Has taking control of your money and mastering your personal finances always been your mindset as an adult? Can you share the coles notes version of your financial journey?

I’ve always been a saver, and have loved seeing a rising bank balance. When I was a kid, I used to ask all my family members to give me money for Christmas and my birthday, which I would deposit in a savings account and use throughout the year.

I didn’t work in college, but I did work through most of law school (part-time during the semesters, and full time during the summer and winter breaks). I mostly spent the money (something I regret), and lived with my parents.

When I started working as a lawyer, I wanted to buy an apartment, but then the Great Recession hit and my employer froze my salary. It was a blessing in disguise, since I dropped the house-hunting plans and continued to live with my parents (but they started charging me rent). Still, I was able to save about $25,000 in a couple of years, and any apartment I would have bought would have probably declined in value.

Things changed when I went to work with my father, left my parents’ house, and Lily and I got married. Financially, I’m paid a somewhat modest salary, but I get bonuses when cases pay out. That means that my income is very volatile, and can vary hugely year-by-year. So, we balance that out with Lily’s government job, which of course pays an extremely predictable, steady salary. It also provides both of us with health insurance and other fringe benefits that I don’t get from my job.

So our “system” right now is that we live off our salaries (and save a little bit), and save up most of my bonuses. There’s still lots of room for improvement, though, since we’re not saving enough.

What strategies and tactics have you implemented in your life to best set you up for financial success?

The biggest would be automating savings. A percentage of Lily’s salary is automatically invested in her government retirement plan, which is then matched by the government and goes into the stock market. We also have auto-withdrawals every month from our checking account, where the money goes into several robo-advisor accounts and is invested.

Second, we prioritize spending on (hopefully) appreciating assets like our house, rather than depreciating assets like cars (we recently traded in our luxury car for one that’s non-luxury). We don’t buy much “stuff” anymore, and try to get coupons and discounts when we do.