It's a big milestone of accomplishment in my life, but I feel weird just telling family members or my online friends about it. The only other people who know are my coworkers because we all got the same raise. Money doesn't go as far nowadays due to crazy inflation post COVID and my area has higher cost of living than where I grew up, but I'm still very happy about this. I remember back when I used to only make minimum wage. All those years of schooling eventually made their way back to me. I'll never make as much money as someone like a doctor, but it's definitely enough for me to live comfortably as a single person.

Anyway, I'll delete this in a bit (or sooner if it gets removed by a mod), but I hope you guys out there have a good weekend.

Edit: Thank you guys very much :)

Edit 2: Jeez there are so many more comments than I expected. You guys are so nice!!

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Doing your best for both your present and future self is usually a balance.

Some functions that were helpful to me were

half your raise into savings or retirement. You’re less likely to overspend if it never gets into your checking account. At the same time, you still get a nice raise
some 401k plans offer an automatic increase. It would be a hardship to my current self to suddenly max out my 401k, but if my co tribution automatically bumps up 1-2% every year, present self wont really notice the loss and future self will thank me for growing toward maxing my 401k

Remember the most important part of your retirement savings is just doing it. The power of compounding returns over many years can be more important than which investment might do best. Remember that your contribution is something you control whereas most investment choices are speculative and you have no say over whether they do well or not