I rarely drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t have a car, my apartment is 40m^2 because that’s all I need, I pay <750€/month including utilities. Around 150€/month go to a private retirement fund with an insurance company. After other regular expenses, if I don’t make any purchases, I can save 1000€ a month. Realistically I do make purchases, so it’s more like 500 - 700€. I generally split that between my savings account and etfs (as retirement fund), and try to not let my savings account go below a certain point.
I make ~2800€/month net salary. Depending on where you live, it’s entirely possible your base expenses are much higher, not having a car might not be a real option, rent might be insane etc. But as someone else said, lifestyle creep. You get used to luxuries and suddenly all your money is gone for “things you need”. If I want something new that will lead to regular expenses, I try to examine if there’s anything else I could really just do without that I can stop paying for. Sometimes I also just look at subscriptions etc. to see if I forgot about anything.
Very smart for a long time my only expenses were rent, bills, credit card repayment, car payment, groceries, and weed. I had some friends and we did well hosting dinner and parties instead of going out. But then 2025 hit
I rarely drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t have a car, my apartment is 40m^2 because that’s all I need, I pay <750€/month including utilities. Around 150€/month go to a private retirement fund with an insurance company. After other regular expenses, if I don’t make any purchases, I can save 1000€ a month. Realistically I do make purchases, so it’s more like 500 - 700€. I generally split that between my savings account and etfs (as retirement fund), and try to not let my savings account go below a certain point.
I make ~2800€/month net salary. Depending on where you live, it’s entirely possible your base expenses are much higher, not having a car might not be a real option, rent might be insane etc. But as someone else said, lifestyle creep. You get used to luxuries and suddenly all your money is gone for “things you need”. If I want something new that will lead to regular expenses, I try to examine if there’s anything else I could really just do without that I can stop paying for. Sometimes I also just look at subscriptions etc. to see if I forgot about anything.
Very smart for a long time my only expenses were rent, bills, credit card repayment, car payment, groceries, and weed. I had some friends and we did well hosting dinner and parties instead of going out. But then 2025 hit