I’m 29, almost 30, and my situation won’t have changed significantly by then. My net worth is about -$90k. I feel like my salary will cap out at around $70k because I’m a mediocre developer and not very smart. Can’t get married, can’t have children, can’t travel. My girlfriend doesn’t even know how bad it is because I’m ashamed to tell her. I mostly just resort to escapism (reading, video games, etc) because the dread of not being debt free until my 40s is too much weight to bear. I don’t like programming, maybe because I’m not good at it, but it’s the only thing I can do to stay afloat. If I had no debt I’d love to go work on a farm or something.

Take a deep breath. This feeling of claustrophobia gets to all of us at times. Come up with a plan and stick with it. Discipline, while less fun, can make you feel really good and can be a turning point in your life. Hey, and there is always bankruptcy. I know somebody who is going through it right now because it was compounding faster than he could pay it off. Sometimes (definitely not always) it's the right option (comes with a bunch of other side effects). Tell your girlfriend too. Maybe she can help you with your plan. :) Best of luck (email in profile if you want to chat).

I’m 32, not married, and my net worth is ~$1.3M, all invested in Vanguard index funds.

Started at $0 right after college (no student debt luckily) and got there through savings and frugality and good employment options in the Bay Area.

The cost of living is insane over here, but if you are not pretentious, financially disciplined (and in my case don't want kids), you’re going to be easily saving 6 figures a year, which you probably couldn’t in other more reasonable areas.

That's a good nest egg for your age. Are you part of the FIRE movement(not sure how else to phrase this)? If so, what are your plans? If not, same question lol.

FIRE is one of the things I'd like most in this world, so I'm definitely trying to pursue it, but I'm very different than the crowd you'd find on reddit or other online communities: I don't assume an happy path that will allow me to FIRE as soon as my expenses are 4% of my nest egg, I see that as too risky.

I am personally using a conservative estimation that my portfolio will just keep up with inflation (0% real growth), and since I don't plan to leave any legacy, my math is simple, adjusted for inflation I can withdraw PORTFOLIO / (90 - CURRENT_AGE) every year. Based on that math, I still have a long way to go.

32 year old here. Not much savings, 2 grand in emergency fund, 10 grand in 401k (realized a little bit late!)

31, married so all numbers are as a couple. Lived in DC for a year then moved to Denver. Started at a defense contractor then gave that up to work remotely for an ecommerce company for almost the same salary.

Net worth is about $450k, ~425k in Vanguard and $25k in checking/savings accounts. Of the Vanguard money, 2/3rds in 401k or IRA accounts and 1/3 in taxable accounts. Came out of college with $210k in debt (paid for both of us to get Bachelors and Masters).

Anyone who has questions about investing or anything, feel free to reach out. Email in profile.

I'm 29 but I'll soon hit 30. I have roughly $85k.

I save all my money in normal savings account, no investing or anything related to 'value increasing'. I don't have a separate retirement account either. I feel like I am not managing my money well enough, but I also don't feel like I have a "plan" for when I'm older. My next job have a clause where they will match retirement savings up to X percentage, that's a good step I guess? Kinda lost on the whole thing.

A matching 401k is really a great asset to have when job hunting. It's a sure-fire way to quickly compound a large amount of money. It's "free money" as they say, and always worth contributing to get the maximum match.

Also, 401k's often (don't have to be, but usually) are usually pretty moderate index funds. The risk associated with them isn't always like buying Tesla before he went and made his "$420" comment. They're a good start to investing when you don't know that much about it all.

As in my other comment, I mis-read the contract details. They will contribute only 2% and I am able to myself contribute 2-15% (isn't this the same as just saving myself?).

Also the country is Thailand, so there might be differences.

> Isn't this is the same as just saving myself?

Yes, it is. Though you'll more than likely see returns much higher than a standard (but safe) savings account will give you. You'll also get that 2% float on top of free money.

2% still isn't bad. Free is free, as I said.

In my particular case it's only 5% (best case):

50% match up to the first 10%.

So if I contribute 1% of my pay to it, I'll get a .5% match. If I contribute 10% to it, I'll get a 5% match. I can contribute more but I'll only ever get that 5%.

In your case, this is good compared to my situation in that you don't have to contribute 4% to get that 2% match, you can contribute even just 2%.

This is in the US FWTW. It's a pre-tax situation. I don't pay taxes on my contributions or my employers contributions; but I do when I withdraw them (earliest I can start withdrawing is age 59-1/2. The assumption is that when I start withdrawing, my tax rate will be lower than it is now so I'll still "come out ahead".

Interest rates are low right now so you aren't feeling the pain, but when the rates go up, inflation will eat your savings account. Look into a HISA account or an Index fund portfolio (higher risk/return) using Lazy Portfolio Bogle Heads is a good place to start.

Thanks, will check it out~

First thing I'd say with the new job is "maxing out" your 401k is $19,000/year not whatever percentage the company will match. If you can afford to put $19,000/year away, you'll likely retire before almost everyone you know. Assuming after tax income of $60k, you should be able to retire in 25 years: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=60...

Unfortunately I do not live in US, so it's not exactly a 401k (barely know what it is). And upon reading the contract again I see now that they contribute only 2%.

As my salary would be 135k THB (4293 USD) per month (51k/year berfore taxes) that would be only 1000 USD per year, barely anything.

I probably save more than 19k USD per year by myself though, although I'm without children/house/etc right now so that might change.

The real power in that 19k is over a long period of time. I have no idea what the rates you get in standard savings, but assuming 2-3% interest on that you're looking at ~$450,000 over about 20 years. VS ~800,000 over 20 years at 7% interest (that's a pretty conservative investment interest rate).

But as you mention, you're not in the US, so you may not be limited to that 19k (That's simply a different tax strategy, no one says you can only save that much).

Almost none. I had about 6 digits savings and it went down 5 digits a year.

Salary has gone up about 30%/year and I invested very heavily in that. But even with no savings, I'm much safer than I've ever been. Good insurance coverage, lots of job opportunities.

For context, about 80% of the region has no disposable income and the median annual salary for a senior engineer is US$20k. Household debt is 82% of GDP, so basically everyone owes each other, and payment often comes late.

30 in few months. I'm in an awful debt-spiral. This years goal is to get my credit card to zero and start saving some money. First step is to find a better paying job.

31 years old with $140,000 split across a 401k, Vanguard funds (bonds, total stock market and total international stock index) and some cash for an emergency fund. The only other expensive asset is a car which is valued around $8,000.

35, 6k - I got started really late in life, "bootstrapped" my career, and I'm not in a tech hub. We're a single income family though, we're surviving and fairly recently debt-free.

34, with about 800k saved up (mostly index funds, a third in 401k and the rest in taxable / roth ira). The lion's share is from the past couple of years after joining Facegooglesoftazon.

31, married, $362,000 in a variety of index funds (mostly 401k, some taxable). $132,000 in ibonds, money market, CDs. $250,000 in a paid off house. Car is worth $5000. so about $720,000 net worth.

What about yourself?

31, married, $70k in a 401k, $1.5k in a savings account. Don’t get student loans, kids!

30

192K in Robinhood 127k Equity in my apartment 65k 401k 82k IRA 10k Savings 3k Bonds Net worth: 479K

What does $192K in Robinhood mean, do you have it in stock/shares, or just sitting there? Why Robinhood? They are kind of a risk to put your money in, with that amount you can probably call up one of the larger companies and get X free trades, free level 2 and so on for moving your funds over, also better fills on your orders. Also, they have better customer service and they aren't just figuring out what they do. Lots of horror stories on Robinhood.

30, $0

23, 0 savings. I don't have any savings account.