As an intro to this quick story, I just wanted to say that I know that all of my financial burden is on me and me alone.
I am a 29 year old man. On the outset, my life isn't anything necessarily bad. I drive a decent car, I am well put together, I have employment, I can talk about a bunch of different subjects. Unfortunately, I'm not able to live the lifestyle I wanted at this age, mainly because of a series of "less than optimal" choices in my early and mid 20s. I expected to be well out on my own, in much less debt than I am now, and in general just living the life of a single bachelor but that's not the case. I have been "financially aware" since about the age of 24 but I didn't really implement anything until 27. I am 29 now. My current direction, my set of goals and where I want to go in life has really made me be introspective as to how I got into this situation in the first place. Maybe you'll find a jewel of wisdom from this, or I hope so.
My story begins in earnest at 21 in 2013, just graduating from college with a student loan bill of 22,000. Not bad. But it took me a while to find a job and I got an injury during that time that made me have to postpone that for several months. I then recovered and started looking in earnest. I was another 8 months before anything showed up. I then get a job in 2014, making 10/hr. Lesson: make sure you always have some form of cash coming in, even if you have to work at a job you don't like. Use it as a launching pad for something else.
Next year, I jump ship for a job that makes 40k/year. I should have pushed back and negotiated for a higher salary but I felt lucky to work because I was relatively unskilled in my chosen career. Lesson: always seek jobs that have high salary ceilings early in your career and don't just feel "happy to work" because employers will take advantage.
Over the next 2 years, I split my funds between a combination of saving, paying bills, paying off debt, and investing in a Roth IRA (my company I worked for did not offer retirement plans). I also open up a credit card (my first) to pay for a trip to see my ailing aunt in Europe with my mom. I didn't have the money and she certainly didn't have the money, so this was the next option. I did it out of my own volition. I don't regret the trip as it was the last time I saw her alive, though I was $1850 in the red. That was 2015, I was 23. Lesson: Don't put yourself in such a financial situation where you need to rely on a credit card to get what you want from life.
I keep on plugging away at that debt, while opening my side hustle on nights and weekends. The business had little traction but I said "this would definitely take off if I were to do it full time". I got my wish. Several months later in June 2017 I was laid off. I took this as a sign to go "all in". Failure or bust. At this point, I was 25 and wanted to move out but I was unemployed and wanted to work on my business. My friends were enjoying life, going on vacations, moving to new cities, and generally doing the whole "adulting" thing. I was trying to generate cash and start a business while living at home. Lesson: If your business isn't generating at least a livable salary from part-time efforts, you should keep your day job until you do. My problem is that I wasn't generating enough cash flow. I was making money but I was also losing it in pretty short order. I should have been looking for a job/working at it at the same time. If I was employed and working, I could have prevented by credit calamity, probably paid off my student loans, and definitely moved out by now.
At the end of 2018, I understood that this wasn't working and that the business was failing. I shuttered operations at the end of 2018. It took me until February 2019 to get a job and April 2019 to start getting paid. At the height of my financial calamity, I was $16,000 in credit card debt, my student loans had ballooned to 45k, and I had 18k in car loans. I spent a good amount of 2019 and 2020 paying it off (again sacrificing moving out) because I knew it would be extremely difficult to do so living on my own. Then in 2020, I get laid off once again but this time due to COVID.
Now, I recently got employed making 75k/year and I have estimated my side projects will bring me around an additional 20k, putting me at or close to 95k for the year. I'm committed to cleaning up the rest of my financial mess and hopefully put my life on a decent track leading into my 40s.
So what is the point of this post? Not much, except to do the things you don't want to do early on so you can do the things you want to do later. Back in 2017-2018, I had no business starting my business full time. Those years literally fucked me because I was pretty much losing money. I put virtually everything on credit during those years and now I'm paying it back. It's going to take me anywhere from 3-5 years before I'm like "good" and by that time I'll be 35 and I'm already behind in life. Unfortunately, you'll never get your 20s back and I can honestly say that I spent much of this decade in financial straits due to a combination of laziness, self-indulgence, bad planning, and lack of foresight.
Don't be like me. Always find some way to have something coming in, spend less than you make, and don't go after a business idea unless for sure your current job is holding you back from 10xing it during full-time hours.
I hope this helped someone. Cheers.
Submitted May 08, 2021 at 06:21PM by aj_remington https://ift.tt/3ttTcws
