Hi. I'm Andy. I'm a 23 year old Industrial Designer and going-on-one-year college graduate. I was lucky enough to graduate with no debt a score a decently-paying (52k) job in a corporate engineering department. The job's ok.... pretty boring most of the time. The idea of starting my own design consulting business in the next 5 years or so has been sustaining me through it. Stumbling upon the Mustachian philosophy has also inspired me to set some long term goals toward FIRE. The freedom it would provide is really appealing to me and I thing I value that above frivolous crap that I could be spending my money on.
So, any advice for young folks just getting started? I'm currently holding my own at 12% savings and I'm on track to 15% in the next few months with some downsizing and adjustments. I've unfortunately got a new car to pay off but that's all the debt I have. Any advice, shared experiences, or commentary would be welcome and appreciated!
Hello from one young Mustachian to another! I'm 26-turning-27 this year, earning an income similar to yours, and trying to improve my own savings rate all the time!
One thing that I recommend doing, if you aren't doing it already, is to start tracking all of your spending. Rent, utilities, groceries, eating out, dating, hobbies, car repair, the dollar you tip your parking attendant, all of it. Track it, log it, break it down, and that's where you find out where you can trim the fat-- where are you spending the most, and where can you afford to cut back the most? Look to some of the numbers our fellow great MMM people are providing for inspiration-- if they can get their grocery/utilities/clothing expenditures down to XXX number, why can't I? Another side effect of tracking is that it makes you very aware of the money you spend, because you don't want to just toss a twenty at your dinner bill and forget about it, you need to log it later!
Also, if you're at all like me, and have a 20-somethingish friend group that loooves going out, eating out, and hanging out, don't be afraid to start proposing some cheaper alternatives for having fun. Instead of eating out every Friday, now my best friend and I walk to the grocery store together, shop together, and prepare dinner together at half the price and twice the time spent with each other. Friend wants to go to a classy and expensive bar where each beer costs upwards of $7? Propose a beer tasting among friends where you each go and pick up the most interesting or weird bottle of beer, and have a vote for whoever picked the Weirdest and whoever picked the Best. You don't need to be Mr. Killjoy-Let's-Stay-At-Home every time, but just imagine-- avoiding 2 expensive $50 hangout trips each month in lieu of $10 cheap hangouts makes for a savings of $80 each month, or $960 a year-- almost a thousand dang dollars for the same amount of fun.