Even young, given current salaries for software developers, this is very viable. I was earning ~$80,000/year as a newly graduated bachelor of Computer Science working 40-hour weeks at a flexible consulting shop before I started my Masters degree.
Given my living arrangements and lack of dependents, it didn't require any effort at all to save 50% of this money and put it into long-term (retirement) investments. Ten years of a similar arrangement would ensure a very decent nest egg, assuming I kept living below my means. Given that skills and salaries increase quickly, after a couple of years it would almost certainly be possible to scale back 25% and keep saving more or less the same amount.
As long as you are in a position to plan ahead, this shouldn't be a problem. It helps to view the glass as half full rather than half empty; many people will only see the negativity in any suggestion. Money is often a subject where the naysayers talk louder than the rest.
I'm with you 100%. Although, in terms of planning ahead, you might want to have a family or girlfriend/boyfriend in the future which will eat into your cash flow considerably. Also, you'll probably want nicer shit as time goes on. Living in a shitty apt in some crappy part of town loses it's novelty when you know you could easily, for a little bit more a month, get a better place.
Depending on the area you live in, with a salary like that and that level of savings, you can own a house by your early to mid 30s. A decent house here can go for as low as $100k (middle Georgia). Lower if you're willing to accept older homes and the issues that usually entails (asbestos, will need more in upkeep costs earlier, 60s/70s stylings for the interior). A single professional can make in the upper 5 to low 6 figures. After retirement accounts, you can pay off that mortgage in 5-10 years. If you don't go for the ludicrous $500k homes (or higher) that we have around here, you can live nearly debt free (in this case a mortgage no worse than rent at the decent apartment complexes). And by your 30s be debt free (I was late getting into the job market after a failed attempt at grad school, so for me it'll be late 30s, but close enough).
Given my living arrangements and lack of dependents, it didn't require any effort at all to save 50% of this money and put it into long-term (retirement) investments. Ten years of a similar arrangement would ensure a very decent nest egg, assuming I kept living below my means. Given that skills and salaries increase quickly, after a couple of years it would almost certainly be possible to scale back 25% and keep saving more or less the same amount.
As long as you are in a position to plan ahead, this shouldn't be a problem. It helps to view the glass as half full rather than half empty; many people will only see the negativity in any suggestion. Money is often a subject where the naysayers talk louder than the rest.