This is something I've been sitting with for a while and I can't tell if I'm being impatient or if something is genuinely off with how I'm thinking about this.
I'm 31, make about $64k, no credit card debt, contribute 6% to my 401k with a 4% match, have a Roth IRA I try to max every year but usually fall a couple hundred short, and I have roughly $7k in an emergency fund. On paper that's fine right? Like if I posted just those numbers on this sub people would say I'm doing better than most Americans my age and they'd probably be right.
But month to month I don't feel like I'm building anything. I'm not bleeding money. I track my spending, I cook most of my meals, I don't have a car payment anymore. I just feel like I'm running in place. Every time I start to get a little cushion beyond the emergency fund something comes up. Vet bill, car repair, wedding gift for a close friend, new tires, annual insurance payment I somehow forgot about even though it happens every single year. It's never one big disaster, it's just this constant drip of $200-$500 things that reset me back to zero extra every couple of months.
And the frustrating part is I don't think I'm doing anything wrong exactly. I'm not living above my means. I just think my means aren't as high as I assumed they'd be by now when I was 24 and imagining what my early 30s would look like.
I've been trying to get more intentional about finding small edges wherever I can. Switched to a higher yield savings account last year which helps a tiny bit. I won back a purchase on that Coverd app randomly a few weeks ago which was a nice little moment but obviously not a financial strategy. I comparison shop for basically everything now. I negotiated my internet bill down by $15 a month. All these little optimizations that personal finance content tells you to do, and I do them, and I still feel like I'm treading water.
I think what gets me is the gap between "you're doing fine statistically" and how it actually feels. Like yes I understand that having an emergency fund and retirement contributions puts me ahead of the median. But the median is terrifying so that's not exactly comforting. And every time I read advice on here it's either stuff I'm already doing or it boils down to "make more money" which, yeah, obviously, working on it.
The other thing I've noticed is that the people in my life who seem to actually be getting ahead financially either make significantly more than I do or they had some kind of head start, parents helped with a down payment, graduated with no loans, inherited a little money at the right time. I'm not bitter about that, genuinely. But it does make me wonder if the standard advice of budget well, avoid debt, invest consistently is necessary but not sufficient for people at my income level. Like maybe the math just doesn't work as cleanly when you're in the mid 60s and live in a metro area with average cost of living.
I'm not looking for a magic fix or anything. I think I mostly just want to know if other people at a similar income feel this way too or if I'm actually missing something obvious. Is this just what your early 30s feel like financially when you didn't start with advantages? Or is there some lever I'm not pulling that I should be?
I do everything right with money and still feel like I'm running in place. Is this just what mid-60s income in your early 30s feels like or am I missing something?
byu/muhia_kay inpersonalfinance
Posted by muhia_kay
4 Comments
You said it yourself. The main thing you need to do is increase your income. Often, this means changing jobs since that is where most significant increases in income occur.
It sounds like you are doing everything you can. It really comes down to income at some point and it looks like you are there.
You can stop going to weddings and not have anymore pets eventually. But really your income should grow as your career does. And that is when savings start taking off.
Marriage can also help if you marry someone like minded. Two incomes is better than one.
You also said you are doing better than most. Just finished looking at my budget and though I make more trying not to dip into savings to cover everything I need/want is tough. I did just update my monthly and listed everything from car and other insurance to av med costs on a monthly basis. My extras are coffee with friends. I need to just do walks with friends and skip the coffee. Then I plan to trim a few subscriptions and maybe look at a different credit card with more rewards.
You aren’t alone and you are doing well.
I also looked at utility savings by changing your time of day pricing. It helped.