Moved from the east coast to California, without a job lined up. I had an apartment with two roommates to move in with however.

This was about 1.5 years after graduating from a mostly crappy school with a BS in Computer Science. The job opportunities in the Bay Area super paid off. 23 years later I'm living a life that I couldn't have dreamed about growing up.

Paying off all our credit cards and cancelling them and living off cheque / savings accounts rather than credit.

We did this about 5 years ago before COVID uncertainty and the current cost of living crisis and I’m just so relieved we don’t have to worry about paying anything off.

Changing jobs in 2021. Managed to almost double my salary overnight with less stress.

Stop spending on games :(

Taking out a good loan to consolidate my credit card debts, and make them cheaper at the same time. I might be paying it off for 5 years but the interest and monthly payments are cheaper.

Buy GME

Buying a crappy house. It's structurally sound, but not a good neighborhood, crappy schools, and I don't want to have people visit, but it cost half the county median and the difference in mortgage goes into index funds. My peers have nicer homes, but its their only asset: if they want to retire, they have to sell the house and move somewhere cheap.

I went through the CFA certification process and it helped me advance in wealth management where I can afford a family and a decent life.

I don't make a killing like some but family is happy.

Work isn't that fulfilling so figuring that out but it was a great financial decision. Cost like less than 5k and work paid for most.

Starting a business

I diversified my savings account. Some is put into precious metals,a CD, and some in stocks.

Offset mortgage

2 pieces of tech, 1 piece of software (4 if we include freeware)

A 3D Printer has become a corner stone of repair and tidiness in my house hold thanks to it. Saves me money on knickknacks on tools to keep things working and wires cleaned up.

FreeCad and PrusaSclicer have been helpful to make that happen.

The other is an Elgato hdmi recorder, allowing me to turn my various mobile devices and stream boxes in DVR. With editing software like DaVinci Resolve, Magix Vegas I am able to record my shows at a good quality and edit them down to remove things like streaming company logos.

I wont go into the specifics since I don’t want this gravy train to stop, but handbrake is the last part of the process to compress the video down to a bit sized format.

I'd say investing in my 401k.

I'd recommend to anybody looking for sound financial advice to look into Dave Ramsey. You can watch his YouTube videos and gain all the knowledge you need free. I never went through any of his courses and do not have any association with him. I was already doing most things he recommends and it works.