Mustachians, introduce yourselves!

Hej hej everyone!

I’m a 26 year old Web Designer working part-time (40%) and as a freelancer (60%). I got into this whole Mustachianism thingy about two months ago and can’t think about much else ever since. I’m still reading through all the MMM and MP posts and try to figure out where to start at the same time.

I’m really looking forward to learning new things from all you guys.

Cheers

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Welcome! Let me simplify this for you - I’ll tell you what I did:

  • Budget your spendings and save as much as you can and remain happy (but not more - don’t make yourself unhappy)
  • Open Interactive Brokers account
  • Invest regularly (preferably 50% of your income or more) in VT ETF (or VTI+VXUS if you like to complicate it a bit more)

That’s it. Good luck!

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Well that’s definitely a simple list on how to get started. Thanks for that!

I’m already doing the whole budgeting part and try to lower my expenses wherever I can. If things stay the way they are, I’ll be able to save around 50-60% of my income this year. Of course that’s an ongoing process and there’s always more that can be done!

I’ll definitely take a closer look on the investment part since I’ve never done that before. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

Hi all,

I am a PhD student in my mid-20s, living in Zurich for more than 7 years already (did my Bachelor and Master here as well), living kind of frugal without knowing it. I just got interested in financial stuff last year and luckily stumbled upon the FIRE/MMM/MP/MrRIP community. I am hoping to be able to contribute some things, as I already profited quite a lot just from reading… :slight_smile:

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The best introduction to investing that I have found is the Bogleheads investing start-up kit. On the one hand their advice is simple and easy to follow. On the other hand they have spent literally thousands of person-years researching the minute details behind the scenes.

The MMM forum is much more inspiring when it comes to lifestyle and overall approach to life though. Bogleheads are too conservative for my taste e.g. retire at 65 and be the richest person in the cemetery instead of making the most of your life now :slight_smile:

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Hi Mustachians,

I’m a 36 old guy living in Zurich, and working for a swiss retailer in the online marketing. I discovered the Mustachianism only few months ago, and I still have to read lot, but I already figured out my way. I moved to Zurich 4 years ago, and just realized, how important is for me to build up more financial stability, and put some nested eggs on my side.

In the last year and this year I just optimized and minimized all my running costs, spendings, paid off all my debt, car leasing, etc. For 2 weeks ago we moved together with my GF, and slowly will develop the Mustachianism mindset at her as well. My saving rate isn’t that good (yet), but my goal to achieve about 45-50% in the beginning of next year.

Unluckily I started my 3A pillar savings at the end of 2016 with a life insurance plan at AXA, and realized just couple of months ago, how bad was my decision… I was dumb, and I didn’t informed myself that well, and the insurance guy just swayed me to sign the contract. I cannot quit my 3A insurance without a 10k loss… YAY!!! So I just reduced the monthly payments to the minimum, and opened up a VIAC 3A account, and put the rest into it.

I opened my Interactive Brokers account this year, and bought my first ETFs, and some stocks. Still struggling to figure out how to pay (and save) exactly the taxes on dividends (I have some dividend paying stocks), and I still feel a bit lost in the investing universe.

It would be cool to organize a FIRE Meetup in Zurich, or somewhere nearby. What do you think? Would be some of you interested?

Best,
BB

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Absolutely. We already had few meetups in Zurich and Zug last year. But I guess there’ll be a lot of interested members to come for another Meetup. Open a new thread and propose a date and place, and you’ll see.

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One interested here, myself im in Zug but Zurich would work just fine for me as well. I haven’t been in the previous ones as i’m quite new around here but it would be great to meet.

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Hello everyone.

I’m a Swiss guy in his late 20s. I’m a self employed web designer/developer and currently “surviving” on a 3k/m salary. Besides trying to raise my monthly income I’m also looking for new on spending less / saving more money.

Looking forward to reading some interesting discussions, learning new things about FI and hopefully giving back to the community.

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Hello MP and fellow Swiss readers

I just joined the forum! I am at the end of my thirties and into investing since several years, but was not so focused on the FIRE movement so far. Just found out you all exist some month ago :slight_smile: We are a family of 3, and did save up some money so far, somewhere around half a million. Still love to invest money, be it in real estate, small private companies, p2p around the world, forex,…not the typical the low risk FIRE portfolio. Although we are able to save money, we as well love to spend it. There are many beautiful things on earth, many are for free, many do cost a small fortune :wink:

Looking forward to get something out of this forum and to meet some great people!

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Could you tell us more about your real estate and alternatives portfolio? I’m looking into diversifying outside of stock market and your experiences sound really interesting.

Hi fellow Mustachians!

I am Nero, a software developer in my mid-thirties and I live in Zürich.
I have discovered the FIRE movement recently and am happy that I found such a community in Switzerland!
i already have a little background in investing, but I am sure I will find a lot of other interesting stuffs here :slight_smile:

I am really looking forward to sharing information with you guys!

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sure I like to talk about investment…let me start with the easy part, P2P:

The principle is simple. You lend money to other people who need money. For this, they pay you interest. You can lend to individuals (consumer loans), lend to companies (business loans), and buy invoices at a discount (refactoring). It all exists in secured and unsecured forms, meaning the loan is secured by an asset or not. Consumer loans typically are unsecured.

In order for this to work, there are internet platforms available who are matching lenders with investors. To reduce risk for you as investor, you will also only grant a small sum to an individual, but to many individuals.

To be more specific, the following platforms I am invested:
Bondora, since roughly 4 years, with my yield being around 12% per year. Only consumer loans. Bondora is one of the first platforms and has now funded more than 160m in loan amount. If you want to sign up you can use my referal link https://bondora.com/ref/BO567764A

Mintos, similar to Bondora put they do not directly find the loans, on their platform loan companies can sell their loans. Has consumer & business loans, I am there since around 3 years with 11% yield.

Currently getting first experience with a Singapore platform (Funding Societies) just to diversify, but there are many platforms out now.

Real estate…you need some hacks to get proper yields imho. E.g. buy a flat and rent over airbnb, at least for us this is working well. Or try your luck in the UK with HMOs, that’s what I am doing right now…

So was a bit a longer post hopefully someone can use some of the information…

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What returns are you getting at the moment?
That doesn’t seem to scale very well. What’s wrong with US REITs?

Agree it does not scale at all…if you think as an institutional investor with billions to invest. If you “just” buy some flats there is no issue with scale. There is nothing wrong with US REITs or other REITs, or crowdhouse and so on.
I get a solid two digit return, simply could not find that in REITs

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Hello! I would like to introduce myself. I am 31 years old, italian, living in Zürich, interested about investing since about 6 years, I always try to optimize my finances and would like to reach FI by mid 40s.
I decided to join this forum because it’s full of great useful content and maybe I will be able to contribute as well.

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Hi,
My name’s Michael and I’ve just joined the community. Living in Vaud, investing slowly in ETFs, stocks, other small and risky assets. Hope to learn and share as much as I can.
Good luck to all

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Hi everyone,

I’m 27 Polish guy who just moved to Switzerland (Zug) in order to become FI quicker by living frugal and save around 70% of my net income (although my first month here was terrible in terms of savings rate :wink: ). I’d also love to get to know other fellow Mustachians here. I invest a bit in Polish dividend stocks and looking forward to buy my first rental property in PL. I’m also looking for a room to rent in a shared accommodation together with cool English-speaking people.

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Welcome to the club! I’m also Polish from Zug. :slight_smile:

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Welcome! What are your other small and risky assets?