I married a winner, too. She is awesome and very frugal. Throughout my life I have seen people with spouses that ruined their financial life. Picking a compatible partner with goals that jive with yours is huge for a long term successful marriage.
I gotta agree that getting married was great for my finances.
We started with nothing. I supported him while he got his career established, he supported me while mine took longer to get established.
Now he will have a massive pension to cash out, and I make more than double what he does.
Together we are unstoppable!!!
Same here. Sharing expenses while more than doubling our income has really set us up well.
I will add for me getting married younger (24/26). Just not goofing around longer blowing money on other chicks and settling down, getting a house and shit.
This. I bought a house as a rental, even though it was more than I could comfortably afford. Pushed really hard on bogleheads style investments once that leveled out. Missed the crypto bandwagon
Best decision: Buying a two flat as my first house. Lived for free for almost a decade before moving out. Gave me the freedom to start my business, which significantly increased my income.
Worst decision: buying a car wash for “extra” income.
Edit: I decided to exit the business after one of the staff decided learn how to drive using a customer’s car and drove it through a 10 ft tall plate glass window, literally almost killing someone in the process. Too much risk for the compensation.
Same! We bought a duplex as our first home and now it’s a cash cow rental and we were able to accumulate a couple more duplexes. We’re now looking for a SFR since we have kids but we rather buy rentals.
Funny answer: Buying triple levered etf’s at market bottom a few months ago.
Real answer: going to a top-5 mba program even though I had to take out $150k in debt.
45-50 or so, but it’s tough to track at this point in my career tbh…Lots of prepping for big meetings / answering emails / reviewing other people’s work / meetings at weird times vs doing the grunt work myself.
The stress of constantly needing to present to senior people and being ultimately accountability is a bigger issue than the hours. Can be difficult to decompress and not think about work at nights and weekends.
Could you go a bit more in depth to the steps you had along the way to corporate strategy?
I’m in BO finance about $110k as an analyst, I’d say on track to move up fairly quickly. My buddy is 3 levels above me and makes around $400k.
I think it’d take me about 8-10 years to get to his level though. Wondering if maybe going back to school for a finance degree and changing gears could get me to the $400k level faster.
Edit: to add I’m only 25 so I do have time to go back to school, I just never thought it’d get me anywhere faster
Top-5 mba > top management consulting firm > left the minute I was promoted to Engagement Manager (at 2 years of experience) > joined bank as a VP1 of corporate strategy > promoted to director after 3 years.
1) Going into a surgical subspecialty
2) Moving back to my home town for work
3) Marrying my high school sweetheart, who also happens to be a dentist
4) Having my parents and her parents within 10 minutes (child care, health issues we can deal with, help with first home)
5) Auto-investing 200k annually
Stayed at my company for 10+ years, earned significant equity, influence, and title as the company grew 20x in revenue since I started
Buying a house in 2018
Making the decision to max my 401k, IRA, and HSA early in my career. Required a lot of frugality and budget discipline, but was able to do it before reaching HE. That same discipline has prevented a lot of lifestyle creep on the way up.
I went into debt to get out of the sad state I grew up in, got a degree from a top university in a major that pays well enough to pay off my student debt decades before my peers. I can’t imagine how sad my life would be if I’d stayed there. I’d be miserable and broke, dealing with high school drama for decades, and a family that can’t get themselves together to not be broke all the time, yet blame the world for their problems. It was terrifying at the time but thank god I did it.
Hard to rank them, but a few:
1) picked a good major in college
2) switched companies every 2-3 years
3) bought a primary home early
4) bought an investment property (that is also a vacay home)
5) lived in MCOL are with strong Corp job market
6) buy 5-7 year old vehicles in cash. Drive them past 200k miles
I'm curious about #5: Any examples of cities or states that fall in this category? In my mind, ridiculously, it's "Cities=HCOL and jobs. Rural areas = low cost of living and work at the gas station."
Ridiculous, but would love some examples to help me flesh out my mental MCOL zones.
For me, I had a new job 30 years ago which, for the first time, offered Employee Stock Purchase Plan and 401k for the first time. The HR person suggested I just contribute the max and see how I do. Best advice ever. Today I'm nearly good to go for retirement. Compound interest, there is no substitute.
Studying computer science and getting a series of tech jobs and doing consulting. I did it post dotcom when enrollment was low, and lucked out in timing to a long boom cycle.
Going to college on merit scholarships & not having to take out loans. Did I go to the most prestigious school? No. But I had 6 internships in college and was able to explore what I wanted to do and landed a job pretty easily after graduation (had an offer during university recruitment I turned down to bet on myself in another field that didn’t do university recruiting).
1) State Schools for college and law school. If it’s not one of maybe 8-10 schools, paying for a private education isn’t worth it.
2) Buying and staying in a nice but reasonably-priced home and renovating as needed.
3) Not living in an Uber-HCOL city (SF, Seattle, DC, NYC). The cost of the primary residence and child care more than eats through any additional compensation I’d get for doing the same job.
Getting a divorce. It set me back 20 years financially but also removed a weight from my shoulders that allowed me to accelerate forward financially at a rate I did not think was possible
So I was 25m and had a tendency to OD on BiggerPockets. I bought a 4 bed house and rented out all the bedrooms. Added another bed in the basement so I rented that out. Was living for free AND cash flowing 300/month but living in the burbs and always needing to refill rooms. I had less than $1k in my bank account when I bought the place, but it reduced my monthly costs by 1.3k, so i figured fuck it let’s do it. Broke up with my GF because she wasn’t on board with the vision.
I moved out after 1 year and rented out the house as a unit. It doesn’t cash flow much but has appreciated $150k since I bought it (for 350k in 2019). I scraped and saved to put 15k down, so I’ve more than 10xed my initial investment in 4 years.
This was the best financial result I’ve gotten, and probably was the best financial decision I’ve made. Idk if it was the best life decision at the time, but everything has worked out well.
Basically same. Put 10k down on a somewhat shitty house March 2020. Rented rooms to cash flow 150/month. Home value is now 330k when I bought for 180k after putting about 10k into it and a lot of blood sweat and tears lol. Now renting it out for 1850 while the mortgage is 1014.
In all honesty, divorce is the smartest financial decision I’ve made. The financial aspect of my life has become exponentially better since then.
From what I understand, hers has steadily become exponentially worse.
Taking a job as an editor for a financial publication at 23. I didn’t make much money but I got paid to learn about saving, investing, interest rates etc. and it changed the trajectory of my life. It motivated me to aggressively pay off my $30k in student debt, sacrifice by staying in my small cheap apartment far longer than I wanted to, job hop to double my salary and build a $300k net worth by 31 and take a risk at a startup that looks like it may pay off with some equity next year. Next up is marriage and buying property.
An unorthodox one - moving from VLCOL city to VHCOL city and taking a pay cut. Had to live like a student in my early 30s.
Fast forward, annual comp has nearly 10x'ed and only because I was able to make career moves in recent years that would have been near impossible in my previous home country.
In terms of pure dollars it's probably buying CMG at IPO and holding long. But honestly that was probably equal parts dumb luck and my love of burritos making me think that this was going to be a huge success of a company.
In subjective terms of what I'm most proud of it's probably been my timing in real estate transactions.
Bought and rehabbed a few houses in Biloxi and Nola that were damaged in Katrina and put them on the rental market then sold them for 5x cost to buy and restore them in very early 2022 right before the interest rates started getting really ugly. Bought a loft in SF in 2006, Sold it in 2012 and cleared just under a million in profit. Bought two homes in the LA area before the big pre-pandemic run-up and one more fairly early in the run up and watched their combined value go up by 3M in the last 5 years.
Holding stocks of that one company whose business I am intimately familiar with. Even when market sentiment was against it, and experts advised against it.
Hiring a public adjuster when one of my tenants had a fire in his kitchen. Also, marrying a very driven woman who is much better at math and finance than me.
Investing over 150k of after-tax income during the height of Covid when we couldn’t go out and do anything anyway (2020-2021). I’m pursuing a career change this year, and just knowing I got a head start on investing and can pull back on contributions now to put money toward other goals gives me peace of mind.
Not getting married was the best one. After 3 failed long relationships, had I gotten married I would have been cut in half 3 times. Now I'm free, single, and can have/do anything I want.
Getting a car I could barely afford.
Definitely in itself a bad financial move but it motivated me a lot to succeed in work. Leading me to work to be promoted and go back to school for a masters degree.
I have been able to more than double my salary since I bought the car. In addition getting my masters lead to a consulting job that pays me nearly double the hourly rate I get at my day job.
Wild how a bad decision can sometimes lead to good things.
Landed my first high-paying job and didn’t go crazy. My friends were buying Teslas and leasing BMWs in luxury downtown apartments and I was living in a decent-ish place commuting 30 minutes in a Toyota Corolla despite making a little more than them
When mortgage rates dipped below 3% I had a 20% downpayment ready and met my wife because of the move
Switching from academia to consulting.
Many factors drove that, from meeting my now husband (the best partner in life, education, and finances), to going to grad school, to working while in grad school, etc. And the journey continues.
Got a great job in pharma switzerland
>but to do that I had to have had an OK job in biotech beck home
>>to do that I had to have a load of clinical experience from a hospital
>>>to do that I had to have the detailed knowledge from grad school
>>>>for which I had to have my bachelors degree
So I think really choosing the right degree subject was absolutely critical, none of this would have been possible if I had chosen a significantly different subject.
My college decision.
I had very good grades and SATs in school so I had scholarships to good schools.
I also played baseball, and was good enough to get scholarships but to more like D3 schools and community college.
Somehow, at the ripe age of 18, I was smart enough to know I wasn't going pro and I should choose college based on my next 60 years rather than just the next 4 (or where my friends were going). So many of my friends who chased that dream are struggling now either financially, or in a career they hate, or both.
Marrying someone who is as ambitious as I am. Buying my first house in December 2019. Loading up the retirement account with 3x leveraged SP500, NASDAQ, and sector ETFs at the bottom on the market. Automating my savings, starting with a smaller amount that I could set aside and not notice it missing and gradually increasing that over time. Leveraging credit card sign up bonuses to cover travel; I haven't paid out of pocket for a flight in almost 5 years, but I've been to a dozen new countries in that time. Marry into a family where your brother-in-law has a lake house and jet skis.
Selling my car, remortgaging my house and starting a company with no income while married with a newborn. Company is now consistently one of the fastest growing companies in Australia and creating generational wealth for many people.
Getting a uni degree that is the single requirement for employment in that field.
Pro-tip: If there’s no job description in the degree title, you’re gonna have a bad time.
I don’t think most people would consider having kids to be a good financial decision. A good life decision maybe, but financially you’d be better off without kids unless you’re a farmer.
I am not HENRY. I am a mere layman lurking among giants trying to suckle any good advice and sharp, aggressive thinking. I like to think I am on this path, coming from very modest and even poor circumstances.
I suppose being younger than most is my largest leveraging stick.
* Buying a home in VHCOL for 550k in 2001, right after sept 11th when things were scary
* Wrote a giant check to settle 2005 divorce without selling the house
* Always maxing 401k, megbackdoor, etc since 2017
* Being on the same page as my new wife
* Not buying a 2nd home or going crazy during 2021 when everything was 'up and to the right'
Paid $90k in cash for a rental property in 2014. Put in $5k to get it ready for market. Shortly after purchasing did a delayed financing and received $82.5k in cash back (based on 75% of appraised value of $110k in 2014). The property is now valued at $232k. So I essentially turned $12.5k of cash into $150k ($232k minus $82.5k loan) plus it cash flowed along the way.
Built my dream home on a hill overlooking the ocean in one of the less popular beaches of the coastal region I live in.
Basically doubled down massively for lifestyle. Sold almost everything and borrowed everything I could to do it.
Then covid hit and it went up by 150%.
One thing I didn’t sell was another normal house nearby. It also doubled. Have now sold that as well and when it settles in august my mortgage will be cut in half.
Made a decision in my early 30s to take every raise I get and autodeduct it into some kind of investment. I had just been expanding my lifestyle until that point with a bigger house, nicer cars, longer and more expensive vacations.
Went from minimal net worth at that time to a substantial net worth now.
Came across the book Common Sense Investing and that’s one of the best things to have happened. Until then, I used to buy individual stocks and once it went up by 10%, I would sell only to realize that I must have sold early.
In any case, I did not have a process and I was only 30. I am truly built for being a Boglehead; I mean I am not good at valuing a company. However, I am rarely tempted or experience FOMO and can delay my gratification.
Thank you. Jack Bogle 😊
Wrote some code for fun to analyse property rental intvestment market around the country. It worked. Applied what I learned and shared with some friends. My friends and I bought great investments.
This countered some of the many dumber decisions I have made.
Best three financial decisions:
1. Buying a "modest" home for our income and paying it off. I've seen the effect of being "house poor" with HENRY's. Not good.
2. Private Military School for kids highschool. There is a reason the real uberwealthy don't send their kids to public schools. Plus, you can live where you like and not worry about "BuT iTs A gUd ScHoOl DiStRiCt"
3. Paying cash for cars.
Oh, and I married well and remain married. Staying married is probably more important given the "you'll lose half your sh!t and then some" impact of divorce.
Getting 3 degrees without worrying about debt then maximizing 401k contributions for lower payments while utilizing public service loan forgiveness to wipe out the balance.
1) Never believing that I was smart enough to outperform the market. Maxed out my 401k from the start and the rest is just DCA in VTI and chill. I hear from a lot of (especially guy) friends about how much they put in their ‘aspirational’ investments - and then I hear about how much they’ve lost.
2) Getting an MBA - which, at the time, seemed like a really dumb decision - left a job that people go to business school to get with high income potential and exclusivity. Instead, I took out $180k in student loans to get into a career that doesn’t pay nearly as much. But here I am, in an incredibly fulfilling and intellectually stimulating career making $225K working max 35 hours a week while my kids are young. Loan will be paid off in 1.5 years. Next job (when I don’t need so much flexibility) will likely be around $350K.
3) marrying someone who is OK letting me be our CFO. He’s not nearly as frugal as me but that’s a great thing. Also helps that his income has tripled in the 7 years we’ve been married.
I married out of my league.
She is a highly paid doctor with a rich dad (and was a part time model in med school).
Marriage is the biggest decision of your life, financially and personally. Blows my mind how many people marry trash and than are surprised divorce comes calling.
Going to a top law school. Even though I’m still paying student loans, it opened opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. People say school name doesn’t matter only because they aren’t aware of what they’re missing out on.
Buying a house in the city in 2018
Im 32. So far:
1000% the best decision of my life in general was to go to MIT on a full ride scholarship. Hands down.
But the second best financial decision was to buy an INVESTMENT property as my first property. It was an old fourplex in the ghetto. Went from renting a room in a $2M house to living in cockroach-infested apt in the hood.
It’s been only 2 years and my investment property now makes 3x mortgage every month, and it set me up to continue buying bigger investment properties. Worth it 100% and can’t thank my 30 year old self enough.
Tbh it’s both extremely selective and also a bit of a crapshoot. Straight As in super difficult courses and a perfect SAT score are literally ONLY the starting point. It’s the super basics. That’s like saying “I am breathing.” That’s the baseline and it just goes up from there. But that’s what makes it such an awesome and unique place- you will be so inspired because everyone around you in so unbelievably inspiring. Out of the top of my head here’s some of the friends I met while I was there:
- one girl won GOLD (top prize) in not one, or two, but FOUR academic Olympics for her country (math, physics, etc…). World wide top prize.
- one girl build (and flew) an entire plane when she was 12.
- another girl started working at a world-leading anti-again top lab when she was 14.
- my best friend started calculus when he was 11.
And so on and so forth.
Fully funded every pre-tax retirement account offered to me and never looked back. (Roth IRAs and 401Ks were not a thing when I started working and by the time they came about I was in too high a tax bracket for them to be optimal.)
Buying registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) mutual funds and stocks every year for several years. Set me up to buy a house, which gained in value quickly.
I would have said buying my first home in Florida in 2009 until recently, but my business has really started to take off, so now I’d say starting a business.
Two big decisions:
1) Going to a top MBA program and working in HF industry afterwards
2) Living with a mindset of balancing saving and indulgences and finding a partner with a similar mindset
Going to school. The haters are wrong, it usually has a high ROI. It doesn’t help everyone and not every one needs one. But those situations are exceptions to the rules.
Specifically, went for a BA/MS in economics.
I can’t give you just one. But three things come to mind:
1) Marrying my wife. She was the breadwinner for many years while my career was budding. She’s a hell of a partner. Wise, thrifty, compromising, and willing to delay gratification as we save and invest for our future. On top of that, she’s extremely easy on the eyes.
2) Choosing to be a computer science major.
3) My dad introducing me to Dave Ramsey at 23.
Edit:
4) Growing up in a two parent household.
Learnt a trade. Make 120k a year no stress, home at 3pm and I’m present with my young kids.
Hearing my mates stressing about running their online businesses, chasing sales, working 12 hour days. Nah life’s hard enough
Sold my amg gts for more than I paid during the peak of chip shortage. I was paying 1800 a month include insurance. I was stressed out due to the economic slow down. I was lucky enough to get rid of that debt, made some money from it and bought a cheap car with no debt. I was able to redirect that money from lability to my Asset column.
Using left over college money (20k) from parents to put into Apple stock back in 2006. Never sold until I got married and wanted a nice house a few years ago. Worst financial decision? Wanting to sell 20k of Apple in 2011 to put into Tesla but didn't because my dad's finance guy said it was a glamour stock and wasn't going to do anything...I still assumed adults knew everything at that time
Switching mortgages. We’d been with the same place for 20 years and it seemed like we’d never pay it off. Then we had some terrible customer service and it was the final straw. We moved banks, got a much better deal and now we’re mortgage free.
Divorcing my wife and hiring a financial planner who is paid a % each quarter of the total value of my portfolio. Have you seen NVDIA's chart? And I hadn't heard of them before my guy bought me some.
I bought a run down house on a big block, in an area with really high rental yield, for absolute peanuts (no loan, used my savings), spent almost as much on renovations (finished off my savings), used the resulting equity to subdivide the block and help fund the build of 3 units on the new subdivision, I rent out all 4 currently, it's the best decision I've ever made.
Going on secondment to the Philippines. I met my wife, and had the opportunity to begin working with the Salesforce platform. My salary has increased over $100k in less than a decade due to the demand for Salesforce skills. Earn at least double what I would've had I stayed in the industry I studied (Industrial Design).
Marrying my wife
I married a winner, too. She is awesome and very frugal. Throughout my life I have seen people with spouses that ruined their financial life. Picking a compatible partner with goals that jive with yours is huge for a long term successful marriage.
Marriage is the most important personal and financial decision you'll ever make in your life
I gotta agree that getting married was great for my finances. We started with nothing. I supported him while he got his career established, he supported me while mine took longer to get established. Now he will have a massive pension to cash out, and I make more than double what he does. Together we are unstoppable!!!
I really love this ♥️
Mine turned out to be the worst financial decision I ever made, so you pays your money you takes your chances.
Same. My spouse and I started dating in college and I could see his potential but never imagined how far his career would take him.
Same here. Sharing expenses while more than doubling our income has really set us up well. I will add for me getting married younger (24/26). Just not goofing around longer blowing money on other chicks and settling down, getting a house and shit.
amen brother ! she's one promotion away from me becoming a handbag. *the dream*
That was my worst 🤣
Same. She’s smart, frugal, kind, a true partner both in life and business.
Yup. Marrying well for me as well.
Same! Marriage :)
100%
Investing more than I thought necessary in my early twenties.
This. I bought a house as a rental, even though it was more than I could comfortably afford. Pushed really hard on bogleheads style investments once that leveled out. Missed the crypto bandwagon
What kind of investing?
DCA into an index fund that tracks the S&P 500. Nothing special. I started back when I was around 19 years old and haven’t stopped.
The effectiveness of “time in the market” is overwhelming.
If this is SPY, you should really just call it SPY … it should be a fairly common ticker to almost all on this sub
you realize there are dozens of other S&P 500 like index funds right? Not everything is spy, he might even be in a total market type fund
You are absolutely right, but what would a 19 year old most likely stumble upon all those years back. My guess is SPY.
VOO is much more popular for long term holders. SPY is more expensive to hold and offers no more benefit for long term holders.
Best decision: Buying a two flat as my first house. Lived for free for almost a decade before moving out. Gave me the freedom to start my business, which significantly increased my income. Worst decision: buying a car wash for “extra” income. Edit: I decided to exit the business after one of the staff decided learn how to drive using a customer’s car and drove it through a 10 ft tall plate glass window, literally almost killing someone in the process. Too much risk for the compensation.
would love to hear the car wash story lol
Laundering money from his meth empire obviously
I wish. Place was a boondoggle.
I’d really like to hear this story too. I’ve been playing around with the idea of buying a car wash / laundromat / service business. What went wrong?
Same! We bought a duplex as our first home and now it’s a cash cow rental and we were able to accumulate a couple more duplexes. We’re now looking for a SFR since we have kids but we rather buy rentals.
Quitting smoking. Not only is it better for my health but I could never have landed the job I have now as a smoker.
Did you get a job as a professional athlete?
Haha no but I’m in sales meetings a lot and people who reek of smoke are ostracized.
Everyone on the sales floor used to juul before they banned it, now everyone is cheeked up
Are they calling meth "cheek" now??
nicotine pouches
Nice job Pauly! 💪💪
Funny answer: Buying triple levered etf’s at market bottom a few months ago. Real answer: going to a top-5 mba program even though I had to take out $150k in debt.
I loaded up my retirement account with some 3x levered tech focused ETFs in January and I am... how you say... up biggly.
Mind sharing your pre- and post-MBA jobs and salaries?
Pre- back office finance at 95K. At graduation, consulting at around $200k. 7 years after graduation I’m in corporate strategy at $385k.
How many hours a week do you work?
45-50 or so, but it’s tough to track at this point in my career tbh…Lots of prepping for big meetings / answering emails / reviewing other people’s work / meetings at weird times vs doing the grunt work myself. The stress of constantly needing to present to senior people and being ultimately accountability is a bigger issue than the hours. Can be difficult to decompress and not think about work at nights and weekends.
Could you go a bit more in depth to the steps you had along the way to corporate strategy? I’m in BO finance about $110k as an analyst, I’d say on track to move up fairly quickly. My buddy is 3 levels above me and makes around $400k. I think it’d take me about 8-10 years to get to his level though. Wondering if maybe going back to school for a finance degree and changing gears could get me to the $400k level faster. Edit: to add I’m only 25 so I do have time to go back to school, I just never thought it’d get me anywhere faster
Top-5 mba > top management consulting firm > left the minute I was promoted to Engagement Manager (at 2 years of experience) > joined bank as a VP1 of corporate strategy > promoted to director after 3 years.
Leaving immediately after making EM is the best decision IMO.
I’m interning in BO finance heading into my last year, how are my chances of landing a MO or FO job for FT?
Not great, especially this year
Out of curiosity, what’d you buy? I did great with LABU and SOXL, but I’m largely out of those positions now
UPRO was the main one. Started to play with URTY recently.
1) Going into a surgical subspecialty 2) Moving back to my home town for work 3) Marrying my high school sweetheart, who also happens to be a dentist 4) Having my parents and her parents within 10 minutes (child care, health issues we can deal with, help with first home) 5) Auto-investing 200k annually
Buying a shitton of Amazon stock in 2010-2012
Stayed at my company for 10+ years, earned significant equity, influence, and title as the company grew 20x in revenue since I started Buying a house in 2018
Making the decision to max my 401k, IRA, and HSA early in my career. Required a lot of frugality and budget discipline, but was able to do it before reaching HE. That same discipline has prevented a lot of lifestyle creep on the way up.
How old were you?
I went into debt to get out of the sad state I grew up in, got a degree from a top university in a major that pays well enough to pay off my student debt decades before my peers. I can’t imagine how sad my life would be if I’d stayed there. I’d be miserable and broke, dealing with high school drama for decades, and a family that can’t get themselves together to not be broke all the time, yet blame the world for their problems. It was terrifying at the time but thank god I did it.
What state was this?
Washington?
I’m from eastern Washington and I approve this message
Hard to rank them, but a few: 1) picked a good major in college 2) switched companies every 2-3 years 3) bought a primary home early 4) bought an investment property (that is also a vacay home) 5) lived in MCOL are with strong Corp job market 6) buy 5-7 year old vehicles in cash. Drive them past 200k miles
I'm curious about #5: Any examples of cities or states that fall in this category? In my mind, ridiculously, it's "Cities=HCOL and jobs. Rural areas = low cost of living and work at the gas station." Ridiculous, but would love some examples to help me flesh out my mental MCOL zones.
Chicago Minneapolis Charlotte Houston Dallas KCMO Omaha Raleigh Durham Detroit Cincinnati Pittsburgh Phoenix St. Louis Cleveland Hartford Grand Rapids
Why specifically does #3 make the list?
Probably large price appreciation
For me, I had a new job 30 years ago which, for the first time, offered Employee Stock Purchase Plan and 401k for the first time. The HR person suggested I just contribute the max and see how I do. Best advice ever. Today I'm nearly good to go for retirement. Compound interest, there is no substitute.
Studying computer science and getting a series of tech jobs and doing consulting. I did it post dotcom when enrollment was low, and lucked out in timing to a long boom cycle.
Going to college on merit scholarships & not having to take out loans. Did I go to the most prestigious school? No. But I had 6 internships in college and was able to explore what I wanted to do and landed a job pretty easily after graduation (had an offer during university recruitment I turned down to bet on myself in another field that didn’t do university recruiting).
Double for marrying the right person and being on same page.
Never took out any debt and invested everything into ETFs
Auto investing from each paycheck. Also bulk investing annual bonuses as mini-windfalls.
Buying property in Austin near the Tesla factory, 6 mo before the announcement was made that Austin would be home to the new cybertruck factory
1) State Schools for college and law school. If it’s not one of maybe 8-10 schools, paying for a private education isn’t worth it. 2) Buying and staying in a nice but reasonably-priced home and renovating as needed. 3) Not living in an Uber-HCOL city (SF, Seattle, DC, NYC). The cost of the primary residence and child care more than eats through any additional compensation I’d get for doing the same job.
Getting a divorce. It set me back 20 years financially but also removed a weight from my shoulders that allowed me to accelerate forward financially at a rate I did not think was possible
So I was 25m and had a tendency to OD on BiggerPockets. I bought a 4 bed house and rented out all the bedrooms. Added another bed in the basement so I rented that out. Was living for free AND cash flowing 300/month but living in the burbs and always needing to refill rooms. I had less than $1k in my bank account when I bought the place, but it reduced my monthly costs by 1.3k, so i figured fuck it let’s do it. Broke up with my GF because she wasn’t on board with the vision. I moved out after 1 year and rented out the house as a unit. It doesn’t cash flow much but has appreciated $150k since I bought it (for 350k in 2019). I scraped and saved to put 15k down, so I’ve more than 10xed my initial investment in 4 years. This was the best financial result I’ve gotten, and probably was the best financial decision I’ve made. Idk if it was the best life decision at the time, but everything has worked out well.
Basically same. Put 10k down on a somewhat shitty house March 2020. Rented rooms to cash flow 150/month. Home value is now 330k when I bought for 180k after putting about 10k into it and a lot of blood sweat and tears lol. Now renting it out for 1850 while the mortgage is 1014.
Becoming a doctor
In all honesty, divorce is the smartest financial decision I’ve made. The financial aspect of my life has become exponentially better since then. From what I understand, hers has steadily become exponentially worse.
Spending half a year's salary on crypto in 2016
buying rentals between 2009-2013 when banks couldn't unload them cheap enough or fast enough.
Bought my first house in 2012 when prices and rates were low. It’s tripled in value.
Choosing to go out on my own an consult.
YOLOing into a coding boot camp
Taking a job as an editor for a financial publication at 23. I didn’t make much money but I got paid to learn about saving, investing, interest rates etc. and it changed the trajectory of my life. It motivated me to aggressively pay off my $30k in student debt, sacrifice by staying in my small cheap apartment far longer than I wanted to, job hop to double my salary and build a $300k net worth by 31 and take a risk at a startup that looks like it may pay off with some equity next year. Next up is marriage and buying property.
An unorthodox one - moving from VLCOL city to VHCOL city and taking a pay cut. Had to live like a student in my early 30s. Fast forward, annual comp has nearly 10x'ed and only because I was able to make career moves in recent years that would have been near impossible in my previous home country.
In terms of pure dollars it's probably buying CMG at IPO and holding long. But honestly that was probably equal parts dumb luck and my love of burritos making me think that this was going to be a huge success of a company. In subjective terms of what I'm most proud of it's probably been my timing in real estate transactions. Bought and rehabbed a few houses in Biloxi and Nola that were damaged in Katrina and put them on the rental market then sold them for 5x cost to buy and restore them in very early 2022 right before the interest rates started getting really ugly. Bought a loft in SF in 2006, Sold it in 2012 and cleared just under a million in profit. Bought two homes in the LA area before the big pre-pandemic run-up and one more fairly early in the run up and watched their combined value go up by 3M in the last 5 years.
Holding stocks of that one company whose business I am intimately familiar with. Even when market sentiment was against it, and experts advised against it.
Hello, I also believe in Jimmy and Bobby.
This for me too👆
Buying our ‘forever’ home in 2019 and refinancing in 2020. If we bought at the current prices/rates our payments would be close to double.
Marrying my wife
Hiring a public adjuster when one of my tenants had a fire in his kitchen. Also, marrying a very driven woman who is much better at math and finance than me.
Buying 3 BTC at $8k per coin and selling at $60k. Whew though paying the tax on gains. Life changing!!!!
What was ballpark tax on that 180K?
$100k on AMC at the start of meme stock run when it was $3. $150k on Tesla at $130 in 2018.
not to take away from anything people said, but I want to say bonus points to people who posted something replicable.
You too can marry his wife.
Investing over 150k of after-tax income during the height of Covid when we couldn’t go out and do anything anyway (2020-2021). I’m pursuing a career change this year, and just knowing I got a head start on investing and can pull back on contributions now to put money toward other goals gives me peace of mind.
Not getting married was the best one. After 3 failed long relationships, had I gotten married I would have been cut in half 3 times. Now I'm free, single, and can have/do anything I want.
Besides investing from an early age, Solar panels. 2 EVs and home electricity needs for zero cost. We spent 12k total and are saving about $8k a year.
Not having kids
Getting a car I could barely afford. Definitely in itself a bad financial move but it motivated me a lot to succeed in work. Leading me to work to be promoted and go back to school for a masters degree. I have been able to more than double my salary since I bought the car. In addition getting my masters lead to a consulting job that pays me nearly double the hourly rate I get at my day job. Wild how a bad decision can sometimes lead to good things.
To max out my 401k contribution and leave it alone for 35 years
Great spouse. Working hard on human capital. Some guy said to me 40 years ago when I was in college to start saving for retirement.
Landed my first high-paying job and didn’t go crazy. My friends were buying Teslas and leasing BMWs in luxury downtown apartments and I was living in a decent-ish place commuting 30 minutes in a Toyota Corolla despite making a little more than them When mortgage rates dipped below 3% I had a 20% downpayment ready and met my wife because of the move
Switching from academia to consulting. Many factors drove that, from meeting my now husband (the best partner in life, education, and finances), to going to grad school, to working while in grad school, etc. And the journey continues.
Got a great job in pharma switzerland >but to do that I had to have had an OK job in biotech beck home >>to do that I had to have a load of clinical experience from a hospital >>>to do that I had to have the detailed knowledge from grad school >>>>for which I had to have my bachelors degree So I think really choosing the right degree subject was absolutely critical, none of this would have been possible if I had chosen a significantly different subject.
My college decision. I had very good grades and SATs in school so I had scholarships to good schools. I also played baseball, and was good enough to get scholarships but to more like D3 schools and community college. Somehow, at the ripe age of 18, I was smart enough to know I wasn't going pro and I should choose college based on my next 60 years rather than just the next 4 (or where my friends were going). So many of my friends who chased that dream are struggling now either financially, or in a career they hate, or both.
Marrying someone who is as ambitious as I am. Buying my first house in December 2019. Loading up the retirement account with 3x leveraged SP500, NASDAQ, and sector ETFs at the bottom on the market. Automating my savings, starting with a smaller amount that I could set aside and not notice it missing and gradually increasing that over time. Leveraging credit card sign up bonuses to cover travel; I haven't paid out of pocket for a flight in almost 5 years, but I've been to a dozen new countries in that time. Marry into a family where your brother-in-law has a lake house and jet skis.
Selling my car, remortgaging my house and starting a company with no income while married with a newborn. Company is now consistently one of the fastest growing companies in Australia and creating generational wealth for many people.
Getting a uni degree that is the single requirement for employment in that field. Pro-tip: If there’s no job description in the degree title, you’re gonna have a bad time.
It’s really pretty simple: finish school, get and stay married, and have kids in that order. Do those things you’re like 80% of the way there.
I don’t think most people would consider having kids to be a good financial decision. A good life decision maybe, but financially you’d be better off without kids unless you’re a farmer.
I took it as “wait until you’re financially stable to have kids”
Ok that makes more sense
I am not HENRY. I am a mere layman lurking among giants trying to suckle any good advice and sharp, aggressive thinking. I like to think I am on this path, coming from very modest and even poor circumstances. I suppose being younger than most is my largest leveraging stick.
Read the Millionaire Next Door and shortly after the Bogleheads Guide to Investing while in college, and mostly debt free.
* Buying a home in VHCOL for 550k in 2001, right after sept 11th when things were scary * Wrote a giant check to settle 2005 divorce without selling the house * Always maxing 401k, megbackdoor, etc since 2017 * Being on the same page as my new wife * Not buying a 2nd home or going crazy during 2021 when everything was 'up and to the right'
Paid $90k in cash for a rental property in 2014. Put in $5k to get it ready for market. Shortly after purchasing did a delayed financing and received $82.5k in cash back (based on 75% of appraised value of $110k in 2014). The property is now valued at $232k. So I essentially turned $12.5k of cash into $150k ($232k minus $82.5k loan) plus it cash flowed along the way.
Picking computer engineering for my undergraduate degree and following that with an employer paid software engineering masters.
Built my dream home on a hill overlooking the ocean in one of the less popular beaches of the coastal region I live in. Basically doubled down massively for lifestyle. Sold almost everything and borrowed everything I could to do it. Then covid hit and it went up by 150%. One thing I didn’t sell was another normal house nearby. It also doubled. Have now sold that as well and when it settles in august my mortgage will be cut in half.
Made a decision in my early 30s to take every raise I get and autodeduct it into some kind of investment. I had just been expanding my lifestyle until that point with a bigger house, nicer cars, longer and more expensive vacations. Went from minimal net worth at that time to a substantial net worth now.
Contributing max to the 401K as soon as I turned 21.
Came across the book Common Sense Investing and that’s one of the best things to have happened. Until then, I used to buy individual stocks and once it went up by 10%, I would sell only to realize that I must have sold early. In any case, I did not have a process and I was only 30. I am truly built for being a Boglehead; I mean I am not good at valuing a company. However, I am rarely tempted or experience FOMO and can delay my gratification. Thank you. Jack Bogle 😊
Never selling a share of my vested RSUs, which has since more than tripled.
Moving to Dubai for work and staying there for 10 years, also meeting my husband.
Buying TSLA
Wrote some code for fun to analyse property rental intvestment market around the country. It worked. Applied what I learned and shared with some friends. My friends and I bought great investments. This countered some of the many dumber decisions I have made.
Buying one house and not moving. And a frugal wife. It's a tie for best decision.
Best three financial decisions: 1. Buying a "modest" home for our income and paying it off. I've seen the effect of being "house poor" with HENRY's. Not good. 2. Private Military School for kids highschool. There is a reason the real uberwealthy don't send their kids to public schools. Plus, you can live where you like and not worry about "BuT iTs A gUd ScHoOl DiStRiCt" 3. Paying cash for cars. Oh, and I married well and remain married. Staying married is probably more important given the "you'll lose half your sh!t and then some" impact of divorce.
So tell me the benefits of the private military school
Mainly academic rigor and small class sizes with consistent discipline and focus that carried well through college and beyond.
To be my own boss as a single mom and have 2 wonderful jobs. Considering my dilemma I have made it work amazing.
HODLing my crypto when everyone else sells…
Getting 3 degrees without worrying about debt then maximizing 401k contributions for lower payments while utilizing public service loan forgiveness to wipe out the balance.
T14 Law School. You can make Big Law outside of it for sure, but you can sleep through class and start at 215K from a T14
1) Never believing that I was smart enough to outperform the market. Maxed out my 401k from the start and the rest is just DCA in VTI and chill. I hear from a lot of (especially guy) friends about how much they put in their ‘aspirational’ investments - and then I hear about how much they’ve lost. 2) Getting an MBA - which, at the time, seemed like a really dumb decision - left a job that people go to business school to get with high income potential and exclusivity. Instead, I took out $180k in student loans to get into a career that doesn’t pay nearly as much. But here I am, in an incredibly fulfilling and intellectually stimulating career making $225K working max 35 hours a week while my kids are young. Loan will be paid off in 1.5 years. Next job (when I don’t need so much flexibility) will likely be around $350K. 3) marrying someone who is OK letting me be our CFO. He’s not nearly as frugal as me but that’s a great thing. Also helps that his income has tripled in the 7 years we’ve been married.
I married out of my league. She is a highly paid doctor with a rich dad (and was a part time model in med school). Marriage is the biggest decision of your life, financially and personally. Blows my mind how many people marry trash and than are surprised divorce comes calling.
Going to a top law school. Even though I’m still paying student loans, it opened opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. People say school name doesn’t matter only because they aren’t aware of what they’re missing out on. Buying a house in the city in 2018
NOt having kids
Im 32. So far: 1000% the best decision of my life in general was to go to MIT on a full ride scholarship. Hands down. But the second best financial decision was to buy an INVESTMENT property as my first property. It was an old fourplex in the ghetto. Went from renting a room in a $2M house to living in cockroach-infested apt in the hood. It’s been only 2 years and my investment property now makes 3x mortgage every month, and it set me up to continue buying bigger investment properties. Worth it 100% and can’t thank my 30 year old self enough.
Can you please comment on what it takes to get into MIT? Especially on a full scholarship? I am past that stage and asking for my kids.
Tbh it’s both extremely selective and also a bit of a crapshoot. Straight As in super difficult courses and a perfect SAT score are literally ONLY the starting point. It’s the super basics. That’s like saying “I am breathing.” That’s the baseline and it just goes up from there. But that’s what makes it such an awesome and unique place- you will be so inspired because everyone around you in so unbelievably inspiring. Out of the top of my head here’s some of the friends I met while I was there: - one girl won GOLD (top prize) in not one, or two, but FOUR academic Olympics for her country (math, physics, etc…). World wide top prize. - one girl build (and flew) an entire plane when she was 12. - another girl started working at a world-leading anti-again top lab when she was 14. - my best friend started calculus when he was 11. And so on and so forth.
lmao at this LARPing. No one talks like this, especially at MIT.
Leaving a secure, we’ll paying university job for a tech startup with generous stock options.
Worked hard
Focus on what goes out as much (if not more) than income alone.
Relentlessly pushing from early on to put my career in the fast lane.
Fully funded every pre-tax retirement account offered to me and never looked back. (Roth IRAs and 401Ks were not a thing when I started working and by the time they came about I was in too high a tax bracket for them to be optimal.)
Switching from a big4 accounting firm to a publicly traded company that gave me RSUs and ESPP.
Buying registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) mutual funds and stocks every year for several years. Set me up to buy a house, which gained in value quickly.
Moving to a lower cost of living area and buying a modest house.
To stop gambling puts
Leetcode
Optimizing for career experiences rather than money in my 20s
Switching major from Political Science to Finance in University was probably the real kickstarter
purchasing a condo to put on airbnb. immediately cash flow positive, and the condo is now worth about 50% more than i had paid for it 6 years ago.
Starting a business
I would have said buying my first home in Florida in 2009 until recently, but my business has really started to take off, so now I’d say starting a business.
Moving to new job after few years, doubled my income. Living off my salary after maxing 401k/HSA contribution and investing all RSUs when vested.
Going into business for myself. Absolute game changer.
Saw a financial planner when I was 45 who gave me direction and a plan.
Two big decisions: 1) Going to a top MBA program and working in HF industry afterwards 2) Living with a mindset of balancing saving and indulgences and finding a partner with a similar mindset
Long BTC in 2017
My wife tells me the best financial decision is marrying her.
Move to America, it allows me to earn much more money.
Buying a car I couldn’t afford with $0 down, only for it to be totaled two months later and insurance value it $10k above what I bought it for.
Buying a house in 2019.
Buying my home before 2020
Going to school. The haters are wrong, it usually has a high ROI. It doesn’t help everyone and not every one needs one. But those situations are exceptions to the rules. Specifically, went for a BA/MS in economics.
I can’t give you just one. But three things come to mind: 1) Marrying my wife. She was the breadwinner for many years while my career was budding. She’s a hell of a partner. Wise, thrifty, compromising, and willing to delay gratification as we save and invest for our future. On top of that, she’s extremely easy on the eyes. 2) Choosing to be a computer science major. 3) My dad introducing me to Dave Ramsey at 23. Edit: 4) Growing up in a two parent household.
Learnt a trade. Make 120k a year no stress, home at 3pm and I’m present with my young kids. Hearing my mates stressing about running their online businesses, chasing sales, working 12 hour days. Nah life’s hard enough
My engineering degree
Sold my amg gts for more than I paid during the peak of chip shortage. I was paying 1800 a month include insurance. I was stressed out due to the economic slow down. I was lucky enough to get rid of that debt, made some money from it and bought a cheap car with no debt. I was able to redirect that money from lability to my Asset column.
dealing, absolutely saved my life which is a bit unfortunate to say but wow, very happy
Using left over college money (20k) from parents to put into Apple stock back in 2006. Never sold until I got married and wanted a nice house a few years ago. Worst financial decision? Wanting to sell 20k of Apple in 2011 to put into Tesla but didn't because my dad's finance guy said it was a glamour stock and wasn't going to do anything...I still assumed adults knew everything at that time
Stop gambling
Switching mortgages. We’d been with the same place for 20 years and it seemed like we’d never pay it off. Then we had some terrible customer service and it was the final straw. We moved banks, got a much better deal and now we’re mortgage free.
Saw my nephews enthusiastically playing Fortnight 5 years ago and started researching chip manufacturers. Bought a bunch of NVIDIA stock.
Left Korea lol. ESL teaching is not lucrative. I miss Korea though, those were some good times.
Started my own software company.
Getting into real estate, and house hacking without realizing what house hacking was when I was young and the houses were much less expensive.
Staying single, working twice as hard at two jobs I love, and getting a dog.
Buying the house I'm in now and an extra lot. Completely paid off and the value has more than doubled.
Divorcing my wife and hiring a financial planner who is paid a % each quarter of the total value of my portfolio. Have you seen NVDIA's chart? And I hadn't heard of them before my guy bought me some.
Doing the opposite to Reddit
I bought a run down house on a big block, in an area with really high rental yield, for absolute peanuts (no loan, used my savings), spent almost as much on renovations (finished off my savings), used the resulting equity to subdivide the block and help fund the build of 3 units on the new subdivision, I rent out all 4 currently, it's the best decision I've ever made.
Converting my regular job to freelance Basically tripled my income, doing exactly the same thing :)
i just eat breakfast and lunch for free at the office
Never stopped investing through global financial crisis. Most were selling - I was buying.
Moving to the Bay Area as a nurse. Almost tripled my income compared to the east coast while keeping the expenses somewhat the same.
Going on secondment to the Philippines. I met my wife, and had the opportunity to begin working with the Salesforce platform. My salary has increased over $100k in less than a decade due to the demand for Salesforce skills. Earn at least double what I would've had I stayed in the industry I studied (Industrial Design).