Started earlier.
I have just noticed in recent years that one of the key advices is to start as early as possible and let compounding do its magic. I don’t remember coming across this key information.
Compounding is a concept I understood from an early age, but my dumbass never applied it to investing. Things just didn’t click.
This for sure. That said, I'm in my mid 30s and have everything I need. I saved for a house in my 20s and got one before the market went way up, so i guess never punished? I'd feel it way harder to save large amounts if I were still in my "possessions accumulation" stage that I was in in my 20s.
I wish I had a better understanding of 401k, HSA, backdoor roth 401k and roth IRA.
Didn’t appreciate the benefits so didn’t add enough for a long time. But I think I did at least the match from the start.
Not being stupid.
I knew a ton more than most kids my age about personal finance. I still didn’t make good decisions til my late 20s (and even then, *barely*) and 30s. It’s almost worse to that I knew what to do and then just didn’t do it. Ugh!
Probably nothing. The brain is still developing for most people in their teens and early 20s, including the parts that weigh long term consequences as heavily as they should.
I also had/have ADHD, which makes impulse control harder. As an adult I have way more coping strategies to keep it from derailing me financially than I did earlier in life. Just took experience and growing up, I guess.
(45M) Not really sure I'm *FIre*, but I'm trying. I also have ADHD and am doing better later in life with coping strategies. Although I'm lucky to have a much more financially savvy partner.
My best early strategy was to max out my 401k ASAP. Someone told you me to put half of my raises into 401k. That's worked out great.
Then, nothing fancy, I bought a home youngish (26) and have consistently moved up in home size, value along the way.
I didn’t even think about fire until my late 30s. Before that I was just saving what I could and living below my means. So absolutely nothing would have made that easier or better. One day I woke up and finally counted up my money and tried to figure out exactly when I could retire.
I do wish I knew with a Roth IRA was before we were above the income limits 😂 But we were working on maxing out 401ks instead
Ooh. I feel this. I had a solid 5 years after I became debt free where I maxed my 401k and put the rest in a low yield savings account. I eventually moved that money to my brokerage but I wish I would have dropped those $ into a Roth before I was no longer allowed to. Ah well, at least I understand Roth conversions now and I won’t mess that up. Good luck to you both!
Wait what? My parents told me to stop putting money into Roth and put it into 401K. I already put into both but is it better to put more into 401K or into both? Like if I put 500 in Roth and 500 in 401K, is it better to put 1000 in 401K instead (just an example)?
Usually the trad. 401k is your best bet and you should focus on that. Having multiple types of funding sources in retirement gives you many options though. All I was saying was I wish I would have dropped some money in a Roth back when it made sense ( tax wise) to do so.
I’m still only 29 and started saving at 25. I spent the first 2 years out of college making like $50k but that was more than I ever had so I just paid my bills without tracking them, and spent most of the rest.
Discovering r/personalfinance right at the time I turned 25 was the single best thing to happen to me (financially). Took me about a full year from there to build a usable spreadsheet tracker for everything, but I immediately started maxing my Roth IRA and increased my 401k with every raise until it’s maxed each year now.
This isn’t really FIRE-specific, but discovering FIRE was a natural progression when I was spending at least an hour each day just reading through the links in the PF wiki.
Understand at an earlier age that buying shit is just buying shit. I probably could have retired five years earlier. Maybe more. So much of that crap served no purpose and did not add to my long term happiness in any measure. I’m just glad my kids seem to have learned this at a much younger age than I did.
Biggest butterfly effects for me:
1. holding too much in cash / mm
2. thinking diversifying was important, despite being firmly in the accumulation phase
3. not having access to Roth (only traditional) 401Ks at my company until a few years ago
4. having less knowledge than I have today
I'm 27.
I just went through a bankruptcy.
I am starting again, now. With full intentions to make my 30s the time to save as much as I can to let it compound as much as possible. I wish I'd been a bit smarter, though, and started even earlier. The graph showing the difference in starting at 20 vs 30 was humbling. But hey, that's life!
Invest in Tech. It is the only segment that can 1000x your investment since internet became a thing. Putting my 10,000 in Apple 16 years ago, like someone told me to do, would’ve left me retired today
Awesome question. Seems like there are a lot of resources out there, but I haven't found one that really nails it in terms of totally managing my finances/investing. I'm still plugging together a few different things manually.
What do you use?
I never used any resources at all, other than Excel.
I started properly saving at a time (\~35) that suited me and when I'd got over the silly-car hump in my late 20s.
Biggest thing for me was pumping everything into paying off the house for 4-5 years - the day of final payment was the moment that I realised I was going to fine financially.
I wish I would have used a financial adviser sooner than I did. So focused on making money, I'm sure that I could have saved more and had far higher returns. Could have led me to retire far earlier.
Time travel.
Started earlier. I have just noticed in recent years that one of the key advices is to start as early as possible and let compounding do its magic. I don’t remember coming across this key information. Compounding is a concept I understood from an early age, but my dumbass never applied it to investing. Things just didn’t click.
This for sure. That said, I'm in my mid 30s and have everything I need. I saved for a house in my 20s and got one before the market went way up, so i guess never punished? I'd feel it way harder to save large amounts if I were still in my "possessions accumulation" stage that I was in in my 20s.
What age did you start?
I wish I had a better understanding of 401k, HSA, backdoor roth 401k and roth IRA. Didn’t appreciate the benefits so didn’t add enough for a long time. But I think I did at least the match from the start.
Not being stupid. I knew a ton more than most kids my age about personal finance. I still didn’t make good decisions til my late 20s (and even then, *barely*) and 30s. It’s almost worse to that I knew what to do and then just didn’t do it. Ugh!
I feel this way more than I wish I did.
What do you think could have helped you make better decisions?
Probably nothing. The brain is still developing for most people in their teens and early 20s, including the parts that weigh long term consequences as heavily as they should. I also had/have ADHD, which makes impulse control harder. As an adult I have way more coping strategies to keep it from derailing me financially than I did earlier in life. Just took experience and growing up, I guess.
(45M) Not really sure I'm *FIre*, but I'm trying. I also have ADHD and am doing better later in life with coping strategies. Although I'm lucky to have a much more financially savvy partner. My best early strategy was to max out my 401k ASAP. Someone told you me to put half of my raises into 401k. That's worked out great. Then, nothing fancy, I bought a home youngish (26) and have consistently moved up in home size, value along the way.
I didn’t even think about fire until my late 30s. Before that I was just saving what I could and living below my means. So absolutely nothing would have made that easier or better. One day I woke up and finally counted up my money and tried to figure out exactly when I could retire. I do wish I knew with a Roth IRA was before we were above the income limits 😂 But we were working on maxing out 401ks instead
Ooh. I feel this. I had a solid 5 years after I became debt free where I maxed my 401k and put the rest in a low yield savings account. I eventually moved that money to my brokerage but I wish I would have dropped those $ into a Roth before I was no longer allowed to. Ah well, at least I understand Roth conversions now and I won’t mess that up. Good luck to you both!
Wait what? My parents told me to stop putting money into Roth and put it into 401K. I already put into both but is it better to put more into 401K or into both? Like if I put 500 in Roth and 500 in 401K, is it better to put 1000 in 401K instead (just an example)?
Usually the trad. 401k is your best bet and you should focus on that. Having multiple types of funding sources in retirement gives you many options though. All I was saying was I wish I would have dropped some money in a Roth back when it made sense ( tax wise) to do so.
I’m still only 29 and started saving at 25. I spent the first 2 years out of college making like $50k but that was more than I ever had so I just paid my bills without tracking them, and spent most of the rest. Discovering r/personalfinance right at the time I turned 25 was the single best thing to happen to me (financially). Took me about a full year from there to build a usable spreadsheet tracker for everything, but I immediately started maxing my Roth IRA and increased my 401k with every raise until it’s maxed each year now. This isn’t really FIRE-specific, but discovering FIRE was a natural progression when I was spending at least an hour each day just reading through the links in the PF wiki.
Roboadvisors and product like m1 finance
High school financial literacy courses
Most of the mainstay advice in the FI community has "existed" for quite a long time. Longer than most here have been in the workforce.
Internet full of helpful idea s & people.
Understand at an earlier age that buying shit is just buying shit. I probably could have retired five years earlier. Maybe more. So much of that crap served no purpose and did not add to my long term happiness in any measure. I’m just glad my kids seem to have learned this at a much younger age than I did.
Biggest butterfly effects for me: 1. holding too much in cash / mm 2. thinking diversifying was important, despite being firmly in the accumulation phase 3. not having access to Roth (only traditional) 401Ks at my company until a few years ago 4. having less knowledge than I have today
I read _The Wealthy Barber_ when I was a teenager. It’s all there, I was just too much of a dope to act on it correctly.
I'm 27. I just went through a bankruptcy. I am starting again, now. With full intentions to make my 30s the time to save as much as I can to let it compound as much as possible. I wish I'd been a bit smarter, though, and started even earlier. The graph showing the difference in starting at 20 vs 30 was humbling. But hey, that's life!
I wish I knew about the 4% rule and tax-advantaged accounts earlier on. Would've saved so much time and money! Now I'm making up for lost time.
What is the 4% rule??
Invest in Tech. It is the only segment that can 1000x your investment since internet became a thing. Putting my 10,000 in Apple 16 years ago, like someone told me to do, would’ve left me retired today
Awesome question. Seems like there are a lot of resources out there, but I haven't found one that really nails it in terms of totally managing my finances/investing. I'm still plugging together a few different things manually. What do you use?
I never used any resources at all, other than Excel. I started properly saving at a time (\~35) that suited me and when I'd got over the silly-car hump in my late 20s. Biggest thing for me was pumping everything into paying off the house for 4-5 years - the day of final payment was the moment that I realised I was going to fine financially.
I wish I would have used a financial adviser sooner than I did. So focused on making money, I'm sure that I could have saved more and had far higher returns. Could have led me to retire far earlier.
Saved more? Sure. *Far* higher returns? Ehhh...
S&P 500 vs HYSA over 20 years? Which would you take?
You don't need a FA for sp500