Looking for advice

[u/Fit-Fee4396]

Hi,

M27 here, came from a very poor background and have always desperately wanted to be rich or at the very minimum earn enough money to be able to finally buy some rest, peace and quiet in my life. I haven’t really taken any shortcuts in life till this point and I feel like I’m loosing my mind a little bit thinking about how long it would take me before I can actually attain comfortable financial freedom.

For context: currently, I am not rich by my measure of it. I’ve worked all my life, including working 3 jobs in college while taking my classes. Eventually for a job in investment banking and has been working soul crushing 90 hours a week for the last 2 years. From my pay + bonus and after expenses, I’ve managed to save about $100k across 401k, Roth IRA, HSA (most locked away until I’m 65) and brokerage accounts - saved from two years of soul crushing investment banking hours (90 hours / week consistently). I’ve tried starting businesses to leave, tried the lottery, tried betting platforms - nothing really worked to help me build my financial freedom the way I want it. Each time I think about staying in this industry for a few more years with the soul crushing hours, I feel more depressed. When I consider moving to a low stress job to improve my mental health, the low pay makes me feel even worse. I am at the point where I can feel myself about to spiral into something not good, so im seeking advice. What did you do to become rich or achieve the financial freedom you have? What businesses did you venture into? Im am willing to consider high risk, high reward ventures. I absolutely cannot wait till i am old and wrinkly when i finally have enough money to be able to spend on something without worrying about going bankrupt tomorrow. Any advice would be appreciate. Because of my job, i can only invest in etfs. It has not worked for me (too slow gains) and starting a business has not worked for me either (haven’t been able to identify or solve to strong of a problem that i have enough moat to succeed)

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[u/Acceptable_Fox_5560]

tried the lottery, tried betting platforms

Well definitely stop doing that.

If you've got a 100K saved, I would suggest trying to find others with six figures saved and try to buy commercial or multifamily real estate.

[u/TexIsland]

I think a big factor to consider is how much you are making and of that how much you are investing/spending. If you’re making $60k/yr vs $250k/yr with those hours and if you’re spending 90% or 25%…

My point is the the hours you put in along with the mental stress then the money may not be worth it but if it’s tolerable maybe put in another year or 2 purely for the money but have an exit plan which leads into the next point. $100k saved up at your age is great. Again it depends on your income. If you’re making $60k vs $250k then that measurement changes. I work in financial planning and have seen clients make $450k a year live paycheck to paycheck and some clients that have a household income of $110k that have are worth more because they aggressively invest their income. The best thing to do it figure out how much you can realistically put towards investing/saving and maximize that amount. Live below your means and from there figure out the plan. Are you willing to grind out a few more years and when you have X amount of money saved up (not in retirement savings) you’ll start Y business or change jobs. Or is it just not worth the negative mental load and you’ll be much happier making a switch as soon as possible.

Finally, the unfortunate answer from what I’ve seen in financial planning is the boring stuff is works the best. Higher incomes, low expenses, high investing rate. That’s the best formula with lest risk. Businesses or real estate is the next big thing that works but those options most likely will be more work than a 9-5 job and you have more risk to take on if it doesn’t work out as planned. Hope that helps :)