I was looking at my finances spreadsheet today as I do most days, and I was thinking about how far I've come over the past few years making progress on my goals. I find I'm always in a rush and constantly feeling like I should be making faster progress by finding a higher paying job, saving more etc. that I never really stop and think about where I started. So I want to recap the last ~10 years from when I got my first job at 16 to today.
TLDR (but I hope you do): Hostess ($8/hr), Research Assistant ($10/hr), Teaching Assistant ($12/hr), First Internship ($27/hr), Second Internship ($32/hr), Third Internship ($39/hr), First Salary ($85k), Current Job ($115k)
I hope this is helpful or interesting to someone somewhere!
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First job and learning the value of money
At 16, I was in my junior year of high school and my mom thought it would be good for me to stop being socially awkward and get a job. We went to a local breakfast place and they offered to give me a trial run as a hostess earning $8/hour. I was excited to finally make some extra money because I was the type to immediately spend whatever money came my way. Buying makeup, video games, clothes, etc. whatever random stuff seemed cool at the time, I would buy it no hesitation. So when I started this job, my mom forced me to save half of my paychecks, and I quickly realized my two, 6-hour shifts on the weekends every week did not get me very far money-wise. One of my worst checks was $33 when I only worked a Saturday morning rush and got sent home early. I was forced to think about every purchase in terms of its equivalent to my hours worked, and I slowly started to realize that I was wasting a lot of money on junk.
I worked at this job for about a year and a half until I started college. In that time, I started helping out the servers as well as doing deliveries, so I started earning cash tips on top of my $8/hr pay. This led me to accumulate about ~$1,500 by the time I left for school.
College, struggles, and next couple jobs
My parents couldn't pay for my school, and I refused to get student loans because of all the horror stories I heard, so I went to my state school. I lived in Florida, so it was very lucky that I qualified for the Bright Futures scholarship that paid for 100% of my tuition. I also had good enough grades to get a $20k merit scholarship, paid out $5k per year, which my parents let me keep for myself. My parents covered my rent (4 roommates) and gave me a $300/month budget, so I didn't need to get a job to stay alive during school which I am very grateful for. But as I already established, I was not very responsible with my money in the past, and this new influx of scholarship money made me feel like I was rich and I somehow completely forgot that this would have taken me hundreds of hours to earn if I was still working. Thank god I only got $2500 a semester because I definitely used it for more than textbooks…
When I started school, I had no idea what I wanted to major in so I was undecided. I took language classes and loved them while hating everything else, so when the end of my freshman year came, I spent my approximately $4,000 in savings on a summer study abroad program in Europe. This is when things all changed for me. I met a programmer who worked for Amazon (don't worry, I didn't end up working in tech or computer science lol) who introduced me to the concept of a digital nomad, and this completely changed my perspective on life. I had never really traveled before this, and realizing that someone could make a bunch of money while going wherever they wanted was revolutionary to me. So when I got back to school, I decided I wanted to pursue Computer Science and see where that would get me. Meanwhile I had never taken any physics or math classes above Algebra 2 in high school so I really had no idea what I was in for.
Jokes on me though, they wouldn't let me into the program without proving myself since there was no evidence I could succeed in anything except liberal arts. Lol. So I took Calc 1, Programming 1, and Intro to Engineering because I wanted to show I was capable. Boy did I suffer here. I don't think I ever spent more time studying for a class in my life than I did to understand Calc 1 and it nearly killed me because I could see all my classmates goofing off because they already knew all the material from high school. Anyway, I almost gave up but I ended up with a 4.0 semester so the engineering college had no choice but to let me in.
After all the stress of the last semester, I was feeling kind of unsure if I actually wanted to do this, but since it was almost the end of my sophomore year, I felt like I had to commit so I took Calc 2, Physics, and Programming 2, and Formal Logic and what a horrible combination that turned out to be. I was also broke from my study abroad and my spending habits did not catch up to my $300/month budget, so I got a job as a research assistant making $10/hr with about 10-12 hours a week. All this together sent me spiraling to a mental breakdown which involved adopting a cat and dropping out of my CS courses.
I went home for the summer and took Calc 3 and Physics 2 at my community college because I was stubborn and wasn't quite ready to give up yet. I made it through these classes thankfully but realized I hated computer science but was somehow good at physics, so I changed my major to Mechanical Engineering, and that is where it remained. This was probably the single greatest decision of my life and I can't believe that following this career path has allowed me to do all the things I have. Anyway, getting ahead of myself, let's get back to school for the beginning of my junior year.
I again got a job but this time as a teaching assistant for Calculus because apparently I was good at it, and I started earning $12/hr but it was capped at 10 hours a week. I finally seemed to get my spending under control now that I had a little mouth to feed, and I started looking into internships because I found the r/EngineeringStudents subreddit and that was all anyone talked about. I applied on this shady website that had me concerned I was volunteering my identity to be stolen, but it turned out to be a perfectly legitimate internship that paid me $27/hr. This was a mind-blower for me, and since I was making so much, my parents let me handle all my expenses including rent while I worked here. I was mad about this but I think it sort of kickstarted my savings journey going forward. I took off the spring and summer semesters to work there, and left with about $10k in savings. This is also when I got my first credit card– thankfully I was responsible.
At this point, I was full-on in my savings mode and also luckily earned $2,000 in additional scholarships for being a high GPA woman in engineering lol. I took another semester of classes, and then I got a spring internship out of the state that was paying $32/hr. I took that and moved about 900 miles away, which was lit at first but then haha guess where we are in the timeline? Yeah, I started this role January 2020. So I ended up getting trapped 6 states away with no friends and nothing to do halfway through the internship. Thankfully, they paid me through the semester even though I couldn't work because of quarantine, so I just waited until the summer and went home. I had a third internship planned but it got cancelled because of Covid, so I took classes instead. Which ended up being good because I really needed to stop pushing back my graduation date, but I just loved money at that point. This was also when I learned what a Roth IRA was, so I used my previous savings to max it for the last tax year before April, and my current earnings + stimulus checks to max it for the 2020 year too. My new goal for my next internship was to simply max my Roth and then whatever I had left would be mine. I invested in the Bogleheads recommended funds. So now I had about $15k in a Roth with the market gains and I think around $5k in savings from scholarships/working.
So now that Covid was here, I took my classes online for the next year and didn't make any money until the summer. I was cramming my semesters full with 16-18 credits so that I could graduate after one more Fall semester when I came back from my summer internship. To say I was burnt out would be an understatement, but I didn't know what else to do and was in so deep I just kept going. I went out of state for this next internship too, and I earned $39/hr accounting for the housing stipend they gave me. I didn't take the return offer after graduation because I hate hot weather and the state was still too far south for me in the end. Maxed my Roth so I was happy.
I was applying for jobs like mad because I wanted to have an offer before I graduated, and thankfully I got the one I accepted only a week into my last semester. That took a load of stress off my back. It was an offer for a company in the Midwest for $85k starting with 10% bonus, so I gratefully accepted and prepared to move to somewhere I had never been and knew no one in the next few months.
At this point, I had about $10k in savings, and maxed my Roth for 3 years. I had about $22k in there based on my spreadsheet, which I did not start updating until 3 months into my first job in the next section.
First salaried role as a mechanical engineer
My company gave me $10k for relocation, so I used that to buy furniture, pay my security deposit and have my car shipped because I was moving in the middle of winter, and as a Floridian, I did not even know what snow was. (My parents bought me a car in college, sorry forgot to mention that! Another thing I am grateful for.)
And now the story gets a lot more boring. I made a spreadsheet to track all my accounts, and started updating it every month. I was contributing 8% to my 401k to get the company match, maxing my HSA and Roth, and saving whatever ended up being left. I didn't really have a budget after I made sure I had enough for my rent ($2200/month in a luxury studio, yikes) and insurance/food/etc. At the end of my first year, I had $57,000 saved across cash and retirement accounts.
The next year I realized my rent could be better saved, so I moved to a cheaper, older place for $1650/month and upped my 401k contributions until I slowly maxed it out at 23% of my salary. At the end of this year, I got a raise to $95k and my total net worth was $110k.
In my 3rd year, I finally got my spending stabilized since I renewed my lease and didn't need to pay another massive security deposit or get any furniture, so I started contributed to a taxable brokerage instead of keeping it all in cash. I thought this was stupid at first because non-tax-advantaged accounts were always shat on here, but I learned that this was just my own misconception and dumped a bunch into a brokerage over the year. I ended the year with $180k net worth. I got a 2.8% raise.
Now, as the 4th year comes to a close, I have maintained maxing all my retirement accounts and dumping the excess into a brokerage. I hated my job so I decided to move on, and thankfully got an offer for $115k with the same bonus at another company that I started last month. My current net worth is $265k as of when I filled out my spreadsheet earlier in the month.
Reflections
So that's it basically. I can't believe how much I struggled in school without any idea if it would pay off, and now I'm here any able to live alone, take international vacations, and save a shitload of money to hopefully be completely financially independent in a decade. It is really hard for me to be patient because I hate working so much, but writing all this out and realizing that every step is progress, has made me feel a lot of comfort and pride in myself. I know the market has been very good which has helped a lot with these gains, but I am still really proud of my discipline and stubbornness that let me get here.
Here is my net worth tracker in its full glory for anyone interested:
| Date | Savings | I-Bonds | Brokerage | 401k | Roth | HSA | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/2022 | $16,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,519.00 | $1,824.00 | $24,688.00 | $0.00 | $45,031.00 |
| 05/2022 | $17,500.00 | $0.00 | $2,409.00 | $2,605.00 | $24,372.00 | $0.00 | $46,886.00 |
| 06/2022 | $18,500.00 | $0.00 | $2,306.00 | $3,522.00 | $23,854.00 | $2,194.00 | $50,376.00 |
| 07/2022 | $19,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,103.00 | $4,150.00 | $22,363.00 | $2,269.00 | $49,885.00 |
| 08/2022 | $19,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,310.00 | $5,441.00 | $24,456.00 | $2,451.00 | $53,658.00 |
| 09/2022 | $20,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,207.00 | $6,114.00 | $24,288.00 | $2,573.00 | $55,182.00 |
| 10/2022 | $20,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,039.00 | $6,653.00 | $23,118.00 | $2,654.00 | $54,464.00 |
| 11/2022 | $9,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,122.00 | $8,066.00 | $24,382.00 | $2,975.00 | $56,545.00 |
| 12/2022 | $5,500.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,300.00 | $9,937.00 | $26,458.00 | $3,352.00 | $57,547.00 |
| 1/2023 | $7,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,165.00 | $10,808.00 | $24,941.00 | $3,438.00 | $58,352.00 |
| 2/2023 | $8,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,353.00 | $13,087.00 | $28,159.00 | $3,875.00 | $65,474.00 |
| 3/2023 | $20,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,264.00 | $14,521.00 | $27,581.00 | $3,940.00 | $78,306.00 |
| 4/2023 | $21,500.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,320.00 | $16,398.00 | $28,786.00 | $4,120.00 | $83,124.00 |
| 5/2023 | $21,500.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,327.00 | $18,016.00 | $29,481.00 | $4,342.00 | $85,666.00 |
| 6/2023 | $22,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,414.00 | $19,841.00 | $30,632.00 | $4,627.00 | $89,514.00 |
| 7/2023 | $22,500.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,513.00 | $21,899.00 | $32,784.00 | $4,955.00 | $94,651.00 |
| 8/2023 | $22,750.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,561.00 | $24,019.00 | $33,743.00 | $6,792.00 | $99,865.00 |
| 9/2023 | $22,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $2,552.00 | $25,118.00 | $34,342.00 | $6,878.00 | $100,890.00 |
| 10/2023 | $24,500.00 | $10,000.00 | $0.00 | $25,616.00 | $33,100.00 | $6,791.00 | $100,007.00 |
| 12/1 | $24,000.00 | $10,764.00 | $0.00 | $30,765.00 | $36,961.00 | $7,585.00 | $110,075.00 |
| 1/2/24 | $24,000.00 | $10,764.00 | $0.00 | $33,933.00 | $39,000.00 | $8,042.00 | $115,739.00 |
| 2/5/24 | $23,000.00 | $10,850.00 | $0.00 | $35,961.00 | $40,708.00 | $8,247.00 | $118,766.00 |
| 3/15/24 | $44,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $39,856.00 | $43,017.00 | $8,640.00 | $135,513.00 |
| 4/7/24 | $44,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $42,217.00 | $44,200.00 | $8,830.00 | $139,247.00 |
| 5/5/24 | $44,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $43,980.00 | $44,281.00 | $8,972.00 | $141,233.00 |
| 6/7/24 | $39,000.00 | $0.00 | $508.00 | $47,577.00 | $50,425.00 | $9,462.00 | $146,972.00 |
| 7/2/24 | $39,000.00 | $0.00 | $1,025.00 | $50,072.00 | $51,123.00 | $9,474.00 | $150,694.00 |
| 8/3/24 | $40,000.00 | $0.00 | $2,476.00 | $51,911.00 | $49,902.00 | $9,373.00 | $153,662.00 |
| 9/6/24 | $39,000.00 | $0.00 | $4,532.00 | $55,970.00 | $51,386.00 | $9,872.00 | $160,760.00 |
| 10/1/24 | $41,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,737.00 | $60,899.00 | $53,947.00 | $11,803.00 | $173,386.00 |
| 11/1/24 | $40,000.00 | $0.00 | $6,798.00 | $62,065.00 | $53,435.00 | $11,576.00 | $173,874.00 |
| 12/2/24 | $37,000.00 | $0.00 | $8,203.00 | $67,504.00 | $56,654.00 | $12,342.00 | $181,703.00 |
| 1/17/25 | $30,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,106.00 | $69,936.00 | $62,763.00 | $12,425.00 | $184,230.00 |
| 2/4/25 | $30,500.00 | $0.00 | $9,175.00 | $72,058.00 | $63,443.00 | $12,671.00 | $187,847.00 |
| 2/28/25 | $39,500.00 | $0.00 | $11,795.00 | $72,642.00 | $61,915.00 | $12,748.00 | $198,600.00 |
| 5/4/25 | $36,000.00 | $0.00 | $14,649.00 | $79,394.00 | $60,456.00 | $13,076.00 | $203,575.00 |
| 6/5/25 | $34,500.00 | $0.00 | $16,949.00 | $85,881.00 | $63,558.00 | $13,853.00 | $214,741.00 |
| 7/7/25 | $35,500.00 | $0.00 | $18,170.00 | $92,585.00 | $66,753.00 | $14,647.00 | $227,655.00 |
| 8/7/25 | $34,500.00 | $0.00 | $20,521.00 | $96,087.00 | $67,445.00 | $16,479.00 | $235,032.00 |
| 9/5/25 | $33,000.00 | $0.00 | $23,116.00 | $101,195.00 | $69,363.00 | $17,049.00 | $243,723.00 |
| 10/5/25 | $31,500.00 | $0.00 | $24,899.00 | $107,394.00 | $71,604.00 | $16,774.00 | $252,171.00 |
| 11/7/25 | $30,500.00 | $0.00 | $25,858.00 | $110,205.00 | $71,584.00 | $16,474.00 | $254,621.00 |
| 12/4/25 | $31,000.00 | $0.00 | $27,965.00 | $115,035.00 | $73,136.00 | $16,949.00 | $264,085.00 |
My 10-year journey from $8/hr, $0 net worth to $115k, $260k net worth today at 27 (Single, not Tech)
byu/longlivethedevil infinancialindependence
Posted by longlivethedevil
5 Comments
Reading through your journey, it’s striking how much persistence and patience play a role in building financial independence. The way you tracked every step, from small hourly jobs to maximizing savings and retirement accounts, really highlights the value of discipline over time. It’s a good reminder that even incremental progress compounds, and that setbacks or course corrections along the way don’t erase forward momentum.
I love your story. Keep it up. The dollars will get easier to build.
Don’t really have anything to add, but say congratulations. You seem like a disciplined person and that’ll take you very far in life.
This is great to hear! Congrats and keep it up. Enjoy your hard work and perserverance.
Nice work. Really! If you did nothing more you’d have a million in less than 30 years. At your pace and continued effort I’m sure you’ll be many times more than that.
Rock on