Hey, guys. I'm Carolyn.
I'm 30 years old, unmarried and with no children (yet) + one little dog. I do have a boyfriend who will be moving in with me soon. We're still ironing out ideas about combining our finances.
I love a budget and I've never been much of a spender. I cook at home for nearly every meal, I don't cut my hair, I have a small used car that I don't have a payment on, I don't drink coffee or alcohol (just happen to hate the taste), I don't like doing "pampery" things like having my nails done, etc.
I hate working for other people and have been working for years towards making a living from fiction writing. This method makes me think that if I could do this retire early plan, there would be time and a financial cushion in my life to allow me to write full time.
The things holding me back:
1) I don't earn a very high salary. On paper it's 50k which works out to around 33k take home. (Boyfriend's salary is a little less). Now that he is moving in I will be able to save about one third of my take home pay. I'm trying to find places to whittle that down further, but Boyfriend does not appreciate my turning off the air conditioner during heat waves and I really can't find much padding to get rid of!
2) I have student loans from my graduate degree in fiction (stupid, I know!) and I'm not trained for anything useful. I'm a secretary now. It's a good job and it pays well for what I do, but I feel like I'm wasting my life doing useless activities day after day. I want to get out now!
3) I don't understand numbers and math very well and know nothing about good investing. I feel lost as to what kind of an account to save my money in to make sure that it's growing. Right now I have a savings account with a rate of 0.95%. My job does not have a 401k or matching or anything like that. I had not previously been thinking much about long term saving, so I only have a couple thousand.
I would appreciate any help or advice people could offer! (And I would be happy to post a detailed budget).