u/AlphaFIFA96

Just crossed $1M net worth before 30. Immigrant story + career progression + lessons learned

I honestly still can’t believe I’m typing this.

A little over 6 years ago, I graduated university with a degree in electrical and computer engineering and started my first job making $45k/year in late 2019.

Today, at 29, my wife and I just crossed $1M net worth.

I know posts like this can sometimes feel out of touch, especially in today’s economy, so I want to say upfront: I know there was a lot of luck, timing, privilege, and opportunity involved here. This isn’t some “just work hard and anyone can do it” story.

I’m just grateful.

I moved to Canada as an immigrant, and one of the biggest advantages I had early on was my parents helping cover most of my tuition costs. I also had scholarships throughout university, but graduating with little to no debt gave me a massive head start in life, and I’ll never take that for granted.

Career-wise, the biggest thing that changed my trajectory was refusing to get too comfortable.

My first job out of school was basically a support role paying ~$45k. I stayed there only a few months before switching to a more development-focused engineering role paying ~$70k. At the time, that already felt like “good money” to me because it was a company I really wanted to work for.

But during that period, I discovered Blind, and for the first time I realized how insane compensation could get in tech, especially in the US.

That completely changed my mindset.

I spent months grinding LeetCode, studying distributed systems, system design, interview prep, etc. It honestly became a second job. Eventually I landed offers at places like Google, Meta, Amazon, (then) Twitter, Dropbox plus a fully remote startup offer that ended up making the most sense for me at the time.

Google/Meta/Amazon would’ve required moving to the US and going through the H1B process before I had citizenship, which felt too risky, so I took the remote offer instead.

That ended up changing my life financially.

One thing I learned very quickly was how much aggressively switching companies accelerated my compensation growth early on.

For context, here’s what my yearly income progression looked like:

2019: ~$45k starting salary
2020: ~$72k total income
2021: ~$86k
2022: ~$208k
2023: ~$290k
2024: ~$350k
2025: ~$605k

A lot of the jump in later years came from RSUs, promotions, and switching companies strategically. 2025 was definitely an outlier/peak year and I don’t necessarily expect that trajectory forever, especially with how volatile tech has become lately.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I bought a home in 2022 and got married in 2024. My wife has been a huge part of this journey too, and once we got married I started maxing out her tax-sheltered registered accounts (TFSA/RRSP/FHSA) as well.

Here’s an approximate account breakdown:

Cash: 65k
Tax-sheltered investments (TFSA/RRSP/FHSA): 555k
Non-registered Brokerage: 305k
Home Equity: 100k

What’s funny is that after years of obsessively saving and investing, I’ve recently started questioning my relationship with money a bit.

For a long time, every dollar had one purpose: grow the number.

But lately I’ve realized experiences and relationships matter way more to me than endlessly optimizing spreadsheets.

We’re upgrading to a bigger home soon, and for the first time I’m allowing myself to loosen the grip a little and actually enjoy some of what we worked for.

I’ve experimented with some “luxury” experiences recently too, like business class flights, nicer hotels, etc., and honestly… none of that has brought me nearly as much happiness as just spending time with family and friends and feeling at peace with where I am in life.

I still care about financial independence. I still save aggressively. But I’m starting to understand that money is just a tool.

The biggest lesson from all of this for me was:
don’t get complacent too early.

I genuinely think my life changes dramatically if I stay comfortable at that $70k job because it felt “safe enough.”

Keep learning. Keep applying. Keep interviewing. Keep betting on yourself.

And also:
don’t forget to enjoy your life while you’re building it.

Hey all, looking for a genuine reality check here. Not asking whether I qualify. I’m asking whether this sounds smart, comfortable or overly aggressive in real life.

We (29M/F non-FTHBs) just signed the APS for a new build in Ottawa.

- Base price including lot premium + structural upgrades is about $1.065M

- Design centre selections / finish upgrades could bring the final total up to ~$1.25M

- Those figures are before the newly announced new-build rebate

- I’m expecting roughly $106k back post-closing through that rebate, which materially helps liquidity

This would be more of a long-term / dream home purchase rather than a starter move.

Income context:

- 2025 HHI: ~$675k

- 2026 HHI: tracking towards $500k+ (RSU cliff)

- A meaningful part of my compensation is RSUs / stock comp, so recent higher years are not guaranteed forever

- Wife makes around 70k, which means our affordability picture is currently heavily dependent on my income remaining stable.

- If I’m being conservative, future income could normalize lower than recent peak years

Employment / location risk:

- I currently work remotely for a US tech company

- If remote work changes or I need to switch jobs, I’d likely rely more on the local Ottawa market

- I’m aware that local replacement income would be materially lower than current comp, which matters with a larger fixed housing payment

Assets / down payment:

- I have enough liquidity to put 20%+ down

- I’m leaning toward a smaller down payment because I value liquidity and keeping money invested. Also looking to get a 30-year mortgage ideally.

- Assuming I put minimum down, after closing / rebate / costs, I’d still have ~$820k+ in cash and investments

- Mortgage payment should be around $5700, assuming 100k down on 1.25M, at 4% over 30 years.

What I’m trying to figure out:

- Does $1.25M final sound reasonable with this profile, or like buying based on temporarily elevated income?

- Would you personally budget based on today’s income, or a lower future-income scenario?

- Is preserving liquidity smarter than forcing 20%+ down here?

- Does the $106k rebate meaningfully change how you’d think about this decision?

- Have others regretted buying during peak comp years when income later normalized?

- If this was your dream home, would you stretch a bit now or stay meaningfully below budget?

- Does this sound comfortable, or like the kind of purchase that slowly becomes stressful?

Basically trying to figure out if this is ambitious but sensible, or if I’m normalizing a price point that only feels easy because income has recently been strong.