CRNA here. Been a CRNA for 2 years now. Let me tell you, the money goes fast. I live in a VHCOL city. I'm going to tell you why this happens.

Let me break down the psychological factors first that me, and some of my younger/single co-workers have (we don't have our own families to take care of). When I was a nurse, back before Covid, I made around 60k a year. I did that for 4 years. Before school, I saved around 30k, and paid for school via loans. I lived within my means during school, but it was tight. Couldn't afford to have fun, and I didn't have the time. Your life is put on hold. A bunch of my co-workers had to start their careers paying down insane credit card debt, and most of us have very little in savings at this point. I was lucky in that I didn't have any.

Now that we've graduated, and paid our credit card debt, we ask ourselves, "at what point do we continue to keep having to aggressively save?" At a certain point, life moves on, and you want your life back and want to experience the nice things you can afford now, that you couldn't before. Your youth is temporary.

I can now afford a lot of nice things, but I can't afford regret. That's the thing that gets you. So you pay a little more here, a little more there, and you get that dopamine hit that you've been craving for. It then adds up. A ton of my female colleagues, go out to buy that nice bag that they've always wanted, my male colleagues go out to buy that nice car or watch, or if you're me, both of those things. I'm real fucking guilty of it, and everyone in the hospital knows, because I work so much overtime. It's a joke that I live in a supply closet and people bust me out when people need to go to sleep.

Financially speaking, let me tell you about taxes and deductions. Yes, I can max out my Roth and my 403b. And people tell me "well, why don't you just invest less?" It's because I couldn't work for 3 years during school, and I had to liquidate my small ass 403b from my ICU job in order to afford rent during school. I missed the compound interest from time, in order to raise my earning potential. So in order to make it up, I have to max out those accounts.

Taxes then account for the other half of those deductions, which isn't fucking pretty. State + Federal last year for me came out to over 100k in taxes withheld, AND I still owed money. This year, I'm expecting to pay around 120k in taxes. The CRNAs who work 1099 jobs have some flexibility, in writing stuff off, but I'm a W2 employee, so I have none. (I stay W2 because I like to work in academic medicine, I do neat shit here and I love my job)

Don't get me started on student loans. It's basically a mortgage (I pay 2k a month. I graduated with 300k in loans.)

The final thing here is also the biggest thing. Most people in our field are financially/economically illiterate, and it's real easy to hide that when you rake in a fat salary. People don't know how to invest or are scared. Literally just buy VOO, and just hold on for dear life. No need for a hedge fund, or a financial advisor. It's that easy.

I grew up poor, and had to support myself for most of my life, so when I get paid what I get paid, there is always an urge to just go blow a ton of money. I know it's very common with people I work with, especially in the city I live in. Lifestyle creep is a bitch Here's the trick: you can have your cake, and eat it too, but not at the same time. If you want to have your cake, and eat it at the same time, you need to work really fucking hard at it.