Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hello!
I'm a 20-something years old web developer and designer from the city of Prague. I've been reading the blog and forum for a while now and today I decided that I should contribute with my story as well.

I've always gravitated towards frugality a minimalistic way of life, a belief which was further strengthened by thoroughly reading Stoics and similar philosophies. But my journey towards financial independence only really began about half a year ago when I started working a high-salary job at big e-commerce firm here in Prague. I realized I could save a substantial portion of my wage but I needed a practical framework. That's how I found this blog and others, like Mr. Money Mustache.

I currently save 50% percent of my income, but I am positive I'll be able to raise that to 70-80% in the near future, since I currently (and temporarily) pay my mother's mortgage payments, which takes about 20% from my salary. Apart from my 9-5 work, I've been doing freelance work for several years, which on average yields about 20% on top of my normal wage.

Anyway, the way I think about financial independence at the moment is less about retiring and more about choosing whatever work I want to do regardless of the money. I am very grateful that my field of expertise is currently in vogue and paid well, but the external situation or my attitude might change and I'd like to be prepared.

My short-term plan is to continue working at the place I'm employed right now because of the salary and because of the fact that I actually have quite a lot of freedom. Nonetheless, I want to gradually replace the salary with my freelance work and possibly start a studio of my own.

The long-term plan is more vague, but it revolves around diversification of the work I do (and therefore my incomes) and generally working less. For example, I'd like to be able to work as little as possible if and when I have kids.

Regarding possible sources of incomes, I have several in mind. I've been doing functional strength training for many years and am quite confident that I'd be able to do it profesionally and instruct other people for money in quite a short time. The same goes for nutritional guidance.

Another hobby of mine is music, by which I mean both playing and producing. I already own the necessary equipment to be able to record and mix music at a semi-professional level and this is precisely the field of work I'd like to do regardless of the money involved, including creating my own music.

Anyway, I've already ranted for way too long. In the next few days, I'd like to follow with more posts about several other topics (such as transportation, buying stuff, clothing, food, health or investing) and the ways in which I try apply a frugal mindset to each of them. After that, I hope to start a journal to bring some real numbers into the mix. My hope is simply that someone might find something interesting in these words of mine.

Well, that's it for today and once again, hello! I'm glad to be here.

We are glad you are here. I think one of the treasures of this forum is the multinational crowd it attracts. Being bigger than one country is huge.

And at the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, you are quite talkative compared with most of the Czechs I have met and that I work with. But the spirit of Havel's "The Power of the Powerless" lurks here. And perhaps more importantly, the humor of The Good Soldier Švejk, which I believe was the predecessor to the American novels of Kurt Vonnegut.

I've long maintained that if one wants to get an accurate view of the world, one should take it from a place with a relatively small population and stable government.

Thanks for the welcome. I don't think I represent a typical Czech but I guess anyone could say that. It'd be more accurate to say that I don't possess a strong national identity. By the way, might I enquire on what occasion have you dealt with Czechs? Was it long time ago or more recently?

Anyway, to continue with my introduction, I'd like to touch on the several topics I mentioned in my first post. The first I'd like to tackle is education. I obtained a master's degree in software engineering about two years ago and looking back, I mostly consider it a waste of time. The few intereseting courses I attended - generally the more theoretical stuff like math, cryptography, parallel computing and such - I could learn in about a year. Regarding the rest, the vast majority of knowledge I use in my field of work is derived from self-study and experimentation anyway. On a positive node, college gave me three things: the opportunity to work on my theses which I actually enjoyed, living in Spain for half a year thanks to the Erasmus Programme, and learning how to deal with copious amount of bullshit on a frequent basis.

In random fashion, let's continue with transportation. I don't have a driver license nor I need one at the moment. I bike the four miles to my work most of the days. When necessary, I use the public transport, which is quite good and cheap here in Prague. A yearly subscription costs around $130 but I pay per ride, since it amounts to less for me.

Buying stuff is probably the part I struggled with the most, in a way. Since I earned my own money, I always bought the best I could afford, even if barely. Until recently, that meant I saved almost no money. The upside is that I now spend very little on things, since I already own most of the stuff I need or want. The majority of that is also of such quality it should last and/or keep its value for a long time. A sidenote: if you know your way around guitar effect pedals and sound recording equipment in general, they are a great way of keeping value. In contrast with other electronics, whose value drop dramatically over time, they tend to either follow inflation or rise in price. That's because the electronic parts that are used in them, which are usually inferior by current standards, produce sound quirks which are actually considered a bonus. Or something like that, anyway.

A releted topic is clothing. This is where I allow myself a great luxury and own more than necessary. But as I stated before, I already own practically everything I want so I don't think I'll spend much in the following years. For those interested, I buy almost exclusively from Outlier and have around $2500 worth of their clothes, mostly pants. If I wanted a single pair of pants, I'd buy their $200 Slim Dungarees. They look good and they would last many, many years of daily wear. I actually rotate two colors of these, along with two pairs of their 60/30 chinos for winter and two pairs of Futureworks for summer. Regarding shoes, I prefer American leather boots (two pairs of Chippewa's), two pairs of formal shoes (Loake) and some leather sneakers. I believe having two pairs of leather shoes which you can rotate - while using cedar shoe trees - is better than having only one because the increase in longevity is better than linear. I also own a Filson briefcase. As you can see, I buy mostly American stuff, even though it cost me a lot of money due to shipping and customs tax. The reason behind that is that it's usually much better quality than what I'd get here in Europe. The exception, I believe, is suiting, formal shoes and coats.

Well, that's enough for today.

jackdaw wrote:Thanks for the welcome. I don't think I represent a typical Czech but I guess anyone could say that. It'd be more accurate to say that I don't possess a strong national identity. By the way, might I enquire on what occasion have you dealt with Czechs? Was it long time ago or more recently?

A series of odd coincidences through my lifetime. First, the US town I grew up in (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) had one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Czechs in the US and had its own "Czech town", like you might find concentrations of Italians and Chinese people in larger US cities.

Second, a few years before the Velvet Divorce I had an interesting class entitled "Human Rights and Constitutional Reform in Czechoslovakia", which was largely concerned with Havel and Charter 77, but reached back into 20th Century history.

Third, I spent a lot of time in Prague about 10 years ago working out of our office there, which at the time was right there at Staroměstské náměstí not too far from the statue of Jan Hus -- many weeks over the course of about three years. I did not get around the country too much, but did have to go to Brno a couple times.

Fourth, I have a colleague in our office in the US who immigrated with his wife just a few years ago, who tells me lots of funny stories about keeping carp in bathtubs and other cultural artifacts. He once tried to bring one to the US in suitcase, but his luggage got lost. You can imagine what it smelled like when it finally arrived.