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Do everything you can to research and plan, it is not too early. Stay appraised of the changes in laws etc affecting retirement savings, age etc. Make adjustments accordingly.
Insurance for long term care is more affordable at your age. Also, look into the best disability related insurance and invest in that....it can make a real difference if something happens to interfere with your ability to work.
Save as much as you can...and make smart investment decisions. Be diverse.
Take excellent care of your health, exercise, eat right, go easy on alcohol and don't smoke. Think prevention. Health is the most valuable asset you can have as you age.
I have a smartphone for work so I'm not pressed to buy a new phone. I've never been pressed to buy the newest phone. My current phone is an iphone 4 someone gave me because I had the 2 (I think it was) for so long they came to work one day and was like "please take this phone...I don't need it and I can't believe that old thing of yours even works). I believe they're on the 10 now and I have just recently started to feel the urge to upgrade. But not to a brand new iphone...no way. My limit is around $100.
But I think I get the OP's original point about basically getting absolutely as hard core about saving as possible and cutting back luxuries to do so....
I'd never buy an IPhone, over priced, and constantly being upgraded. Never bought an Apple product. A good mid level Samsung or Motorola will do everything the Iphones will, at one third of the cost. Just how many megapixels does one need to take a selfie anyway? If you ask me I prefer to see my self a little out of focus, I look better that way. And so many of the Iphones break if you look at them wrong.
Start volunteering - doing something that you really like and can continue after retirement. Choose a social volunteer environment to alleviate possible future feelings of isolation or loneliness. Become active in your church. Travel while you are healthy and have a few pennies. Others have already made great suggestions.
I would have told my 38 year old self to think about retirement funding early and often. Young people think they will be young forever, but alas, you will not.
Max out your 401k. Employer matching is free money.
Live below your means and invest the rest.
Don’t pay interest, except mortgage.
Use credit, but don’t let it use you. Sama as cash financing can be ok. Financing a car at 1% can make sense, rather than using cash that is earning more.
Invest every raise as if you never got it.
Put your nest egg with a reputable financial planner who will grow it according to your age and risk tolerance.
Get a Civil Service job, and retire after 25 years with a pension and Social Security. I started my career at 21, and retired at 46. I'll have to wait a bit before collecting SS, but having maxed out my contributions in most of my years of service, I'll still qualify for the highest monthly benefit.
My friend took a little more convincing, and he didn't start his CS career until age 38. Still, he'll be fully retired at 63, and the future is much brighter than with his previous career.
FWIW a lot of people I know in CS have been smug in the past about their solid pensions or whatever, only to want sympathy when their formerly bombproof job comes under fire or suffers losses due to economic and political upheaval. That, and the negative effects such a job has on one's lifestyle (particularly someone who likes travel) does not make it the best bet.
I'd never buy an IPhone, over priced, and constantly being upgraded. Never bought an Apple product. A good mid level Samsung or Motorola will do everything the Iphones will, at one third of the cost. Just how many megapixels does one need to take a selfie anyway? If you ask me I prefer to see my self a little out of focus, I look better that way. And so many of the Iphones break if you look at them wrong.
I agree, and had a motorola x for my first smart phone and now a Samsung galaxy 7 for my second. I concur they are both well worth it. I pay $10/ m for the Samsung for 2 years. I've not been disappointed yet.
I don't care for Apple's attitude of "ours of nothing " and " ours is the best.".
Except I like myself in focus, lol.
I think the Motorola took better pics, though, but im happy with the galaxy pics too. The Samsung is WAY faster than thE Motorola though.
The most important thing is to avoid "lifestyle creep" when your income increases. You must be careful not to fully spend up to the level of your new income, but use the opportunity presented by increased income to increase your savings, which will buy you freedom from working at a younger age (and whatever you think now, by the time you hit 50, you will most likely yearn for that freedom).
Find the right balance between living for today and living for tomorrow. Americans lean very heavily on the side of bringing all pleasure forward, and pushing back the cost as much as possible. This is a disaster, and every bit as bad as denying yourself any pleasure today because everything must go to saving for tomorrow.
Be reluctant to take on financial commitments that will be ongoing, such as auto leases, a big mortgage, country club membership, etc. Remember that the higher your income goes, the more volatile it is, and once your income passes a certain point, the general "rules of thumb" about debt-to-income ratios that we hear bandied about will not apply to you.
Also recognize that the philosophy that says that age doesn't matter, that it's only a number, is one of the biggest lies out there. As we age, our energy level inevitably decreases, we start to value our free time more because we get a much greater sense that it is finite, and we steadily lose our ability to tolerate situations or people that we don't like. Your financial strategy must take these realities into account. A financial strategy that depends on going full out with a high pressure job until you're 70 or even 65 is a very foolish one.
Your financial life is a bit like pushing a snowball up a hill for a long time. It is tiring and you must make a lot of progress with it while you are young and still have the energy and strength. Once you get it to the top of the hill, then it rolls down on its own, picking up momentum as it goes. That is what happens when you save to the point where you have a nice portfolio that produces income and gains for you, rather than debt that you must pay interest on, which is a major headwind. If you don't make progress pushing the snowball to the top of the hill when you are young enough, the rest of your life will be a financial struggle because after a certain age, energy and opportunity dry up, and you'll be stuck at the bottom.
FWIW a lot of people I know in CS have been smug in the past about their solid pensions or whatever, only to want sympathy when their formerly bombproof job comes under fire or suffers losses due to economic and political upheaval. That, and the negative effects such a job has on one's lifestyle (particularly someone who likes travel) does not make it the best bet.
I have two pensions from public service. I got to retire from both when I wanted to. One of my careers required extensive travel all over the world. The other one gave me a week on week off schedule so I had every other week off. So I knew a lot of people in the public sector and I can't think of a single one that lost their job due to the conditions you described. When I go to my retiree lunches and dinners all I see are a bunch of great people who are set for life. And I'm one of them. No sour grapes for us.
FWIW a lot of people I know in CS have been smug in the past about their solid pensions or whatever, only to want sympathy when their formerly bombproof job comes under fire or suffers losses due to economic and political upheaval. That, and the negative effects such a job has on one's lifestyle (particularly someone who likes travel) does not make it the best bet.
I worked in corrections, so the worse that things got economically, the better it was for me (more criminals). As far as political upheavals, that only affected people in appointed positions in my department.
Negative effects? It would depend on the job, I suppose. My career allowed me quite a bit of time off to travel. If I maxed out all vacation, holiday, personal, sick time, etc, I ended up working 185 days per year. Of course, I used a lot of that time off to work overtime, to boost my pension numbers. Still, it was my choice to put in the extra shifts when I wanted, or enjoy the free time, as I saw fit.
As far as being smug, I was just answering the question that was put forth. Much like the OP, I advised my 38 year old friend to follow my career path, and now he's almost half way to his great pension and free health care for life. His only complaint is that he didn't do it sooner.
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