Changing jobs instead of showing loyalty to employers who couldn’t give two shits when it was time to let me go.

Studying hard on my first year university. My GPA started high so I had a bunch of scholarships and grants. It's easy to maintain a high GPA than to bring a low GPA to a high level. I religiously apply to scholarships and grants also. I paid maybe 1/4 of my tuition fees.

Things to note:

• My 4 year bachelor degree in healthcare only cost $25,000-30,000 including books.
• The gov't even gives 60% back of tuition paid as tax refund every year until the gov't party changed a few years after I finished.
• Also gov't gives out cheap educational loans especially for low income families back then.
• Not in US.

getting accidentally hired and finally making enough.

story: every job I've ever applied for in tech didn't work out. I was a dishwasher until right before covid when someone recommended me for a cybersecurity position. Before that I had obsessed about FIRE or living in a car or being careful about too much starbucks or avocado toast... without making enough for a car or health insurance. That job paid ~half of what cybersecurity should pay, but was AMAZING. My next job paid just a hair under average, three years later. night and day, able to afford to exist without help.

financial advice be damned. I couldn't "find" anywhere with lower rent. I was in the lowest cost of living possible regionally. What needed to change was the PRIMARY job's income rate, not adding some side hustle. Either make rent cheaper or find a higher wage.

I'm not making enough to consider your next fancy moves like getting a house.

In life it's been mostly pure luck, but one of the few things I really recommend is to keep in the loop about rebates, programs and services offered by my federal and provincial government. Stuff like rebates on first time home buying, electric bikes, and energy efficient equipment is nice cause I bet I saved at least 3000$ total.

In recent time tho the biggest one has been getting a bicycle. I got an e-bike but even a regular bike helped me stop paying through the nose for gas when I was just burning it mostly sitting in traffic.

Going all in on the stock option program, even if it was a little risky. I remember the argument: There's no lottery or casino that'll give me odds like these. I also left when we'd grown to the point where middle management didn't want to understand that when the program ran out (4 years) and had to be restarted at the new validation, that was basically a static pay cut for me. I get paid a lot more now, but I still made more from stocks than work last year.

Second, our apartment. It's a lot like a row house, except it's in the city. The other part backs right up to the park.

Third, maxing out parental leave with both of our kids at a company that (as, more or less, a recruiting gimmick) topped up parental leave pay from the capped 80% to, iirc, 100% with no cap. They turned out be quite dumb about this and had shuffled me into a corner when I came back. I was ready to put my back into it, but well, I guess not then.

Having kids made me go back to college and get a better job (pell grant covered cost back then as we were poor as fuck). So that was probably #1. Without kids I would not have bothered so even though they are expensive it's been a net benefit bigger than any other single factor.

Leaving my deadbeat ex is a close second, though. Getting into a more functional relationship with someone who can and does hold down a job.

Idk if I really made the moves so much as they fell into my lap but I really made out well off of covid.

In 2020 I had 2 goals, start seriously saving for a house, and have a wedding.

I moved into a much smaller apartment that was closer to work in Jan of 2020, we planned to spend the year mostly outside the house anyway.

But with the excess savings from not doing anything, combined with the weddding money, combined with the absolute floor for mortgage rates and a panic dip in the market, and a seller who was in a big hurry to get out of the house that was clearly too small for their large family we could just barely afford a house. Cost us 800k.

For the next 3 years we put all our money into paying down the mortgage. Then this year we sold for 1.2mil and bought a bugger much more suited to our need house for 600k, far away from both our works.

Now when our mortgage renews* in 2 years and we go to a much higher interest rate we will probably keep the same monthly payment, we have big cash for reno, paid off our ev and had the pocket change for a reception.

* in canada the longest you can lock in a rate is 5yrs

Bitcoin.

Switching to an IT degree at the last minute, would have been a history teacher otherwise.

Budgeting (with YNAB 4).

Getting my spending and saving planned made money a lot more useful. It might seem paradoxical, but having a system of limits ultimately gave me more financial freedom.

Also, changing jobs. Don't be afraid to jump if you've got marketable skills.