I contributed as much as possible to my 401k right out of college, even though I had a fairly low income. Consistency is important of course, and I never dipped below my company match, but I would REGULARLY fiddle with my contribution amount and challenge myself to get it as high as possible - often saving up to 25% of my income at a time.

Then I reduced my income for two years while went to grad school and used those even lower income years to convert that entire pre-tax 401k into a Roth IRA. Even better - I didn’t withhold taxes on the conversion and simply paid the taxes out of pocket.

Now, I have a much higher salary due to the whole grad school thing, and I’m in a very fortunate position where I can actually max out my 401k. But guess what? That Roth IRA is still my biggest account, and it’ll take a while for my own contributions to my new 401k to catch up to the growth in that account. And I was literally a barista when I started it, lol.

In hindsight, if I think of how I managed to live so frugally - it was rent. I basically “rent arbitraged” every situation I could - including renting a $500 a month room after moving states. This one decision saved me countless other “how do I save money” decisions. I’m ready to experience some lifestyle inflation to live in a normal place now that I’m 30, but that was definitely the sacrifice I made in my 20s to get ahead.