How I saved thousands per month in my 30s

Last week I shared what I spent money on in my 20s, like: To view this email as a web page, [click here]() {NAME}, Last week I shared what I spent money on in my 20s, like: - 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. - My biggest discretionary expense was going out to bars/restaurants. - I moved from the Peninsula to SF, where my expenses doubled. My rent was ~$1,400/month for my room. - I experienced my first luxury hotel in my late 20s—and was hooked Now let’s talk about what I spent money on in my 30s, in Part 2/3—including real numbers you’ve never seen before. --------------------------------------------------------------- Today’s newsletter is brought to you by: [Trade]() [Trade coffees]() Trade is a coffee subscription service that makes it simple to discover new coffees. They partner with top rated independent roasters so you can get the best quality coffee sent right to your door. Trade is offering our audience a [free bag of coffee with any subscription](). Find special deals here from [all of our sponsors](). --------------------------------------------------------------- What I spent on in my 30s - At this point, I was living in NYC. My expenses had more than doubled again. It was a 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 moved during the recession, which turned out to be incredibly fortunate. NYC landlords were desperate for anyone to rent apartments. Of course, I loved it. I knew I had the negotiation leverage and I negotiated a lower rent, plus they held the apartment for 6 weeks while I moved from SF. - I rented the same apartment for 11 years (highly unusual for NYC, where people move a lot). Every 1-2 years, I’d negotiate my rent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. In 11 years, I successfully negotiated my rent down 4x. [Don’t listen to anyone who says rents never go down](). - I saved thousands of dollars every single month by renting. If I’d purchased an equivalent unit -- right next door, same square footage, same view -- it would have cost me 2.2x more. Instead, I took that money and invested it, which was far more profitable than owning. This is why I always recommend running the numbers! - Now I was going out even more—6x/week in NYC, exploring the city. There’s a season of life for everyone. If someone early in their career asked me where they should live, I’d always recommend going to a big city, which is where you find more people, more opportunities, and more ideas. Living in NYC was transformative for me. - I began my fitness journey. It took me 4 months to get the courage to walk across the street and hire a trainer. It was about $100/hour. Since then -- around 13 years ago -- I’ve always paid for a trainer. It’s one of the best luxuries of my life. Fitness is one of the things I’m most proud of. Business came naturally to me, but fitness took a ton of physical and mental work to change. - I raised my own salary, but I also took regular distributions from my business. And I was investing those aggressively. [So many of my founder friends don’t invest their money in the stock market]() -- which is a critical mistake. When I talk to entrepreneurs who are starting to make money, I encourage them to take a large percentage of their early windfalls and invest it. It can change your life forever. - A big mental shift on money happened around eating out. When I moved to NYC, I used to love [Restaurant Week](). It was a chance to get into great restaurants and have a prix fixe menu for relatively low price. After a few years, I was done. I’d rather go to the restaurants I want, ordering whatever I want, than getting stuck with some pre-made menu for a slight discount. I vividly remember this as a pivotal moment in my financial mindset changing. - If I look back, when I moved to NYC, my rent was a relatively large percentage of my fixed costs. When I moved away, it was a much, much smaller percentage because my income had gone up substantially. The key insight was staying in the same 1BR apartment for a long time and saving all the money I would have spent moving, buying new furniture, even buying a new place. That provided huge savings, which I aggressively invested. If you can control your biggest costs (housing and cars), you can often live a very Rich Life. - I really started to travel a lot. I met my wife, [Cass](). I remember taking our first trip together and how fun it was to see the experience through her eyes. - I started to become much more politically active. Including [donating to help get people to the polls]() during the last election. I plan to do a lot more of this. - We got married! I’d been saving for my wedding and honeymoon since my 20s—before I’d even met Cass. It was a total Rich Life moment to be able to create the most meaningful experience we could -- with our friends and family from around the world—not having to put cost first. We felt very fortunate. And we created memories of a lifetime. [Ramit and Cass's wedding] What changed in my 40s? - Now, in my 40s, I spend much more on convenience, travel, and health. - But I spend less on eating out, car, and housing. (On housing, it’s a bigger number than I used to spend, but proportionally lower.) - I still invest aggressively. I invest monthly and then I invest ~85% of major distributions. These contributions + investment growth is where a large part of my wealth has come from. If you want to start a business and increase your income, I have [a very good program on increasing your income](). …to be continued in Part 3 next week, along with major lessons from my spending. What surprised you the most so far? Write me back! [Signature] P.S. This week on the podcast: [“He’s so afraid of money he can’t log into his own bank account” (Part 1)]() Check out [Part 1 of my conversation with Cristina and Ron]()—where the conversation takes a shocking turn as I discover more about their finances. [Podcast]()   You may be new to IWT. Here's all the stuff we offer [Programs]() [Podcast]() [Netflix show]() [Books]() [Check out our website for more]() Follow Ramit [ig]() [fb]() [tw]() [yt]() [pc]() Was this forwarded to you? Sign up [here](). This email was sent to [{EMAIL}](). If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may [unsubscribe]( at any time. 548 Market St #89946 San Francisco, CA 94104-5401