What should a 22 year old do with a $100k+/year job (after tax)?

Long term this job doesn’t sound sustainable and if it is it will likely cost you your health like most construction work.

Don’t blow your money and plan for a transition to another career before this one does too much physical damage. I know too many older broken down construction workers that are absolutely fucked now.

Pay off all your debts, six months of needs liquid in a high yield savings account for your emergency fund. You can save for a house and put the rest in an index fund after matching whatever incentive your job gives for the 401k. Even the best investment firms really don’t beat the market in the long-run so I wouldn’t suggest getting fancy with your investment strategy. Watch out for dumping your money into a new car or other things that really don’t have a return but also make sure to set some money aside to enjoy life. The general rule is 50/30/20, don’t exceed 50% on needs, 30% on wants and put at least 20% into savings & investment. That said with your current situation you could build a good base for yourself and do 15/25/60. I’m not sure where you are but assuming the US housing market if you could put away 80K that would be helpful but not necessary.

If you have student loans or really any debt might be a good time to clear it out completely if you want. It’s very freeing.

Way back when I took a short class in investing, and the bottom lines were:

1. Diversify your investments. Nobody, not even the pros know which individual stocks, or even sectors (small cap, mid cap, large cap, international, bonds, etc) will go up over any given year.

Individual stocks are risky, because you really don’t know what’s going on inside each company. A sure thing today may collapse tomorrow. The more different stocks you invest in, the lesser your risk.

1a) Index funds work according to that principle of lowering risk by investing across hundreds of different stocks.

Choose the ones that have low expense ratios, because they’re automated, and fees will eat into the fund’s earnings.

Vanguard is famous for their index funds, but other brokerages have copied them, but those others still have higher expense ratios somehow.

1b) Also these days, ETFs are similar, but you will be paying stock commission fees to buy and sell them, taking a hit on your initial and parting investment.

2. Portfolio balancing once a year. Since you don’t know which sectors will go up or down in any year, balancing your portfolio is how you capture gains.

Let’s say you have set a target of 70% large cap index, 10% international stock index, 20% bonds, and you balance your portfolio on July 1st every year.

In a fictional example, this year, the large caps did well and now constitute 75% of your total portfolio’s value, internationals did okay and are now at 11%, and bonds relatively speaking didn’t go up as much, and are now 14% of the total value.

That means that bonds are relatively cheap, and a relatively good buy.

So sell the “extra” 5% of your large cap, 1% of your internationals, and put that total 6% of your portfolio into bonds, rebalancing your portfolio back to 70% large cap, 10% internationals, 20% bonds.

Next year on July 1st, the stock market has tanked, and bonds are now 30% of your total portfolio value. That means that you should sell the extra 10% total portfolio value of bonds and re-assign them to your large cap and internationals, however that works out mathematically.

edit: There’s no need to watch your portfolio like a hawk and rebalance every time you glance at it. Just do it once a year, but be consistent.

etc, etc.

3. Reduce investment risk as you get older.

As you get older, and closer to retirement, your tolerance for losing value gets lower because you’re approaching the point where you have to start using your accumulated retirement nest egg.

Lower your risk of the stock market, and increase your holdings of fixed income return investments, such as actual bonds (NOT bond mutual funds) that are (practically) guaranteed to pay you X amount of interest.

But holding 0% of stocks still carries risk of inflation wiping out all of the bonds’ earnings.

It was said that holding 10% of your portfolio in stocks is the lowest risk that works.

There are index funds that automate this rebalancing and risk reduction for you: Multiple brokerages have “Target retirement funds” These types of funds have years in their names, stating when these funds will reach a minimal risk portfolio. Once again, shop around and find which ones have low expense ratios.

First of all, do not invest gamble in crypto.

Invest in Index funds. I would avoid the US market because of severe instability. Learn about what other countries are developing. I would invest in funds that cover south east Asia like Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. Also Europe / Scandinavia. Avoid UK, China.

Also do not “invest” in crypto. Goddamn.

Make sure you max out any matching contributions from your company 401k. That is just free money that you should take and set it and forget it. Find the maximum you can contribute to a Roth IRA (I think it’s $7500 per year?) that is extra income for later as well. Besides that just set up good saving habits by putting some automatically to a high interest saving account. I get ~3.0% from Ally while I have a Wells Fargo that I never use with 0.1% or something. That’s for short term and liquid funds.

It’s not a bad idea to buy a reliable consistent car that can last you decades. With very little bills you can have it paid off before you want to buy a house or have more bills. That way you own it outright and can last for a long time.

Sounds like a good plan. What I would suggest:

Max out your 401k and IRA as soon as possible each year. These accounts are tax advantaged, and time in the market is the most important thing. They are your most solid investment vehicles. Do this with your paycheck as soon as your emergency fund and monthly expenses are accounted for, and before you put money into a home fund or non-tax-advantaged index fund.

Then, plow money into index funds.

Then, build up your home fund.

The balance of these two depends on how soon you plan to buy a home. I would say that if you are planning on less than 5 years, your hysa account is a good idea. But if it is 5+ years, then I would slowly build up an hysa while largely expecting to withdrawl money from my index funds to pay for the home when the time came, since, again, time in the market.

It sounds like you are pursuing FI. So I would do some reading into that. At the very least, understand the 4% rule.

And finally, I would say, congrats! You got a good job - now make sure you still enjoy your life while you work it instead of just grinding yourself into the ground. Take time off, make new friends, try new things, and have adventures. Life is made for living - work a little longer in exchange for living a little more right now!

You’re doing pretty good. Keep the crypto very minimal. I try to keep anything exciting to less than 5% of my investments, but I’ve learned that the hard way. You’ve got a long time to make mistakes.

Do make sure you have some fun. Experiences like traveling are more valuable when you’re relatively young.

Check out Ben Felix if you want to really geek out on investing.

This seems like bait because what kind of union has you working 7 days a week?

I was in a similar position. Honestly man, travel and enjoy. You earned it.

I went to iceland 10 times in my 20s and I don’t regret spending that money at all.

I started saving when I was 30 and I now own a condo at 32 and have slowed down. If you can make money now then you can later too.

I think that my travels in my 20s made me into the man I am today and you should do the same thing.

Rent a 4x4 in iceland and drive to askja volcano and swim in it. Go to wacken open air in Germany. Buy a truck and drive through Yukon and NWT to the Arctic ocean. Or with your money, spend 30k on a porsche and put studded tires in it and do it in style. Not all cars depreciate. 987.2 Cayman will double in price in 10 years. It’s a stock you can buy that you can physically enjoy

You seem set on investing so I would invest the portion you would otherwise spend in rent, and spend the rest. You don’t get your 20s back

If you take anything from this, buy a porsche, it’s a stock on wheels if you shop for the right one. There is no money better spent than on the best car ever made that increases in value as it gets older. Look for a manual transmission 2009-2010 cayman with an interesting colour spec and you can drive it and make money.

What are your hobbies? I have collected made in japan shredder guitars over the years that have quadrupled in price. Tangible objects can make you money without being boring stock investments.

The trades have somewhat more risk of injury than, say, sitting at a computer all day, particularly if you’re working as hard as your schedule implies. Does your job, union or state have disability insurance, or the option for it? If not, can you purchase it from an instance broker ? If so, get disability coverage; and if there are multiple levels, get the one with the highest coverage.

Now, double-check all of the following with an independent insurance broker, as the rules may have changed since I did this, or your local area may be different than mine.

In my area, this is key: pay for your disability benefits POST-TAX. You’ll generally have the option to pay pre-tax (your income is reduced by the account of the insurance payment, then you pay tax on what you take home) or post-tax (your income including the insurance payment is taxed, then they deduct the insurance payment).

The reason this matters: if you haven’t paid tax on the premiums and you end up getting disabled, then those benefits will be taxed; but if you’ve paid tax on the premiums, then your benefits are tax-free. If you pay pre-tax, then you’ll have a little extra money each paycheck; but if you become disabled, then you’ll lose a bunch of your disability payments to taxes during a stressful period with extra expenses. If you pay post-tax, then you take home a little less money each week (not a concern in your situation); but if you become disabled, then you don’t lose any of your disability pay to taxes.

I’ll also add: for your car insurance, it’s entirely up to you what coverage you get for collision and comprehensive, but always opt for the maximum amount of personal injury protection you can get. And if you’re going to be stacking up your assets like you hope to do, please consider an umbrella policy to help protect those assets.

Good luck!

Health savings/flex account. Those hours and kind of job, anything can happen at any moment. Short and long term disability insurance, short and long term unemployment savings or insurance (maybe an annuity?).

Please consider donating a little to your local food bank/homeless shelter/soup kitchen, and/or donating a year of physical fitness for a child, elderly person, or other vulnerable person.

Health insurance? If you don’t have, get a good one now. Construction work is 1. dangerous and 2. damaging to your health in the long run.

be happy and don’t become another whiny rich cunt who constantly prattles on about how difficult their life is and how they don’t have enough money.

your life is already better than like 99.9% of other people’s at your age.

Another investment area to consider is other Tax Advantaged savings accounts (e.g. IRA).

I do not really want a credit card, but I need to start using one because my credit score dropped to 550 after not making a payment for a while.

While they are a Faustian deal, you do want one. Much of our society is built around credit scores and the credit reporting companies. It sucks, but you have to deal with it. Find a credit card which doesn’t charge an annual fee, and which provides some sort of kick back you can make use of. Use this for everything, and pay it off completely every month. Use the points/miles/etc when possible.

There are two primary reasons for this. First off, it gets that credit score up. You want a high credit score as it’s often used for things like background checks. It’s annoying, but you’re not going to win the fight against it. Second, using a credit card comes with some protection for you money. If your card number gets compromised (and it will eventually, if you’re using it) credit card companies have some legal requirements to refund you for the fraud. When paying for things with debit cards and ACH transactions, those protections aren’t as strong and you may end up out some money.

The one thing I can’t emphasize enough is, pay the damned thing off every month! It’s easy for these to get out of hand. And with your current credit score, the interest rate is going to be in the range “fuck your wallet”. Letting any charges roll over is just pissing away money.

Lastly, once you have your credit accounts created freeze your credit. Don’t let them trick you into “monitoring” or other bullshit half-measure, do the freeze.

Stuff a number - say 10-20% - of your paycheque in for retirement. There’s tax implications that might adjust that number. Everyone told me it was important but I was too busy buying food, transportation, and shelter so I’m rather late to the game. You can back off on this if you need to, but it will help you down the road.

I would recommend that you also pay off any debts, set up deposits to an account for emergency purposes (six months is a goal, and pretend you pay rent or mortgage and a car for the cost estimate) and for home deposit. That should be all at the same time, reducing retirement contributions to make it work.

Get a cash back credit card. It knocks a % off every purchase and it adds up.

Don’t invest in crypto or AI.