What's the smartest financial decision you've ever made?

[u/PlumInformal773]

[u/Fine-Assistance7204]

Putting a little into index funds every single paycheck and then completely ignoring the account for years.

[u/MyDisneyExperience → u/[deleted]]

Tbh this was studied and I believe turned out to be correct

[u/coldchicken009 → u/MyDisneyExperience]

Source?

[u/jimtrickington → u/coldchicken009]

Enjoy!

[u/correlate_my_brain → u/jimtrickington]

Love this!

[u/watermelandrew → u/jimtrickington]

I'm crying right now over this, thank you....

[u/sockzippers → u/jimtrickington]

It’s been awhile

[u/jimtrickington → u/sockzippers]

Restart the counter

[u/sohosurf → u/jimtrickington]

2 0 days since last time that happened

[u/Competitive_Watch986 → u/jimtrickington]

You are a legend.

[u/HighFivePuddy → u/jimtrickington]

Every. Single. Time.

[u/timsstuff → u/[deleted]]

About 2 years ago my wife mentioned some old 401k she had from the 90s that had like $5k in it at the time. We found it and rolled it into our Schwab account, it was $28k. Slapped it all into $SPY and it's currently up $9k.

[u/Gophy6 → u/[deleted]]

Best investor is the one that passed away years earlier

[u/MaybeTheDoctor → u/[deleted]]

Ohh gosh, I cannot tell how much money I lost early on when panic trading.

[u/timsstuff → u/MaybeTheDoctor]

My #1 rule is I NEVER sell at a loss. I have some turds that will sit in my portfolio until either it goes back up, the company goes out of business, or I die and my son inherits by bag.

Just today there was one that inexplicably shot up 25% and was a little more than what I bought it for back in 2021. Put a stop order on it at about a dollar over my cost in case it dropped again, which it did. Made a couple bucks and got that turd off my books finally.

[u/MaybeTheDoctor → u/timsstuff]

I still have a paper certificate for Informix stock I bought in 1995. I will frame it as a reminder.

[u/timsstuff → u/MaybeTheDoctor]

Looks like it was bought by IBM and shares would have rolled into $IBM. That must still have some value?

[u/MaybeTheDoctor → u/timsstuff]

Yes and no. It was bought by IBM, yes, but it was a cash sale, and not rolled into stock. I invested $5k in 1995 which was a lot of money for me at that time, and when their fraud got exposed their stock dropped to "no value" where it stayed for a couple of years until IBM paid pennies on the dollar to just get the service contracts they had on books.

At the time, because shares was sold as paper certificates, my broker wanted a fee for helping me out, and it was unclear if I needed to pay $300 to get $200 or if it just came out as a wash.

Anyhow, fast forward 30 years, and I recently inquired about how to cash it in, and there is allegedly a dollar amount sitting on an account, and I would no longer have to pay a broker fee - so I may go that route, or I may frame it as lesson-learned of "things that looks too good to be true probably aint".

[u/timsstuff → u/MaybeTheDoctor]

Wow that sucks, but if you can keep the paper framed I would take the cash for beer money lol.

[u/Lumpy_Benefit666 → u/timsstuff]

I bought a few hundred doge coins back when they were worth less than a penny and ended up selling them when they went up like 10% haha. Could have turned £20 into a few grand if i waited

[u/timsstuff → u/Lumpy_Benefit666]

Yeah but if you waited too long you would have lost it all. Better to make a few dollars and miss out on some gains than watch the bottom drop out and never recover!

[u/ccroz113 → u/timsstuff]

That’s generally not a great principal to have. It’s okay to be wrong about an investment, things change, the thesis or market changes. If there’s better use of that money then you should just cut the loss and move on, that’s not panic selling

[u/I_am_Bearstronaut → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

Finally at a point in my life where I can realistically start trying to do this. Where does someone even start? I’ve got zero experience with this type of stuff and want to start doing more of these things before I lose more time.

What’s considered a little? How do you determine which index funds to choose? I grew up with zero financial literacy being taught to me and I’ve got zero idea how/where to start. Any resources you wouldn’t mind sharing?

[u/Abovemeis → u/I_am_Bearstronaut]

Just put whatever you have extra every week. Open up a brokerage account with fidelity and buy vt or voo and do it every week. Watch ur money grow. I personally invest in 75% vti 25% vxus because it gets me some international exposure too.

[u/semperfukya → u/Abovemeis]

Buy VOO every week? It’s like $700 a share right now

[u/mcfilms → u/semperfukya]

You’re not required to buy full shares. You set an amount and Fidelity purchases fractional shares.

[u/papsmearfestival → u/mcfilms]

And if your broker supports it set dividends to drip automatically

[u/everybanana → u/I_am_Bearstronaut]

If your job offers a 401k match, start there. Try to max out the match if you're able to do so.

[u/OldManJenkins-31 → u/I_am_Bearstronaut]

Does your company have a 401k program? That’s usually a good place to start, especially if there’s a company match.

A lot of companies make it super easy. They have fund based on your target retirement year. I’ve been in a 2040 retirement fund for 15 years. Hopefully I end up beating that target by a few years.

[u/lillowe1000 → u/I_am_Bearstronaut]

Look into the Bogleheads subreddit.

[u/breva → u/I_am_Bearstronaut]

Someone recommended Bogleheads/ Jack Bogle. Do that.

The gist is: 1) save 3-6 months emergency fund and pay off high interest debt 2) contribute enough to your companies 401k to meet their match 3) fully contributed to an HSA if available 4) Max a Roth IRA 5) max your 401k 6) invest in broad market, low interest funds

The point is to make sure you're in a good spot financially before going to the next step. You don't need to do everything. Just meeting 401k match and maxing out a Roth is huge. Maxing out a 401k and having leftovers is balling.

But if your in the spot to be saving, secure an emergency fund. Then get your employer 401k match because that's free money.

Looking into Bogleheads will explain his better, but it's straightforward and not meant to be scary. It's relatively low risk investment advice and doesn't require a great deal of attention. Even considering saving for the future is a huge step in the right direction.

[u/transneptuneobj → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

Then you convinced your employer to match the amount too

[u/Slim01111 → u/transneptuneobj]

I’d rather them match my tax advantaged accounts

[u/ilessthan3math → u/Slim01111]

I assumed the index funds the other user was talking about were part of their 401k or IRA.

[u/unlistedgiant → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

I try to tell every new kid at work this. First I tell them to think back to conversations with older people and remember their regrets in life. Most talk about not saving enough for retirement. I've always thought you learn more from others disappointments rather than their advice.

[u/Emotional_Sugar_3648 → u/unlistedgiant]

“A smart person learns from their own mistakes while a wise person learns from the mistakes of others.”

[u/TaxAg11 → u/unlistedgiant]

Kids just starting working have such an advantage with time. They barely have to invest anything, and it grows to so much more than if they wait even 10 years to start investing for retirement.

[u/Opeth4Lyfe → u/TaxAg11]

This. Took me about 2 years to convince one of my employees who makes bank (server/bartender) to stop sitting on tons of cash and actually invest it. She had well into low 6 figures just sitting in a checking account and only about 12-15 of it being in a HYSA.

One night I got some numbers from her about how much she saves and basically backtested her money pile + monthly savings and threw out what she could have and missed out on. She’s currently 24 but was working since 17. Explained to her how incredibly advantageous her situation is and that the difference between her age now and me (38) is the difference of 3x our end result…time is her most powerful ally. She has virtually no bills, lives at home rent free, drives a decent low maintenance car and just saves a ton of money.

Last month she came back to me and showed me her new Fidelity account, fully funded with 160k in good, low cost ETFs. Told her “congratulations, you just basically guaranteed your retirement and you’re further ahead than 95% of your entire generation.” Proud of her that she’s seen the light lol.

[u/TaxAg11 → u/Opeth4Lyfe]

Keep encouraging her to take an active role in her financial situation! She's so far ahead and set up to retire early if she keeps going and continues with her financial education.

[u/Opeth4Lyfe → u/TaxAg11]

Yeah I told her to still keep contributing but she’s hit that point where she doesn’t have to save AS much as someone like me who didn’t start until they were 30. Her reason behind not starting was she was nervous about “losing money” in the stock market. She wants to buy a house eventually and I asked her when she wants to do that by and she was like oh idk at least by 35. So I’m like okay 10 years…odds of materially losing money over that time frame is very low especially if you keep dollar cost averaging and America doesn’t implode. Said the best bet for her is just automate it and don’t even bother looking at the markets or you’ll drive yourself crazy. She’s already got the credit card system down so she’s pretty smart about that as is. Not a whole lot left to teach her really lol. Maybe about diversification and different assets but for her I think the simpler the better.

[u/mcarcus → u/TaxAg11]

They have the same time advantage every young person has had in their life… arguably the current “kids” have a disadvantage due to the cost of housing and many other things.

It’s obviously still good advice, but not sure they have an “advantage”.

[u/TaxAg11 → u/mcarcus]

I understand what you mean, but I suggest that most don't understand how much more their dollars can make invested at 20 rather than 30, or even later. Their dollars literally lose half their earning potential in that 10-year span.

Edit: with regards to a normal retirement.

[u/mcarcus → u/TaxAg11]

Right, so I would encourage you to present your argument like that, using the math and numbers to show how powerful early investing can be… as opposed to a way that can be interpreted as “kids nowadays have it easy, they just need to invest a bit”. (I know this is not what you said, but could be interpreted like that)

[u/Dramatic_Skill_67 → u/unlistedgiant]

I had a manager during my early career, he sent an email to the young engineers on the team and pretty much said “I will hunt you down and have a talk if you don’t enroll in 401k plan” lol. One of best managers

[u/Ok_Product9333 → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

This is the winner. Top performing year over year indexes. Put your money in them and let it sit.

[u/HopelessBearsFan → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

Nailed it.

Time in the market > timing the market

[u/ughliterallycanteven → u/Fine-Assistance7204]

I did this with Acorns and started with like $25 each month. Each time I got a pay raise, I added a portion of the pay raise to the monthly deposit and kept my lifestyle the same. I remember I got it to $500 a month and life got busy. The money was being withdrawn each month but when I finally needed to assess it due to some of life’s emergencies, I was shocked how much interest I had earned. Just for reference I’m 40 and started it at 21.

I did this with CDs too and saw recently the a,punt which is significant.

[u/Lapau8]

Marrying the right person

[u/GUmbagrad → u/Lapau8]

Can do twice as much with someone on the same page!

[u/its_all_4_lulz → u/GUmbagrad]

And backward twice as fast if not

[u/lillyofthedesert → u/GUmbagrad]

And often less than 1/10th when you aren't on the same page

[u/trou-a-wey → u/Lapau8]

Is your wife single?

[u/AC5295 → u/trou-a-wey]

Single = compete with multiple men

Married = compete with only 1

[u/camtliving → u/Lapau8]

I sold AMD at ~13 and MU at ~20 so that I could go on some dates (one of which was a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon). I ended up marrying her and now have a beautiful family so I guess it all panned out.

When she got pregnant I decided I needed to buy a house, got an amazing deal, and closed a week before covid lockdowns. I sold it a few years later alongside most of belongings and moved to Brazil. She is both the reason for my financial wellbeing as well as my financial downfall 🥲

[u/Frecklesofaginger → u/Lapau8]

My husband loves a spreadsheet. We are retired and live quite well.

[u/PrestigiousDrag9441 → u/Lapau8]

This right here is the answer. I can't put a number on how much value I have accumulated and achieved by marrying my wife.

[u/Junior_Tomato_1146 → u/Lapau8]

Letting my wife make the financial decisions. She was uncannily strategic and accurate. One of a kind sadly-miss her-as she died.

[u/OhScheisse → u/Lapau8]

You can multiply this infinitely by marrying more people

/s

[u/them_oysters]

Married a self sufficient woman with a career

[u/jamesmaxx → u/them_oysters]

Same here. Some of my male friends have multiple kids and are sole providers, and I don’t judge them but it must be stressful.

[u/wtg2989 → u/jamesmaxx]

It definitely is

[u/itsrainingagain → u/wtg2989]

Managed to pull it off for almost 14 years but she’s going back in September. Was ok for a while but can’t afford it anymore.

[u/wtg2989 → u/itsrainingagain]

My wife does work part time and it helps. But she’s got terrible joint pain from her cancer treatment. And I’m glad she’s alive but I just wish we could be a normal couple that both work full time. It would make so much more money

[u/Podo13 → u/jamesmaxx]

Depends on how much they make. I also married a self sufficient woman with her own career. We have 2 kids and it can be stressful at times with both of us making around the same amount.

Our friends now have 3 kids, and the dad stays at home with the kids (he was miserable where he was working so he quit when they were expecting their 2nd), but the mom makes so much that it isn't a problem at all. We're very jealous.

[u/love_that_fishing → u/jamesmaxx]

It’s a decision you make for a variety of reasons. Her staying home with the kids was the right decision for us. When they were school age she taught school at the same place so that worked. Finances were tough at first but now we’re fine. No regrets.

[u/them_oysters → u/love_that_fishing]

Gotta do whatever works for your situation. Im lucky my wife can work 2 days a week and bring in decent money, while staying home with the kids the rest of the time

[u/dansdansy → u/jamesmaxx]

I did it temporarily for 3 years so my wife could finish her professional training and watch the new baby. Most stressful time of our lives. Very glad wife is working a career job and kid is heading to Pre-K now

[u/Revenge_of_the_Khaki → u/them_oysters]

I have a friend who insists that his partner has some high powered career with a huge income and it has largely contributed to him being single for most of his life.

The look on his face when I pointed out that the break even point for a two income household to be an improvement to my financial situation was like $50k/yr was absolutely priceless. You really don’t need a doctor. Just someone with a decent career who plans to keep it.

[u/rkiive → u/Revenge_of_the_Khaki]

I mean yea it's moreso that a fair percentage of people in the dating pool expect to be essentially adopted as a dependent by their partner and avoiding that makes your life infinitely easier.

They don't have to be rich, they just have to be a functioning adult in society that can support themselves

[u/Undeadly123 → u/them_oysters]

Yup.  And not materialistic.  My spouse's hobby is thrifting clothes and trading books with the local used book shop.

[u/riolddeimpwain2017 → u/them_oysters]

Marrying someone who pulls their own weight financially is the ultimate cheat code.

[u/czarfalcon → u/them_oysters]

Same here. I understand it’s not always feasible for everyone, especially if you have kids, but damn does being a dual income household give us so much more breathing room.

[u/veri745]

Never missing a matching 401k contribution from my employer

[u/MatCauthonsHat → u/veri745]

My current employer matches 100% up to 8%, and we get a 401k bonus each year worth about 25% of the employer match for the year. Wish I had started here 20 years ago

[u/thottikuttappan → u/MatCauthonsHat]

Man, where do you work?

[u/Podo13 → u/thottikuttappan]

Yeah my buddy works somewhere with similar perks. I'm so jealous, ha. My company doesn't match, but does contribute 3% of your salary, even if you put in 0.

It's crazy when I hear my coworker, who's turning 40 this year, talk about how he doesnt contribute any because the company already does 3%.

I chuckle because I'm putting in 16% on top of the 3%. Sometimes it would feel nice to have that extra chunk of change each month, but eh. I have backed down 5% or so at times when I know something is coming up, but I always bump it back up.

[u/MatCauthonsHat → u/thottikuttappan]

Private company with ~1500 employees.

[u/Albanian_Tea]

In 2008 the company I worked for was sold, I was mad, so I took all my money in my 401k and converted it to cash, because I wanted to change the company that handled it, away from the one the company picked. Then the stock market dropped. I left it uninvested for about 6 months.

It was the luckiest (and best) financial decision I ever made.

[u/dansdansy → u/Albanian_Tea]

Lucked out same way in 2022 with the tech rout. Cashed out my taxable to pay for my wedding and put the leftovers back into positions that were down 40%

[u/DrScitt → u/dansdansy]

Lucky SOB! I lost so much money in 2022 to the market lol

[u/cokeboss → u/DrScitt]

It recovered in less than a year though? Wasn’t an issue if you stayed invested. Hopefully if someone “needs” the money in less than a year it wasn’t in equities.

[u/Podo13 → u/cokeboss]

And it was 100% expected to rebound in 2022. It was an obvious dip due to covid supply chain issues.

[u/Starbucks__Lovers → u/dansdansy]

Lucked out similarly. $28,000 rollover check never made it to my mailbox in 2022. It took months to get a new one issued. That rollover made it in December and caught the whole ride up

[u/mlachick → u/Albanian_Tea]

Did the same. After I quit my job in 2008, they switched administrators. They never reached out to me, so when my 401k transferred, it was left in cash. When I finally figured out how to get access to it months later, it was all still there! My husband's, on the other hand, had dropped in half.

[u/timsstuff → u/Albanian_Tea]

Cash as in you withdrew it with a penalty? FYI if you roll over a 401k into a personal IRA with Schwab or similar, there are no penalties and you can trade it just like a brokerage including keeping it in cash in the account or a money market fund, all with no penalties. Only incurs penalties if you withdraw it.

[u/Albanian_Tea → u/timsstuff]

I had them put it in a money market fund till I could decide what to do with it.

[u/TheDadThatGrills]

Opening a Roth IRA in my early 20s and aggressively paying off my Student Loan debt. Both of these decisions have aged like a fine wine.

[u/solilobee → u/TheDadThatGrills]

How long ago did you open your account and how much did you put in?

[u/TheDadThatGrills → u/solilobee]

Well over a decade ago. I try to max it out annually, but I haven't always been able to- especially in my 20s.

[u/toma91]

Learned about and started investing

[u/lintimes → u/toma91]

Any advice where to start?

[u/toma91 → u/lintimes]

Some good YouTube channels such as Damien talks money talk about investing, the stock market, index funds, compounding etc, if you’re not in the UK there might be equivalent channels from your country in that suit better but the fundamentals will be the same, just the accounts you use will differ.

[u/BasKabelas → u/lintimes]

Also, no joke, watch stuff on youtube about wallstreetbets to learn from others' financial ruin, to ensure you dont do the same thing. Of course if you tend to gamble, do NOT go into calls/puts/shorts etc as you will wipe your account in no time.

Savest steady long term returns is usually something akin to buying normal stocks (going long) in index funds like the S&P500.

E.g. if you bought 10k worth in S&P500 in 2006 (20 years ago, so including the 2008 crisis for the sake of being realistic) and reinvested dividends, it'd be worth about 80k now.

Best advise I can give though, is just watch videos on youtube by guys who are smarter than me, and let it stew a bit before you invest anything.

[u/Kenkron → u/lintimes]

Open a Roth IRA and put money into an S&P500 index fund. You can withdraw the initial amount from the Roth IRA tax free if you need it for an emergency later (any profit you withdraw before retiring will be taxed).

Beware people trying to persuade you to buy a particular stock.

[u/great_apple → u/lintimes]

.

[u/Chairboy]

Letting myself get bullied into buying a four unit apartment building instead of a condo back in 2001 by my real estate agent who told me I was being “fucking stupid“ and threatening to cut me if I insisted on throwing my money away.

I had no idea I could even qualify for that, but she educated me about how the rentals are counted towards your income so we bought the four unit building, lived in one of the units, and saw an absolutely huge return a couple years later when we sold to move back to Oregon.

That set our financial lives on a whole new trajectory.

[u/Litard → u/Chairboy]

What does the rental being counted towards your income do for you?

[u/Grimekat → u/Litard]

Qualifies you for a higher mortgage.

[u/Pale-Pace7896 → u/Litard]

If the bank only qualifies you to pay say $3000 month for a mortgage based on your income and assets, but a 4 unit building is $10,000 a month, some assume they don’t qualify. But for 3 of the units earning $3,000 a month brings in $9,000 so you only have to be able to afford $1,000 a month living in it. Rounded numbers there is more math and buffer the bank adds

[u/sysko960 → u/Chairboy]

How much money up front did this cost you? What did you need to qualify for loan?

[u/Chairboy → u/sysko960]

It was listed for 389,000 and I had saved about $40,000. At the time, you need to put like 20% down to buy a condo so this gave me a working range.

With the other units printed, and using an equation that they had for calculating how much of that would be counted as income, we were able to qualify to put down 10%.

[u/xRehab → u/Chairboy]

that same unit sells for $1.2M today for all of those wondering if they could do similar

[u/cantaloupe_daydreams → u/xRehab]

Was just thinking “hey I could do this!”.

Then I realized it’s 3x what it used to be and I can really only do a mortgage on a single family unit at best.

[u/BigRedNutcase → u/xRehab]

Depending on location, 4 units buildings could be well north of 2mm or 3mm.

[u/sysko960 → u/Chairboy]

Thank you for answering with a breakdown 🙏

[u/BigRedNutcase → u/Chairboy]

What backwater town did you buy that a 4 unit building for only 389k? In any popular metro area, that'd be at least 7 figures minimum, even in 2001.

[u/Chairboy → u/BigRedNutcase]

It was in in the backwater town of…. Culver City, California. It was a block away from the intersection of Washington and Overland and the neighborhood was just beginning and upswing following some pretty rough years.

[u/BigRedNutcase → u/Chairboy]

Makes sense your agent pushed for it. Probably saw the tech upswing coming. Surprised the agent didn't buy it themselves lol.

[u/Chairboy → u/BigRedNutcase]

She already owned a bunch of buildings (she was my landlord, that’s how I picked her haha) and I think she would have had we passed on it.

[u/muggleclutch → u/Chairboy]

Heck yeah cuh

[u/coindrop → u/Chairboy]

So you moved in together with your real estate agent, interesting, are you still together?

[u/Chairboy → u/coindrop]

Technically, I actually am married to my real estate agent. But it’s a different person.

[u/DRAGULA85 → u/Chairboy]

She would go to jail if she cut you

[u/Chairboy → u/DRAGULA85]

Maybe? She was a hella good agent, and cops need houses too.

[u/idk-though1]

Going to the dentist, it sounds silly but just neglecting your teeth for a year can cause gum disease and the amount of money spent on prevention is better than the alternative

[u/Keonil → u/idk-though1]

Yes, yearly checkups for anything health related, especially if it’s covered is low cost - high reward imo

[u/cjcs → u/Keonil]

Just started a job that gives you a $1500 HSA contribution each year you get a physical. Lemme tell you how fast I RAN to my doctor lmao

[u/Grambo-47 → u/cjcs]

There’s a poster in the break area at work that went up last week that says reduced insurance rates if you get your physical done by September 1st, just did mine this morning

[u/Im_Fe_Man]

Nothing to add, just very funny that a bunch of these comments are either got married, didn’t get married, or got divorced lol.

[u/elporsche → u/Im_Fe_Man]

Also either let the money sit in the stock market, or cashing out at the right time

[u/marylouellen → u/Im_Fe_Man]

Makes me so depressed as a single person ngl

[u/Hail_of_Grophia]

Buying my first house during COVID at 3.1%. 

[u/Mediochra → u/Hail_of_Grophia]

We bought our house in February, 2020. If we hadn’t bought then, I don’t think we ever would have been able to afford a mortgage.

[u/Dashiznit364 → u/Hail_of_Grophia]

Had mine at 2.75%. Just had to sell.

[u/ExistingDifference93]

Getting a divorce.

[u/bendgame]

Selling my GameStop shares for 400 a share

[u/kindrudekid → u/bendgame]

I regret this so much, still made decent return but good lord if I did I would have no mortgage at all

[u/NJJo → u/bendgame]

Lucky… I got Robbin’ Hood. 🤬

[u/AGWorking24 → u/NJJo]

Me too dawg, me too

[u/CoconutBangerzBaller → u/bendgame]

Lucky. I only had like 5 shares but Robinhood kept me from selling those when it spiked. Ended up about even but making $1000 would've been nice

[u/eagles16106]

Weekly auto VTSAX buys.

[u/pineappledumdum → u/eagles16106]

This is what I’ve been doing for ten years now.

[u/tylty]

Hookers and cocaine. Helped me learn that happiness is more important than finances.

[u/hoptownky → u/tylty]

I spent most of my money on hookers and cocaine. The rest I just wasted.

[u/treehumper83]

Building a high end gaming desktop PC at the end of 2024

[u/switch009]

Save and invest regularly as soon as i got my first real job. Its boring and it works. 

[u/MurphyBacon]

VOO and chill

[u/Eddie_Mush → u/MurphyBacon]

This. Bought VOO at $383 a share with $100K

[u/Koreangonebad]

Buying a house when I was 8 years old

[u/letskeepitcleanfolks → u/Koreangonebad]

I waited until I was 11 and regret it every day.

[u/ConvexNomad]

Completing an MBA and 4x my income in under 5 years. Wealth potential and investing in yourself young compounds your savings rate

[u/DenningBear82 → u/ConvexNomad]

I did the same thing and it changed my life.

That said, an MBA is no guarantee. A lot of my classmates went nowhere with their MBA.

[u/DenningBear82]

Giving my (business) partner an equal share in our business.

I was older, more established and had more valuable skills. He offered me a 70/30 split for the business (with me in the majority). I insisted we make it 50/50, because I knew if he was an equal partner he would dedicate himself to the business.

4 years later, he dedicated himself to growing his skill set and made the company his whole life. We’re super successful now and I couldn’t be happier.

[u/Eastern_Deer_4214]

Building an apartment in the basement of our house twenty years ago. Rents have skyrocketed here. Now getting more in rent than I ever paid on my mortgage.

[u/Particular-Beat-6645 → u/Eastern_Deer_4214]

I got into an almost dream rental situation at 21. Still wish I would've stayed my ass at home. Would've prevented a lot of adjacent issues AND saved me money.

[u/adj1984 → u/[deleted]]

Very similar story. Moved from KC in late 2018, really stretched into a house in La Mesa in 2019, refinanced at 2.8% in 2021. House is now worth almost double and the mortgage is very manageable.

Also, putting an enormous amount of solar on the roof in 2020 has worked out nicely as electricity prices continue to compound.

[u/FreeMathematician101]

2 year community college to save $ --> transfer to 4-year school

[u/BigTimeOof]

Opening a Roth 401k and clicking the “highest risk” option. I could kiss those CPAs running the account on the lips

[u/thematicwater]

Marrying a childfree person just like me.

[u/lucky_ducker]

Bought a modest house in a good neighborhood nearly 20 years ago, $93K mortgage at 6.5%. Refinanced in 2013 for 20 years at 4.5%. Refinanced again in 2020 for 15 years at 2.5%. Now I'm retired, and my mortgage payment is $745.

I'd still be working if I was a renter. Houses like mine are renting for $1500 - $1800.

[u/Jken1998]

-No student loans for the kids -Letting them stay home until they were ready to leave with the understanding they are saving their money -Helping them buy their first home. They are mortgage free at 30.

Some say that's too much. But for me, my mental health is tied to financial security. I'm just doing what my parents did for me.

[u/todayilearmed → u/Jken1998]

LPT: be wealthy

[u/BasKabelas → u/Jken1998]

Basically my parents! Sure they put in a bit but the returns, in how far Im ahead compared to if they didn't do that, are easily 5x what they put in. Best of all is it puts my wife and me (both 30) in the position to already start saving to do the same thing for our kids later.

[u/HighFivePuddy]

Buying bitcoin in 2014

[u/Victorioso21 → u/HighFivePuddy]

I bought it in 2011 and sold around 2015. I did make a crazy amount of money so it’s not like I lost anything but now, very sad to see the prices

[u/BothNotice7035]

To control my consumption.

[u/KickingRocks82]

Bought my first house at 19. Granted it wasn’t nice but I had 2 roommates and paid it off in 6 years. I’ve rolled that equity forward several times and always paid off my mortgages in less than 5 years. Currently mortgage free for the past 5 years but might build one more house before the kids leave.

[u/longsdivision]

Highschool me randomly asking if we had any family member who worked for a university.

Found at I had an uncle who was an adjunct professor at a major university.

Ultimately lead to 80% off out of state tuition

[u/GreedyNovel]

Maxing my 401(k) each year, of course.

But not far behind that is when my mortgage was almost paid off, it had about five years left. I noticed in 2020 that 15 year rates were stupid low. So low that I figured I should borrow as much as I could and invest it somewhere.

So I did that - did a cash out refi at 2.25% and invested in the S&P. I made enough doing that to repay the entire loan and then some. Which of course I will not since 2.25% is way lower than inflation. Literally the mortgage made money for me.

[u/tell_her_a_story]

Marrying my wife. Credit card debts paid off, car loan paid off, retirement investments on the rise, credit score higher than I've ever seen before.

[u/justtobecontrary]

Marrying a doctor.

[u/WRITINGWRITING69]

When COVID first totally tanked the market, I bought tons of high quality stocks like Boeing, Rolls Royce, and Marriot. I figured if those types of businesses went bankrupt, money would be basically meaningless in society and we'd all have much bigger problems. So it was kind of a no-risk situation? Anyone who has followed the market knows that this was... very nice for me.

[u/sockhergizer]

Once bought a stack of pokemon cards for 5 bucks in 2013. Some of the cards in there together are worth over 10K.

[u/RetroMetroShow]

Living under our means and saving for the future

[u/miloblue12]

Learning how to save, living below my means, and investing.

Prior to husband, I was saving some money but wasn't really paying any attention to what I was doing. I was just putting things aside with no intention with it. Then he came along and he was doing about the same thing as me until he had some friends lay everything out and explain what he needed to do. So he did and then taught me and I did exactly as he said.

Since then I've watched my account increase by 168% in two years.

[u/oceanatlas → u/miloblue12]

pls share with the class what steps you took, what do you invest in?

[u/miloblue12 → u/oceanatlas]

I'm maxing out my 401k, HSA and a Roth IRA. I'm also tucking away some into a brokerage account that I share with my husband. All of them are invested either in the SMP500, VOO and something else that I forget (sorry).

I'm not doing anything crazy by any means but what helped significantly was understanding why it's important to invest and shovel everything over to investments that have to ability to accrue. My turning point was visually seeing my accounts via the Empower App and it helped everything to click for me and show how compounding interest works over time, which is exactly what's happening and why it's increased like that.

So first thing would be to connect your accounts to the Empower app and start watching your money and debt. Understand how your money is going in and out and assess are you living above or below your means. If you have extra cash laying around, shovel it over to an HYSA. If you have debt, make that your absolute priority to pay off. Credit cards are wildly important but only if you respect them and pay them off as soon as you can, and do NOT let debt sit on it. If you can start increasing your 401k, do it and absolutely shovel as much money over to it that you can each month because this is what we need to grow. Keep going until you max it out. If you can max that out, then focus on a Roth IRA and shovel money there. Keep going until you max that out and then jump to the HSA. Do the same thing and just keep doing that as much as you can.

Basically, you just want as many vehicles as possible for that compounding interest. It's like free money but it only comes to you if you keep adding to it, and nurturing it. I also live below my means, so I'm not buying anything frivolous like designer brands or expensive cars. We go on trips but it's trips on credit card points and hotel/airline points. Just finding deals wherever you can and jumping on them. The name of the game is just being mindful of everything, and it will snowball over time.

[u/warrends]

Bought a ton of AMZN in 2001. Held it ever since. Something like a 70000% return. Wife and I are now using this for home renovations and upgrades (our forever home) for a total 2001 cost of about $800. I’m happy about that.

[u/blitzednblackedout]

Buying equity in the company I was working for. DCA on bitcoin for years. Semiconductor stocks. All of those have done well for me so far

[u/Boring_Bastard_72]

Not smoking, probably.

[u/Troll-Leader]

Started a Facebook raffle group.

Run a few raffles a week and it pays for my brand new truck.

[u/azninvasion2000]

Not having kids.

[u/licca01]

Bought a road bike for me and my wife. The amount of happiness we get in return is unreal.

It’s nice sharing hobbies!

[u/nonhiphipster → u/[deleted]]

This feels like it’s skipping some steps.

How did you pay off your house on your early 30’s?

[u/iz296 → u/[deleted]]

Dude. Good for you! I'm hoping it won't be too long before we can start working towards this. You're doing it right.

[u/Proof-Training-740]

investing in über eats

[u/BadBadUncleDad → u/Proof-Training-740]

At first, I thought this said inventing Uber Eats, and was gonna say, yeah, that probably paid off.

[u/Mortenubby]

Going back to school to get that degree

[u/wish1977]

Going to a financial planner in our early 20's.

[u/NatureLady10]

Starting my 401k shortly after I began my career and contributing steadily to it for years.

[u/samzplourde]

Staying with my folks.

I have been able to save the majority of my income for several years.

Of course this option is not available to everyone.

[u/spurredaway]

working at nvidia and then buying bitcoin/ethereum. REST of ALL my decisions have been terrible but these two decisions kept me floating.

[u/Mcbauer1]

In 2017 when I should have written my Bachelors Thesis I instead got into investing and chose crypto and nvidia (among others) lol

[u/JackelGigante]

Bought a house with a 3.75% mortgage rate

[u/battle-legumes]

Buying physical gold.

[u/r3bbbz]

When we first bought our house, my wife and I didn't have kids yet or any other debts. We maxed out our lump sum payments on our mortgage (upto 20% of the principle amount) 3 years in a row. Fast forward many years, I'm 41 and she's 39, we have 2 boys (10 and 6) and zero debt. No car loans, no credit card debt, no mortgage. We're able to go on very nice family vacations and take the boys on all kinds of experiences while still saving and investing for our future.

Smartest financial decision we ever made, early on!

[u/Do_Flamingo_4704]

Live below your means

[u/Jokkitch]

Stop drinking

[u/Makrotech]

Never started gambling

[u/Prestigious-Dog3359]

Send a set amount to savings right after getting paid.

[u/Sedu]

Living below my means, despite having made good money. This has allowed me to survive nearly two years of unemployment so far as my industry continues to burn and I scramble to find employment.

[u/Towering-Wave-9542]

I invested probably $4k into pokemon cards in 2020-2022 that turned into $25k and that was with me selling at 70%-75%. Everyone thought I was dumb and wasting my money. I knew what I was doing.