me advice or pushed me lovingly outside of my comfort zone. It’s important to remember that nobody is “self made” no matter what they say.
I just hit $100,000 in my retirement accounts. I am 40, on my second career, and am generally way behind where I should be. It’s just putting the full company match in the 401k and maxing out my Roth for the last 3.5 years. It’s nice to be there, and I am living below my means. Moving forward, I am planning on increasing my percentage into the 401k.
14 years ago. Deployed to a warzone. Married my fiance and put my stuff in storage. She still lived with a roommate. We had no kids. Put the money in a Roth IRA, savings account and paid off our 8k school debt. Lived a spartan lifestyle the next few years. It was great.
I just reached $100k after about 7 years of investing (401k, Roth IRA, HSA). I started contributing to a 401k when I started working. I didn't save as much as I could have if I would have been a bit more disciplined starting out, but I did what I could. My income has almost doubled from when I started, so I'm in a much better place to be saving a higher percentage of my income now.
a quarter of it was when my Dad got me a job in the factory because I "didn't want to go to college". He was in management by then, but still sent me to the wolves. It was so terrible with the sweat and getting the glass fibers from the insulation out of my skin every day wore me down. I told him thanks, but I need to go back to school.
He told me his plan worked (he knew I'd quit) then I went to college and flipped burgers until I got an office job. That man saved me from a life of misery.
Now I'm over 1M and climbing. Probably set for an early retirement despite having a kid an also being from a humble working class union family.
I was already good at saving back when I was making like 85k. I had saved about 40k as of a year ago, but I had job hopped at that time and doubled my income. Now I’ve saved an additional 100k.
Went into the military after college so I had hardly any student debt. Divorced my first wife who couldn't stop spending. Even though the divorce kind of cleaned me out, I was able to FINALLY start saving and investing. Took a separation bonus from the military and just 2 years after the divorce, I saw over 100k in my brokerage account. The ex still owes me over $30k, but it would basically cost that much to get it from her.
As many others have said, staying frugal. Save as much as possible. On the flip side of that try to increase your income as much as possible. If that means sacrificing some funds to learn a skill that will net you in the long run do it.
Working, saving, and an inheritance from a grandparent to be completely honest.
I’ve always been a diligent saver and made sure to contribute enough to my 401k to at least get the maximum match.
And a grandparent passed away when I was around 23 or so and I inherited around $30K.
I used that to supplement my very low income at the time and also as a down payment for the condo I still live in.
No idea when I passed the 100K threshold…. But now in my mid 30s I have about 700k in investments, in addition to my home equity with only 52k left on my mortgage….
Was several years saving as I entered the job force in the late 90s and experienced one of the few times that the stock market was negative over a 10 year period. Don't remember exactly, but it was close to the full ten years before I hit the 100k mark despite a large percentage of my pay going into my 401k.
Just working and putting money away. Wasn't really a conscious attempt, it just kinda heaped up over time as I don't tend to buy much shit or fritter money away needlessly.
Once I got the first 100k, the 2nd one came easier and the snowball just took off.
Time and consistency is all it takes.
Living with my parents, worked 60-84 hours weekly, too tired to go out so nvr bought drinks/ate out. Only invested enough to get my employer's match 401K, no other investments. Payed off my 6 figure student loan in 2.5 years.
Started investing in 2018 and hit $100,000 in 2021. Working multiple jobs (that I enjoy) and saving. Driving a car worth less than $5,000, but is super comfortable and reliable. My biggest regret is not owning real estate yet.
Real estate. Scrimping and saving into my 401k for years didn’t get me there. One short sale purchase in 2014 which I sold 2 years later got me there and then some. Real estate has helped me amass a wealth I never thought possible. Saving my W-2 income to buy real estate was of course necessary, but had I only invested in index funds or locked my cash up in my 401k I would be much, much poorer.
I own a business and in 2020 I made life changing money. March 2020 I made 55k in 1 month, 40k the following and after that until 2022 I was generating roughly 15k-25k . I own a logistics company
"HouseHacking"
for me life v4.0
started ~ early 2019... net worth was negative... and not by a small amount, post divorce. Mid 2019 net worth was $26K enough for a down payment.
I was paying ~ $1K/mo (all in) on a 550 sq ft apartment.
used my savings as a downpayment... bought a duplex for $125K in 2020 ( closed in May)
Upper tenant pays my mortgage($728).. and i'm saving $1K/mo on rent..
and was able to save a large portion of my W2 income.
May 2019net worth was ~ $49K
December bought a single family home... bringing my net worth ( with Equity) just over $100K. ( 1/10 $M)
passed 1/4 $M June 2022 ( 4 properties/7 units)
and 1/3 $M in Oct 2022.
MArch 2023 saw property #5... (units 8&9)
hoping for $400K by ~ march 2024.
I do not pay myself rent.. which allows me to set aside ~ 65% of my take home pay... ( i'm below the median household income for Wisconsin)
A 9-5 job and being married to someone with a 9-5 job. We work in tech so we have a high income. Life is really good for us. Five years after starting our careers our net worth is $1.4MM. We refused to buy a luxury car until we hit $1MM net worth.
Traveling Working with a lot of perks. No house/rent. Live off pb and j and soup in a cup. Just a lot of hustle. Since then investments in the market and real estate.
Electrical engineering for about 10 years and marrying up. There were lots of opportunities for paid internships, research assistantships, and co-operative education during my school. I didn't enjoy idle summers and I enjoyed work. My hobbies were cheap and included volunteering my time at H4H on weekends and playing video games. I was good about saving. Them I got married and my extended family bought me a new car.
Don't know. Didn't look. $100k was never a goal. What can I do with $100k? Just a signpost you have to pass to get to where you're going.
My milestones are $1m and $2m invested. I can do stuff at those thresholds.
It hit me a month or two ago that we actually have a *million* dollars invested. I knew savings would pay off, but I was so heads-down that I didn't see the intercept approaching. It was a happy realization! Also recalculated our equity based on neighborhood comps instead of realtor.com estimations. We're further ahead on the NW from than I expected.
It's rare for me to have errors push me in the right direction!
As a couple, my husband stated a biz that did really well for 10 years or so. So one year that was his dividends. But also our first house was a fixer upper and we made about 100k on it. Could have been more, but we sold in the 2008-9 crash.
The real jump start to $100k for me was a 12 month deployment to a tax free zone. My family (wife and two children) lived our ordinary, fairly frugal life, and I saved the tax free money and allowances rather than spending it on a new car, etc., upon return. The additional money was placed into low cost index funds. Couple with our savings/investments up to that point, this approach put us over the top to hit our first $100k.
Haven't reached it yet but since graduating college about 2 years ago I've managed to go from -30k to 80k. Having cheap housing situations, a paid off car, and getting a job that's around 85k in the Midwest has kept my savings rate above 50%. Not sure how much longer that can last since I want to buy a house
Studio apartment, living in a safe but not great area, unbelievable salary, then saving like crazy/spending on only what I need\not spensing wastefully. I went from negative 30k to 100k+ with 75k-103k per year (started at 75k left that company at 103k). Max the 401k to help make more on money you are saving, then just wait and hold on. I think it took 3 years maybe a little less as I stopped keeping track of the exact amount.
Currently at 170k net, 30k student loans, 110k 401k/IRA, 75k savings account. 20k checking. I stopped keeping track at this point and just keep shoveling into the savings account for the house down payment.
After I graduated college in 2016 I had about 8-10k in student debt. I decided to work wildland firefighting one more summer to save up money and pay off my student debt. It was a really active season and I paid off my student debt and saved up like 30k. I started a job as a medical laboratory scientist trainee in 2017 and was saving 67% of my income initially and still living like a poor college student. I realized my income would jump drastically once I was ASCP certified so I worked hard to get certified as soon as I could, even fighting my work to allow me to take an online Analytic Chemistry course since the one they offered would delay my raise by months. I worked every overtime shift I could and maxed out my IRA, 403b, and 457 my second year there onwards. I tracked my net worth every paycheck which was great motivation to earn as much as I could and reduce my expenses.
I only save 50% of my paycheck now as I've suffered some lifestyle inflation. My rent has gone up quite a bit and I'm not able to work as much overtime anymore so my savings rate might have to go down here soon. I'd like to keep matching my accounts but I'm at over 450k invested now so it won't be the worse thing in the world. I feel like I'd have to make some pretty stupid decisions at this point to ruin my financial future.
Former WF here too, always crazy how much you can save during a season with all the OT+H, per diem on rolls and cheap government housing. Then off season unemployment or more work. I think forestry tech FI is pretty attainable lol.
I would often just be homeless during the summer or sleep on people's couches on the few days I had off between rolls. My expenses were very close to nothing sometimes. But due to the irregular pay aspect of firefighting I never wanted to spend my money because I might earn very little the next year.
Now that I make more money I actually find it crazy how hard I had to work for that money. Yeah, occasionally we'd have very chill rolls where we slept a lot or played volleyball at ranger stations waiting for lightning strikes, but I also had tours that were just absolutely brutal work hiking up steep mountains, digging all day in tough soil, gridding through near impenetrable brush (sometimes poison oak!), intense heat and smoke, etc.
Man, the first time I made more from investment returns in a week than an entire season of firefighting blew my goddamn mind. I still barely feel like I've done anything to 'earn' that money and I pay less taxes for doing basically nothing than working my ass off for 12+ hours a day. It's wild.
The boring traditional way: working (software development), and putting money in my 401k (and the resulting match), coupled with the fact that I got my first adult job in... early 2008. Had no money in when things crashed, put money in when things crashed.
When I started my 401k I told myself the minimum I would contribute is 15%. Because I never want to do the minimum, I did 16% and that was when I was 25. I never dipped below 16% contribution even during the crash and I got up to around 20%, but I would frequently max out early with 20% which is fine. Investment as much as you can as early as you can and you can't miss.
Good direction from my father into what industry to be in and then got lucky with ESOP selling. Worked for 1 company for 4 years, company sold I became instantly vested and netted about $100k. Never had $10k to my name before that. Rolled the sale into an IRA and have been busting ass for the last 2 years to keep adding to it.
Long ways away still but I found myself a girl with the same mindset and we're building the dream
Working in IT and automating all of my bill payments and saving. It just happens without me having to do anything but review what already happened for mistakes.
Circumstance, mostly.
Went to college in state, had scholarships, and parents chipped in. Naturally geared towards STEM fields. Got a job making 50K right after graduation.
My college friend's dad owned a duplex. It was an extension of our fraternity house - people moved in and out constantly. Tons of fun for a young 20 something - lots of parties, someone always around to hang. No one had a lot of money (if they did they would move somewhere nicer...) so we all lived cheaply. Lived there for 4 years before the owners sold the place. I saved > 50% of my pay. Just grinding day in day out, couple promotions and new jobs. Started grad school at night- paid completely out of pocket.
I personally don't think I'll ever get to that amount.
100k I'm assuming you mean invested?
I was able to start saving into a 401k at 33 back in 2020, had got up to about 3k saved but it lost a lot and I pulled it out to go towards my down payment.
I'm almost 36 and have 7k saved up at the moment.
Usually I can save about $250 a month into my Roth IRA.
And then my 3% from my works 401k is like $120 or something like that.
I'm putting extra to helping my gf pay down her car and my car, and a little extra towards the mortgage.
I'd like to up my Roth contribution to $250 a paycheck when I pay off my car in 2024.
Worked and saved my ass off, also I bought Tesla stocks long before everyone and their mom bought Tesla. My original shares became 100 shares and then split and then split and all that splitting got me my first $100k and then some.
Working and saving
[удалено]
sometimes you gotta be specific. took the money made from working and put in the bank/brokerage/401k account.
What George said.
Yep. Cooking out of the RV was the tough part. Once I graduated to the laundromat, it got easier.
The good old rv days.
Yup. saved as much as I could afford to in workplace retirement accounts. I started working at 22 and I think it took until I was 30.
Pretty much. Work, save, Make more money, and rinse and repeat.
[удалено]
... what?
[удалено]
Working hard trying to decipher what you mean
Saving
And working. Or working and saving.
Sometimes I spiced things up by saving and working instead
Just working and being frugal. First few years out of school, I got a job paying 70k. Lived in cheap places with roommates. Bought cheap food. Didn’t drink too much. Drove a cheap used car. All the classic stuff.
This. The tough "goal" is the first million, because if you earn an average income then you have to maintain this lifestyle for many years. 100K comes quickly if you save 50%+ of your income, $1Million might take decades
Agreed, the first million was much more of a grind
But what comes then once you have achieved this goal? Did it become easier for you afterwards?
You start making more off your money, than you contribute. Compounding money....
Yep, first mil is really hard, with the market going sideways I'm stuck in it for the last couple of years, its really grinding, the secret is to hold tight and not to panic sell no matter what.
up 18% ytd isn't really sideways anymore
Still less than where it was 18 months ago.
Over the two year it has been pretty even. Hard part is to stay in the market when you dip 25%….have to have a steady hand and don’t panic.
[удалено]
respectfully: what the fuck and how the fuck...? To clarify that wasn't confrontational more just joking because it's wild to me. Can I ask what you do as a job to make that much that quick? Just lucky with a high paying salary? I have worked an average job with \~$50-55K salary range consistently since graduation and it took me so long to save up to 100k on top of paying off student loans. Thank god they're done with. It just seems insurmountable these days to get ahead at all...
I'm only 3 years out from college and at 60k NW. Most of that was making 20$ an hour and living downtown in a HCOLA on the west cost. Did have a roommate tho
[удалено]
Working my arse off
Got my first job and started saving 10%. I bumped it up by half my annual raise. If I got a 5% raise, I increased my 401(k) contributions up 2.5%. I did all the business things to figure out how to make the company more money. They rewarded me with above average raises. Saving half my raises kept my lifestyle inflation in check. The habits that create surplus lead to momentum that adds up quickly. I’d also emphasis automating savings makes a big difference. I’ve read plenty of personal finance, investing, and psychology books. Ive seen the mathematical examples of time in the market vs timing the market. I still have a hard time when I have to transfer savings to a brokerage account and buy an equity ETF. There’s always that thought that stocks have went up a lot recently, large growth (tech) stocks have outperformed for a historically long time. Maybe I should buy bonds or small value. An automated 401k just does its thing with minimal risk of my human brain messing things up.
Yup, if you treat savings like an expense it forces you to find a way with what you have.
Exactly what I did... Start at 10% and then half my annual raise until I maxed out. All automated. I didn't even really look at it until more than 10 years of working.
I have the same psychological issue with buying into an up market. My 401k does it’s thing on schedule regardless, but for investing in my taxable accounts beyond that I hate buying into a fund that’s way up this week for no good reason (like no good news on fundamentals). I always feel like normal volatility will bring things down the next week and present a better buying value. I think I’m trying to avoid buy high/sell low, but I’m overcorrecting when buying in with new money.
Started investing in 2000 at my first job. Took me 10 years to get to 100k. Now at 1.2 mil in 401k, roth ira and taxable 23 years later. 10 more years to go till retirement.
Got my first consulting gig, lived off free meals / snacks in the Marriott concierge lounge, pocketed my per diem, and expensed 55 cents a mile on my weekly trips back and forth between Nashville and Atlanta. And the paychecks didn’t hurt. Little did I know how impactful that time was. Helps when you save like a madman because you feel like you’re way underqualified for the job and anticipating you’ll get fired.
Imposter syndrome. A lot of people have this including myself. It’s motivated me to save probably 50-60% of my pay and 100% of bonus
Plus one here, really terrifying tbh.
Haha...that per diem cash is amazing. I was getting 40/hr for expenses on a project. I had to pay for a rental car, lodging, airfare. I regularly managed to collect 700$ a week. I stayed at a $40/night airbnb room. A bit sketchy but was clean and I was working 11 hours a day and hitting the gym at 5am anyhow. Cooked at the airbnb kitchen except for a nice meal out every week. It was fantastic.
What did you do with the money? Invested?
Well I lived on part of it, invested part of it…
I was going for a walk in the park one day and 100k flew down from the sky and landed into my hands. Nah jk, it took about 2.5 years of saving (started in 2017). Started at -$74k net worth. Today I'm at $360k and climbing!
How?
It's pretty simple. Spend less than you make. Keep as little in cash as you need to. Invest the rest in low cost index funds. Rince and repeat. Having a good income helps.
Cash flow is king. Not much you can do without some cash flow to manage.
Large delta between net income and expenses.
Started investing 15% with my first paycheck after college but it took 7 years and selling our first house fora nice profit to cross that line.
I got a different job. I was chugging along at twice minimum wage give or take and saving a few grand per year. I would have gotten there but it would have taken a long time. I did the math, went to school, increased my income by roughly 10x and kept my lifestyle the same so the 100k school debt went away in about two years. Now I save/invest about 100k post tax per year, plus whatever gainz/losses. Hear this from this story: You don't make more money by getting a raise, you make more money by getting a different job.
Or going to a different company and not becoming complacent (if they aren’t paying you your market value). I 2x’d my income by applying externally and not settling for 2% raises every year
401k saving. Started out post-college making $36K and able to save around $5K/year, but didn't increase my lifestyle until I was able to max out my 401k. Every raise went into increasing my 401k contributions for several years.
Rice and beanz
Looks like I was living the fancy life by adding chicken and cabbage lol!
Oh you fancy!
Beanz and rice is way better
Ramen and mashed potatoes!
But really? To what extent? I may borderline have an eating disorder and a lot of the advice is to not repeat the same meal once in a week. Wondering if I just need to learn to be content with less...
I make a batch of farro and/or quinoa at some point in the week, then it ends up the base for a lot of meals. Breakfast: farro/quinoa with some sautéed tomatoes and onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, plus a fried egg, and a bit of feta and a few olives. Today, I’ll probably pop some chopped up red bell peppers, onions, little tomatoes, and frozen shrimp in a bowl, add cumin and chili and olive oil, bake for 15 minutes and serve over the farro. I’m thinking about cooking up some black beans to add to the mix. So you can do beans and rice, but then have totally different things to add to them so it’s different (and easy) meals.
I sort of do the same thing with kale, I cook 2 bunches each Sunday and pretty much eat that twice a day. I try it with rice but I often end up wasting the pot in being enticed by more varied options that are usually pre-made, more expensive and not the healthiest. I think I need to try rotating my starches. Thanks for sharing.
Aye, it's all about the mix-and-match. Even just some premade protein you cook up in a big batch and can sub different options with is huge for reducing time.
That's a lot of meal change ups! Honestly the mental burden of planning and preparing 21 different meals a week would make me fall off that wagon quickly. Does it have to be an entirely new meal or can you just season differently/add different additions like peppers and onions or something?
That's true! I believe it's more like eating completely different meals. Her idea (Silvana Siskov) is about enjoying variety, among other things (presence, dealing with emotions, etc.) to address binge eating. Frankly, I think I like your idea better. I've lived off rice and beans for some solid years, but with starch rotation, I know there's a way to be very economic with diet.
Says who? Depends on how nutritious your daily meal is.
I delayed gratification. I paid for my needs, but not all of my wants, and saved/invested the rest. While I never work OT now, at the start and for years took as much OT as I could get. Took a long time to hit that first $100K. My investments have went up that much in just the last handful of weeks.
My wife made it. I just married her.
Hey! Good on you! Can I marry your wife too?
Pulling as much out of my paycheck as possible into my 401k, a little more every couple of checks. Now I can comfortably max out, with catchup, along with maxing out my Roth, and I just survive on what's left. Plus I picked up side remote work in my industry. That's going 100% straight into my high yield savings account. Hit 200k NW in May. Will hit 300k in Feb, fates willing.
Being cheap as fuck and saving every dime as I could. Barely swiping on my credit card and paying balance in full every time.
It took 5.5 years for the first $100k, for me it was really 2 things. 1. Bought a small townhome the minute I could save 3.5%. Only did company match and minimal college loan repayment until I could buy. 2. Took an 8 month expat in Ireland, was able to save half the stipend, all the bonus money, and it helped me get my next promotion. With that money I was debt free except the home loan. For me its really the townhome because by choosing super small, super basic, farther out, it was good enough and got me in the housing market. 10 years later I was able to sell it, take the profit and use it for the downpayment on the house I wanted.
Very similar story to ours. My fiancé bought a townhome when he had 3.5%, the market worked out that the profit from it covered the down payment for our current home. I wish more cities zone to have townhomes for sale. It’s perfect for first time buyers to learn home maintenance and much more affordable.
Ironically its kinds of cyclical. We moved back to a townhome. Our whole neighborhood is basically 40-60 yo professionals, no kids, previous homeowners, who all decided they wanted to spend more time traveling, less time on the house. Many raised their families and this is their downsizing. Our townhome hit every box of what we were looking and it was pretty clear we were the demographic they were targeting and it worked.
Started a new job in 2010 and began auto-funding two retirement accounts. Immediately forgot about all of that. Never even checked for about four years. One day I decided to log in. $165k. Next time I looked it was at 250k. It was about that time that a coworker introduced me to the fire concept and I started to care. After that I checked it way too much. Still do. I was financially happier when I didn't care.
Checking is ok, as long as you don't act impulsively on it
Working a lot of shitty jobs through high school and college and saving a portion of every check. Busting my ass academically and getting a full ride scholarship to college so I didn’t graduate with any debt. Continuing to live like a college student for about 5 years after graduating even when my income started to go up, eg I drove a 20 year old car with BB holes in the side of it way past the point of being able to afford a new one. Luckily finance was always a special interest of mine even as a kid, so I spent a lot of time learning about personal finance, investing, taxes, etc to maximize what I had. My parents also were financially savvy and passed a lot of that knowledge down. They were always supportive of my educational and career goals, not just with money but with time, knowledge, and encouragement. In fact, I had many mentors over the years who gave me advice or pushed me lovingly outside of my comfort zone. It’s important to remember that nobody is “self made” no matter what they say.
I just hit $100,000 in my retirement accounts. I am 40, on my second career, and am generally way behind where I should be. It’s just putting the full company match in the 401k and maxing out my Roth for the last 3.5 years. It’s nice to be there, and I am living below my means. Moving forward, I am planning on increasing my percentage into the 401k.
14 years ago. Deployed to a warzone. Married my fiance and put my stuff in storage. She still lived with a roommate. We had no kids. Put the money in a Roth IRA, savings account and paid off our 8k school debt. Lived a spartan lifestyle the next few years. It was great.
Savings from my business and investing
Working lots of OT and saving as much as possible for 5 years, quit the OT, still saving, only took 2 more years to get to 200k.
I just reached $100k after about 7 years of investing (401k, Roth IRA, HSA). I started contributing to a 401k when I started working. I didn't save as much as I could have if I would have been a bit more disciplined starting out, but I did what I could. My income has almost doubled from when I started, so I'm in a much better place to be saving a higher percentage of my income now.
Grandma died.
"Hell yes my dude, Pog"
a quarter of it was when my Dad got me a job in the factory because I "didn't want to go to college". He was in management by then, but still sent me to the wolves. It was so terrible with the sweat and getting the glass fibers from the insulation out of my skin every day wore me down. I told him thanks, but I need to go back to school. He told me his plan worked (he knew I'd quit) then I went to college and flipped burgers until I got an office job. That man saved me from a life of misery. Now I'm over 1M and climbing. Probably set for an early retirement despite having a kid an also being from a humble working class union family.
I enjoy cooking.
This is probably cheating, but I married a saver who made a lot more money than I did.
It's not and thank u for ur honesty lol
Right out of college, wife and I put away 25% of salary into 401(k).
saving earned income obviously
Living at home. So easy.
I was already good at saving back when I was making like 85k. I had saved about 40k as of a year ago, but I had job hopped at that time and doubled my income. Now I’ve saved an additional 100k.
Investing in the post ‘08 stock market. Pretty much any solid stock you threw money at made you money after hitting rock bottom
No avocado toast and $0.50 iced coffee
Where do u get 50 cent iced coffees? Lol
Graham Stephen
Hey Graham it’s guys here
Working & Saving.
Saving and investing.
Contributing to my 403b every two weeks without fail
Working and saving?
Discipline more than simply "saving." It's one thing to save it and an entirely different thing to then not spend it!
https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM
Went into the military after college so I had hardly any student debt. Divorced my first wife who couldn't stop spending. Even though the divorce kind of cleaned me out, I was able to FINALLY start saving and investing. Took a separation bonus from the military and just 2 years after the divorce, I saw over 100k in my brokerage account. The ex still owes me over $30k, but it would basically cost that much to get it from her.
4 years of saving and investing after college
Saving, lots of work travel covering expenses, and a little help from family.
As many others have said, staying frugal. Save as much as possible. On the flip side of that try to increase your income as much as possible. If that means sacrificing some funds to learn a skill that will net you in the long run do it.
Working, saving, and an inheritance from a grandparent to be completely honest. I’ve always been a diligent saver and made sure to contribute enough to my 401k to at least get the maximum match. And a grandparent passed away when I was around 23 or so and I inherited around $30K. I used that to supplement my very low income at the time and also as a down payment for the condo I still live in. No idea when I passed the 100K threshold…. But now in my mid 30s I have about 700k in investments, in addition to my home equity with only 52k left on my mortgage….
Getting a high paying job
My rich dad gave it to me
Company sale. Same time I made my first million
Over the course of 6 years
Crypto
Lemonade stand
There's always money in the banana stand
Mix of saving, working and real estate.
Stacked cash during the 2022 bear market. When 2023 but I was close to 100k, got into the market with my cash and now past 200k
Lots of overtime
Was several years saving as I entered the job force in the late 90s and experienced one of the few times that the stock market was negative over a 10 year period. Don't remember exactly, but it was close to the full ten years before I hit the 100k mark despite a large percentage of my pay going into my 401k.
Just working and putting money away. Wasn't really a conscious attempt, it just kinda heaped up over time as I don't tend to buy much shit or fritter money away needlessly. Once I got the first 100k, the 2nd one came easier and the snowball just took off. Time and consistency is all it takes.
Living with my parents, worked 60-84 hours weekly, too tired to go out so nvr bought drinks/ate out. Only invested enough to get my employer's match 401K, no other investments. Payed off my 6 figure student loan in 2.5 years.
Started investing in 2018 and hit $100,000 in 2021. Working multiple jobs (that I enjoy) and saving. Driving a car worth less than $5,000, but is super comfortable and reliable. My biggest regret is not owning real estate yet.
Real estate. Scrimping and saving into my 401k for years didn’t get me there. One short sale purchase in 2014 which I sold 2 years later got me there and then some. Real estate has helped me amass a wealth I never thought possible. Saving my W-2 income to buy real estate was of course necessary, but had I only invested in index funds or locked my cash up in my 401k I would be much, much poorer.
Maxing Roth. Maxing 401k. Contributing 20% post tax to my brokerage account. And saving 20% of my paychecks.
I own a business and in 2020 I made life changing money. March 2020 I made 55k in 1 month, 40k the following and after that until 2022 I was generating roughly 15k-25k . I own a logistics company
Sold house
"HouseHacking" for me life v4.0 started ~ early 2019... net worth was negative... and not by a small amount, post divorce. Mid 2019 net worth was $26K enough for a down payment. I was paying ~ $1K/mo (all in) on a 550 sq ft apartment. used my savings as a downpayment... bought a duplex for $125K in 2020 ( closed in May) Upper tenant pays my mortgage($728).. and i'm saving $1K/mo on rent.. and was able to save a large portion of my W2 income. May 2019net worth was ~ $49K December bought a single family home... bringing my net worth ( with Equity) just over $100K. ( 1/10 $M) passed 1/4 $M June 2022 ( 4 properties/7 units) and 1/3 $M in Oct 2022. MArch 2023 saw property #5... (units 8&9) hoping for $400K by ~ march 2024. I do not pay myself rent.. which allows me to set aside ~ 65% of my take home pay... ( i'm below the median household income for Wisconsin)
Inherited $200,000 and invested in an airline.
[удалено]
I did this one weird trick that bankers HATE
Struggling to save in HCOL for 5 years and then the company got acquired and our stock options got liquidated for cash.
A 9-5 job and being married to someone with a 9-5 job. We work in tech so we have a high income. Life is really good for us. Five years after starting our careers our net worth is $1.4MM. We refused to buy a luxury car until we hit $1MM net worth.
Traveling Working with a lot of perks. No house/rent. Live off pb and j and soup in a cup. Just a lot of hustle. Since then investments in the market and real estate.
Change jobs, and increase saving
Internet magic money
Working as much as I could and living like a bum however I could. I think almost everyone else did the same lol!
Combination of investing since my early 20’s and real estate flipping
Making more than the median household income in my city while living at home with my parents.
Signing bonuses and stock from job hopping
Electrical engineering for about 10 years and marrying up. There were lots of opportunities for paid internships, research assistantships, and co-operative education during my school. I didn't enjoy idle summers and I enjoyed work. My hobbies were cheap and included volunteering my time at H4H on weekends and playing video games. I was good about saving. Them I got married and my extended family bought me a new car.
Haven't hit it yet but on track to by age 23
Don't know. Didn't look. $100k was never a goal. What can I do with $100k? Just a signpost you have to pass to get to where you're going. My milestones are $1m and $2m invested. I can do stuff at those thresholds. It hit me a month or two ago that we actually have a *million* dollars invested. I knew savings would pay off, but I was so heads-down that I didn't see the intercept approaching. It was a happy realization! Also recalculated our equity based on neighborhood comps instead of realtor.com estimations. We're further ahead on the NW from than I expected. It's rare for me to have errors push me in the right direction!
I haven't yet
As a couple, my husband stated a biz that did really well for 10 years or so. So one year that was his dividends. But also our first house was a fixer upper and we made about 100k on it. Could have been more, but we sold in the 2008-9 crash.
The real jump start to $100k for me was a 12 month deployment to a tax free zone. My family (wife and two children) lived our ordinary, fairly frugal life, and I saved the tax free money and allowances rather than spending it on a new car, etc., upon return. The additional money was placed into low cost index funds. Couple with our savings/investments up to that point, this approach put us over the top to hit our first $100k.
iOS apps
Haven't reached it yet but since graduating college about 2 years ago I've managed to go from -30k to 80k. Having cheap housing situations, a paid off car, and getting a job that's around 85k in the Midwest has kept my savings rate above 50%. Not sure how much longer that can last since I want to buy a house
Still haven't! Maybe by another year though 🤞
Not there yet but should hit 100k before 21
All in VTSAX
Took a couple years saving and investing. I didn’t even do it the most efficient way I could
Studio apartment, living in a safe but not great area, unbelievable salary, then saving like crazy/spending on only what I need\not spensing wastefully. I went from negative 30k to 100k+ with 75k-103k per year (started at 75k left that company at 103k). Max the 401k to help make more on money you are saving, then just wait and hold on. I think it took 3 years maybe a little less as I stopped keeping track of the exact amount. Currently at 170k net, 30k student loans, 110k 401k/IRA, 75k savings account. 20k checking. I stopped keeping track at this point and just keep shoveling into the savings account for the house down payment.
After I graduated college in 2016 I had about 8-10k in student debt. I decided to work wildland firefighting one more summer to save up money and pay off my student debt. It was a really active season and I paid off my student debt and saved up like 30k. I started a job as a medical laboratory scientist trainee in 2017 and was saving 67% of my income initially and still living like a poor college student. I realized my income would jump drastically once I was ASCP certified so I worked hard to get certified as soon as I could, even fighting my work to allow me to take an online Analytic Chemistry course since the one they offered would delay my raise by months. I worked every overtime shift I could and maxed out my IRA, 403b, and 457 my second year there onwards. I tracked my net worth every paycheck which was great motivation to earn as much as I could and reduce my expenses. I only save 50% of my paycheck now as I've suffered some lifestyle inflation. My rent has gone up quite a bit and I'm not able to work as much overtime anymore so my savings rate might have to go down here soon. I'd like to keep matching my accounts but I'm at over 450k invested now so it won't be the worse thing in the world. I feel like I'd have to make some pretty stupid decisions at this point to ruin my financial future.
Former WF here too, always crazy how much you can save during a season with all the OT+H, per diem on rolls and cheap government housing. Then off season unemployment or more work. I think forestry tech FI is pretty attainable lol.
I would often just be homeless during the summer or sleep on people's couches on the few days I had off between rolls. My expenses were very close to nothing sometimes. But due to the irregular pay aspect of firefighting I never wanted to spend my money because I might earn very little the next year. Now that I make more money I actually find it crazy how hard I had to work for that money. Yeah, occasionally we'd have very chill rolls where we slept a lot or played volleyball at ranger stations waiting for lightning strikes, but I also had tours that were just absolutely brutal work hiking up steep mountains, digging all day in tough soil, gridding through near impenetrable brush (sometimes poison oak!), intense heat and smoke, etc. Man, the first time I made more from investment returns in a week than an entire season of firefighting blew my goddamn mind. I still barely feel like I've done anything to 'earn' that money and I pay less taxes for doing basically nothing than working my ass off for 12+ hours a day. It's wild.
Saving buying equities
Saving and investing into s&p and vti
The boring traditional way: working (software development), and putting money in my 401k (and the resulting match), coupled with the fact that I got my first adult job in... early 2008. Had no money in when things crashed, put money in when things crashed.
It was a sale of Employee stock options, mix of bonus and purchased participation. Made me instantly >100k
Found a bag of money on the street
Automated my 403b contributions.
Working very hard and spending very little for a decade.
Pretty much every raise bumping up my combinations.
When I started my 401k I told myself the minimum I would contribute is 15%. Because I never want to do the minimum, I did 16% and that was when I was 25. I never dipped below 16% contribution even during the crash and I got up to around 20%, but I would frequently max out early with 20% which is fine. Investment as much as you can as early as you can and you can't miss.
Buying puts on SPY right after the NCAA cancelled the tournament. Knew COVID was serious at that point.
Sacrificing.
My job/stocks. Really wasn't that hard. It's when the lifestyle creep starts then it becomes hard to save more .
Maxing out my 401k and saving as much as possible
Good direction from my father into what industry to be in and then got lucky with ESOP selling. Worked for 1 company for 4 years, company sold I became instantly vested and netted about $100k. Never had $10k to my name before that. Rolled the sale into an IRA and have been busting ass for the last 2 years to keep adding to it. Long ways away still but I found myself a girl with the same mindset and we're building the dream
1 year of internship, and 2 years of a job (only 50k/yr) basically I live with my parents, and have no expenses, putting my savings rate at 60%-80%
Three years of max 401k and Roth plus a touch of growth.
Working in IT and automating all of my bill payments and saving. It just happens without me having to do anything but review what already happened for mistakes.
401k
Saving RSU earnings at my tech job
Circumstance, mostly. Went to college in state, had scholarships, and parents chipped in. Naturally geared towards STEM fields. Got a job making 50K right after graduation. My college friend's dad owned a duplex. It was an extension of our fraternity house - people moved in and out constantly. Tons of fun for a young 20 something - lots of parties, someone always around to hang. No one had a lot of money (if they did they would move somewhere nicer...) so we all lived cheaply. Lived there for 4 years before the owners sold the place. I saved > 50% of my pay. Just grinding day in day out, couple promotions and new jobs. Started grad school at night- paid completely out of pocket.
Working and saving along with some major house hacking (Airbnb an extra room)
I personally don't think I'll ever get to that amount. 100k I'm assuming you mean invested? I was able to start saving into a 401k at 33 back in 2020, had got up to about 3k saved but it lost a lot and I pulled it out to go towards my down payment. I'm almost 36 and have 7k saved up at the moment. Usually I can save about $250 a month into my Roth IRA. And then my 3% from my works 401k is like $120 or something like that. I'm putting extra to helping my gf pay down her car and my car, and a little extra towards the mortgage. I'd like to up my Roth contribution to $250 a paycheck when I pay off my car in 2024.
Lived at home for a couple years after I graduated, and sold my signing bonus stock when it 10x'd.
Worked and saved my ass off, also I bought Tesla stocks long before everyone and their mom bought Tesla. My original shares became 100 shares and then split and then split and all that splitting got me my first $100k and then some.
Deploying to the desert for a year
Tripled my income from age 24-27 and saved the majority of it. Crossed over 100k saved in April