What a first job and life choices do to your money

For anyone starting out: pick one of about 30 jobs and the way you get there, add the choices real lives include, and see what you own minus what you owe at every age. No files needed.

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Jobs and the ways there

Trades, healthcare, tech, teaching, police and fire, trucking, piloting and more, with U.S. median pay from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Routes include straight to work, apprenticeships, trade school, community college, in-state and private universities, graduate and law school, flight school, enlisting and ROTC, each with its years and cost.

The military, then a second career

Choose years in uniform, a second career, the GI Bill for its schooling, a VA disability rating, and the pension after 20 years under the Blended Retirement System.

Life choices

Living with parents, rent and roommates, a car payment and insurance, marriage and a spouse's pay, kids, and whether to buy a home and when. The home is bought only once the down payment is saved and the payment fits.

Detours

A DUI, a conviction record, payday and title loans, a credit card balance, smoking, vaping, sports betting, leaving college, child support, a medical bill with no insurance and divorce, each with what it typically costs and where that figure comes from.

Starting early and small habits

See the same monthly amount started at 18, 25, 35 or 45, what investing more each month changes, and what a daily coffee or a pack of cigarettes would be worth if invested instead. Compare two paths on one chart and share a scenario with a link.

Questions