Saved my first $5k at 26 pls clap 🥹

[u/k1ranell]

I also have some $820 in acorns and <$1500 in a rollover IRA I have yet to move to a ROTH but putting it off for tax/wuss reasons. However, I have $772 in CC debt. But a win is a win, I can pay it off with time 😁

Gonna try to save $10k next year

[u/Mocker-Nicholas]

Hey man. At 26 I was fresh out of rehab for the second time, and had just ended a 5 year relationship. At 31, I have a house, a spouse, 130K in retirement accounts, a kid on the way, a good career, and relatively good physical health. 5K savings at 26 puts you well on your way to the middle or upper middle class! Keep moving, and keep improving!

[u/Savings-Salt-1486 → u/Mocker-Nicholas]

Howwww did you turn it all around after all of that??

[u/Mocker-Nicholas → u/Savings-Salt-1486]

At that point in my life two things really really helped. I didn’t have a kid, and I didn’t have a serious criminal record. I had most of college done, I just had to go back for about half a years worth of credits. I worked at Target during that time. I got my degree but it was pretty useless (political science).

So I got a phone sales job that paid 10 bucks an hour plus commission. Then got a salesish tech support job after that. Leaned into the tech side of that and studied it in my free time. When Covid hit I buckled down and bought a bunch of Udemy courses and joined a bunch of online coding groups.

Ended up going into QA and then Software development. That process took about 6 years, and during that time I always lived cheaply, and always contributed to my 401k. My salary went from 36, to 46, to 60, to 90 in that time.

My parents did pay for my education. If it wouldn’t have been for that, I probably would have had to wait a few more years for house (I bought one when I made 46). Which prob meant I would have put off a child for a few more years.

[u/12-1-34-5-2-52335 → u/Mocker-Nicholas]

Thats awesome, I always love hearing stories of people really putting their nose to the grindstone to better themselves.

[u/acidtriptothemoon → u/Savings-Salt-1486]

Probably had help tbh

[u/HomieJPurple → u/acidtriptothemoon]

Definitely, almost no question

[u/AP_in_Indy → u/acidtriptothemoon]

Help can come from a spouse or family that's living with you.

It's amazing how much you can save once you finally get into a proper career path (ex: $60k+ / yr).

Then cut the bills with room mates and you can save quite a bit.

[u/Mocker-Nicholas → u/acidtriptothemoon]

My parents did pay for my college which was a godsend. So I didn’t have any debt. Though I never ended up with a job that required a degree really. So I definitely had help, but I will clarify that I didn’t receive any income from a spouse or parents or anything like that. I paid all my own bills. I just had to work jobs I hated, and live cheaply. I never like, didn’t have food though. So I was broke for sure, but wasn’t starving. My first job after getting sober was a phone sales job. They suck ass, but almost anyone can do reasonably well at them if you put in the time. Again, they just suck donkey balls.

[u/Internal-Emergency95 → u/Mocker-Nicholas]

This gives me hope. I'm 25 have almost 5 months sober and trying to put my life back together.

[u/Mocker-Nicholas → u/Internal-Emergency95]

Keep it up (: it does get easier. Especially if you want it to. The biggest struggle I have is lusting after my old life. Selectively Remembering the few good parts of it, and completely forgetting the fact that almost everything about it was awful lol.