How To Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

Retirement is a difficult concept for young people to wrap their heads around. It’s hard enough figuring out how to be An Adult, let alone An Old.

We’ll be talking more broadly in the near future about the general concept of retirement. (Spoiler alert: it’s as outdated as an avocado-colored refrigerator.) But today I’d like to talk directly about the concept of saving for retirement while pretty legit poor.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to define that as someone making $30,000 a year or less. Obviously there are lots of factors that can stretch this figure. A mom of three with a high school education in Washington, D.C. is going to have a much harder time than a single, highly-educated person making the same amount in Woodstock, Alabama. And actually, that number is still more than double the official so-called “poverty line,” which is just under $13,000.

But Piggy and I feel strongly that there isn’t enough realistic, valuable advice for people in this general bracket. So we’d like to talk to them.

Who are you again?

For the sake of transparency, here are my vital stats.

When I first wrote this article, I was making just over $100,000. I got it all through just one job, and don’t do anything on the side to supplement it. My husband at the time was transitioning careers, and not making money yet, so my income was also my combined household income. Since then I have paid off my home mortgage, my spouse experienced a massive income increase, and my goal to retire by 40 is running ahead of schedule.

Actually me.

… Yeah, I wouldn’t want to listen to me either.

If someone making a million dollars a year deigned to give me some “hot financial tipz,” I’d roll my eyeballs up a hill and, like Sisyphus’s boulder, just wait for them to come back down and pop themselves back in. I’m positive there are people making $10,000 a year reading this right now, shaking their heads at the nonsense of me doing the exact same thing.

But wealth and stability are new and novel to me. Not too many years ago, I was making $18,000. That on its own isn’t necessarily Les Misérables, but I was living in the third most expensive city in the nation. My rent ate half of my income, even though I defrayed costs by sharing an apartment with five roommates. I was educated, but $40,000 in student loan debt. The economy sucked. Unemployment was still at 8%. My career had stalled. I was competing against very seasoned, very desperate professionals for every gig. So I paid my bills with sex-adjacent work and cried hot, bitter tears of frustration every time I got a tax bill demanding still more money.

Piggy’s story has many of the same troubles, with different sources. She and her husband have location-sensitive jobs. This required them to move to an area with a high cost of living and no personal support network. They both struggled with scary bouts of illness. And student loan debt? Enough to choke a horse. But they, too, are now solidly middle-class and working toward an early retirement.

The whole reason Piggy and I run this blog isn’t to make money. (Girl, look around—you see any ads or affiliate links?) Rather, we are motivated by compassion. We have been poor, and we no longer are, so we want to share what we did that made things change. If even a single kernel of our experiences can help other people, the endeavor will be worth it to us.

So without further ado, here are the goods.

You need to grow your income

Obviously.

I know, I know! “Famine-struck nation, hear me out! Eating is KEY to getting out of this situation!” It’s insultingly obvious advice, but this point is absolutely essential.

Many people have primary careers that do not pay them an adequate amount of money to survive. Most young people I know have second jobs, third jobs, fourth jobs, freelance income, side hustles, and gigs to supplement a meager primary income.

Sometimes it’s necessary. You have to do what you have to do to eat. And we want to give you practical advice for the world we all live in now, not just the misandrist utopian socialist paradise we’d like to build sometime in the future. (The mayor will be a giant anime robot piloted by Anita Sarkeesian and all the cops will be nice dogs.)

But we are extremely skeptical of the overall value of the side hustle economy. Reason being: it burdens the poor, rather than the employers who pay their inadequate wages. We’re pretty into the idea that no one should have to work at all to justify the air they breathe. But certainly at the very least, no one should have to spend their life sprinting from one shift to the next. That is antithetical to our you-are-a-human-being-and-you-need-to-live hypothesis.

Working a side gig or second job drains you of the time you deserve to invest in yourself and your own well-being. That means it should be an absolute last resort. Being tired makes you sick, which unfortunately still costs a lot of money. Being tired also makes you prone to mistakes and accidents, which can also cost you a lot of money. It makes it more difficult for you to focus on your primary career, which should be paying all of your bills provided you keep your bill level reasonable.

We posit that it is better to fully exhaust all avenues for extending the pay coming in from your primary job before you turn to other avenues.

Get a raise

That process starts with asking for a raise. We’ve got some good articles on how to frame your argument in a business-centric way (i.e., the soulless way that might actually get you results).

And when asking politely doesn’t work, you have to harangue them. Your life is on the line. If they can’t afford to pay you more than $30K a year, it is they who should go out and get a second job to afford to pay you. Your time is not any less valuable just because you are poor.

Get a new job

Change jobs every two years. I don’t care how much you like your old one. Staying in one job for longer than that allows your wages to stagnate.

You’re in the danger zone. When you are comfortably middle class, you can afford the luxury of working for less than you’re worth. It is substantially easier to increase your income when making a transition than it is to work upward for a raise.

Align your gigs

Working gigs or second jobs might still be a necessity because of the nature of your industry or lifestyle. But you should try to align them with your central career.

Let’s say you’re a ski instructor in the winter, and your real passion is the outdoors. Let’s also say you work in a coffee shop during the summer months. Look really hard at that coffee shop gig—it doesn’t speak to your central interests, and it does nothing to further your career. What if you tried branching into camp counseling, or sports coaching, or becoming an EMT, or doing landscaping?

Look for side gigs that can enhance your resume, expand your network of industry contacts, grow your related skills, and make you a happier person at the same time.

Change careers

A good number of my friends are working artists. They wait tables or work retail or teach part-time during the day, then go out at night and make art. And that’s a beautiful thing… if your only purpose on this earth is to make art.

But many feel that in addition to making art, they were also put on this earth to be parents (or to fix up old houses, train dogs, write novels, travel, or eat a steak so large they get a prize). Life is rich beyond measure. When you commit yourself to a career that is difficult to succeed in or notoriously underpaying or both, you are closing many, many doors for yourself. So you have to think really hard about how far you’re willing to go for your career.

You may love your career, but that does not mean your career loves you back.

It’s really hard to give up on something that you truly love. My partner quit his career after many years of mixed success. He’d formed great memories and great friendships in his industry, but its constant hustling for low pay was a drain. I asked him what he would say to people struggling with feeling like quitters or sell-outs for leaving a career behind. He thought for a moment, then said:

“Your life is the longest journey you will ever go on. If there’s a mountain in front of you, you don’t have to climb it right now just because it’s there. You can always come back to it. But I’ve got to go around it and see what’s on the other side.”

… A quintessentially Mr. Kitty quote. He’s a big fan of abstraction.

Life is a journey.

Here’s more of what we have to say about increasing your income, changing careers, and owning the professional world:

Internalize your value

The biggest piece of this is internalizing the fact that you are worth more than you are paid right now.

Most people understand, on an intellectual level, that their lives have great value. But it’s one thing to know it, and another to feel it down in your core.

Just like some people stay in abusive relationships, some people stay in abusive jobs or careers. There are lots of reasons for it, but I think they were all told somewhere along the way “this is the most you can expect.” And they believed it.

Every human life has value. I don’t care if you aren’t the hardest working, the highest-selling, the brightest, the fastest, the prettiest, the funniest, the best at designing weird characters in Tekken 5… you don’t need to justify your existence to anyone. And you shouldn’t have to kill yourself working multiple jobs to barely make ends meet. That is a shitty way to live, and the best way to propel yourself forward through a cheap and hostile world is to know, deep down, that you deserve more.

I charge you to fashion within the most secret chamber of your heart a throne at least twenty feet high, and seat yourself upon it. Think of every job you’ve ever worked as a sniveling peasant who must come to you, wringing their hands and begging you to come work for $7.50 an hour. Practice laughing at them, and throwing them into dungeons, and making them crawl for the privilege of your attention.

Idk, that worked for me.

Sophie's living her best life.

Don’t save for retirement

So there’s a reason the “grow your income” section was first, and quite long: you can’t retire. Not when you’re making poverty wages. Anyone who tells you otherwise should be viewed with suspicion, as they likely don’t understand what it means to truly be poor.

You knew this though, right? Because you’re probably not doing it. One in three Americans have absolutely nothing saved for retirement. And people earning $15K or $24K a year are extremely likely to be captured by this statistic.

When I was making $18K, I pinched pennies every way I could to start a 401(k) because I was told it was The Right Thing To Do. It took me two and a half years to put $500 away.

In retrospect, it was a terrible investment. The amount of money was so pitifully small that even in totally bananas bull-markets it could only grow by a few dollars per year. Meanwhile, I was losing far more than that each month to student loan interest payments. That $500 would’ve been much more wisely investing in getting me out of debt.

Failing to save for retirement was always described as a sort of slow financial suicide. “If you don’t start setting aside 35% of your income by the time you’re 22, you’ll starve to death in a dirty hovel in Marseilles like old Monsieur Dantès.” In trying to emphasize the importance of saving for retirement, I believe many financial thought-havers have turned their poorest listeners away from the idea altogether.

That is a tragedy we’d like to try to correct.

Any investment you make in yourself is also an investment toward your retirement.

Go into your bathroom. Shut the door and turn out the lights. Light twelve-and-one candles and stare into the bathroom mirror. Whisper “any investment you make in yourself is also an investment toward your retirement” three times. Piggy and I will appear behind you in the mirror. If you are pure of heart, we shall make one of your parking tickets go away.

But beware. If you are impure… we will give you retirement advice that assumes a 10% ROI on government bonds!

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary...

Pay off loans, medical bills, and consumer debt

This really is another way of growing your income. If you earn $700 a month, and $130 of that goes to student loans and credit card payments, you will give yourself an instant forever-raise of $130 per month if you make those bills go away.

If this is your situation and you have an extra $20 or $50 or $200… it’s far better to invest that money into making yourself debt-free than it is to stick it in a retirement account.

Invest in your home

Let’s say you work really hard for many years and accumulate enough wealth to buy a house worth $250,000. You own it free and clear, no mortgage. Now let’s say you’ve decided you want to retire, but you have little or nothing saved. By owning your own home, you’re automatically not stuck starting at zero. You can sell or financially leverage your home to open up retirement options.

Right now, I’m on track to retire at age 40. That said, all retirement calculators scream that I am actually far behind. They can’t account for the fact that I’m on track to own my home soon. No mortgage payments and no commuting costs equal a bare minimum of monthly expenses. These are easily supported by light freelancing, part-time work, and monetized hobbies.

Invest in your education

If a lack of education is holding you back in your career, use that extra money to go out and get the education you need. Start with looking for low-cost professional certification programs, associate’s degrees, and community college options.

Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking a new degree will solve everything. The unemployment rate for people with a bachelor’s degree in 2016 was 2.7%. For people with a master’s degree, it was 2.4%. That’s a fuck ton of potential spending to increase your odds of being hired by a quarter of one percentage point. Degrees are prestigious and required in some fields, but they won’t do all the ugly work of negotiating for you.

Here’s more on the relative value of education to career success:

Don’t leave money on the table

One major exception here to this “fuck retiring” strategy…

If you work somewhere that offers a 401(k) match, take it. Take it it to the fullest extent that you can. It’s as close to literally free money as you will ever get. Only life-preserving expenses should come before maxing out your employer’s retirement match.

Don’t lose faith in retirement

We live in a culture that demonizes poor people as lazy leeches whose poverty would go away if only they thrust their boots on with the vehemence of a P90X instructor. As I rise through the ranks of my career, I find each job to be easier than the last. It is a preposterous idea that salaries are meritocratic. I’ve never made more money, and I’ve never had it easier.

Those retirement bootstraps tho...

Don’t let the thought of an empty retirement account squeeze the air out of your chest. People are working longer, true, but necessity isn’t the only reason. Careers are viewed more vocationally now than they were fifty years ago. We want them to be stimulating, fulfilling, and meaningful, rather than merely a means to an end. We have many more options today to change jobs and careers multiple times across our lifetimes.

There is no wrong way to invest in yourself. And it’s never too late to start. Whether you choose to do so with a retirement account, your student loans, your home, your education, or in any other way you see fit is entirely up to you.

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28 thoughts to “How To Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year”

  1. This was one of the first PF articles in ages that actually motivated me, and I passed the 30k salary range awhile ago. Damn right it’s worthwhile to internalize my value, and damn right I CAN change jobs and WILL increase my income!
    Sincerely, one of your newest fangirls (Maire)

    1. MAIRE!! Thank you so much, that makes my day!

      And what an exciting time for you! People can absolutely tell when you project an aura of Someone Whose Time Is Very Valuable, and they will treat you very differently. (In a great way.) MAZEL TOV AND KEEP AT IT!!

      1. I just discovered your ep on Bad with Money & ended up searching BGR for retirement calculators (because they ALL say I’m behind too, and I don’t think so)…and found my own comment here from 2 years ago. Just wanted to let you know this article is still mad relevant, and that I’m making $20k more than I was when I posted that, so thank you!! 🙂

  2. OMG, I love the align your gigs advice. I have no idea why this isn’t common sense to folks, but it’s so true. If you’re not where you want to be in life, figure out what you want to do and every dang thing should somehow work towards it. There are a LOT of skills that can benefit most jobs, but not ALL – so just make sure you’re at least doing something with some value towards where you want to be, even if you’re not there yet.

    1. I think the reason people don’t always see this is because most people giving financial advice are coming from incomes above $30k. So their advice is always based on their current situation and not your current one. And ofc we’re going to want to follow their advice right? They’re the successful ones! I appreciate the reminders like this that reminds you not to jump into things before you’ve essentially built your foundation. Because it helps to sort through the misplaced advice other people give and focus on the real point.

  3. Gosh. I don’t know where to start here. Personally, I’d love to pull 40-50 hours a week and stick all kinds of forks into myself. My biggest issue and the issue of other people in my situation – no skills. The majority of people who work crappy fast food jobs work them because they don’t know how to do anything else. Not only that, they have no idea what they want to do for a living.

    That’s where the side-gigs come into play. They’re the easiest way to increase income and learn a new skill.

    To me, that’s what separates the poor from the middle class. They don’t have any real skills and they have no idea what kind of a job they actually want.

    Any thoughts on how to remedy any of that? I spend hours looking around on indeed and all of the jobs seem to be just as shitty as the one I’ve got now.

    1. I think there’s two issues there: one is not knowing what you want to do, and one is not having the skills to do what you want to do.

      The first one is just plain HARD for some people, regardless of class. I went to school with a lot of kids from very wealthy backgrounds, and I saw a lot of them bussing tables or working retail, unsure of what they wanted to do with their lives. Even with boatloads of skill and education and privilege, some people just fail to thrive. Sometimes it’s temporary, sometimes not.

      The second one is a lot easier to figure out, but it’s also super dependent on your industry. I went in once for a job interview I was TERRIBLY unqualified for, and my interviewer knew it. She basically threw me out, but she gave me great advice on my way out the door. “If no one’s hiring you to do the kind of work you want to do, you have to hire yourself.” I did what she said. I sacrificed some nights and weekends doing self-directed projects, just so I could show people what I was capable of. It greatly improved my portfolio, which lead to a better job and more of the kind of high-level work I like to do. Again, every industry will be different, but that’s what worked for me when I got stuck at a low level. Hopefully whatever industry interests you has something analogous.

        1. You’ll never know how much that means to us. 🙂 We appreciate your perspective so much. Please keep commenting and keep writing your blog!

  4. Oh man, I think I have read this article 3 or 4 times now. Spot on, so helpful, and a really needed antidote to the usual “if you want to meet your financial goals, get 6 side hustles you lazy bum” crud you find on a lot of personal finance sites. As a nurse, I see a ton of my coworkers work their full time jobs, plus an agency contract or part time or on call work, and they are MISERABLE. They are exhausted, totally burnt out, and these are the people who are supposed to be making high stakes clinical decisions. It’s not good. However, even seeing that, I still feel like I need to develop a side hustle. Thanks for reminding me that there are other, healthier ways to improve money situation.

    1. You can’t know how touched I am to hear this was valuable to you. And it’s so upsetting to know that nurses are often exhausted (by necessity). I know my judgement plummets when I haven’t slept enough. I find deciding what to do for dinner a paralyzingly experience; I’d be terrified to have someone’s health in my hands. I hope you can find something that recharges your batteries rather than draining them! And I hope you don’t need to do it for long!

      1. All the nurses I know run on coffee and sarcasm. It’s a potent mix when harnessed for the powers of good 😉 As for me, I’m getting my masters (on a scholarship from work) and investing in my home. I have to tell myself I don’t need a side hustle on top of all that.

        Straight up, I have sent this article to about 10 people by now. Kitty and Piggy, keep it going! This type of feminist, no bullshit, hilarious advice is really important. Thank you guys.

  5. This is the first article of yours that I’ve read. I was skeptical at first, but you hooked me with one reference: Monsieur Dantes! Fantastic!

    I really appreciate your non-monetized approach. I’ll definitely be reading more!

    Thanks!

    1. Bitches Get Riches: Come for the financial advice, stay for the Count of Monte Cristo deep cuts! Thanks for reading!!

  6. Firstly: hilarious. Secondly: This has got to be my favorite BGR article. It is exactly the right amount of compassion, and no nonsense that millenials need.

  7. I’m currently trying to move out of my parent’s place and be An Adult, and I found this website in a search for that elusive “how to save for retirement” advice, despite knowing I’m making barely above $20k. I’m good at budgeting, and I’ve built a decent savings account in preparation for moving out, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around starting a retirement fund of some sort.

    I am now on the verge of tears of joy and relief, hearing that that is not the focus right now. It’s like a pressure has been lifted off my shoulders. There is so much comfort for me in turning 30k (or at least, more than 20k) into a more realistic benchmark for starting that process. (And I plan to be there soon! I promise! The other articles on here are already teaching me so much to make that happen and motivate me!)

    I just… thank you. A lot.

    1. Nicholle, your words fill me with joy and a sense of purpose.

      Remember that are a dragon. Descend upon the shabby, grubby little Village of Twenty Thousand Dollars that has given you so much grief and anxiety, and burn it to the ground. And when the air is thick with the ashes of your enemies (who dared to give you less than you are worth), take to the skies again and terrorize the Hamlet of Thirty Thousand Dollars. WE BELIEVE IN YOU.

  8. I’ve been reading and listening to personal finance podcasts for a little less than a year now. The thing that really pisses me off is the lack of info, or acknowledgement of those of use making less than 40k (I recently hit 29k). I DID what they said though, despite the hardship. I thought about starting a blog just because it seemed as though there was no “love” out there for people like me. (Bought a name but haven’t written the 1st word yet) I loved this article. Thank you for validating my thoughts and feelings on this subject!!

  9. Omg thank you thank you thank you. I’ve been stressing that I haven’t been “putting something away” for ages now. I was all set to, having met a great guy who was gainfully employed, graduated with my masters, and then I went and decided to start a company, but it’s not quite there yet and my knight-in-shining lost his jobs in layoffs leaving us with just my part time income and a mortgage. Fckn hard, but my company is going somewhere so I’m not giving up on that just yet.

  10. Hello Kitty

    Great Advice, to expand on your comments about contributing to a 401(k). In addition to any matching by the employer, someone making 30k a year likely qualifies for the retirement savers credit. The retitement savers credit can be a great way to boost retirement savings, with little out of pocket expense.

  11. This is truly incredible, thank you so much. I’m in grad school right now taking on debt to get into a career that I really truly want (feeling like I have a goal for the first time since I was 18 years old is amazing) and SO MUCH of the advice in the world is about side hustles and I just can’t. I have no space in my brain for anything besides grad school and trying to deal with my chronic illness and I have been feeling like I am Bad At Adulting for this. Thank you for easing that burden.

  12. Wow. This is the first article I’ve read here, and what a fantastic resource you’re providing to so many people! Honestly it’s everything I’ve been searching for in a financial advice blog. Thank you so much for providing sound advice to so many of us making below 30k. <3

  13. This is fantastic advice, you are amazing! I been killing it with 3 jobs for the last few years just to be able to have some extra money but in the process I have sacrificed friends, traveling, dating etc- I am going to actually apply some of your advice to my life! Xx

  14. This is the first article I’ve read from BGR.

    The most profound statement for me was when I read that it took 2.5 years to put $500 in a 401K and in retrospect, it wasn’t earning shit and that $500 was better spent on paying down debt (I’m paraphrasing here). I’m in the same boat and decided to pull my 401K paltry sum as I’m not getting any employer match and the fees are dwindling it anyway. I might as well take the penalty or lose it all to the investment company. Whatever I get back will go towards a emergency fund or whatever.

    The second profound statement was,”Your life is the longest journey you will go on….” So, it got me thinking…If I live for, say, 65 years, and I die without owing anyone a nickel and maybe not even leaving many (or any) assets to my kids, would that be so bad? Do I really have to work myself into the ground and take on more medical problems (I was given some doozies as a kid and they aren’t getting any better as I age, lemme tell ya)? Gosh, sometimes just surviving is enough. And enough really can be enough.

    Anywho, thanks for jogging my mind and helping me realize that I really don’t have to be a millionaire to do well. I’m not required to leave assets to anyone and having enough of anything (food, cash, love) is really all I need to live well.

  15. A bit late finding this article, but better than never!

    I’m lucky enough to have a job where I get employer match on 401k, and you’d best believe I take advantage of that!

    So, I have an issue I hope you can advise me on. I live in a fairly rural area, so jobs are fairly scarce outside of retail or production (and screw that, never again!). I’m a bank teller of going on 3 years, and while my job has been good in some ways, it’s been pretty sucky in others, and I want to find something that pays better, preferably in the same field.

    Problem is, I can’t find any openings in my area, and research online at what pay in my area SHOULD be for my career and experience level is woefully scarce. Quitting with no back-up job isn’t an option since I have kids and bills. Moving also isn’t an option for several reasons.

    I’m also about 18 credit hours away from my associate’s degree in Business Administration, but my financial aid was cut off due to amount of time in school (the curse of changing majors a few different times). Finishing my degree would open more doors, but getting the money together to re-enroll feels like an impossible task with my other responsibilities.

    I’ve read your posts about asking for a raise and salary negotiations, but I’m honestly terrified that if I try asking for a raise, my bosses will retaliate/find some BS excuse to fire me. Everyone got a raise at the start of the year of 2.5%, but I was too scared to open my mouth and say “That’s not enough.” Cuz come on, 30 cents an hour?? Really?? I did the math, and excluding any overtime, it totals out to a whopping $624 increase for the YEAR. I KNOW I’m worth more than that!

    Any advice you could give would be extremely helpful and appreciated. Love you, Bitches!

  16. Very true. You can only shrink your expenses so far before there’s nothing more you can do. You have to increase your income if you want to retire early. Absolutely, 100% on point.

  17. Ok love the article and it was very helpful, but really I’m mostly hoping to be invited to the misandrist utopian socialist paradise once that’s up and running. Sounds like my kind of place.

  18. Long time fan of BGR, and this article fell into my lap at the perfect time–I just started a microeconomics class online this week, and our first discussion question was “Is it rational for a person to not increase a savings rate over time that was initially set too low? Why do people succumb to this irrational behavior?”

    A lot of people read the chapter (maybe) and had a lot of very “well you should be saving!” comments on the discussion board–but this article hits the nail on the head. Especially this part: “A mom of three with a high school education in Washington, D.C. is going to have a much harder time than a single, highly-educated person making the same amount in Woodstock, Alabama.” Personal finance is exactly that–PERSONAL. Working three part-time jobs and barely scraping by while being in a financially abusive relationship with a freeloader meant that saving was a luxury. When I finally got a full-time job and was scraping a little less, saving still wasn’t on my mind because I was still in survival mode mentally.

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