How can I at age 30, with no education beyond highschool, and no savings, retire at a reasonable age?
I’ve recently turned 30, I make $25k a year working retail and spend basically all of it on necessities, rent is not cheap where I live. Currently my primary goal in life is to find a LTR with a woman, marry her, have kids, buy a house, and retire by 60-64. Pretty normal and realistic goal I feel but it seems so out of reach.
Meeting a woman has been my first focus, but despite asking out a ridiculous number of women and wasting what little spare money I have on dating apps, I’m still a virgin, though I did get a girl to go on a date with me once years ago.
So now I’m thinking it would be helpful to focus on money first, I’m willing to pursue any career path necessary. I have $2k saved in the bank, and my car is worth ~$5k. If I sold most of my possessions I might be able to get up to $10k net worth. To be honest, I lost a further $1k on leveraged stocks years ago and it’s been eating at me ever since, fucking killing my mental health whenever I think about money. So it’s hard to think about.
I’ve applied to a bunch of stuff but basically everything that pays well requires experience or education, and if I want to afford a wife and kids and to retire at a reasonable age, I need whatever path will make me the most money, the quickest. I live in Kentucky if that is helpful.
Posted Aug 10, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC