Adrian Volenik
Sun, February 1, 2026 astatine 12:01 PM CST 4 min read
A azygous antheral surviving successful Minnesota says he's been maxing retired his 401(k), Roth IRA and Health Savings Account for years, each connected a $100,000 salary. And helium didn't commencement astatine six figures either.
“I person been doing truthful for 4 years, and I person been maxing it retired adjacent erstwhile making $80k,” the archetypal poster wrote connected Reddit’s r/MiddleClassFinance recently. He estimated his take-home wage is astir $3,800 per period aft taxes and deductions. With cautious budgeting, helium spends astir $3,650 and saves the rest.
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Here are the 7 frugal habits that helped him prevention aggressively:
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Buy utilized cars: “Don’t bargain a caller car,” helium advised. Instead, helium bought a 5-year-old Nissan six years agone and inactive drives it today.
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Cook astatine home: He skips pricey nutrient transportation apps. “You tin inactive spell retired with friends and bask your life, conscionable don’t usage DoorDash due to the fact that you don’t privation to cook,” helium said.
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Split rent: Sharing lodging with roommates oregon household helped him support surviving costs low. At 1 point, helium paid conscionable $700 a period for rent.
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Use your benefits: He takes vantage of leader wellness perks, including gym reimbursements and yearly checkups.
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Cut subscriptions: He avoids subscribing to aggregate streaming services.
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Fill up astatine Costco: With state prices inactive unpredictable, helium uses a rank oregon tags on with a person to get cheaper fuel.
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Entertainment: He uses the room for books, movies and a quiescent spot to focus.
“I inactive question a batch and person allowed myself to bargain immoderate bully things. Cars conscionable aren’t my thing,” helium said.
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While radical mostly praised his discipline, galore comments poured successful with a much analyzable reality: it's overmuch harder erstwhile you person kids, indebtedness oregon unrecorded successful a high-cost-of-living area.
“Yeah, not having kids is fiscal casual mode,” 1 idiosyncratic wrote. “I'd beryllium retired astatine 40 if I didn't person kids successful my mid 20s.” Another added, “Child enactment unsocial for my girl was much than a maxed-out Roth for 17.5 years.”
Others pointed to daycare costs of $1,500 to $2,500 a month, pupil loans, oregon precocious security premiums. One commenter said, “We’d person a water location if we didn’t assistance 4 kids spell to college.”

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