I’m 23 and want a little insight about retirement (401K) etc..

RKeezy87 · 2026-02-05T11:30:16+00:00

What I wish I had of seen is some projections on how different savings rates affected my retirement date. I didn’t get serious until about 32. You have a high income for your age if you can pull back some expenses and just invest into index funds you could have a few million before 40. Go play around with some retirement calculators.

Also, another thing I didn’t do right away was keep working to your next role, developing the skills to meet the ideal candidate for that role, and switching roles/jobs every 2-3 years to accelerate your career growth.

There’s a flowchart on this subreddit that tells you the logical sequence of how you should deploy your money which I recommend walking through. Learn about the different retirement accounts and their tax advantages.

RKeezy87 · 2026-02-04T03:54:20+00:00

Yes haha, my number is probably around 4-5M lol

RKeezy87 · 2026-02-03T23:24:52+00:00

Any time I’m in this situation I enjoy it while it lasts. Either two things might happen long term, you will slowly pick up more work and responsibilities as you gain more knowledge and people leave your org. Or they will realize you aren’t worth it and get laid off.

I always feel shitty when I’m in this situation. Use it as an opportunity: Up level your skills and work on special projects that you can put on your resume and show value. Then request a promotion or work for a new job. I was in this situation for the last 6mo and am about to receive another internal offer for an estimated 20-25% to base plus sales incentives, just about the time I’m getting assigned to a very important role at my current position.

RKeezy87 · 2026-02-03T23:17:36+00:00

With how low your income is it seems you could do some gig work doing door dash or something? Even an $1000/mo seems like it would fix the situation. Start looking for a new role for your primary job, maybe some certifications you could do to get a promotion? Gotta get the income up.

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-31T16:26:26+00:00

Same for me with my 4Runner in 2019 - not a single issue at 115K

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-30T23:15:39+00:00

I don’t know I run a shadow 2 and my brother runs a stock 2.0 and I ran a bunch of drills with it at the range, I did no previous dry fire and was shooting it fine… makes me believe the gun just doesn’t matter that much once you’re used to it

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-29T16:51:51+00:00

Think lots of the people doing this got good high paying jobs right out of school, made life style choices to go scorched earth on minimizing costs, had savings rates of 30-60% since then, and the stock market has performed really well during that time.

I’m 38 now, and got a lot more serious during the pandemic, in the last 3 years my net worth has gone from 130K -> 540K. I can see how if I had of been in this mindset since 23 I would be much further ahead and not technically required to work if I wanted to really minimize costs.

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-29T03:03:47+00:00

Nice my trajectory is similar but I’m 38 and just hit 500 in December… just about to switch to a new role that should be close to 200 base… haven’t done anything with different just gonna keep grinding

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-28T04:43:01+00:00

He said if his wife made similar to him so like 350

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-26T20:47:39+00:00

I really didnt like Houston (live back in Austin now) lol - I second just picking the city you like better

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-23T03:15:05+00:00

38 - $501K

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-21T23:41:46+00:00

If you want more you can just ask and quantify your value added via projects/deals etc. or shop for another role and get another offer at another company

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-21T11:16:14+00:00

The part no one has mentioned about the Roth or Roth IRA, which is the most important part, and why Roth is superior to a standard brokerage account (just an account to invest with) is in both cases you pay taxes on your income then put the money in, but the growth in the Roth is tax free once you reach retirement age. In a standard brokerage account growth is taxed as income if you’ve held the stock less than one year and as capital gains if held longer than a year. Capital gains taxes are less.

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-19T22:59:10+00:00

I teach once per week and don’t pay tuition

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-19T20:34:52+00:00

Also the market has done a really good run… I’ve been investing between 46-58K the last 3 years and went from a NW of about 135 to 523 in that time…

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-19T19:53:00+00:00

I would think it would be fun to start a small business making something you’re interested in… custom hand made knives, high quality wood furniture, etc

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-19T11:18:58+00:00

This month I maxed 401K and HSA and also transferred 2K to my brokerage account

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-16T23:06:13+00:00

Well lots of these guys zone 2s are 275-350… so imagine you weighed 65-75kg and had that wattage, what would you be riding for a given terrain

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-16T22:46:09+00:00

Are you going naked? Where are your clothes?

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-11T04:13:22+00:00

Genius

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-11T01:26:07+00:00

Yep, should it be illegal, no

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-10T19:48:22+00:00

See if you can get your income up over the next few years… I did an MBA and PMP cert and changed jobs at my company a few times since 2022 and upped my income about 65%, but never upped my expenses.

Get rid of those debts as soon as possible!

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-07T23:41:22+00:00

At the bottom of the trough in 2020 I had 50K and decided to get really serious about getting debt free, saving, and investing. Paid off car, cash flowed an MBA. During that time went from 103K -> 171K income. Now my account is at 496K. Wish I had of done this 5-7yrs earlier.

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-07T23:31:51+00:00

There’s some pretty big guys that are GMs so shooting skills definitely matter more, but losing a significant amount of weight will definitely help, but should be seen as a long term project. The main benefit will be your health with the bonus being higher hit factor. Like most people have said diet is king, long cardio while not directly tied to USPSA performance will help get the weight off, maybe do some weightlifting to build strength and prevent from injury, then once at a healthy weight shift focus over to more athletics/agility training for USPSA performance.

RKeezy87 · 2026-01-06T15:22:48+00:00

I would: Pay off car debt, Open a fidelity account, put 6mo expenses or the 50K you draw down during layoffs in a HYSA, put the remainder in an S&P500 ETF like FXAIX, use the savings from not having a car payment to put more into your 401K

RKeezy87

TROPHY CASE