Author Topic: Saving in your 20's  (Read 19924 times)

YoungGranny

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #50 on: November 24, 2015, 07:54:05 AM »
Everyone on here is so inspiring! It's awesome to see a bunch of us 20 year-olds focused on the bigger goal. I want to try to throw more at my roth-IRA this year. So my goal is to free up some more money to get that in before the end of the year.

jorjor

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #51 on: November 24, 2015, 09:31:00 AM »
I'm 27. Wife is 31. NW about $245k right now.

401k: $72k ($10k of which is Roth)
IRA: $26k
Roth IRA: $9k
Taxable: $11k
HSA: $14k ($9k invested)
Home equity: $84k

The rest in cash/emergency fund. We really got into this in earnest this year. Our NW has went up over $100k since the start of 2015.

One non-mortgage debt which is a $4,200 low interest car loan that I bought in my pre-saving days. It'll be paid off in 2016.

2016 goals include paying down some mortgage, paying off that car loan, and adding $60k in newly invested assets between 401k, HSA, employer matches, IRAs, taxable accounts.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2015, 09:34:00 AM by jorjor »

prax

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #52 on: December 01, 2015, 12:26:57 PM »
24 and just recently hit positive net worth. In the past year and a half I've paid off $45k of my $60k student loan debt, so my first major goal is to knock out that last $15k!

Trad IRA: $5,500
401k: $6,000
Emergency Fund: $10,000
Debt: -$15,000

I've saved about $50k in the last year, making $90k pre-tax. I'm really grateful to have discovered FIRE; I've always been a saver, but I was raised in a household without much financial literacy, so my savings would've likely just sat in a checking account.

Goals this year are to learn more about churning and passive income sources, pay off my last $15k of loans, max all retirement accounts, and reduce food and transportation spending!

FIreDrill

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #53 on: December 01, 2015, 03:15:26 PM »
Great to see everyone posting.  I'm 25 and my wife is 22.  I recently finished my goal of graduating college with 100k NW and now we are on to other goals.  Short term goal is to get fit and enjoy life while our long term goal is to be FI in our early 30's.  Below is our combined numbers.

Age: 22&25
Gross income: 120k
Investments:   140k
Home equity:   30k
Cash:               10k

Total NW = 180k


We are saving about 60%-70% or our income right now and should break 200k by years end.  I'm hoping we can increase our NW by 80k-100k or so per year but we will see how it turns out.


SS

BarbeRiche

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #54 on: December 01, 2015, 03:35:49 PM »
Great to see everyone posting.  I'm 25 and my wife is 22.  I recently finished my goal of graduating college with 100k NW and now we are on to other goals.  Short term goal is to get fit and enjoy life while our long term goal is to be FI in our early 30's.  Below is our combined numbers.

Age: 22&25
Gross income: 120k
Investments:   140k
Home equity:   30k
Cash:               10k

Total NW = 180k


We are saving about 60%-70% or our income right now and should break 200k by years end.  I'm hoping we can increase our NW by 80k-100k or so per year but we will see how it turns out.


SS

Wow congratz!  I didn't think you were that young with that kind of NW.  Our situations are pretty similar but you're a bit ahead...and younger :P

GF and I are both 27
A bit under 130k NW

I'm also planning on our NW increasing by 80-100k/year (80k this year).

I'm so thankful to have ''woken up'' early in life and started saving aggressively in my mid 20's.  My perspective on life has changed quite a bit since then.

FIreDrill

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #55 on: December 01, 2015, 04:06:07 PM »
Great to see everyone posting.  I'm 25 and my wife is 22.  I recently finished my goal of graduating college with 100k NW and now we are on to other goals.  Short term goal is to get fit and enjoy life while our long term goal is to be FI in our early 30's.  Below is our combined numbers.

Age: 22&25
Gross income: 120k
Investments:   140k
Home equity:   30k
Cash:               10k

Total NW = 180k


We are saving about 60%-70% or our income right now and should break 200k by years end.  I'm hoping we can increase our NW by 80k-100k or so per year but we will see how it turns out.


SS

Wow congratz!  I didn't think you were that young with that kind of NW.  Our situations are pretty similar but you're a bit ahead...and younger :P

GF and I are both 27
A bit under 130k NW

I'm also planning on our NW increasing by 80-100k/year (80k this year).

I'm so thankful to have ''woken up'' early in life and started saving aggressively in my mid 20's.  My perspective on life has changed quite a bit since then.

Thanks!

And yes, I feel very lucky to have gotten into finances and investing at a young age.  The few poor purchases that I've made have taught me a lot.  It's amazing how quickly you can raise your NW when you start to become efficient with you income and spending. 

We may undergo a large swing in the income department this next year (downward).  Hopefully everything transitions well and we don't take a large hit but you never know what will happen when you go into contract type work.  But, if it goes well, our income could skyrocket as well....  I guess only time will tell!

SS

kpd905

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #56 on: December 01, 2015, 05:30:42 PM »
We are married and both 28.  I just paid off my student loans last month ($96k paid off in 2 years, 10 months), so now it is time to start maxing out all of our investment accounts.

I just checked our balances and we missed hitting the $100k mark for the first time by about $200.

For 2016 I want to max both 401ks and traditional IRAs, so with matches we'll invest about $52,000.  We'll also be trying to save around $1500 a month toward a house down payment next year.  I'll be happy if we hit $200k invested by the time I am 30 (21 months from now).

AcftW

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #57 on: December 01, 2015, 05:31:20 PM »
23 Male here, USAF veteran, currently in the National Guard, but still full time. No debt.  I've always been pretty good about keeping a safety net (5k or so) but there were still plenty of unnecessary expenditures until early this year, when I started buckling down on myself.  I started putting money into the TSP gov't retirement plan, and saved a lot of money on a reasonably short deployment overseas.  I discovered MMM just a couple months ago, and realized I'd pretty much been keeping the same principles, though much less efficiently.  (I keep kicking myself for not adding money to the TSP while I was active duty).

Been changing how I do things since October, and now the majority of my money is in my portfolio/IRA/TSP, and my net worth has gone way up, compared to where it was.  If things go as planned, I'll be getting into defense contracting mid-2016 and going overseas for 6-12 months a year and making $$$.  Trying to transition away from the military while taking the trades I've learned to the private sector.  (Mechanics/Welding/Machining)

Typed way more than I thought (1st post).  All right, here goes:

Gross Income: $45k
Net Worth: $40,061 as of Dec 1, 2015
« Last Edit: December 01, 2015, 05:34:22 PM by AcftW »

totesmahgoats

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #58 on: December 01, 2015, 06:30:40 PM »
I feel like I'm woefully behind.

29, married young, fell out of the workforce for five years to breed and we spent that time paying off student loans and engaging is light spendy pants behavior. We're now trying to right the ship.

Tax advantaged retirement accounts 115k
Non tax advantaged investments $6k
Savings for house $65k

No debt.

I went back to work (parttime) this year; should be able to add 65k to the stash next year.

monstermonster

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #59 on: December 02, 2015, 08:33:58 AM »
I'm always simultaneously motivated and overwhelmed by these threads, for these reasons:

Age: 25 (26 next month)
Savings: Around $15,000
Investments, 401k, etc: 0
Income: Around $1,200/month (but I'm in Thailand)
Debt: 0

I decided post-college to just not get a typical, well-paying job and instead go teach English abroad for meager sums (very, VERY livable in the local context, but horrible for FIRE goals). Now I'm in my mid-20s, educating myself on investing and stash-building, and reorienting my priorities, but I'm quite behind. My future progress depends entirely on what job I'm able to find back in the States with a communications degree. And, if all my friends around the 20-30K/year range are any indication... we didn't do things as intelligently as many of you here.

Gah. I know I still have lots of time to turn things around, I just wish I'd gone a smarter route earlier on. I could have been halfway there by now, and then done all my traveling. I have some savings, and no debt, which is nice. I regret nothing, but now I've got some catch-up to do.
You're still doing great, and I'm positive your experience living and working abroad will reap you sums of cash later in life. And make you more fun at dinner parties.

Many people on MMM are busy trying to save save save at jobs they hate just so they can go abroad and live cheaply, and never end up doing it because life gets in the way. Easier to do it while you're young and relatively unburdened AND have income coming in.

Also, I made $1,200/month for full-time work in the US for years, so don't kick yourself about the income. These $60-80K incomes we see on MMM are NOT the norm for the US even. They are well above household median income for the country. $1200/month with no dependents is fine in most of the us, and if you get $30K when you come back, keep frugal habits and you'll still be on your way to FIRE!

meyling

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #60 on: December 05, 2015, 01:21:31 PM »
I figured I'd make a post here since I'm 23. I graduated college in Dec 2014, so this year was my first year of really being an adult! I have learned *so* much about taxes, investing, and retirement plans in the past few months.

2015 has been a pretty good year for me, even though I only started reading MMM and thinking about FI a few months ago. I'm not going to go into specifics on what my current assets are, but my goal for 2016 is to increase my net worth by 35k.

bloomability

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #61 on: December 05, 2015, 03:44:43 PM »
I feel a little behind here but then I go to the real world, and I'm shockingly ahead.

27 and single and trying to figure everything out with a NW of $52k and no debt. My goal is to be at $70k at the end of next year with a stretch goal of $75k.

I would also like to be in a position to buy a house in a couple of years but don't know if that'sa sure thing.

swashbucklinstache

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #62 on: December 06, 2015, 02:47:30 PM »
26.75 years old, NW of 110K, 2K debt. Started adulting in 6/2011 at 22.25 years old with -30K NW after graduating. Across those 4.5 years, salaries of roughly 38K, 52K, 60K, 68K, 73K (for last 0.5 years). Hoping to go up 40-50K next year in NW. Really rough guesses, but that's somewhere around 255K in total salary eventually turned into +140K NW over 4.5 years. About 80K total went to post-direct deposit living expenses, then the rest is between taxes, pre-tax health insurance, company 401k matching, market gains, and fuzzy math.

smella

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #63 on: December 06, 2015, 05:50:54 PM »
Hi youngsters! good to seem some other frugal/FI/early RE young people.  I'm in a situation where I can't discuss money at all with my friends, based on our completely different approaches to spending and lifestyle, plus some class background shame stuff that makes it tricky.

I was raised frugal-  i have one extremely frugal parent who was all about the less work, low income, low expense lifestyle.   my other parent worked more, had a higher income and spent more but in the scheme of materialist america she's still on the frugal side.  both of my parents were self-employed, small business owners so I grew up with financial competence. SO grateful for that.  they also chose their own hours and prioritized other things over work.

I am 25, current net worth around 90k.  (~5.4k IRA, ~15k robo-investor ETFs, ~43k long term holding stocks, ~27k liquid).
I know that's too much liquid- I'm still trying to decide what to do with it and how much I will need for some upcoming major expenses. 

I got my BA and MA on full scholarship and worked for living expenses. Graduated debt free.  I chose my study based on passions, and have some quite non-lucrative degrees.  I was never worried about it though since I am so frugal and I didn't incur any debt     For the past four years I've been living on my PhD fellowship, which is $25k/yr.  I also do some additional part time work- teaching, editorial,  and odd jobs if they seem fun.  My 2015 income  will end up a smidge over $45k, and my savings rate is over 50%.    It could be higher though!

I live in NYC where the cost of living is famously extreme, but a lot of it can be avoided.  Luckily I'm married and my wife is a home owner.  Her mortgage payments are $1,300/month. To rent our apartment would be $2,000/month easily.  She is not a mustachian, and in fact is somewhat spendy, but she has a high income (by my standards, haha, at $130k gross) so I haven't hassled her too much.   I am a good influence though:   I cook tons of meals at home, we belong to a food coop with excellent prices, and we are both 100% bike+public transit.   I'm trying to get her taxable income down-- we got married this year, which will make a big difference come April,  I made a max IRA contribution (if i had been single I definitely would have gone ROTH),  I have convinced her to max out 401k contributions, and next year we will max out HSA contributions.   She's 50 years old, with $500k in multiple 401k accounts and $43k liquid.     combining our assets, we're not too far off FI. Yet, I'm interested in keeping our money in "mine" and "hers" piles even if it is name only. While I want to encourage her to make smart money moves, I also don't feel it's my place to be the police about her spending since it is her money, after all.

Anyways, I am currently trying to get pregnant.   My income will be $45k again for 2016 but then I will stop working for 5 years (i'll be finishing my dissertation and writing a book proposal, but won't be making money).  When the kiddo is 5, I will hopefully be able to get a university professor job (starting around 70k and going up and up every year) or worst case scenario work as a high school teacher (50-70k).  At that point, my wife will retire and homeschool our child.     

My goal is to build my 'stache ruthlessly in 2016 before the baby arrives.  Even though my savings rate this year was well over 50%, I'd like to see it increase substantially next year.  2015 had some big ticket items: my wedding (5k), a folding bicycle for multimodal travel (3k), and the beginning of fertility treatment (2.5k).  Once I quit working my frugal energies will be entirely devoted to cutting costs (with the added silver lining of making more environmentally sustainable choices in order to do so).  I definitely want to retire by 40 at the latest!    And yes, I do have a huuuge advantage by being married to a much older person.  I highly recommend it ;)!

smella

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #64 on: December 06, 2015, 05:54:37 PM »
Sorry for the novel above ^.

What I'd love to get from/talk about with the group:
-investment strategies
-

...ok, mostly investment strategies!   

swashbucklinstache

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #65 on: December 06, 2015, 08:03:53 PM »
I'm 27, married with 1 pampered pooch. My husband is a student and neither he or the dog bring in any money so we are a single income household.

I laughed at this :).

I often feel so very far behind others on this forum due to my history of relatively low salaries. I have to remember that compared to most of the rest of the country and definitely among our RL friends, we are doing quite well indeed. 

Definitely! Of the roughly 10 similarly-aged friends and coworkers in my life for which I know both their financial situation and that they've made more than your current salary on average, @ 69K you have roughly 7 times the highest NW of the bunch :). And that one has a leased 2015 SUV for their 8 minute city commute, with almost exclusively flat, paved roads as far as they eye can see!!! Frankly you'll probably be retired sipping mai tais (pick your pleasure) before they've even logged in to their 401K website. Thank heavens for opt-in plans.

maco

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #66 on: December 07, 2015, 10:14:46 AM »
Woo go millenials!
I'm 26 in the DC area.

401k:18k
Roth IRA: 3k (just started today!)
HSA: 1000.01 (started last month)
Other: 5k
Total: 27k. Wow. Not as amazing as some but it's the first time I've added it all up and better than I expected!
Income: 60k pretax (3400/month)

One thing I'm trying to work out... With my current income and rent, it's hard to max the retirement accounts, pay rent and expenses (mostly rent) AND save for a house. It's a hard spot though. I'm in an area where buying would dramatically lower my housing costs (rent super high but home prices really low) but because of my housing costs, it may not make sense to prioritize a down payment if I have to give up puttin stuff in retirement. I guess there's the 401k loan but that option squicks me out for some reason.
I don't know what your house savings goal is, but I live a little north of Wheaton and my house was $284k. I had about $20,000 when I closed. Because the mortgage is so much lower than the rent was ($1730 versus $2200), waiting to get 20% down didn't make sense to me. I put 5% down. Now that I'm living in the house with the lower mortgage, I can pay in extra to get the equity high enough to knock off PMI, but that $1730 is including PMI. It'll go down to $1570-ish when I knock the PMI off in Spring 2017.

It's a 2-bedroom, 2-bath. House is small (648 + finished basement = 1296), but back yard is huge. My income was a little higher than yours when I bought (70 versus 60k) (and my now-husband was unemployed / not part of the house purchase)

We're in our late 20s and mid 30s.  Just got on the FIRE bandwagon earlier this year.
401k/ira/tsp 60k
debt 19k (car at 0%, student loan at 2.5%, and a higher-interest student loan that will be paid off in a lump sum this month)
home equity 30k
other 14k

I don't know how much is in my HSA, and I'm not counting the money that my parents gave us for our honeymoon into this.

Income is high enough that we should be putting more in the retirement accounts, and we changed stuff over last month so my husband will max out his 401k next year. As long as we're putting $16,000/yr into extra principal payments on the house and his tuition, though, my 401k is only getting about half of max.

maco

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #67 on: December 07, 2015, 10:21:23 AM »
Goal for 2016 is

$12,000 Taxable
$  9,500 401k (Max is 20% of base salary for us)
$  5,500 Roth IRA
$  3,000 HSA
$30,000 Total New Contributions


What is the benefit between using a Roth and a regular IRA? Same question for the HSA.

Roth IRA - Pay taxes now, but no taxes upon removal after age 59.5.  Generally a good idea if you are in a lower tax bracket, 15% and below.

Traditional IRA - Tax deductible below a certain income level.  Pay ordinary income taxes upon withdrawal.

HSA - Tax deductible, including FICA if done through payroll withholding.  Tax free when used on medical expenses.  You need a qualifying HDHP plan, but if available this is a great vehicle.

All three accounts have there place in FIRE.  It will vary by individual as to which ones to use.
Missed an important thing on the Roth IRA:

You can withdraw contributions (but not earnings!) tax free after 5 years. That's how the Roth conversion ladder works. You shift a year's worth of money from a traditional account (and pay taxes then), then 5 years later you can spend it tax-free. Yes, you still pay the taxes during conversion but you don't pay the under-age-59.5 penalty that you'd otherwise pay to get money out of a Roth account.

Marus

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #68 on: December 14, 2015, 09:41:31 PM »
Greetings! 

I'm 26, single, and still renting.

Roth IRA: 13k
Traditional IRA: 2k
Taxable: 20k
401(k): 5k
Cash: 6k
Misc Assets: 10k

Income: 46k pretax.  My big goal for next year is to donate 10% of my income to good charities and increase my 401(k) contributions to 20%.  I'd like to hit 100k net worth by the time I'm 30 and possibly start generating some rental income (I have to start researching my area and figure out how feasible this is).  I'd like to save 50% of my income, but realistically this probably won't happen since I plan on doing some travelling this year.  I will definitely try to hit 50% for at least a few months though :)

smella

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #69 on: December 15, 2015, 06:01:59 AM »

I often feel so very far behind others on this forum due to my history of relatively low salaries. I have to remember that compared to most of the rest of the country and definitely among our RL friends, we are doing quite well indeed.

You sure are! Most of friends in the 25-50k salary range (we're grad students, teachers, social workers), are saving *nothing* or almost nothing.  :(

aetherie

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #70 on: December 15, 2015, 06:46:51 AM »
Greetings! 

I'm 26, single, and still renting.

Roth IRA: 13k
Traditional IRA: 2k
Taxable: 20k
401(k): 5k
Cash: 6k
Misc Assets: 10k

Income: 46k pretax.  My big goal for next year is to donate 10% of my income to good charities and increase my 401(k) contributions to 20%.  I'd like to hit 100k net worth by the time I'm 30 and possibly start generating some rental income (I have to start researching my area and figure out how feasible this is).  I'd like to save 50% of my income, but realistically this probably won't happen since I plan on doing some travelling this year.  I will definitely try to hit 50% for at least a few months though :)

Hey! I'm so excited to see someone from BTV! I graduated from UVM last year and I miss it. A lot.

Also, I bet if you got a rental close to campus you could make bank.

Cromacster

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #71 on: March 03, 2017, 08:11:19 AM »
Currently 28 and married.  Combined we have about 210k in invested assets.  Our goal is to have over 300k invested by the time we are 30.

With a conservative projection we will hit this number by August of 2017.  I turn 30 in March 2017, so my goal is to hit 300k before then. Gauntlet down.

Hit this mark sometime in February.  Pretty big milestone for us.  We went bowling to celebrate!

jed2009

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #72 on: March 03, 2017, 12:56:23 PM »
Hey guys, I am new to the forum as well (hailing from Bogle land).  I have been working hard the last 3ish years to get into positive net worth and eventually get to FI.  I love all the people here who are focused on kicking ass and getting free of being a slave to the grind.

Net Worth: (assets including belongings, liabilities, no mortgage)
9/2014 - (-$16,300) (Laid off partially, then 25k income)
1/2015 - (-$13,000) (33k income)
1/2016 - (-$284) (40k income)
3/2017 - $31,380 (59k income)

Roth IRA: 8,800
401k: 9,000
E. Fund: 5,000

In 2014 my Student Loan debt was at ~27k.  Today it is down to 13k, and I plan to pay it off fully by the end of 2017.  After that, only existing debt will be my mortgage which I am okay with! With my new income, giving about 4k a year to IRA, 3k to 401k (100% match as well, 6k total), and the rest going towards getting my student loan out.  After that, max the IRA and go from there!

Saskatchewstachian

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #73 on: March 03, 2017, 01:47:52 PM »
Figured I would do an birthday update! Well month end i guess but still my birthday month.

Birthday 26y.o.

Total household NW (DW & I):$271,088
Breakdown
  • Home equity - $98,024
  • My RRSP - $59,664
  • DW RRSP - $21,087
  • My TFSA - $35,503
  • DW TFSA - $35,747
  • Company Shares - $10,753
  • Chequing Account - $11,423
Debts:
  • Car Loan - $1,114 (@ 0%)

Items not includes are belongings or sale value of vehicles (facepunch worthy). Year-over-Year this net worth change works out to a 120% increase! :)

jed2009

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #74 on: March 05, 2017, 12:03:55 PM »
Figured I would do an birthday update! Well month end i guess but still my birthday month.

Birthday 26y.o.

Total household NW (DW & I):$271,088
Breakdown
  • Home equity - $98,024
  • My RRSP - $59,664
  • DW RRSP - $21,087
  • My TFSA - $35,503
  • DW TFSA - $35,747
  • Company Shares - $10,753
  • Chequing Account - $11,423
Debts:
  • Car Loan - $1,114 (@ 0%)

Items not includes are belongings or sale value of vehicles (facepunch worthy). Year-over-Year this net worth change works out to a 120% increase! :)

Holy crap, you are looking great!  Well on your way!!  Nice job.

FIreDrill

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #75 on: March 07, 2017, 05:26:46 PM »
Great to see everyone posting.  I'm 25 and my wife is 22.  I recently finished my goal of graduating college with 100k NW and now we are on to other goals.  Short term goal is to get fit and enjoy life while our long term goal is to be FI in our early 30's.  Below is our combined numbers.

Age: 22&25
Gross income: 120k
Investments:   140k
Home equity:   30k
Cash:               10k

Total NW = 180k


We are saving about 60%-70% or our income right now and should break 200k by years end.  I'm hoping we can increase our NW by 80k-100k or so per year but we will see how it turns out.



Thought I would post an update after nearly 15 months.  Below are our current stats.


Age: 23&26
Gross income: 140k
Investments:   225k
Home equity:   50k
Cash:               28k

Total NW = 303k


The last 15 months have been pretty good to us.  My wife ended up staying at her job and I've received several raises along with a promotion.  What will happen this next year is really up in the air.  I have a possible job opportunity that would result in us moving 2k+ miles into a HCOL area if it comes through.  The job would have to be perfect and the pay would have to be amazing for us to make the jump.  Our combined income potential there could be huge after a year or so (200k+).

Thanks to whoever bumped this thread!  It was a fun reminder of how far we have come since Dec 2015.

sieben

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #76 on: March 15, 2017, 08:28:56 PM »
Wow, there are some incredible numbers in this thread.
Great work everyone!

It's always such a shock to go from talking to people in the real world to talking to people on here.
Most people I know my age are still just talking about maybe starting to pay off their students loans. Not that, it stops them from buying houses ;)

I'm 26 and quite happily renting.
I entered the workforce in earnest 2.5 years ago with about 10k in debt.
I just cracked 100K net-worth last month and it feels awesome. 50K of that was in the last year :)

I can't wait to see what the next year holds for all of us! :)

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #77 on: March 16, 2017, 07:22:02 AM »
Goal for 2016 is

$12,000 Taxable
$  9,500 401k (Max is 20% of base salary for us)
$  5,500 Roth IRA
$  3,000 HSA
$30,000 Total New Contributions

This would put me at $175k in investments at age 29 :)

Wow, ended up blowing these goals out of the water.

Actual 2016 Values
$20k Taxable
$19.4k 401k (catch up contribution + employer match)
$5.5k Roth
$3.3k HSA
$20k Savings

$68k total contributions

This year my income will be down a bit, but I am striving to make similar contributions.

Net worth should be ~$285k on my 30th birthday in 8 weeks.

andy85

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #78 on: March 16, 2017, 07:27:17 AM »
Goal for 2016 is

$12,000 Taxable
$  9,500 401k (Max is 20% of base salary for us)
$  5,500 Roth IRA
$  3,000 HSA
$30,000 Total New Contributions

This would put me at $175k in investments at age 29 :)

Wow, ended up blowing these goals out of the water.

Actual 2016 Values
$20k Taxable
$19.4k 401k (catch up contribution + employer match)
$5.5k Roth
$3.3k HSA
$20k Savings

$68k total contributions

This year my income will be down a bit, but I am striving to make similar contributions.

Net worth should be ~$285k on my 30th birthday in 8 weeks.
Nice bro! The 285k figure me think of the below article i read yesterday...just a nice way to look at things sometimes...

http://actionecon.com/double-your-money-again-and-again/
" Once you have saved $256,000 then without any further investment it is only about 10 years until you are at a half million or 20 years to 1 million."

So just make enough to cover expenses for the next 20 years and you'll be all set!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #79 on: March 16, 2017, 08:53:39 AM »

Nice bro! The 285k figure me think of the below article i read yesterday...just a nice way to look at things sometimes...

http://actionecon.com/double-your-money-again-and-again/
" Once you have saved $256,000 then without any further investment it is only about 10 years until you are at a half million or 20 years to 1 million."

So just make enough to cover expenses for the next 20 years and you'll be all set!

Very cool article, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I cringe at people who plan on "starting small" and only contribute say 10% of their income to retirement with the goal of increasing that by 1-2% per year moving forward. They are robbing themselves of previous time for compound interest to work its magic.

Granted, not everyone is in the position to save a boatload of money in their 20's or 30's. But most people could potentially be doing a lot better if they understood this simple concept.

I have a glidepath in my mind in terms of easing up on the earning/saving, when my annual contributions start being less than 10% of my overall portfolio value, I will seriously take my foot off the gas.

Whether this is due to underemployment in the near future, or further down the line when my portfolio dwarfs my current contribution, I think that is a good crossover point.

In the meantime, I plan on taking a sabbatical March 31st 2020 anyway (10 year anniversary in a full time career). In the next 3 years, I should add enough to the stache where upon my return to work, I can ease up and let compounding do majority of the work for the next decade.

thecrazydoglady

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #80 on: March 16, 2017, 09:16:29 AM »
Hi all! I'm a 25 year old making 82,400 gross. My goal is FI in my 30's so i'm trying to ramp up this year. This discussion is really encouraging! Here are my stats:


Savings: $23k
Taxable: $19.8K
401K: $26.7K (10% contribution and company match of 3%)
HSA: $4.9K
ESPP: $13K

Total: $87.4



FIreDrill

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #81 on: March 16, 2017, 11:52:14 AM »

Nice bro! The 285k figure me think of the below article i read yesterday...just a nice way to look at things sometimes...

http://actionecon.com/double-your-money-again-and-again/
" Once you have saved $256,000 then without any further investment it is only about 10 years until you are at a half million or 20 years to 1 million."

So just make enough to cover expenses for the next 20 years and you'll be all set!

Very cool article, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I cringe at people who plan on "starting small" and only contribute say 10% of their income to retirement with the goal of increasing that by 1-2% per year moving forward. They are robbing themselves of previous time for compound interest to work its magic.

Granted, not everyone is in the position to save a boatload of money in their 20's or 30's. But most people could potentially be doing a lot better if they understood this simple concept.

Totally agree with you guys on this and it was one of our goals to secure "traditional" retirement early on in our 20's.

We met that goal sometime last year.  Assuming no additional contributions, our 225k invested stache will grow to roughly 1.5M inflation adjusted given a 30 year investment timeline.  This will put us well into secured retirement by ages 53 and 56.  We still plan on contributing heavily to pre-tax accounts but it's awesome to know that we will be fine as long as we don't withdraw on our investments.

Also, having traditional retirement secured gives me more comfort in taking risks in the short term like changing jobs, going part time, and real-estate investing just to name a few.  And with a 50-60% savings rate, we can easily take on some of these life changes without the risk of withdrawing on our pre-tax accounts. 

Getting a decent stache together in your early 20's gives you so many options in your 30's and 40's.  Keep it up everyone!

jed2009

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #82 on: March 16, 2017, 11:57:26 AM »
Woot!  Officially paid off another student loan.  So far the payoff history looks like:

1: 363 4.2% = PIF
2: 3,635 6.8% = PIF
3: 5,137 6.8% = 113, almost there!!
4: 7,500 6.8% = 7,548, this is the BIG one, next to go!
5: 5,500 3.3% = 4,600
6: 2,000 6.8% = PIF

Once these are gone my life will be so much better... These have been haunting me for a LONG time!

Tonyahu

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #83 on: March 17, 2017, 10:46:29 AM »
Wow, I am way behind most of you. I am 25, just graduated college, spent my time enjoying my fraternity and not worrying about money. I just learned about investing this past year and am now going strong towards FI.

-Earning 28,000 per year (first job in field, should go up to around $35,000 later this year)
-Current NW about $30,000.
-No Debt
-Just opened Roth IRA this year, planning to max it
-401k opened, only gonna have about 2,000 in it by end of year though
-Currently 60% savings rate, I will never drop below this so FI should be ~10 years.

Cheers!

recklesslysober

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #84 on: March 17, 2017, 12:26:18 PM »
You are all doing amazing!

I wish I would have found MMM sooner, but I'm also glad I didn't find MMM any later.. This is my last year of my 20s, so I might as well post here while I still have the chance. ;)

Found MMM in June 2016 but didn't think I could do it. I started to come around more over the next few months and when I started a journal in November 2016 that's when things really started moving.

-$127K debt, -$117K NW in October 2016
-$112K debt, -$93K NW in March 2017
= ~24K in 6 months

Hopefully I can get to the -$60K NW area by my birthday next year!

FIREngineer

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #85 on: March 20, 2017, 01:22:56 PM »
Currently 28 and married.  Combined we have about 210k in invested assets.  Our goal is to have over 300k invested by the time we are 30.

With a conservative projection we will hit this number by August of 2017.  I turn 30 in March 2017, so my goal is to hit 300k before then. Gauntlet down.

Hit this mark sometime in February.  Pretty big milestone for us.  We went bowling to celebrate!

That's awesome, congrats!!!  We hit that mark about a year ago, and that is where things really started to take off.  Compounding after 300K invested is an amazing thing to watch.  I can't wait to see your future updates.  Do you have an FI timeline yet?

Cromacster

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Re: Saving in your 20's
« Reply #86 on: March 20, 2017, 01:31:42 PM »
Currently 28 and married.  Combined we have about 210k in invested assets.  Our goal is to have over 300k invested by the time we are 30.

With a conservative projection we will hit this number by August of 2017.  I turn 30 in March 2017, so my goal is to hit 300k before then. Gauntlet down.

Hit this mark sometime in February.  Pretty big milestone for us.  We went bowling to celebrate!

That's awesome, congrats!!!  We hit that mark about a year ago, and that is where things really started to take off.  Compounding after 300K invested is an amazing thing to watch.  I can't wait to see your future updates.  Do you have an FI timeline yet?

Thanks man, feels pretty good.

No hard set timeline yet.  Chances are we will take a extended hiatus before we actually FIRE.  Oddly enough, our timeline is based off our dog as our plans are not conducive to having a dog.  He's 4, so that could be 4 years from now or 10 years from now.