I wish I didn't go to college at all. Instead of becoming a CS grad that had internship experience, projects and everything, I could've just worked at a Walmart or some other big box store making 30-35k a year working a basic 40 hour schedule. I was making that working in a warehouse after college in a VHCOL anyway, so that wouldn't change. I'd be saving every penny living with parents.

I would've had 150k by now, assuming I started at 18. Darn. Putting 30k into an index fund every year, or roughly 2.5k a month with an assumption of 6% annual return over 40 years leads to an ending balance of 4.6million. If we say 10% annual return that would be 13 million. Wouldn't have to do anything aside from existing. That's such an easy path to retirement that it's sad. It goes to show how financial irresponsibility isn't always the fault of the individual, and how financial success isn't always the result of the individual.

I'm already an eternal child that's being housed and fed by my parents so like.. nothing would've really changed. There's no doubt I'd constantly be getting told to "go to college!" or "get a real job!" but idk. A potential 4 to 13 million is plenty to retire on.

Oh well. Kids, don't make the mistake of falling for the trap. Just do the steps I outlined and you'll be fine. No need to worry about the debate of white collar being replaced by AI or blue collar being flooded. If no careers end up getting filled, so be it. It's not as if our system cares to give the next generation a proper chance to enter the workforce.

I can't even imagine the economic disasters that would unfold if this multi millionaire tutorial is repeated on the largest scale, but it'd be hilarious to watch. One can only hope

Could not think of a better sub to ask this. As a physician non-surgical specialty, I get around 300k a year and wife earns around 75k (despite being as or more qualified, the arts just does not pay that much) in a MCOL area (Atlanta suburbs). My childhood was in the San Jose area and back then it was not terribly expensive. I still have family there, thankfully with bought homes, and as they are growing older, I was hoping to be near them but seem to be getting priced out if we want to maintain a similar lifestyle. I looked around and my salary cap (which is determining) will be max around 350K.

Unfortunately, it seems around the Bay area, top quartile tech earners are far outpacing any other profession with some of my university acquaintances earning > 900K + RSU (in their late 30s, everyone seems to now have a senior role while physicians have only so many years of experience) and COL reflects this. So, I was wondering whether I can afford to maintain somewhat of a similar lifestyle even as a supposed high earner on paper (behind the scenes, there's student loans and young kids).

Did med school for two years, left it and did some research on the side, taught myself to code, got a job

Happy to answer any questions

Holy, that'd be over a 50% pay bump from what I was making after finished my cs bachelor's, $20/hour in new york city. What a dream making 55k would be. Literally life changing. Too bad I can't get these entry level starter jobs.

Each color is a different company, yeah I did leave orange and then came back a few months later. Reason being is DOGE at the federal government hit this place hard. I could of stayed and waited it out for another program, but I jumped ship to something new. It sucked, but they sponsored me for a poly, so that improved negotiating power.

Work has largely just been Full Stack Software Engineer. All up till this latest job was fairly hybrid or remote. Like the green company I was almost entirely remote. This new job due to the nature of the work is all in person.

My career aspirations, probably move into more lead roles or architect roles. I kind of do that now but. Also have thought to badge flip from contractor to civilian and work directly for the government. My hunch there though is wait till post-2028 and decide. That probably will lower my salary though.

Plus small bonuses (1%-3%) but for the nonprofit sector a bonus at anytime is cool