8.5 Years of Tracking– College/Grad School, Working, Marriage, and $200k NW @ 28Summary of Family: Self – BS/MS Civil Engineering and EI license, Structural design ($72k Salary + Overtime), college paid for by scholarships + parents, immigrant parents fled communism and poverty Spouse – BS Computer Science, Front-End Engineer ($82k salary), college paid for by scholarships and minimal loans, immigrated as a child to flee a different flavor of communism Dog – Puppy kindergarten, Dog (Kibble salary) We rent an apartment and drive cars that are “hand-me-downs” from our parents. Income/NW/Spending Summary Table + Self NW ChartsTable linkSelf Investments Chart vs Contributions linkSelf NW Chart link Notes: For NW calculation purposes, joint assets are split 50/50 and added to each individual’s NW. Growing Up: Parents were immigrants fleeing the Chinese cultural revolution with a few suitcases and a few dollar bills to their name, not really understanding English, arriving in the USA for their 2nd PhDs each. I grew up on SNAP and hand-me-downs. Parents grew up impoverished, so we were very frugal. Mom’s career took off when I’m in middle school. Her diligent saving and my scholarships resulted in me being able to go through college with no student loans. Spouse immigrated to the USA while young and grew up upper-middle class. His parents don’t really understand money, but out-earn their spending. Got a scholarship that paid for the last 3 years of college. College/Grad school (2011-2018): Went to school for civil engineering, started doing internships and learning about personal finance, stumbled upon The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. Started contributing to my internship’s 401k and to a Roth IRA and saving cash. I checked my Mint account daily and was so happy to see my NW go up and reach $10k, then $15k, etc. Mom and scholarships paid for my tuition and dorm costs, I paid for school supplies/plane tickets home/moving costs and rent/groceries at internships. Intern Pay History (COL Index: 123.9): $15.75/hr (2012)-> $16.80/hr (2013)-> $17.76/hr (2014)-> $18.80/hr (2014)-> $22/hr (2015) My career heavily favors master’s degrees, so I applied and got a Research Assistant position for a full-ride for grad school. Grad school and research in civil engineering was miserable. I’m glad I didn’t have to pay money for it. I was a complete workaholic during these years, and it set me up to be highly desired by employers. However, I think this accelerated my burn-out, especially since it took me 7 years to graduate with a job. The benefit of cash savings during this time was that I never had to worry about moving expenses for internships, school materials, grad school applications/travel, and any other miscellaneous expenses. While it might have been more optimal to invest more of my cash savings, the mental comfort and flexibility the cash offered me means I don’t regret a thing. Working Full-time: Salary History (COL Index: 90.8): $64k (2018) -> $65k (2019) -> $68k (2020) -> Switch Jobs, $70k (2020) -> $73k (2021) The differences between my salary and the income listed in the tables are due to overtime pay and performance bonuses. My first job was extremely stressful and required lots of overtime to meet deadlines. I had multiple panic attacks or crying sessions after work, it was hard to sleep, I had to deal with a toxic project manager, my anxiety and stress levels were through the roof. Even though I loved my boss, I ended up switching jobs (thanks to the support of my SO for enabling this). I now work less overtime and have less responsibilities for slightly more salary, but it’s still pretty stressful. I’m still dealing with bad Project Managers, and we’ve been having some ridiculous deadline expectations recently. Currently working towards PE licensure. Spouse loves what he does and has a lot of career growth/opportunities, so he’s not really focusing too hard on RE. Life, and where we go from here: For years my now-spouse has emotionally supported me through hard times and kept me grounded, and I’ve in turn helped him learn how to cook, develop a fashion sense, taught him personal finance, and develop his career. With him I’m “building the life I want, then saving for it.”. He’s not entirely on the FIRE train, but he’s 100% supportive and on board with me working towards FIRE and I’m willing to be flexible on spending budgets so he’s still happy (as long as we max out retirement accounts moving forward). We split bills 50/50 while dating/engaged and now have fully joint marital assets. I track spending and manage the budgets and we do roughly monthly meetings to discuss finances. We spend our “boring middle” time training and spoiling our dog, taking expensive dance lessons, playing video games, and enjoying food. Currently saving a lot of cash to buy a house hopefully next year because our apartment is feeling pretty cramped with WFH. I recently connected my husband with one of my friends in the same industry, and thanks to that connection he’s starting a new job soon that will roughly triple his total compensation. This opens a lot more flexibility in our budgets and future plans. I’m pretty unhappy with my current career (work/life balance and compensation) and my career isn’t very compatible with people who want to be active in their child’s lives. So I’m back to looking for new job opportunities for better work-life balance and a better team, but if I can’t find anything that works, we can live off of my husband’s income while I study programming and try to switch to sweet tech money/benefits. Being in a relationship/married has greatly benefited both of us emotionally and financially, and is letting us take greater risks with careers moving forward that could result in increasing the family income. While it feels like I''ve been on the FIRE train for forever, I realize I''ve only been working full-time for 3.5 years. We still have a long time to go, but we have a pretty good foundation for success in the coming years/decades. Inspiration: I talk to my mom about finances freely and while they really don''t like the RE attitude, my parents are always happy to celebrate milestones. My mom has been coasting at her job and has been ready to RE for years (since her mid 50''s), but has enough PTO to enjoy life and enjoys her work (and enjoys her health insurance since she''s had cancer). My mom was able to succeed after a childhood of extreme poverty, coming to a new country, being a breadwinner for a family of 4 and the primary childcare giver, and is enjoying coasting to retirement. Whenever life gets rough, I just think "well, I have it easier than Mom ever did" and it generally helps haha. I wouldn''t be here without her!
妈妈厉害 Her diligent saving and my scholarships resulted in me being able to go through college with no student loans. een coasting at her job and has been ready to RE for years (since her mid 50''s), but has enough PTO to enjoy life and enjoys her work (and enjoys her health insurance since she''s had cancer). My mom was able to succeed after a childhood of extreme poverty, coming to a new country, being a breadwinner for a family of 4 and the primary childcare giver, and is enjoying coasting to retirement. 妈妈又是主力挣钱又是主力带娃，又是自己省钱供大学学费，还得癌症了，不知道爸爸干嘛。。。
妈妈厉害 Her diligent saving and my scholarships resulted in me being able to go through college with no student loans. een coasting at her job and has been ready to RE for years (since her mid 50''s), but has enough PTO to enjoy life and enjoys her work (and enjoys her health insurance since she''s had cancer). My mom was able to succeed after a childhood of extreme poverty, coming to a new country, being a breadwinner for a family of 4 and the primary childcare giver, and is enjoying coasting to retirement. 妈妈又是主力挣钱又是主力带娃，又是自己省钱供大学学费，还得癌症了，不知道爸爸干嘛。。。 Cumberbitch 发表于 2021-09-28 19:00
What? I missed the cancer part 在老刘一代比较典型啊，女的被迫变成铁人，方方面面打主力。
不是马工工资不高，但是工作时间长压力大，准备转码了。
een coasting at her job and has been ready to RE for years (since her mid 50''s), but has enough PTO to enjoy life and enjoys her work (and enjoys her health insurance since she''s had cancer). My mom was able to succeed after a childhood of extreme poverty, coming to a new country, being a breadwinner for a family of 4 and the primary childcare giver, and is enjoying coasting to retirement.
妈妈又是主力挣钱又是主力带娃，又是自己省钱供大学学费，还得癌症了，不知道爸爸干嘛。。。
她等于从读本科开始积累，一直在存钱投资
28岁，土木工程，硕士毕业，靠自己攒了20万。 不是马工工资不高，但是工作时间长压力大，准备转码了。 老公是码农，工作时间比她长，但是工资也不是很高，不过最近要暴涨了。 她结婚前咨询过律师考虑婚前财产协议，最后还是选择了结婚，因为对她和她老公都是更好的选择。 现在还在住公寓，准备买房。
What? I missed the cancer part
在老刘一代比较典型啊，女的被迫变成铁人，方方面面打主力。
唉，一把辛酸泪啊
为了20万就有做婚前协议的想法，这格局太小了啊。还好没做。
父母又不能选。有钱的父母也不会随便给一般都在trust里
啥时候十几万算多了？还是我看花了，是十几米？
她听了吗？有什么经验教训分享一下吧
菲律宾家庭很多都是妈妈挣钱养家
两眼无光，单方面lecture
谈不上有钱，但除了给娃的trust，每一年单独给的gift money，十年下来也不止28万了。