Young Mustachians

[daymare]

Would love to meet the rest of the younger Mustachians on this board and hear about your experiences.  It goes without saying: the more numbers you can share, the better!

I'll start:
23, living in DC, started reading the blog about 8 months ago, but have been oddly fascinated with saving for retirement since HS, and found myself a fee-only financial advisor when I started working.  I work in the software industry and make 85K/year (have been working for slightly under 1.5 years at this point).  I currently have 10K in a savings account, 19K in my 401K (12K from me into a Roth 401K, 7K from my employer to a traditional 401K), and ~10K in my Vanguard Roth IRA.  It is likely that I will be going back to school for my PhD this coming fall, hence will be making much, much less for the next 6 years.

I generally find that I lead a pretty wasteful life -- while I don't have a car, exclusively bike or metro to work, chose not to pay for internet (have shitty but free wifi at the apt building and have realized that after working for 12 hours at a computer, I can make do without internet at home), have my cell paid for by work, and have no debt -- I spend a lot on my apartment and enjoy so many luxuries.  My coworkers all make a similarly or even more ridiculous amount of money, so we all tend to save some but also indulge on going out.  Looking back, I would absolutely make a different decision on where to live, and not get a freakin sweet studio, but it's taken me awhile to get perspective on spending money as a tradeoff for having money later.  I am definitely embarrassed that my savings rate is so low -- because I saved more than the 'average' American, it was easy to feel like I was doing a lot, when in reality I needed a punch in the face.

I'm quite enjoying the expansion of my life philosophies -- it's crazy how easy it is not to think about any of this when you're working 12 hour days and work is your life.  My new favorite activity is going through my apartment and finding things to donate/sell/freecycle. I haven't really run into too many problems from other people -- my general belief is most people don't take the time to think about what they want and how they are handling money, and that that's how most mistakes are made.  Subsequently my friends all know I'm obsessed with personal finance (I blog about it) and will talk to them about anything.  I'm a huge believer that money shouldn't be a taboo subject, and so I'm very open about it (and try not to be judgy).

A couple I know was looking at 4+ bedroom houses at ~400K, and they are my age and only one of them works (similar salary)-- that seems so ridiculous to me.  However I've always enjoyed calling people out when they say stupid stuff (and I count on my friends to do the same to me), so generally if I hear anything ridiculous, I'll try to offer my differing opinion, while knowing that ultimately it's not my business.  I'm really excited for the rest of my life (so much I want to do!) and thankful that my boyfriend of 4+ years is totally aligned.

I think I picked up this blog because I'm a voracious reader -- currently reading books about why women should invest in real estate, and how to communicate with teenagers.  Why?  Because knowing stuff is useful.  How did everyone else discover MMM?  Any frustrations you've experienced as a young Mustachian?  Older folks, feel free to chime in as well and share your wisdom!

[YoungAndWise]

Eh I'll chime in right quick.

I'm 17 living in Texas, with parents obviously and I a worrying about college and high school at the moment. Don't have a job and probably won't have until I start college since next semester I'm working on my Pharmacy Technician certification along six hours of college plus other stuff I need to do like scholarships (although most of them will come through the college I am going to, which has a singular application forum for scholarships.)

[marty998]

26, from Sydney. COL especially housing will add a few years to the goal. I'm 4 years away from paying off a very big mortgage but will probably upgrade before then. Dinarik - my 2 bed unit on the outer fringe of the metro area is $400k, a 4 bed house and you're probably looking at double that.

I'm one of those people who has zero "disposable" income. I work damn hard for my money and I make every dollar spent worth it

Learned a few lessons in the GFC, I suppose I am lucky that I got burned at 21 instead of 41.

In all honesty I have everything I need except someone to share it with :)

[daymare]

26, from Sydney. COL especially housing will add a few years to the goal. I'm 4 years away from paying off a very big mortgage but will probably upgrade before then. Dinarik - my 2 bed unit on the outer fringe of the metro area is $400k, a 4 bed house and you're probably looking at double that.

Wow, awesome that you're only 4 years off from paying off a big mortgage.  My shock at the figure of 400K was mostly based on the situation -- the guys is my age and makes a similar amount to me, and the woman doesn't work and doesn't plan to.  So to me having such a large mortgage seems insane, it's basically setting yourself up to be really stressed if you can't keep making lots of money, and fewer options for taking a different path (like returning to school or looking for a job that allows for a better life yet a smaller paycheck).

I guess I'm joining the ranks of people who got burned out early -- even though I'm in a pretty cushy situation (family who would provide a place to stay if I needed one, good education), the thought that I'll be leaving my job soon has made me realize just how awful it feels to be tied to a job (in my case, my job was my life, so my worth at work was my worth in life ... not good), especially financially.  I have a month-to-month lease, no major recurring expenses that work doesn't pay for, and the thought of change is still terrifying.  I've been thinking a lot about getting rid of things & stuff.  I love the idea that less stuff means less hassle and fewer constraints (ie, you don't need a bigger place to house your stuff, easier to pick up and move).

I don't know nearly enough about real estate to make any moves yet (working on it), but my problem is that I always try to shove the money I'm saving into retirement accounts.  Granted, I could withdraw the principal from the Roth, but my mental accounting is working against that!

[kudy]

Singing the title of this thread to myself to the music of "Young Americans" by Bowie.

[Adventine]

23 from the Philippines. I'd rather not post numbers because I've made it (maybe too) easy to find out my real identity. But I'm proud to say I've never ever had any debt (student loans, credit card, whatever) and that I've been saving at least 50% of my salary since I started working in 2009 and well before I started reading PF blogs. Guess I'm just naturally conservative that way. And maybe because when I started my first full time job, I had a net worth of exactly zero.

The savings have come in handy, especially in recent tough times when I had to help my family out a lot. Planning to push the savings rate to 65% and beyond in 2013.

My friends think I can save so much only because I have a (relatively) cushy job for my age while my coworkers think I'm slightly nuts. I don't think either is true. It just depends on your personality and priorities.

[kt]

24, uk
recent grad, coming up to the end of my first year freelancing from home. no outlays for the work but income currently only about 1/4 more than national minimum. have always worked and saved which means i feel secure freelancing as i could fund my current lifestyle for at least 2 years on savings. hoping in the future to use savings for a 30% deposit with a mortgage about 3x my current income.
need to seriously up income before i can save much more, though i automatically save at least 30% at the mo for taxes and not all of that will be needed to pay them so perhaps saving for myself just under 1/5 of my income. hoping to earning 1/3 more next year and save all that (though some will go on increased taxes).
i've always considered myself frugal but this site makes me feel like i'm not doing enough which can be a bit discouraging and the ideas of shares scare me! though i do have a person pension plan.

[Rekreativc]

I'm 23 living in Slovenia, Europe (it's a small country and there is no real reason why you should know where it is, so don't feel bad :) ) and I've been a "saver" since I can remember. I've only recently heard about MMM and since then my money mustache has really taken off.

I won't post any numbers since I doubt they would mean anything to an international audience.

I too work as a software engineer, however I am still a part time student so I don't work full time and my pay reflects that. But it is still a great pay and my hourly wage is higher than anyone else I know in my country.

Due to this being Slovenia I have no student debt since higher education is still free for everyone here. My GF and I are renters and we aren't planning to buy a home in the foreseeable future. Thanks to this we have both managed to stay completely debt free.

I now, thanks to MMM, save about 35-45% of my monthly income every month. I now have saved about 1.5 x what I earn in a year, but this is now going up very fast - before I "became a mustachian" I only saved about 10 percent of my monthly income except on the higher pay months, so even though I was always considered a saver by my peers I have made some very real progress.

Looking forward to staying the course to an early retirement!

[Russ]

21, Columbus, Ohio
I've always been a pretty frugal person, but I never attached a goal to it until I was introduced to MMM a little over a year ago. Now my plan is to be bare-bones FI in 5-6 years, then continue working fun side jobs until I have enough stashed for a family (which may or may not happen, but I'd rather be prepared just in case!).

Right now I'm starting my last full semester at Ohio State University studying Mechanical Engineering. I just finished an internship so I have about 10k in the bank, but half that is going to pay tuition and the other half will be my living expenses for the next 6 months. I don't think of it as savings, more of a debt to future-russ.

I'm fortunate to have MMM friends here with whom to share a cheapass college student lifestyle. Rent + utilities + food is between 500-550 per month depending on how extravagant we are with the groceries. I'd like to keep up a similar arrangement as long as possible, whether here or somewhere else. I don't know what I'd do with more than a bedroom's worth of space if I were living on my own. I don't have that much stuff nor do I want to at this point in my life. Plus having other people in the house is just plain fun.

[chicagomeg]

23, just moved to Chicago from DC. Engaged. Financial responsibility is NOT something that comes naturally to me, but it is how my parents raised me, and my fiance is one of you naturally frugal folks. :) I'm learning to enjoy seeing our net worth increase instead of new clothes or eating out. My goal is for us to pay off all my student loans next year, then in 2014 start maxing out his 401k while we save for a house. By 2016 be maxing out both.

When I was in college, I used to spend hours planning out how much each paycheck would be and which things I wanted that I could buy with each paycheck. Granted, I always paid my bills on time, but I was (partly) living on credit cards. Now, I spend just as much time meticulously tracking our budget & keeping a spreadsheet of our projected net worth. It's fun in a different way for me.

Anyway, it's nice to know that 1. We're not the only young people trying to be responsible and 2. We're not the only ones with good jobs, because sometimes I feel pretty guilty about how easy we have it compared to most of my friends.

[SMC]

I just turned 25, live in Canada, work as an engineer doing structural steel design for oil&gas processing facilities.

I first discovered MMM through ERE. I liked MMM because I found I could identify with him as we have alot of similarities (engineering, biking, snowboarding etc).  I like his philosophy of frugality while still living well and having fun.  I found his writing fun and enjoyable to read.

I haven't really experienced many frustrations as a young mustachian.  Mustachianism for me isn't about being super cheap and not spending any money at all and having no fun; rather its about being more efficient with my spending.  I do spend money, however I try to focus my spending on things that are of value to me and make me happy.

Two things I try to focus on are: A) saving money on little things as these add up significantly over time, and B) for large expenditures I try to plan them to get the most value out of them.

An example of A) is taking a bagged lunch to work instead of going out, biking to work when its warm, wearing a sweater in the house instead of turning up the furnace, drinking cheap beer at home instead of going to pubs, and other stuff like that.  It really adds up over time.

For B) for expensive things I try to plan how to buy them to maximize my value.  A good example is my hobbies, mountain biking and snowboarding, both of which can be quite expensive.   This season I needed a new snowboard and rather than buy a brand new board I went to a used gear sale and bought a slightly used board ($600 value) for $180.  Rather than pay $80/day for lift tickets I bought a seasons pass ($1000), which if i use 25 times will work out to only $40/day.  I saved over $1000 on my high end mountain bike by buying a one year old model (still brand new and unridden) that my local shop had leftover in their basement.  I try to buy high-end equipment because you get more enjoyment out of it and you save money in the long run as you have to replace parts less often. 

Anyways to summarize, while I do have frustrations in life, I don't think any of them are due to my Mustachianism.  My day to day life isn't really drastically different as a result of MMM, I still do the same things I always did, I just try to spend my money more efficiently and live my life more efficiently.

[gdborton]

I'm 23, and frugal by nature.  I grew up poor, so my life goal isn't to be rich or retire early, it basically sums up to "Don't be poor"

I made it through college with only $3,500 (gone now) in student loans, and stayed with my GMA for free rent.  I've been able to live imo very comfortably on a little over half of my $52k income (not sure how people struggle with this), before finding MMM.

Since finding this site and ERE, I've been able to cut close to $500 a month from my spending, and pick up a new job making considerably more and will enable me to cut more.

[COguy]

Hi all,
  I am 26 and live in Longmont, CO.  I found MMM through ERE and I think I got totally hooked when I saw he lived in the same small city as me while reading his library article.   

I have a cushy high paying enginerding job with a master's degree and save over 65% of my after tax income.  I think I am attracted to this lifestyle because I am a very independent renaissance man and see myself burning out of engineering in under a decade so I am taking steps to ensure I can live the life I want and not be forced to work. 

I must say that I feel very lucky to live where I am.  It is one of the most "granola" places in one of the most "granola" states.  Things like bike riding to work, packing a lunch, dressing any way you want, and such are much more common than other places I have lived.  Heck, we have indoor bike racks where I work.  It makes winter biking a snap.

Most of my fiends are poor or frugal or both so I must say that I have had few frustrations being a young Mustachian so far.  Except with dating.  It seems like many of the younger women I meet just love work and spending and so finding someone who gets my frugal nature has been harder than I thought. 

[melidesau]

It's nice to meet you all (and great idea for a thread, dinarik)!

I'm 22, live in Montreal, and am currently one class away from finishing my BA in linguistics and anthropology. I've been working as a freelance translator for the last two years, and my career has finally picked up to the point that I'm getting steady work.

I grew up pretty frugally; my mother (my parents divorced when I was a baby) made it very clear when I was a teen that if I wanted spending money I'd have to make it myself. But then when I moved out and started university my father started not only paying my tuition but also giving me $1000/month to cover my living expenses. For about two and a half years I went through the entire amount every month... even after he raised it to $1200 because my rent was raised. Ridiculous, right?

About a year before I was due to finish my degree I started realizing that I needed to start planning for a time when I would have to work for my money, and figured out pretty quickly how stupid it would be to spend all my time working just to be able to eat in restaurants and live in a fancy-ass apartment. I started reading minimalism/lifestyle design blogs, moved into a smaller place, got rid of something like 3/4 of my stuff, and started working on improving my job prospects. Then I discovered MMM from a link someone posted on Facebook in May and found that it was a way better fit for my ambitious self than Zen Habits.

It's hard to say anything specific about my income is because my business is growing so rapidly, but I made about $4200 over the last two months and expect to earn at least that much in the future (it amounts to about $25-40 an hour, and I've been working no more than half-time). I have about $4600 in a savings account which is waiting to be transferred into the TFSA I just opened, and since my father's still supporting me (god knows why, since I'm only studying part-time and he knows I'm making money) I'm currently able to save 100% of my earnings plus a significant amount of my monthly "allowance". I'm pretty optimistic about the next couple of years, since my job allows me to live anywhere and I love travelling :)

[NumberCruncher]

I think I am attracted to this lifestyle because I am a very independent renaissance man and see myself burning out of engineering in under a decade so I am taking steps to ensure I can live the life I want and not be forced to work. 

Yes! After a while it just seems like you have to do the same thing for the rest of your life and rarely have the chance to be creative with most engineering jobs. :-/ 

[melidesau]

After a while it just seems like you have to do the same thing for the rest of your life and rarely have the chance to be creative

Not just in engineering :P It's hard to do a lot of cool, different shit when you're stuck fulfilling the same function over and over again, no matter how useful that function may be...

[marty998]

After a while it just seems like you have to do the same thing for the rest of your life and rarely have the chance to be creative

Not just in engineering :P It's hard to do a lot of cool, different shit when you're stuck fulfilling the same function over and over again, no matter how useful that function may be...

Yep +1. Try being an accountant

[WorkingOnStubble]

19, from the UK here. I've been living pretty frugal my whole life, even when it was my parents paying for everything. I've sort of had to fight their belief that money is to be spent, not saved. I'm now part-way through my second year at University, and from all I've saved, I have a net worth of £712, so about £9.7k saved and £9k in loans due to university. My net worth's slowly growing, and I don't know of anyone else who's managed to achieve a profit from going to University, but I'm pretty happy with that!

Frustrations I've encountered are being unable to talk about some of the financial things I've done to my friends or family. My family would think I was insane to be saving so much, and encourage me to 'enjoy myself'. With my friends, they're more likely to complain that I'm so lucky to be getting the money I do, and they're right, but it feels a lot like I can't talk to them about it because it'll seem like I'm bragging rather than just excited about it!

[NumberCruncher]

After a while it just seems like you have to do the same thing for the rest of your life and rarely have the chance to be creative

Not just in engineering :P It's hard to do a lot of cool, different shit when you're stuck fulfilling the same function over and over again, no matter how useful that function may be...

Yep +1. Try being an accountant

Oh, I know. One of my good friends is an accountant - auditor at one of the big firms. The worst part about that seems to be the crazy hours during the busy season. You're either at work, commuting, or *maybe* sleeping/eating

[swick]

Great topic!

I think the biggest frustrations for me is feeling like I'm not doing good enough/fast enough and having to deal with the very unmastachian lifestyles around us, while convincing those we love that we are indeed doing ok.

We live in a town that had a huge median income before a severe crash that devastated the town.  A lot of the attitudes around spending and savings didn't change at all and there is a massive sense of collective entitlement that puts the whole town at risk. Now the town is recovering people are spending even more then ever before.

If I have to explain one more time why we have not bought a house yet..I'll scream. Also there is nothing in common with the majority of people here. We don't live in a trailer but have a brand new 80,000 truck in the driveway. We don't snowmobile and have huge extravagant hobbies. W save and plan for the future and live fairly low consumption lifestyles (except that darn grocery bill) so having an online community of people with similar goals and aspirations is such a great thing and means a lot :)

[daymare]

Frustrations I've encountered are being unable to talk about some of the financial things I've done to my friends or family. My family would think I was insane to be saving so much, and encourage me to 'enjoy myself'. With my friends, they're more likely to complain that I'm so lucky to be getting the money I do, and they're right, but it feels a lot like I can't talk to them about it because it'll seem like I'm bragging rather than just excited about it!

I blog about personal finance and link to it on my facebook ... one time someone who is barely an acquaintance commented that I should make sure to enjoy my life, and not to worry about saving so much.  It was pretty interesting, because I hadn't thought before that others would feel threatened or uncomfortable about my sharing my savings rate.  I also had to laugh, because I had just spent $40 the night before tasting a bunch of beers with some guys I work with, which is extremely wasteful (but fun!) behavior.  I'm clearly not deprived.

I'm actually a consultant (not an engineer, though I'm in the software industry), and so I've seen some pretty interesting attitudes.  Oddly enough, it can actually be pretty easy to not spend money in that role (lots of food in the office, dinners on the company when you work late ... which is most of the time, no time to spend money, etc).  So you can lead a lifestyle that's outwardly very costly, appreciate it for what it is (a job perk), but not let it get to you too much and skew your perspective.

[Kriegsspiel]

Hello.  Another 26er here.  Started out in the military, now I'm a corporate jagoff.  I thought nothing of personal finance until about March of 2012...  I take that back, I bought some individual stocks in about October of 2010, partied my way around Europe, and didn't think anything else of personal finance until March of 2012 :) Anyways, that's when I happened upon MMM, and found out I had a bunch of money in my checking accounts, and started this whole mustachin' thing.

[icefr]

I'm 24 and actually just bought my first condo earlier this year. I was always more interested in savings and had to teach myself how to spend to "enjoy" life. I seem to have many mostly frugal friends, if not for the fact that no one I know really knows how to spend our $100k/yr salaries. I'm in software. Not sure how I found MMM originally. It's a little more extreme than I am I think, but I still do pretty well (save ~> 50% of regular base pay, 100% of bonuses).

[kt]

I'm now part-way through my second year at University, and from all I've saved, I have a net worth of £712, so about £9.7k saved and £9k in loans due to university. My net worth's slowly growing, and I don't know of anyone else who's managed to achieve a profit from going to University, but I'm pretty happy with that!

assuming your on standard student loan, i don't include my student debt in my calculations. i guess i should but i just see it as another tax because i can't imagine i'll pay it off. i don't even currently pay enough to cover the interest and i don't plan on overpaying.
i took student loan during my year abroad even though i was working and receiving erasmus so i saved some of that. sometimes wonder about the morality of that. :S

[SwordGuy]

Anyway, it's nice to know that 1. We're not the only young people trying to be responsible and 2. We're not the only ones with good jobs, because sometimes I feel pretty guilty about how easy we have it compared to most of my friends.

You "have it easy" because you didn't make it hard for yourselves!   (And a bit of good luck with the jobs helped!)

[Kriegsspiel]

I'm now part-way through my second year at University, and from all I've saved, I have a net worth of £712, so about £9.7k saved and £9k in loans due to university. My net worth's slowly growing, and I don't know of anyone else who's managed to achieve a profit from going to University, but I'm pretty happy with that!

assuming your on standard student loan, i don't include my student debt in my calculations. i guess i should but i just see it as another tax because i can't imagine i'll pay it off. i don't even currently pay enough to cover the interest and i don't plan on overpaying.
i took student loan during my year abroad even though i was working and receiving erasmus so i saved some of that. sometimes wonder about the morality of that. :S

Haven't you read No More Harvard Debt?  He paid off 90k in less than a year.

[kt]

I'm now part-way through my second year at University, and from all I've saved, I have a net worth of £712, so about £9.7k saved and £9k in loans due to university. My net worth's slowly growing, and I don't know of anyone else who's managed to achieve a profit from going to University, but I'm pretty happy with that!

assuming your on standard student loan, i don't include my student debt in my calculations. i guess i should but i just see it as another tax because i can't imagine i'll pay it off. i don't even currently pay enough to cover the interest and i don't plan on overpaying.
i took student loan during my year abroad even though i was working and receiving erasmus so i saved some of that. sometimes wonder about the morality of that. :S

Haven't you read No More Harvard Debt?  He paid off 90k in less than a year.

sure. i have seen that and it's impressive. however uk/us student debt is rather different and i am willing to take advantage of the uk system for my benefit. in fact, i could currently pay off most of my student debt if i wanted. uk student loans come from the government and are paid back once you reach a certain income threshold. the amount you pay each month depends on your salary and if you haven't paid it all off in x number of year (25 i think) it's wiped out. i'm perfectly happy to pay the minimum required amount each month and view it as another form of tax.

[mustache brony]

I’m 27, live in the DC area, and work for the government. I started reading MMM about 9 months ago and overhauled my life significantly. I now save ~40-50% of my income and I’m looking forward to financial independence down the road so I can choose to work, rather than have to work.

My apartment is currently very mustachian (three of us living in a two bedroom, because who needs a dining room?), but the biggest area of my life I changed was paying off my student loans immediately and starting investing. That and cooking, thanks to MMM I’ve started to cook much more (going out maybe once a month with friends).

[StaceStache]

I'm 23 living in East Tennessee (very low cost of living area... average home price of like $120K or something). Newly married. I've been a saver for years but unfortunately my new hubby has a net worth of 0. But we're working on changing that!

Have never had debt until I bought my first townhouse 2 years ago for 83K (1200 sq feet, 2 bed, 2.5 bath). New hubby and I also bought a tract of land in the area near my parents land. Our plan is to pay off the land and townhouse, save up to build our forever home one day on the land, and that I'll be able to work part time or not at all once we decide to have a family.

Roth = 14K, Other savings and investments about 10K. Mortgage balance of about 58K and land balance of 17K.

[KGZotU]

I hesitate to post at 29. In some ways I regard myself as a 25 year-old due to a four-year stint in the US Marines, but then war, marriage, and divorce have aged me too.

I'm a teacher in a tribal village in rural Alaska. Being both in Alaska and off the road system, food is expensive locally. But all of the other customers of Amazon Prime and the USPS are nice enough to subsidize my existence, and I eat pretty cheap. Rent and utilities are owned by the district, reasonably priced, and taken before-taxes from my pay check.

It's easy to be wasteful here and it's easy not to be wasteful. The closest movie theater would cost $500 round trip air-fare to get too, and there are some teachers who make that flight twice or more a semester. But just getting the dogs together to play is pretty good fun, and the most money you're going to spend on any entertainment in the village unless you drop by the church's singing service.

The one thing I need more of is paper books. I'll make a point of ordering a couple every month, or maybe raiding Powell's this Christmas break.

In four-and-a-half more years I'll have enough money to independently commercialize the educational software I've been working on, to build a boat and sail more seriously, etc., and if I run out of money or get bored I can come back to the classroom.

...my general belief is most people don't take the time to think about what they want and how they are handling money, and that that's how most mistakes are made.  Subsequently my friends all know I'm obsessed with personal finance (I blog about it) and will talk to them about anything.  I'm a huge believer that money shouldn't be a taboo subject, and so I'm very open about it (and try not to be judgy).

I see that in a lot of the people I went to college with...a listlessness which people expend their money to salve, and take some time to work-up the foresight to solve.

[StarswirlTheMustached]

I'm 25, and in Canada. FI is so far away it's not even on the horizon-- my frugality just lets me live on the poverty line more comfortably than most middle-class folk while in graduate school. Fortunately I've been a tightwad all my life, so I have no debt of any sort (OK. I have a student loan I'm not paying off until they start charging me interest for -- but the money is in the bank earning me 2% until they demand it back)
I'm not a very good mustachian on the investment front because I am far too risk adverse, but when I have more of my own money I may feel differently. (~20k genuine savings right now. It's in a bank, that's how terrible I am.)

Actually, most of my friends aren't (that) much less frugal than I am, but hardly any of them have faced lifestyle inflation, either. DO feel lucky if you have a good job. Don't feel guilty, but be aware of your blessings, and thankful for them. Appreciating what you have applies there, too, not just to curbing your material desires.

[marty998]

Glad to know there are other young people with similar mindsets concerning money. In San Francisco, most people my age are enjoying their first paychecks out of college by blowing it on partying and lifestyle upgrades. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one being sensible with my money choices.

I would hazard a guess that happens everywhere. Emphasis on "lifestyle upgrades".

You (and me...and everyone else on this thread) may be the sensible ones. Sense to us may mean something entirely different to your peers.

Actually, most of my friends aren't (that) much less frugal than I am, but hardly any of them have faced lifestyle inflation, either. Do feel lucky if you have a good job. Don't feel guilty, but be aware of your blessings, and thankful for them. Appreciating what you have applies there, too, not just to curbing your material desires.

I know a few people who have or are about to lose their job and it does make you appreciate what you have. A little reflection is never a bad thing.

[gdborton]

20k genuine savings right now. It's in a bank, that's how terrible I am

2% is pretty good for a bank, but except for the rare occurrences of low inflation rates is a guaranteed loss.  For someone that is risk averse this is a bad idea.

[StarswirlTheMustached]

20k genuine savings right now. It's in a bank, that's how terrible I am

2% is pretty good for a bank, but except for the rare occurrences of low inflation rates is a guaranteed loss.  For someone that is risk averse this is a bad idea.

If you've accepted a guaranteed loss at a given rate (or within a given margin, anyway), that intrinsically feels less risky, even if it's a terrible, terrible financial move. As a further testament to how terrible I am with money, I actually have double the savings that I thought I did. Man, that shit builds up fast when you don't spend it.

[Phoebe]

Hi there, I'm 28 which hopefully isn't too old for this thread, but in a way I feel much older since I've been to hell and back with my finances.

I work in the software industry and started my working years out with student loan debt (and a very low salary of $30,000).  Feeling like I was going to be in the hole so long made me feel like I had permission to live beyond my means (so what's a few more thousdand, I already owe $40,000!) and I woke up one day owing $65,000 (this included my now husband's student loan as well).  Then the financial crash hit, I felt afraid and realized that my life was built on a house of cards and vowed to take action.

I cut back and scrimped in every way possible and paid off all of my debt in a few short years.  I then got into personal finance (including ERE and then MMM) when I realized I needed to take it to the next level.

I'm now married and my husband and I are on track to be able to retire in just a few years (though I doubt we will) and in the last year alone our networth increased by over $212,000.  In many ways we've loosened the reigns a bit but it's remarkable how quickly your wealth can build once your debt is wiped out.

I also started a blog this last year (in my signature) if you're intersted in more of the details.

[bigchrisb]

30 and Australian here, which is probably too old for this thread.  However, while only recent to MMM as a blog, I adopted a MMM compatible lifestyle in 2006.  My wake-up call came after carrying a credit card balance for the first time in my life, and just having bought a new car (all financed).  I had a bit of a three pronged attack - strong cost cutting on lifestyle costs, growth in income, and aggressive investment (much of it using debt/leverage, and typically not very Mustachian).  7 years of effort on these are starting to pay off, as I've now got a net worth of about $900k, with no shortage of bumps along the way.  A way to go yet, but FI isn't far off.

If I could give some retrospective advice to myself, I'd have told myself to focus more on the "slow and steady" approach to investment, as the leverage I've had has resulted in a great deal of extra stress, without a great deal of extra return to show for it.  Of the net worth growth, the majority of it has been saved - over that 7 years, my savings rate has varied between 50% and 80%.  At least in the first decade of this journey, that savings rate, or the surplus of your income over your expenses, is far more critical than anything else!

Good luck to all on this trip, and like with most things worthwhile, its about steady effort over a long period of time.

 

[ShanghaiStashing]

Likely getting a bit too old to post on this, 29 years old. Working for ~5 years now with a 1.5 year detour in a failed business venture with the ex-gf.

Savings rate of 75% after tax, only major expense is rent ($3300 / month which is about normal for a livable apartment in Shanghai). Fiance and I are very frugal and have networth in the 500K range. We expect to FI (~$2MM) in our mid-30's.

[Kraig]

Hi All,
I'm 28, single and I live on my own in a one bedroom apartment. I've been working post-college for 5 1/2 years. I was a spender and spent all of my income until just a few years ago when I woke up. I initially flocked to Dave Ramsey and got out of debt with inspiration from him. It took saving over half of my income (an average American salary) for several years to get myself out of debt, save an emergency fund, and get to where I'm at today (have around 3.25 years of living expenses in liquid investments).

I found MMM after I met him in Denver this past year for the Financial Blogger Conference. I hadn't heard of him but checked out his blog after the conference and became hooked from there. I always dreamed of retiring early as a kid and MMM pushed me to revisit my childhood dream.

Again, I save right around 50% of my take-home pay and have been for 2.5 years or so. I am debt free and I don't own a home. If I stay on the same path I'm on, I'm set to hit financial independence (early retirement) at around 9-10 years from now (I wrote about it on my blog, here: http://www.youngcheapliving.com/2013/01/02/from-broke-to-financially-independent-in-13-years-is-it-possible/).

I try to keep my living expenses as low as possible. They are between $20,000 and $25,000 per year (I live in a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul).

I'm living this way because, like MMM and many of you, I see the bigger picture. I want freedom. I want to take control of my life and my time. I want to live the best life I can and this is how I'm going to make it happen.

[sherr]

27 year old here, working as a software engineer in North Carolina. I am naturally a fairly frugal person (at least I thought so because I only really saw the consumerist people around me) but my wife is much more frugal than I am. Living with her has shown me a lot of ways that I was wasting money before. And then I found the ERE / MMM websites and realized how much further it was possible to go. I have always been interested in investing / wealth management strategies, which is what caused me to eventually find these websites.

I've only been reading ERE / MMM for about 5 months now, but have already started being a lot smarter with my money. We are now maxing out my 401k and a Traditional IRA for each of us as well as trying to aggressively pay off our mortgages (our home plus a former residence we now use as a rental property). We have no debt other than the mortgages. If all goes according to plan we will be FI on my 35th birthday, including additional expenses related to having kids in a few years.

I think it is interesting that even though we spend far less than most people making similar amounts, I don't feel like we are missing out on anything. We spend about $1500 a month not including mortgages and we do everything that we want to do. There's a lot of room in that number to cut back on things we don't need. I really don't see us spending much more than that even if we had an infinite amount of money (kids being the most obvious exception). Throw in the mortgages and about 10k a year for charity and between my wife and I both working we still have a lot of money left over for saving and the occasional nice vacation. I really don't understand how other DINKs like us manage to spend all their money, or how I used to spend as much as I did my first few years out of college.

In my opinion that's the best way to achieve FI. Find a job you like that pays a lot, reduce the waste from your life without touching the things you really want / need, learn about investing and tax-advantaged savings accounts, then just sit back and enjoy life for a few years. If we were to get extremely motivated then we could probably achieve FI sooner, but I'm happy with the way things are going now.

I think for most people just talking about what is possible would be a huge eye opener. I've offered to discuss this with my friends but unfortunately they've all refused. Hopefully they are as happy with their financial situation as we are.