- Not having a car (always living/renting in walking or biking distance of my work)
- Moving in with my partner straight out of college so we could split expenses
- Putting the lion’s share of my medium-term and long-term savings into low-expense-ratio, passively managed index funds starting in my early 20s
- Buying almost exclusively second-hand clothes, furniture, and cookery
- Borrowing all desired books (and many desired movies and TV shows) from the library
- Only buying games when they are bundled or otherwise on steep discount years after release
- Pirating any other media in which I’m interested if its distributors make it even remotely difficult for me to buy it at a reasonable price
- Planning all dinners in advance every week before grocery shopping (leads to almost never eating at restaurants or ordering takeout, and almost no food waste because grocery list is based on actual meals)
Now, if I had to choose the best financial move out of that list? Probably the index funds. Though not having to pay for a car (or car insurance, or car registration, or car repair and maintenance, or parking, or fuel) is a close second.
Remember luck is just the intersection of preparation and opportunity.
Saving 60% of my take-home pay was the smartest financial decision I ever made. Difficult to execute, but very rewarding long-term in the behaviors I developed.
Was saving 60% of my income the most impactful financial decision I ever made? No, I had some luck in other areas. But this level of self-discipline helped me develop the skills to handle good luck later
Vasectomy BEFORE kids
Buying used shit
Bitcoin.
Budgeting (with YNAB 4).
Getting my spending and saving planned made money a lot more useful. It might seem paradoxical, but having a system of limits ultimately gave me more financial freedom.
Also, changing jobs. Don’t be afraid to jump if you’ve got marketable skills.
Leaving Sydney for a cheaper quieter life in Central West NSW!
Nice 4 bedroom home with views, 1200m² block with trees, quiet area, school almost across the road, close to everything else and best of all, a tiny manageable mortgage!
Deciding not to get a car; it saves ~400.000 euros in my lifetime which at 40k net a year income means 8-10 year earlier pension
Ahh, European public transportation. Not an option in the US unless you live in NYC and rarely leave the city.
Starting investing into index fund ETFs
I only started about 3 years ago but even if I stopped putting in more money right now it would still keep paying me interests around 2000 to 3000€ each year for the rest of my life and it’s 100% passive income. In my case it’s all invested back into the funds though.
The second best move was starting to track my finances. It’s almost impossible to not change your spending habits once you actually see where all the money is going. Almost anyone can cut atleast 100€ a month from their grocery bills by just being a little more mindfull about what you buy. That’s 1200€/year or 12k€/10 years.
Almost anyone can cut atleast 100€ a month from their grocery bills by just being a little more mindfull about what you buy.
Yeah no. I spent about 150€/month on groceries before, now after the inflations about 180€/month. The only way to safe 100€/month there would be to skip meals.
From what you write you seem to be in the top 1-10% of people by income, and the numbers you put out only work for people in the same priviledged situation.
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.
Securing a long-term fixed rate mortgage just before the war in Russia. Other than that it’s basically been any time I saved money rather than spending it.
Nitpicky but where in russia is a war going on? You mean the russian attack on ukraine right?
Buying a home.
A literal move actually. 20 years ago I moved from America to a country with universal health care. That has saved my family probably close to a quarter million bucks in health care fees alone.
Using a budget manager (YNAB)
I’m really bad with saving money and even having enough ready for regular bills on my own. I was always on zero before the end of the month and struggled hard when there was something unexpected. Now everything is planned ahead, I have some savings and yearly expenses are just ready to pay when needed.
It needs some time to adjust to it and I had to restructure my categories a few times until it worked for me (still not perfect).
Though I don’t feel like I’m getting my money’s worth anymore from YNAB. It keeps getting more expensive, the updates are slow and it seems very US focused. If I ever find the motivation, I want to build something on my own (I’m a web developer from Europe who’s getting a bit tired of web developing)
Most of the things mentioned in this thread are mostly dumb luck and not necessarily active financial decisions.
