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 ;)!