Author Topic: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation  (Read 3159 times)

Dr. Cheftunes

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Dear Community,

i am avid reader from Germany.
I really like the idea behind early retirement, saving and investing.
There is only one little Problem:
I am (already) 32 years old and besides minor conservative savings in my bank account
(15.000 Euros at this time)i have no investment-experience and besides
that i am not a high paid silicon valley employee but rather an average paid musician. 
So i opened up my online brokerage and now decide to split 200 Euros each month into two different ETFs
along with cut down spendings and looking for higher paid options.
I kind of feel depressed because i constantly feel i lost so much time.
I donīt know if this is a typical artist thing to worry MUCH too late about financial stability.
Bottom Line of my post is:
I want to make the best out of my not so awesome starting position.
If there are any late-starters as well: any advice would be awesome!

Best wishes, Dr. Cheftunes

marty998

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2017, 02:00:45 AM »
15,000 is a good start and you appear to have no debt(?) so that is even better?

I will say though - how much do you pay for brokerage when buying ETFs? Brokerage losses on a 200 Euro trade would be quite high yes?

Linea_Norway

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2017, 02:20:04 AM »
Hello.

32 is not old to start. I think the majority of people on this forum are not to retire in their 30s, because most of us started saving much later. But just being able to be FI before your normal retirement rate would be a great achievement.

For a musician you have been doing well. According to MMM the software people are in the majority here in thinking logically and the "artsies" are usually not so frugal. But you are in the arty business and have managed to save 1500 euros. Well done. If you from now on have focus, you will be able to save at a higher rate.

A way for musicians to make extra money is playing at restaurants and weddings, type of background music, of course depending on your instrument. Piano would be good for this. It might not be the most inspiring kind of job, but I guess it is relatively easy, playing a selection of popular songs, the same ones at every gig. My old piano teacher used to do this.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2017, 03:46:38 AM »
Just now at the lunch table at work I heard a way for musicians to earn lots of money. And that it becoming a music teacher on a children's school in Saudi Arabia. My colleagues cousin is doing this and he said she had so much money that she could pension at 50. You'll get good payment, plus extra danger payment and there will be nothing there to spend it on. The children are mostly Indian and very willing to learn at school.

Laura33

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2017, 07:07:44 AM »
Boy, I get the frustration of "if only I'd started sooner."  But you can only start where you are right now.  The good news is that your time to FI is entirely dependent on you!  See this article and chart: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement.  If you save 50% of your net pay, you can retire in about 17 years; if you can increase that to 65%, you can retire in about 10.  Etc.  And all of that is not counting what you have saved so far.

In fact, you are in *better* shape having discovered Mustachianism than if you were counting on retiring at regular retirement age.  When you plan to work for 40 years, the money you invest in your 20s is the most important factor in your success, because the power of compounding is what drives your returns (after 40 years, your 'stache will be more than twice as large as it was after 30 years, even if you don't add another penny, just because of the power of compounding).  So if you planned to invest small amounts and let compounding turn them into a giant 'stache over 40 years, then, yes, you'd be behind.  OTOH, when your plan is to retire early through Mustachianism, compounding is significantly less important, because you're not planning on waiting 30 or 40 years to use that money!  In that case, what will drive your success is your own savings rate, as described in the article above.  And that is the same whether you start at 22 or 52.  Sure, you've probably missed the "retire by 40" option -- but 45 or 50 is out there waiting for you.

Finally, this is one of my favorite Dear Abby columns of all time -- I keep this in mind whenever I start worrying about starting too late and being too old:

"DEAR ABBY: I am a 36-year-old college dropout whose lifelong ambition was to be a physician. I have a very good job selling pharmaceutical supplies, but my heart is still in the practice of medicine. I do volunteer work at the local hospital on my time off, and people tell me I would have made a wonderful doctor.

If I go back to college and get my degree, then go to medical school, do my internship and finally get into the actual practice of medicine, it will take me seven years! But, Abby, in seven years I will be 43 years old. What do you think? -- UNFULFILLED IN PHILLY

DEAR UNFULFILLED: And how old will you be in seven years if you don't go to medical school?"

Vindicated

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2017, 09:25:21 AM »
Finally, this is one of my favorite Dear Abby columns of all time -- I keep this in mind whenever I start worrying about starting too late and being too old:

"DEAR ABBY: I am a 36-year-old college dropout whose lifelong ambition was to be a physician. I have a very good job selling pharmaceutical supplies, but my heart is still in the practice of medicine. I do volunteer work at the local hospital on my time off, and people tell me I would have made a wonderful doctor.

If I go back to college and get my degree, then go to medical school, do my internship and finally get into the actual practice of medicine, it will take me seven years! But, Abby, in seven years I will be 43 years old. What do you think? -- UNFULFILLED IN PHILLY

DEAR UNFULFILLED: And how old will you be in seven years if you don't go to medical school?"

Wow, what a wonderful way to look at things!

I am (already) 32 years old and besides minor conservative savings in my bank account
(15.000 Euros at this time)

I am also 32, and only just getting started.  I don't expect to retire in 10 years, but I know that making Mustachian changes will put me in the position to take more control over my future.  You're ahead of me, since we both have about the same savings, but I have a load of debt.  So, you're not alone in this journey.  There are many of us of all incomes and varied goals!

Just soak up as much of this wonderful information as you can, and leverage it to build the best situation for yourself.  That's all each of us can do.  The simple act of starting has put you ahead of where you would have been otherwise!

Good luck!

esq

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2017, 08:22:57 PM »
Good advice and encouragement here; just wanted to add mine:  You can set your mind to whatever you want to do. When I saw the title of your thread I thought you were actually old like me.  32 is still a baby! 

Best of luck with it.

ChpBstrd

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2017, 09:02:17 PM »
Also, you could still change careers. If you did 4 years of university (I understand it's cheaper in Deutschland) you could graduate at 36 and start a second career with a higher paycheck.

I've changed careers twice, at ages 21 and 32. Each time, the money and working conditions improved. Earning a master's in business really helped open the doors.

Dicey

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2017, 11:21:48 AM »
I've always loved that quote. Thanks for posting it, Laura33.

To OP: the past is something that you can NEVER regain, so stop looking backward. You can change your future, but you can't change the past. Change your future enough and the financial mistakes of the past won't matter.


Dr. Cheftunes

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2017, 12:07:08 PM »
WOW! I really did not expect so many encouraging answers and thought-suggestions like you guys posted here.
Thanks you for that! I really did not expect to be welcomed so warmly.
I am way more motivated to stay on track then before.
To shortly get in some answers and furthers informations:
Yes, i will have to check out my brokerage fees in detail and have to see what my best options are.
This is a thought i did not had in the beginning, thanks for the input!
The Saudi Arabian Music Teaching sounds really interesting, especially as i am having a degree in music education.
There sure are ways to level up and i thought of some good ways too and have to work on them.
As ChpBstrd points out: i right now actually am studying something totally different then music for changing careers in the nearer future.
I chose a Masters in "Management" which is best described as an MBA Program in German but affordable and 100% un-elitist for the normal
people like us. Not with all the Network and higher Society stuff attached. So i want to get in leading positions for social impact projects.
Again not an option to get totally rich quick, but a stabler way of generating income to plan with and a fulfilling thing to do as well.
Also i will experiment with some side-hustle activities and will see how this works out. 
Laura33: thanks for the awesome infos and inspiration. Also a great reminder, especially the Quote :)
So i guess now is the time to start calculating, saving and investing.
I will be around more often in this Place and annoy everyone with starting questions.

Best wishes to all of you!
Dr. Cheftunes

farfromfire

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2017, 12:30:04 PM »
After all of the excellent advice given above, I will just say that you are already leaps and bounds more mustachian than the average German who shies away from any investing (with the exception of the 0,001% zinsen from the bank account).
Try to save on shopping (store brands, Aldi, etc.), and avoid any "Bio" products if you can ;)

Hotstreak

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Re: Mustachian with little Income and a late Start here needs Motivation
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2017, 01:52:47 PM »
Better to save what you can than to save nothing at all.  Even if you can't retire early, which is likely on an average musicians wages, you should be able to at least retire at some point.


Mustachian principals move the gauge a lot in your favor, but they won't change your underlying circumstances.. which is low wage.. only a different career or astonishing musical success can do that.