All things considered, I was pretty fortunate as a young adult. I had a signed job offer in the fall semester of my last year of university. I made a very livable sum of money right out of school. The only time I ever had to scrape to get by was out of my own doing. I didn’t spend 6 months trying to get a job, or fighting a couple dozen other applicants trying to get my foot in the door. Such is the fortune of finishing university a few months before the crash in 2008. I started my career at the peak of a boom.
Some days I wish I hadn’t.
I wish I started out making less money when I was younger. I wish I had to try harder for it. The experiences you have as a young adult shape your expectations as you get older. Since I started out making more money, my bar is already set higher that it would have been otherwise.
I’ve seen so many people fall into this trap. I’ve seen guys come out of the oil fields absolutely ruined. They go to work at 18 making six figures in a low skill labour job, and get used to that level of pay. They overvalue their work. When they decide they want to move back to the city or into another area of the country, they figure they should continue making the same amount of money as before. No one will pay them that rate. They have the choice of learning how to make do on less pay, which many of them can’t due to the debt they’ve taken on, or go back to where they were working before. Many of them end up trapped in their jobs for much of their lives, because they either don’t know how to make do on less, or can’t bring themselves to.
When you start out making less, you learn how to live on less. You learn how to be more resourceful. I feel like by having money, I’ve undermined my own resourcefulness. I’m afraid that money made me lazy. I’ve taken steps to become more resourceful, which is a step in the right direction, but I wonder if I’d be further ahead if I had started out making less.
I guess I’ll never know.
Recommended Reading: The Road to Debt Free: Not for the Faint of Heart
Hey Cassie, thanks for the mention! I love the wisdom in this post. We too went through a stage in the beginning of our marriage when we were rolling in dough, and wasting every bit of it. When we went to a one-income family, we had no idea how to live with boundaries regarding money, so we just kept spending and that’s what got us into the mess we’re climbing out of now.
But one of the things I am grateful for is that we are forcing ourselves to live within our means now, and so when we are debt free, I’m quite certain we won’t go back to that “taking our money for granted” attitude. There can be something very liberating about having to struggle and sacrifice for a time. Thanks for the wonderfully wise post.
You’re right, there is something quite liberating about having to struggle and make sacrifices. It wouldn’t be liberating if there was never any change from it, but working towards a better life or recovering a simpler life are both quite refreshing.
That’s a “No”, if you have been able to write that post, and are aware that you were used to making such good money.
It’s all a question of need. Sometimes you gotta take what’s available, not what you want. Then wait for the best moment to get what you really want.
I started at a high salary out of school ($65K), but it didn’t ruin me, mostly because it went to debt, and I felt like I didn’t have much. Now that I’m making 2-4X that, I still remember that feeling and realize how far I’ve come to save such an amount.
As long as you are aware of such a thought/feeling/situation, it can’t be as bad as you think. Think of other people who started out at your salary, are making less, and still think that they can live beyond their means by going into debt?
You aren’t in that position any more.
I agree, having a higher salary out of university didn’t ruin you, and we actually made similar amounts right out of school. My student debt wasn’t as onerous however, so I had more free income available right from the get go. I just wished I had struggled with my debt earlier rather than later (later being relative of course).
I’m sure you’re right and it isn’t as bad as I’m thinking, but every once in a while I look back and wonder about it.
Love this post. Lately our income has been extremely high and we forget about how hard it was before. That’s just what happens when your income increases by a lot in such a short amount of time.
That it does. I’m looking forward to when you get your student debt paid off soon as a result of your increase in income
Sorry Cassie, but I have to disagree with you here. Its not how much money you make, its what you do with it. I made very little money when I graduated (first f/t job at $21K). I was in overdraft, maxed out credit card, and couldn’t pay the minimum on my student loan some months. But did that motivate me to live more frugally? Nope, I spent every cent I made and then some. It wasn’t until about 2 years later when I started making about $33K that I started taking my finances more seriously, well at least my debt, and paid off my overdraft and paid off my student line of credit. But when I started making over $40K is when I started making serious dents in my debt and started saving. This is only the last 3 years and over this time I’ve increased my NW by $35K. There’s no way I would have been able to do any of that making a lower income.
If you’re a spender you’re going to do that whether you make $21K or $51K, if you’re a saver, the same. Its more in our personalities than the money we make. Although having more money certainly gives us more options and I don’t think you should feel bad about having made good money right out of school, I know you worked hard (and still do) and you deserve it. We’ve all made mistakes with our money and wish we could turn back the clock and tell our younger selves lots of things. But I would have told my younger self to make more money and get the hell out of debt!
Anyways, have a great weekend!
That’s a fair observation. I notice though that you mention taking your finances more seriously after you made $33k. Was that because your income before wasn’t livable in your area? What made you decide to transition from a spender to a saver?
Great post! I think many people are thinking that way these days. When I think of how much money I basically threw away for YEARS simply because I made a lot of money and didn’t know anything about living simply and saving money it makes me cringe. Fortunately I have embraced a very simple lifestyle these days so I don’t NEED a lot of money, although I wouldn’t mind having a super high paying job these days
Thanks! I agree with you, I’ve definitely been cringing over how much money I’ve wasted over the years. I certainly wouldn’t object to making more money, but I’m enjoying being able to hold onto more of it now
I am going to go with the general consensus here and agree that making less doesn’t exactly mean you learn your lessons earlier or better or anything. I think it has to do more with maturity than anything else. Some people are just more mature earlier in life than others. Also general upbringing.
Maybe I just feel that I would have learned earlier if I had struggled earlier. You’re quite right, everyone is different and not everyone would learn the same thing from the same experiences.
I find this really interesting and a little bit related to how when you have money saved to buy a particular item you’re in the market for, a wallet for example, you can’t find one you like. But when you’re not looking, all the wallets tempt you at the store.
“when you have money saved to buy a particular item you’re in the market for, a wallet for example, you can’t find one you like. But when you’re not looking, all the wallets tempt you at the store”
Oh geez, don’t I know it.