Hi, I'm just a new Mustachian from Colombia, I discovered Mr. Money Mustache from Livingafi blog and, after reading some articles and forum posts, I realize this is a great community very aligned with my own thoughts on work life and the desire to retire early to enjoy a better way of life.
If you don't mind, I'd like to post some stats on my current financial status (which isn't the best), and I eagerly look forward to get some advice from experienced mustachians!
For the following values, consider that my cost of living is about 1/3 of the cost in a medium-large USA city, keeping approximately the same standard of living in regards to housing, food, public services access and entertainment. I think it's better to express my take-home income in US dollars equivalent, and all the other values as a percentage of that, so here I go:
Age: 36
Gender: male
Status: single with no kids
Work as: full time employee
Field: IT/Computing
Net worth: $0
Debt: $0 (I paid all my credit card debt just yesterday, using the savings from the few previous months, hence my net worth of $0)
Average annual take-home (net) income: US $30.000 (roughly equivalent to US $90.000 for someone living in the USA)
Average spending rate: 45% of net monthly income
Average saving rate: 55% of net monthly income
Rent cost: 12%
Food, groceries, eating out: 10% (fortunately food is very cheap and high quality in my country)
Transportation (public, I don't own a car): 2%
Misc expenses (personal items, infrequent purchases, etc.): 2%
Supporting a sister who is studying abroad: 7%
Going out/Drinks/Entertainment: 12%
Investments: none (saving all the money in a standard savings account)
Although I've worked for several years, just recently I understood the need to save and not spend unnecessarily, and I'm finding great pleasure as I see a bright future if I can save enough to retire early and enjoy aspects of life that are more important to me. For the time being, I just began to save part of my income, but I'm sure that percentage can be improved so I'm looking for suggestions from more experienced savers. Thanks!