What changed with my spending in my 20s, 30s, 40s

Today I planned to share how my spending changed in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. To view this email as a web page, [click here]() {NAME}, Today I planned to share how my spending changed in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. I had so much fun writing this that I decided to turn it into a 3-part series with lots of details and real numbers. I love talking about this because ALL of us change our spending patterns as we go through life. We should! So let’s start with Part 1: What I spent on in my 20s—with real numbers you’ve never seen before. --------------------------------------------------------------- Today’s newsletter is brought to you by: [Fabric by Gerber Life](). [Gerber]() Fabric can help parents get a surprisingly affordable term life insurance policy in less than 10 minutes. They can also help you get set up with wills, access to college savings funds, and more—all online. [Apply for term life insurance in just 10 minutes here](). Find special deals here from [all of our sponsors](). --------------------------------------------------------------- What I spent on in my 20s - I was willing to work crazy hours to become successful - I made $11,000 my first year out of college. I’d turned down an offer to work at Google and instead co-founded my own company. We took no salaries and made no money at first. - I hadn’t yet felt the soft touch of cashmere on my body yet, so my expenses were low. My car payments were $350/month (I still drive the same car today, a 2005 Honda Accord). I lived in a house with 3-4 other guys and my rent was $800/month. I would eat lunch at my friends’ tech companies so I could get free lunch. My biggest discretionary expense was going out to bars. - Eventually, the company raised some money and I took a small salary. I think it was around $60K or $75K. We all knew we weren’t going to get rich on a salary. As we raised more money, our salaries went up. - I found myself driving up to SF a lot, going out 3-5x/week with friends to Taco Tuesdays, bars, late-night at Osha Thai in San Francisco. I decided to move up there. - When I moved to SF, my expenses doubled. For example, while my car payments were still $350/month, now my garage, gas, and the inevitable parking tickets and other expenses meant total costs per month was over $1,000! I stretched my finances a little bit to make the move to SF, but I knew I was young and I wanted to be in the city. Fortunately, within a couple of months, I got a $20,000 raise. - I was tracking expenses carefully because it mattered a lot. I really dialed in my details, like having a “Stupid Mistakes” sub-savings account. I don’t have that any more. - My rent was ~$1,400/month for my room. I had a roommate. - I remember my business earning its first million at some point in my 20s. I didn’t even know we’d done it, but the person I was working with sent me a screenshot showing me we’d crossed a million. It had a big arrow and exclamation point. It felt...fine. Anticlimactic. I was more interested in how we were going to create a new program and what our students would say. Honestly, I still feel the same way. Once you know you can make money, the numbers themselves are not that interesting. - I think it was my late 20s that I finally took a long vacation. It took me years to finally feel confident enough to leave (I thought my business would collapse if I wasn’t working all the time). I traveled to SE Asia and I remember staying at the [Four Seasons Chiang Mai]() in a huge villa, which blew my mind. I think that was one of the first truly luxury experiences I’d had on my own dime. I was hooked. What changed in my 30s - At this point, I was living in NYC. My expenses had more than doubled again. It was a slight stretch from a cash flow perspective, but I had my savings rate solid and my business and I knew my income would grow. Financially, I felt confident about making the move. But I was nervous to move to NYC because I didn’t know that many people. - I really valued living in a great place. My brother-in-law took me to see apartments in NYC and pointed out things I wouldn’t have known: proximity to the subway, direction it was facing, doormen, amenities, etc. I still remember all the things he taught me. - I rented the same apartment for 11 years (highly unusual for NYC). Every 1-2 years, I’d negotiate my rent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. In 11 years, I successfully negotiated my rent down 4x… …to be continued in Part 2 next week. What else do you think changed? What changed for you in your spending from your 20s to 30s? Write me back with your details! [Signature] P.S. This week on the podcast: [“We make $113,500. 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