I have been very fortunate to receive a union construction job through a relative, and I am very excited about the position. I have no debt of any kind and currently live at home with my parents. The job is 7 days a week, with double shifts during the summer, which gives me a lot of overtime pay. I’m in shape, down 120 lbs, and muscular. I’m also stress-free because my diet is already planned out on a spreadsheet, and I have no college debt (didn’t go) and no credit card debt.
According to my calculations, the job should provide take-home pay of $3,778/week, or $16,400/month during the summer. During the winter, it goes down to $1,430/week, or $6,200/month. The year-round average take-home pay is $8,800/month, which works out to about $2,020/week.
I currently have no money saved except for investments in XMR, and I want to invest around $10k–$12k into it. I also plan to contribute as much as possible to a 401(k). I do not plan on buying anything unnecessary, such as a new car, RV, computer, guitars, or anything else I do not really need.
My expenses are:
- $370/month for car insurance
- $50/month for my phone bill
- $150/week for groceries
- $15/month for Planet Fitness
Total: $1,085/month
I do not pay rent. My parents would not ask me to pay rent and are okay with me staying until I am able to move out and buy a house.
My plan is to build an emergency fund first, then set up automatic transfers into separate accounts for index funds, a house fund, a personal fund, a buffer fund, and a crypto fund so I can invest passively. I do not really want a credit card, but I need to start using one because my credit score dropped to 550 after not making a payment for a while.
Any advice is appreciated. Currently looking into HYSA and IRA, and will adjust this post later to show the amounts I want to transfer over to each account.
Pay off all your debts, six months of needs liquid in a high yield savings account for your emergency fund. You can save for a house and put the rest in an index fund after matching whatever incentive your job gives for the 401k. Even the best investment firms really don’t beat the market in the long-run so I wouldn’t suggest getting fancy with your investment strategy. Watch out for dumping your money into a new car or other things that really don’t have a return but also make sure to set some money aside to enjoy life. The general rule is 50/30/20, don’t exceed 50% on needs, 30% on wants and put at least 20% into savings & investment. That said with your current situation you could build a good base for yourself and do 15/25/60. I’m not sure where you are but assuming the US housing market if you could put away 80K that would be helpful but not necessary.
If you have student loans or really any debt might be a good time to clear it out completely if you want. It’s very freeing.
I strongly endorse the indexes for retirement investments. You can likely retire at 55 if you can stand to invest 20% of gross income between you and matching contributions.
If I was earning 100k after tax at 22 I would retire by 30.