At least contribute to your 401k to get the full match from your employer if offered. More if you can afford it. Time in the market is huge. Make a budget, have emergency savings. There’s little point in investing if an emergency happens and you have to withdraw your retirement at a potential loss, and that’s before penalties and tax. Take care of your body, especially joints. Be even a little bit active regularly. Figure out a decently healthy diet. These will help prevent health issues which can be expensive. Plus you might look better and feel better too.

All of this sound like too much? Pick one or two and try doing them consistently even if it’s half assed. Half assing something consistently for a long time is much, much better than putting in a ton of effort, burning out, and returning to old patterns. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Sorry I know that kinda veered into fitness but I see a lot of parallels in personal finance and fitness/nutrition. Both involve budgets and benefit from a plan and spreadsheets.

If you can afford a house, try as hard as you can not to buy a house that you can barely afford with a 30yr mortgage. Limit yourself to a house where you can afford it with a 15yr mortgage. I did that in my 30s and now in my 40s I don’t have a mortgage anymore. Obviously with the current housing market this advice won’t help many.

To those people, I’d say: stop using a basic savings account. Get a High Yield Savings Account. They pay 3.5-4% interest at the moment. Zero risk, and you can even havd a card attached to it for spending. They’re liquid. Got 1k sitting in savings? That’s $35/yr free money you’re missing out on. 10k? $350/yr. Best part? When inflation starts going crazy and the fed increases interest rates to control it, your money starts making even more money. Not enough to fix everything, but it does help a little.

If you can, max out your 401k. Put money in a Roth IRA too.

If you want to play with stocks safely use index funds. Something like SPY for the S&P500. 98% of day traders lose money. Every trade someone makes is measured against the market. The trade you made increased 2% in the last week? Well, the market was up 2.8%. It’s like gambling and the market is the house. The market eventually always wins and everyone else loses.

I’m over 50 so apparently I don’t count. But if I did I would say maximize salary. Live below your means. Invest because compound interest is your biggest ally.

Lose fat and build muscle. You will be more financially stable when you’re healthy.

“Don’t believe sermons, fairy tales, or stories about money.”

HSA > 401k > Roth or backdoor your Ira. High yield savings charge every time you can get an extra half point of interest.

Do not, I repeat do not touch your fucking hsa unless you absolutely must and are dead dying on the ground. Take out a small loan before you touch your hsa. A little interest will be cheap as fuck compared to a years loss of hsa funds.

Look at how hope much fees cost. They are sneaky. Vanguard is the standard with low cost target date and index funds.

do not fuck with day trading unless you feel like gambling

lol don’t ask us. we’re just as fucked as you. :\

Learn to cook & meal-prep. Invest time into your health and fitness. Self-host as many techy services as you can (bonus points for Arr stack - streaming services are expensive). Try to “BIFL” where possible - Terry Pratchett said it best:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. … But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Set aside some time to understand how your pension and the tax system works.

It’s dull as hell, but you will need it.

money (you need enough) so keep dollar cost averaging into ETF, don’t forget the world is a big place, so international as well and consider the debasement trade.

Switch to income investing when you “retire”, don’t try and time markets.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNKV0CMgcVUiJNdA-JNlJA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxU4PhPfJEBgaeYT1rMhvCg

and physical health ; no smoking, no drinking, moderate cardio (running cycling etc) and lift weights to help prevent muscle loss and osteo.

and mental health: hike, enjoy the woods, spend time with friends and family you care for

Am 61, retired at 40 , gf is 57.

There is no hope without a revolution.

But also whenever you get a raise or pay off a loan take the majority of that money you would have added to your regular paycheck and put it in your superannuation (or your country’s equivalent retirement fund) as an automatic deduction. That way you’re saving without feeling the pinch of giving something up.

Also once you reach an age you start dealing with funerals you’ll realise how nightmarish and expensive that whole process is, so get a proper legal will made up.

Don’t listen to anyone born before 1980. They don’t live in the same world as you.

Don’t. Just don’t. Ever.

Get out of the U.S.

Daily intermittent fasting is a great way to save on your food and toilet paper expenditure.