To all Mustachios out there,
I was fairly recently introduced to MMM, and from the outset it feels right, and makes logical sense as an unbelievably smart thing to do. I find the story very inspiring, and something that I may one day be able to achieve myself. My parents are really bad with money, and the 2008 recession hit us pretty bad. I'm trying to learn from their mistakes. Right now, I'm 20 years old, two years into college (out of four, hopefully), and will be lucky enough to come out with zero student debt (thanks Grandma!). I'm currently working a part-time job about 20 hours/week at Chipotle (I commute to work by bike), which is about as much as I can handle with classes going on at the same time. Since it's a minimum wage job, taxes aren't be that high, but I have to cover a few expenses myself: apartment, food, notebooks for school. All in all, it comes out to about $7,000 per year that can go into savings. I've been following MMM advice on how to cut down on food costs, book costs, and other every day living expenses. Assume $500 in savings currently (in a checking account) (which is pretty much nothing), because that's about how much I have right now. There's no guarantee that after college I'll come out with a good job, but if I keep working hard now, the chances of that are likely to increase. I'll be getting a BS in Aerospace Engineering - entry salary is about $70k per year - if I get a nice job, that is.
My questions are: what should I do now to set myself up for success later? Can you lay out a roadmap for me of what to do financially to improve my chances of having a good outcome? Are there any common mistakes I should avoid?
Should the money I make from my part time job just go into an IRA, or should I try to invest it in an index fund or something similar?
Thanks in advance for your time and consideration,
~Pithagoras