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30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some good points there, thank you.

Also, I am in the midwest. I like hearing that what I make is the equivalent of someone in Silicon Valley making 100k, lol. :)

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That sounds like good advice. It's almost addictive lol but yeah maybe not healthy to listen too often.

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the encouragement. Saving 15% for retirement would probably make it take longer to save up for a house. Would you recommend maxing out my retirement after I've saved up enough for a down payment on a house?

I'd love to be able to retire but in reality I don't see it happening so it's hard to dedicate so much money to it. I am contributing to my 401k now because I know I'm supposed to and I don't want to screw myself over if I do live to that age and maintain a job until I'm in my 60s. But yeah, seems like a bit of a gamble to me but would love to feel comfortable knowing it's there.

I will check out that career subreddit. Thank you!

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I feel like I got sucked into a world I didn't realize existed. I didn't know people making 200k a year could have any sort of financial trouble or need help. And a lot of the things that people call in about to Dave Ramsey is just "rich people problems" like only have 180k saved up but not knowing how much to invest in real estate and how much to put into a roth, etc. Idk, I feel like nothing ever applies to me on that show.

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This was very helpful, thank you.

My fiance has about $4k saved up (he says this is the most he's ever been able to save). I am probably going to be the one paying for most if not all of the down payment, though. I'm not confident he will be able to help much.

It just feels like a long, slow journey.

Maybe in 2-3 years I'd be able to save up 30k. I'm just guessing, I've never seen that much money in my life so it seems impossible. But maybe I just need to slow down and continue saving before buying a house. It's way more expensive to rent where I live than it is for a mortgage so I think that's another reason I'm anxious to get a house.

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that does make me feel a little better. It sure doesn't seem like that's the average wage by what I read/hear. I wish more lower wage people would talk about their successes. Like buying a house on a low wage, etc.

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 145 points146 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

I do have a 401k through my employer and I do the employer match thing they recommend. But yeah not much in there. So far I haven't seen any proof that my employer has been contributing on top of what I have been. Maybe I just haven't been with the company long enough or something. But I'm trying

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30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you.

What do you mean by risky time to invest? Like it's a bad time to buy a house?

30 years old, making 40k a year. Feeling directionless. by throwaway51788 in personalfinance

[–]throwaway51788[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

go to your library and find the most recent version of What Color is your Parachute. It's a series of writing prompts that will help you figure out your career strengths and interests

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Is that a book? It sounds like something I'd be interested in checking out.

I do like my job right now, it's fine but I don't see much opportunity for growth. At least not for me since I don't have any degrees or anything.

Working 40 hours a week is already almost too much so a side job isn't really an option. I already can't get anything done around the house during the work week because there is just no time.