Occupation: Senior product designer
Industry: Technology
Age: 29
Location: Oakland, CA
Salary: $98,206
Joint Income/Financial Setup: I make an additional $300-$400/month walking a dog in my neighborhood. My partner and I live together but keep our finances mostly separate. We have one joint account for our sinking funds (2026 wedding, travel, car, and family funds). We both contribute to our sinking funds monthly, and then pay ourselves back for items purchased. My partner makes $108,000/year.
Assets
Emergency fund: $10,000
House savings: $40,300
Sinking funds (shared account with partner): $26,829
Retirement accounts (401K and Roth IRA): $68,226
HSA account: $2,000 (My partner has his own emergency fund, house savings, and retirement accounts.)
Debt: $0
Paycheck Amount (2x month): $2,509.19
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Housing costs: $1,500 for my half of rent. My partner and I have a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment and we split our $3K rent 50/50. My partner pays utilities since he makes more than me — they range from $100-$200/month for everything.
House savings: $1,300
Loan payments: $0
Other monthly expenses
Banjo lessons: $180 (weekly 30-minute lessons).
Phone bill: $55
Various independent media outlets: $25 (Defector Media, Sunroom Flyer Club, Substack, and Patreon).
Garmin inReach monthly plan: $14.99 (I pay for this usually April- October when my partner and I are doing backpacking trips).
Sinking fund savings: $500 (my main priority right now is saving a nest egg for my little brother, who is turning 15 this year).

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, there was an expectation for me to attend college. I’m a first-generation college student, and my parents worked really hard and heavily encouraged my siblings and me to go to college — an opportunity neither of them had. To minimize college costs, I went to a local commuter university near where I grew up, and I took heavy course loads so I could graduate in three years instead of four. I also had a scholarship that covered about half of my tuition. Throughout my three years in college, my parents contributed $7,500 ($2,500/year), and I covered the other $10,000 over three years. I worked 30 hours per week throughout college to pay for my tuition, groceries, rent, and car payment. I was very lucky not to need any student loans during this time period. In 2021, I decided I wanted to switch careers and I did the General Assembly UX design bootcamp. The cost was $14,500 and I received a no-interest loan from my older sister. I paid her back between August 2022 and April 2024 in monthly payments.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
Yes, my parents taught me and my siblings about finances. Even though my parents didn’t have a lot of money, they were very smart with their money and provided everything my siblings and I needed (I have four siblings, and also had two cousins living with us for a while so we had a very full house). My parents were very scared of debt and were big on personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, so they taught us the “envelope method” (a budgeting technique) when we were young, and we learned about budgeting as soon as we started having money of our own.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
I started babysitting when I was 14 as my first unofficial job. My siblings and I were expected to start contributing to our expenses when we were early teenagers. As a teenager, I had to pay my portion of my phone bill, and I needed to save up to buy a car when I got my license, so I babysat as much as possible for that reason. When I was 18 and moved out of my parents’ house, I needed to get a job to support myself and pay for college. I got a job at a law firm through my university’s student employment network, and I worked as a file clerk there from the time I was 18 through 21.

Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes, money was always tight growing up and my household was a very paycheck-to-paycheck life. Even though my parents did their best to shield my siblings and me from this stress, we all knew that there wasn’t extra money and we never really asked for anything extra (although we were lucky enough to receive birthday and Christmas presents every year). During the 2008 financial crisis, my dad was laid off and I remember that being an extremely stressful period.

Do you worry about money now?
2025 was probably the first year I didn’t have intense fear around money, although I still track and manage my money pretty closely. From 2017 to 2022, I made about $40K a year while fully supporting myself and trying to make progress on saving for an emergency fund and retirement, but things were extremely tight. After my career switch, my salary more than doubled. It has been a huge stress relief for me to catch up on saving for retirement, a house, and building my emergency fund.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I had to pay some expenses as a teenager (paid my monthly phone bill and bought my first car), but I became fully financially responsible for myself at 18 once I moved out of my parents’ house. I feel extremely lucky to have a really strong safety net. My partner supported me through a six-month stint of being unemployed in 2021, and I know he would do so again if needed. I’m also very close to my siblings, and any of us would gladly help each other out if needed. I’m also close with my partner’s parents, and they would be able to help my partner and me out if we ever needed it.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
No, I have never received any passive or inherited income.