Hi all. Apologies if this is not allowed here. I know people out there are struggling, but I just want to share my good news with someone.
It’s a big milestone of accomplishment in my life, but I feel weird just telling family members or my online friends about it. The only other people who know are my coworkers because we all got the same raise. Money doesn’t go as far nowadays due to crazy inflation post COVID and my area has higher cost of living than where I grew up, but I’m still very happy about this. I remember back when I used to only make minimum wage. All those years of schooling eventually made their way back to me. I’ll never make as much money as someone like a doctor, but it’s definitely enough for me to live comfortably as a single person.
Anyway, I’ll delete this in a bit (or sooner if it gets removed by a mod), but I hope you guys out there have a good weekend.
Edit: Thank you guys very much :)
Edit 2: Jeez there are so many more comments than I expected. You guys are so nice!!
Congratulations!! That’s awesome!!
Congrats and well done! Take some time to celebrate! (And then max out your 401k if you’re in the US and you haven’t already)
Yeah I’m bad at figuring out how stuff like that works tbh lol. I think the last time I looked at my 401k stuff it said that I should be contributing more than I am for some reason. Gotta figure out how to adjust that.
I’m going to have some new financial goals now, but I’m not sure what they’ll be. If it should be something like working towards paying down loans first, which loans to pay down first (I have a very large amount of student loans after all this and I also have a mortgage), or if I should work toward improving my living space and making it nicer. We’ll see I suppose!
Might be worth working with a financial advisor, we just got one and I feel much more comfortable with my money stuff
Wwell I know at the very least, a financial advisor probably would tell me not to invest it in my home like that. That part would be me weighing doing something for myself that isn’t totally necessary vs. the more responsible financial decision. But a financial advisor might not be a bad idea in general!
Any discouragement about upgrading your home should be taken in the context of you living in your home. If you are going to move in the next couple of years not spending 20k to upgrade your kitchen when you can apply that 20k to your next house is a good choice since it probably won’t increase you sale price. But if you plan on staying a decade, get the upgrade and enjoy yourself.
Yeah, living space upgrades are not a good financial investment.
I would suggest you pick a few smaller or low cost upgrades to get the most bang for the buck, for example, fix up your entryway, fix up your curb appeal a little. Make your space a little more pleasing to walk into.
Get some savings going for emergencies, and start paying down your loans from highest interest or lowest interest. You may be able to look at consolidating the loan with a private bank to get a better interest rate.
As well, if there are large credit card balances, consider a zero interest for n months, and see if you can pay that off within that time.
I guess my point is that just because it’s not technically a good financial investment doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily always a bad idea. You have to do things for yourself now and then too. We only have one life on this planet and living like you’re homeless just so that you can pay some giant corporation off slightly quicker isn’t necessarily the right move for mental health and general life happiness, even though on paper it’s the best move financially.
In general, I would consider myself to be fairly cheap compared to some others I know. I don’t have a ton of expenditures and I don’t carry any “bad” debt like credit card debt or anything. My loans are only my mortgage and federal student loans.
Yeah, too many people look at the numbers and try to give advice solely on those. However, while it would be nice to maximize your returns, the entire point of working for money is to benefit your life. I understand that part of this tendency is that common bad spending g habits benefit the current self at the expense of future self, but we all should be looking for that balance where both can be happy
Yup, exactly! It’s figuring out that balance that’s the important part. I’ve known people on both ends of the spectrum…some who spend excessively to the point where they go into massive debt, and some others who take the opposite approach and never do a single thing nice for themselves. Interestingly, two people I was closest to in my life exhibited these polar opposite behaviors, so I’m able to witness these effects firsthand.
It’s a process trying to find the right balance. I’m at a bit of a life crossroads and trying to figure out some of that myself. I think for me, personally, I actually need to start spending a bit more on life experiences as opposed to saving every penny.
I’m sure there’s a personal finance thing around here somewhere!
Personally, I’d work on making sure I have a cash safety net. Something like 6 months expenses in my favorite high yield savings account.
After that I would pay off any loans with a high rate. If the rate is <5 percent, it may be worth putting that money into a 401k or investment account. If it’s above 5 percent, I’d consider paying it off early. The idea being that if it’s a low rate then you can invest that money and earn a higher return than it would cost you.
Aside from that, I’d do my best to max my 401k contribution to take advantage of those sweet tax benefits. If nothing else, make sure you’re taking advantage of any employer matches.
Again, awesome work on the job!
Check out The Money Guys on youtube, they give good financial advice
Thanks for the recommendation!
Hi, congratulations! I’m so happy for you. Please consider a reputable financial advisor. Not some slick, well-advertised person, but someone who comes with a decent reputation. When meeting with them, use some intuition, don’t fall for flattery or wild promises. You can always say you want to consider their advice. Some lawyers also offer this type of service. I woods encourage you to be kind to others and our environment, with your investments.
Congrats again, well done!
Doing your best for both your present and future self is usually a balance.
Some functions that were helpful to me were
- half your raise into savings or retirement. You’re less likely to overspend if it never gets into your checking account. At the same time, you still get a nice raise
- some 401k plans offer an automatic increase. It would be a hardship to my current self to suddenly max out my 401k, but if my co tribution automatically bumps up 1-2% every year, present self wont really notice the loss and future self will thank me for growing toward maxing my 401k
Remember the most important part of your retirement savings is just doing it. The power of compounding returns over many years can be more important than which investment might do best. Remember that your contribution is something you control whereas most investment choices are speculative and you have no say over whether they do well or not
Congrats! Seeing your grind start to pay off is awesome
Now is a great time to re-visit your money management to adjust that retirement grind.
Congrats! 🎉
Congrats
Nice, but save your money. The best time to do that is now.
Congratulations you made it
You leave this post up then when you’re feeling down look at the messages.
That is so amazing. Congrats!! It must feel incredible to make that kind of money now. A six-figure income seems almost to be the minimum a person should earn if they want to survive and live well in the world these days.
I never earned a huge salary (I think my highest was $27,000 in one year) as a healthcare worker, but I came into a family trust later in life when my parents kicked off. So now I have a lot of money in the bank - and like you, not anyone close to share it with.
The only good thing is I retired early and now pretty much have all my time to myself - nobody to share it with, but that’s OK because I feel like I keep busy and I’m into things like painting and playing music and hiking - so I never feel like I have time to just sit and brood about things.
I just want to say congrats and you deserve to feel happy about your situation. I wish you all the best!!
Congratulations. Of course you understand that come time to eat the rich you’re now on the menu.
Yeah, cause everyone making more than 50¢/hour is rich and must be dethroned /s
Congrats! Some unsolicited money advice I wish I had known earlier in my career:
If you have a mortgage and the interest rate is less than 7ish percent and you’re wanting to pay it early, something to consider:
You might put whatever extra you were planning into a Roth IRA until it’s maxed and also max out your 401k if your employment has that. Historical yield is 7ish% and compound interest will help you immensely 20-30 years down the line.
Paying off the house early is nice feeling but you can possibly refinance for lower rates later if it’s currently similar to or higher than historical investment yields. You could also do a little bit of both but prioritizing retirement accounts is the smarter move imo. So if your mortgage rate is 5% and you want to pay that down, you’re leaving 2% on the table by not putting it into either an IRA or an index fund instead.
This is assuming you’re not carrying other debts at higher rates like credit cards, those should be your priority. Next would be 3 months of all bills saved up, you can find some decent interest rates on savings accounts. I have Acorns and it’s at 5% so the 3 months reserves will stack interest for you too.
You can max out a 401k?
Yeah it’s like 21.5k for 2024. They have yearly maximums on retirement accounts in the US, and that number is higher if you’re past a certain age (“catch up”). IRAs are a lot less, like 7k this year
Nice. Congratulations!
Congratulations!!
You earned this. Well done.
I don’t have any advice. I just wanted to contribute a humble HELL YEAH BROTHER.
Cheers bro, to each one of these six figures 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃
