I am a single 31 yo female living alone In a HCOL city with no debt. Annual income 125k.
Only other asset is my Honda HRV. Probably worth 18k now, so total NW is 190k At this point I finally feel a massive psychological shift because I could continue contributing aggressively and retire earlier than expected, ease up on contributions and spend some of my money on myself or buy a home and still have a growing retirement portfolio, and even withstand losing my job. It’s the first time in my life I’m pulling in green days that are worth a whole paycheck.
One of the biggest things I did to save was to live in a studio apartment for 4 years. I saved 50k total versus if I had been in a 1 bedroom in a HCOL city.
The other thing is I tend to be pretty frugal w my day to day expenses. I don’t drink alcohol, I rarely go out to eat if it isn’t a date, and I don’t get botox. I trim my own hair. I cook at home almost all the time.
I also started a side hustle where I work in private practice two days a week for a few hours. It’s amounted to 25k extra post tax annually.
My goal for the rest of 2026 is to hit 200k.
Thereafter I want to add 100k each year (combined contributions and returns).
The psychological safety this has provided me has changed the way I look at dating. I no longer feel like I would be dependent on a man financially, but rather see the shared future freedom we could cocreate when merging finances.