Thank you to everyone for the kind words! It's nice to know there are at least a few others out there like me. I suppose that's why we all are on the forum. There just aren't too many people who understand this way of life.
Well done HydroJim! I'm curious, what has gotten you excited about this path? As others have mentioned, it's surprising to hear a 19 year old talk like this! Most of us didn't come to our financial awakening until much later in life. I'm inclined to think that there's a pretty significant psychological maturity element at work here. For most of us, the mental capacity to really practice delayed gratification doesn't sink in until later. I was noting recently how, from a psychological standpoint, until a certain developmental point, the future is simply not emotionally real to us. What do you attribute it to? I'd love to know! And again, well done!
I can't pin down an exact date so I'll give you the life synopsis:Age 4 or so my dad gave me his old leather wallet. I still use that wallet every day actually. It's pretty worn now but it still works just fine. I started keeping all my money in there. Eventually I had so many dollar bills and coins saved up that my mom took me to open my first savings account around age 6 or 7. Something like that. Always worked odd jobs growing up and saved every penny. Cutting grass, shoveling snow, etc. $5 was $5 and much better than playing video games. I can't explain why, but I was never like my peers. They saw no problem dropping $1 on a soda or some candy. I hated spending money. My parents weren't exactly frugal either. They both spend every cent they get. Which wasn't much growing up. Only recently have they started saving thanks to my encouragement.
By the time I was 16, I bought myself my first car. Naturally, I didn't even buy the car to drive it. I bought it to turn into a project. My natural frugal-ness turned into a passion for automotive efficiency. Among many other projects, I built this back in high school. It started at 32 MPG highway and I got it up to 47. The money I spent on the car and modifications was won back in prize money in the science fair so it was definitely worth the experience.
I always had interests in optimizing efficiency in every aspect of my life. Fuel economy, finances, engineering, etc. When it came time for college, I told myself I wasn't going to pay a cent for college. I was nominated to The United States Military Academy but eventually couldn't move on in the process due to hearing loss in my right ear. I still found a quality school that fits my interests where I know get full tuition, housing, fees and then I get refunded about $7000 per academic year which I use to cover car insurance, health insurance, books, food, and other misc. things. I track all of my expenses in an excel spreadsheet. I've spent $9500 so far this year not counting tuition, housing, and fees.
Due to my refund, I started looking into doing my own taxes. I wanted to see if my refund would be taxable income or not. Eventually I stumbled upon MMM and I really liked his blog. I did my research on retirement options and figured a Roth IRA would be best while I'm in the 10% and 15% tax brackets. I was lucky enough to get an awesome internship after my freshman year. Now I have an even better paying internship lined up for next summer.
So everything is coming together. I'm hoping to become financially independent in my early 30s. If I count my current girlfriend into the equation, we could actually be financially independent in our late 20s. She's also studying to become an engineer. I don't include her in my calculations for the time being because shit happens and I'm still young. That being said, she is also very like minded and completely on-board with the frugal lifestyle. We're both fairly ambitious so I can't say if early retirement is for us. Overall, we're a good match.
tl;dr: Randomly saved all my money from a young age. On pace to be financially independent around age 32 assuming 3% withdrawal rate and above average engineer salary.
