Too embarassed to tell anyone I know IRL, but am excited for my new future. Been throwing alot of money with small things. PC, alcohol, movies (and im ashamed to say, funko pops). Recently i took the plunge and cut out alcohol in an attempt to get my life together, and i feel like i have a whole new start.
Congrats! You should consider starting a Roth IRA. If there’s still a functioning economy 40 years from now, you will be glad you did.
Congrats! That’s not something to be embarrassed about, thanks for sharing it with us
Well done!
At a minimum, please put that in a high yield savings account. A quick search shows there are still some between 4-5%. Fairly easy to setup and not too bad to get out of, if you need to. (That’s free $30-40 a month)
Once there I would consider where to start putting that money to work.
(Just some quick easy advice that you probably already know.)
I hope you’re not keeping that on your bank account. Make it work for you. I’ve put all my savings into diversified, low-cost index funds.
I recently reached a point that I could pay off my house if I wanted to. I’m really tempted to, but I think I’ll just keep it invested.
Eh…for a lot of people it makes more sense to keep your money in a high yield savings account instead.
For your emergency fund maybe but the interests are a lot higher when invested into something like S&P500. Failing to do so means leaving money on the table.
Is it giving you a higher return than you pay in interest? Personally I’d pay off the mortgage.
Spy has been yielding double digit returns for years… That’s definitely bigger than most mortgages in the US.
Then you should get rid of your mortgage payments and put it all in that.
Huh? If my rate of return > mortgage rate it makes more sense to be leveraged. If my mortgage rate was 10% I’d be paying off my mortgage.
Sometimes it’s nice to just write something down and be happy about positive change. I see no issue to just casually bringing it up. Be proud of yourself OP.
Thinking back, there were many post on R*ddit where i would say to myself “this could have been in the drafts folder” or “this didnt need to be broadcast to the whole internet”. Now theres me, proud of an achievement, while someone else on the internet is probably thinking “this didnt need to be broadcast on the internet”.
But Im proud of what I did, and am optimistic for the future.
Nothing needs to be broadcast on social media 99% of the time. But positivity is nice to hear to muddy up the negativity we often see. So what if this didn’t need to be broadcasted. I still found it heartwarming and enjoyable to read and know someone is doing well for themselves.
Congratulations. That’s quite an achievement to make in your life to cancel out something that didn’t have a positive on your life and to do something better for the future at the same time.
Many of us past our 20’s can’t always say we did something so positive in our 20’s but we wish we had.
No this post is very nice to have here because of its positive message. I am guilty of way too much trolling on the web. Being like “lol it’s kinda true but this will cause much ruckus let’s post it” but the recent political situation made me lose all the humour and lightheartedness of little trolling. Time for joking is over.
United in misery is very much a thing and when the situation is normal and good guys are in charge I will hah squabble and bicker and troll a lil bit but in the times of great strife it isn’t proper. The bad times unite ppl.
Invest in gold
Technically speaking, gold is not an investment. It is a hedge. The theory is gold maintains its value very consistently, but does not grow in value.
Gold appears to have growth because The price increases over time, but that’s just a function of inflation in whatever currency you’re denominating it by.
I don’t know how investing works beyond the great pond, but if you can sell it for profit then it works. Smh
Year 1 you buy it for X
Year N you sell it for Y
Y>X, so profit? Not exactly.
What else could you have invested in? A low cost whole market index fund for example has an average rate of return of 7%. In fact, it’s the gold standard of returns comparisons.
Money has opportunity cost, time in market is important, money invested in gold, cannot be invested in other things. So you have to factor that into the profitability calculation.
The theory about gold, is it holds its value, so if you could buy 10 Big Macs for x dollars in year one. In year N when you sell for y dollars, you can still buy 10 Big Macs. That’s the goal. You have more dollars then you started with, but you have the same Big Mac purchasing capacity. Because your real world good purchasing power didn’t increase, it wasn’t a profitable venture.
This is true, which is why libertarians traditionally invested into gold because they didn’t trust the government to not artificially inflate currency.
And now it’s what you do if don’t trust the USD to not collapse.
No
Well done! Having financial stability brings such peace of mind.
That’s great! Keep up the good work!
Congrats.
Once you get to $10k it starts to matter where you put it - for example a managed fund will make it grow significantly faster than if you left it in the bank.
Don’t managed funds have lower growth and significantly higher costs than index funds?
Invest in yourself.
If you like the job you have, see what career training will help you advance.
If you don’t like the job, invest in figuring out what career you do want.
“Like the job i have”
Pro: work in a school. Get holidays as much as the kids do. In Australia. 0 gun threats. (We had 1 rock throwing incedent, and that was solved in the hour). Get paid during the school holidays. Havw 10 paid tharapy sessions per year**
Cons: work with teenagers. Live in bumfuck nowhwre.
*I remember seening a post on reddit about a nurse who couldnt see a therapist about a drunk driver killing an innocent family. All i could think of was me, helping a 14 year old learm what 2x7 was, getting 10 paid theropy sessions a year, while an ICU nurse dealing with 14 hour shifts and possible death on a weekly basis cant get thier mental health check ups. BUT Im alaonplallning ro leave this place. Outback Austrilia does pay well (tried to move out. That was my 1 year of no job. Came back, and got 3 job offers in week 1) but ita still, Outback Australia .
Well, I’m in the polar opposite of Bumhole, Australia.
Good luck with your endeavors.
The good thing about small towns is the cost of living can be low compared to a city. Stack your chips, have an investment strategy, and leave on your terms. It’ll be incredibly satisfying to put your future plans into place when the time is right. Just continue to work on you and get that money working for you as well!
Congrats! I did a poor job managing finances in my 20s so it wasn’t until last year that I reach my first unclaimed $10k in savings. So don’t be embarrassed, you’re ahead of a significant number of your own age group.
Hindsight is 20/20
PastMe was proud to own 100+ funko pops. Now i want to kick PastMe in the head.
Then again, if it wasnt for PastMe, PresentMe wouldnt exsist…
I’m 34 and don’t have $10,000 in savings.
Congrats on the milestone, friend.
Alcohol truly flies under the radar for people as a harmless fun. But it does change you, dropping it will clear your mind and make you happier in the long run unless your social life depends on it. In which case rich social life is still healthier in the sum of all things.
