Hi, I am 32 years old. When I was 19 I dropped out of college because I had a daughter and went into the workforce, quickly getting promoted and making great money at the time. Initially I was very frugal (my dad had RE, when I was in junior high) and I had picked up some of his habits. I was working a lot, taking care of my daughter (her mom dissapeared) and saving a lot without really even trying. However, within a couple years I saw my money growing and started thinking I need to enjoy life. I started spending like crazy. I stopped building savings. Three years ago I started a side business that did very well through dumb luck, and got married two years ago. Between my wife's income, my income, and my side business, we made over 220k each year in 2014 and 2015, yet my net worth was going nowhere. In early 2016 I decided enough was enough. I was making great money but spending it just as fast, and I was spending it on things that gave me happiness for only a short period of time. I came to realize I was more depressed than ever, and to see 440k of earnings in two years get frittered away with virtually nothing to show for it made me so disgusted at myself and what I had become. I finally drew the line in the sand and decided I was going to return myself to my old habits. I started reading MMM (refferal from my brother). The past two months I have been buying only necessities, drawing up a budget, cash flow projections and net worth projections. From 2003 until February 2016 I had built 378k in networth (most of that being 401k savings from 2003 to 2010 that grew with the market). I see myself/wife bringing in 250k in 2016 and 2017, and I should have a net worth of approx $500k by end of 2016 and $625k by the end of 2017. Although I'm disgusted by my financial behavior in the previous 5 years or so, I'm overjoyed with where I am headed. I feel like the people staring at there shadows in "The Allegory Of The Cave" and in the past couple months, I have finally seen the daylight. The past is the past, and I am extremely lucky in my ability to have very healthy earnings while living in a low cost-of-living area. My long-tem goals are to split our savings between retirement accounts and real estate rental properties and slowly but surely grow a real estate mini-empire that can not only set my wife and I up for the rest of our lives, but our children and (eventual) grandchildren as well.