In the early days of this blog, I wrote a series of posts called Doin ‘it by the Decade and I did a little of (quite-honestly, in retrospect, half-assed) research about what sort of things I should and should be doing as I progressed through each decade.

Side Note: Hilariously to me, the hideous infographic I made for this series is my most pinned image on Pinterest and drives literally thousands of views to my website each year for over a decade now. It is hideous. It lacks some necessary nuance. And yet it thrives. I still don’t know what to make of this.

Well, I crossed the threshold of 40 this week and as I was considering what to write for this post, I wondered if I had made any sort of post celebrating turning 30.

It turns out I didn’t, but my little search of my site brought up these gems:

• Doin’ it by the Decade: The Dirty 30s or The Great Depression – You Decide
• Doin’ it by the Decade: What NOT to Do in Your 30s

And I thought I’d see how I did.

To begin with, I did notice a pretty big difference where I was financially from a lot of friends in my early 30s, as a lower-income earner but high saver, I was pretty far ahead of many of them. Loans all paid off, a little nest egg of retirement savings, and even a small brokerage account.

Over the last decade, that has largely changed. I think by staying the course, I’ve continued to set myself up well for retirement, but it’s been wild seeing the different outcomes from different friends. Some were finishing up grad school in their late 20s-early 30s and now have astronomic incomes. One friend with an insane spending habit is also now in an insane income category with her job. Another plodded along with her pretty reliable job and began investing in real estate with her husband is probably actually rich at this point.

In outward appearances now, everyone seems to be doing pretty well and most seem to be doing better than me – though in many ways this is amplified by my insane decision to go get a PhD at the end of my 30s. So we’ll see how this is going by the end of next decade.

The 8 things to do to aim for Dirty 30 (this was the good one, I think):

1. Keep saving for retirement.
2. Pay off all non-mortgage debt.
3. Create a will.
4. Start saving for your kid’s college funds.
5. Speaking of kids, get life insurance.
6. Increase your emergency fund.
7. Start saving up for a down payment on a house.
8. Set aside some time to read up on financial planning.

Keep saving for retirement – nailed it. I have maxed out my Roth IRA every year since I was 25. Starting in my early 30s, I added a Health Savings Account to my annual retirement savings goals. During some earlier higher income years, I maxed out available 401ks and at least contributed to the match anytime one was available. I also setup at Self-Employed 401k plan.

Pay off all non-mortgage debt – I paid off my earlier student loans when I was 28. I managed to go through my 30s without any additional debts. The goal is to graduate debt-free and it seems likely, but will confirm once I know for sure.

Create a will – there is indeed a notarised will in my dresser at my dad’s house. The pandemic made it seem like a good idea, and the realisation that no one would have a clue where to find my money if I didn’t lay it all out for my dad and my brother.

Start saving for kid’s college fund and get life insurance – as I am now into the 98-99% certain range that I won’t be having kids (both in terms of desire and biology), I have decided to disregard both of these things.

Increase your emergency fund – according to my July 2014 accountability update my savings accounts were at $2,169.36. In mu June 2024, they were at $35,399.20. So… yes? It’s actually still not where I’d hoped it would be. I wanted a year’s expenses in my main emergency savings which is about $36,000, enough saved for a new car (about $20,000) and about $20,000 in down payment savings. However, I did just cash flow almost 3 years of PhD tuition and London living expenses while not cutting down on traveling at all… so we all make our choices.

Start saving up for a down payment – well. You may have followed my Mel tries to buy a house saga in 2019/2020. I had about $75,000 saved up for a down payment at one point in my mid-30s but when all of that didn’t pan out, I decided to use the money to get a PhD. When I finish, I estimate I’ll have about $10,000 saved for a down payment for a house. It seems like I would do better to try to buy one when I have a regular W-2 job (which is rare for me) and I will not need nearly as much money to put down then anyway. And honestly, at this point, I don’t even know where I want to live long term. So… this has worked out ok, if not at all in the way I imagined it going into my 30s.

Set aside some time to read up on financial planning – you know, nailed this. I still read financial literature pretty often and have consistently through the decade. And it does help.

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I have to admit that I haven’t found my 30s to be my favorite decade so far. It all felt very uncertain and like every decision carried such weight with it in a way that my 20s didn’t. I don’t know if that weight was real or not, I suppose only time will tell, but I do know it wasn’t very pleasant.

I am curious about what kind of retrospective of the upcoming decade I might write when I’m 50.

Going into my 30s I never imagined I’d lose my mother, there would be a worldwide pandemic, that I’d move to a foreign country, get into grad school (finally, on the third try), and I’d work with some of my favorite groups of people so far (looking at you Dinosaur Train, FAME crew and Circus 1903-ers).

I’m sure my 40s will be wild and surprising too. Lord-willing brokeGIRLrich and I will still both be kicking to write something interesting in July 2034 to sum up my forties. Maybe it’s time to go re-read what nonsense I wrote when I was 29 to inform my financial decisions in my 40s.