Back in my management days, I often implored my lower paid employees to try saving even a small amount. I got one employee to do so, and when her saving topped $100, she thanked me because she had never accumulated that much money. I also succeeded with a married higher paid employee that didn't contribute to her 401K because her husband had savings. She, too, thanked me a short while later. Those 2 were my only "victories," far outweighed by the many who ignored me!
ETA: I also came to the conclusion, somewhat early on, to stop giving unsolicited advice.
I remember when my friend with the gov't job got his first paycheck (well probably a direct deposit) he was so excited, because he said he never got so much money all at once in his lifetime. I think it was around $1500 take-home. I will admit, I did give him a bit of unsolicited advice then, based on my own experience. I told him that while that's a decent amount of money, he should probably try to stay at his parents' home awhile longer, and save up before moving out on his own, because everything out there in the real world is going to be a lot more expensive than he's probably expecting. That, in the "real world", in our area at least, any apartment is probably going to cost at least $1500/mo, plus utilities, so that he should pretend that first paycheck is going to housing, as well as part of the second, and whatever's left is what's going to have to last him for the month. Still, whatever he ends up doing, I'm not going to criticize him.
Back when I landed a full-time job, and still had a second job in the evenings, I thought I had it made. I got hired full-time in February 1994, and closed on a condo in December of '94. According to my SS statement, my earnings in 1994 were about $23,000, but using their inflation index, that's like $62K today. The condo was $84K. I put 5% down. Mortgage was a 30 year fixed, at 9.625%. Between the mortgage, which had mortgage insurance tacked on, and the condo fee, the place was about $920/mo. Plus electric, phone, cable tv. Water/sewer was included in the condo fee. Electric ran about double what I thought it would. It was definitely a struggle for me, at the time and looking back, sometimes I do wish I'd stayed at home a bit longer.
Putting that same SS multiplier against my mortgage+condo fee, that $920 comes out to around $2470 today. OUCH!! No wonder it was such a strain at the time. That's about what my mortgage was when I refinanced $468,000 back in 2020. Although it's up to around $2750 now, thanks to increased property tax/insurance. But it's weird to think that in real dollars, I'm not paying much more now, at 53, than I was at 24.
yup
