I come from a similar background. No college degree, from a poor rural southern area. When I first started with a rapidly-increasing paycheck I spent money on a

I come from a similar background. No college degree, from a poor rural southern area. When I first started with a rapidly-increasing paycheck I spent money on all the tech gadgetry. Now, I view most of the things as unnecessary. Instead I'm moving towards financial independence - hopefully to the point where I can retire early. I'm working on maxing out my 401k and IRA investments yearly. I keep a few months salary saved up so I can weather most storms without dipping into the retirement funds. This is something I'm working towards. I'm a long way from meeting my goals of income:savings ratio. I spend too much on food and various forms of entertainment (PC games and movies). My S/O works in the arts and she still finds it insane how much money I make (not a lot by the HN crowd, I'm sure), so she's the one that inspires me to do better things with my money.