My investments have now officially valued over 3%. This is huge, for me; I really feel like I'm getting closer and closer to my goal. I'm still only around 0.4% of the way there, but every step towards that goal feels amazing.
I haven't looking at my current life situation as a sacrifice, but as I've reflected on it I have come to see it that way. Objectively, I could rent an apartment, instead of a room; there's actually one available right now pretty close by with access to a pool and a garden. I could easily, easily afford that. But instead I'm only paying a third of the cost for a room. I could be eating much better and more comfortably; sushi on my own dime, pizza, some Burger King. Instead, I eat at the canteen and tunamayo sandwiches for dinner.
Sure, I've made some purchases. I have actually eaten at Burger King a few times, McD's too. But in total I've strayed from the ideal maybe... €150 worth? €120 of which are new shoes and a new backpack, which I intend to use to death.
I'm saving about 63% of my income every month. That's a lot, especially considering I don't really make that much at all. I'm sacrificing a lot. I just happen to be someone that can live pretty well off not much, I have a lot of support and encouragement from my family, and I have a clear goal in mind. I'm striving towards that, so I can handle this. I do wonder though, how nice it would be to live in an apartment by myself, go workout at the gym or swim in the pool. But that's not the way I'm gonna reach my goals, so it's not the way I'm gonna live.
This goal I talk about... I haven't really defined it very clearly, have I?
I want to be a millionaire. Not because being a millionaire is cool or whatever, but because I've calculated that that's how much I need to retire safely at any age. Meaning that, no matter how old I am, as soon as I hit those 7 figures, I'm gone. The actual number is slightly slower than 1 million, actually, but it's easier to talk about it this way. Also, I'm actually more than 0.4% of the way there, but once again I cut things broadly so I can be safe. I prefer to be wrong because I have too much than because I have too little.
This million though, what can I do with it. That's the big question, the way I see it. I'd probably want to buy a house, but the problem is that I can't predict how much a home will cost when I read it, I can't even predict when I'll reach it! At my current pace, that'll be when I'm 50. I'm fine with that, more than fine. If I can retire earlier than my parents, I'm happy; I feel like that's what it's all about, really. But I will almost certainly hit it earlier. I don't want to earn this much forever. I want to advance my career and earn more money. I actually did some funny math, some time ago. It was very rough, but not particularly optimistic: if I can increase my monthly investments by 50% of my current investments every 5 years, I can shave 5 years off my retirement. This means that I can retire by 45. That's really not crazy, especially if I emigrate, which is likely.
Regardless, I feel like thinking about all that isn't too helpful nor satisfying. Instead, I want to focus on what I'm actually gonna do with the money.
Well, first of all, I'm not gonna spend much of it at all! The whole point of having that much money is to keep it invested so it can keep growing. Still, there's a few things I want to buy.
When I first spoke to my grandma about this---she didn't even believe that I meant to do this by the way, she didn't understand that I might want to retire as early as possible---she immediately thought I wanted to buy a house. At the time, I laughed at the idea. Maybe I didn't literally laugh in her face, but I did reject it. After a long time thinking, I just thought that it wasn't worth it. Why would I spend so much money buying a house, when I could just rent an apartment instead? The difference isn't much, and an apartment allows me much more flexibility with much less effort. I've thought this over, since then, and I've come to the conclusion a house would be nice.
Maybe I'm being silly, I can't quite tell. Here's the pros, as I see them:
- No landlord worries
- Rent won't increase
- It's an investment
- I can feel settled in
- It's a symbol of what I've achieved
Basically, it's less worrisome overall, though more expensive. That last point though... Am I stupid? A symbol? What do I care about a symbol?! But really, I want it. Something I can point to and say "see, it worked!" A place I can really call home. Specifically, I wanted to go back home, to the islands. Houses are cheaper there too. It'd be amazing. I love the people, I love the environment, the clean air and the sea. The big problems don't even apply as much now as they did growing up. There's lots of fast delivery stuff like Amazon, the internet is good now. Sure, there's no fast food places, but who cares?! There's good food! I love fish, I mean, come on. It'd be awesome. The only real issue would be travel. Travelling in and out of the island is tough, and it'll likely always be tough, but also just going from place to place is hard. You pretty much need a car there. There's electric cars and bicycles, that's a possibility, but it's still tough, overall, to go and just live like that there. It's never too hot or too cold, but when it rains it rains. I think it's doable, I think I'd like it, but who knows.
There's also the cons, of course:
- More expensive in the short term
- Less flexibility with moving around
That's it, pretty much, but that first point is a good one. I can't afford to spend a lot upfront, that's the negative part of my plan. It's hard to make huge purchases because I need the money to be invested. Even if it's cheaper in the long run, I'd rather have the money now so it can grow than not have it.
I'll keep thinking about it, I do have a long way to go still.
Something else I've been thinking about is emigration. I'll almost certainly emigrate at some point, yes, but that's for work. For settling down, I always imagined myself in one of three places: somewhere in the city, back home, or Vermont, USA. Why Vermont? No idea. I just think of the state as a big forest, really, and I love the idea of living in the middle of nowhere in a mansion. The more I learn about the USA though, the less I want to live there, so I'm probably cutting that one out. The problem with the city option is that it's expensive. Buying a small apartment is gonna run me about as much as a large home back home, though it will have a lot of convenient benefits. Back home though, that's heaven. I grew up in heaven, looking back, marvellous place. There's a fourth, secret option though. Get citizenship or a Visa somewhere else with a much lower cost of living and just move there. Living in Thailand or something. Or somewhere else, really, there's lots of destinations that I could aim for. Nepal.
I'm strongly considering that, more and more. That way, I could retire even earlier, maybe at 40. I don't know.
Still, it's interesting to think about.
And with that, I'm done.
