Being born into a rich western country.
Yeah, me too. I pat myself on the back for this one nearly every day. Probably the best financial decision I ever made.
Not having kids.
Working with my SO to start budgeting each month. We now have a system in place that works for us and a habit of getting out in front of expenses.
Budgeting helped us see that increasing your income is far more powerful than reducing spending, so we’re focused on spending to gain skills and increase our top line right now.
Learning about long term index fund investing in my early 20s.
Move abroad, halve my taxes, triple my income, reduce my cost of living by nearly 80%, effectively increased my savings rate by ~1100%, from 500 EUR/month to now >5k EUR/month. That’s 5k in fixed savings (investment plan), plus whatever else I don’t spend accumulates in my savings account.
I’m curious where’d you moved
All over the world. Germany -> Luxembourg -> Norway -> Liberia -> Tanzania -> Kenya -> Nigeria -> Madagascar -> China; and next month to Malaysia.
Luxembourg was great for starting to build some wealth thanks to the super low taxes, Norway was to improve my career opportunities, and in Africa I really started to make bank since those contracts included living & “hardship” allowances that are untaxed, I invested most of that and also used it to fund an executive MBA.
To China I already came with 15+ years work experience and entered on c-level with a great salary package; and there are no taxes on foreign income here, including foreign capital gains.
Malaysia is a stopover for a few years also for tax purposes, they have no capital gains either and the company I work for is registered in Hong Kong, which in China would be considered onshore and thereby taxable. So in Malaysia I can sell my share package for free after 2 years of residency.
Also much nicer climate and friendlier people than in China.
Thanks for the detailed reply! Definitely an interesting journey, and I glad to hear it’s financially good. Good luck.
Buying a home.
