This my story of how to get ahead.

I am just anyone…everyone. I am not a trust funder, a lucky investor, or a magician.
I am a college graduate who left school more than twenty years ago with lots of debt.

Now I am 45 years old and I don’t need to work much anymore.

I’m not retired, but I could be.

I am financially free, which is to say that my net worth exceeds 25 times my living costs. As a result, I don’t need to work to pay my bills – my investments would do it for me if I let them, but I don’t. I continue to work as I wish and on my own schedule because I want to.

How did this normal Norma come out on top so fast? 

To begin with, I finished college with $40,000 in student loans and credit card debt. I applied laser focus in paying these off – I was obsessed. I remember being told as a kid learning to ride a bike that where your gaze goes, you will follow. This was certainly true for me.

But what was my real secret sauce?
My 401(k).

Once working, I dipped my toe into my company’s retirement plan. I didn’t begin contributing the maximum allowed contribution for a few years until my student loans were paid off – a mistake that I estimate is worth about $200,000 today. Nonetheless, I did start maxing it out later in my 20’s and continued to as long as I had one available to me. I also made Roth IRA and HSA contributions. I found each and every tax-advantaged saving opportunity available to me and I did it. 

Then I lived on what was left. That’s all.
This is how to get ahead.

When I popped my head up in my late 30’s to survey the landscape, I discovered that I had accumulated more than I really needed for a working person at my age.

Oops – sorry (NOT sorry).

I suppose I should claim that I was fixated on building wealth using budgeting and tracking…but it’s not true. I never needed a budget to do this. Budgets are ideals intended to contain spending so that you may have something left over to save. By saving first, I had that part out of the way leaving me the freedom to spend all that was left.

I simply decided at an early age to do the right thing and put away as much as I could. And then I went on to comfortably live my life. 

If this normal Norma can achieve financial freedom, anyone…everyone can, even if you haven’t started yet. 

My call to action for you:

Stop budgeting, start getting ahead. 

Pay yourself first.

This is what I did, and you can do it too.
Join me on this journey by signing up at buckthebudget.com.