This month, I'll celebrate my birthday, but I'm not sure how much celebrating I'll do. At 28, I'm back in my hometown in Oregon after two cross-country moves and more than one journalism career blip thanks to the economic downturn. Needless to say, I'm not quite where I planned to be.
My looming birthday also got me thinking about my finances. Are they where I'd hoped they'd be at 28? Not really.
I depleted most of my savings after buying a car and moving more than once, often without a job lined up. For retirement, I have maybe $2,000 stowed into a Roth IRA. I've never contributed to a 401(k), nor put money away to buy a house. Thankfully, I have no student loan or credit card debt.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
