50 and older, I’m sorry, but in my personal experience, your advice has been a little out of date.
Get in the habit of wearing a backbrace. When you move something heavy, when you work in the yard, whenever you need to bend or twist a lot. Backbrace.
Good boots, gloves, kneelers etc. Good quality tools. Your tools (your body especially) are an investment. Buy quality. Buy to last. Take good care of them. Per the literals. I swear by Kobalt and Dewalt.
Save your back. Don’t bend over to pick stuff up off the floor unless there are at least 2-3 things down there to get.
Don’t. Just don’t. Ever.
Don’t smoke, don’t drink, learn composting, grow a garden and learn foraging.
Fuuuuck, I do both, though I’ve been… Trying… With the smoking. I have been working on my tomatoes though!
Tomatoes are great, especially if you make passata and use your garden waste for canning/pasteurise fuel.
You can grow your own tobacco. Once you do, never buy someone else’s (big tobaccos) crops.
It’s cheaper, you’ll probably smoke a lot less of it (you have to make each harvest last until the next crop is ready!), and you’ll have more fun with it when you do (pipe or rolling your own smokes, bragging rights, etc).
As much as i hate smoke, i would respect that
There are northern strains of tobacco that grow in scandanavia even, for the non aussies.
Best to quit tobacco and just enjoy the weed. If you can not get caught.
I like it that you’re keeping it in the nightshade family, shit add some eggplant and you got the trifecta!
At least contribute to your 401k to get the full match from your employer if offered. More if you can afford it. Time in the market is huge. Make a budget, have emergency savings. There’s little point in investing if an emergency happens and you have to withdraw your retirement at a potential loss, and that’s before penalties and tax. Take care of your body, especially joints. Be even a little bit active regularly. Figure out a decently healthy diet. These will help prevent health issues which can be expensive. Plus you might look better and feel better too.
All of this sound like too much? Pick one or two and try doing them consistently even if it’s half assed. Half assing something consistently for a long time is much, much better than putting in a ton of effort, burning out, and returning to old patterns. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Sorry I know that kinda veered into fitness but I see a lot of parallels in personal finance and fitness/nutrition. Both involve budgets and benefit from a plan and spreadsheets.
Cheap used EVs are great, but if you are still in college, you don’t need that much range, so a beater leaf is even cheaper.
Your refusal to go into credit card debt in your 20s was great. Continue not fucking doing that.
Denying every indulgence makes you explode in spending desperation once you eventually get a windfall. Instead, ration indulgences, don’t forbid them. Get familiar with “this was expensive. I shouldn’t do that often.” It will make resisting temptation much easier with the new shiney XL+909T comes out when you’re older.
I’m over 50 so apparently I don’t count. But if I did I would say maximize salary. Live below your means. Invest because compound interest is your biggest ally.
money (you need enough) so keep dollar cost averaging into ETF, don’t forget the world is a big place, so international as well and consider the debasement trade.
Switch to income investing when you “retire”, don’t try and time markets.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNKV0CMgcVUiJNdA-JNlJA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxU4PhPfJEBgaeYT1rMhvCg
and physical health ; no smoking, no drinking, moderate cardio (running cycling etc) and lift weights to help prevent muscle loss and osteo.
and mental health: hike, enjoy the woods, spend time with friends and family you care for
Am 61, retired at 40 , gf is 57.
money (you need enough)
sounds like legitimate financial advice
“Don’t believe sermons, fairy tales, or stories about money.”
No matter what the situation, you’re not financially behind yet, but if nothing changes in 10 years, you will be.
Save and invest. If you don’t have at least $200k net worth by the time you’re 40, you’re probably never going to retire.
Lose fat and build muscle. You will be more financially stable when you’re healthy.
lol don’t ask us. we’re just as fucked as you. :\
Get out of the U.S.
And go where? Do you realize how hard it is to immigrate? Even if you’re successful, find a cowpany who will sponsor a visa, everywhere I look seems to be taking sharp right turns. AfD in Germany, crazy grandchildren of literal Nazi collaborators in France, the grand daughter of Mussolini is prime minister of Italy. UK is doing whatever the hell it is that they do.
I’d still rather be in Canada or the EU.
And I totally realize how hard it is. I’m fucking stuck here. The U.S. has turned into a gigantic prison. It’s just my advice m. If I could expatriate I would. But realistically I’m just going to stay here and vote and then the maga Nazis will probably kill me at some point when they start their own final solution. I’m just sayin’.
I’m not really up to date on Canadian affairs, but I would absolutely not be surprised if they have anti-american sentiment and actively try to discourage or prevent people from immigrating to canada, specifically US citizens.
Don’t worry about money, worry about your health. Form the habits now, and stick with them.
Everyone will tell you that, and you’ll just ignore them, we all know it. But, we feel like we should say it anyway.
It’s really fucking important. Far more important than money.
Without money health suffers. It’s a balance.
This is good advice, but do kinda worry about the money. Just don’t obsess about the money. Save what you can without sacrificing too much. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. Talk to a financial advisor that you trust ideally one that answers the question “are you a fiduciary” with a straight up “yes” anything else they aren’t one and fuck em. Work out a plan and find what’s realistic to accomplish, and how to get there. Start that today. Not tomorrow. Investments and savings work on time not just your deposits, and every 5 years you wait you double your contributions to stay at the same level of 5 years before. Be it $50 a week or $500k a year there’s no such thing as too little if that’s what you got. Also max whatever your explorer match is on the 401k. It’s free money basically. There is so much more but the truth is none of us are likely qualified to answer this your your situation or even in general.
But yes have fun. Live for the moment. Take time off. Spend time with your family and friends. No one will remember you for your dedication to the grind, but perhaps they would be filled with resentment.
401k now.
The stock market is insanely overpriced and due for a downturn. Maybe the US government will bail them all out again, but already 40 trillion in the hole, probably close to 50 by 2028 even without a crisis, and the indigestion in the bond markets right now, would give me pause in dumping cash into the market now.
It’s also helping to prop up the worst companies in the world. And managers of the funds take a big cut despite not doing better than random choices, or a monkey throwing shit against a list of stocks to choose. Seriously.
Yeah, but timing the market is always iffy. For all you know the bubble will burst so far out that it’s still better to buy today.
Plus, you can invest in other countries. I myself hold some of an everything-except-the-US ETF.
I think I maybe signed up for it when I was 23? I’ll have to look into it again
Check that your fund allocation is appropriate (e.g. a target-date fund or otherwise 80%+ stocks). It would be an absolute disaster if your money has just been sitting in the cash sweep account this whole time.
Also, up your contribution percentage to max it out.
I was a dumbass and withdrew my first one when I changed jobs around age 26. That job had profit sharing too. Such a waste.
If you can afford a house, try as hard as you can not to buy a house that you can barely afford with a 30yr mortgage. Limit yourself to a house where you can afford it with a 15yr mortgage. I did that in my 30s and now in my 40s I don’t have a mortgage anymore. Obviously with the current housing market this advice won’t help many.
To those people, I’d say: stop using a basic savings account. Get a High Yield Savings Account. They pay 3.5-4% interest at the moment. Zero risk, and you can even havd a card attached to it for spending. They’re liquid. Got 1k sitting in savings? That’s $35/yr free money you’re missing out on. 10k? $350/yr. Best part? When inflation starts going crazy and the fed increases interest rates to control it, your money starts making even more money. Not enough to fix everything, but it does help a little.
If you can, max out your 401k. Put money in a Roth IRA too.
If you want to play with stocks safely use index funds. Something like SPY for the S&P500. 98% of day traders lose money. Every trade someone makes is measured against the market. The trade you made increased 2% in the last week? Well, the market was up 2.8%. It’s like gambling and the market is the house. The market eventually always wins and everyone else loses.
Only one problem with the S&P500: a massive chunk of it is AI speculation, like 30%+, and that bubble will pop. Recommend bonds or metals until it does. Then switch back.
Diversified stock without AI exposure is an option. Bonds give less return and also are looking a bit funny these days, while metals give literally zero.
Everything in the market is exposed to varying degrees, unless you have something particular in mind? If you can think of a stock that will go up when AI goes into freefall, name it, please.
If you can afford a house, try as hard as you can not to buy a house that you can barely afford with a 30yr mortgage. Limit yourself to a house where you can afford it with a 15yr mortgage. I did that in my 30s and now in my 40s I don’t have a mortgage anymore. Obviously with the current housing market this advice won’t help many.
I got a 30 year mortgage at a fixed 2.something % 15 years ago and am very happy with that because I could invest more in stocks with a higher rate of return.
'Course, with the current interest rates that won’t help many either…
