3 ms·

You must be CS Undergraduate

• cobaltblue 11y ago
  Nope, just very close to the fully financially independent group under 30. I work for a living. Not sure that you understand that financial independence can be just as simple as a function of your total invested assets and expected future annual costs given the reasonable assumption that in the long run your investments will net you at least an average 5% return per year. Is that assumption guaranteed to hold? No, but it's reasonable, and that's what buffer room is for. My rent is $1300/mo, with utilities it's usually around $1500/mo, for a 3-floor house I share with a friend. With miscellaneous other expenses like food and entertainment I end up with living expenses in the neighborhood of $25k/yr, rent is my primary expense since I have no debt. When my investment assets reach $600k, 5% growth nets me $30k/yr (I'm ignoring taxes). So long as my average annual expenses does not exceed $25k/yr, and my average return stays at or above 5%, this is sustainable indefinitely. And this isn't the only path to financial independence, it's just really straightforward for higher-than-average earners not burning an insane amount of their income on rent. (Mortgages are a different story.)