Building Wealth The Boring Way

Hi,

Money shouldn’t be taboo.

I want to make it less awkward to talk about money because most of us never learned this stuff.

In the last 7 years, we’ve grown our combined net worth from -32K to over half a million without any family money (in fact, the opposite). We live below our means, invest consistently, and automate everything. Here’s exactly how we do it:

How We Actually Invest (And You Can Too)

We’re a dual-income family making about $300K a year.

1. 15% to 401(k)s (Pre-Tax)
   We both contribute 15% of our paychecks to traditional 401(k)s. We get company matches (mine 5%, his 10%), which is free money. This gives us tax breaks now while building long-term wealth for retirement. We previously did a Roth but decided to change it to a Traditional because our current tax burden is very high.

2. $750 every paycheck → Brokerage (Biweekly)
   That’s $1625/month invested in index funds (think: VTI, VOO, or FXAIX). This account is flexible. We can use it before retirement age (55.5 years old) if we want to retire early. We have a Fidelity account for this.

3. $340 every paycheck → HSA
   Health Savings Accounts are triple tax-advantaged. We treat this like another retirement account and invest it all unless we have a medical bill over $1k.

4. $2,000/year → 529 for our son’s future
   We plan to increase this once we are not paying close to $40k a year for a private nanny. At that point, we plan to max out this account as he will likely attend private school K-12.

5. Everything else
   We live well but don’t inflate our lifestyle with every raise. We currently share one car. We don’t plan to buy a second car until we can pay for it in cash (likely sometime next year). We automate all savings so investing happens before spending. We have never seen a “regular” paycheck.

The Mindset

1. True investment growth is slow

   Building wealth isn’t flashy; it’s boring, repetitive, and works. “Quick growth” investments are usually just marketing.

2. Do not sell in a downturn

   Even if you’ve lost most of your money in the market, do not sell. It would be incredibly unwise to do that. Stay the course. The market will recover eventually.

3. Know your why

   Before you even start investing, figure out what your goal is. Not just financial but for your life. Accumulating money isn’t the goal. It’s what the money allows you to do. For our family, it’s being able to retire early (in about a decade), helping our children purchase their first homes and pay for their education, and generally not to stress about money. Having a clear purpose makes saving and investing emotionally easier even when it’s not fun.

Thanks for reading.