Gut check at 24 years old - not sure if I should feel this behind

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OldSport
Posts: 1288
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:01 pm

Re: Gut check at 24 years old - not sure if I should feel this behind

Post by OldSport »

ShakaWaka21 wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:25 pm Hi All,

I'm a green 24 year old (M) investor meaning I've taken investing seriously this past year. I'm in the public finance/accounting field and on track for CPA for next year. Recently, I've been doubting where I'm at and where I should be. Mainly due to relocating states soom (FT remote employee) and perhaps settling down long term with a current partner who is older and more successful in their career and finances.

For context, I grew up broke in a single mother household who worked 4 jobs. She taught us the value of saving and working hard. Personal finance is what I've had to learn on my own late to the game. Thankfully, had a full ride to college and got a solid job with plenty o upwards mobility a year and half after.

Current stats/portfolio

Salary: 52k base + 8k OT (based on 2020, will go up this year with a raise/promotion)
EF: 5 months (5k)
Cash: 8k +(12k after selling one of my trucks in the next week)
401k: 20k (Vanguard TDF 2060), on track to max this year. 5/25% Traditional/Roth Split
Roth IRA: 14k (maxed past 2 years, will continue doing so; 100% Equities (75/25 Domestic/Foreign)
HSA: 6k (same as Roth IRA)
Taxable Brokerage: $16k (75/25 VTI/VXUS)

No debt in any form - credit card, medical, auto, or student loan. Expenses are less than $1500/month on the high end.

On paper, I know I'm doing fine. But part of me feels behind because of that ingrained immigrant mentality I grew up with. To always keep grinding. But as I mature my views on life have shifted - I'm moving to a small town near the mountains in Colorado (higher rent of course) and want to be closer to nature. Of course I'll continue to advance my career virtually so that's not a problem.

But the idea of purchasing a rental property has recently popped into my head as I'd like to start early and looking at my finances I feel like I'm not ready for that and considering I'm moving. I know my income will grow in the next several years and I'm not even close to my peak earning years. And having been getting serious with a partner who is far more successful than I am, I'm starting to grind even more to 'make up' for it knowing full well I'm 5 years younger than her and in a different field entirely. She of course has no qualms about me making less and vice versa - I think she just drives me to grind even more, unbeknownst to her.

I'm also second guessing my move that is in 2 weeks since I'm moving to higher COL and wondering if I should stay in my LCOL to prioritize building wealth. The flip side to that is I chose the new city due to more year round recreational opportunities since I'm always outdoors and I want a cooler climate. It's only a year to start so I can always move again. And I'll still be on track to hit my savings goals for this year with the move. It's more Quality of Life move at this point but again that nagging voice in my head to just move to a super LCOL and grind it out for 5 years and build wealth is ever present.

So that brings me to my dilemma - am I overthinking this? I'm happy in my life. I've been seeing a therapist in the past year and frankly have worked through a lot of stuff that for the first time in a while, I have nothing to complain about. Relationship is fresh but going really well. Work is going well. Personal life is great. Fitness and health are my daily priorities. Spiritually feeling whole. But theres this piece as it relates to financial standing that I'm working on reconciling.

Would love to hear from the wiser folks and how you've worked through this.

Thank you.
You're doing great. When I was 24, I made $59k total (was thrilled to get that then), didn't know what an IRA was and just contributed the minimum 401k to max the match.

Back then, I was so conservative since I thought of investing only for buying things soon (vehicles, vacations, stuff, housing downpayment someday), so didn't invest aggressively.

At 24 I had:
$3k in checking (no emergency fund...never heard of it)
$4k in Vanguard Prime Money Market (it actually paid 4-5% back then)
$4k in Vanguard Wellesley
$4k in 401k with 100% in equivalent of Vanguard Lifestrategy Moderate Growth
No IRA or Roth IRA
Debt: $15k car loan, $3K furniture CC loan (12 month promotion rate), $3K best buy CC (12 month promotion rate).
Was new grad so needed to take on debt to "get stuff" back then. Wanted to get stuff I actually liked that would last time. I still have that furniture today. Best Buy stuff got obsolete.

Back then making money was "really hard" for me and had experienced people getting burned with dot com bust, so was very conservative with investing until I started making more and learned more.

I'm actually quite aggressive now and hit over $1M investments (excluding home equity) before turning 40.
Topic Author
ShakaWaka21
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:31 pm

Re: Gut check at 24 years old - not sure if I should feel this behind

Post by ShakaWaka21 »

Just want to say I've read all the responses. Thank you to everyone for the sage advice. You've put me at ease and I will just work on putting this out of my mind, continue to focus on my career, and live my life while staying the course.
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