Live as cheaply as you can, ignore what your peers are doing in terms of cars, going out, etc. Eat at the chow hall whenever possible. Save your money. If you get BAH, rent the cheapest housing you can find and save the difference. Live like a college student for longer than is socially acceptable. As you get raises, put that money away instead of spending it. You were able to survive on E-2 pay; continue doing so.

Max out your Roth IRA and Roth TSP (19,500 + 6000 per year). You probably won’t have enough to max them both out, but do your best. Invest in the C and S funds; I fund if you’re feeling squirrely. If you have to pick one, go for C Fund. Keeping your expenses low extends to investing, so in your Roth IRA, put your money in a low-cost total market index fund such as VTSAX, VTI, or FZROX.

The above is a default approach that works for anyone but can take longer. If you’re looking at investing in real estate, do lots of research and understand that leverage is like a knife. Useful if used right, harmful if not. Do not jump in blindly, especially with the market as it is (high prices, low inventory). Look at getting a house and a bunch of roommates to help split the mortgage (house hacking), or a multi family (live in one unit). Don’t be afraid to take it slow. Better safe than sorry. If you’re unsure what to do, put your savings on automatic towards your retirement accounts as I mentioned above, or stack cash in a savings account to have some money for a down payment, repairs, or other stuff.

…

I say this from personal experience. I was lucky enough to get out of the dorms when I was an E-3. I was in Georgia, getting $658 a month in BAH, tax free. I rented a room from another guy at $400/mo (or was it 350?) and saved the rest. As time went on, the amount increased. At the highest, I was getting $1550/mo as a single E-5 in Monterey, CA and spending $950/mo on housing. That’s an extra $7,200/year I was able to put towards my investments compared to someone who took the BAH limit as a spending challenge.

Since the chow hall got you the best bang for your buck, I ate there whenever I could. If you’re living in the barracks you’re paying for it anyway; might as well use it. My slight savings advantage due to the extra money I was getting was augmented with language pay; I collected $1,000 a month for having passing scores in several languages (I was an Air Force linguist) for about 4 years, and all that money went to my investments.

In 2010, I went to Afghanistan for 6-ish months. On top of all the pay being tax-free, I was still getting housing and food stipends (BAH, BAS), language pay, and combat pay. All that money went to investments. Once again, where others saw the extra money as an opportunity to splurge, I saw it as a chance to wrest my freedom little by little from an uncertain future.

It took me four years to pay off $25,000 of debt. It took another four years to reach $150,000 net worth, and only seven more to become a millionaire at age 36. All this because I prioritized saving as much of my paycheck as I could.

Trust me on this. Tighten your belt for a little bit (5-10 years) and you’ll be able to pay cash for that Mustang compared to your buddy who got that baby for 36% APR and didn’t realize how much 42% of his take home pay really was until he totaled that bad boy six months into his 8-year car loan.