Originally Posted by gugie

A good chunk of what I did at work over the past decade or so was to mentor young engineers. I always started with asking the question "why are you here?" They'd blab on with corporate correct statements, I'd stop them and ask, "so if I stopped paying you, you'd still come to work because of the things you just told me?" Of course they wouldn't, so I'd remind them that the biggest reason they come to work is to get paid. If you had enough money that you could afford not to get paid, what would you do?

At some time most everyone wants to retire. The people who want to keep working because they like their job so much even though they have enough to retire are in a small minority. Most of the people I know want to retire sooner than later.

I give young people 2 simple things to focus on:
1. Get outta debt ASAP. Live cheaply. After graduating and starting my career, I bought a used car, which I had for 12 years. I always had roomates.
2. Spend less than you make. So many people get hung up on what to invest in, the best strategy to buy and sell, when the simple thing is to just save part of your paycheck. For the first 8 years of my semiconductor career I lived off of the same amount of money. I maxed out on my 401(k) from the beginning. On top of that, every raise and bonus went into paying off debt (first), then saving and investing until I had enough money for a good down payment on a house. Buying the house got me on a boat that kept rising with real estate inflation in the Bay Area. First house begat a bigger, nicer house in a better neighborhood, which begat a windfall that I used to move to Portland on a property that still makes me feel good when I snake down through our driveway.