Another young'n with saving on the brain

[jmcconnor]

Hey y'all, my name's Ryan, and, well, this board's been taking up a heck of a lot of my free time lately.  I always get a kick out of what you all say you do now that you're ER, and it's given me a definite goal to shoot for.

Right now I'm 24, in the Marines, and *looks at watch* actually deploying overseas tomorrow, heheh.  I look at it as a chance to save a lot of money, as I refuse to buy worthless things from the PX on base.  Plus it's a lot easier for me to save when I have the money pulled straight from my paycheck and into investments before I even see it.

I'm constantly thinking of things that I want to do, especially after 35, often with so many ideas my head hurts and I get frustrated.  But they all have the one thing in common that I don't want to have to worry about working, especially in a high stress, no fun job, while I do what I really want.  Or at least start crossing off things on my list, heheh.

$12.5 k in Waddell & Reed mutual funds/Roth and 2 k in savings...but we all gotta start somewhere!

 

[brewer12345]

Welcome Ryan. You are on the right track, but do yourself a favor and find something better and cheaper that W&R funds.

 

[jmcconnor]

Huh...I'll tell ya what, that'll teach me to not do my homework beforehand and just trust my mom

Thanks a lot for the advice...my advisor never really did talk about fees...

 

[brewer12345]

Check out Vanguard.

 

[Cool Dood]

Welcome, Ryan... 24 here too, although unfortunately I'm not killing any terrorists!

There are a lot of things to do when you're not busy winning bread, aren't there? Glad to see you here, I hope you stick around, and be safe overseas!

 

[Nords]

Right now I'm 24, in the Marines, and *looks at watch* actually deploying overseas tomorrow, heheh.

Welcome to the board, Ryan. Hang in there on the deployment, and I hope you're able to keep in touch.

Speaking of low-cost funds, max out the TSP... your advisor doesn't make any profit there. And if you're deploying to a combat zone, consider taking advantage of the Savings Deposit Program for a straight 10% return.

 

[tangomonster]

Good for you starting to invest at 24! That's how we accumulated 4 million by the age of 52, even though we made very low salaries. Of course there were some very good years in the stock market and who knows if some of that growth will occur again---but you're on the right track.
And if you think working isn't great now, it's even worse in your forties and fifties if you don't have a job you enjpy....