When I graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from grad school I had over 135k in student loans, due to poor financial choices and not optimizing grants/scholarships/etc. I kept having to beg my parents money to make rent (despite working through grad school and 40 hours/week my last semester). Through diligence and perseverance despite many rejections I was able to secure a good quality job. I was obsessive about paying off my high interest student loans even before I found MMM. I did not have a car for the first year of my job and took public transit or walked everywhere.
After I found MMM, I went into hyper drive, started two side hustles (renting my 1999 Camry on RelayRides and reselling) and began to track spending relentlessly. Last year after paying off the last 6%+ student loan I started contributing the max to 401k and I will soon max out 2014 Roth IRA. For reference I was making about 75k + 10% bonus when I started and have gotten about 10% in raises in the two years I have been working. I dislike my job and am constantly fantasizing about finding a new one (or FIRE). Based on the math I really only need to work seven more years and even less if I kept at my side hustles.
My only remaining debt is about 20k in 0% interest on slate and freedom (which is my next priority) and 23k in Student Loans at <2.5%, which I will probably pay off this year because I am obsessive like that.
All the hard work really does pay off and freedom is so much more satisfying than spending on useless crap. I do get sad that I haven't traveled the world more, but there will be plenty of time for that in FIRE (especially with CC travel hacking, mwuhahaha)
