re: I Heard Two Interesting Positions on NPR Today; Do People Not Have Savings Anymore?

It’s tough. I’m 33. Had 50k of student loans out of school making 55k. After 10 years of working in my field I now make over 130K. I was able to pay off all my student loans and both cars for me and my wife and erase all debt by the time I was 30. For the 7 years prior to both my income and my wife’s income (combined at the time 100K before tax) went all to rent/mortgage, car notes, student loans. I always paid extra on the student loans to pay them off until I flipped a house for profit and paid everything off. If I had not taken a chance on the house flip id still be paying that off.

So I don’t understand y’all that say 2-3 years after college you should have a nest egg. That’s not realistic for normal people. I didn’t have money growing up. I had the hope scholarship in GA but my masters cost me 50K but I needed it to land my job.

If you have a car and rent on top of it you don’t have a lot extra after food, gas and utilties. And I didn’t live extravagantly at all and I still don’t because of those leaner times. I’m very frugal. Now I have two kids and my wife stays at home with them because day care is more expensive than the money she could bring in.

So...you see how this works. I now have over a years worth of living expenses in the bank. Very comfortable. But I had to take some chances to get here. Most “normal” people don’t do that. They just live their life on the their pay check.