How to Money
How to Money
My wiki-style document is to help you figure out money, invest, and hopefully retire early. Please send me a message if you find any mistakes or have any questions.
Start here and work your way down 👇
Hi 👋 and welcome here. I’m Werner.
My goals with money are “to have enough” (to live well, but not luxuriously), “so that I don’t have to work anymore” (not unless I choose to do) and to achieve those things “in a simple way”.
I describe myself as “independent”. I despise any reliance on a monthly paycheck; not the effort, frustration, and reward that comes with work, per se.
So, a lot of what I wrote here is about getting to those goals (and keeping them). Your goals might be different, but hopefully what I’ve written down will help you a bit to define and achieve them. I am not a registered financial advisor. What I write here is my opinion, thoughts, and experience — not financial advice.
Money and investing is a little bit about cold numbers and a lot about fuzzy feelings and psychology. If what I wrote here doesn’t work for you (and even if it does) consider getting a professional to help you with investing, debt management, financial, and tax planning.
You can use the pages on the 👈 left sidebar to navigate around if you get lost. Go through every step from the first one; only skip the ones not relevant to you.
Let’s go! 🐎
1. How much is enough?
It will help a lot to get your spending under control (and increase your money available for investing) if you take a deep look inside your home, closet, and mind. Read:
After thinking a bit more about your “enough stuff” (and lifestyle), we need to find out how much money you’ll need to retire (early, hopefully). Read:
2. Your net worth & balance sheet
You can’t manage what you don’t measure, so let’s go measure your net worth. This is one of the most important things you have to start doing. Read:
3. Get rid of debt
If you don’t have any debt, good for you! You have a head-start to early retirement. You can skip this section. If not, read:
4. Save for emergencies
Separate from investing (and growing the assets side of your balance sheet), you’ll need to save enough money for an emergency. Investing and saving are not the same thing, but we’ll get to that later.
5. Bonus!
Periodically check what belt you have earned and where you are on the path to independence.
6. Invest
6.1. Learn
Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand. So, first, brush up on some investing terms.
Read:
6.2. Open an investment account and fund it
6.3. Buy index funds
(Unless you are using a robo-advisor (also called “robo-investor”) you will need to do this every month or quarter if you want to get and keep your black belt in money)
7. Understanding taxes
The topic is huge. There is a reason why there are so many well-paid tax lawyers, advisors, and specialists out there. Luckily, most personal taxes are straightforward and simple. The better you understand it, the earlier and more comfortably you’ll retire. Read: and for some types of accounts with tax advantages.
8. Cars
After accommodation (either buying or renting) one of our biggest purchases is transport, in the form of a stupid and rapidly depreciating asset: cars. Read:
9. Accounts
At minimum, you should have the following accounts:
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