Thanks all for the congrats!
congrats poker, i'm with you on the wouldve, couldve.
i could be sitting at 250k myself if i wouldve started this years ago and not last year.
Yeah, after I read "Your Money or Your Life" i went through my first 7 years in the work force (and my wife worked during the first 5 years of our marriage, before kids) and came up with an alternative universe estimate of around of around $350K potentially saved. Oomph. Oh well, live and learn.
Wow, going from a few $k to $100k in only 2 years! Very impressive! The hardest part is getting started. It gets easier with each paycheck, because your money is now working for you too.
Its definitely gotten easier as time has gone on. I've also benefitted from a couple of good years bonus wise, along with great market returns since I started saving, so I can't take all of the credit :)
I'd say the biggest changes we made were:
1) Maxing out retirement accounts (Simple IRA, HSA, both IRAs)
2) Getting ride of massive cell phone bill.
3) Downsizing to one car and a scooter/motorcycle, which I use to get around.
4) Finding side hustles, and alternative sources of income.
5) Moving to a work from home schedule, which has cut out a lot of at work lunch/coffee spending. I cringe when I look back and see just how much I spent on lunches, happy hours, etc..
6) Just keeping track of every cent we spend. We still tend to overspend in some areas (food being the biggest one) but just being aware of where the money goes I think has been positive.
Most of all though, the freedom is what is so intoxicating. I work in an industry that tends to be cyclical where stretches of unemployment are possible. (i've been lucky over the years, but its always a possibility) Before I started saving, I felt like we always lived on the knife's edge and it was quite stressful; but my thought process was always "I need to find a higher paying job" not "I need to cut expenses and save money".
We're not near FI yet, but the fact that my family could live pretty comfortably for like 2 years without new income; its like this huge weight is lifted.