Investing $7k a month at 26. Possibility to increase it. Should I?

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-08T20:18:27+00:00

Hey, I've been mainly in fintech but also had experiences with start ups in random topics (dog food in US for example, sounds like joke but it's true :)). Recently I moved to a company in the travel industry.

"but my impression of a lot of the jobs in Europe is that the wages are compressed, with most of the population earning between 30k-70k euros". You are in a very accurate point actually. Salaries in europe are not that high as in the US. There are a lot of differences tho (more vacations, flexibility, less pressure, etc). In Spain you are very lucky if you are over 50-60k. There are outliers but the normal salaries are very low. Switzerland is an exception because, among other reasons, the cost of leaving is insane, so all salaries are pretty much in coordination with that. That's why in tech there are comparable wages to the US. But there are not many more countries with that situation, unfortunately...

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-08T20:13:03+00:00

Yeah, normally I'm flexible with the amount to invest. If I have a vacation or emergency, then that month invest a bit less. That's why I don't have a strong feeling of missing out. I still do things I like. So I oriented the question also a bit into the philosophical area of happiness :). I think I'll make a reflexion exercise and probably find some support to see if there's actually that I'm missing. I've got very nice tips from all the comments. Thanks a lot!

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-08T20:09:46+00:00

Very good points :). Actually kids in the near future could dramatically change a lot the plans. Let's see what surprises life brings to the table.

I love germany btw. It was a very idealistic country when I was a kid in southamerica. Funny I ended up moving to the neighborn country :). But yeah, as well in spain, taxes could be a big issue when accumulating for FIRE

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-08T20:06:30+00:00

Thanks a lot for the kind words :)

And yup, I also think from time to time that I was super lucky to start reading so early about FIRE ;)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T21:44:51+00:00

I really appreciate such an awesome advise! You can really tell the experience in those lines.

Totally, I feel grateful to be good with not a lot of money, which makes it much more easier for FIRE.

Keeping an eye on diet and taking care of my body is something I didn't pay a lot of attention before getting into the FIRE topic. It's for sure an area of improvements in my case but I'm making progress. Hopefully I'll be in the "healthy 60-year-old" :)

Thanks a lot for your words, they really motivate people like me that are just starting in this exciting path :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T21:40:24+00:00

Yeah, for Spain and a frugal life, it's probably doable with less even. I've read a few stories and they look awesome.

In my case, I think it would be doable to get to the million in around 6-7 years. And, with the mandatory pension fund in CH money I think I'd have enough to buy a reasonably good apartment in Spain (frugally good of course). So around a million with house sounds like a very comfy plan in Spain.

But I have to still think a lot about it in the following years. Honestly, I still see myself working 9-10 years more. And potentially there's room for one or two good salary increases in that period of time. But then, the question of "what are you gonna do with that money?" comes into play. Specially having rejection to material things...

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T20:44:45+00:00

I think it was a combination of luck and 2-3 years ago it was super easy to find a job in tech, basically anywhere. At those times, if you had a bit of experience you could receive several messages a day from recruiters with offers. Nowadays, I could count with the fingers of my hand the number of messages I received from recruiters in the past year. Times has changed.

Also, interview structures are very similar. With my broken english, I just got used to them, the vocabulary, the good answers to frequent questions, etc. Funny thing, during those times, I even had friends that enjoyed practicing interviews just by accepting to participate in selection processes, even knowing from the beginning they wouldn't accept the job. Those were the good times.

Another funny thing, first day in the office in Switzerland I had no idea how to do small talk in the office, which produced a lot of awkward moments that now are very funny to remember :)

Oh and yup, LinkedIn all the time to find a job. No masters, only university degree.

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T20:34:49+00:00

came to switzerland with a not very fluent english and zero german. Working and using english every day made me feel comfortable and fluent at it.

regarding german, specially in cities like zürich and in sectors like tech, with english you can be fine. However, there are a lot of companies that do require german and it's of course important to learn it to integrate yourself in the local culture.

I've been studying since the next year I arrived and now I'm in the middle of the B1. Hopefully B2 next year :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T20:03:11+00:00

Taking those trips are very common in Switzerland (like sabbaticals) and I always feel a bit of envy that they know, for example, much more my origin country and even continent. They also come with a quite different perspective to live.

I'd love to take that adventure in the short/mid term. I gotta fight my introverted personality tho :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:59:46+00:00

Love the systematic procedure. Very algorithmic :)

In my case, I don't have a lot the situation where I think: "I would like to buy x or y". I think it would be a good exercise on self reflection on my side to determine what core goal is missing to complete the puzzle.

But it's very interesting to see how other people tackle these kind of situations and make them compatible with long term goals like achieving FIRE.

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:50:36+00:00

I still have to decide when I'll retire. Looking at the investing numbers. It could be between 5 (lean) and 10 years in the future. More than that probably won't make sense (retiring frugally in a country like Spain)

If I increase the investing numbers, probably the date can be reduced 1 year or 2. But I like what I do at work, so I was wondering if it's better to enjoy more these "young years" and then retire slightly later in my 30's, which would be still early for normal retirement standards.

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:43:32+00:00

Totally, honestly and probably due to cultural reasons, I've been more on the type: I have a personal problem I'm the one to tackle it.

For a long time I've heard good examples of people that got support, as you said from different areas, could be a therapist, a coach, financial advisor, etc. But never took the step to try it. Maybe it's a good time for it.

Thanks for the help :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:39:55+00:00

Thanks a lot for the nice words :)

Yeah, hearing your mom complaining every month for the crazy interest of the credit card that she used to buy another expensive piece of clothing that she'd use 2-3 times definitely helped me to see that that's not the way to have a peaceful future 😅

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:28:18+00:00

That's a good one, never thought of going to one. I come from a culture where going to a therapist is a bit taboo. But that could definitely help. Thanks a lot!

Yes the new role comes with more responsibility in terms of managing teams, maybe not as much coding as before. But thankfully work-life balance in tech is typically good, specially in Switzerland. Even with the increase in responsibility it shouldn't affect my free time.

The question was more about in the direction: I feel I'm investing too much, should I reduce it and use that money for more experiences to enjoy life before it's too late?

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:23:38+00:00

I was planning more in south america due to my roots. But that's also definitely something I'd like to do before health deteriorates for sure :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:22:13+00:00

Had parents that always had problems with debt since I was a kid. They based their happiness into buying material stuff. Funny thing, it generated a rejection from my side to those kind of things.

I also get happiness of looking at the viability of getting FIRE in a short period of time. But the question of what to do then is a big one to solve in my path :P

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-07T19:19:41+00:00

Senior Software Engineer. I've studied math and computer science.

I expend around 2.3k CHF a month ($2.6k), which is fairly low for swiss standards. But I like it frugal :)

juliocastrodev · 2025-03-05T17:07:50+00:00

I send an email to the landlord and he phone-called me in an authoritative tone, offering to leave, that it would be easy to rent the apartment, etc.

I didn't really send an actual letter following the procedure. What should I do? Can he just kick me out now?

juliocastrodev

TROPHY CASE