Adam

Reading The Bogleheads Guide to Investing set me on my journey. It made it clear how little I needed to retire if I was investing it in the stock market.

2 months after I graduated college (age 23), my mom passed away and left me her house and $100,000. A few years later I was 28, had experienced investing during the recession and bought my first home. After selling her house, I had $150,000 in investments and -$100,000 in home equity when I started while making about $52,000 a year.

Learning and executing on a long term investing strategy. When I look at my total investments today, more than 1/3 of it is from investment gains alone in the past 7 years. This, coupled with controlling lifestyle inflation.

Does buying Bitcoin count? For me, I underestimated the financial impact of buying a house. I did this prior to learning about FI, and I undertook it without enough thought and planning. The extra yearly expenses (1-2% of the home price every year), the additional time for maintenance and improvements, yard work, cleaning - it's a lot to handle. In retrospect, I would've just continued renting.

Save up $3,000 and invest it in your 401k, a Vanguard IRA or a Vanguard Roth IRA. Use that account to learn the basics of investing - how to buy and sell, what investments to pick and how that works. Starting small in an account where you don't have to worry about taxes helped me gain confidence before jumping in completely. Following that, keeping your spending in check year after year and not letting it grow out of proportion with your happiness.