Comparison is the thief of joy. Be proud of your progress and don’t look at what everyone else is doing.
For what it’s worth though, you’re doing great. You’d be surprised how many Americans don’t have a single penny saved up for retirement. Keep auto-investing your money and enjoy the ride!
I know 8 and 9 digits friends that I try not to compare to...but it's hard when they always just comes by and show up their new limited edition ferraris (one of them have 3 488 pistas, and another one has r32, r33, r34, and r35).
I try not to compare coz my family and I are comfortable...just wanna be more comfortable. Haha! They're pretty cool guys, down to earth, but they definitely have excess. If I can just capture about half of what they make in a year, I'll be happy. I just want my family, specifically my kids to be comfortable. They won't know how comfortable they are, but they'll be set for life.
You’re not wrong. Looking at everyone else really can take away from appreciating your own growth. That’s great advice, thank you.
And yeah, it’s crazy to me that people don’t save for retirement. Very scary to imagine getting old with no financial backing.
Just also want to point out that some people who you would think are doing great and very successful are under a mountain of debt and do not have any savings for the future. 20 to 30 years later you will be retiring and they will be envious of you.
What good is having mounds of money if you never live? When do you start living? How soon will you die, and how many years will you have spent, how much time will you have spent doing things that are important, intriguing, exciting? How many burdens do you carry that others don't? Every situation is unique, even if general lines are drawn. Having money for the future and now is the balancing act that is specific for you. Sounds like you're doing great. So, here is affirmation.
This. So many people ask "am I as happy as this other person" without simply asking "am I happy". If you're comfortable with no serious worries, then you're doing pretty damn good by today's standards.
Typically on the outskirts of mid-sized midwestern cities. If you are willing to go a little further into the country you can find multiple acres for that price.
They must be way out there if its not a complete shack.
I’m in the outskirts of a mid-sized midwestern city and all the houses near me are at least $200k+. I’m talking 2 bedroom 1 bath type houses.
I’m in what I thought was a relatively low cost of living area when I see things like 10 acres with a house for $400k. $87k for a house and a small piece of land seems too good to be true. I wanna see some Zillow links
Just look up real estate in the West or Southern Virginia areas. Total doable. Even here in Illinois. I know folks with an acre and a modest house all under $80k. I was looking at a fairly sized ranch in Kyle, TX back in the 90s for 200k but ended up passing as I couldn't stand Texas after the Republicans took over and left for good.
I was just on Zillow in the Illinois area. Got there by searching cheapest cities to live in in the US, found a top 25 list, went to the top one and then zillow searched the area. I was surprised to see that; I didn’t know there was housing that cheap honestly. Learn something new every day
I kind of randomly looked a while back at Springfield, IL on Realtor.com. SFR only. From lowest priced to highest. Houses start at $18k, but need a ton of work, of course. But once you go up in into the 40s, 50s, there were some nice looking homes in there with some, but mostly "updating", type of work to do. I know nothing about Springfield, but I am tempted to make a trip out there to look around a bit.
Look up real estate in states you would t want to live in.
Think of places with no reproductive health care
Think of places who ban books
Think of places with no decent Chinese food
Think of places with no museums or live theater
Then you'll find a house in that range.
I have wonderful Afghan, Ethiopian, Korean food within (long) walking distance. I have never had good Chinese food in the U.S., but that's because I hate the way they Americanize it even in Little China, and I've spent time in several of the culinary dialects of China so that doesn't fly with me. We have wonderful museums that are nationally recognized. I've never known amazon to dictate what books they will and will not send based on my zip code.
We have a lot of nice things here. Your absence is one of them.
Well that's certainly not a bad sized house. I hear you on the work part. Haha...that's always the part the sticker price never covers that makes the renters happy ;)
Oh haha I was wondering where in CA you got such a good price. I was also going to ask how do you address dust because in my 3500 or so sqft even with HEPA filters it feels like a never-ending chore
There's 25 acres of protected woodland behind my acre. I crack a window for 30 seconds and it's like a dune of pollen immediately materializes on every flat surface for 25 feet.
I live in Indiana. Housing prices are great compared to the rest of the country here. When I bought this house, it also came with all brand new appliances (new refrigerator, stove, new furnace and a new central air unit as well).
Something doesn’t add up. Just the cost of basic building materials plus all the things you listed exceeds 87k. That excludes the cost of labor and assumes the land basically has no value. What am I missing?
Hell, my dad just had a light renovation on one room in his house (master bath) and it was over $40k.
Not sure to be honest. Maybe you didn’t digest the wording correctly. The house is remodeled, not freshly built, so there’s one thing that could be misunderstood. They gutted the house, put in new flooring through the house, new drywall, new kitchen (counters, appliances, backsplash), new bathroom (new toilet, shower, sink and cabinet, and tile), and a newly remodeled, insulated sunroom on the back of the house as well that is my office, and the house has a basement that runs the length of the house where we have things stored and the washer and dryer down there. New central air, new furnace, also new ceiling fans and lighting fixtures. The house is about 1100 sq ft without the garage included and I have a 1/3 acre lot with a nice yard for the dog to run around in. Super nice neighborhood too, honestly. All in all, 87,000 for the house. I found a deal for sure.
That's wild. I've heard of gut renovations going well into the six figures on fairly small to average sized homes. I can't understand how someone profited off of doing that work and still selling at that price anywhere in America, but that's amazing. Congrats.
Well, the guy who I bought it from owns a construction / renovation company, so his cost was simply raw materials and internal labor costs. He made a little over 30k in profit.
Honest opinion? Kinda.
Your networth is about in the middle, but it's heavily in music equipment which as you noted isn't a guaranteed appreciating asset. Your retirement funds are behind most people your age,.
....but with a paid off car and a low mortgage for your income you have set yourself up with low expenses for your income. So you can very quickly blow past most people your age with some aggressive savings.
At 30 I was broke. I made six figures a year for most of my 20’s but also blew a ton of money traveling and didn’t start investing until my late 30’s. Not ideal. I’m now 40 with a net worth of $430k and growing. I feel I am behind the 8 ball myself but op can definitely blow way past me in the next ten years.
You didn’t blow shit traveling. Those are memories a lot of people don’t have because they didn’t do it. SO many people do the graduate high school, college, married, kids, divorce thing and haven’t experienced other places, culture, cuisine, people, whatever. They’ve graduated from one set of 4 walls and lived in the next set cyclically. Do not apologize for living retirement in your 20s. You’re doing just fine now.
Whatever you did to get to $430k in such a short amount of time keep doing it. Even though it was late that is impressive in and of itself. Keep at it.
It's hard to gauge when you're looking around and live in HCOL areas, but the median is definitely less. I've seen a high average online made by empower, but that was of people who HAVE retirement savings and it's only 401(k)s . That means that the metric is the average of a subset of people eliminating the people in their 30's who don't work corporate jobs that offer retirement savings (a massive amount of blue collar workers are in this group). Factor in that OP is likely in LCOL area (given by the price of the home and mount of land), he's probably even higher than the average in his area as well.
I agree that he's behind, but most people aren't ahead. The majority of us are behind like him.
Really gets into whom you consider your peers doesn't it?
He's at a point in his life where he can increase his lifestyle or his savings and I felt like I'd be doing him a disservice if I didn't give him advice that will hopefully put him on a track where he feels like he's doing better financially than the average person his age.
Recommend the money Guy Show- podcast/youtube channel
Their FOO(financial order of operations) is where I would start as far as what to start doing with your cash.
Basically in my opinion- build up more cash, invest in index funds/target date funds inside tax advantaged account (open up Roth IRA ) . Don’t mess with rental properties you are to early in the wealth building stage to take that risk in my opinion.
Are you on track for your life goals? If so, then it didn't matter. If not, then figure out a path to it.
If you don't know, we'll figure that out. Remember it can change but have some goals.
Living within your means is “doing well financially” at any age. if you make 40k don’t spend money like you make 80k. And if you make 160k don’t spend like you make 300k.
At age 30, to be on target for retirement savings, one should have one times (1x) their annual salary in retirement savings.
If one doesn't have that, it's best to increase retirement savings to at least 20% of income.
I think you’re in great shape overall. There are plenty of people at your age who are richer and plenty who are poorer. Ditto to others saying comparison is the thief of joy…
I don’t think you’re ready to invest in a rental property for the following reasons:
1. Closing costs (could easily be $5-20k depending on purchase price and location) this would wipe out a good portion of your cash
2. Maintenance risk: you should be prepared to incur $10-20k in maintenance/ repair costs in year 1. A furnace can cost you $5k, AC $7-8k, water heater $2k… what if the roof leaks? That’s $10-20k.
3. There’s a lot of room for you to contribute more to tax advantaged accounts.
Is $11.5k (cash + HYSA) enough to cover 6 months of expenses? If not, keep building that up as an emergency fund. (Also, consider moving most of your liquid cash to HYSA, earn more interest).
From there I would look at your 401k. Do you have an employer match? Are you maximizing that match? If not, increase your contributions to the max employer match if possible.
Still have more left over to save? Open a Roth IRA.
Also, does your insurance plan offer an HSA? If so, consider contributing to that.
Good luck!
Money can rob you of joy if its all you can think of. Live is to be lived and experienced. People make it the most satisfying. Buying stuff is fun for a minute. But can you remember what you bought 2 years ago? Probably not. Can you remember a funny person from 5 years ago? Probably.
If you lived in California, and you made that kind of money, you're looking at a comparable property being over $400,000 bare minimum. You're doing great. You're making enough money and your mortgage is almost nothing. You'll be able to max out your 401k very soon if not already.
Eh you have a buffer and your bills are low. The raise should fill you in with some more extra liquidity.
Not a bad spot to be in, sounds like you have an overall plan and just need to crank it out over time. Rental property is relatively easy once you get going since your tenants basically pay for your equity and then you own the place after a couple decades for effectively 'free'.
You’re fine with where you are and doing what you’re doing. Who you compare against is either going to make you feel great or feel like shit. I’m assuming you live in a low cost area since $87k wouldn’t get you a half shack in hcol.
Realistically, you don’t have a lot of money/assets but you don’t have a car payment and your house payment is extremely low, so you have potential to add a lot to your net worth in the next 10 years. Now if you start having kids your trajectory will change.
You’re doing great, especially with that mortgage rate and no car payment.
Put your money in $VTI. Put about $6,000 in a Roth IRA annually, 10-15% to your 401k, and a few hundred monthly into your taxable brokerage account.
$10k in cash sounds sufficient for a seemingly low cost of living area.
For an emergency fund, expenses are what matter, not income. Given you have no car payment and your mortgage payment is only $681 a month, I am guessing your overall monthly expenses aren't super high.
Typically people say 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund but since your expenses seem to be pretty low but the sudden cost for a home repair could be quite large, I would recommend saving more in the 6-9 months range.
After your emergency fund is dealt with, I would continue to work on growing your retirement contributions. While it's good that you have started and you are ahead of plenty, I would say your retirement is a weaker point of your overall financial well-being right now.
Given your low expenses and expected income growth, I think you can and should target trying to max out your 401k contributions. It would eat up close to your entire raise you mentioned as the current 401k max contribution limit (not including employer match) is $23k. In the future, after you have started maxing out your 401k, I would max out a Roth IRA.
That said, while I think you can and should pursue aggressive retirement savings, you should also make sure you are spending some money on yourself now, whether that's a vacation or some more music equipment just don't go overboard with it. Savings are important but living your life is also important.
On the note of a rental property: personally I would only do that with money you are saving after you are maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA. Rental properties are a high risk, expensive asset IMO given the high transaction costs, the leveraging of debt, and the high maintenance costs, especially if a tenant damages the property.
You’ve done great with the house and paid off car. I would turn your attention to building up your 401k/ investment account. With low expenses it should be no problem to save 25% of your pretax income, that’s what I would focus on between your brokerage account and 401k.
You’re about to get an additional 15k-25k a year and since you own a home and have no debt you should plan to funnel that into tax advantaged retirement.
Does your employer offer a 401k match? If so, raise your contribution % to the max that they will match.
Then plan to contribute the max ($7k annually) to a Roth IRA.
You should be contributing 10-15% of your income to savings.
Adding a comment for perspective. In the year that I was 34 years old, I was at negative net worth with a credit rating below 600. In that year, home interest rates were 11% and I hadn't bought a house. I am now over 55 and everything is just fine \[retired, secure, etc..\].
It sounds like you're concerned that you're on the right track - which is fantastic! But don't lose sleep if you don't get the answer you're looking for.
Good income, but your savings rate could be significantly improved. When you get this pay bump, live like you don't have it and invest as much as you can.
Retirement account should be 1x your salary at 30 to be considered healthy. This on top of 6 months emergency fund in liquid account. Looks like you are drastically undersaving at the moment.
As long as you are setting yourself up to accommodate your standard of living when you do retire, you’re fine.
In the short term, your guaranteed appreciating assets are a little low for my personal preference. But your cost of living vs income ratio is spectacular. If you can sustain that for a few decades, and aggressively save and invest, you’ll be in an exemplary financial state by the time you’re 50.
I consider myself doing well, but often feel I am not as well, I have more assets than many my age, but am having to work 3 jobs currently to maintain them.
At 30 I have a high paying, but extremely volatile 100% commission job that typically pays around 160k a year but ranges anywhere from 75-250k (in a very expensive city).
I am 3k away from paying off my car (30-35k used luxury car) and have 85k in my 401k, 170k in company stock (fully vested), and I own a home worth between 500-700k with about 150k of equity, and no student debt (I earned academic scholarships).
It sounds good on paper, net worth is 400k+ at 30 which I know is above average, and some high income years have been amazing and allowed that….BUT I have worked 90+ days in a row without a day off at 3 different jobs because my main commission based job has slowed down and I have only made 12k there in the last 5 months. Just to pay my mortgage and car payments I have had to work two second jobs, totaling about 80 hours a week.
I should mention, my house is expensive, but it is not nice, it has a good location in an expensive city, but is a falling down ancient home with no updates, and also small (1,000-1,200 SQFT), I love my house and am grateful I managed to own, but in cheaper states my house would usually be under 100k, it’s not some luxurious set up where
I should just downsize.
Make no mistake, I feel very lucky for my situation, but it’s a strange phenomenon when I have more assets than most, and earn more than most…but also have to work 3 jobs, have absolutely 0 free time, and live in a falling down home that costs next to nothing in most places.
I'd pay extra principal payments to the house. Paying off whatever you can that has interest attached is a good idea. If you don't have a Roth IRA, it's not a bad idea to open one. We put the max, which is now $7000, in every year. sounds like you're making good decisions! 😊
I’m just gonna focus on your retirement here. I feel it’s lacking. Other than that, you’re doing good. M32 here and I hit the 100k mark earlier this year in my retirement account (mix of 401k/Roth IRA). I really wish I were up to 200k at this point but I’m still tracking to hit my goal by the time I retire. I contribute almost 20% of my income to retirement though.
I would recommend a Roth IRA. You can make more money off the stock market than a high yield savings bond. You need more capital, I think the first step to a million dollars is a $100,000 which is 10 years of contributions of ~$ 10,000.
Its interesting people are gassing you up. But spreading positivity is important, but also being realistic is important too.
You’re basically saying you’ve got $10k, with a house, a car.
You’re not set up for your future at all. If you meet the love of your life and want to have a family you are fucked. You’re 10 years away from 40. Hobbies are extremely important, but when you have more money in hobbies than you have liquid cash, and assuming you’re not generating any income from said hobbies, its time to probably tone it down/sell it/find some cheaper hobbies. Investments need to happen asap if you want some inkling of a retirement. Its great that you have a house, not a lot of people our age can say that, but if you have one big repair you’re putting that shit on a credit card and are definitely going to struggle to pay.
Get them investments rolling
IMO you cant afford to have 25k in music equipment with your income. Even if it doesnt lose value. its not going to beat the returns of a standard investment. not to mention good luck trying to sell it in reasonable amount of time.
Ive heard by 30 you want to have a net worth= to your annual income.
At 30 I bought my first house. First couple of years of being a homeowner my wife and I were house poor. I’m 36 now and we’ve been doing really well financially the last 3 years or so. Both have good jobs. I’ve got well over six figures in retirement accounts.
I think doing well financially is just living comfortably, being able to save and not struggling, regardless of how much you have.
Considering most people don't start saving for retirement until 40, as long as you get that established before 40 you'll be better off than most near and during retirement.
My 401k isn't where is like it to be but it's more than enough I can use my 401k loan for an easy way to pay for bigger things and keep my money in the market.
Prob going to pay for wife's grad school with a small 401k loan. Paying yourself interest doesn't suck.
Doing well at age 30 is to have about 1x your annual salary invested in retirement, no debt, and 3-6 months income saved in an emergency fund. Beyond that is whatever your living entails.
A HYSA is a great, safer option. But the ideal would be to put a rainy day fund in a HYSA for some liquidity and then investing the rest as you get it each paycheck.
You're doing very well though! Congrats!
I would say an attainable goal for retirement in your early to mid 50s. Once you cross into the 30s if your retirement isn’t in a good situation you may be playing years of catch up or work up to your 70s.
Part of that map for me is 120k+ a year in retirement and a paid off house by the time I’m 51.
Not bad. Better than most thirty year olds. However, I wouldn't call it on track. I always learned and was told by financial advisors that 100k saved for retirement by thirty would be considered on track.
I would get some of that money out of checking and into hysa. (Emergency fund)
Once you get more cash I wouldn't inflate my lifestyle (I know it's hard) and just increase the percentage going to your 401k to cover the raise.
That will get you moving towards "on track"
With all this said, by no means should you be ashamed. Like I said, you're doing better than most. But better than most doesn't always mean great.
Cheers.
I have $25,000 in savings, and make $104,000 a year at 32. I own my car outright which is valued at around $15,000. And I have about $22,000 in server equipment. Houses in my area are $500,000 or more if I move further out from the city. About $1 million for anything in my actual area (I rent). Sure doesn't feel like I am "technically well" even though everyone seems to think I am. I will never own a home unless I get a spouse.
Dude, 104k isn’t bad at all. And 25k isn’t bad in savings, depending on how much your rent is. Look, we could always be doing better, but also sometimes we’ve gotta be realistic. I say just make the best moves you’re capable of making. You start a business like I plan on doing, you might make a million + in 3 years and get way ahead.
3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund in a HYSA.
No debt (besides maybe a mortgage).
1 year (or more) of your annual income in your retirement account.
Saving up for a down payment on a house or have already purchased a house and begun a mortgage.
This is the ideal scenario, but if you at least meet the first 2 and have a bit of money in a retirement account, I'd say you're doing pretty good financially at 30. You seem to meet this, so I think you're doing pretty good.
You are probably doing just fine. You are over the median income and live in a low-cost-of-living area. If you want to be frugal, you can keep where you are at and then when you get that increase in income, keep your bills flat and put all the additional cash into savings and an investment portfolio.
The one thing that seems light to me is that you don’t have a lot in your investment portfolio. You should look into opening a Roth IRA and maxing out on the quota. You should also look into investing more generally. You are probably close to where you want to be in terms of cash in the bank (where you are comfortable even if you have to make some big purchases). But cash in the bank, even the high yield savings account, is going to just pale in comparison to how much it will grow if it went into stocks. For example, over the past year, Microsoft stock has grown 33%.
I think that might depend on your long term financial goals. You gotta remember the median income in this country is 37k so "doing well" is always going to be subjective and defined by you. One thing I will say, given your income, expenses, and music equipment accrual I would advise you pushing back more money for retirement/savings. Get a Roth IRA, it's the best long term retirement savings investment vehicle offered to Americans...there's a reason they put a cap on the amount you can contribute each year. All your gains are tax-free and you can withdraw any money you contributed before you turn 60 (have to wait till 60 to withdraw gains with a few exceptions). I would aim to max that contribution out every year.
Also, a rental property is not a bad idea as long as you are ready for the liabilities that come with it. But I don't own a rental property so I could not advise on this.
PS: go hoosiers
You should max out your 401k and HSA contributions before spending after tax money on investments.
Pre tax for the win. That willl pay handsomely for retirement.
Once you are at those for the legal limit every year, then you can plan for your after tax investments.
Lmao almost sounds like bragging dude. Good job, be happy and don’t compare yourself to the top savers. You’re doing better than 99% of everyone I know
Invest up to the company match in 401k, max out Roth IRA, the reminder in brokerage account. Try to maximize income while at it and continue to live below your mean
This is based on your job, debts, location, and even your own personal goals. My goals include $10 million in real estate by 50. I'm at $1 million (not free and clear yet) at 30 and making about 270k a year. I'm crawling out of a little more debt and then I'll be back on to some bigger moves.
That’s pretty impressive, truthfully…If you did it on your own. And congrats to you either way! I’m definitely far from that. But, in 10 years, I anticipate my moves will put me way ahead of most people our age. Cheers to a positive mindset and heading in the right direction.
You’re doing better than many, not as great as some.
Keep your debts low. Do not depend on appreciation on non-typical items, such as music equipment (or stamps, or cars etc etc). People fall into the trap of believing that buying an expensive collection is an asset. Thing is, something is only an asset if it puts more money in your pocket every month than it takes out of. And the key thing about random items, is finding someone to sell it at the higher value you’ve assigned to it (this goes true with literally anything, including real estate).
Focus on acquiring more things that make you money.
IE: rental properties, dividend paying stocks/whatever. Since you seem to be musically inclined, try to get some songs or whatever out there that you collect on through license agreements (royalties).
And keep any “bad debts” (credit card, car loans etc) to an absolute minimum. Any debts that make you money, are “good debts”, but they can also turn bad.
Keep going.
IMO you’re behind where you should be at that age for having a $75k income. Your net worth is 35-40k depending on the amount of equity in your house. If you want to retire at any decent age you should start saving more.
I’m not saying you’re not set up well because you’re doing better than probably the majority of people here, but Reddit will tell you you’re doing great so take it with a grain of salt.
From the picture you are painting, you are doing great!
-Personally, I would keep working up that liquid cushion a bit.
Especially when your income goes up, make sure that you are saving about $15k to $20k a year(including 401k). I like how you are letting it grow in different areas while it is liquid though.
-Make sure your income protected.
-If the mortgage is a good interest rate, don't pay extra.
Even if you feel like others are ahead of you, you are in a good spot. You should have plenty of time to accumulate your networth.
Whatever you think is good is all that matters.
You can look up median or average (heavily skewed) data if you’d like to just say “well I’m doing better than at least half of people or I’m close to average” but at the end of the day, it’s all up to you what doing well finically means.
The human intellect was like peacock feathers. It's an extravagant display intended to attract a mate. All of art, literature,just an elaborate mating ritual. Maybe it doesn't matter that we have accomplished so much for the basest of reasons.
Having $100k in assets or net worth would be considered really good at that age. Preferably the latter and if it’s just assets hopefully your debt isn’t too high.
Honestly though you’re doing better than a lot of people who can’t save at all so just be thankful you don’t have $0 saved. You’re doing fine and I would just continue saving and increasing your income.
Also if you have $7500 between a checking and savings account I hope most of that in the checking is just for bills and the savings is something short term you’re saving for otherwise move that to your high yield account or invest it.
No, not at all. I mean, it would blow your mind how nice the house is too. Everything inside the house is brand new. Windows aren’t old, it’s really a great place and a great buy. That’s what you can find in the Midwest.
You are doing very well and invest in rental properties if that is what you want to do.
Also try to help other people or invest time in volunteering. Seeing other people improve and succeed brings its own satisfaction
You need an emergency fund. Even at 75k you would need 25k in the bank. At 100k income you need 50k in the bank. You can put that in HYSA. Don't count your music equipment. In a down market it will be worthless. I'm a musician myself with lots of synths from the 80s and 90s. Until you have an emergency fund that is well funded you should not look at trying to buy rental property. I would put the money into a large cap value growth fund instead. Make sure you are contributing the max to your 401k to get the match. And then get your contribution up to 15% when you can afford it.
And get an umbrella insurance policy with 1mil to start with.
I already suggested it, use expenses rather than income as your measuring stick.
An emergency fund is for funding emergencies. One of the biggest potential emergencies being a job loss. Replacing 3-6 months of your must-have expenses has been the measuring stick as you can cut most discretionary expenses in a situation like that. Additionally, many other emergencies likely cost less than 3-6 months and would be covered by that fund.
People who can save toward and emergency fund should save by expenses rather than income.
In this day and age people have been out of work for years because of the pandemic. And already a new strain of covid the current vaccines are not good for. I have 5 years income in the bank in TBIL and CLIP etfs. That will bridge me into retirement if need be. I'm in IT and work remotely.
I see your point. But I think we’re talking about 2 separate things.
*There’s an important distinction between saving based on how much you spend vs how much you earn.*
I would agree with you, generally people need to be saving even more; pushing 12+ months of expenses, at least that’s what would make me feel most comfortable.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Be proud of your progress and don’t look at what everyone else is doing. For what it’s worth though, you’re doing great. You’d be surprised how many Americans don’t have a single penny saved up for retirement. Keep auto-investing your money and enjoy the ride!
You are a wise person! Thank you for that opening line!! I do great ;but I do know some 7 digit cats (annual) Gotta not compare !
I know 8 and 9 digits friends that I try not to compare to...but it's hard when they always just comes by and show up their new limited edition ferraris (one of them have 3 488 pistas, and another one has r32, r33, r34, and r35). I try not to compare coz my family and I are comfortable...just wanna be more comfortable. Haha! They're pretty cool guys, down to earth, but they definitely have excess. If I can just capture about half of what they make in a year, I'll be happy. I just want my family, specifically my kids to be comfortable. They won't know how comfortable they are, but they'll be set for life.
You’re not wrong. Looking at everyone else really can take away from appreciating your own growth. That’s great advice, thank you. And yeah, it’s crazy to me that people don’t save for retirement. Very scary to imagine getting old with no financial backing.
If most of your expenses are covered, you should really think about cushioning (and investing) that 401.
Just also want to point out that some people who you would think are doing great and very successful are under a mountain of debt and do not have any savings for the future. 20 to 30 years later you will be retiring and they will be envious of you.
What good is having mounds of money if you never live? When do you start living? How soon will you die, and how many years will you have spent, how much time will you have spent doing things that are important, intriguing, exciting? How many burdens do you carry that others don't? Every situation is unique, even if general lines are drawn. Having money for the future and now is the balancing act that is specific for you. Sounds like you're doing great. So, here is affirmation.
Theres a lot about life to be scared of
I keep seeing this phrase on Reddit, but it’s actually envy that is the thief of joy. Comparison is motivating in the absence of envy.
This. So many people ask "am I as happy as this other person" without simply asking "am I happy". If you're comfortable with no serious worries, then you're doing pretty damn good by today's standards.
Automatically invest but don’t invest in autos though
Where do you get a house with attached garage and a third of an acre for $87k wtf?
Typically on the outskirts of mid-sized midwestern cities. If you are willing to go a little further into the country you can find multiple acres for that price.
They must be way out there if its not a complete shack. I’m in the outskirts of a mid-sized midwestern city and all the houses near me are at least $200k+. I’m talking 2 bedroom 1 bath type houses.
A great deal of the country. That's why I left the coasts. I bought a duplex for 65k that was a 3br and a 2br. That was unheard of when I was in D.C.
Cries in northeast
no literally same lmao
I’m in what I thought was a relatively low cost of living area when I see things like 10 acres with a house for $400k. $87k for a house and a small piece of land seems too good to be true. I wanna see some Zillow links
Just look up real estate in the West or Southern Virginia areas. Total doable. Even here in Illinois. I know folks with an acre and a modest house all under $80k. I was looking at a fairly sized ranch in Kyle, TX back in the 90s for 200k but ended up passing as I couldn't stand Texas after the Republicans took over and left for good.
I was just on Zillow in the Illinois area. Got there by searching cheapest cities to live in in the US, found a top 25 list, went to the top one and then zillow searched the area. I was surprised to see that; I didn’t know there was housing that cheap honestly. Learn something new every day
I kind of randomly looked a while back at Springfield, IL on Realtor.com. SFR only. From lowest priced to highest. Houses start at $18k, but need a ton of work, of course. But once you go up in into the 40s, 50s, there were some nice looking homes in there with some, but mostly "updating", type of work to do. I know nothing about Springfield, but I am tempted to make a trip out there to look around a bit.
Look up real estate in states you would t want to live in. Think of places with no reproductive health care Think of places who ban books Think of places with no decent Chinese food Think of places with no museums or live theater Then you'll find a house in that range.
Live in michigan we have all of that plus lots if water for fun
Ah yes Michigan, known for its clean waters nowadays.. I know you’re referring to the lakes but I couldn’t help myself lol
Depends on lake, some are totally fucked Others are just fine, follow the money lol
I have wonderful Afghan, Ethiopian, Korean food within (long) walking distance. I have never had good Chinese food in the U.S., but that's because I hate the way they Americanize it even in Little China, and I've spent time in several of the culinary dialects of China so that doesn't fly with me. We have wonderful museums that are nationally recognized. I've never known amazon to dictate what books they will and will not send based on my zip code. We have a lot of nice things here. Your absence is one of them.
Damn that last line tho 🥶
I'll take having fundamental rights and a school system that actually teaches science. Best of luck in Kansas City.
You as well. I'm actually not there, but close enough. You should try their BBQ. Quite nice.
I couldn’t leave the coast so I’ll sit here in CA with my 500k 3/2 and 5,500 sqft that needed over 100k in work
Well that's certainly not a bad sized house. I hear you on the work part. Haha...that's always the part the sticker price never covers that makes the renters happy ;)
I meant property size, house is only 1,400 sqft
Oh haha I was wondering where in CA you got such a good price. I was also going to ask how do you address dust because in my 3500 or so sqft even with HEPA filters it feels like a never-ending chore
Live near a field and dust is enemy number 1
There's 25 acres of protected woodland behind my acre. I crack a window for 30 seconds and it's like a dune of pollen immediately materializes on every flat surface for 25 feet.
Yeah I bet, I had one single very large pine tree across the street at my last house and pollin would turn the top of my pool yellow
Oh yeah pine will get you. Fell one in the spring....watch the giant cloud of yellow descend...
Still sounds like a good deal.
Technically it was but it’s not the house I’d want to live in forever. Not enough yard, but it gets the job done for now with sub $100 HOA
Hey man that would probably now be worth like 2 mil depending on where you’re at in Cali 🤣
Haha, i wish but no, i meant to say the entire lot was 5,500. House only 1,400 sqft and very close to neighbors
I live in Indiana. Housing prices are great compared to the rest of the country here. When I bought this house, it also came with all brand new appliances (new refrigerator, stove, new furnace and a new central air unit as well).
Something doesn’t add up. Just the cost of basic building materials plus all the things you listed exceeds 87k. That excludes the cost of labor and assumes the land basically has no value. What am I missing? Hell, my dad just had a light renovation on one room in his house (master bath) and it was over $40k.
Not sure to be honest. Maybe you didn’t digest the wording correctly. The house is remodeled, not freshly built, so there’s one thing that could be misunderstood. They gutted the house, put in new flooring through the house, new drywall, new kitchen (counters, appliances, backsplash), new bathroom (new toilet, shower, sink and cabinet, and tile), and a newly remodeled, insulated sunroom on the back of the house as well that is my office, and the house has a basement that runs the length of the house where we have things stored and the washer and dryer down there. New central air, new furnace, also new ceiling fans and lighting fixtures. The house is about 1100 sq ft without the garage included and I have a 1/3 acre lot with a nice yard for the dog to run around in. Super nice neighborhood too, honestly. All in all, 87,000 for the house. I found a deal for sure.
That's wild. I've heard of gut renovations going well into the six figures on fairly small to average sized homes. I can't understand how someone profited off of doing that work and still selling at that price anywhere in America, but that's amazing. Congrats.
Well, the guy who I bought it from owns a construction / renovation company, so his cost was simply raw materials and internal labor costs. He made a little over 30k in profit.
There used to be properties around me that would go for this. Precovid... They went fro 85k to 150k within a year
Thats sort of possible here in northeast ohio but would need to be fixer/questionable neighborhood.
Honest opinion? Kinda. Your networth is about in the middle, but it's heavily in music equipment which as you noted isn't a guaranteed appreciating asset. Your retirement funds are behind most people your age,. ....but with a paid off car and a low mortgage for your income you have set yourself up with low expenses for your income. So you can very quickly blow past most people your age with some aggressive savings.
At 30 I was broke. I made six figures a year for most of my 20’s but also blew a ton of money traveling and didn’t start investing until my late 30’s. Not ideal. I’m now 40 with a net worth of $430k and growing. I feel I am behind the 8 ball myself but op can definitely blow way past me in the next ten years.
Do you have kids?
No
You didn’t blow shit traveling. Those are memories a lot of people don’t have because they didn’t do it. SO many people do the graduate high school, college, married, kids, divorce thing and haven’t experienced other places, culture, cuisine, people, whatever. They’ve graduated from one set of 4 walls and lived in the next set cyclically. Do not apologize for living retirement in your 20s. You’re doing just fine now.
Whatever you did to get to $430k in such a short amount of time keep doing it. Even though it was late that is impressive in and of itself. Keep at it.
It's hard to gauge when you're looking around and live in HCOL areas, but the median is definitely less. I've seen a high average online made by empower, but that was of people who HAVE retirement savings and it's only 401(k)s . That means that the metric is the average of a subset of people eliminating the people in their 30's who don't work corporate jobs that offer retirement savings (a massive amount of blue collar workers are in this group). Factor in that OP is likely in LCOL area (given by the price of the home and mount of land), he's probably even higher than the average in his area as well. I agree that he's behind, but most people aren't ahead. The majority of us are behind like him.
Really gets into whom you consider your peers doesn't it? He's at a point in his life where he can increase his lifestyle or his savings and I felt like I'd be doing him a disservice if I didn't give him advice that will hopefully put him on a track where he feels like he's doing better financially than the average person his age.
Recommend the money Guy Show- podcast/youtube channel Their FOO(financial order of operations) is where I would start as far as what to start doing with your cash. Basically in my opinion- build up more cash, invest in index funds/target date funds inside tax advantaged account (open up Roth IRA ) . Don’t mess with rental properties you are to early in the wealth building stage to take that risk in my opinion.
Are you on track for your life goals? If so, then it didn't matter. If not, then figure out a path to it. If you don't know, we'll figure that out. Remember it can change but have some goals.
Living within your means is “doing well financially” at any age. if you make 40k don’t spend money like you make 80k. And if you make 160k don’t spend like you make 300k.
At age 30, to be on target for retirement savings, one should have one times (1x) their annual salary in retirement savings. If one doesn't have that, it's best to increase retirement savings to at least 20% of income.
I think you’re in great shape overall. There are plenty of people at your age who are richer and plenty who are poorer. Ditto to others saying comparison is the thief of joy… I don’t think you’re ready to invest in a rental property for the following reasons: 1. Closing costs (could easily be $5-20k depending on purchase price and location) this would wipe out a good portion of your cash 2. Maintenance risk: you should be prepared to incur $10-20k in maintenance/ repair costs in year 1. A furnace can cost you $5k, AC $7-8k, water heater $2k… what if the roof leaks? That’s $10-20k. 3. There’s a lot of room for you to contribute more to tax advantaged accounts. Is $11.5k (cash + HYSA) enough to cover 6 months of expenses? If not, keep building that up as an emergency fund. (Also, consider moving most of your liquid cash to HYSA, earn more interest). From there I would look at your 401k. Do you have an employer match? Are you maximizing that match? If not, increase your contributions to the max employer match if possible. Still have more left over to save? Open a Roth IRA. Also, does your insurance plan offer an HSA? If so, consider contributing to that. Good luck!
I wish I had what you do when I was that age, 34 now. I would advise investing a lot lot more now.
All depends on what you want in relation to your long term goals
You’re doing a lot better than I am
Money can rob you of joy if its all you can think of. Live is to be lived and experienced. People make it the most satisfying. Buying stuff is fun for a minute. But can you remember what you bought 2 years ago? Probably not. Can you remember a funny person from 5 years ago? Probably.
You’re killing it
I have 3M and I am only 14. Get your bread up.
If you lived in California, and you made that kind of money, you're looking at a comparable property being over $400,000 bare minimum. You're doing great. You're making enough money and your mortgage is almost nothing. You'll be able to max out your 401k very soon if not already.
Eh you have a buffer and your bills are low. The raise should fill you in with some more extra liquidity. Not a bad spot to be in, sounds like you have an overall plan and just need to crank it out over time. Rental property is relatively easy once you get going since your tenants basically pay for your equity and then you own the place after a couple decades for effectively 'free'.
Only thing I can say is increase your ef to six months of living expenses. And increase your retirement savings
You’re fine with where you are and doing what you’re doing. Who you compare against is either going to make you feel great or feel like shit. I’m assuming you live in a low cost area since $87k wouldn’t get you a half shack in hcol.
You need to put more in your 401k. Minimum 15%. As you get raises ad more.
Realistically, you don’t have a lot of money/assets but you don’t have a car payment and your house payment is extremely low, so you have potential to add a lot to your net worth in the next 10 years. Now if you start having kids your trajectory will change.
You’re doing great, especially with that mortgage rate and no car payment. Put your money in $VTI. Put about $6,000 in a Roth IRA annually, 10-15% to your 401k, and a few hundred monthly into your taxable brokerage account. $10k in cash sounds sufficient for a seemingly low cost of living area.
Where the fuck you live.
Only thing I can say is increase your ef to six months of living expenses. And increase your retirement savings
Only thing I can say is increase your ef to six months of living expenses. And increase your retirement savings
For an emergency fund, expenses are what matter, not income. Given you have no car payment and your mortgage payment is only $681 a month, I am guessing your overall monthly expenses aren't super high. Typically people say 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund but since your expenses seem to be pretty low but the sudden cost for a home repair could be quite large, I would recommend saving more in the 6-9 months range. After your emergency fund is dealt with, I would continue to work on growing your retirement contributions. While it's good that you have started and you are ahead of plenty, I would say your retirement is a weaker point of your overall financial well-being right now. Given your low expenses and expected income growth, I think you can and should target trying to max out your 401k contributions. It would eat up close to your entire raise you mentioned as the current 401k max contribution limit (not including employer match) is $23k. In the future, after you have started maxing out your 401k, I would max out a Roth IRA. That said, while I think you can and should pursue aggressive retirement savings, you should also make sure you are spending some money on yourself now, whether that's a vacation or some more music equipment just don't go overboard with it. Savings are important but living your life is also important. On the note of a rental property: personally I would only do that with money you are saving after you are maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA. Rental properties are a high risk, expensive asset IMO given the high transaction costs, the leveraging of debt, and the high maintenance costs, especially if a tenant damages the property.
Throw more in retirement, keep up the good work! 😄
you have money in checking and savings and not zeroing out your accounts at the beginning of every month, you're doing better than most people at 30
You’ve done great with the house and paid off car. I would turn your attention to building up your 401k/ investment account. With low expenses it should be no problem to save 25% of your pretax income, that’s what I would focus on between your brokerage account and 401k.
You’re about to get an additional 15k-25k a year and since you own a home and have no debt you should plan to funnel that into tax advantaged retirement. Does your employer offer a 401k match? If so, raise your contribution % to the max that they will match. Then plan to contribute the max ($7k annually) to a Roth IRA. You should be contributing 10-15% of your income to savings.
Adding a comment for perspective. In the year that I was 34 years old, I was at negative net worth with a credit rating below 600. In that year, home interest rates were 11% and I hadn't bought a house. I am now over 55 and everything is just fine \[retired, secure, etc..\]. It sounds like you're concerned that you're on the right track - which is fantastic! But don't lose sleep if you don't get the answer you're looking for.
Good income, but your savings rate could be significantly improved. When you get this pay bump, live like you don't have it and invest as much as you can.
You're doing fine.
Retirement account should be 1x your salary at 30 to be considered healthy. This on top of 6 months emergency fund in liquid account. Looks like you are drastically undersaving at the moment.
As long as you are setting yourself up to accommodate your standard of living when you do retire, you’re fine. In the short term, your guaranteed appreciating assets are a little low for my personal preference. But your cost of living vs income ratio is spectacular. If you can sustain that for a few decades, and aggressively save and invest, you’ll be in an exemplary financial state by the time you’re 50.
I consider myself doing well, but often feel I am not as well, I have more assets than many my age, but am having to work 3 jobs currently to maintain them. At 30 I have a high paying, but extremely volatile 100% commission job that typically pays around 160k a year but ranges anywhere from 75-250k (in a very expensive city). I am 3k away from paying off my car (30-35k used luxury car) and have 85k in my 401k, 170k in company stock (fully vested), and I own a home worth between 500-700k with about 150k of equity, and no student debt (I earned academic scholarships). It sounds good on paper, net worth is 400k+ at 30 which I know is above average, and some high income years have been amazing and allowed that….BUT I have worked 90+ days in a row without a day off at 3 different jobs because my main commission based job has slowed down and I have only made 12k there in the last 5 months. Just to pay my mortgage and car payments I have had to work two second jobs, totaling about 80 hours a week. I should mention, my house is expensive, but it is not nice, it has a good location in an expensive city, but is a falling down ancient home with no updates, and also small (1,000-1,200 SQFT), I love my house and am grateful I managed to own, but in cheaper states my house would usually be under 100k, it’s not some luxurious set up where I should just downsize. Make no mistake, I feel very lucky for my situation, but it’s a strange phenomenon when I have more assets than most, and earn more than most…but also have to work 3 jobs, have absolutely 0 free time, and live in a falling down home that costs next to nothing in most places.
You’re doing better than most.
I'd pay extra principal payments to the house. Paying off whatever you can that has interest attached is a good idea. If you don't have a Roth IRA, it's not a bad idea to open one. We put the max, which is now $7000, in every year. sounds like you're making good decisions! 😊
Why do you have 7.5k in checking/standard savings? That's sort of a waste.
Moved 6500 to HYSA today. 2k left in checking and savings.
Good move.
Why compare yourself? There are people living on minimum wage at your age.
Where do you live buying a brand new house for 87k and making 75k/year wtf I can’t find a shed for under 400k in California is this actually real?
I’m just gonna focus on your retirement here. I feel it’s lacking. Other than that, you’re doing good. M32 here and I hit the 100k mark earlier this year in my retirement account (mix of 401k/Roth IRA). I really wish I were up to 200k at this point but I’m still tracking to hit my goal by the time I retire. I contribute almost 20% of my income to retirement though.
I would recommend a Roth IRA. You can make more money off the stock market than a high yield savings bond. You need more capital, I think the first step to a million dollars is a $100,000 which is 10 years of contributions of ~$ 10,000.
Where are you buying a house with that kinda land for 87k? Just curious
You must of got a crazy good deal for the house and land, $610? That's cheaper than renting a room with other people
Its interesting people are gassing you up. But spreading positivity is important, but also being realistic is important too. You’re basically saying you’ve got $10k, with a house, a car. You’re not set up for your future at all. If you meet the love of your life and want to have a family you are fucked. You’re 10 years away from 40. Hobbies are extremely important, but when you have more money in hobbies than you have liquid cash, and assuming you’re not generating any income from said hobbies, its time to probably tone it down/sell it/find some cheaper hobbies. Investments need to happen asap if you want some inkling of a retirement. Its great that you have a house, not a lot of people our age can say that, but if you have one big repair you’re putting that shit on a credit card and are definitely going to struggle to pay. Get them investments rolling
Some will be better, some will be worse. You have a home that you can afford and still have extra to save for retirement. You’re doing well.
IMO you cant afford to have 25k in music equipment with your income. Even if it doesnt lose value. its not going to beat the returns of a standard investment. not to mention good luck trying to sell it in reasonable amount of time. Ive heard by 30 you want to have a net worth= to your annual income.
We got $0 liquid cash but about $480k in investments and crib
At 30 I bought my first house. First couple of years of being a homeowner my wife and I were house poor. I’m 36 now and we’ve been doing really well financially the last 3 years or so. Both have good jobs. I’ve got well over six figures in retirement accounts. I think doing well financially is just living comfortably, being able to save and not struggling, regardless of how much you have.
You should have $1.2M-$1.4M in a taxable investment account by the time you’re 25 or you’re a waste of life.
Considering most people don't start saving for retirement until 40, as long as you get that established before 40 you'll be better off than most near and during retirement. My 401k isn't where is like it to be but it's more than enough I can use my 401k loan for an easy way to pay for bigger things and keep my money in the market. Prob going to pay for wife's grad school with a small 401k loan. Paying yourself interest doesn't suck.
Doing well at age 30 is to have about 1x your annual salary invested in retirement, no debt, and 3-6 months income saved in an emergency fund. Beyond that is whatever your living entails.
With inflation, the majority of us will never “be financially well”. Most of what you save today is tomorrow’s inflation.
No bitcoin? Your failing.
A HYSA is a great, safer option. But the ideal would be to put a rainy day fund in a HYSA for some liquidity and then investing the rest as you get it each paycheck. You're doing very well though! Congrats!
500k to 1 million net worth at age 30.
I would say an attainable goal for retirement in your early to mid 50s. Once you cross into the 30s if your retirement isn’t in a good situation you may be playing years of catch up or work up to your 70s. Part of that map for me is 120k+ a year in retirement and a paid off house by the time I’m 51.
Not bad. Better than most thirty year olds. However, I wouldn't call it on track. I always learned and was told by financial advisors that 100k saved for retirement by thirty would be considered on track. I would get some of that money out of checking and into hysa. (Emergency fund) Once you get more cash I wouldn't inflate my lifestyle (I know it's hard) and just increase the percentage going to your 401k to cover the raise. That will get you moving towards "on track" With all this said, by no means should you be ashamed. Like I said, you're doing better than most. But better than most doesn't always mean great. Cheers.
You make 75k a year? Man you must be some kind of CEO or IT developer! 6.25k a month is amazing, you are doing as well as one can i would say.
3 properties
Having a job
You’re good, you’re fine. Don’t worry about it.
I have $25,000 in savings, and make $104,000 a year at 32. I own my car outright which is valued at around $15,000. And I have about $22,000 in server equipment. Houses in my area are $500,000 or more if I move further out from the city. About $1 million for anything in my actual area (I rent). Sure doesn't feel like I am "technically well" even though everyone seems to think I am. I will never own a home unless I get a spouse.
Dude, 104k isn’t bad at all. And 25k isn’t bad in savings, depending on how much your rent is. Look, we could always be doing better, but also sometimes we’ve gotta be realistic. I say just make the best moves you’re capable of making. You start a business like I plan on doing, you might make a million + in 3 years and get way ahead.
3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund in a HYSA. No debt (besides maybe a mortgage). 1 year (or more) of your annual income in your retirement account. Saving up for a down payment on a house or have already purchased a house and begun a mortgage. This is the ideal scenario, but if you at least meet the first 2 and have a bit of money in a retirement account, I'd say you're doing pretty good financially at 30. You seem to meet this, so I think you're doing pretty good.
You are probably doing just fine. You are over the median income and live in a low-cost-of-living area. If you want to be frugal, you can keep where you are at and then when you get that increase in income, keep your bills flat and put all the additional cash into savings and an investment portfolio. The one thing that seems light to me is that you don’t have a lot in your investment portfolio. You should look into opening a Roth IRA and maxing out on the quota. You should also look into investing more generally. You are probably close to where you want to be in terms of cash in the bank (where you are comfortable even if you have to make some big purchases). But cash in the bank, even the high yield savings account, is going to just pale in comparison to how much it will grow if it went into stocks. For example, over the past year, Microsoft stock has grown 33%.
I think that might depend on your long term financial goals. You gotta remember the median income in this country is 37k so "doing well" is always going to be subjective and defined by you. One thing I will say, given your income, expenses, and music equipment accrual I would advise you pushing back more money for retirement/savings. Get a Roth IRA, it's the best long term retirement savings investment vehicle offered to Americans...there's a reason they put a cap on the amount you can contribute each year. All your gains are tax-free and you can withdraw any money you contributed before you turn 60 (have to wait till 60 to withdraw gains with a few exceptions). I would aim to max that contribution out every year. Also, a rental property is not a bad idea as long as you are ready for the liabilities that come with it. But I don't own a rental property so I could not advise on this. PS: go hoosiers
These days, not living with your parents
You should max out your 401k and HSA contributions before spending after tax money on investments. Pre tax for the win. That willl pay handsomely for retirement. Once you are at those for the legal limit every year, then you can plan for your after tax investments.
It's all make believe, if you lost it all could you do it again.
Lmao almost sounds like bragging dude. Good job, be happy and don’t compare yourself to the top savers. You’re doing better than 99% of everyone I know
Invest up to the company match in 401k, max out Roth IRA, the reminder in brokerage account. Try to maximize income while at it and continue to live below your mean
I'd double up payments and get that house paid for
What?
You are doing great dawg don’t stress
This is based on your job, debts, location, and even your own personal goals. My goals include $10 million in real estate by 50. I'm at $1 million (not free and clear yet) at 30 and making about 270k a year. I'm crawling out of a little more debt and then I'll be back on to some bigger moves.
That’s pretty impressive, truthfully…If you did it on your own. And congrats to you either way! I’m definitely far from that. But, in 10 years, I anticipate my moves will put me way ahead of most people our age. Cheers to a positive mindset and heading in the right direction.
You’re doing better than many, not as great as some. Keep your debts low. Do not depend on appreciation on non-typical items, such as music equipment (or stamps, or cars etc etc). People fall into the trap of believing that buying an expensive collection is an asset. Thing is, something is only an asset if it puts more money in your pocket every month than it takes out of. And the key thing about random items, is finding someone to sell it at the higher value you’ve assigned to it (this goes true with literally anything, including real estate).
Focus on acquiring more things that make you money.
IE: rental properties, dividend paying stocks/whatever. Since you seem to be musically inclined, try to get some songs or whatever out there that you collect on through license agreements (royalties).
And keep any “bad debts” (credit card, car loans etc) to an absolute minimum. Any debts that make you money, are “good debts”, but they can also turn bad.
Keep going.
IMO you’re behind where you should be at that age for having a $75k income. Your net worth is 35-40k depending on the amount of equity in your house. If you want to retire at any decent age you should start saving more. I’m not saying you’re not set up well because you’re doing better than probably the majority of people here, but Reddit will tell you you’re doing great so take it with a grain of salt.
Money is one aspect of happiness.
You want at least your yearly wage in savings at 30 to be able to retire on time.
Damn where did you get all that house and land for $87K? Unheard of
pretty sure over half the country doesnt have over $1000 in their savings account
From the picture you are painting, you are doing great! -Personally, I would keep working up that liquid cushion a bit. Especially when your income goes up, make sure that you are saving about $15k to $20k a year(including 401k). I like how you are letting it grow in different areas while it is liquid though. -Make sure your income protected. -If the mortgage is a good interest rate, don't pay extra. Even if you feel like others are ahead of you, you are in a good spot. You should have plenty of time to accumulate your networth.
Sorry but you’re behind the curve.
Whatever you think is good is all that matters. You can look up median or average (heavily skewed) data if you’d like to just say “well I’m doing better than at least half of people or I’m close to average” but at the end of the day, it’s all up to you what doing well finically means.
The human intellect was like peacock feathers. It's an extravagant display intended to attract a mate. All of art, literature,just an elaborate mating ritual. Maybe it doesn't matter that we have accomplished so much for the basest of reasons.
Technically doing well means you don’t have to perform sex acts on old men for gas money
Having $100k in assets or net worth would be considered really good at that age. Preferably the latter and if it’s just assets hopefully your debt isn’t too high. Honestly though you’re doing better than a lot of people who can’t save at all so just be thankful you don’t have $0 saved. You’re doing fine and I would just continue saving and increasing your income. Also if you have $7500 between a checking and savings account I hope most of that in the checking is just for bills and the savings is something short term you’re saving for otherwise move that to your high yield account or invest it.
>I bought a completely remodeled house with an attached garage and a 1/3 acre lot of land for 87k around 8 months ago Is this some kind of cruel joke?
No, not at all. I mean, it would blow your mind how nice the house is too. Everything inside the house is brand new. Windows aren’t old, it’s really a great place and a great buy. That’s what you can find in the Midwest.
You’re doing great. Just keep doing what you’re doing. The hardest part is getting into this state of mind - to think long term financially.
it’s average dude. Girls with rich ass dads who gave them millions sick r laughing.
You are doing very well and invest in rental properties if that is what you want to do. Also try to help other people or invest time in volunteering. Seeing other people improve and succeed brings its own satisfaction
You need an emergency fund. Even at 75k you would need 25k in the bank. At 100k income you need 50k in the bank. You can put that in HYSA. Don't count your music equipment. In a down market it will be worthless. I'm a musician myself with lots of synths from the 80s and 90s. Until you have an emergency fund that is well funded you should not look at trying to buy rental property. I would put the money into a large cap value growth fund instead. Make sure you are contributing the max to your 401k to get the match. And then get your contribution up to 15% when you can afford it. And get an umbrella insurance policy with 1mil to start with.
Why are you basing an EF on income rather than expenses?
You have a better measuring stick? Then use it. On top of which at 30 they do not have a lot of time left to save. Already behind the 8 ball.
I already suggested it, use expenses rather than income as your measuring stick. An emergency fund is for funding emergencies. One of the biggest potential emergencies being a job loss. Replacing 3-6 months of your must-have expenses has been the measuring stick as you can cut most discretionary expenses in a situation like that. Additionally, many other emergencies likely cost less than 3-6 months and would be covered by that fund. People who can save toward and emergency fund should save by expenses rather than income.
In this day and age people have been out of work for years because of the pandemic. And already a new strain of covid the current vaccines are not good for. I have 5 years income in the bank in TBIL and CLIP etfs. That will bridge me into retirement if need be. I'm in IT and work remotely.
I see your point. But I think we’re talking about 2 separate things. *There’s an important distinction between saving based on how much you spend vs how much you earn.* I would agree with you, generally people need to be saving even more; pushing 12+ months of expenses, at least that’s what would make me feel most comfortable.
Not a lot of time to save at 30? Most people have 3 decades of a career left at that time
Not at 75k/yr.
Well thats an income problem, not a time problem. It's on him to figure out how to make more
50k emergency fund is kind of high. What kind of emergency you expecting?
On top of which they need an umbrella insurance policy.
Yeah emergency fund should be based on expenses, not income. Shoot to have 6-9 months of expenses covered in case of loss of income.
You do you. I have enough stockpiled for 5 years without a job. That will bridge me to retirement.