25, landed my first job making about $3200 a month, no college debt, car payed off. How do I best take advantage of this?

Since people keep asking for what I dm'd... Basically this is it;

I am 22, bringing in roughly ~8,000-10,000 a month, net atm. Renting is an absolute waste of money no matter how badly I want to move out and have my own place. You should avoid this at all cost, just think about it? If I started renting now at approx. $1550/month in rent (Where I live) thats over $54,000 I have lost by the time I am 25 (Which is when I want to buy a house)

Step 1: Build a strong base; 3-6 Months emergency fund in a HITFSA or Savings account, 9-12 months if your job is risky, and could lose it. I have mine in a regular savings account as I invest with my HITFSA (Your contribution room is carried over no matter how many TFSA you have, so if I have 3,000 in one, and 5,000 in another it still counts as 8,000 towards what I can contribute) this just allows me to have more invested.

Step 2: Open a HITFSA or an RRSP, they are both tax advantage accounts, learn the difference between the two with a simple google search. Invest in an Index fund such as VOO or SPY (They are S&P500 funds, basically tracking the top 500 companies, provide a pretty good rate of return, and you don't need to look at it), VTI is another great one that tracks 3600 companies, it includes the S&P500 but has mid and small caps in it also, which are abit more volatile but generally all 3 have the same annually return of 7-8%

Step 3: Set up with you bank an automatic transfer of what you can contribute to your savings every pay cheque, I have X amount going into my HITFSA in my brokerage, and X amount going to my savings every paycheque, ignore it and keep it there. The savings is what I use for my future house down payment, my HITFSA is my investments I am keeping long term (20-30 Years)

When it comes to the dating part, focus on your life man. You just started your career, build up your basis first.. Want to know whats worst than living with you parents? Spending half of your income on rent and can't afford to go out, feed yourself, decent furniture, TAKE GIRLS ON DATES. The girl you want is going to understand your situation and think you're smart as fuck getting ahead of the game. Just mention you have a good gig, you're saving for a house and investing. You aren't no slumbag leeching off your parents being a waste of life, you got something going for you.

/r/financialindependence Thread