Hey everyone, I'm a recent new grad who's a swe at Google now (for about 6 months). I went from making peanuts to a lot of money, but I'm honestly lost in what the smart things to do are. My family doesn't come from much money, so their only advice is to buy property lol. Just a bit about my situation: I have about $40k in a checking account, $4500 in wealthfront, and 100 Goldman stocks that my mom bought for me as a kid. I didn't catch the memo that maxing out the 401k was the smart thing to do, but I'll be sure to do that next year. In general I'm very conservative with money, but I'd like to secure a good future for myself. My biggest fear in the world is that I do something dumb, tech jobs go south, and I have no money, so I'd appreciate any advice or words of wisdom :)
And invest in a property ASAP. If you can share your condo with a roommate to help your mortgage.
I wish I knew about offline wallets so that I could’ve kept all of my Bitcoin
Ask this question on bogleheads.org
Buy as much btc as ur hdd will store, dont lose said hdd...
One thing I wish I had known when I first stared making decent money: stop budgeting. When you're not making much it's essential to plan where every dollar goes. But as you make more it can get you in trouble, for example you can theme easily Plan & see you can afford a stupid expensive car & go into debt on these things you can afford. A better way to manage your money is forced scarcity. Basically have all your savings & investments pulled either from your paycheck or from your main account within a day or so of getting your paycheck. Basically only give yourself the amount of money you need. If you don't see it you can't spend it. This also puts things like 401(k) & other savings on autopilot. Additionally you'll spend less time each month fixating on money but also know you're set up for doing well long term. A few other things: max out your 401(k) ASAP & then look for other ways to save. Talk to a planner to decide about the right mix of traditional/Roth/after tax/taxable accounts. Plan your retirement age at 50, the tech industry doesn't keep old people around long. There are exceptions, but if you don't have to work much after 50 you'll be much better off.
All of the savings advice you gave should be part of the budget. I disagree that having a budget when you make more than a certain amount is bad -- you just seem to have budgeted poorly at that stage in your life. I find budgeting extremely useful. Before I started doing it, I had no idea (literally) how much I was spending on tech, restaurants, night life, clothes, etc. every month. I never felt like I was overspending, but maintaining an account of where every dollar went showed me that I actually was. Since then, I've been making monthly budgets for what I think are reasonable amounts to spend on each category, and I try to stick to it as much as possible. I have certainly been saving a lot more this way.
All these personal finance advices are optimizing for the largest amount of money, which IMHO is pretty dumb thing to optimize. Go for happiness instead. I.e. spend as much as you want. You are unlikely to be able to spend it all anyway
Live below your means always. Dont fall for your social network buying all the latest stuff so you should too.
Wish I knew about Vanguard index funds when I was 22.
This and don't try to time the market
My advice: whatever the vehicle, stick with index funds and stop thinking about it further. When you get >$100k put away you'll start getting cocky and thinking you should pick some stocks because you're a smart guy. But just don't. A couple bad picks erases lots of steady progress. Put an auto deduction on to automate and just let it build. Once a quarter or so ask yourself if you can afford to put in more.
Yup. Same thing causes btc gamblers to think they're smart. Don't be a fucking retard like those dumb greedy shits.
Few thoughts... 1) live below your means is good advice, stick to it 2) at your age, your greatest wealth acceleration will come through increasing your earning power... accelerating your career growth by diversifying your experience while building your network and then being smart about when and where you jump to the next opportunity 3) avoid drugs, alcohol and bad relationships... all those can seriously alter your future resources and opportunities 4) pay your bills on time, religiously If you do those four things, the rest will pretty much take care of itself regardless of what you do with 401K, etc. Now there is a school of thought that says the way to maximize your investment returns when you are young is to figure out a way to put your assets into an investment entity, maximize your borrowing power against those assets to inflate your investment capital and try to maximize your return. The theory being that bankruptcy or debt restructuring affords you sufficient downside protection that you can afford to take the risk when you’re young and still recover, particularly if you can isolate it from your personal liability. I don’t really know how best to do this as I haven’t tried it. The most successful folks I know who started with little and turned it into a lot made small “friends and family” angel investments and happen to hit some really big wins. But I know others who did the same and never saw a dime back.
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1 vs 5 Million - no lifestyle change
Specifically for Googlers, beyond what you need to survive and enjoy life a bit: 1) Max out 401k, 2) max out Roth IRA (you will quickly no longer qualify after certain income), 3) max out after tax 401k and immediately convert to Roth IRA (look up “mega backdoor Roth”), 4) max out investment into Google’s investment fund (their equivalent to ESPP), 5) rest to vanguard index funds.
You seemed to be unaware that Google fund performed really poor. It is meant for people who plan to retire soon to defer their bonus payment that's it.
You seem bitter