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5 Things I’ve Learnt as a 20 year old Going to Financial Independence Meetups

25th December 2018

Financial independence is:

‘The freedom to choose whether or not you want to work and what sort of work you want to do’

I was introduced into the financial independence world when I started writing the show notes for the popular ChooseFI podcast – I was forced to listen to every single episode in order to do my job, which meant the financial independence mindset was really hammered into me, and of course, I learnt a lot 😉.

No idea what financial independence is all about? Check out this interview with Barney on reaching financial independence as a student.

But this post is not about financial independence, it’s about the amazing things I’ve learnt as a 20 year old attending meetups with the most fascinating and intelligent people I’ve ever met. Here goes…

 

1. Enjoy the journey as much as you can

My favourite question to ask people who have reached FI is ‘Would you do it again if you knew all this at age 20?’, and their answer, surprisingly, is no. Of course, in hindsight we always wish we had done things differently, but I still think this is golden information for a current twenty year old.

And these people say no because many of them, in order to reach financial independence, had to work several years at a job they disliked in order to escape the ‘rat race’.  They worked hard, saved money, educated themselves and then quit. Do we all have to do this if we want to reach financial freedom? Do we all have to work a high paying job that doesn’t fulfill us to get there? Personally, I don’t think so at all.

I believe that at 20, if you have financial education under your belt and know how to manage your money, you can choose to work at a job that truly fulfills you. You can choose to work on something that allows you to enjoy the journey of life.  And from all these intelligent and interesting people, I’ve learnt that simply being intelligent with your money can get you very far. Knowing this has changed my life.

 

 

2. The amazing power of communities

Everyone in the financial independence community agrees that there’s something special about meeting people with a similar mindset. Without trying to sound cultish, the community is truly astounding; people are fine with talking about money, people are willing to help you sort out your finances, and everyone has that mentality of self improvement and working hard to achieve their goals. Personally, I find it inspiring.

Especially as a 20 year old, this amazing community has helped me out a lot; not only do I learn so much every time I go to a financial independence meetup, but I get opportunities to work with some very interesting people which inspire to work harder on my own goals. Literally feels like a never ending cycle of self-development. Not a bad atmosphere to surround yourself with 😎

And I should also mention that I’ve made great friends attending these meetups, namely two who have ended up being the co-hosts on our podcast!

 

3. Mindset has no language barriers

I’ve been to FI meetups in Edinburgh, London and Barcelona and met people from all over the world. We’re soon going to be doing a retreat next year with even more people from Europe 😍.

Going on from the community aspect, the financial independence mentality has a way of connecting people who speak different languages. I personally find it fascinating to meet people with the same mentality but with who we talk about very different laws, taxes and investing practices. All you need to do is attend a meetup full of expats, and be blown away with all the amazing stuff people have done in different countries.

Having a podcast about reaching financial independence in Europe is also a great way of seeing how people use the system in their country and in other countries to their advantage. Pure geoarbitrage and life hacking.

 

4. It’s got very little do with money

That’s the craziest part.

When people see financial independence blogs, listen to podcasts and meet the people, the first thing they’ll hear is ‘taxes’ ‘compound interest’ ‘euros’ ‘dividend growth’ and a lot of financial jargon. And many times the first thing they’ll think is ‘these guys are greedy, obsessed with money and cannot be happy’.

But once you dig a little deeper you realise that financial independence is actually the complete opposite. Heck, the actual word says it; we’re all about being independent from your money. We want to get our lives back into control, we don’t want to rely on every penny to get to do the things that we want, we don’t want to depend on money. Because it’s all about control, about being able to do what you want with you life and setting your priorities.

Because you’ll never get to climb Mont Blanc, backpack through South East Asia, sail around the world or learn how to dance tango professionally if you have an inflexible day job that not only you dislike but that you rely on to not go broke every month. It’s all about lifestyle choices.

 

5. If you don’t know what to do with your life, attend a FI meetup

This last one goes out to the other university students who know they need to fix their finances, their priorities and their goals but don’t know how. Those who aren’t sure if studying a degree will get them a job, those who are scared of being stuck in a job they hate and those who have no idea what to do after they graduate. I tell you; attend a FI meetup.

This will allow you to see how others have done it, to learn from their mistakes and see how things like budgeting, paying yourself first and investing truly does work.

Whenever I’m going to a FI meetup, I try to bring a friend along who I believe might learn something. So far I’ve seen 2 friends completely open their eyes and change their way of living. A pretty amazing experience.

If you’re interested in joining check out the FI London group, FI Edinburgh group and the EU one. To find out if there’s one in your city, simply type ‘financial independence [city]’ into Google and you will hopefully find a group! (if not look for the one nearest).

So as you can see, the financial independence community has truly changed my life as a twenty year old. I’ve decided to prioritise financial education over getting a degree at university, I do work that currently fulfills me and I keep saving and investing for the future. The whole ‘paradox of FI’ is that if you learn about it and start working towards it at a young age, you realise you don’t need it anymore. Although I’m working towards building a monetary cushion, I am in no rush to reach financial independence, since I’m lucky enough to be enjoying the journey. It’s crazy, but it’s true.

 

What do you think? Do you agree? Do you believe university students should be exposed to the FI world?

 

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Financially Mint is on another break! ☕ I will Financially Mint is on another break! ☕

I will be living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the next few months, and then hopefully heading to Australia. 
My plans for the next year:

I'm putting the career testing theory into practice. My next career test is working for an NGO here in Kuala Lumpur. This week will be my first week. I will be working with sex trafficking survivors and I've also been asked to do some financial education presentations to help the staff.

After that the plan is to move to Melbourne, Australia, and do my next career test: consulting. If that doesn't work out I will try another career test which may be more achievable: business development in a startup. Thanks to the amazing career books that I've read, I'm pretty confident I can get an interesting job. We'll see how it rolls. 🏀

How am I funding this? I'm very excited to say that I've managed to grow my part-time freelancing income to a full-time income that can sustain me in South East Asia (I would need to work full-time in Europe). I'm calling myself a 'Freelance FinTech Writer'. Rent is crazy cheap (like 300€/month) and it's literally cheaper to eat out than cook. I'm still able to save 15% of my income. 🎉🎉 The increase in clients and pay has been thanks to all the effort I put into Financially Mint, and to some crazy cold emailing and networking in the past few months. 
After some thought, I concluded that learning mark-up language (HTML + CSS) was a more efficient use of my time than writing blog posts and working on FM... so I am now taking a break to learn some basic coding and decide what to do next.

I will still be podcasting and taking part in the FI community on Twitter and everywhere else... so I'll still be seeing you around 😉

To our success 🎉🎉
Only 30% of jobs are posted online. 🙄 Let's sa Only 30% of jobs are posted online. 🙄

Let's say you've got a list of career paths to test. You've figured out a direction, you know which sector you want to work in and you've got some cool companies in mind.

But then what? How do you get an internship in the company you really want to work for? How do you get a job in that specific NGO? How do you get them to notice you? 🤔

In FM's latest post I share a strategy that I am still testing but seems to work - copied from a book titled 'Designing your Life' by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans:

The strategy: Conducting 'Life Design' Interviews. .
A Life Design Interview is basically meeting the person that has your 'dream career' for coffee. ☕

You find someone who is working at the company you want to work for, in the sector you want to work for or simply has a position you're interested in, and you reach out to them (LinkedIn helps). You ask about their story, their position, how they got to where they are and their advice to people starting out. 
This is what I've been doing for the past month in Edinburgh, and of the 40 people I contacted, I met 8 of them for coffee, my goal to simply learn about their story.

With an added bonus: Trust. ✅

Not only did I learn stuff about working in a startup, or as a content writer or working in an NGO, but I also built a trusted connection. It's those connections that help you find the hidden jobs, the dream careers and the best opportunities.

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#financiallymint #budget #budgeting #personalfinance #savinghacks #makemoney #savemoney #money #shoestringbudget #moneyhacks #moneysavinghacks #financialeducation #financialfreedom #adulting #savingtricks #earnmoney #lifeadvice #counsel #careeradvice #retirement #investing #careerbuilding #skillbuilding #career #selfimprovement #inspiring #fieurope #lifedesign #interviews
Investing in yourself now will return bucket loads Investing in yourself now will return bucket loads in the future. 🔮

I talk a lot about this on Financially Mint - how taking the time to build career capital and explore career paths will allow you to find a career of best personal fit, which will then make you the money you need.

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He went to university to study business in Poland, and finished his masters in Australia. In the meantime, he was doing internships, making connections, building skills and beefing up his portfolio. 
He says it himself: ' I always looked to add experience and skills to my repertoire rather than dollars' 💸.
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7 internships later in several different countries and industries and a lot of hustling, moving around and learning about what career fitted him best, FG ended up in a job that paid him a six figure salary. This kept on snowballing, and in his early thirties he hit a salary of over $500,000. .
That goes to show how much investing in yourself can return in the future.
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$500,000 annual salary doesn't need to be your goal, but it still goes to show that you'll make the bulk of your money after investing in your own career. 📈

A great interview filled with actionable career advice and FG's complete story, check out FM's latest blog post! (Edinburgh castle 🔥)
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#financiallymint #budget #budgeting #personalfinance #savinghacks #makemoney #savemoney #money #studentmoney #studenthacks #studentlife #shoestringbudget #moneyhacks #moneysavinghacks #financialeducation #financialfreedom #adulting #savingtricks #earnmoney #lifeadvice #counsel #careeradvice #retirement #investing #careerbuilding #skillbuilding #career #selfimprovement #inspiring #work
Most of us don't know what we want to do in our tw Most of us don't know what we want to do in our twenties 🤷‍♀️. And that's absolutely normal.

But that's why we don't want to be committing to one thing - who know what you might want to do in 5 years? 🧐

Instead of committing, why not be exploring, investigating and testing career paths. But how can you do this cleverly without being a typical 'millennial-career-hopper'? By building career capital at the same time.

This means that every career test you do will help you build skills, connections and a more solid portfolio. If you have no idea where to start, here are some examples of jobs/activities that can help you build career capital:

1. Working for a growing organisation with a growing performance: this could be consulting, a startup - anywhere with a good mentor and team 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
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2. Graduate studies - for those who want to work in research, a think tank, etc.
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3. Building a valuable and transferable skill - skills such as writing, programming, designing, data science, etc will always be useful in the future 💻
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4. Creating content - you don't always need a shiny piece of paper or a medal to show that you've done something. Creating your own thing can be just as useful.
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And much more amazing career advice... in FM's latest blog post 🤓
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(I’m running out of pictures to post so here’s one of a beautiful evening in Edinburgh) .
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#financiallymint #budget #budgeting #personalfinance #savinghacks #makemoney #savemoney #money #studentmoney #studenthacks #studentlife #shoestringbudget #moneyhacks #moneysavinghacks #financialeducation #financialfreedom #adulting #savingtricks #earnmoney #lifeadvice #counsel #careeradvice #retirement #investing #peoplemanagement #skillbuilding #career #selfimprovement #inspiring #work
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