Young Professionals’ Guide to Financial Literacy — Part 1: Saving and Investing (2024)

I was financially successful at a young page. This was, in part, due to strategic choices I made that I will highlight in this article. However, much of my success was also due to my privileges as a white person born in middle class America.

My mother, the breadwinner of my family, worked in I.T. She supported our family of five on one salary. The financial advice she gave me growing up was to “pay off credit card debt” and “invest in the stock market.” In my twenties, I learned she battled high credit card debt, contributed little to her retirement accounts, and worse.

My mom consistently worked 60 to 70 hours a week. When she wasn’t traveling for work, she typed away at the dark brown, laminate, multi-tiered corner desk in the master bedroom. Seeing her always overworked formed my mission to be better with money — in other words, to become financially independent —so I wouldn’t have to be the same way at her age. And while I did not immediately land a high-paying job when I graduated from college, I was consistent and strategic, and I was able to make a six figure salary, max out my…