Ok i'll bite. I knew about MMM for years and did nothing about it. When 2020 hit I realised I'm not 21 anymore and have almost no savings at 32 years old. So I started reading MMM and coming up with my plan.
I found the $2M to $4M thread and posted in there as I was so excited that people like that are on MMM. I thought it was all about people who wanted to save $500K and then live off $25K/year. So I was very wrong haha!
Anyhow. I posted my story on there about my road to $3M that I'm now starting. Got a bit of backlash as expected when posting about something like that with about $5K in the bank. But also encouragement. Someone recommended I take a look at this thread.
My full journal is here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/dominik's-journey-to-$3mm-d/It's super detailed about how I've done very well in the past. Traveled for years running an online business being in a new country and city each month. Sold over seven figures on Amazon with a business in the past. And done well with other stuff also. And the other side of things that were not so nice like the income dropping down a LOT and fast and getting sick for a long time. The issue for me has always been keeping the money. Not making it. That's why I'm at MMM to change my ways.
So this is the right place for me to mingle until I get to the $10K and move to the next challenge. It's really good to read others stories in here as I see what others post about. I reaslie now I've not added a few things in that I should be adding with some small debts.
Right now I have my living costs covered from my small online business that brings in about $3k/m. Where I live now I literally live off about $1,200. About $800 goes into my business to maintain the income. About $300 goes towards a side project to create a new income stream that is long term. So I've had about $1,000 spare to play with a month. When I had no plan that was just being blow on eating out or other expenses.
For example recently I had to renew my visa to live in Thailand and that was $2,000 for the year roughly. And I had to fly to Malaysia from Thailand to even be allowed to renew the visa. You have to leave and come back before you can apply again. So spent 3 nights in Kuala Lumpur in hotels and all the costs for that was $500 extra onto so $2,500 all up.
So something has 'always' come up. It seemed to be never ending month in month our. The bank balance staying the same. Now that's changed though and I'm saving. Dropping weight also and getting fit so no more food delivery from Uber Eats and other food deliver apps every night checking though cash. Shopping and cooking is much cheaper! Once a week I take a day off and eat what I want for the mental sainty side of things. So a bit more money spent on that day but a lot less vs eating out daily or multiple times a day.
I've also recently started a new small online business that's doing about $2K/m gross. My goal is to get it to $10K/m profit by mid year. That's my stepping stone to really kick-start things in 2020. That's really where my savings has come from these last few months as I didn't have much before. And I was slowly testing things so there was no need to reinvest it. A bit of a life saver really as I had no savings a while back.
My numbers as of Feb 1st as I have many business costs and money that will also come in over the next two weeks. It's just easier to figure it out for what will happen on the 1st of next month:
I'm from Australia originally but everything I earn and spend is in $USD.
Assets:
Cash - $5K
Super - $19.3K (Super or superannuation is the Australian word for 401k)
Debts:
Accountants - $310
Company Renewal - $425
The accountants charge me about $60/m and have been kind enough to let me pay down my balance every three months with about a $275 payment. It was originally about $1,000. And the company renewal is the same story. They were nice enough to let me do a renewal for the year and segment it.
So it's not much and I'll get it paid down. I'm dealing with good people so I don't have to do it right away. In a few months I'll get it paid off in full as I'd rather put cash into my new business that's moving fast.
I really shouldn't count the Super. I won't add it into future post as I'm 33 in about 6 weeks so I've got 32 years to go until I can access it at 65 or 25 years after I start FIRE as I plan to start FIRE at 40.
I've also got old taxes I've not filed that I need to get on top of. And who knows what that is going to be. It might even be something like $30K owed. When my cashflow situation is better and I can pay it down at say $5K/m without it impacting the growth of the businesses I'll get it sorted.
Luckily one is my final tax filing in Australia so there isn't much they will do trying to slap on fees as I know it won't be more than about $5K to $7K and I when I do file I should be able to pay it off right away in full. The others are from past years with LLC in USA and again, luckily, I don't pay tax in USA. It will be flow through tax to me in another country via a tax treaty so the accountant told me there shouldn't be penalties on that as it's literally just paper work in USA and the taxes are owned elsewhere.
Over the coming months if my numbers are right I should get to $8.2K by April 1st. Up from $5K but I'm going to stay at $5K instead. I'm going to up that $300 to $1000 starting in Feb for the small longer term business to really move it forward. And the other $1,800 I'll use to boost up the business I've started that's doing $2K/month gross as I have a serious goal with that to hit $10K/month net by mid year as that's my foundation to really move forward and fast.
So that's me! Wish me luck! I'll keep checking in and posting updates as they happen.
