This is the advice I give newbies now:
Financial independence for the un-smart
Simplify everything. I have an excel spreadsheet where I record my assets (what gives/makes me money) and my liabilities (what takes my money away) to determine my net worth. I track this each month and record: Cash (what I have in the bank), Retirement (what’s in my retirement account) and Investments (what’s in my Vanguard account) and then I add this number up and subtract my liabilities (currently none as we rent and don’t have a mortgage). That’s how I determine my net worth. Your goal is think of those 3 areas or buckets as levers you use to increase your NW. Your other goal is to keep it simple.
For Cash—simplest thing you can do is take whatever safety money you want (say $10k) and put it in the bank that has the highest interest with the lowest fees and Park it there until/unless you need it as an emergency and then use and replenish.
For Retirement—go to HR and say you want to max out whatever company investment account you have and then forget about it for now.
For Investments—Look up Vanguard dot com and get their number. Call them and say you want to open up an account that is a set and forget, like a total life strategy account. They will guide you through everything. All you want to do is send a set amount of money every pay to that account. Then get the ability to check the account online and record your figures. The key here is to not panic or get too excited when the numbers go up or down. You have to just let it do it’s thing for at least 10 years, 20 is ideal.
And, that’s it. That simple. Don’t make it more complex until you understand it all better.
Now, you have 2 more things to work out: what you can save and invest now, and what you want to live on when you retire. You need 2 budgets: now budget and retire budget. With now budget, the game is to live the life you want as efficiently as possible and take what is left over and put it in your investments. Your Cash and Retirement buckets are already set, so the excess just goes to Investments.
In your retirement budget, you think of the life you want when you’re done working or you scale work down. It might look the same, might look different but try to guesstimate what that yearly spend will be. Now, multiply that number by 25. That’s the total amount of money you need of net worth to FIRE. That’s it.
Once you get everything simple and automated, then you can start tweaking and working on nuances like how to get more money from your Now budget. But start with this first. Good luck.
Bonus for your 17yo self: wear condoms, avoid credit cards, try to have as little loans as possible, learn to cook, be interested in others and curious about life, travel the world and don’t let drugs/video games/gambling rule your life.