What did your finances look like from early adulthood to mid-twenties (~18-26)?

[Kris]

After college, I entered grad school and made about $12,000/year as my stipend for being a TA. That was basically my income until I got accepted as a lectrice at a French university for 2 years, where I made about $20,000. I thought I was rich.

There is something to be said about starting out your adult life on a shoestring and learning how to budget on that income. That was what I got used to, so everything more than that felt like huge luxury.

[SquashingDebt]

My finances during that time period can be characterized as a hot mess caused by being completely oblivious about money.

Passed up a full ride scholarship at a small school to go to a school I liked better.  Took out the max in student loans and as my parents got less financial aid each year, they took out a bunch of loans too.  I don't think I was aware they were doing this.  Worked during each summer and a tiny bit during a few semesters, but didn't really think in a practical way about money.  On the plus side, didn't spend much either.

Graduated and did a year-long fellowship, got my first credit card, and went into about $5k of credit card debt that I carried, more or less, for the next 4 years or so during grad school.  It was probably around 26 that I wised up and started tracking my spending and paying down my debt.  So at 26, I had a net worth of around -$100k or so, mostly in student loans, though the majority were in my mom's name, not mine.

Once I got my PhD and a real job when I turned 29, I started making a lot of progress and now at 33 am about to hit $150k in net worth, with the student loans gone (including everything in my mom's name).

[Jaayse]

18/2005 - HS senior working part time at a grocery store, kept job through summers in college (NW maybe 3k + old Toyota Corolla)

22/2009 - Graduated college at height of recession with liberal arts degree no student loans (thanks mom and dad!) and no experience, no jobs available, lived with parents and continued working at grocery store and other odd jobs (NW around 15k, paid back parents for Elantra after totaling Corolla, not my fault, and was given around 10k that my parents had invested for me rather than buying toys when I was a baby)

23/2010 - Decided to join the Navy as an Officer, began jumping through the hoops to join and then was forced to wait 1.5 years (was originally told only a few months) until a spot opened up in Officer Candidate School

24/2011 - Opened first investing account with dad's help/insistence 5k invested and mostly forgotten

25/2012 - Attended Naval Officer Candidate School, started Naval career (NW maybe 25k + Elantra)

26/2013 - Stationed in San Diego, saving around 1/2 income (fear-stashing as I called it), realized invested money had increased to 6k with zero effort and started shoving money in there (NW maybe 45k + Elantra)

32/2019 - Still Navy, almost 500k invested (still have that Elantra!)

[sabanist]

18: college student, racking up student debt
19: college dropout, joined army
19: got married, had son, made about 17k/yr but the benefits were good. bought first house
21: got an ROTC scholarship and went back to college fulltime, wife worked pt and was on scholarship.  Also got a f/t job in the evenings to maintain benefits.  Pell grants and student loans kept us afloat but we burned our candles at both ends
23: Graduated college, wife graduated too.  got commissioned in the Army, made about 40k/yr  thought I was rich.  Sold the house (made about 3k), moved to Georgia with the army, bought another house, deployed to Kuwait, went to war in iraq, paid off debt with war money
26: Left the army, sold the house (made 18k), got a job in private sector making about 50k, net worth was about 50k, bought another house and sold it in a year and made 70k on it. 

41 years old now and things got worse financially after 26 (2008 crash), then much better. 

[halftimer]

12-18: living expenses were covered by parents, and I worked various jobs (babysitting, cleaning contracts with mom, cleaning contracts with others, retail store & insurance company through school work experience, yard work, paper route, fast food) but never made any saving progress. I only remember a handful of purchases for myself, but anytime I had more than $100 I suddenly had more disposable income than anyone else in the family which led to a pile of IOUs from my parents. Some were paid back; some money was not expected back. They did repay me the $250 spent on new pots and pans when I was 14, though.
18-20: moved cities and started paying for a single room in a place with roommates. I had about $750 cash to start out from a scholarship (not enrolment based) and luggage my family gave me as a high school grad present. Worked a series of part-time jobs until one roommate and I got our own place. Net worth at this point: under $300, no car, no assets.
20-23: Married with wedding costs under $5k including new suit, wedding dress, reception, honeymoon. Parents provided 1 month free rent with them while switching places from roommate to new rental apartment, as well as the wedding cake, and flower costs ($350) and the priceless advice that we tried to ignore "Don't worry how much it costs you, that's what credit cards are for!"
The presents and our meagre savings covered half the wedding cost, and the remaining debt went up and down with getting a clunker and car repair costs and minor 'emergencies' for about 2 years till we smartened up.
24-26: Careful budgeting through low income years (household income was at half of national median) got us debt free with the plan to spend even less so could both go ‘half-time’ to do volunteer work together during the afternoons. This ended up lasting about 7 years with slight variations in schedule. We started saving $100/month as a couple towards retirement, turned that off for a year, then started again at $50/month when we hit 60% of national median household income. During that time, we moved due to rent increases and missed the big family trip we were invited on. At 26 I finally got a passport and went on my first international trip. The family who went on the earlier trip were still reeling from trip (and other) debt, so we loaned them money during financial crises twice ($500 x 2). In other news, family received an insurance payout and gifted us a few hundred dollars.
Net worth at 26: $1500 and a $3k car

[Omy]

My takeaway from this thread so far is that it really doesn't matter what you do in your twenties...just about everybody seems to have struggled during that decade. It's what you do in your prime earning years that makes a difference.

[DHMO]

18: Entered college, on a scholarship, no debt and no assets.
20: Lost the scholarship, continued studying on loans. On-campus job earned about $500 a month, which covered food and non-major vehicle expenses. All spare money was quickly used to buy takeout; vehicle was thankfully provided by family.
22: Graduated with a Bachelors in STEM and about $85k in debt. The family-provided vehicle became a graduation gift, so maybe $4k in assets? Running total net worth: -$81k. Began working my first professional job within 6 months in a HCOL area away from family.
24: Minor savings ($6k) in the bank. 401k balance of $14k. Loan payments had reduced debt to $77k. Running total net worth: -$54k (vehicle now worth $3k) Started a half-time graduate degree while working, which wiped out the savings and raised total student loan debt.
26: Graduate degree finished, total student loan debt $101k. Payments continued while studying. Employer paid an additional $25k towards education, not included in the total. 401k balance of $42k. (thanks, market bubble!)
Ending net worth at 26: -$57k, mostly composed of loans and inaccessible retirement savings. Maybe $4-5k in liquid assets.

[Travis]

My takeaway from this thread so far is that it really doesn't matter what you do in your twenties...just about everybody seems to have struggled during that decade. It's what you do in your prime earning years that makes a difference.

Great time to make all of your mistakes.

[SwordGuy]

My takeaway from this thread so far is that it really doesn't matter what you do in your twenties...just about everybody seems to have struggled during that decade. It's what you do in your prime earning years that makes a difference.

It matters if you saddle yourself with a huge amount of debt.

And even more if you saddle yourself with habits and attitudes you're unwilling to break.   This one is the real killer of good prospects.

[Panly]

The finances were okay, though I didn't know anything about investing.
I would save save save.... And splurge everything on a car, motorbike, holidays, whatever.

[iris lily]

Always lucky because I had a middle class family to fall back on and to pay certain things.

Early 20’s: worked full time job, went to college off and on, lived with parents, so no worries about making rent.

Mid 20’s: finished graduate school with no debt, had a paid-off car (after selling my cute, fun, and expensive car to go to grad school. ) Parent gave me $1,000 as a get-started-in-life gift  to pay for rent deposit and that kind of thing. Full time jobs began. My first professional job paid Around $14,000 annually. Banked half my salary.  Never had debt until...

Age 30: bought a house. Mortgage! Debt! Ugh.

Age 35: had $15,000 in the bank. Got married to a poor graduate student  with net worth much higher than mine, he had investments of $100,000. Sold my house. Never had debt again since from that point on we bought real estate with cash.

These numbers  are decades ago, so multiply up for inflation.

[Fishindude]

18-23 Pretty much broke living paycheck to paycheck.   Made good money, but blew through it just as fast as I made it due to living the bachelor party lifestyle.
Got married at 23 and started getting smart with finances, bought into my business at 25.  Didn't have a lot of $$ in those years but made decisions to get ourselves on the right track.

[APowers]

I know I started this thread, but still haven't actually contributed to it. These ages are approximate-- I may be off by a half-year, trying to make ages into whole numbers.

15: Grew up in rural western WA. Had probably $1k in "college fund" money saved over the years from grandparents' birthday gifts, plus maybe $700(ish?) from odd jobs here and there (chores for the neighbours, occasionally working for my Dad).

(2004)16-20: community college, got Pell grants/FAFSA aid, lived at home. Had my own car ($350 '71 VW Beetle, wrecked it, sold it, then $600 VW Squareback). Lived at home, paid my own gas/insurance. Had about $10k in FAFSA money at graduation with Bachelors in business management.

(2009) 20-21: couldn't find a "real job" (office job, haha!) after graduating, so applied everywhere and ended up in the local Kroger store. $8.65/hr ($.10 over min wage!). lived at home, walked to work. Dating my now-ex.

(2010) 21: got married, bought a small fixer-upper house for $70k, now making $10/hr (mortgage pmt was $300)

22-25: Slowly got raises to $15/hr. Had two kids. Slowly fixing house, as money permitted. Paid $500 extra on the mortgage every month; counting that, probably had a 50% savings rate. Went from one-car ('67 VW) to two (+'95 Civic, then +'91 Astro van, then sold the VW). Liquid net worth approx $10k?

(2014) 25: was increasingly unhappy at the grocery store, decided I needed to do something to pursue my plan of purchasing rental real estate. Wanted to learn property management, so worked mon-wed at Kroger, picked up a pizza delivery gig at Domino's thurs-sun, and did a by-mail real estate agent course while applying to local property management firms (this didn't pan out at all, which was extremely disappointing). Also this year did a ton of remodeling inside the house. Between the two jobs, made my highest-income year ever: $41k on the tax return. Was exhausted, and vowed never again.

(2015) 26: Finally saved up enough to pay off the house. Did it, and celebrated by quitting the soul-sucking grocery store job. Concluded that finding a job locally was likely never going to pan out, decided that we needed to move. Research showed that CO Springs was likely big enough with the right cost of living. Took an exploratory road trip (mortgage payoff celebration), and loved the area.

(2016) 27: moved to CO. Rented out home in WA. Net worth still about $10k plus home value ($125k?). Transferred to a CO Domino's, and delivered pizza full-time.

28: rented 2bed apartment, looked for house to buy. SO applied to UCCS in prep for continuing her education. Started doing handyman/property maintenance for the landlord on the side.

(-present)29-31: Bought a house, moved into it. Remodeled basement, rented basement on airbnb, used airbnb money to slowly remodel upstairs. Started my own handyman business, ditched Domino's. Income levels around $30-40k. Current liquid-- $10k, total net worth including houses-- ~$250k. Current standard of living is better than it's ever been, and downright luxurious... though not high, by average standards.

[Noodle]

College and grad school. Borrowed $15,000 for undergrad, partly through a state interest-free loan program which sadly no longer exists, the rest federal loans. This was back in the day when the loans could be put on hold for grad school with no interest accumulating. Grad school was entirely funded through grants and TA'ing/work through the grad program. Didn't accumulate any more debt, which is pretty good for the humanities in general and my field of study in particular, but lived very, very poor for those years. Bought a used car from my parents for a couple thousand dollars. I think I had around 1K in the bank at graduation, maybe?

[seattlecyclone]

18-22: Went to college, picked a mid-tier state school because it offered me a very nice scholarship package. These scholarships, combined with summer internships in the software industry and general frugality allowed me to graduate with a positive net worth.

22-24: Turned down an entry-level job to pursue a master's degree. Grad school wasn't the greatest financial decision, but it wasn't a terrible one either and I enjoyed the experience. I had a teaching assistantship that covered my living expenses and health insurance while there (and then some). Another summer internship between the two years of my master's program allowed me to beef up my savings.

24-26: Moved to Seattle to take a job paying 50% more than the one I turned down two years before. The lack of student loans allowed me to max out my 401(k) (and then some) from the very beginning. I left that first job for a late-stage startup shortly after my 26th birthday. I stayed there a bit over three years, and first found MMM sometime during that second job.

[Wrenchturner]

There is something to be said about starting out your adult life on a shoestring and learning how to budget on that income. That was what I got used to, so everything more than that felt like huge luxury.

Agreed!  I'm grateful for it, but I wasn't at the time!

[MaaS]

18: $0. Starting out at an overpriced college.

22: -$30k. Job paid 33k and I didn't even contribute to retirement accounts the first year and some change.

24: Found this message board. Unsure of NW here but I'd guess about $0.

26: $105k. Switched to self-employment.

29: Market melt ups are kind of fun. :D

[Chris Pascale]

13-18 worked (mostly in a restaurant) and had a stock account that didn't get nearly enough of the money. Spent it all with friends and girlfriends.

18-21 went to college for a year and then worked a series of dead end jobs.

21-26 enlisted in the USMC. At 25, I went back to college, opened a Roth with $25/month and bought a little house at the height of the housing market. Upon getting out, I began receiving a VA pension at a 60% rating.

26 FT college student and military spouse.

[SweetTPi]

Sure, I'll air (and own) my privilege.  TL;DR: I had a good start in life, my parents supported me through college, and again when things took a bad turn (Recession!). All ended well.

18:  Started college (engineering) with a few $100 in personal savings from allowances and a brief summer job.  My parents covered my undergrad costs that were not covered by scholarships, ~50%, even though this was the year that my father was forced into early retirement.

19:  An academic summer job came with housing & $3000 stipend.  My parents agreed to cover my costs (mainly groceries) so that I could open my first Roth IRA.  The contribution limit that year was $3000.  Convenient.

20:  Summer internship.  About $8k that paid for company-subsidized housing, food, and another year's Roth IRA contribution.  The rest went into savings.  Also, it came with a $5k scholarship, helping out my parents.

21:  Repeat internship.  Because it was my 2nd year, I got a raise to ~$8500.  Same as previous year with housing, food (& now drinks), Roth IRA, and scholarship.

22-23: Grad school for a PhD.  Had a stipend that covered room, board, tuition, and fees.  Used excess funds for Roth IRA, and saved the rest.  Belatedly realized I was miserable in grad school, but was thankfully only partially through quals.

24:  Wrote a Master's thesis, got a degree, and got out of dodge.  I was able to find a job, paying way under market rate for an MS degree, but the work was fun and involved international travel.  Started sending 10% to a 401k, and did my Roth IRA.  Kept costs low, and saved a bunch.  Rented an apartment, got my driver's licence, and bought a !new! car (a Corolla, so not that extravagant), partly with a loan from the bank of Mom & Dad (with interest rates, penalties, and all).  This was 2008...

25:  Well hello, Recession.  I get laid off along with nearly 50% of my office, and my entire team.  Thanks to relatively high unemployment benefits in the state I was in, combined with highly subsidized COBRA, I was able to pretty much tread financial water.  My apartment lease ran out after about 4 months and I moved the ~1400 miles back in with my parents, saving rent and likely my mental health.  Kept current on my only debt, the car loan, although the bank was kind enough to let me know forbearance could be offered.  They did, after all, know which bedroom of their house I was sleeping in.

26:  Found a new job after 8 months of unemployment.  Moved ~1350 miles away into a shared house, then bought a house for roughly $100k after the first-time buyers credit & a new roof. The new job was less exciting than the old one, but paid $15k more a year in a lower COL area, and I was back to saving in my IRA & 401k.  I started getting into personal finance at this point as I never wanted to be in the position I was in during the recession again, and eventually ended up at MMM.

[McStache]

I've had a lot of luck and privilege to go along with my hard work, so 18-26 looks pretty peachy.

18-22 - Entered college with almost 10k in the bank from high school jobs and a small inheritance. My parents funded college in full, though I worked a slightly more than minimum wage job part time during the year and had internships every summer that covered living expenses and padded the savings a bit.  Bought a car for $6k somewhere in there.  Graduated with a degree in engineering.

23-26 - Got a job at a big megacorp doing businessy-techy-related things.  Starting salary was about $70k (in 2013).  Steadily got raises of 4-8% and 5-15% bonuses each year.  Lived in a HCOL city, always with roommates and moved around a bunch (which made me a minimalist).  Sold my car since I didn't need it in the city.  I found MMM in 2014 when I was googling something about how much should I have in retirement accounts.  I had been saving a normal good amount at that point, but realized I could be saving a lot more and ramped up accordingly.

26 - Got burnt out on the hours and travel required for my job.  I took a sabbatical and coming back was even rougher after getting out of the rat race for a bit.  Found a job in a MCOL city for a 20% pay cut, but much better work life balance, coworkers, and little to no travel.  Absolutely worth it.  Net worth was at about $250K.

[Kazyan]

It was touch-and-go there for a while, because I really suck at finding employment, despite heavy privilege from a supportive family and good education.

18-22 or so: College at a private school. Had to take out some loans towards the end, once my parents no longer had VA-related benefits to apply to them. I didn't use the loans for "lifestyle", for the most part.

22-23 or so: Looking for a job and living with parents.

23-24: Grad student. Got a GRA that included a full-ride scholarship, so no loans this time. I wasn't tracking my savings rate, but I saved enough of the GRA stipend to get rid of the private student loan. The federal loans are still around.

24-25: Looking for a job again, but living on my own. Briefly had a part-time job at fast food. Eventually, the stash ran out, and I returned to parents.

25-26 (present age): Finally got an engineering job. Moved near the job with a roommate, started seriously tracking expenses and savings, and eventually got a mortgage on a small condominium within a <10 minute bike ride of work. Things are much better now. I have over $25k in the stash, and I would be able to live on it for 1.5 years if I got laid off tomorrow, plus the possibility of getting a roommate.

[MoMoneyFewerProblems]

18-19: Graduated High School, started a Roth.

19-21: College for Computer Science. Worked 25-30 hours a week delivering pizzas, didn't save as much money as I could have but still put ~$3000 in a Roth and paid off most of a car. Graduated in three years. Parents told me they'd cover my college expenses that weren't covered by scholarships (About 60% covered by scholarships, total cost of attendance ending up at about $12,000 per year). My parents had very good incomes but were not responsible savers, and didn't save anything for education expenses. Parents are divorced, one took on about $20,000 in loans (Parent PLUS), the other promised to pay me for my portion of the loans (also ~$20,000) but didn't follow through.

22-23 (Present): Started working full-time. 15% of income into Company 401(k) with a 9% employer match, fully vested in another 18 months. I'm pretty pleased that they offer VIIIX, that's where my money is parked. Maxed out Roth IRA for 2019, bringing balance to about $10,000, have auto-contributions setup to max out in 2020. Same goes for my HSA, ended 2019 with $600 in it, will max in 2020 with a $500 contribution from my employer. Total debt between student loans and car is ~$30,000, interest rates ranging from 3.5-5.05%. Plan to pay these down to ~$10,000 by year-end which will leave only debt 3.5-4.05%. Will save for and purchase an engagement ring, and then begin saving for a wedding and down payment on a house. Luckily I live in a very low CoL market, but my state taxes are fairly high. My SO and I plan to move to a lower-tax area in the next 2-5 years when our 401(k)s are fully vested. Hopefully by the end of this year we've saved enough to pay for a wedding and set a date, at which point I can shift my focus toward completing saving for a house down-payment by mid-2021, and then we can decide whether we want to purchase and stick around for a few more years or move first.

[Laura33]

Pre-18:  pizza parlor, $3.35/hr (minimum wage), no tips.  My mom also turned over the child support check to me ($150/mo); about half of that and all my earnings went into college fund.

18-22:  small liberal arts college, $10-15K/yr, paid for via scholarships, about $2K/yr of parental assistance, and total of $7500 in federal loans.  Summer earnings and work-study to cover all living expenses beyond room/board.  Summer jobs $3.35-$6/hr (deli, Kelly Girl), with one $2K grant junior year.

22:  Received '80 Rabbit Diesel for graduation present.  Promptly required $600 in repairs.  Inherited about $3K, which paid for first year of law school.  Worked at deli over the summer (raise to $5/hr!).

22-25:  Law school.  Covered tuition/living expenses with summer internships (@ $7-8K-ish for summer).  Car required many trips to shop and ultimately died; bought new Acura Integra ($12,500) with interest-free loan from Bank of Mom (who probably felt guilty for saddling me with her old car that cost me so much $$).   Took out another $2K in loans final year to live it up a little.  Worked at deli over summer while studying for the Bar, splurged on a @$2K, 3-week+ trip between Bar exam and starting work. 

25-27:  First job, making $52K/yr (more than my mom had made in her 20+-year career!), with raise to $57K before I even started (beginning of legal salary inflation).  Bought condo, paid off loans in 2 years, started IRA (no 401(k)) and post-tax savings.  Probably "saved" 75% if you count debt paydown.

28:  Met future DH.  Changed to current firm with raise to $82K (!!).  Married at 30 and enjoyed the DINK life.  Started spending way more money because (a) had to move closer to DC for new job; and (b) DH was a spendypants.  Probably making $180K total then, so even with spendier lifestyle, we could still save more than the average bear (20%?). 

Next few years involved several moves, paycuts, first tech crash, plant shutdowns/layoffs, and first kid.  My salary took a big hit when we had to move; his generally held steady, when he wasn't laid off.  We also made some bad decisions, like buying a fancy car, eating out too much, and holding on to our house too long as the property market was crashing (which resulted in carrying two mortgages for over a year).  We still maxed 401(k) contributions, maintained EF, and started a 529, but savings rate took a hit, particularly when the double-mortgages coincided with my telecommuting very part-time with a newborn.  DH also learned first-hand the value of keeping mandatory expenses low and began giving me less shit about saving as much as I wanted to.  ;-)  I hated those years -- felt massively insecure with the lower savings rate and unsure job situation -- but in retrospect, we came through fine, despite still living a pretty damn fancy lifestyle.

It was really around 38 that things turned up significantly:  moved back east, both got stable jobs that we are still in (knock on wood!), I made partner, he made Director.  Costs went up (higher COL area, second kid), but our increasing income made up for that after a couple of years.  Hit FI (at current higher-COL budget) around 10 years after moving back.

[DrinkCoffeeStackMoney]

My 20's we're a complete financial shit show, and that's sugar coating it.

At age 25 I still lived with my parents, had 6 cars, lot's of toys, a mountain of credit card debt, and I partied hard all the time. Looking back I sometimes wonder how I'm still alive. Thankfully I got my act together around age 30 and now at 46, life it awesome. If I had the same mindset about money at 20 as I did at 35 I'd be working on my second or third million instead of still chipping away at my first. Live and learn. :)

[mathlete]

16-18 - Part Time Job making around minimum wage. No expenses because I lived with my parents. Saved at least half of this money probably. Graduated high school with about $5K in the bank.
18-20 - Went to state college on a partial scholarship. Started making more money. Average during this time was probably around $13K a year. This + parents help for the first two years of college allowed me to graduate debt free.
21-22 - Still working my part time jobs + some well paid internships. This allows me to pay my last 4 semesters of tuition on my own. Graduate college and accept a full time offer making ~$55K a year. Graduated with enough savings to buy a lightly used Civic (that I still drive!)
23-24 - Largely live on the budget I had in college. My now live-in girlfriend and I are making in the high five figures combined, but renting a $700 1 bedroom.
24-26 - Used savings from our first few full time years to buy a house. Starting around age 25, I start in on the FIRE thing. Maxing accounts where possible.

I consider myself very lucky. By about 21, I realized that money probably wasn't going to be a big problem in my life, provided I didn't make any very stupid mistakes. That's an extraordinarily privileged position to be in.

Edited to add: I probably started investing at around age 19. Or however old I was when the market crashed.

[Engineer93]

18: Graduated High School.  Worked nights, weekends and full-time in the summer to pay for gas/food, parents paid for most everything else.  NW ~5-10k.
19-23: Went to State college and majored in Engineering. Worked final 2 years of college.  Parents agreed to pay for in-state school so no debt. NW ~10-15k
23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes, used 70k for down payment and invested the rest.  Started maxing out 401k, HSA and Roth IRA with 65k salary.
26 (current age): Got married.  Both wife and I max out 401k, HSA and Roth IRA.  Combined salary 180k. ~NW 625k

Biggest Takeaways:
Inheritance (obviously): Invested entire inheritance and still haven't touched it.
Working in High School and College: My parents made me pay most of my bills (excluding tuition) which showed me the importance of saving at an early age.
Finding MMM at age 21.
Going into a tech field: My wife and I both work in the tech field and have seen our salaries sky rocket in the last 4 years and haven't inflated our lifestyle too much.

[Eowyn_MI]

17 (2008): First year at university with ~$17k of lifetime savings from a combination of odd jobs and money from parents and grandparents.  Also had an academic scholarship that covered ~80% of tuition.  Going for an environmental engineering degree.

18: Grossed $4,995 at my first summer engineering internship.  Switched to mechanical engineering degree.

19-21: Completed mechanical engineering degree and was hired on full time at my first and only workplace.  Starting salary was $44k.  Graduated with no debt, $700 in my checking account and a car worth maybe $2k.

22-24: Worked full time as an engineer while still living at home and saving whatever was leftover from paying off my credit cards.  Savings were kept in the bank in a savings account or CD.  I found MMM at some point during this time period and my savings increased exponentially.  I opened a Roth IRA in 2014.  Before this, I had no idea of why or how to invest my savings.
 
25-27: Net worth was ~$90k.  Bought a house with my older sister and moved out of my parent's home for the first time.  Savings took a hit because of house purchase and repairs; some were expected and some were unexpected.  House was $170k and repairs were about $30k in the first two years.  All of the house expenses were split in half with my sister.

28 (current age): Still working same engineering job with a salary that is now twice what I started at.  Estimate that I am about 30% of the way to full FI but I don't have a fixed target yet.  NW is ~$200k plus half of house ($85k).

[The Guru]

There is something to be said about starting out your adult life on a shoestring and learning how to budget on that income.

Eighteen - 26 seems like a long time ago; I forget the dollars and cents but this quote sums up things for me. I graduated from our state university in 1977, penniless but free of debt (because, hey-it was 1977 and that was a whole lot more feasible at the time). I held a freshly-minted degree in horticulture (yes, really) and a desire to be a grower in a commercial greenhouse. i talked my way into a job at my uncle's greenhouse where I had worked on and off since I was 13. Pay and conditions were shitty (due in no small part to the fact that the place nearly burned to the ground after my first week and my uncle had to rebuild with money he didn't have due to a decidedly un-Mustachian lifestyle), but at least I was doing what I wanted to do.

I was pretty naive about financial matters. At the beginning of second full year of employment some co-workers were talking about estimated tax payments, and asked was I estimating my taxes. I had no clue what they were talking about. After some back-and-forth I learned that employers were supposed to withhold taxes from one's paycheck (like I said- naive); my uncle, for whatever reason, did not and so I SHOULD HAVE BEEN sending quarterly tax payments to the state and the IRS. So I frantically began saving what I guessed to be about $2K ( from a salary of about $9K; remember this was 1978, so that's not as pitiful as it looks....but still pitiful) to cover the previous year's taxes and the first quarter of 1979.

Amazingly, I made it; perhaps more amazingly I never got penalized for failure to prepay 1978. Anyway, I became a budgeting machine, estimating taxes and other recurring expenses to the penny on index cards and putting the money into a savings account until needed.

FWIW I still enjoy what I do (same profession, different company), only in an infinitely better financial position, due in no small part to a hard lesson learned decades ago.

[jeroly]

23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes

Why did you have to pay taxes on your inheritance? Shouldn’t they have been taken out of the estate before you got anything? And were those state taxes or was that a share of a large (>$3,000,000) estate?

23-25: Graduated, got by CPA license, and started my professional career. I paid off the student loan debt and the majority of a $12K car loan. I was maxing out IRA and saving 6% in in 401K. NW ~$25K

26: Purchased a house with my boyfriend (now DH). We put down a 10% down payment (60% BF/40% me). We bought the year that the government was offering the $8K tax rebate which helped refill the coffers after the purchase. NW ~($80K)

27: Married DH and combined all finances. He received more support from his parents early on so he brought more assets into the marriage. Combined NW ~$10K

Why did your net worth drop from +$25k to -$85k ? You know that house equity is part of your NW, right?

[SwordGuy]

23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes

Why did you have to pay taxes on your inheritance? Shouldn’t they have been taken out of the estate before you got anything? And were those state taxes or was that a share of a large (>$3,000,000) estate?

23-25: Graduated, got by CPA license, and started my professional career. I paid off the student loan debt and the majority of a $12K car loan. I was maxing out IRA and saving 6% in in 401K. NW ~$25K

26: Purchased a house with my boyfriend (now DH). We put down a 10% down payment (60% BF/40% me). We bought the year that the government was offering the $8K tax rebate which helped refill the coffers after the purchase. NW ~($80K)

27: Married DH and combined all finances. He received more support from his parents early on so he brought more assets into the marriage. Combined NW ~$10K

Why did your net worth drop from +$25k to -$85k ? You know that house equity is part of your NW, right?

It's ~ not -.    ~ is used to mean "circa", as in "somewhere around this value".

[MoMoneyFewerProblems]

23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes

Why did you have to pay taxes on your inheritance? Shouldn’t they have been taken out of the estate before you got anything? And were those state taxes or was that a share of a large (>$3,000,000) estate?

23-25: Graduated, got by CPA license, and started my professional career. I paid off the student loan debt and the majority of a $12K car loan. I was maxing out IRA and saving 6% in in 401K. NW ~$25K

26: Purchased a house with my boyfriend (now DH). We put down a 10% down payment (60% BF/40% me). We bought the year that the government was offering the $8K tax rebate which helped refill the coffers after the purchase. NW ~($80K)

27: Married DH and combined all finances. He received more support from his parents early on so he brought more assets into the marriage. Combined NW ~$10K

Why did your net worth drop from +$25k to -$85k ? You know that house equity is part of your NW, right?

It's ~ not -.    ~ is used to mean "circa", as in "somewhere around this value".

A number in parentheses typically means that it’s negative. Note that he thought that “~25k” was positive (and it is).

[Engineer93]

23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes

Why did you have to pay taxes on your inheritance? Shouldn’t they have been taken out of the estate before you got anything? And were those state taxes or was that a share of a large (>$3,000,000) estate?

Technically I inherited the money at a young age when the relative died.  I just wasn't allowed to have the money until graduation from college.  I sold the stock the inheritance was in, thus paying taxes from when the relative died, and then re-invested.

[BTDretire]

I basically lived pretty much paycheck to paycheck until I was 26. I got married at 26 and from then on we were big savers. Between 18 and 25 I earned a total of $49,812, or an average of $6,226 per year. 1973 thru 1980.

The first year of Marriage we grossed $18k and saved $6000. I need to confess, we had $632 of cash wedding gifts. So we saved $5,368 from our income. :-)

[redhead84]

23: Received inheritance from deceased relative (290k), paid 40k in taxes

Why did you have to pay taxes on your inheritance? Shouldn’t they have been taken out of the estate before you got anything? And were those state taxes or was that a share of a large (>$3,000,000) estate?

23-25: Graduated, got by CPA license, and started my professional career. I paid off the student loan debt and the majority of a $12K car loan. I was maxing out IRA and saving 6% in in 401K. NW ~$25K

26: Purchased a house with my boyfriend (now DH). We put down a 10% down payment (60% BF/40% me). We bought the year that the government was offering the $8K tax rebate which helped refill the coffers after the purchase. NW ~($80K)

27: Married DH and combined all finances. He received more support from his parents early on so he brought more assets into the marriage. Combined NW ~$10K

Why did your net worth drop from +$25k to -$85k ? You know that house equity is part of your NW, right?

You're right. I'm so used to looking at my LNW that I always forget the house in the numbers. :)

[Fomerly known as something]

18-22, In college paid for mostly by my parents (thanks mom and dad).  I had summer and work study jobs that paid for books and incidentals at school.  I went to an urban school so my parents also let me drive one of their cars during the summer.

22-26.  Parents gave me $5000 as a down payment on a car for graduation.  I bought a Jetta I kept until I was 37.  Paid for it with a 4 year loan so I finished paying for it by age 26.  Bought a co-op in NYC at age 26 as my first house.  (idiot should have kept renting, long story but I basically didn't lose money but I got a ton of aggravation trying to sell and didn't make anything on it either).  Funded my TSP up to the Max I was allowed in the early years which was 0% my first working year, then 10%,11%,12% until age 26 (old rules no limits on percent now).  Started funding an IRA at some point during this time, it wasn't the first year because I had no idea they existed but think it was sometime around age 24-26.

On the work side my salary doubled in that time from about $50,000 to about $100,000.

[Arbitrage]

17-21: In college.  Parents paid for tuition, room & board.  The first couple of years they also paid for my flights 2x year to visit home, but that stopped.  I had to come up with money for anything else (including books), but thanks to their generosity I was never in debt.  Paid for with summer jobs and savings, but generally I had almost no spending money and lived very frugally, like many college students.  I did have a extended internship at age 20 that gave me enough money to afford to have my own car (used).  My savings throughout college was generally between $2k-7k.

21-25: In graduate school and single, after about an 8 month break from school (worked for about half of it).  No more contributions from family, but grad school was paid for by fellowships, with a research assistantship the final year.  Got a stipend of around $20k that covered costs and allowed me to be slightly less frugal than during college.  By the end, I had about $10k saved. 

25-26: In graduate school and married.  Joined finances, and as a result inherited a bunch of debt. 

26+: Finally done with grad school and working.  Net worth negative $75k.

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

At age of 26, negative net worth due to grad school loans and recent purchase of first home (townhouse) -- but had the belief that the world was my oyster!  LOL

--Jay

[joshuagraham_xyz]

By age 25, I had a new car with no note, a house, a "real job", and just starting 401K contributions in earnest - I've more or less FIREd on the proceeds from 4-5 years of that 401K savings.  I've never had student debt.  Before then, State U in engineering with an initial scholarship and then many more as the 4.0 semesters got cranking. 

About the most un-Mustachian thing I did during that time was convert my music collection from phonograph to CD, but that was with extra cash I had lying around.  I haven't bought music in 15 years, although I have been "sampling it" from online sources, LOL.

[DirtDiva]

18-19:  broke, flunked out of freshman year of college (paid for by parents and a national merit scholarship, which of course I lost).

20: broke, got married. Parents lovingly withdrew financial support. Re-enrolled at another school and took a couple of classes per semester, paid for by grants due to my independent adult status conferred by marriage. Worked full time at a university office, with benefits that included 9 hours per semester of free classes. Bought a brand new Toyota Celica on credit.

22: broke, realized car payment was preventing me from being a full time student, sold car and bought a junker car w cash.  By some miracle I was accepted to a PA program.

22-24:  broke, ramen-noodle-eating PA student.  One minor financial disaster away from homelessness. Borrowed 12k to complete the PA program, worked 12-hour overnight shifts in a hospital admissions office on weekends my first year.

24-26:  new grad, making 30-36k/year. My first doctor mentor had an interest in personal finance and advised me to enroll in the 401k. Started saving money for the first time in my life.  The 401k penalties were enough of a deterrent that I never cashed out my savings, always rolled over to an IRA as I switched to various new jobs over the years.  I’ll always be grateful to that mentor.

(Spouse was a full time student during all these years, and he worked part time as an auto mechanic and later as a grad student TA).

I’m not by nature a saver or a frugalista.  We basically spent every penny and then some outside my retirement savings.  I will add that Dave Ramsey’s radio show was very helpful to me in getting a better handle on our finances when we were in our late 30’s.

[DadJokes]

Since we started a little late, I'll carry mine on until my early 30s.

18: I moved out of parents' house and finished high school while working ~60 hours per week @ $10.50/hr plus overtime.
19: I worked 80-100 hours per week @ $10.50/hr plus overtime.
20-21: I went to college, took on $20k in student loans in 2 years before dropping out.
21-27: I was in the military; I paid off student loans, bought and paid off $17k motorcycle, and left with only $6k invested (but at least debt free).
28-31: I got married, finished college (debt free, thanks to GI Bill), and was doing the Dave Ramsey stuff. We make a combined $90k. We got a house, and all extra money was going into the mortgage while we only invested a little. Net worth went from $6k to $61k, though investments were less than $20k.
31-32: Our combined income is up to about $100k. We found MMM and started investing heavily. Net worth is now $137k with $82k of it in the stock market. And we had a child.

[24andfrugal]

I'll join in.

I've had a savings account since I was around 8. Birthday, Christmas money and the like, as well as money I hustled from stuff like shoveling snow, raking leaves, etc. So I have always had a pool of money that's "mine". I didn't get an allowance, but my parents let me keep everything I made and if there was something I wanted, they would pay for it (I didn't ask for a lot though).
15-17: attended community college, lived with parents. I worked about 15/20 hours per week in a couple of odd jobs. Graduated with an AS.
18: attended a 4-year private school for one semester. Terrible school, terrible decision. Parents paid the half of my tuition that wasn't a scholarship.
19-20: attended out of state 4-year public school, which was about $40k per year for two years (eek). Yes, my parents paid for this. I interned/worked in the summers.
20-21: one -year master's program. I did an assistantship, which got me in-state tuition and a $10k stipend. Most of that went toward tuition and rent, which I paid. My parents paid my credit card, which was gas, groceries, and occasional food out.
22: started my first job, got my own apartment by myself, got my own credit card. I started my job in August (on my birthday), discovered FI in Dec/Jan, and was off to the races.

I'm 24 now and have just completed my second year of expense tracking/FIRE mindset. I have saved 65% of my after-tax income both years and have increased my net worth by about $65k (this doesn't include about $3k of wedding deposits, though. The total event will probably cost around $15-$18k - I think my parents expect to pay, but I'm operating as though we are paying).

I am from a wealthy/HCOL area, but my family lived within our means. I am incredibly fortunate that they paid for my education, though if they had not, I would hope that I would have been willing to take out the loans to pay for it myself. Going to the university I did was one of the best decisions I've ever made, it completely changed my life and opened up a whole new world of possibilities beyond what I grew up with.

[diapasoun]

Pretty broke - college and grad school. I regret nothing, however.

Yep, pretty much.

18-22: Undergrad. About 3/4 of my college expenses were paid by scholarships and need-based aid (thanks FAFSA!), and the other 1/4 was student loans -- no parental assistance. I worked 10-15 hours per week during the school year and 40-45 hours a week during the summer; most of it went towards food/summer housing, about 1/4 went to paying tuition, and a small bit went towards little bits of fun like going to cheap plays or a cheap bottle of rum.

22-26: Grad school. Made 15-18k a year as a TA in a place where 26k was the living wage. Tuition remission and healthcare included in my TA package, at least! Lots of shared housing, getting around on foot/bike and bumming rides, lots of cheap eats. It was hard. It was also often grand and made me much more inventive. Got a small ($4k) inheritance and used it to pay off interest that had accumulated on my one non-subsidized loan. Usually had about $2k in emergency savings and that was about it.

I graduated grad school at 28 and that's when things started moving out of student stasis.

[thorto0803]

Age 18 - graduated highschool and promptly took on around $18k in debt to start college. Probably had around $700 in my bank account at most times. Net worth $-17K

Age 19 - Freshman/beginning of sophomore year of college. Worked part-time as an intramural referee making minimum wage. Got a job as a resident assistant (paid housing and meals plus $50 every 2 weeks) to start sophomore year. Worked as a delivery driver for Pizza Hut over the summer, which also volunteering as staff at a Christian camp. Had to take around $10k in loans for sophomore year. Net worth -$27K

Age 20 - Worked as an RA, no other job during school year. Volunteered at the same camp over the summer. No income from that. Took another $10k or so in loans for Junior Year. Net worth -$35K. Met and started dating future wife.

Age 21 - Worked as an RA for my Junior year and got an internship in my major (accounting) for the summer after junior year pay was $14/hr. Took out loans for fall of senior year ~$5k since I would be graduating in december. Net worth -$38K

Age 22 - Decided not to come back as an RA. Lived in a 5 br house with 7 roommates (all male) during Senior year. Mostly fun, but I ended up doing a lot of extra dishes. Got 2 different internships spring paid $22/hr with a lot of overtime (busy season) Summer paid $20/hr. Got engaged. Opened a Roth IRA and put the max in with my extra internship money, Fiance'/ wife (got married just before my 23rd bday) did the same. Net worth -$32K

Age 23 - Combined NW after getting married: ~-10K. Two maxed Roth's for the year + DW had a CD worth around $5k and $5k in checking(she's a natural saver, but didn't know much about investing). DW had no student debt due to excellent academic scholarship seeking and a bit of help from parents for living expenses. I had to take out around $8k for my Master's year schooling, but I also got paid around $450 every two weeks for being a TA (this also came with a 50% reduction to tuition costs, woohoo! I was stoked when I landed the job), and DW made around the same IIRC. We were able to cover non-tuition living expenses on those earnings. We started paying my student loans off in January after DW got excess scholarships.

Graduated and started took my CPA exams, started working FT just before age 24. DW had a really good internship during the summer and made ~$10K. Net worth at 24th birthday around $15K combined.

Age 25 DW graduated and started work in July, Salary $73k (electrical engineering) I switched jobs and got a bump to $61K. NW was around $70K by my 25th Bday.

Currently still 25 and same job situations except DW now makes $75K (we haven't done raises yet at my company, but I plan to switch to a less accounting geared job this fall anyway. Current NW ~$110K

Had two windfalls along the way due to passing of grandparents ~10K and ~$8K. The first went directly to student loans, the second went to our current savings for house downpayment fund.

Assets:

401k's: $10k & $15K
Roths: $22k & $20K
Rollover IRA: $13K
Savings account (house downpayment): $25.5k
Checking: $3k

Total: $108K

Debt: CC balances ~$1k, no more student loans (paid off just before 2019).

[Monerexia]

I remember driving past apartment complexes and seeing nice cars in the carports and thinking that was "success." What an incredible delusion.

[talltexan]

I will cop to receiving EOC from age 22-28. I was in a Ph.D. program, and it seemed to my parents like a way to keep me living in a safer neighborhood (typically $400-$700 monthly). It kept me from having to take out loans to maintain my standard of living. I was car-free, and accidentally living a pretty frugal lifestyle.

The whole time I was stuffing money in a Roth, giving a lot to church, and accumulating $30,000 in savings and P2P investments, so I suppose we overestimated how much EOC I needed for those years.

[waltworks]

Broke college student->broke grad student->broke professional athlete->broke grad student

I don't think I had any net worth at all until around age 30. But man, I wouldn't change a thing, because it was a blast.

-W

[Thoughtful Mule]

18 - 22 In college incurring 40k in student loan debt, and about $2k in CC debt.  I distinctly remember suddenly feeling dispair when I realized I wasn't making enough money to eat and pay the credit card.

22-23 Graduated and worked a couple short jobs. Balanced budget but no real savings.

24-25 Got a long term job paying about 40k. Started grad school and took out some more loans. Used some of the loan money to purchase a house which I planned to live and rent out the spare bedrooms. Net worth negative $35k

25-27 The housing market crashed in 2008. More despair as I realized I was underwater by 100k on a 240k house, along with 50k in student loans.  I had some meager savings, but the net worth sunk to negative six figures.

I'm going over 26 here, but this is where the story gets better.

27-37 I realized that to get out of debt, I would need to do something drastic. At my company, I found a job with grueling travel and overtime opportunities. My income swelled accordingly. All of my extra income (minus 401k up to match and Roth IRA contributions) went to debt.  I sweated for 3 years paying off the second mortgage. Then turned my attention to student loans.  I was obsessed, reading personal finance blogs, refining my spreadsheet, learning about real estate investing, continuing to rent out all rooms in my home (I lived in the small front room). Found MMM in 2011.  Got my earnings up to 100k. I saved up some cash for a down payment and purchased another home while prices were beat down. A couple of years later I purchased a third house, renovated, and rented it out. The whole time I was travelling like crazy and stashing my earnings. Got married in 2015. Net worth was now about 200K.

Those years between 2008 and 2015 really defined my trajectory. I worked my ass off and made some outside-the-comfort-zone moves. From 2015 to 2020 the net worth has swelled by about 200K per year, now sitting at 1.2M. We are well beyond FU and just about FI, and it feels great to be here.  We had a kid, I sold my car and went to full time biking, and were moving to Colorado this May to do things we love while worrying less about where the paychecks come from.