How I saved $10K before 25 — without a six-figure job

In your early 20s, a savings of $10,000 can be a great safety net and, as I found out, it's a pretty realistic milestone. That is, if you have a plan.

For me to hit that goal at that age, I mapped out my own strategy. I prioritized getting money into my savings account as often as possible, even though I wasn't earning much. Instead of overthinking my spending categories or cutting every expense, I simply moved whatever I could from my checking to my savings account, and I stayed consistent with that habit over time. Here's how I saved $10,000, and the financial tools that helped.

I didn't wait until I had a full-time job to start saving. While I was still in college, most of my income came from internships and work study, so it wasn't consistent or especially high. Still, I wanted to build the habit early, even if the amount felt small.

At first, I set aside about $50 each month by automating transfers from my checking to savings account. This way, I didn't have to remember to do it — and I wasn't tempted to spend the money because it was already out of my checking account before I even noticed it.

Saving from irregular income helped me get comfortable putting money away without overthinking it, and it showed me that saving didn't require a big paycheck. At that point, too, I was just using a traditional savings account, so I wasn't earning much interest on my balance.

I graduated from college in 2020, but I was unemployed for about a year. During that time, I was able to collect unemployment, which was my only form of income at this point. I also didn't have many expenses: I lived at home with my parents and my student loan payments were on pause.

That's not to say I wasn't contributing at all — I helped with things like groceries and household expenses. I also wasn't cutting out every "fun" purchase. I love beauty products (especially hair products) and ordering out, but I grew up with a frugal mentality so I was always aware of how much I was spending.

Because of the income I received from unemployment, which was about $600 per week at the time, I took advantage of that low-expenses period. In addition to the $50 that was automatically transferred into my savings each month, I would regularly move any extra money from my checking into savings once my balance went above what I knew I needed (anything over $1,000). Having this $1,000 benchmark gave me a clear cutoff point between what I needed for short-term expenses and what I could comfortably set aside.

Within a year, from December 2019 to December 2020, I had saved just over $5,000.

I continued these same strategies into 2021, but one of the biggest shifts came when I opened a brokerage account. At the time, I still didn't have a full-time job and wasn't sure when I would get one, yet I wanted to start investing and contributing to something similar to a retirement account.

Again, I started small with $200 in the account, and I let it sit there for a few months while I got comfortable with the extra risk that I took on by putting my money in the market. By around September, I added another $500, which I transferred from my savings account, and, from there, I began contributing $200 per month consistently.

If you're doing something similar today, there are plenty of brokerage platforms that allow you to start with small amounts and low or no minimums. The key is choosing something accessible and sticking with it.

For example, Fidelity's minimum balance requirements vary depending on the investment vehicle selected, but there's no minimum for the Fidelity Go account and only a $10 requirement to invest with a robo-advisor. Betterment also doesn't require a minimum investment account balance, but there is an ACH deposit minimum of $10, meaning each deposit you make should amount to at least $10.

By July 2021, I finally secured a full-time job, which meant more consistent income. Once this happened, I then opened a high-yield savings account with Marcus by Goldman Sachs and increased my monthly transfers from $50 to $100. I moved the portion sitting in my traditional savings account into the high-yield savings account, so I started earning that higher return fairly quickly.

If Marcus isn't the right fit for you, there are many high-yield savings accounts on the market. The EverBank Performance Savings, for example, offers a solid yield and comes with no minimums required or monthly fees.

What mattered most to me wasn't the specific bank I used, but rather separating my savings from my checking account and earning more interest than a traditional savings account offered.

By the end of the year, I finally reached my savings goal of $10,000.

To keep myself motivated during my savings journey, I used the Snowball Wealth app, a financial tracking and education tool that helped me set goals like saving $10,000 and building my net worth. While that app is no longer available, the idea still applies. You can use any expense tracker or financial app that lets you see your progress clearly.

Empower is a free tool that allows you to link your bank accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, 401(k)s, loans, mortgages, etc. and you'll receive automatic updates on the balances of those accounts. You'll also see a cash flow tab that categorizes your transactions and a budgeting tab that tracks your spending, providing a comparison view from the previous and current month.

Quicken is another option that offers users a personalized spending plan based on their income and costs, then adjusts it as they spend in real time. It also offers features, such as alerts for upcoming bills, spending limits and unusual transactions, as well as personalized savings goals (like what I used) and credit monitoring. While it does come with a $36 annual charge, that's lower than many other budgeting apps out there, which typically range from $8 to $15 per month.

If I were starting my savings journey from scratch today, or if I were saving with higher expenses, I'd still focus on the habits that made the biggest differences: having a clear goal, automating each month and moving extra cash whenever possible. Those small, consistent actions matter more than the exact amount you can put away.

I think what I'd do differently is to be more intentional about where my money sits. I'd open a high-yield savings account sooner and think earlier about separating short-term savings from investing.

For anyone trying to save with more expenses on their plate, it's OK if your progress feels slower. Saving consistently, even in tiny increments, is still powerful over time.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every savings article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of banking and savings products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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