How a 27-year-old homeowner making $112,000 spends her money

[Daisyedwards800]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/14/how-a-27-year-old-making-112000-a-year-in-illinois-spends-her-money.html

[Spud]

In summary, a girl working 7 days a week is saving 47.6% of her income for retirement. Good pie charts throughout this article.

"On the weekends, she works in the IT department for the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which is a 30-minute drive from her house, earning $18.50 per hour. In the free time she doesn’t seem to have, she volunteers at a food pantry."

I'd love to know how many hours she works each weekend and what the cost of the commute to the weekend job is. Add on the $110 a month on eyelash extensions and a massage and I'm thinking that she could take the weekend off and relax. Clearly though, her work ethic is far higher than mine.

The video at the bottom of the page is another similar case study on how a 23 year old consultant living in New York, earning $172, 000 per year spends his money. In short, his savings rate was $2783/$6561 = 42.4%. Slightly fancy lifestyle, high cost of living, but probably pretty damn good considering he's 23 and it could easily be much worse.

To be honest, this article and others like it put in perspective how good/aggressive MMMs savings was when he was working as detailed in https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/15/a-brief-history-of-the-stash-how-we-saved-from-zero-to-retirement-in-ten-years/

[leomatthewadams]

Wow, this is really interesting. She definitely disproves that the “younger generations have no work ethic.” Wow! That being said, I do want to know if her plan is actually early retirement – work her butt off now and then retire before turning 45. I don’t think I would ever go about life this way (I definitely have a “I want to enjoy my whole life” state of mind), but good for her.

[LennStar]

I hate how "work ethic" is equalled with "work more hours". Even from you, Mustachians!

Work ethic should mean the quality, not the quantitiy of the work. Mustachianism is all about reducing (need to do) work hours to imporive the quality (want to do hours of your life)!

Also that work ethic is probably the reason why we destroy our planet and feel miserable because of all the wasted time.

[Bloop Bloop]

Work ethic usually means work harder OR smarter, but it's often hard to work smart without initially working hard.

Unless you're an incredible genius, building up a solid technical/reputational foundation for your career takes at least a few years of really hard work at the start of your career. Particularly when most of the lucrative careers are so competitive now.

In my profession, the earnings are pyramid shaped and if you want to maximise your earnings it will take you either 3-5 years of hellish work at the beginning of your career, or 10 years of grinding at the tail end. I know which I'd prefer.

There's no magic antidote whereby I could achieve the level of earnings I want without putting in some serious hours at the start. The same would apply to most serious professionals, musicians, athletes, etc. You have to practise hard at the start, and that means when you're in your 20s/30s.

[ColoAndy]

Wow.  As Dave Ramsey would say, she is really "getting up, leaving the cave, killing something, and dragging it home".

[JLee]

Working an extra job for $18/hr while making $112k doesn't seem worth it given the tax hit you take...but more money is more money, I guess!

[ender]

She'd probably be better off by saving in pretax vs Roth for her 401k but otherwise she's doing amazing.

Work ethic usually means work harder OR smarter, but it's often hard to work smart without initially working hard.

Unless you're an incredible genius, building up a solid technical/reputational foundation for your career takes at least a few years of really hard work at the start of your career. Particularly when most of the lucrative careers are so competitive now.

In my profession, the earnings are pyramid shaped and if you want to maximise your earnings it will take you either 3-5 years of hellish work at the beginning of your career, or 10 years of grinding at the tail end. I know which I'd prefer.

There's no magic antidote whereby I could achieve the level of earnings I want without putting in some serious hours at the start. The same would apply to most serious professionals, musicians, athletes, etc. You have to practise hard at the start, and that means when you're in your 20s/30s.

+1