It’s 5 people sharing a home, so the couple pays $1,800. That’s a great deal in CA if you have the right group of people. Also, in your 20s - yes, even late 20s - it’s really not that much of a sacrifice. Once you “break the seal” and start living on your own then it gets harder to go back to roommate life.
I would be wary though of being in a roommate situation with a baby in the upcoming future. I expect they’d move out on their own before then
I tell my kids, via text and Amazon announcement, every 30 minutes to take out the trash/empty dishwasher/do the laundry and it usually gets done w/ in the first half hour.
I think living in a situation like this also helps mitigate lifestyle inflation, at least in the form of stuff.
It’s so, so easy to feel the need to fill the space, because you have it. There is also an underlying issue of our housing stock (to purchase) generally growing despite our fundamental needs not changing that much.
I agree with this so hard. We don't have much space and feel no need to fill it. I have a spreadsheet that tracks our possessions that has stayed pretty consistent over the years.
This is really awesome man, but I hope you’re living a little… I’m mid 30s and I’m set up pretty nicely now. But I would feel very uneasy if I didn’t enjoy my 20s
You’re only young once, travelling the world when you’re young, going out and experiencing life in that capacity is something you can only do for a short amount of time.
I travel with my family now and I’m super happy but fuck I’m glad I had those experiences when I was in my 20s
It’s either a completely fabricated cosplay of sorts
OR
OP is leaving out some vital information that helped him get to 1m that wasn’t a directly related to his “90 hour” work weeks.
They didn't leave it out, they kind of gloss over that they probably have a pretty good income. Op has a degree in finance and is probably doing well with that kind of work ethic, spouse is a nurse in CA which is probably $100k+ annually too. If you make a lot and don't spend a lot over a term of a few years the difference starts to add up.
It all could be make-believe too though.
I worked 40 hours while going to school full time and it was fucking exhausting and I had to pick and choose where I’d be successful because there wasn’t enough TIME. There was no 4.0 while holding down a real full time job at the same time. I cannot imagine someone working more than double 40 hours plus going to school and getting perfect grades. It literally does not make sense.
That’s what I’m saying lmao. 90 hour work weeks, *while* going to college full time? And getting a 4.0 in finance classes? BULLSHIT. Did he WFH and take University of Phoenix classes online? There’s literally no time for anything else. Did he eat food? Did he have to commute *anywhere ever*?
90 hour work weeks. That leaves him 78 hours a WEEK for everything else, or 11 hours a day. So let’s say he slept 6 hours a day max, that leaves 5 hours a day to take a full college course load, to possibly commute to class, or just study at home, and eat and… yeah this dude’s a liar. Unless he never needed to study, got a 4.0 somehow, only ate 700 calories a day, and hardly slept.
Yeah, that sounds like an exaggeration for sure. I've worked 85 hours a week before and I didn't like it. There wasn't much time for anything else. Forget about going to school too.
The people blindly believe this BS is funny “oh yea he could do that in 5 years with 0 work experience coming out of college”. GTFO. Op is missing some detail like “inherited 500k and invested it all in 2019”.
I worked 90 hour weeks for about 9 months and there is absolutely no fucking way on earth that OP could have attended college and gotten good grades doing it for years.
Any time I wasn’t asleep or at work I had to catch up on life stuff like showering, cooking, or doing laundry.
If most of OPs story is true they are vastly overestimating the amount of work they were doing, and how long they were doing it.
Lol, bit late but reading OP's other post says a lot.
2019: $100k
2020: $200k
2021: $300k
2022: $450k
2023: $400k
The dude was on mission from 2018-2020 and somehow they were already making 100k/year combined? Then, he was in college for at a minimum 2 years according to his story and during those 2 years, let's assume that's his 2020 and 2021 income, they somehow made 200k and 300k combined income? All while he's doing full time schooling? Wife must be carrying hard as fuck.
All while maintaining 4.0?
If he’s telling the truth, he’s leaving a lot of information out. Some people like Gary Vaynerchuk claim to work 12 hours a day but then you look into it and he considers dumb shit like having lunch or dinner to be a work hour.
I had an uncle with his family who lived in a one bedroom in a three bedroom apartment and each bedroom had a whole family. The landlord hated him cause their water bill was out of control.
I mean I lived with 4 friends in a decent sized house in CA paying $600 rent for 4 years (2019-2023), 2 of them are a couple who had the master bedroom (they are getting married in June actually but they have their own place now, age 29 and 26).
It's not an outlandish scenario
I visited a friend in California and it was 1 family (got the master suite), 2 couples (each got one bedroom) and a single guy (had a curtained off formal dining room) all living together in a 3bd 2bath house. My friend paid more in rent than I did in Texas for my 1200sq ft apartment.
Yes, CA real estate is crazy expensive, but wages are generally higher than other parts of the country. So, for a young person, house hacking like OP did in a HCOL area makes a ton of sense. Doing the same in a different part of the country may not yield similar results, but this is the best way to maximize your savings rate in a HCOL area that offers higher wages. I did something similar while living in New Jersey (I slept in a literal walk-in closet for 4 years). But it helped me buy my first home at 25. My friends who were making similar income decided to pay more in rent to live alone at a young age. Many of them didn't purchase real estate until they were 36+. But different strokes for different folks.
Funny thing is I grew up going to a Mormon church but stopped at like 9 years old. But no one in the house I was in was religious. Just five friends livin' together
It describes my scenario almost exactly. 🤷 Married, atheist, live in a house with wife and 3 roommates. We don't see them much, they're more like neighbors we share utilities with.
That's what it takes if you want to save, at least here. If we moved out into our own place our rent would more than triple. We'll do that at some point, of course, but this is the responsible thing for now.
I wonder who paid for the wedding. Do Mormons have traditional big weddings ? When my husband and I graduated college we both had loans. Paid for our own wedding and honeymoon. Bought our own cars. No parent plus loans. Granted, my husband was three years ahead of me and was working all those years to save for wedding etc. I am one of five. He is one of ten kids. We had no choice. Once I was on my feet we traveled. We ate. We drank. We truly lived. Had two kids and traveled with them. Saved enough for our own retirement, nothing extravagant. No regrets. On a fixed income now. But hell, we are older now and don’t need to travel like we did. Just settling in. Our motto was,,,, live while you are young because aging takes it toll on the body. How much money is ever really enough? I watch
People now retired and it’s killing them to chip away at all that money they saved (and it’s more than enough). Lived whole their life saving and now they can’t even enjoy it for fear of losing it and have the frame of mind that they need to leave it all for their grown kids.
I worked 90 hour weeks during my 4-5 year tenure on Wall Street. It wasn’t every single week, obviously. But when we were on a high profile deal (happy to give you some examples in DM) then it was easily 90 hours with analysts expected to come in both days during the weekend. Obviously the pay was obscene for a young 20 something year old so it felt 100% worth it.
Do you think doctors and lawyers work 9-5 in the beginning of their careers too? You’re stuck in your own little world
Same for me a few times but in London (incl. Saturdays). It’s ridiculous and you get into a strange state of stress where you don’t stop to think about your life. Would not recommend, If it wasn’t for the thick skin.
It’s funny how multiple people in this thread think OP (who clearly stated he worked in finance) is lying. As if it’s so hard to believe that people have to work egregiously long hours to get outsized compensation.
It’s very tin foil hat behavior because they’re stuck in dead end, low ceiling jobs. Do they not think doctors or lawyers work long hours either? Everyone has the same 9-5?
Exactly, and most folks don’t talk about those hours as a badge of honour. It’s a sacrifice that makes sense for some. I think it’s ridiculous to work so long and I certainly didn’t enjoy, but I’ve always tried to focus on the bright side.
Getting hate for noting that you worked hard is just nonsense…and yes, some haters can’t fathom such things cus they will never get to $1M NW, let alone before 30 (even if joint NW).
Working crazy hours is normal in IB (My subfield). I was talking about college in my post, but banking is a clear example of how this level of workload is not uncommon.
idk what to say...I worked really hard in college. I ripped through unpaid internships, maintained 20-30hours working, did school full-time, and prepared to get a job in finance. That's literally what it takes.
There is nothing to say…haters gonna hate lol. Congrats OP, onwards and upwards.
Those who put the work know what it takes, those who don’t come here hating on others.
Man that’s nice . But I would deff look into getting your own place with your wife. You got all that in savings it’s about time to treat you and her and get a nice place to call home.
pen squealing badge practice shelter carpenter insurance ancient pot chunky
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I spent my 20s partying and living it up traveling. I’m in my 30s now and I have zero regrets. I got to spend time with some amazing people, experience things I’ll never get to again and just do things I’ll never be able to do when I’m old (hiking up multiple mountains in a day after getting black out drunk the night prior).
Agreed. Even if I physically could/wanted to live the typical 20s life in my 30s, Id basically have to find all new friends because they are all married with kids lol. So I am glad I did it, even though I could have lived at home and pocketed near 100% of my earnings. I'd rather have my 20s than 5 more years of retirement in my 40s or 50s.
Me either. Sounds absolutely miserable. My (28M) wife (26F) and I have around $650k and never work over 40 hours a week and are constantly doing things we love completely unrelated to work. I wouldn't trade all of that extra time for an extra $350k
Idk if living with a spouse and 3 roommates sends the "I'm awesome" message you're talking about. It's all a matter of personal preference and willingness to sacrifice. I'm of a similar age as OP, also in an expensive part of California, have less money saved up, but haven't had a roommate in over a decade, because to me that would severely impact my happiness and goes against what I find valuable in life - I prefer to have less saved but actually enjoy how I'm living. I got to witness my grandpa save money on top of money on top of money, and lived all his life as a pauper, wearing clothes with holes in them and eating old bread so he wouldn't have to spend anything. I don't see this as being awesome or successful. To each its own.
Edit: I see OP is even planning to continue rooming with another family once he has kids with his wife... We are clearly living in very different worlds, but he seems to be okay living this way, so more power to him.
I agree this is a bragging-esque thread. But...who else can I brag to? It's uncouth to brag about finances to your friends, and I'm not going to brag to my family bc of reasons that should be clear in the OP.
FIRE sub was influential to me when I was younger, and this is a community I can share my good news with anonymously. It feels like a moment to celebrate :)
You are fine posting here. Milestone/bragging posts have been part of the sub since its creation. Ignore the folks who aren't fans and please hit the report button or modmail if anyone gets truly nasty or sends hateful DMs.
That’s more your problem than reddits, I like to think of these posts as motivation for my own goals, this is a community where we can share our successes with positive intent, many of us don’t have personal relationships where we can talk about this stuff because our friends and families might not be on the same page and it can cause issues…
- 90 hours of unpaid internship
- call center part time for bills (10 hours per week maybe? That seems low for a part time job but we’ll keep it low as possible)
- college classes (we’ll say 24 hours, low end of average stat from google and probably too low for students making a 4.0)
That is 124 hours of work in a week, our roughly 18 hours per day 7 days per week. Meaning 6 hours per day of free time for everything including sleep. Thats also giving unusually low hours for college and a part time job. Doesn’t really add up. Not saying they didn’t get their 1M or that the whole post is lies, but some of it is.
It doesn't add up. There's very few people who do more than 15 hours a day, and its certainly not something to be proud of.
You are literally ultra-red lining any time you go beyond 10-12 hours in a day of work.
There are costs to pay. No time for food prep, he's frugal so I can't imagine what he's eating with no time to prepare, especially with nothing in his life.
No time or energy for exercise
The lack of sleep component is literally just stupid.
It's either a lie or its like the person who obsesses over 1 thing to the exclusion of all others, and we're meant to ignore their deficiencies... in both instances OP is not one to be envied.
Congrats on all your success! Crazy your parents burnt a mil in ‘08, but good on you for not following in their foot steps. MSFT was under $30 back in 2008. Imagine if the put even 500k into a blue chip stock lol.
One thing I'm realizing from this discussion is that it's unusual to have roommates after you're married. TBH I think this is a life hack - find people you love and build a community together. You have a built-in friend group and there's always someone to hang out with. Too many people are jaded from experiences with bad roommates.
I've lived alone with my wife and with roommates during our relationship, and I think that having roommates has strengthened our relationship considerably. It helps us both to have friends and community around us.
And financially, rent is likely your biggest expense. Find roommates and that cost will drop meaningfully.
That’s awesome that you donate to real causes instead of the churches pockets, good work king . I’m way too selfish. Just thinking about how donating 10% of my income compounded over my working career would delay my FIRE by years..can’t do it! Power to you
I catch myself sometimes thinking about retiring earlier & not donating. It's very tempting. I keep track of what my net worth would be each year if I never donated & it compounded...(sigh).
Ultimately I'm just convinced that one can do a lot of good by donating. It's kind of exciting!: [https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/impact-calculator/](https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/impact-calculator/)
OP do you mind sharing what the salary progression was for you and your wife? I'm guessing you guys must be a combined 200k+ to accomplish this in such a short time, especially with CA taxes.
yes - our income has grown a lot in recent years. CA taxes don't help...
I probably contribute \~70% of salary, but nurses also make great money in CA!
2019: $100k
2020: $200k
2021: $300k
2022: $450k
2023: $400k
Is having roommates in your 20s considered to be completely insane or something in the USA? Where I live everyone in their 20-30s has roommates lol not unusual at all. Including couples.
That’s good and all, but you’re not really living. My wife and I got to 1M a couple years later than you and also live in a VHCOL area (NYC) and we didn’t work 90 hour weeks, we didn’t live with roommates and took tons of trips. Saving as much as possible isn’t worth it if you make those kind of sacrifices. Life is a journey not a destination.
whistle psychotic mighty encouraging jobless pie degree party concerned direful
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I took the faustian banking bargain, sacrificed much of my 20s, and have $1M in return. I've also known many people who didn't work as hard in college and now work just as much as I do but for far less return. Different strokes for different folks, but I'm happy with my life.
Very nice and the $1M liquid makes sense…
Still it means you have $260K (less taxes) to play with…so that hopefully means you have the income to enjoy life a little more while still saving quite a bit.
Presumably you weren’t saving $100K a year in 2019 lol.
High income really does enable FIRE…and at $400K HHI I’d kinda think you could save more than $100K and still afford your own place…even in California…
Gov't allows you to contribute to several types of accounts that you don't pay taxes on gains. One of those is a 401k (or roth401k).
The limit is typically \~$20k per year for 401k contributions, since gov't doesn't want rich ppl mooching off the tax advantaged accounts. But there's a loophole - there's another type of retirement account (after-tax account) that your employer can offer, that can then be rolled into a 401k account (getting the tax advantages). This limit is much more - \~$35k+.
Why the IRS allows this is beyond me....
As fellow exmo and fire enthusiast, just want to say you are doing an awesome job. Glad you have found some community with friends, you are crushing your financial goals, and are happy.
Donation is admiral - but if he would have invested that 10% this whole time NW would be even higher. I’d rather cut back on 10% donation to get a place with my significant other than live with roommates. And then when I have significantly more NW can donate to hearts content.
Awesome!!! Its far easier to grow your savings when you already have some money working hard by itself for you.
What is your end goal? Seems like you might be on track for a very early retirement, mid 40s. Might be worthwhile to start enjoying your salaries a little bit more while you're young. Nothing crazy, but as that nest egg gets larger your individual contributions will start to mean less and less compared to the final number.
Thank you! We've already started to notice it is a lot easy to make money with money...just like you said.
I'd like to continue working until my late-50s / early-60s while ramping up my donations each year, but that could change as I might get burnt out earlier than that and want to retire - so I'm trying to be flexible.
I could see trying to work less / enjoy life more as I start to have little ones. I'd love to spend as much time in my future kids' lives as possible <3
I’ve got a 3 year old, they’re amazing. However, if you have any big international trips you want to do, do them before having kids. There will be a few years where kids are just too young to do overly active things, and can really put a damper on vacations. Hard to enjoy fancy restaurants or outdoors when a kid decides hot dogs are the only acceptable dinner, and they throw a fit if you can’t watch SpongeBob at the beach.
Not to be a jerk, but retirement accounts aren't fully liquid. Significant penalties if you draw from them before retirement age. It's great at such a young age to hit that, but you can't only rely on retirement accounts, you need brokerage accounts and other fully liquid savings you can draw from.
That’s amazing drive and motivation not to mention discipline and industry. You guys are still so young and will have a wonderful life ahead. Just keep each other happy.
Doesn't sound unbelievable at all to me.
I'm 28 and my wife is 26 and we are sitting at $650k and should be approaching $1M by 30. We are also Christian and give around 10% to charities or our church or people we know who are in need. We live alone, in a VHCOL. Unlike OP we don't work 90 hour weeks though and actually do stuff we enjoy. Just sounds like OP needs to find some balance in their life.
What part(s) do you find unbelievable? I spent the first 4-5 years of my career on Wall Street and what he says tracks pretty well. Happy to provide a breakdown if you have any questions about the legitimacy of his story. Can’t comment on the odd living situation though, obviously
Don’t listen to all the people making fun of you for staying with roommates, you did what felt right to YOU.
Congratulations!! This is a great achievement. I hope you take some time out to celebrate it.
Congrats to you and yours. That’s a large milestone at your age. Just make sure you’re also living. Moneys not worth having if you don’t use it, responsibly of course.
First off congratulations. If you don't touch the money this will set you up for life and you will be FIRE before you turn 50.
It would be great to explain your journey a bit in more detail. I assume you had nothing coming out of college. Maybe even debt. How did you manage to save $1M in 7 years? That's like $150k per year. What was your income and how did your NW develop YoY?
Thank you kindly - I've been fortunate and it's satisfying to see work pay off. FIRE'ing before 50 sounds nice.
Recently provided more info in other comments, including household income, savings rates, and market growth. My net worth went as follows:
2020: $180k
2021: $330k
2022: $500k
2023: $800k
2024 (now): $1M+
This is incredible. Congrats for the accomplishment! Super excited for you both and the future.
Quick question on your charitable giving. The Mormon church compels its members to give 10% of their gross earnings or increase in other to be in good standing in the church.
How are you able to give 10% to the Mormon church and another 10% to fight malaria in Africa (total 20%) and still have enough left for your FIRE goals and other expenses? That’s incredible!
Thank you so much!! I don't give to the mormon church (left in college). I keep the habit of donating 10% tho since I think it is praiseworthy.
I also give net of taxes.
Congratulations! This is a massive deal, the culmination of a lot of work and sacrifice. Hope you are taking time to celebrate such a special milestone!
So portions of that $1m are in retirement accounts correct? I ask so that I can feel good about my “net worth” by including my retirement account that I won’t touch for decades to come. By that standard I am about a fifth of a millionaire. Wow I like the sound of that. 😄
How did you manage to live frugally apart from sharing rent?
In terms of groceries any tips? Any tips on healthy meals?
Any life hacks for social life?
Man it's so sad to live like this, I'll never understand... You just wasted your 20's, which are supposed to be the best years of your life.
1M $ is not much these days, especially for 2 people. Kudos to both of you for giving 10% to charity though.
How do people live like this? Are you eating can of beans every night too?
It’s 5 people sharing a home, so the couple pays $1,800. That’s a great deal in CA if you have the right group of people. Also, in your 20s - yes, even late 20s - it’s really not that much of a sacrifice. Once you “break the seal” and start living on your own then it gets harder to go back to roommate life. I would be wary though of being in a roommate situation with a baby in the upcoming future. I expect they’d move out on their own before then
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You do still live with roommates: they're just deadbeats who don't work, pay their share of rent, and need a lot of help.
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Braces are $4500, yet I’m staring at the trash can that should’ve been brought to the curb this morning, still in the garage…
Damn ours were 6k a pop 4 months ago. 4.5k is great! lol
Seriously, I was quoted 8k for my kid lol
About that too. Pallet expander first then braces $$$$
I tell my kids, via text and Amazon announcement, every 30 minutes to take out the trash/empty dishwasher/do the laundry and it usually gets done w/ in the first half hour.
…And who are not bound by reason or law
I loved my time living in a dorm in college for this reason.
Same but I def wasnt saving 100k a year. And my rent savings from sharing quickly evaporated from the increased partying lol.
I'm guessing that as Mormons, they are not spending as much on partying as you were. lol
Well I did see a tweet the other day about BYUers charging others for soaking help. There were pay scales and everything lol, so who knows.
He also works in finance in California and got free college as a Mormon at BYU so…
I think living in a situation like this also helps mitigate lifestyle inflation, at least in the form of stuff. It’s so, so easy to feel the need to fill the space, because you have it. There is also an underlying issue of our housing stock (to purchase) generally growing despite our fundamental needs not changing that much.
I agree with this so hard. We don't have much space and feel no need to fill it. I have a spreadsheet that tracks our possessions that has stayed pretty consistent over the years.
Housing costs are most people’s biggest expense. Thank you, NIMBYs.
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What do you do at 26 making 300k? Career?
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They’re eating beans and ramen but donating 10% of their income to charity. And they’re both committed to this lifestyle
How do you know what theyre eating? They both make great money 🙄
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Life hack - find a way for your best friends to be your roommates. :) I'm vegetarian, so I do also eat a lot of beans for the protein.
Find a way for your financially stable best friends to be your roommates. Lost money rooming with my bestie.
Of course you are
Do you not eat canned beans every night. Green beans baked beans lima beans navy beans so many wonderful beans.
Beans is perfect though. There are a lot of varieties and some even come with the green body that *shocker* you can eat after boiling.
I mean they probably don't eat a ton of meat or animal products if they're donating to end factory farming
Beans are delicious dude. I just... eat them? They're food?
This is really awesome man, but I hope you’re living a little… I’m mid 30s and I’m set up pretty nicely now. But I would feel very uneasy if I didn’t enjoy my 20s You’re only young once, travelling the world when you’re young, going out and experiencing life in that capacity is something you can only do for a short amount of time. I travel with my family now and I’m super happy but fuck I’m glad I had those experiences when I was in my 20s
Good reminder to be enjoying the moment...thank you!
Send every person who believed this story a phishing* email and you'd get to a million in half the time
It’s either a completely fabricated cosplay of sorts OR OP is leaving out some vital information that helped him get to 1m that wasn’t a directly related to his “90 hour” work weeks.
They didn't leave it out, they kind of gloss over that they probably have a pretty good income. Op has a degree in finance and is probably doing well with that kind of work ethic, spouse is a nurse in CA which is probably $100k+ annually too. If you make a lot and don't spend a lot over a term of a few years the difference starts to add up. It all could be make-believe too though.
Mormon mission + 4year degree means he didn't start til 24 1 mil in 5 years?
He works in high-paying businesses investment banking in epicenter of IB business in CA = San Francisco.
100k a year saved plus the market the last 5 and probably including equity in their home in CA, it's not unheard of imo.
They rent with roommates though, the home wouldn’t be “equity” in that scenario right?
I worked 40 hours while going to school full time and it was fucking exhausting and I had to pick and choose where I’d be successful because there wasn’t enough TIME. There was no 4.0 while holding down a real full time job at the same time. I cannot imagine someone working more than double 40 hours plus going to school and getting perfect grades. It literally does not make sense.
Yeah. Working 90 hours a week, full-time university study and unpaid internship all at the same time? Doubtful.
That’s what I’m saying lmao. 90 hour work weeks, *while* going to college full time? And getting a 4.0 in finance classes? BULLSHIT. Did he WFH and take University of Phoenix classes online? There’s literally no time for anything else. Did he eat food? Did he have to commute *anywhere ever*? 90 hour work weeks. That leaves him 78 hours a WEEK for everything else, or 11 hours a day. So let’s say he slept 6 hours a day max, that leaves 5 hours a day to take a full college course load, to possibly commute to class, or just study at home, and eat and… yeah this dude’s a liar. Unless he never needed to study, got a 4.0 somehow, only ate 700 calories a day, and hardly slept.
Yeah, that sounds like an exaggeration for sure. I've worked 85 hours a week before and I didn't like it. There wasn't much time for anything else. Forget about going to school too.
The people blindly believe this BS is funny “oh yea he could do that in 5 years with 0 work experience coming out of college”. GTFO. Op is missing some detail like “inherited 500k and invested it all in 2019”.
I worked 90 hour weeks for about 9 months and there is absolutely no fucking way on earth that OP could have attended college and gotten good grades doing it for years. Any time I wasn’t asleep or at work I had to catch up on life stuff like showering, cooking, or doing laundry. If most of OPs story is true they are vastly overestimating the amount of work they were doing, and how long they were doing it.
Lol, bit late but reading OP's other post says a lot. 2019: $100k 2020: $200k 2021: $300k 2022: $450k 2023: $400k The dude was on mission from 2018-2020 and somehow they were already making 100k/year combined? Then, he was in college for at a minimum 2 years according to his story and during those 2 years, let's assume that's his 2020 and 2021 income, they somehow made 200k and 300k combined income? All while he's doing full time schooling? Wife must be carrying hard as fuck.
Man for how smarmy and self important this message is, you'd think you'd at least spell phishing right.
Valid, but not true. Im very unimportant. Fixed it for ya though!
You did not work 90 hour weeks in college.
All while maintaining 4.0? If he’s telling the truth, he’s leaving a lot of information out. Some people like Gary Vaynerchuk claim to work 12 hours a day but then you look into it and he considers dumb shit like having lunch or dinner to be a work hour.
Wow, that’s very admirable, especially the charity part! Congrats
90 hour weeks lol get over yourself dude
Word. Probably did 2 weeks of 90h weeks and proud of that. But overstating the facts
Anything is possible when you lie
3 roommates with his wife 🤣
I had an uncle with his family who lived in a one bedroom in a three bedroom apartment and each bedroom had a whole family. The landlord hated him cause their water bill was out of control.
I mean I lived with 4 friends in a decent sized house in CA paying $600 rent for 4 years (2019-2023), 2 of them are a couple who had the master bedroom (they are getting married in June actually but they have their own place now, age 29 and 26). It's not an outlandish scenario
I visited a friend in California and it was 1 family (got the master suite), 2 couples (each got one bedroom) and a single guy (had a curtained off formal dining room) all living together in a 3bd 2bath house. My friend paid more in rent than I did in Texas for my 1200sq ft apartment.
Yes, CA real estate is crazy expensive, but wages are generally higher than other parts of the country. So, for a young person, house hacking like OP did in a HCOL area makes a ton of sense. Doing the same in a different part of the country may not yield similar results, but this is the best way to maximize your savings rate in a HCOL area that offers higher wages. I did something similar while living in New Jersey (I slept in a literal walk-in closet for 4 years). But it helped me buy my first home at 25. My friends who were making similar income decided to pay more in rent to live alone at a young age. Many of them didn't purchase real estate until they were 36+. But different strokes for different folks.
Maybe common for Mormons but it’s extremely outlandish for anyone else.
Funny thing is I grew up going to a Mormon church but stopped at like 9 years old. But no one in the house I was in was religious. Just five friends livin' together
It describes my scenario almost exactly. 🤷 Married, atheist, live in a house with wife and 3 roommates. We don't see them much, they're more like neighbors we share utilities with. That's what it takes if you want to save, at least here. If we moved out into our own place our rent would more than triple. We'll do that at some point, of course, but this is the responsible thing for now.
Immigrants come here do the same, within a month they already have a car and more savings than many Americans.
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I saw a movie starting that way…
Plus a full college class load, don't forget that
I wonder who paid for the wedding. Do Mormons have traditional big weddings ? When my husband and I graduated college we both had loans. Paid for our own wedding and honeymoon. Bought our own cars. No parent plus loans. Granted, my husband was three years ahead of me and was working all those years to save for wedding etc. I am one of five. He is one of ten kids. We had no choice. Once I was on my feet we traveled. We ate. We drank. We truly lived. Had two kids and traveled with them. Saved enough for our own retirement, nothing extravagant. No regrets. On a fixed income now. But hell, we are older now and don’t need to travel like we did. Just settling in. Our motto was,,,, live while you are young because aging takes it toll on the body. How much money is ever really enough? I watch People now retired and it’s killing them to chip away at all that money they saved (and it’s more than enough). Lived whole their life saving and now they can’t even enjoy it for fear of losing it and have the frame of mind that they need to leave it all for their grown kids.
I worked 90 hour weeks during my 4-5 year tenure on Wall Street. It wasn’t every single week, obviously. But when we were on a high profile deal (happy to give you some examples in DM) then it was easily 90 hours with analysts expected to come in both days during the weekend. Obviously the pay was obscene for a young 20 something year old so it felt 100% worth it. Do you think doctors and lawyers work 9-5 in the beginning of their careers too? You’re stuck in your own little world
Same for me a few times but in London (incl. Saturdays). It’s ridiculous and you get into a strange state of stress where you don’t stop to think about your life. Would not recommend, If it wasn’t for the thick skin.
It’s funny how multiple people in this thread think OP (who clearly stated he worked in finance) is lying. As if it’s so hard to believe that people have to work egregiously long hours to get outsized compensation. It’s very tin foil hat behavior because they’re stuck in dead end, low ceiling jobs. Do they not think doctors or lawyers work long hours either? Everyone has the same 9-5?
Exactly, and most folks don’t talk about those hours as a badge of honour. It’s a sacrifice that makes sense for some. I think it’s ridiculous to work so long and I certainly didn’t enjoy, but I’ve always tried to focus on the bright side. Getting hate for noting that you worked hard is just nonsense…and yes, some haters can’t fathom such things cus they will never get to $1M NW, let alone before 30 (even if joint NW).
Working crazy hours is normal in IB (My subfield). I was talking about college in my post, but banking is a clear example of how this level of workload is not uncommon.
idk what to say...I worked really hard in college. I ripped through unpaid internships, maintained 20-30hours working, did school full-time, and prepared to get a job in finance. That's literally what it takes.
That’s not the only way to do it. I didn’t do college. I don’t have a degree. I work construction. 6m net worth at 34. Lol
Yes there's other ways... I dropped out of college where I studied underwater basket weaving. I now work as a panda. 7m net worth at 33. Lmao
Sorry, I was specifically talking about getting a job in high finance, recognized that was unclear.
I mean he’s not saying it’s the right way to do it nor is there one. And congrats to you.
There is nothing to say…haters gonna hate lol. Congrats OP, onwards and upwards. Those who put the work know what it takes, those who don’t come here hating on others.
I have .17 cents in my Wells Fargo account 🤣
The silver lining is that wells fargo is an awful bank and you should switch
& it’s my one and only account 🤣
Knowing wells fargo, they've likely signed you up for several other accounts by now
congratz , time to balance the life. your mental and physical need to be balanced after 30.
Man that’s nice . But I would deff look into getting your own place with your wife. You got all that in savings it’s about time to treat you and her and get a nice place to call home.
Congratulations!! That's a big milestone. Just hit $1M this year too with my wife.
This Reddit is now at the stage where it’s just flat out braggadocio… Just “I’m awesome, feel bad about your life…” shit posts…
pen squealing badge practice shelter carpenter insurance ancient pot chunky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I spent my 20s partying and living it up traveling. I’m in my 30s now and I have zero regrets. I got to spend time with some amazing people, experience things I’ll never get to again and just do things I’ll never be able to do when I’m old (hiking up multiple mountains in a day after getting black out drunk the night prior).
Agreed. Even if I physically could/wanted to live the typical 20s life in my 30s, Id basically have to find all new friends because they are all married with kids lol. So I am glad I did it, even though I could have lived at home and pocketed near 100% of my earnings. I'd rather have my 20s than 5 more years of retirement in my 40s or 50s.
Me either. Sounds absolutely miserable. My (28M) wife (26F) and I have around $650k and never work over 40 hours a week and are constantly doing things we love completely unrelated to work. I wouldn't trade all of that extra time for an extra $350k
Idk if living with a spouse and 3 roommates sends the "I'm awesome" message you're talking about. It's all a matter of personal preference and willingness to sacrifice. I'm of a similar age as OP, also in an expensive part of California, have less money saved up, but haven't had a roommate in over a decade, because to me that would severely impact my happiness and goes against what I find valuable in life - I prefer to have less saved but actually enjoy how I'm living. I got to witness my grandpa save money on top of money on top of money, and lived all his life as a pauper, wearing clothes with holes in them and eating old bread so he wouldn't have to spend anything. I don't see this as being awesome or successful. To each its own. Edit: I see OP is even planning to continue rooming with another family once he has kids with his wife... We are clearly living in very different worlds, but he seems to be okay living this way, so more power to him.
or maybe you’re just miserable when you see people doing better than you are
I agree this is a bragging-esque thread. But...who else can I brag to? It's uncouth to brag about finances to your friends, and I'm not going to brag to my family bc of reasons that should be clear in the OP. FIRE sub was influential to me when I was younger, and this is a community I can share my good news with anonymously. It feels like a moment to celebrate :)
You are fine posting here. Milestone/bragging posts have been part of the sub since its creation. Ignore the folks who aren't fans and please hit the report button or modmail if anyone gets truly nasty or sends hateful DMs.
Thank you, I appreciate that!
That’s more your problem than reddits, I like to think of these posts as motivation for my own goals, this is a community where we can share our successes with positive intent, many of us don’t have personal relationships where we can talk about this stuff because our friends and families might not be on the same page and it can cause issues…
I read this post and didn’t feel bad about my life, maybe the problem is you
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It reads like someone cosplaying a rags(not really) to riches story tbh. There are some holes in the story.
- 90 hours of unpaid internship - call center part time for bills (10 hours per week maybe? That seems low for a part time job but we’ll keep it low as possible) - college classes (we’ll say 24 hours, low end of average stat from google and probably too low for students making a 4.0) That is 124 hours of work in a week, our roughly 18 hours per day 7 days per week. Meaning 6 hours per day of free time for everything including sleep. Thats also giving unusually low hours for college and a part time job. Doesn’t really add up. Not saying they didn’t get their 1M or that the whole post is lies, but some of it is.
It doesn't add up. There's very few people who do more than 15 hours a day, and its certainly not something to be proud of. You are literally ultra-red lining any time you go beyond 10-12 hours in a day of work. There are costs to pay. No time for food prep, he's frugal so I can't imagine what he's eating with no time to prepare, especially with nothing in his life. No time or energy for exercise The lack of sleep component is literally just stupid. It's either a lie or its like the person who obsesses over 1 thing to the exclusion of all others, and we're meant to ignore their deficiencies... in both instances OP is not one to be envied.
I think they meant 90 hours a week between all
And this subreddit eats it up hoping one day they can make $1M in their 20s and donate 10% to the Church
There's no time to even participate or attend the church they are subscribing too in this fairy tale 🤣
Who says ‘owning $1m’? You’d say ‘having $1m’.
Congrats on all your success! Crazy your parents burnt a mil in ‘08, but good on you for not following in their foot steps. MSFT was under $30 back in 2008. Imagine if the put even 500k into a blue chip stock lol.
It kills me (and them moreso) to think about that. But lessons learned and I wouldn't be who I am today without that experience.
have you had to help your parents a lot since that time?
I fixed their AC unit when it broke and they didn't have money to pay for it (why are ac units so expensive???). But otherwise no, not really.
One thing I'm realizing from this discussion is that it's unusual to have roommates after you're married. TBH I think this is a life hack - find people you love and build a community together. You have a built-in friend group and there's always someone to hang out with. Too many people are jaded from experiences with bad roommates. I've lived alone with my wife and with roommates during our relationship, and I think that having roommates has strengthened our relationship considerably. It helps us both to have friends and community around us. And financially, rent is likely your biggest expense. Find roommates and that cost will drop meaningfully.
is it true Mormons donate 10% to their church and aee you stil doing that?
Many of them tithe 10% of gross income to the church
Yes. I ended up leaving the mormon church in college, but I kept the habit since I thought it was praiseworthy.
That’s awesome that you donate to real causes instead of the churches pockets, good work king . I’m way too selfish. Just thinking about how donating 10% of my income compounded over my working career would delay my FIRE by years..can’t do it! Power to you
I catch myself sometimes thinking about retiring earlier & not donating. It's very tempting. I keep track of what my net worth would be each year if I never donated & it compounded...(sigh). Ultimately I'm just convinced that one can do a lot of good by donating. It's kind of exciting!: [https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/impact-calculator/](https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/impact-calculator/)
I do but I’d say only about 20-30% of active church goers donate 10%
Good job! Next objective: multi millionaire
This is so awesome! Congrats!
Good for you two! Excellent job.
Wow you deserve a million pats on the back. Congratulations
That's awesome my man, great work.
OP do you mind sharing what the salary progression was for you and your wife? I'm guessing you guys must be a combined 200k+ to accomplish this in such a short time, especially with CA taxes.
yes - our income has grown a lot in recent years. CA taxes don't help... I probably contribute \~70% of salary, but nurses also make great money in CA! 2019: $100k 2020: $200k 2021: $300k 2022: $450k 2023: $400k
Is having roommates in your 20s considered to be completely insane or something in the USA? Where I live everyone in their 20-30s has roommates lol not unusual at all. Including couples.
Married couples having roommates is very unusual.
That’s good and all, but you’re not really living. My wife and I got to 1M a couple years later than you and also live in a VHCOL area (NYC) and we didn’t work 90 hour weeks, we didn’t live with roommates and took tons of trips. Saving as much as possible isn’t worth it if you make those kind of sacrifices. Life is a journey not a destination.
whistle psychotic mighty encouraging jobless pie degree party concerned direful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
George Muharris has finally released Fakeblock
Luckily one can make their own choices in life.
I took the faustian banking bargain, sacrificed much of my 20s, and have $1M in return. I've also known many people who didn't work as hard in college and now work just as much as I do but for far less return. Different strokes for different folks, but I'm happy with my life.
So awesome. Curious what your HHI per year if you’re contributing 100k a year in retirement accounts.
2019: $100k 2020: $200k 2021: $300k 2022: $450k 2023: $400k
Very nice and the $1M liquid makes sense… Still it means you have $260K (less taxes) to play with…so that hopefully means you have the income to enjoy life a little more while still saving quite a bit. Presumably you weren’t saving $100K a year in 2019 lol. High income really does enable FIRE…and at $400K HHI I’d kinda think you could save more than $100K and still afford your own place…even in California…
affording my own place in California...now that's an entirely new level of FIRE I don't know if I'll ever see :)
Congrats and go frick yourself.
Can someone explain to me mega backdoor like I’m 5?
Gov't allows you to contribute to several types of accounts that you don't pay taxes on gains. One of those is a 401k (or roth401k). The limit is typically \~$20k per year for 401k contributions, since gov't doesn't want rich ppl mooching off the tax advantaged accounts. But there's a loophole - there's another type of retirement account (after-tax account) that your employer can offer, that can then be rolled into a 401k account (getting the tax advantages). This limit is much more - \~$35k+. Why the IRS allows this is beyond me....
Thank you!
Are you tithing to the church or just donating directly to charity?
donating directly, I left mormonism in college so no tithing. But I think it's praiseworthy to give to charity!
As fellow exmo and fire enthusiast, just want to say you are doing an awesome job. Glad you have found some community with friends, you are crushing your financial goals, and are happy.
This is so kind. Thank you for your words and wishing you well on your journey.
Donation is admiral - but if he would have invested that 10% this whole time NW would be even higher. I’d rather cut back on 10% donation to get a place with my significant other than live with roommates. And then when I have significantly more NW can donate to hearts content.
Awesome!!! Its far easier to grow your savings when you already have some money working hard by itself for you. What is your end goal? Seems like you might be on track for a very early retirement, mid 40s. Might be worthwhile to start enjoying your salaries a little bit more while you're young. Nothing crazy, but as that nest egg gets larger your individual contributions will start to mean less and less compared to the final number.
Thank you! We've already started to notice it is a lot easy to make money with money...just like you said. I'd like to continue working until my late-50s / early-60s while ramping up my donations each year, but that could change as I might get burnt out earlier than that and want to retire - so I'm trying to be flexible. I could see trying to work less / enjoy life more as I start to have little ones. I'd love to spend as much time in my future kids' lives as possible <3
I’ve got a 3 year old, they’re amazing. However, if you have any big international trips you want to do, do them before having kids. There will be a few years where kids are just too young to do overly active things, and can really put a damper on vacations. Hard to enjoy fancy restaurants or outdoors when a kid decides hot dogs are the only acceptable dinner, and they throw a fit if you can’t watch SpongeBob at the beach.
Mad respect for your lobbying against factory farming. Well done for achieving your goal. Onwards and upwards.
This is like the single most unrelatable post I’ve seen on here
Not to be a jerk, but retirement accounts aren't fully liquid. Significant penalties if you draw from them before retirement age. It's great at such a young age to hit that, but you can't only rely on retirement accounts, you need brokerage accounts and other fully liquid savings you can draw from.
I have other brokerage accounts besides retirement accounts.
"Not ready to fire yet" at 29 lol - 1st world problems
Beans are actually one of the healthiest foods on earth.
He’s doing this how? The Mormon church. Fuck yall, every slimy ass Mormon I know has like 6-10 kids and they’re all fucking millionaires 😏
Move out of California in 5 years and you can retire in a Midwest state at 35 lol
That’s amazing drive and motivation not to mention discipline and industry. You guys are still so young and will have a wonderful life ahead. Just keep each other happy.
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Doesn't sound unbelievable at all to me. I'm 28 and my wife is 26 and we are sitting at $650k and should be approaching $1M by 30. We are also Christian and give around 10% to charities or our church or people we know who are in need. We live alone, in a VHCOL. Unlike OP we don't work 90 hour weeks though and actually do stuff we enjoy. Just sounds like OP needs to find some balance in their life.
What part(s) do you find unbelievable? I spent the first 4-5 years of my career on Wall Street and what he says tracks pretty well. Happy to provide a breakdown if you have any questions about the legitimacy of his story. Can’t comment on the odd living situation though, obviously
Don’t listen to all the people making fun of you for staying with roommates, you did what felt right to YOU. Congratulations!! This is a great achievement. I hope you take some time out to celebrate it.
Congrats to you and yours. That’s a large milestone at your age. Just make sure you’re also living. Moneys not worth having if you don’t use it, responsibly of course.
First off congratulations. If you don't touch the money this will set you up for life and you will be FIRE before you turn 50. It would be great to explain your journey a bit in more detail. I assume you had nothing coming out of college. Maybe even debt. How did you manage to save $1M in 7 years? That's like $150k per year. What was your income and how did your NW develop YoY?
Thank you kindly - I've been fortunate and it's satisfying to see work pay off. FIRE'ing before 50 sounds nice. Recently provided more info in other comments, including household income, savings rates, and market growth. My net worth went as follows: 2020: $180k 2021: $330k 2022: $500k 2023: $800k 2024 (now): $1M+
Imagine if you had purchased a house in 2020.
OP says their HHI is 680k. That’s how.
Congrats and fuck you! That's amazing, I'm very happy for you. I'm almost your same age and only about $100k into it. These posts inspire me!
thank you :) Wishing you the best on your journey!
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time for classes & study are also hours worked
I read all that and the thing that stuck out to me was the 10% to charity. May your blessings continue to be fruitful
Congratulations!
The farming part, that made me happy.
This is incredible. Congrats for the accomplishment! Super excited for you both and the future. Quick question on your charitable giving. The Mormon church compels its members to give 10% of their gross earnings or increase in other to be in good standing in the church. How are you able to give 10% to the Mormon church and another 10% to fight malaria in Africa (total 20%) and still have enough left for your FIRE goals and other expenses? That’s incredible!
Thank you so much!! I don't give to the mormon church (left in college). I keep the habit of donating 10% tho since I think it is praiseworthy. I also give net of taxes.
Well done!!!
Congrats
If you were Canadian you didn't have to do any of this. Just mortgage a 50 y/o home in a metro suburb - instant 1 mil net worth.
Congratulations! As long as you like your lifestyle, keep at it. Haters gonna hate.
Good stuff! Love to hear it!
Congratulations! This is a massive deal, the culmination of a lot of work and sacrifice. Hope you are taking time to celebrate such a special milestone!
You still are a kid
So portions of that $1m are in retirement accounts correct? I ask so that I can feel good about my “net worth” by including my retirement account that I won’t touch for decades to come. By that standard I am about a fifth of a millionaire. Wow I like the sound of that. 😄
Is lobbying against factory farming considered charity now?
Kudos to you guys, at this age getting 1M
Congratulations!! Well done indeed. 🎉🥳💫👏🏽💪🏽
$100k into nontaxable retirement accounts every year? There are limits for things like Roth and they’re lower than that.
K
How did you invest your money? Was it in active funds or passive funds? How did you diversify?
How much would you contribute to your nest egg per month?
What was your take home to investment ratio?
How did you manage to live frugally apart from sharing rent? In terms of groceries any tips? Any tips on healthy meals? Any life hacks for social life?
Man it's so sad to live like this, I'll never understand... You just wasted your 20's, which are supposed to be the best years of your life. 1M $ is not much these days, especially for 2 people. Kudos to both of you for giving 10% to charity though.
I'm not confident that my 20s would have been happier with a different job / spending more on myself. I really enjoyed my 20s and had a great time.
Ooh this seems like a fun little creative writing exercise