re: What are your realistic 5 year financial goals?

I think the goal planning is an excellent practice. At 25, I did the same thing. Roughly 5 years later, I found that I had met the majority of my goals without even realizing it. There can be something powerful about writing something down and having a plan to reach that destination.

I am not exactly where I intended to be but at 37, I am finally in a position where work is optional...granted I never married or had kids. That does make things much more financially feasible.

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I am not exactly where I intended to be but at 37, I am finally in a position where work is optional

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Finally, jeez what took you so long?

I would like to know more about this work is optional for the next 50 years plan.

Lol...I have a touch of laziness in me I guess.

I work as a contractor in a plant environment but I began investing in real estate at 25. For a single man without expensive vices and without the need to live a flashy, costly lifestyle, it is rather easy to do.

Now it is half the year traveling the world, studying a foreign language, and surfing...while the other half, I will continue to work for at least the next 3-5 years to keep things building.

33 now
My 5 acres will be paid off and hopefully finished building my house
My half of 3 rental properties paid off
350K in 401K
100K in trading account
20k in my daughters trading account (she's 4)
Buy the wife a new SUV and have it paid off

There are a few paths out of undergraduate that can get someone to the 100k savings mark by mid-late 20s. Here are the most likely ones that come to mind (not in any specific order):

1) Investment banking (competitive but possible)
2) Management / strategy consulting (competitive but possible)
3) Engineering (PE being the most profitably)
4) Hedge fund analyst (extremely rare)
5) Private equity analyst (extremely rare)
6) F500 Corporate strategy (rare)
7) Big Four - Accounting/Risk/Tax/CPA route (medium difficulty to enter, easiest listed here)
8) Sales - relatively easy entry but takes a mix of the right product to sell + the right commission structure.

All of these will assume no student loans, no kids and relatively strict savings for a single person (one income).

The low end of these is the B4 auditor starting in the low 50s out of school but seeing pretty good raises the first couple years, gets CPA and gets promoted to Senior Associate with a 20+% salary bump. That person is now ~24-25 and can switch to industry as a senior financial analyst, internal audit or similar role and make in the 75-90k range by 26-27.

Corporate strategy, management consulting and the like can be bucketed into similar roles. Person can be making 100k/year a few years out of school.

Investment banking you work the equivalent of two jobs but make north of 100k including bonuses from the very beginning (first year out of school).

Engineering can start in the 50k-100k range depending on specialty...I don't know as much in this area, but I presume that salary increases are tougher unless you jump from firm to firm.

PE/hedge fund analyst - these guys can really rake in the cash but the jobs are nearly impossible to get right out of undergraduate. Easy 6 figure starting salaries.

Those are the ones that come to mind - they all require committed, smart individuals that excel in the classroom. Also, maximizing salary when young typically comes from 2-3 years of being a grunt and then jumping to another opportunity where you get a signing bonus and a massive salary bump.

The reality is also that a lot of the people that go this route will strongly consider graduate school and will have to deal with that hitting them in their late 20s or early 30s.

I am early 40s and I wanting own a 3 bedroom condo in lower deer valley in 5 years.

Interesting to see what other engineers are making. I recently got my PE and am still waiting for the pay bump. Actually I am abt to start looking for a new job since they are so slow.

I'm a civil in consulting, formerly in the office but about to go back in the field on a big project. I almost quit monthly in the office over the last year bc of bs. The field is much more straightforward.

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I thought there was a cap on this, legally.

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The cap is $33,000 annually. Have a colleague that sent his son to TCU, whose tuition is north of $40k - he has to pay the difference, which is an excellent bargain.

I'd like to add to my goals is to not make too many more mistakes with zeros at the end of them. They have gradually gone down over the years, but buying 100 shares of Apple under $20, then selling them at $25 hopefully doesn't happen again.

41
Would like to double my net worth and income, and increase the percentage of my income from passive sources to >60% Or at least not directly earned by me.

Maybe pay off all debt. With rates low and only debt in tax favorable loans, why pay off if I'm making way more elsewhere?

Start at least two more businesses. I prefer this over stocks. Only money in stocks is tax deferred retirement accounts.