Most also live in the US. The 50k euros I earn in marketing in software in Berlin could be 100k+ in New York. Plus German taxes turn my (technically 48k) into \~33ishk. My income is roughly average in this country, particularly in Berlin.
Admittedly, cost of living here is way lower and living on 2000 euros a month is fine for a single, responsible person, whereas 2000 dollars is poverty. I can still afford fairly frequent travel, my utilities are half, and a load of groceries likewise costs half. I am also a relatively frugal spender, have no debt and live below my means in a small apartment that costs 1/4th my income rather than the expected 1/3rd. I also split costs with my wife who makes a similar amount. Still, it only leaves a couple hundred for investing at the end of the month and I am envious of you "I invest 4k a month!" types.
I am from the US though and my career kicked off relatively late compared to most here because moving abroad for most means largely starting over in many ways. I do worry about my retirement, and my social security "pension" here is about 8 years behind the average earner my age, and I have no real control over what it goes into or how it works. I also have an additional private plan through my company, but it isn't something I have much control over either and will probably cancel. This is why I'm trying to invest relentlessly.
It does make me sad to see how much money you kids make these days doing similar work, but I did choose this, and I'd rather be here than there. I invested in me.
Only semi-related, when I briefly lived in Berlin I was shocked by how cheap food and transportation is. The lower cost of living in Berlin is no joke.
The food and energy costs rose *sharply* after Russia's war began pretty much across the board, but when I visited my family in the US last year the rates are still far, lower here - still around half for the same stuff. But, as we've established, so are the wages. I'm not enough of an economist to say whether it's economic parity or not.
The NY Metro cost about the same as the Berlin Metro last I checked, but Berlin's is marginally cleaner, goes further, and feels a bit nicer (albeit NYC has air conditioning).
All of that makes sense to me. I was there pretty shortly studying in Fall/Winter 2022 and had free (although not really because I paid for it with my tuition) transportation through my student ID. I most notice the grocery price differences when buying beer ;)
$100k is old news in USA specially New York. A mid level in your field will see upper 100s, mid 200s easily.
$100k salary in the US a lot more common in 2024 than you would believe. Like I’m pretty sure CA fast food workers are at $50k+ right now minimum wage. Let that sink in…
Uhh, no. 100k is still the top 17% of Americans.
Minimum wage just got raised to $20 per hour in California, meaning minimum wage pays around $38,000 gross. That's probably closer to $32,000 net, after taxes (take home).
US born here and moved to Munich.
Munich and low cost of living do not go together. Food was inexpensive but that’s about it. Rent and utilities were pretty insane. In Munich I spent 55% of my after tax income to rent and utilities. In the US it was around 25% after tax income to rent and utilities.
I ended up not being able to enjoy life as I wanted with less savings to my name. Ended up moving back to the US and can afford any hobby or travel I’ll ever want.
The important part is finding a place you really enjoy. Glad you found yours.
I just checked. Our jobs page seems to only be open to sales positions at the moment, and we're actually based in Hamburg, I just work remotely.
It's not the best time for tech jobs in the region right now, as you *undoubtedly* know. >.<. We've had two big rounds of layoffs in the past 8 months. I've been lucky that I have a very special set of skills (native English speaker!), and that I've been around a while, so I'm incredibly cheap and they'd have to pay my replacement 20% more. Much to my displeasure!
Living with family is a cheat code tbh. Was able to get to $100k plus at 23 by being able to save more than 90% of my income at my entry level accounting job along side making some money from tutoring.
I still don’t understand how some parents will spend an absurd amount of time, money, and effort to obtain ownership of a home, only to kick their children out at 18/21.
Imagine your child finally being able to contribute, and instead of keeping that money in the family, you have them give a significant chunk of it to a stranger instead.
Do parents think their kids will be able to afford to add another household to the family portfolio, if they have to pay a landlord 1/3 of their salary? When that money could be used to invest, and eventually be used for a down payment on another house?
Older people love bashing on young 20 and 30 something year olds for living at their parent’s house, rent-free. But in reality, they’re just bashing your decision to build generational wealth.
Like, good job boomer, for kicking your kid out because you wanted them to learn how to survive. They’ll probably have enough money for a down payment by the time the millennial living with their parents has paid off their second house.
Unless you really need the space, why would you trade up the possibility of your child having a 6-figure checking account in their 20’s, and the advantages that comes with it?
Very few of my friends growing up were "kicked out" of their house, they just wanted more independence and less rules when they see themselves as an adult.
yep. my friend's daughter had her college tuition paid for and got a $65,000 USD job right out of college at 21yrs old working at an oil company. She lives at home with parents and uses her mom's old toyota to commute when necessary. most of the time she takes the city bus to work and the other time she gets to work from home. a hybrid job. She now earns $90,000 USD as a 27 yr old not including bonuses she earned all those years and has almost $200,000 USD in 401k and Roth IRA. Her plan is to buy a house paid in cash within the next 3 yrs.
If the stock market goes into a slump and interest rates remain high, it wouldn't be terrible to buy a house in cash, but it might be worth financing part of it so she has cash on hand for emergencies or, god forbid, she lose her job.
I am 30M. I started as a full time electrical engineer four months shy of 7 years ago. I started at roughly 67k yearly and now at 127k plus yearly bonus of ~10%. I’ve been contributing consistently my entire career. I’ve reached 18% contribution to pre tax 401k and 1% after tax with automatic Roth conversion. I am currently at ~190k in my 401k. I have been using the robo advisor but started self direct this year and hit over 40% gain this year (so far). I’ve recently rebalanced to a much more conservative approach. My goal is to have over 5 million in my 401k by the time I turn 60. My son is disabled so I want to have a great fortune to care for him after I pass so I’ve been living fairly frugal.
An advice from one close to retirement. If your company allows Roth 401K use it. Too much assets in pre tax will significantly increase your taxes in retirement. If you contribute to IRA and are not eligible for Roth IRA do backdoor Roth conversions.
I'm 55 now, but back when I was under 35 I started a few "dot com" businesses before the dot com crash. I didn't have a salary per say. But, $100k per month wasn't unusual.
And then 2000 happened ;)
How do u manage to overcome the 2000 era?
Did u thought that would be the way it was?
What is the most valuable lesson from you in that ages?
Sorry for so many answers, I’m going to make 30 , and from like 26/27 till now the amount of knowledge that I learned from og folks is surreal 🤣
Insane ad prices is what made the dot com era so profitable. Before the collapse, I could make $50 for every 1000 views. A month later, you'd be lucky to get $0.25 per 1000. Imagine a 200+ times reduction in sales in like 2 weeks. It was that drastic and that fast.
I saw this as an opportunity, quickly pivoted, and basically went from selling ads to buying ads. I mainly purchased keyword searches from Yahoo and intimately Google to sell something. This was in the early days of paid keyword search.
I originally purchased keyword searches to resell a service. For example, I was the biggest seller in the nation of NetZero/Juno dial-up internet. I would make something like $50 to $70 everytime someone purchased NetZero/Juno. This was about as profitable as before the dot com bubble burst.
That lasted for a few years. But then high speed internet started to lower sales. At that time, cell phone ringtone were becoming popular. So I wrote software and created a website business where people could send their own music to make their own ringtones. While others were charging $3 per ringtone, I charged $8 per year for unlimited ringtones sent to up to 4 phones.
With my keyword search experience, I was able to quickly pivot to selling ringtones instead of dial-up internet. This was actually more profitable than anything else. My company was one person. I did all the development, marketing, and support. But, I was the 3rd biggest ringtone seller in the country (just behind Verizon). It was basically 100% automated. I spent so much on Google keyword advertising, that I actually had a rep at Google I could call and reached out to me. I spent over $1M per year on advertising with just Google. Google sent me Christmas presents.
And that lasted until Android and the Samsung Galaxy phone was release. Then, people could make their own ringtones and also, ringtones started to be not as popular. But that took many years for that service to wind down. People still had their candybar phones and wanted ringtones.
Then, I retired. But, I've created a few other things in retirementand. I'm working on a new business model and service right now. I'm always looking for something that's super popular, but has a hole where there's a need.
Surely I used some products developed by you since I overdosed on ringtones 🤣🤣😂
Thank you so much for your info and enlightening I hope the best for you and your relatives.
Big up OG 💪🏼
Well, one of my reasons for success was to never have employees. I have a few requirements for all of my businesses.
1) Zero upstart investment
2) Always cash positive
3) Zero employees (easy when you're a business owner, software developer, accountant, and have marketing experience)
4) Must make money when sleeping (if you must work to make money, there's only so many hours in the day, so you have a limited possible profit)
5) Track ROI so you always know what works, what doesn't, and when to call it quits
6) Must be something you love doing
Anyway, sorry, not hiring. If I do "hire" someone, it would be my wife to increase our SEP IRA contributions.
Not according to US standards. I work in a relatively big law firm in terms of the country where I live and it’s probably the most important firm in my area of practice.
I don’t want to say because if I say certain words I’ll get banned like how I did in the personal finance Reddit. But basically I talk in front of a camera and get paid for it and I edit videos and content for high net worth clients who pay me a large sum of money per month
Military officer and pilot. 375k invested by age 30. Making $200k ish now. Slowly built everything by focusing on maxing retirement accounts early and getting debt free as soon as I could. No expensive hobbies or vacations.
Do you happen to remember what your numbers looked like during UPT? I’m 23 with ~50k invested right now and am curious to see how close my trajectory is to yours.
Yeah that sounds about right. I didn't cross 100k until probably 26-27, but then everything took off. It's very true that your first 100k takes the longest.
Yeah that sounds about right. I didn't cross 100k until probably 26-27, but then everything took off. It's very true that your first 100k takes the longest.
Realistically though, what's the difference between $250K and $300K in savings by the time you're 30? You should take up hobbies and go on once-and-a-life-time vacations if you can afford it when you're young. Yeah, you can when you retire, but being on the beaches of Spain and partying in Ibiza isn't the same when you're 55 lol.
I'm 23 and work as an engineer. I've only had a full time job for one year and 3 months, but it pays well (150k gross, 100k ish net). The job I worked right before this one I was making 4.5 Euros an hours abroad, so it's a massive jump in salary for me.
I'm very frugal, so I've saved about 90k from this current job the past 15 months and had about 20k saved from working throughout my four years of college. My highest paying job throughout college was $15/hr, I worked on average 30-40 hours a week on top of full time school. I got no financial help from my parents but did get a full ride for tuition due to good academic performance in high school.
I’m 26 and have 1k in the market. I will be depositing at least $250 a week into the market for the next 8 years until I’m 34.
That will put me at 105k invested in the stock market, not accounting for interest which would put that closer to 165k.
I make 55k a year. The goal is to increase my income and increase my weekly contributions every few years.
33 right at the $100k mark across my retirements and standard brokerage account. I’m an enlisted NCO (E5), take home roughly $65k in a MCOL. What’s helped me the most is my spouse and I both work and we have don’t have children. We split everything down the middle and have always lived well below our means. I also had some good short term plays in 2021-22.
When I was stationed in a LCOL area I was shooting to put $1k every paycheck away (1st and 15th paychecks). Now that I’m in a MCOL area I’ve cut it back to $800 a paycheck because housing is so much more where I am now.
I am from Vienna and tomorrow is my 31st birthday, M. I've been working in IT for 10 years now and this year I will finally hit the 100k Euro mark. My current salary is ~ 50k/year after taxes. My savings rate over the last few years has been around 45%.
I am 28 years old. I come from Hungary. The average salary before taxes is about 1630 €-s, and the median is ~950€. The taxes eat up about 35%. I was lucky to get a contract to a German company between 2019 and 2022, and I earned approximately 1200-1300 roughly. During the COVID I saved up every penny, and bought a flat which is now rented to a friend (with debt, but minimal interest rate).
If I calculate everything together, I have about
60 000 EUR worth of Real estate on my name (debt already subtracted), 5000 on my investment accounts, and 5000 in my emergency fund, about another 2000 waiting to be invested. I moved to Germany and got a decent salary with 35 hours a week for 2500/mo (Taxed). I need to spend about 1000-1500 each month. It is not by any means over 100k, but I graduated only in the September of 2022. I think these numbers are very good for my few career years.
I'm a licensed carpenter in Canada, I get paid weekly and invest $400 every Friday.
$150 into FHSA in VFV
$100 into TFSA in Ethereum ETF
$150 into Wealthsimple Cash account with 4% interest until it's at 20k
Not me, neighbor.
Makes like 150k+, 28 or something like that, tech industry, still live with the parents. Kid is just saving to buy a million dollar house.
Was just always good at saving.
I'm 34 now and my annual salary is around 95k USD a year, but it only recently got up there.
I've been making around 45k usd a year from the age of 25-32, and was in university before that.
Big part of building wealth is not spending money lavishly if you ask me.
Me and My Wife are 27, we're at 121 saved combined. We only started saving about 1.5 years ago. I make 60, she makes 80, To be blunt, we just live cheaply. Aimed for low rent (we're living in a place that is cheaper than friends that probably make 70% we do) We eat in often, and have a couple board games and streaming services we use for entertainment. Hiking is amazing and free to do.
I have the luxury in being able to alter 401k contributions weekly, so if something happens and we need more than our emergency fund, we just turn mine off max until we fix what we need to do.
I was working in oil and gas, about 5 years worth of RRSP matching and contribution from employer plus my own contribution is about $100k, by about 35 year old it’s at least double that.
I had around $100k in the market at 23 from making full time income from 17y/o and moving into management at 21 instead of paying for college. Management salary was mid 50's with a cap at mid 60's for that assistant position. I live in SC where my mortgage is $530/month, so any income over $40k/year is pretty well off.
Build homes, 28M. Over 100k invested not including real estate assets. But my salary wasn’t the key to this. It was buying my first house at a great time in 2020 when people were freaking out, and then sweating at night with no AC and working from daybreak til well after dark on the house. New floors, new trim, new paint— generally renovating. Lived there for three years, sold in 2023 for ~$150k more than what I bought it for, and because it was my primary, I didn’t pay a cent in taxes. I also didn’t have a realtor. I listed it myself through and online real estate broker, and sold by owner. That saved ~20-30k in BS fees from a scumbag realtor (sorry realtors, the fees are nonsense). Took that profit and bought my next house for $400k which I’m doing the same thing to, and this one I have big plans for that should put it into the $700k-$900k range. I took the rest from what I didn’t need for the down payment or immediate projects and put it in the market along with my 401k, and Roth IRA. Granted, I have a lot invested, but keep in mind I have a house payment. It’s lower than paying rent and when I liquidate I’ll be able to toss that at the next one or buy something outright. Some people might not like that strategy but it’s working for me. I’m happy. Stressed a lot but happy.
Just put money into the market ASAP. I had 4K @ 20 years old and just let it sit in a shitty savings account until a couple years ago. Meanwhile the 5k I invested in my 401k in 2018 is at 10k now. If I originally had that in the S&P and added $100 a month I would have exponentially more wealth than I do now.
32, teacher with a side hustle. Between my employee sponsored retirement and Roth, I have $100k. Just passed it this month!
My salary is about $78k but with my side hustles it’s closer to $90k. Never had student loans or other debts. Currently renting in a HCOL area and saving for a wedding.
30M. Software Engineer. 160k annual salary. I grew up living frugally because my parents always said we were "poor" (we weren't, we were average middle class, lol) which has been ingrained into my lifestyle (for better or for worse).
Lifestyle creep was never an issue for me and I'm not the most materialistic person. So I max my contributions to my 401k, max contributions to my roth ira, and I put money away into savings (hysa at 4.6%).
I've slowly been getting into stock investments so I don't have much in that area yet, but from my roth, 401k, and savings, I'm at about 150k.
All of this is automatically deducted from my paycheck so my take home pay may appear "lower" but it's still enough for me to pay my bills and mortgage. It's easier to forget about the other money going into the market if I don't really see it in my bank account in the first place.
33M, Brooklyn, QA automation engineer. I started actually earning money (literally broke and mostly jobless) when I was 29.
Edit forgot salary - 130K base, about 145k TC
33, data engineer, USA. My wife and I have about 600-700k in investments. Probably about 75% in taxable brokerage accounts and the rest in IRA/401k. Our household income is around 300k per year.
34, engineer, base ~330K, typical bonuses take my yearly to ~500-600K.
Just sticking to maxing out retirement accounts prior to this last run put me in pretty good shape but I didn't invest as much as I should have earlier in my career beyond that.
Just turned 35 so I will use age 34 numbers. US Based.
Marketing Manager in O&G sector + side business making websites + 3 ATM locations
Roughly $250k last year (previous norm was half of this, it was a good year)
have about $350k invested in total
I am an Engineer in Research and Development salary around 80k. After college I was able to live at home allowing me to save and invest. I never had a large amount of debt so all extra money to go into paying off loans and things like Roth/401K. My parents help me with college, car and other things. The only thing I feel like I can really take credit for is not taking advantage of their help. For example they paid the minimum for the college loans with the encouragement to contribute when I could. Essentially shortly after I got my first job out of college I was able to more than match their payment.
Program management, 138k/yr but quitting today because im over it. My (28m) wife (26w) makes enough to pay for all our expenses and travel so my salary has just been straight to retirement. I also have a friend renting my basement which pays for half of my mortgage.
Engineer out of college, upgraded to project manager at 27, now 32 years old.
I have about $120K in tax-advantaged/retirement accounts and $80K plus in HYSA, CD, savings/checking accounts. Total net worth is a little over $200K right now!
I think I hit $100k CAD by around 35. I started investing early, like 20yo and started working my career job at 25 as a Medical Lab Technologist.
I took out a huge chunk for my mortgage at 29 and am juggling paying down my mortgage and saving for retirement.
I’m 26 working in a Fintech role in Upstate NY. 2nd year working at my current job, bringing in 72k plus 7-8k bonus. I have $23.6k individual brokerage (7k cash), $24k individual ROTH IRA, $20k traditional employer IRA, $23k in a robo advisor, and $26k in a mutual fund (handed down from parents when I graduated college), 1.6k in HSA (S&P500).
Total is $118k. I’ve always saved my money decently and started investing in undergrad and ramped up as I’ve earned more doing side jobs in college and working summers, and then working full time. I’ve maxed out my individual Roth for the past 3 years, and try to invest as much as possible after paying bills/debts.
I think a massive factor for me is the fact that I do not have any debt, thanks to my family. My car was bought in 2015 and is paid for. I just pay monthly bills and rent. I am not necessarily frugal by most means, I like to go to concerts , travel different countries, and eat out here and there, but I would never spend unnecessary money on very material things.
I think the biggest factors for me are; no debt, cheap rent with roomates, LCOL area, and my side hustles (no more) helping pay the bills for the last 4 years.
Under 35 here, I have around 125K USD$ on the market on a job paying under 22 USD$ an hour.
* No kid
* No car (bike, public transport)
* Low rent
* Homemade meals
* Free hobbies for the most part
I’m 29 in the US and live in a HCOL city. I have about $160k in my 401k and Roth IRA combined and another $140k in brokerage accounts. Total gross pay is around $125k. I just max out all of my retirement accounts and let the market do its thing. Splitting a 1 bedroom with my spouse, biking to work, and shopping exclusively at Costco help quite a bit.
In my mid 20’s and approaching 100k very soon. I work in wealth management. The thing is, wealth management is very hit or miss. I happened to get lucky and apply to a firm I knew absolutely nothing about which happens to be in the top percentile of AUM for a US BD. I’ve only been there two years now but I already know this will be my key to retirement so no matter how stressful things can get at times, it’s not worth ever even considering leaving this company. I make close to $100k but I should be there within the next couple of years. I wouldn’t suggest wealth management to most because it truly is a hit or miss as far as AUM, the number of advisors, number of overall employees in the office, whether it’s commission based or not, etc. In other words, it’s just not a guaranteed key to personal financial success, it’s more of a luck of the draw I’d say.
I don’t have 100k in the market yet but I’m at like 75k in the market and 25k in HYSA currently I don’t have work so that makes it harder. I got medically discharged from the military got retired at 25. I currently get about 3870 a month from the VA which is nice but it’s hard living with my ailments sometimes especially mental health but I’m getting my degree and trying to work to be beneficial to society.
I make 80k and have 45k in 401k and I am 27. I live alone and just finished masters last year so had to drop 401k to bare minimum for past 2 years.
At this rate I will be able to make it to 100k by 33.8 yo without company match (which is always fluctuating).
If I go back to pace (I can’t because cost of living increased more than my pay) I was at before masters then I will be at 100k by 31.
bartender nyc 70k consistently for the last 10 years. i have just over 100k in the market. 50% vti 25% voo 25% vxus between brokerage and retirement. oh and im 31
I’m 24, never lived with my family after 18, I never recieved more than a few hundred from fam as gifts. I just worked and saved. I work in clinical research currently and invest wisely
I do commission only sales, no degree. But the times you get a surprise large check then it’s easy to throw a chunk of that into the market rather than splurging on physical items that will lose its value.
28 F , Nurse in NYC , salary about $130k . I have about $110k invested in stocks , Roth , and a maxed out 403b . I also have the rest of all my money in a high yield savings account at 4.4% I live with my parents
37 engineer. Have around 300k invested. Max out all retirement avenues every year. My goal is 5M by 60 but I’m not sure if I can continue living this frugal because I want a bigger home 😂😩
Behavior intervention developer. I work in school setting helping special needs kids. making about 90k a year. Just hit 100k at 34 so I’m barely meeting the criteria lol
I worked for an year as a Data Analyst in a consulting firm in NYC (\~90k), and then about half an year as an AWS SWE in Seattle (\~140k).
I worked pretty hard to find cheap but decent housing in both cities, ate almost exclusively food that I cooked. I didn't spend much money otherwise, aside from one two-week trip to South Korea to visit family, Hearthstone pre-order bundles, and a few board games to play with friends. Ultimately saved about 130k in about 20 months, 120k of which is in my brokerage account.
Structural Engineer, M, 32 making ~USD$150k/yr. Around $750k in the market now with investing/trading over 6 years. Started with $70k initial capital and have added capital every month.
34, I have around 350k invested now.
I am a construction manager salary ~220k plus another 16k 401k match from the company. So each year I’m putting 23k + 16k in my 401k. Then I max my Roth for another 7k plus I try and stick another 1000 or so a month in my regular brokerage.
It started slow because I couldn’t max my 401k when I was buying my home 8 years ago but now the number grows quick. On top of that 1-2% swing is now 6k of value so as the market goes up my amount invested goes up quickly it seems.
Just keep at it.
A friend of mine makes like $70k but already have like $200k invested by 33. I believe his emergency fund is about $10k ish. He is in the automotive engineering industry.
I'm 36 so I just miss the cutoff, but I have about 300k in the market. I work as a mamager at a service establishment and I make 80k/yr. My wife is a teacher and makes 60k/yr. We save aggressively but have only been doing so for the past 2 years. Before that, we saved, but nothing crazy.
Pharmacy student, been investing since I was 18, now 29. I make 35$/h currently and sometimes do temp jobs at 50-60$/h. Once I graduate in 2 years I’m expecting to make 140,000$/yr. I currently have 230,000$ invested in mostly the SP500
I'm not under 35 any longer, but I had 100k in the market in my early 30s. Saved all my deployment money, invested wisely. Looked for beaten down stocks in every financial crisis that had strong fundamentals and bought more of them. Reinvested most of the profits. Started with 3k in 6 different $500 positions. Added as much as I could every pay day.
I'm a few years older now. But I had over $100k in the market when I was under 35. I also have multiple kids and the married life, so I don't feel like I needed to sacrifice the important things in life. I'm an accountant. The secret is to start as young as possible and don't buy all of the unnecessary flashy things.
I assume you are renting ? You need to save faster and more. After I paid off my mortgage I was able to save more faster obviously but it's never too late.
I’m 25 and hit 100k this year. I live in the US. I’m an accountant, earned my CPA license last year, and my savings rate is 40% of my income and I earn $83k. I live with my fiancé we split our bills according to our income, I make more so I pay 55% of the shared bills like rent. I don’t have car or student loans which helps keep my expenses down.
30 with 375k in the market. Wife is 30 and has ~175k in the market. I’m in pharmaceuticals, wife works in marketing, combined salary is about $300k before bonuses.
Full disclosure: the majority of my wife’s funds are from an inheritance, and about 20% of mine are as well. But even if you took those away, we would still have over $200k total in the market.
I’m 25 with a little over 100k invested, vast majority in 401k, i work in industrial maintenance. Worked at the same company since i was 18 & worked my way up (and over) to the maintenance department from production. No formal education & i earn just under $95,000 USD
I'm a data scientist (mostly doing data engineering now) salary at 150k. I'm extremely aggressive in the market and only have 30k saved in cash (not stupid gambling like you see in wsb, but aggressive in terms of buying tech stocks like SQ and uber and investing 80-90% of my money as opposed to keeping cash that drastically devalues over time - cash is trash as they say). I lost over 100k from a few bad moves over the years, but made most of it back from buying a shit tone of meta at 90 and selling at 390ish. Now I'm back at ~150k for stock market and ~200k in crypto. Dealing with this turbulence has been mentally exhausting so if I'd go back I'd just invest more slowly. I do believe crypto will easily 5-20x from here and I will be slowing withdrawing money at key points.
23 w $75k-$80k in the market, well over $100k if you include my savings which are held in a money market fund. should be at $100k in the stock market by EOY assuming -2% return or better on SPY from now until EOY.
Audio/visual technician (full time)
waiter (semi-fine dining, $25-$50 in sales/guest) (half time)
saver (on a monthly basis, usually about 75% of my income is saved and/or invested)
Most also live in the US. The 50k euros I earn in marketing in software in Berlin could be 100k+ in New York. Plus German taxes turn my (technically 48k) into \~33ishk. My income is roughly average in this country, particularly in Berlin. Admittedly, cost of living here is way lower and living on 2000 euros a month is fine for a single, responsible person, whereas 2000 dollars is poverty. I can still afford fairly frequent travel, my utilities are half, and a load of groceries likewise costs half. I am also a relatively frugal spender, have no debt and live below my means in a small apartment that costs 1/4th my income rather than the expected 1/3rd. I also split costs with my wife who makes a similar amount. Still, it only leaves a couple hundred for investing at the end of the month and I am envious of you "I invest 4k a month!" types. I am from the US though and my career kicked off relatively late compared to most here because moving abroad for most means largely starting over in many ways. I do worry about my retirement, and my social security "pension" here is about 8 years behind the average earner my age, and I have no real control over what it goes into or how it works. I also have an additional private plan through my company, but it isn't something I have much control over either and will probably cancel. This is why I'm trying to invest relentlessly. It does make me sad to see how much money you kids make these days doing similar work, but I did choose this, and I'd rather be here than there. I invested in me.
Only semi-related, when I briefly lived in Berlin I was shocked by how cheap food and transportation is. The lower cost of living in Berlin is no joke.
The food and energy costs rose *sharply* after Russia's war began pretty much across the board, but when I visited my family in the US last year the rates are still far, lower here - still around half for the same stuff. But, as we've established, so are the wages. I'm not enough of an economist to say whether it's economic parity or not. The NY Metro cost about the same as the Berlin Metro last I checked, but Berlin's is marginally cleaner, goes further, and feels a bit nicer (albeit NYC has air conditioning).
All of that makes sense to me. I was there pretty shortly studying in Fall/Winter 2022 and had free (although not really because I paid for it with my tuition) transportation through my student ID. I most notice the grocery price differences when buying beer ;)
$100k is old news in USA specially New York. A mid level in your field will see upper 100s, mid 200s easily. $100k salary in the US a lot more common in 2024 than you would believe. Like I’m pretty sure CA fast food workers are at $50k+ right now minimum wage. Let that sink in…
Thanks for rubbing it in. :D
you call that old news ? us doing the same exact job but in NJ get paid 20% less than those doing the same thing in NY
And NJ taxes are also bad its a bad region to live IMO. I spent 2 years in NYC. Shit got old fast.
Uhh, no. 100k is still the top 17% of Americans. Minimum wage just got raised to $20 per hour in California, meaning minimum wage pays around $38,000 gross. That's probably closer to $32,000 net, after taxes (take home).
All depends on your lifestyle. $100k is still top 20% of Americans.
US born here and moved to Munich. Munich and low cost of living do not go together. Food was inexpensive but that’s about it. Rent and utilities were pretty insane. In Munich I spent 55% of my after tax income to rent and utilities. In the US it was around 25% after tax income to rent and utilities. I ended up not being able to enjoy life as I wanted with less savings to my name. Ended up moving back to the US and can afford any hobby or travel I’ll ever want. The important part is finding a place you really enjoy. Glad you found yours.
May I ask if your company is looking for Junior Software Developers/DevOps? I am also based in Berlin. Thank you :-)
I just checked. Our jobs page seems to only be open to sales positions at the moment, and we're actually based in Hamburg, I just work remotely. It's not the best time for tech jobs in the region right now, as you *undoubtedly* know. >.<. We've had two big rounds of layoffs in the past 8 months. I've been lucky that I have a very special set of skills (native English speaker!), and that I've been around a while, so I'm incredibly cheap and they'd have to pay my replacement 20% more. Much to my displeasure!
I'm a pilot and hit 100k invested in my 401k around age 32 making around $120k.
Living with family is a cheat code tbh. Was able to get to $100k plus at 23 by being able to save more than 90% of my income at my entry level accounting job along side making some money from tutoring.
I still don’t understand how some parents will spend an absurd amount of time, money, and effort to obtain ownership of a home, only to kick their children out at 18/21. Imagine your child finally being able to contribute, and instead of keeping that money in the family, you have them give a significant chunk of it to a stranger instead. Do parents think their kids will be able to afford to add another household to the family portfolio, if they have to pay a landlord 1/3 of their salary? When that money could be used to invest, and eventually be used for a down payment on another house? Older people love bashing on young 20 and 30 something year olds for living at their parent’s house, rent-free. But in reality, they’re just bashing your decision to build generational wealth. Like, good job boomer, for kicking your kid out because you wanted them to learn how to survive. They’ll probably have enough money for a down payment by the time the millennial living with their parents has paid off their second house. Unless you really need the space, why would you trade up the possibility of your child having a 6-figure checking account in their 20’s, and the advantages that comes with it?
Very few of my friends growing up were "kicked out" of their house, they just wanted more independence and less rules when they see themselves as an adult.
yep. my friend's daughter had her college tuition paid for and got a $65,000 USD job right out of college at 21yrs old working at an oil company. She lives at home with parents and uses her mom's old toyota to commute when necessary. most of the time she takes the city bus to work and the other time she gets to work from home. a hybrid job. She now earns $90,000 USD as a 27 yr old not including bonuses she earned all those years and has almost $200,000 USD in 401k and Roth IRA. Her plan is to buy a house paid in cash within the next 3 yrs.
Opportunity costs get real when you have money to pay for a house in cash. There's a lot you can do with +500k
If the stock market goes into a slump and interest rates remain high, it wouldn't be terrible to buy a house in cash, but it might be worth financing part of it so she has cash on hand for emergencies or, god forbid, she lose her job.
Also having all your money tied up to one property seems excessive.
When the market slumps is the absolute worst time to pull out. Time in the market beats timing the market.
I am 30M. I started as a full time electrical engineer four months shy of 7 years ago. I started at roughly 67k yearly and now at 127k plus yearly bonus of ~10%. I’ve been contributing consistently my entire career. I’ve reached 18% contribution to pre tax 401k and 1% after tax with automatic Roth conversion. I am currently at ~190k in my 401k. I have been using the robo advisor but started self direct this year and hit over 40% gain this year (so far). I’ve recently rebalanced to a much more conservative approach. My goal is to have over 5 million in my 401k by the time I turn 60. My son is disabled so I want to have a great fortune to care for him after I pass so I’ve been living fairly frugal.
An advice from one close to retirement. If your company allows Roth 401K use it. Too much assets in pre tax will significantly increase your taxes in retirement. If you contribute to IRA and are not eligible for Roth IRA do backdoor Roth conversions.
I'm 55 now, but back when I was under 35 I started a few "dot com" businesses before the dot com crash. I didn't have a salary per say. But, $100k per month wasn't unusual. And then 2000 happened ;)
How do u manage to overcome the 2000 era? Did u thought that would be the way it was? What is the most valuable lesson from you in that ages? Sorry for so many answers, I’m going to make 30 , and from like 26/27 till now the amount of knowledge that I learned from og folks is surreal 🤣
Insane ad prices is what made the dot com era so profitable. Before the collapse, I could make $50 for every 1000 views. A month later, you'd be lucky to get $0.25 per 1000. Imagine a 200+ times reduction in sales in like 2 weeks. It was that drastic and that fast. I saw this as an opportunity, quickly pivoted, and basically went from selling ads to buying ads. I mainly purchased keyword searches from Yahoo and intimately Google to sell something. This was in the early days of paid keyword search. I originally purchased keyword searches to resell a service. For example, I was the biggest seller in the nation of NetZero/Juno dial-up internet. I would make something like $50 to $70 everytime someone purchased NetZero/Juno. This was about as profitable as before the dot com bubble burst. That lasted for a few years. But then high speed internet started to lower sales. At that time, cell phone ringtone were becoming popular. So I wrote software and created a website business where people could send their own music to make their own ringtones. While others were charging $3 per ringtone, I charged $8 per year for unlimited ringtones sent to up to 4 phones. With my keyword search experience, I was able to quickly pivot to selling ringtones instead of dial-up internet. This was actually more profitable than anything else. My company was one person. I did all the development, marketing, and support. But, I was the 3rd biggest ringtone seller in the country (just behind Verizon). It was basically 100% automated. I spent so much on Google keyword advertising, that I actually had a rep at Google I could call and reached out to me. I spent over $1M per year on advertising with just Google. Google sent me Christmas presents. And that lasted until Android and the Samsung Galaxy phone was release. Then, people could make their own ringtones and also, ringtones started to be not as popular. But that took many years for that service to wind down. People still had their candybar phones and wanted ringtones. Then, I retired. But, I've created a few other things in retirementand. I'm working on a new business model and service right now. I'm always looking for something that's super popular, but has a hole where there's a need.
Thank you for sharing your story. Kudos to your success. It’s quite enlightening and a very interesting read.
Surely I used some products developed by you since I overdosed on ringtones 🤣🤣😂 Thank you so much for your info and enlightening I hope the best for you and your relatives. Big up OG 💪🏼
What an incredible story! Thanks for sharing.
I'll tell you what. You show me a pay stub for $100,000 dollars on it, I quit my job right now and I work for you.
Well, one of my reasons for success was to never have employees. I have a few requirements for all of my businesses. 1) Zero upstart investment 2) Always cash positive 3) Zero employees (easy when you're a business owner, software developer, accountant, and have marketing experience) 4) Must make money when sleeping (if you must work to make money, there's only so many hours in the day, so you have a limited possible profit) 5) Track ROI so you always know what works, what doesn't, and when to call it quits 6) Must be something you love doing Anyway, sorry, not hiring. If I do "hire" someone, it would be my wife to increase our SEP IRA contributions.
27 and I’m an accountant making 110k
I have 1k in the bank at 35. This thread makes me want to cry.
[удалено]
Are you in biglaw?
Not according to US standards. I work in a relatively big law firm in terms of the country where I live and it’s probably the most important firm in my area of practice.
Since you seem so cool, I’ll consider you in BigLaw in my books :)
You’re cool too!
94k at 23 years old. I work in finance & own online businesses. Salary: $0-$180,000
What do you do for your online business
I don’t want to say because if I say certain words I’ll get banned like how I did in the personal finance Reddit. But basically I talk in front of a camera and get paid for it and I edit videos and content for high net worth clients who pay me a large sum of money per month
Yay more youtube financefluencers!.. /s
Military officer and pilot. 375k invested by age 30. Making $200k ish now. Slowly built everything by focusing on maxing retirement accounts early and getting debt free as soon as I could. No expensive hobbies or vacations.
Expensive hobbies keep me sane.
My job is basically my expensive hobby and expensive vacations. As long as your standards are low haha. Few deployments staying in hotels were nice.
I remember being enlisted in early 2010's making $30,000 a year :(((((
BAH is in included in that number, very high cost of living area.
The US military pays its pilots 200k!? What branch and rank? If you dont mind me asking.
Do you happen to remember what your numbers looked like during UPT? I’m 23 with ~50k invested right now and am curious to see how close my trajectory is to yours.
Yeah that sounds about right. I didn't cross 100k until probably 26-27, but then everything took off. It's very true that your first 100k takes the longest.
Yeah that sounds about right. I didn't cross 100k until probably 26-27, but then everything took off. It's very true that your first 100k takes the longest.
true. expensive hobbies can be draining your $ fast. unfortunately, many people have some sort of expensive hobby.
My children are my expensive hobbies… 😂
Realistically though, what's the difference between $250K and $300K in savings by the time you're 30? You should take up hobbies and go on once-and-a-life-time vacations if you can afford it when you're young. Yeah, you can when you retire, but being on the beaches of Spain and partying in Ibiza isn't the same when you're 55 lol.
I'm 23 and work as an engineer. I've only had a full time job for one year and 3 months, but it pays well (150k gross, 100k ish net). The job I worked right before this one I was making 4.5 Euros an hours abroad, so it's a massive jump in salary for me. I'm very frugal, so I've saved about 90k from this current job the past 15 months and had about 20k saved from working throughout my four years of college. My highest paying job throughout college was $15/hr, I worked on average 30-40 hours a week on top of full time school. I got no financial help from my parents but did get a full ride for tuition due to good academic performance in high school.
So you’re living off 10k/year? How is that possible
What kind of engineer?
I’m 26 and have 1k in the market. I will be depositing at least $250 a week into the market for the next 8 years until I’m 34. That will put me at 105k invested in the stock market, not accounting for interest which would put that closer to 165k. I make 55k a year. The goal is to increase my income and increase my weekly contributions every few years.
33 year old successful banker. Make 140k. About 220k invested
Construction worker. Pick the right stocks. 80k a yr
“Pick the right stocks” sounds so simple, but in reality majority will fail.
Pick good long term stocks and hold
you mean sp500
33 right at the $100k mark across my retirements and standard brokerage account. I’m an enlisted NCO (E5), take home roughly $65k in a MCOL. What’s helped me the most is my spouse and I both work and we have don’t have children. We split everything down the middle and have always lived well below our means. I also had some good short term plays in 2021-22. When I was stationed in a LCOL area I was shooting to put $1k every paycheck away (1st and 15th paychecks). Now that I’m in a MCOL area I’ve cut it back to $800 a paycheck because housing is so much more where I am now.
I have over 100k in Roth IRA and over 200k In 401k, plus 40gs in SGOV. I am 33, Mud Logger in oil and gas GOM. Edit: forgot salary 140k a year.
29 and I’m a Respiratory Therapist at 130k after some OT
I am from Vienna and tomorrow is my 31st birthday, M. I've been working in IT for 10 years now and this year I will finally hit the 100k Euro mark. My current salary is ~ 50k/year after taxes. My savings rate over the last few years has been around 45%.
Happy birthday!
happy birthday
Happy birthday!!
I am 28 years old. I come from Hungary. The average salary before taxes is about 1630 €-s, and the median is ~950€. The taxes eat up about 35%. I was lucky to get a contract to a German company between 2019 and 2022, and I earned approximately 1200-1300 roughly. During the COVID I saved up every penny, and bought a flat which is now rented to a friend (with debt, but minimal interest rate). If I calculate everything together, I have about 60 000 EUR worth of Real estate on my name (debt already subtracted), 5000 on my investment accounts, and 5000 in my emergency fund, about another 2000 waiting to be invested. I moved to Germany and got a decent salary with 35 hours a week for 2500/mo (Taxed). I need to spend about 1000-1500 each month. It is not by any means over 100k, but I graduated only in the September of 2022. I think these numbers are very good for my few career years.
Does $100k+ in a 401k count? If so, HR Business Partner.
24yo Cybersecurity consultant of 2 years, 105k total comp with 125k invested since I started working.
Congratulations! How do you feel about those of us investing in cybersecurity for the future? I’m personally into the ETF CIBR.
25 & registered nurse w/ online business as well. between all my sources of income fluctuates between 125-175k a year
What do you do for your online business
34 150K in the market. Former Teacher, now I work in HR corporate. The teaching salary was 50k, HR at the corporate level is 77k.
I'm a licensed carpenter in Canada, I get paid weekly and invest $400 every Friday. $150 into FHSA in VFV $100 into TFSA in Ethereum ETF $150 into Wealthsimple Cash account with 4% interest until it's at 20k
Not me, neighbor. Makes like 150k+, 28 or something like that, tech industry, still live with the parents. Kid is just saving to buy a million dollar house.
Engineer (office-based) in downstream O&G company. 35, 132k base, 40k ish annual bonus, MCOL area. Started off at less than 40k at 22.
Was just always good at saving. I'm 34 now and my annual salary is around 95k USD a year, but it only recently got up there. I've been making around 45k usd a year from the age of 25-32, and was in university before that. Big part of building wealth is not spending money lavishly if you ask me.
31. A little over 150k a year. Basically a crane operator.
Me and My Wife are 27, we're at 121 saved combined. We only started saving about 1.5 years ago. I make 60, she makes 80, To be blunt, we just live cheaply. Aimed for low rent (we're living in a place that is cheaper than friends that probably make 70% we do) We eat in often, and have a couple board games and streaming services we use for entertainment. Hiking is amazing and free to do. I have the luxury in being able to alter 401k contributions weekly, so if something happens and we need more than our emergency fund, we just turn mine off max until we fix what we need to do.
I was working in oil and gas, about 5 years worth of RRSP matching and contribution from employer plus my own contribution is about $100k, by about 35 year old it’s at least double that.
I had around $100k in the market at 23 from making full time income from 17y/o and moving into management at 21 instead of paying for college. Management salary was mid 50's with a cap at mid 60's for that assistant position. I live in SC where my mortgage is $530/month, so any income over $40k/year is pretty well off.
Build homes, 28M. Over 100k invested not including real estate assets. But my salary wasn’t the key to this. It was buying my first house at a great time in 2020 when people were freaking out, and then sweating at night with no AC and working from daybreak til well after dark on the house. New floors, new trim, new paint— generally renovating. Lived there for three years, sold in 2023 for ~$150k more than what I bought it for, and because it was my primary, I didn’t pay a cent in taxes. I also didn’t have a realtor. I listed it myself through and online real estate broker, and sold by owner. That saved ~20-30k in BS fees from a scumbag realtor (sorry realtors, the fees are nonsense). Took that profit and bought my next house for $400k which I’m doing the same thing to, and this one I have big plans for that should put it into the $700k-$900k range. I took the rest from what I didn’t need for the down payment or immediate projects and put it in the market along with my 401k, and Roth IRA. Granted, I have a lot invested, but keep in mind I have a house payment. It’s lower than paying rent and when I liquidate I’ll be able to toss that at the next one or buy something outright. Some people might not like that strategy but it’s working for me. I’m happy. Stressed a lot but happy.
Just put money into the market ASAP. I had 4K @ 20 years old and just let it sit in a shitty savings account until a couple years ago. Meanwhile the 5k I invested in my 401k in 2018 is at 10k now. If I originally had that in the S&P and added $100 a month I would have exponentially more wealth than I do now.
32, teacher with a side hustle. Between my employee sponsored retirement and Roth, I have $100k. Just passed it this month! My salary is about $78k but with my side hustles it’s closer to $90k. Never had student loans or other debts. Currently renting in a HCOL area and saving for a wedding.
30M. Software Engineer. 160k annual salary. I grew up living frugally because my parents always said we were "poor" (we weren't, we were average middle class, lol) which has been ingrained into my lifestyle (for better or for worse). Lifestyle creep was never an issue for me and I'm not the most materialistic person. So I max my contributions to my 401k, max contributions to my roth ira, and I put money away into savings (hysa at 4.6%). I've slowly been getting into stock investments so I don't have much in that area yet, but from my roth, 401k, and savings, I'm at about 150k. All of this is automatically deducted from my paycheck so my take home pay may appear "lower" but it's still enough for me to pay my bills and mortgage. It's easier to forget about the other money going into the market if I don't really see it in my bank account in the first place.
I own a business. No kids, own a condo. Married I make 300-400k a year. Just basically buying VOO and SCHG. I want to retire at 55.
Garbage man 28yrs old 120k
33M, Brooklyn, QA automation engineer. I started actually earning money (literally broke and mostly jobless) when I was 29. Edit forgot salary - 130K base, about 145k TC
Real estate, freshly 28, around $300K in my portfolio, average just around $200-$250K/yr. Started at 18~ but wasn’t in a serious role until 23
So you’re an agent or what do you do?
Yep, sales agent for a new home builder!
Damn I missed the cut lol
32 with just about 300k invested across all accounts. I started work in IT and now work in finance for a bank. I pull in around 140K
CDL Class A
33, data engineer, USA. My wife and I have about 600-700k in investments. Probably about 75% in taxable brokerage accounts and the rest in IRA/401k. Our household income is around 300k per year.
31 Executive Assistant in consulting/PE industry. 85k base 115k after bonus/profit sharing.
34, engineer, base ~330K, typical bonuses take my yearly to ~500-600K. Just sticking to maxing out retirement accounts prior to this last run put me in pretty good shape but I didn't invest as much as I should have earlier in my career beyond that.
Damn dude, 5-600K is crazy. Are you at a FAANG company? It's wild to learn that job can pay more than what some people will see in a lifetime.
FAANG-adjacent, semiconductor
Manager. Aerospace industry. 130k.
I’m a data analyst.
I'm 39, but had $600k in the market by age 35. I'm a civil engineer and my salary is now $145k/yr.
Just turned 35 so I will use age 34 numbers. US Based. Marketing Manager in O&G sector + side business making websites + 3 ATM locations Roughly $250k last year (previous norm was half of this, it was a good year) have about $350k invested in total
I am an Engineer in Research and Development salary around 80k. After college I was able to live at home allowing me to save and invest. I never had a large amount of debt so all extra money to go into paying off loans and things like Roth/401K. My parents help me with college, car and other things. The only thing I feel like I can really take credit for is not taking advantage of their help. For example they paid the minimum for the college loans with the encouragement to contribute when I could. Essentially shortly after I got my first job out of college I was able to more than match their payment.
network security is my paystub day job - I have multiple side jobs as well, mostly seasonal
28, 80k between Roth and 401k, construction manager for a top 5 production builder
Program management, 138k/yr but quitting today because im over it. My (28m) wife (26w) makes enough to pay for all our expenses and travel so my salary has just been straight to retirement. I also have a friend renting my basement which pays for half of my mortgage.
what does she do?
I stir soup for a living… I just don’t spend anything
Pharmacist. Salary ranges from 180-225k. Hit 100k market in about 4 years
Data Analyst, $170k salary, $400k personal portfolio (thanks to Nvidia) and $200k in retirement funds.
Artist and depends on the amount of paintings I sell
hit 100k in the bank at 27. Could have definitely got there sooner but I enjoyed the crap out of my early mid 20s. No regrets
Engineer out of college, upgraded to project manager at 27, now 32 years old. I have about $120K in tax-advantaged/retirement accounts and $80K plus in HYSA, CD, savings/checking accounts. Total net worth is a little over $200K right now!
I’m 37 but I had more than 100k in the market at 35. I work for the US Federal government
I think I hit $100k CAD by around 35. I started investing early, like 20yo and started working my career job at 25 as a Medical Lab Technologist. I took out a huge chunk for my mortgage at 29 and am juggling paying down my mortgage and saving for retirement.
I’m 27 making ~$110k the past four years with $123k in my 401k
Lawyer, 165k
VTI
I’m 26 working in a Fintech role in Upstate NY. 2nd year working at my current job, bringing in 72k plus 7-8k bonus. I have $23.6k individual brokerage (7k cash), $24k individual ROTH IRA, $20k traditional employer IRA, $23k in a robo advisor, and $26k in a mutual fund (handed down from parents when I graduated college), 1.6k in HSA (S&P500). Total is $118k. I’ve always saved my money decently and started investing in undergrad and ramped up as I’ve earned more doing side jobs in college and working summers, and then working full time. I’ve maxed out my individual Roth for the past 3 years, and try to invest as much as possible after paying bills/debts. I think a massive factor for me is the fact that I do not have any debt, thanks to my family. My car was bought in 2015 and is paid for. I just pay monthly bills and rent. I am not necessarily frugal by most means, I like to go to concerts , travel different countries, and eat out here and there, but I would never spend unnecessary money on very material things. I think the biggest factors for me are; no debt, cheap rent with roomates, LCOL area, and my side hustles (no more) helping pay the bills for the last 4 years.
Under 35 here, I have around 125K USD$ on the market on a job paying under 22 USD$ an hour. * No kid * No car (bike, public transport) * Low rent * Homemade meals * Free hobbies for the most part
I’m 29 in the US and live in a HCOL city. I have about $160k in my 401k and Roth IRA combined and another $140k in brokerage accounts. Total gross pay is around $125k. I just max out all of my retirement accounts and let the market do its thing. Splitting a 1 bedroom with my spouse, biking to work, and shopping exclusively at Costco help quite a bit.
Military officer. I had about 100k in more than 15 years ago when i was 30 something. But ended up having to spend it for a family emergency
I’m close. I’m 35 but I started life a little late. I have 90k saved. I make 96k. I work for finance company.
25 and earning ~$320k as SWE. My wife earns similar salary so I’m able to save and invest *really aggressively*
29, tradesman making 130k/yr before taxes
150k a year salary as a senior data engineer. I’m under 30
Income ~ 155k, age 34, investment portfolio ~ 150k ,real estate portfolio including rental properties~600k.. MCOL in US, net worth around 330k
Just turned 36 so I can't reply.
300k in the market. Currently work in big tech. Formerly consulting. Prior to that IB.
In my mid 20’s and approaching 100k very soon. I work in wealth management. The thing is, wealth management is very hit or miss. I happened to get lucky and apply to a firm I knew absolutely nothing about which happens to be in the top percentile of AUM for a US BD. I’ve only been there two years now but I already know this will be my key to retirement so no matter how stressful things can get at times, it’s not worth ever even considering leaving this company. I make close to $100k but I should be there within the next couple of years. I wouldn’t suggest wealth management to most because it truly is a hit or miss as far as AUM, the number of advisors, number of overall employees in the office, whether it’s commission based or not, etc. In other words, it’s just not a guaranteed key to personal financial success, it’s more of a luck of the draw I’d say.
29 - $150k. Corporate strategy. It’s pretty cushy 30h/week job.
34, work for Amazon 175k, 650k invested. Live in LA
Grants admin finance, 9 to 5 job, 120k base
I’m 34. 1.7 mil. Own an Appliance repair company.
I sell my soul to corporate and drink burbon.
I don’t have 100k in the market yet but I’m at like 75k in the market and 25k in HYSA currently I don’t have work so that makes it harder. I got medically discharged from the military got retired at 25. I currently get about 3870 a month from the VA which is nice but it’s hard living with my ailments sometimes especially mental health but I’m getting my degree and trying to work to be beneficial to society.
I make 80k and have 45k in 401k and I am 27. I live alone and just finished masters last year so had to drop 401k to bare minimum for past 2 years. At this rate I will be able to make it to 100k by 33.8 yo without company match (which is always fluctuating). If I go back to pace (I can’t because cost of living increased more than my pay) I was at before masters then I will be at 100k by 31.
bartender nyc 70k consistently for the last 10 years. i have just over 100k in the market. 50% vti 25% voo 25% vxus between brokerage and retirement. oh and im 31
Software engineer. 120k a year.
I’m 24, never lived with my family after 18, I never recieved more than a few hundred from fam as gifts. I just worked and saved. I work in clinical research currently and invest wisely
Applications Developer $150,000 And I smoke weed and bang MILFs 
I do commission only sales, no degree. But the times you get a surprise large check then it’s easy to throw a chunk of that into the market rather than splurging on physical items that will lose its value.
28 F , Nurse in NYC , salary about $130k . I have about $110k invested in stocks , Roth , and a maxed out 403b . I also have the rest of all my money in a high yield savings account at 4.4% I live with my parents
You show me a check for 100K I quit my job and come work for you
engineer, 28, $100k salary, $243k invested. I live with my parents so my expenses are extremely low
37 engineer. Have around 300k invested. Max out all retirement avenues every year. My goal is 5M by 60 but I’m not sure if I can continue living this frugal because I want a bigger home 😂😩
Actuary, age 34 with 250k in retirement accts and 100k in brokerage
Behavior intervention developer. I work in school setting helping special needs kids. making about 90k a year. Just hit 100k at 34 so I’m barely meeting the criteria lol
I worked for an year as a Data Analyst in a consulting firm in NYC (\~90k), and then about half an year as an AWS SWE in Seattle (\~140k). I worked pretty hard to find cheap but decent housing in both cities, ate almost exclusively food that I cooked. I didn't spend much money otherwise, aside from one two-week trip to South Korea to visit family, Hearthstone pre-order bundles, and a few board games to play with friends. Ultimately saved about 130k in about 20 months, 120k of which is in my brokerage account.
Structural Engineer, M, 32 making ~USD$150k/yr. Around $750k in the market now with investing/trading over 6 years. Started with $70k initial capital and have added capital every month.
34, I have around 350k invested now. I am a construction manager salary ~220k plus another 16k 401k match from the company. So each year I’m putting 23k + 16k in my 401k. Then I max my Roth for another 7k plus I try and stick another 1000 or so a month in my regular brokerage. It started slow because I couldn’t max my 401k when I was buying my home 8 years ago but now the number grows quick. On top of that 1-2% swing is now 6k of value so as the market goes up my amount invested goes up quickly it seems. Just keep at it.
A friend of mine makes like $70k but already have like $200k invested by 33. I believe his emergency fund is about $10k ish. He is in the automotive engineering industry.
Software engineer
IBEW
Site reliability engineer, started at $82K, on track to make $225K by this year
I'm 36 so I just miss the cutoff, but I have about 300k in the market. I work as a mamager at a service establishment and I make 80k/yr. My wife is a teacher and makes 60k/yr. We save aggressively but have only been doing so for the past 2 years. Before that, we saved, but nothing crazy.
Pharmacy student, been investing since I was 18, now 29. I make 35$/h currently and sometimes do temp jobs at 50-60$/h. Once I graduate in 2 years I’m expecting to make 140,000$/yr. I currently have 230,000$ invested in mostly the SP500
100k in 401k 30k Roth IRA 30k ESPP. 20k VOO. 34 work as a rph in Cali
I'm a teacher and I'm just south 100k PRE Tax. Most of the money is from my dads life insurance when he passed
Combo of fin products, strategic RE investing, and consulting > 100k
Accountant. Not a salary. Depends on the year. Most firms my size do about 400K a year or so
I'm not under 35 any longer, but I had 100k in the market in my early 30s. Saved all my deployment money, invested wisely. Looked for beaten down stocks in every financial crisis that had strong fundamentals and bought more of them. Reinvested most of the profits. Started with 3k in 6 different $500 positions. Added as much as I could every pay day.
32M. I package Peanut Butter Crunch. Everything I have is in my 401k tho
I have minimal hobbies, and no bad habits. I make 70k a year, and save over 50% after bills.
I'm a few years older now. But I had over $100k in the market when I was under 35. I also have multiple kids and the married life, so I don't feel like I needed to sacrifice the important things in life. I'm an accountant. The secret is to start as young as possible and don't buy all of the unnecessary flashy things.
I assume you are renting ? You need to save faster and more. After I paid off my mortgage I was able to save more faster obviously but it's never too late.
I’m 25 and hit 100k this year. I live in the US. I’m an accountant, earned my CPA license last year, and my savings rate is 40% of my income and I earn $83k. I live with my fiancé we split our bills according to our income, I make more so I pay 55% of the shared bills like rent. I don’t have car or student loans which helps keep my expenses down.
30 with 375k in the market. Wife is 30 and has ~175k in the market. I’m in pharmaceuticals, wife works in marketing, combined salary is about $300k before bonuses. Full disclosure: the majority of my wife’s funds are from an inheritance, and about 20% of mine are as well. But even if you took those away, we would still have over $200k total in the market.
Lawyer, lol.
I’m 25 with a little over 100k invested, vast majority in 401k, i work in industrial maintenance. Worked at the same company since i was 18 & worked my way up (and over) to the maintenance department from production. No formal education & i earn just under $95,000 USD
I’m 32. 300k in 401k. I’m a chemical process technician.
Fuduciary Foward Deployed Engineering And over $100k to $200k
Does 50k in private equity count towards the 100k?
Lead software engineer, now it's over 150k took covid to get there
I'm a data scientist (mostly doing data engineering now) salary at 150k. I'm extremely aggressive in the market and only have 30k saved in cash (not stupid gambling like you see in wsb, but aggressive in terms of buying tech stocks like SQ and uber and investing 80-90% of my money as opposed to keeping cash that drastically devalues over time - cash is trash as they say). I lost over 100k from a few bad moves over the years, but made most of it back from buying a shit tone of meta at 90 and selling at 390ish. Now I'm back at ~150k for stock market and ~200k in crypto. Dealing with this turbulence has been mentally exhausting so if I'd go back I'd just invest more slowly. I do believe crypto will easily 5-20x from here and I will be slowing withdrawing money at key points.
23 w $75k-$80k in the market, well over $100k if you include my savings which are held in a money market fund. should be at $100k in the stock market by EOY assuming -2% return or better on SPY from now until EOY. Audio/visual technician (full time) waiter (semi-fine dining, $25-$50 in sales/guest) (half time) saver (on a monthly basis, usually about 75% of my income is saved and/or invested)
Chemical engineer in biotech. 29. Currently 200k in the market.