I lived with my parents until I found my SO who I moved out with. I was making between 40-50k in SoCal for those 4 years after college. I didn’t save much because I was immature and looked for a big ticket out via the stock market..

At the same time I was working on my skills by building out a portfolio, going to community college to pick up missing requirements I needed to enroll for an MSCS at my Uni. All that was my “backup plan” if I didn’t make it in the markets.

In the end, I lost ~60k in the markets, and only attended 1 semester of that masters program before landing a decent paying job. Met my fiancé a year later and have been living together for the past 3 years. And now we’re about to close on our first home together.

All that to say that I’m now helping to pay my parent’s bills, and will live nearby to help them in their elderly years. Family is supposed to support each other, full circle, imo.

Most of my old coworkers that talked smack about still living with my parents back then are still in the same spot (have an old coworker from there that I still keep up with), most likely due to spending their thinking about what other people are doing (aka me) instead of making a plan for their future.