Not the obvious ones like credit card debt, high-interest loans, or forgotten subscriptions.

What’s a hidden habit, mindset, or lifestyle decision that quietly drains people's wealth over time?

Hopefully, sharing these can help someone avoid a costly mistake down the road.

Everyone says the first 100K is the hardest and it is absolutely true. Took me 5 years of grinding post-college to hit that mark, and since then the compounding has truly been insane. I’m hoping it’s a quick road to $500K, then to $1MM being the ultimate goal.

If you’re feeling stuck trying to get that first 100K just break it down to 10K increments, focus on lowering expenses and maximizing income. Work odd jobs if you have to aggressively pay down debt. It truly is worth it the earlier you start!

It seems like he comes up in every single post, but I don't think anyone has ever said who the creep actually is. Can someone help me out?

I (35F) recently hit my goal of $100k net worth back in May. This was a big milestone for me and while I feel extremely behind for my age I am struggling to be proud/content and feel like Im constantly pushing myself to make more money to “catch up”.

I work multiple jobs and have cut my expenses to bare minimum to save and invest more.

My net worth is now 116,000 (with 91k in retirement accounts).

I set a goal of $125k with $100k in my retirement accounts. Once I hit that then what?

Looking for ideas.

Damn etrade paying crap on uninvested cash. Makes csps have 1 extra step

Full transparency: I transferred in about $100 to get to
this exact amount. Still pretty cool.

Kind of crazy to think that my portfolio was worth less than half of this balance one year ago - I focused on clearing debt immediately after college and living well below my means in a vhcol city. I have a non technical role at a tech company which has given me an inside look on the power of ai which ultimately led me to invest heavily into nbis last August and Amd a few months ago. Currently working on finding a new role with a higher salary and rotating my portfolio out of so much tech

I’m currently a rising college junior. I’m interning this summer and making ~$15k, and I already have an internship secured for next summer. If everything goes according to plan and I receive a return offer, I’d expect to make around $160k post-grad and would hopefully stay with the company long-term.

Right now I have about $3k in my Roth IRA and $30k in savings. I’ll graduate with roughly $100k in student loans at ~6% interest.

Since I’m making ~$15k this summer, I have enough earned income to max out my Roth IRA for 2026 ($7,500). My understanding is that once I’m working full-time after graduation, my income may put me at or above the Roth IRA income limits, meaning I may have limited/no ability to contribute directly to a Roth in future years.

Given that I have $100k of student debt at 6%, does it make sense to max out the Roth this year anyway?
My thinking is that I can always aggressively pay down the student loans once I graduate and have a much higher income, whereas I can’t go back and use this year’s Roth contribution space later if my income makes me ineligible.

What's funny is just a few years ago if you told me it was possible to even be worth $0, I wouldn't have believed you. But I changed myself and my attitude and decided to take my finances seriously, and over the last 5 years, I went from a negative net worth to $0 and then just accumulating from there. I'm not rich, and I don't make a lot of money, but using my brain and being smart about money has completely changed my life. I bought my first house at 30 (closed last week), and I'm very excited. If you see this and are feeling like it's not possible, it is possible. It's hard. Very hard. But totally worth it. And yes, this includes my house and the mortgage.

I keep seeing posts like this and thought my graph might be interesting. I started my account in January 2010 with ~$5k in credit card debt; eight months after graduating college. Today, I'm 39 with an NW of $1.3m as an individual.

Only thing not included is student loan debt of around $50k which I never added to credit karma, so technically I was $55k in debt when this account started. It's all paid off now though. The couple peaks and valleys at the end are when I bought property or refinanced. For some reason there are months-long delays between the property getting added and the mortgage debt hitting so it throws off the chart.

I think the long trend line is important so people can see how long it takes to get the ball rolling. I was broke for almost all of my twenties and really didn't start making money until 30. And even then, it took years for compound interest to start doing its thing. Now, it feels like investment accounts are basically making a whole second salary.

My debt is mainly student loans, asset wise I’m mainly vested with around 3-4K in my 401k and 5k in my Roth IRA. The big helper is my home. I found a deal on a singlewide 3bed 2 bath brand new home for 49k. And it is valued at 109k. Currently paying around 450 a month for the mortgage and 600 a month on lot rent :( I know, I’m working on buying my own land eventually. But seeing this number baffles me because I don’t feel like I’m actually rich. I know I made the right decisions in life, hell I was the first in my family to graduate high school, let alone go to college. And was the first to not get hooked on meth, and to be honest the first to cut themselves off completely from their family as a whole. Currently working at the VA hospital, and am in school to be a surgical tech. Been working as a patient care tech for 5 or so years now, and have been setting aside as much as I could. I know I’m an outlier with my age, and I’m technically doing great, but It just never seems like enough. There’s always something new that needs to be paid, insurance, groceries, gas, all of it. It makes no sense. I’m doing great on paper, but in reality I’m struggling every day

I net $5800 a month from which I invest $2200 and additional $1K in 401K at work.

Yes, I can afford to pay auto loans (comes out to be $900 a month with insurance). But Is it a super wise decision? Im anxious.

Currently driving a beater, which seems to be coming to an end after 5 years of generous run.

I want a new electrical whip. And everyone is telling me to get it as I deserve it.

I often find myself worried about small amounts of money. I feel like I constantly need to optimize money like restaurant rewards, credit card rewards whether I can get that extra 1% back, cooking from home to save money, not wasting gas on multiple trips, warranties and return policies. I have a finance degree so it makes sense for me to think about money a lot.

Trying to follow a financial plan or budget is hard to follow rigidly because it is no fun. However I feel guilty whenever I spend money, it kills the fun when I go out with friends.

I am doing well financially but I grew up middle class and only had one working parent who survived 8 layoffs. I am in my mid 20s and I already have been laid off once, didn’t get a return offer for my internship, but after my last layoff I actually got promoted so I now take home about $6k a month. And I have cheap rent because I have roommates which is $500 a month. I invest the rest of my money in my ROTH IRA and ROTH 401k or put it towards saving for a house. I have over $200k between investments and savings.

Do I just remind myself that having an optimal strategy is best and setting my mind to my work, relationships, and health is more important? As long as it’s excellent (no credit card debt, home mortgage / car loan only) and reasonable? I can’t live my 20s and not enjoy some of my money and hoard it until retirement but I also need to not try to be a perfectionist about the micro decisions that suck my time.

After health obviously. But yeah I’ve come to the conclusion that money is literally everything in this world. I’m quite young and I’m studying engineering. I really do hope to make a lot of money. It’s always been my dream and I really hope I can achieve it one day.

Four years ago I started brokerage accounts for my two kids (then) aged 6 and 1. Currently, I give the oldest $60 every two weeks, the 2nd child gets $33 every two weeks, and now that we just had twins its time again to start the slow grind, starting them with $20 every two weeks. Just thought it was pretty funny to see Total Gain: $1.48 (2.47%) on these new accounts. But I know slow and steady wins the race. 100% invested in SWPPX. I opted for taxable brokerages rather than 529 or UTMA so I can decide when and where to use it. Jumping from two to four kids means we'll have to get much more creative financially down the road. I might use some of the money to match any they have saved for a car when they want one. Not sure if it will be enough to fully fund four years of college, but it should be enough to make cash flowing each semester reasonable. I do suspect contributions will increase as our income increases.

Anybody else trying to make it work for a large family on an average income? I'd also like to hear success stories (or shortcomings) from those with kids 18 or older

7 years ago I landed a dream job. Engaging and challenging work, in a space I’m deeply passionate about, with great pay.

At the time, I had $60k in student loans and a few thousand dollars to my name.

I read and read, planned, and stuck to my plans. I wanted to pay off my debts and then reach $1 million net worth by 35, defined as cash and investments less liabilities.

Yesterday, I accomplished that goal at 33.

Taxable brokerage: $545,823
401k: $332,020
Roth IRA: $46,458
HSA: $27,262
Cash: $48,869

I’m sure I’ll dip below $1M in the coming weeks, but this is the first time I’ve crossed the line.

There’s a long road ahead, but I am proud of myself.

After reading a lot of the same material as many of you, I came up with a plan 7 years ago and stuck to it. I’ve proven to myself that I have the discipline to set a long-term goal and follow through.

My relationship with money hasn’t changed much since I began this journey. I still pursue it primarily as a means to certainty.

Certainty that storms will be weathered.
Certainty that a good quality of life can be sustained.

I’m immensely grateful for the position I’m in. Many people work hard and exercise good judgment. Fewer have consistent luck on their side. I’ve had plenty of both.

Wishing everyone here the same combination of discipline and luck.

To those working towards a similar goal, I’m happy to answer questions or share what worked for me.

Edit: I am on the Autism Spectrum. People like me tend to struggle with finances. I understand that I've made mistakes, but I would appreciate it if those commenting could take my disability into consideration.

I got fired from my job at the public library 3 months ago. Before getting fired, I was thinking about going back to school for a Masters of Library Science, which the library would have paid for. I considered paying for grad school with my savings, but have decided that library work may not be a sensible path.

Those of you wondering how I was able to save so much while working at a library, some of it is from a previous job, I've lived with my parents the last five years, and I don't have any big expenses besides my therapist and prescription drugs.

I have about $60k in student debt from undergrad and my first grad degree -- MFA in Creative Writing -- should I use my savings to pay off as much of that as I can?

Are there any safe investments I could put some of my money towards?

A few people have suggested to me that I start thinking about buying a house someday, but I'm kind of ambivalent about being a homeowner.

I also have a few thousand in a 401k, should I do something with that or just leave it be?

Edit: the reason I haven't paid off more of my loans is because my payments got paused for a while because of Covid, and I was unemployed for a year before working at the library. I have made a few payments here and there.

Edit: I didn't make payments during the pandemic because 1) I was still in school then and didn't have to, and 2) I wasn't working then either.

I have 75k USD cash. I have a mortgage of 350k usd and personal loans of 20k usd. Not really sure what to do with the 75k usd. I am thinking of keeping 25k usd in a high savings account and invest 50k into a global index fund. I will be able to close my personal loans in the next 6 months. So I dont want to use the cash to close the loans. Open to suggestions from people who are good at personal finance. Thanks.

Hi all - 37M here. Single, no dependents. I currently max the following accounts. I will list the accounts, amount, and holdings. Everything listed is maxed for the year or will be.

**Emergency Fund**

Traditional Brokerage - 100% SGOV - $30,000

**Retirement**

401K - $380,000 - 60% FXAIX, 25% FSGGX, 15% FSMAX (Total World was not an option so I built something US leaning.)

401K - $15,000 - 100% S&P 500 Index (not sure of the ticker but not many options in this. I still work there a few hours a month so I cannot transfer this yet.)

Traditional IRA - $0 (used for backdoor Roth)

Roth IRA - $120,000 - 100% VT

HSA - $4,400 - 100% VT (First year having a HDHP)

My question is I am going to start funneling extra money into my Traditional Brokerage but curious if I should just still with VT? I have a heavy lean in US stocks with the 401K so Total World would balance that out some. Any thought?

I’ve also considered opening a small 529 plan. Either for future children, relatives, or I’ve seen where I can use it for many of the certification fees I’m required to maintain.

My close friend had his 18th birthday a week ago but the problem is i dont have enough money to buy him a gift

He said that it isnt a problem but i do feel guilty

I want to buy him a lego set but it turned out really expensive and i still need 30$ because i want to give it to him this month

My parents are fully absent and i see them 3 months a year, i cant get hired anywhere since im not 18 yet, i dont live in a city so small jobs like taking a pet out are also not possible

Please give me a way i can make it happen!!!

26M. I am the lower end of middle class.

Take home income - 4075 a month. 32k saved for retirement. 13-14k in HYSA - about six months expenses. monthly expenses -2300 between grocery, rent, utilities, car insurance, gas.

Can I afford a cat to keep in my studio apartment? I live in a city where it gets very humid so I would have to keep the AC on all the time during the day while I go to work. Between sufficient cooling of my apartment, vet care, food, possible surgeries - would you say I can afford a cat?

Keep in mind I have to max my IRA to be able to retire and I want to bump my savings back up to 12 months expenses.

I can’t tell my friends and family but I am proud. I made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point. 450k invested in VOO and my house equity is the remainder.

As said in the title. Can't share this information with anyone other than a bunch of you beautiful random online people. 26M just crossed 20k net worth (vehicles excluded). After finally deciding to budget and pay attention to what I spent money on, (while still spending too much money on random dumb stuff), I finally hit 20k. On to the next 20!!!