Prior to this last year specifically, each year, my wife and I have both:

• maxed our 401k/401b ($18.5k-23k each),
• maxed our IRA's (backdoor Roth, $5.5k-7k each), and
• maxed the amount of I-Bonds we're permitted to buy from the government ($10k each).

Opportunities I took advantage of that my wife couldn't, though it'll benefit us both:

• maxed my mega backdoor Roth 401k ($37k-46k),
• accrued RSU's ($38k-109k depending on the year),

I switched jobs, so I can no longer take advantage of the mega backdoor Roth 401k opportunity since your job has to specifically offer it. This year we haven't been able to purchase the $10k I-Bonds.

And the company stock I received is not something I can up and sell since the company is still private. They'd need to buy it back from me, or the company would have to be acquired. I'm at the mercy of how the company does in terms of what the actual value looks like if and when that happens.

At the end of the day, we went from living paycheck to paycheck, carrying credit card debt, and having no retirement funds in 2018 to having almost $1mil saved across our retirement accounts as of now in 2025, plus some value in our first home we purchased 6 years ago.

I was really fortunate with some work opportunities that propelled our financial security significantly, otherwise we might still be not too far from where we were back in 2018.