A little background on how I got to where I did. Most of it took a lot of sacrifice in other parts of my life that I somewhat regret.
Graduated college at 24, with a computer science degree. Most people get into programming right away, but because I had low self esteem I went into tech support with a starting salary of 45k. I still lived with my parents which allowed me to pretty much stash away 95% of my paycheck. My parents helped pay a portion of my schooling, and within a few months, I was able to pay off the rest. So, I have no student debt, and saving money like mad.
I spent two years at that company and ended with a salary of $51k. Still living with my parents. In terms of retirement savings, I didn't know much about it at the time. Read on reddit that Roth 401k was best and that I should just put in up to the company match. So I was only putting in about 5% Roth. No Roth IRA during this time.
Moved to another company for a big jump in salary at $70k. Same situation at home, saving $95% of my checks, contributing about 6% Roth 401k.
The thing with me is that I am pretty much a hermit. I spent 98% of my time at home on the computer or watching netflix, or doing a music hobby. No girlfriends, no friends in general except for work aquantences. Because of this, I never really went out and blew my money so most of it was stashed away.
Earlier this year I took retirement a little more seriously, because I was worried I wasn't contributing enough. I wised up to creating a Roth IRA, and put in my first $5500 for 2016. I kind of regret not taking care of it sooner, since I missed out on contributing almost 15k the last 3 years. A few months ago, I switched my Roth 401k contributions to Traditional 401k, and started maxing it out, putting in 25% with the mindset that my future self with thank me. By this point my salary was $72k based on a cost of living raise.
I moved out of my parents house. After starting to max out my 401k, my paychecks dropped to as if I was making $54k since it was traditional 401k. Still even with this, after all taxes and healthcare deductions, I was taking home $2800 a month net pay. My rent is pretty cheap, and combined with food and other things, my monthly expenses range from about $1200 - $1500. This still left me with a comfortable $1k+ to stash away.
This leads me to today, at 29.
This only went on for about 2 months before I was let go from my job. Because of the years of saving, I managed to have $131k in the bank. My company was also generous enough to pay me out for the rest of the month in which I was let go. With such a large safety net, I wasn't freaking out.
It took me about 2 months but I was able to land another job with another large pay increase up to $90k. I have not started yet, but I do plan on continuing to max out a traditional 401k. This would bring my paychecks down to as if I was making $72k, same as last job but also slightly more because 401k deductions were already taken care of. I expect after taxes and healthcare deductions, etc to be receiving a net pay of around $4k a month give or take.
Nothing else has changed in terms of living expenses. I occasionally splurge on my music hobby, but the most I've ever splurged on something was around $2500, and this is usually once every couple years.
On paper, it looks like I am living the dream and am more well off than most people my age. I am able to max out my retirement accounts, pay rent,bills, etc and afterwards still have a good amount of disposable income left over.
I don't mean for this to turn into some kind of therapy session or depression topic, but depression is something I have been battling even after being fortunate to have what I have. I have what I have because I basically neglected every single aspect of my social life. I've lived a hermit lifestyle ever since middle school. Going to school, coming home, paying video games or browsing the internet.
As I mentioned before, no girlfriends (never had one), no more friends (all of them either moved away, got married with kids, or just drifted away.) Everyday is basically groundhogs day with Work, come home, eat, sit on the computer, sleep, repeat.
I haven't done anything with the $131k and it has just continued to grow as I save in a savings account. At first my plan was to continue aggressively saving for another 3-5 years and be able to buy a house outright with no mortgage.
At this point I don't really know anymore. My apartment now is a 1 bedroom and I barely even use that, opting to be in the bedroom all the time where I have my computers and musical toys. Barely ever step out into the living room area with couches and tv. I think to myself what the point would be to even buy a house, if I am pretty much alone.
Changing my social circumstances would require a major personality change and commitment that I don't think I can sustain long term. I have slowly been coming to accept that I may never find a SO, get married, or have kids (At least right now, I have no interest in marriage or kids, but do sometimes want companionship from a girlfriend)
If I were to own a home, it would have a minimum of 3 bedrooms, but which being single, I don't really see myself using any of it, given how I live now. I do know that I don't want to own a condo or townhome. If I'm going to own, it is going to be a house to have maximum privacy.
Anyways, one thing I also do not enjoy is the whole 9-5 grind. I get jelous of looking at successful people on instagram such as music artists and celebrities. Their million dollar homes, beautiful SO's, nice cars. Not having to worry about sitting in some cubicle somewhere.
I feel like given my current situation, if I plan properly, and play my cards right, I can get to a point where I can escape the normal 9-5. I might not have million dollar homes and ferrarri's but maybe it's possible to be financially independent given my age.
I just don't really know how to take what I have and move in that direction. I want to keep growing the $131k I have into an eventual home purchase possibly. I know people say to open up an individual brokerage account and possibly dumb it into stocks, but I do not want to lose 1 cent of the money I saved. I've been thinking of dumping about $100k in a money market or 5 year CD and letting it grow, even with such a small %. Take the rest of the money and keep dumping disposable income at it, maybe keeping it in a 1% savings account.
I've thought about taking some of the money disposable income and throwing it into a S&P 500 fund, but I have no idea how any of that works with dividends and taxes, etc.
I'm hoping to get other people's opinions on what I should be doing. How they would handle everything.
Submitted August 06, 2017 at 09:39PM by moneyhermit65 http://ift.tt/2hAdu7J
