I feel I may know the answer, but so that I may correctly understand and respond, would you elaborate on why it’s a waste?

And why you insinuate I don’t belong at what you deem a “decent” university?

Cheap, fast and easy is not at all what I’m looking for. If it were, I’d just go back to my local community college and finish their bachelor’s program.

A large part of my motivation is to get away from my home area and meet new people.

Yeah, I was hoping to try both, and have been more excited about the TKD gym, but the limitations I learned about today while visiting concerned me. A little disappointed but I’m open to trying something new, and (hopefully) I have a long time in my life to try a number of places and things. I think decisiveness is a struggle for me, but the MMA gym is closer, fits my schedule better, and allows me to take classes for a week for free. I think trying the MMA gym for now is the best start, and I can work on looking at other options as they become available in the future. I would love to study something in Japan someday, but who knows what the future holds.

They teach kickboxing but not specifically Muay Thai. I’m sure there is overlap though. I’ve spoken with them about it. No place near me does anymore. A lot of places here have shut down as instructors have aged or passed away.

Short version: I want to lose weight, strengthen my body, and learn to use it more efficiently, especially regarding mobility. I’m rather flexible but feel slow and heavy. I’m not too worried about practical self-defense currently. I’m also overcoming old injuries (with advice from a doctor and a PT) that are only limiting while I’m out of shape. Also love the variety of kicks in TKD. When I move to a different area, I’ll likely look more into MMA offerings. I just get odd feelings from the places and people around here that I don’t like.

I don’t think that anything is wrong with MMA in general. I just don’t like the overly aggressive attitude of most places that teach it around here. Those nearby seem unreasonably focused solely on competition, which makes sense for MMA, but I have more interest in less competitive and more traditional arts. However, I love the versatility of what’s offered via MMA. Just not interested in the whole, “we train killers for the cage” kind of narrative. The one place I’m looking at seems to be the exception, and relatively supportive/civilized.

I spoke with one of the trainers at the MMA gym and I’d likely focus on the kickboxing, primarily because that’s what lines up with my schedule. They’re a very ground focused gym, which makes sense from a practical standpoint, but isn’t something I find interest in currently. I’m not doing this for self-defense reasons but rather to just be active while also learning something. Might as well be interested.

I greatly enjoyed learning a large number of kicks in TKD. And the “flashiness” of it is appealing, though I’m well aware of its practical limitations. It’s also worth noting I have an old knee injury and minor levoscoliosis. So not too interested in breaking my back with wrestling/BJJ which seems to be their main focus. I’ve worked with PT and a doctor, they’re nothing to be overly concerned about, but I need to start slow and really get back into proper shape before pushing myself.

Hopefully that answers your questions? I feel extremely inexperienced and that I have a strong lack of knowledge needed to make a “correct” choice for myself.

I’ve been thinking about scheduling some campus visits. But I want to learn more about what specific jobs are out there I may want to work towards, and what programs to look at. I’d really like to look at schools in Florida, as I may want to live there someday, but that’s all research I can do in my spare time.

That’s certainly a part of the consideration. I attended two different community colleges but this area just isn’t all that friendly to people like me, for a few various reasons. Strong lack of any sort of diversity. I also worked full time while attending college full time because I paid it all out of pocket. This is part of why I’m considering going out of state, to experience something different, though I’m really not a social person. However, the learning opportunities could be fun.

The benefit to staying here and going back to finish my BAS program (Networking/Cybersecurity) is I can afford to do so without loans of any sort and can live at home. But it means another two years of people I don’t really want to be around, and IT courses I’m not sure I’ll enjoy. My gen ed has been done for a long time. I’ll still be working. I’ll most likely be working no matter what I do.

It’s much appreciated. My struggle is knowing I have the mental capacity and ability to go get a master’s, go work a much higher paying job and probably being that date much closer. School and education is something that has come relatively easily, but makes me miserable. I think some sacrifice will pay off. At what point do I have diminishing returns? A question likely everyone is trying to answer.

I wish you luck with your goals! While I can imagine how frustrating it must be to practically taste that retirement date, it’s gotta be incredibly satisfying to see what you’ve done and accomplished.

It’s realistic. And I understand that. I’ve been wrenching on things for over ten years now, cause I saved to buy a truck back at 12. It’s been a constant frustration of everything always being for later. That started the whole desire to get away from working. I got tired of everything always being so far away. Just have to keep moving and figuring each piece out as it comes.

So, I currently do attend a number of events, spend a lot of time at the track, and have a few cars I work on, but I’m always a bit defeated by my lack of resources and space. And what I’d really like to do is build and tune custom engines. I’m trying to get my auto-x car back up and running but it’s been a long time.

I guess I’m deciding whether or not I want to keep working in this field. There’s zero space to go up in my current employment, but finding a better opportunity likely means relocating. Which means paying rent, which I’m not doing now. Kinda stuck at a big crossroads where I have to figure out what the smartest choice is.

I work on a lot of cars for others but it means mine get neglected. I’ve not ever owned even the cheaper cars I wish for, but I’m setting aside some of my savings towards one for import. Just slow, kinda boring in the meantime not actively working towards anything.

I think the idea of expensive isn’t so much the large purchasing but mostly the costs of maintaining. I’d love to get into drifting but I’m going to break a car over and over. Repair costs really aren’t cheap. Could I afford it? Yes. But I’m also proud of the path I’ve put myself on after getting out of debt a few years back. Not sure where my happy balance is.

Right now I spend my extra time playing on a competitive team in a minor esports league to pass the time.

Hello all. 23M working in IT, relatively HCOL area but I’m not paying rent right now.

My general goal is to retire and get out of the day to day, just like everyone else here, but I’d like to do so with enough to pursue some more expensive hobbies I have. I’ve been sacrificing those to work on the future.

I’d like to FIRE as early as reasonably possible. My lifestyle is still volatile so I haven’t tried to draw too concrete a map, which is part of the question I’m leading to.

I hold a 2-year degree in CIS, and have partially started a 4-year in Networking/Cybersecurity. Making $32k per year, if I only work part time. I generally work full time during the summers, and my department with our new contract is looking to make me full time permanently, which will put me closer to $72k/year after raises. My necessary expenses are minimal, generally between 10-15% of monthly income, sometimes less. I’m finishing contributions to max my Roth IRA, no 401k or HSA options, and whatever state program they have for retirement. Not sure it’ll benefit me in the end as I don’t want to stay here for the duration I would have to to receive benefit. No debts, no excessive upcoming costs in sight.

My biggest question is, being someone that hasn’t been able to find any interest in any of the fields I’ve tried, how do you all stay motivated to move forward? I’d like to make more, strengthen my position, and continue investing, but the thought of returning to school, which seems like the best step up from here, really kills me. I just don’t have any passion for this work, or any others I’ve tried, and can’t think of anything that seems more interesting. Struggling to decide on my path forward, when it seems like I have to dive headfirst into what I hate, in order to escape what I hate.

I absolutely love and hate this post and subsequent threads. I love it for the wealth of info and the ideas that can be inspired. It stimulates so much healthy discussion and opens doors to connections that people might not have been able to make before.

Hate it because I look at the numbers thrown around and feel like I haven’t done anything worthwhile yet, with my dismal 5 figure yearly.

I love to daydream about the big salary but reality is, my mental capacity limits me from being able to take on those high stress jobs without cracking horribly. Fantastic at learning and understanding new concepts though. I’m hoping to find an idea or inspiration somewhere in here for a possible career change, or advancement to raise my income, but so far I see a whole lot of jobs I would be beyond miserable doing.

Life of freedom is always the goal.

I may not have much to add here, but I work as just a basic network tech, with a degree in CIS but focused my studies on Cybersecurity. I thought it was where I wanted to be, and loved my first year of schooling. Mostly networking, hardware, and the framework necessary for understanding more advanced concepts. Second year was an absolute kick in the teeth when I got to even basic software work. Never in my life have I needed to study. I just absorbed anything I read and intuitively understood nearly every area of school, until software. Even the most basic introductory programming course just broke me completely. There’s definitely something special about the minds of people good at software engineering, programming, and architecture. I don’t have whatever that ability is to make something functional from an abstract idea.

My security studies involved minimal software, but it’s not any less tedious, and there’s a lot of information you just have to know. I got tired of acronyms and policies and procedures that all got thrown away the second I started working. I’m considering a career change but I almost want to abandon tech entirely. Seems like all the money is in software, and I’m not one of those that is capable, nor do I like it.

I’ll never experience anything as hellish as Java again, I’m convinced.

Again, I’m a bit of a nobody, but it’s just interesting to see all these perspectives.

Short version: there’s a state plan that I don’t entirely understand, but requires more years of work here than I want to give them. I’m getting some info from our main office today to check on the details.

Less short version: No 401k or such. There’s some sort of state retirement system with a lifetime pension benefit. I’m a public employee, so I’m offered state DRS plans 2 and 3. IIRC, they require either 5 or 10 years to be vested depending on which is chosen. I likely won’t live in this state that long. It pays some sort of benefit that is like 1% x service year credit x average highest pay over a number of months or years + your contributions which are a chosen percentage rate. I don’t recall if there’s a match or not, but if so, it was extremely minimal. I would have to look again at the two options. It’s a system that appears to really only benefit long term employees.

Of course, if I choose to live here that long, it’ll be more important but this area is incredibly detrimental to my mental health. I recall when signing up, my parents looked over options with me and I believe we chose whichever option allowed me to pull the most money when I leave employment there.

I actually need to sit down and see how much money is being contributed to that and project the math going forward. Unless it’s a significant amount, it’s not worth living here. Frankly put, I hate this place. Additionally, I didn’t start caring about any of this until I had been working there over 6 months and had originally forgotten about the plans, but looking at it later determined it didn’t seem very helpful to me unless I just never leave here.

Not pretending to understand exactly what it all means, but that was what I gathered after my original plan had been mutual funds instead of ETFs. I changed plans to this for that reasoning. This gives me some confidence in that choice. I appreciate it. Still learning, still growing. Any help I get is valuable, and hopefully something I can pass on in the future.

I guess that “what do you mean by tax-sensitive” is what I’m asking. I’m sure of what I really need to know about in this planning stage vs later. I know leaving it long term is better in the long run, but I assume the taxes have something to do with dividends and how the holdings grow? I’m still doing my reading on all the tax implications. I feel fairly confident in my decisions, but just want some confirmation that I’m not totally making mistakes right off the bat. I’ll continue to learn and refine as I grow in this journey and my personal financial literacy.

I’m holding a target date in my Roth IRA currently.

Thanks helpbot. Doing just fine here. Two thumbs up.

I appreciate the insight. Especially at the beginning, I don’t know how much it matters since I’m starting small and nearly every contribution will likely throw things slightly out of whack, but I will definitely be shooting for balance. Might start with 70/30 and then adjust later if it seems necessary as I continue learning and understanding more in-depth.