I decided to check out The Ramsey Show today. No particular reason; I’d heard about it many times before, but it was always pitched as this America-centric podcast that wouldn’t really matter too much to me, but this time I decided to take a look.

It’s really nothing special, compared to everything else you find on the internet nowadays concerning finance. Save your money, don’t get into debt, how to get out of debt, yada yada. It’s good, it’s solid. The one thing that’s picking at me is the whole religious undertone. I have no idea where Mr. Ramsey came from, his background his story, whatever, but he talks about religion a lot. It’s about spirituality, what church you go to, talking to your pastor.

I’m not religious. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with religion—as a matter of fact, I’d argue that if religion gets people out of debt and into a better financial situation, that’s a good thing—but I do think it’s rather weird that he focuses on that so much. Maybe I just got a weird batch of videos, I don’t know.

Religion is very strong, it’s an incredible tool, really, but I think it’s wholly unnecessary. I have no religion and I can save, I can keep my head in the game. I don’t need a god or a church. I need family, yes, a community, people I can look up to and talk to and discuss this with. I see the value in organized religion as a vehicle for social interaction, but it comes with so much baggage that, to me, it seems bloated. Moreover, it’s dangerous. Sure, it comes with good things, but it comes with a lot of other philosophies that go way beyond finances. I definitely wouldn’t prescribe religion as a cure or aid for debt, but Mr. Ramsey seems to be rather convinced it’s at least a viable option.

I know I’m talking about this from a very detached perspective. Truth be told, I don’t really get religious people. I understand them, on a technical level, but not on a practical level. I guess, on one hand, I do get why he would mention it so often: he’s religious. He believes in a religion and he believes sharing that religion is his duty and it’s good, so he does it. Might I add, he’s not being particularly obnoxious or anything, it’s not offensive by any means, just noticeable.

Determination is essential to financial freedom. I mean, you really have to take a good look at your finances to make the call that you can’t afford this or that, or that you don’t want to afford this or that because your priorities lay elsewhere.

My parents, my mother in particular, was adamant that I rent an apartment, or at the very least a larger room. She even offered to cover my rent! Isn’t that ridiculous? She offered me hundreds of euro monthly for me to rent an apartment. Look, I love my mum, but what the fuck. I told her no, on two fronts: I wasn’t going to rent a bigger (more expensive) place myself, and I didn’t want her help. I don’t mind small things, she sometimes pays for my travels, for example, but my rent? I appreciate it, of course, and it would speed up this whole thing, but I’ve already taken so much from my parents that I just can’t stand to keep doing it. I have money, so they don’t need to be burdened any more.

This feels so silly. Of course I know they would be happy to pay for me. I really live a privileged life, don’t I? It just doesn’t sit right with me, though. A few days ago, actually, I talked to my parents about buying that rice cooker. By the way, I’m still considering that purchase. I’m pretty sure my dad was offering to buy it for me, he just didn’t want to say it. As a matter of fact, he told me I didn’t need to change the paying information on Amazon. He said it just like that. In the immediate, I didn’t realize that that’s what he was implying—that he was willing to pay for me—so I just said something like “oh thanks, that’s convenient, I’ll just send you the money after then.” Reasonable, right? No need to change payment information or anything, I use his card and then send him a payment with the price. Makes things simpler. But he was so obviously unhappy to hear that! He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he didn’t want me to send him money. I think it’s similar to how I’m feeling towards them. I’m so thankful for everything they’ve given me, everyday I’m thankful, and so I just can’t bare to rely on them so much. I don’t want him to pay for my fucking rice cooker, he’s already paid for so many grains of rice for me why the fuck would he pay for the cooker too?! He probably feels that, as my father, it’s his responsibility to pay for my necessities. Sure, I’m all grown up and earning my money, but it’s just a rice cooker, it’s to improve my life, and so he has no problem forking over €20. And what, he needs his son to pay for €20?! He doesn’t need that! I get it, I get it.

It’s great to have parents that care so much. I was tearing up writing that, by the way.

I think that’s what I need to keep this up. My parents are a reminder of what can be achieved. They have no debt, two homes, two healthy children, one of which is starting his education and the other who’s making money. They’re even starting to make some small investments now, thanks to my influence. My mum cashed out on about €400 in 3 months. That’s a sixth of the minimum national salary. I’m not sure if she has enough saved up to actually just make the minimum national salary of the interest but she’s not far off. Seeing this, I stay motivated to save.

Whenever I share my passion with saving with the uninitiated, I get the same comment: don’t forget to live. First of all, uh, duh?! Obviously. I know people are just looking out for me, and I really do appreciate it, but it does get a little obnoxious. I’m someone that thinks things through, especially the big things. It’s not that I don’t make mistakes or miscalculate, but forgetting to live would be a major miss. The miss of a lifetime, one might wager. This month (and by month I mean salary) I bought over €120 worth of stuff. Really just 2 things, the backpack and the shoes, but still that’s quite a decent chunk of change. Had I invested that money, I would be up significantly right about now. But I value the things I bought, and I intend to keep valuing them, so I consider it money well spent.

I checked the maths today and I think I’m safe. I had about €100 to spend and I sent €120 instead, pushing it, but I’m pretty sure I’m safely in the green. And by green I mean above the cushion in my checking account that I’d rather not dip under for whatever reason. So many arbitrary numbers… Silly, again, but I prefer to have that. For peace of mind.

And we’re back to religion. I do still have these rituals, these barriers and points of contact that I keep perfectly lined up for no reason other than peace of mind. It’s psychological. Rituals are useful, but praying isn’t. Praying is a ritual, and rituals are useful. That’s where it ends, as far as I see it.

I cleaned my room and did my laundry this weekend. It was nice. I also ate dry ramen for the first time, I think. Just boil the ramen, drain the water, and then add the seasoning. Two packets cost me 90c. Not bad, not bad. I also bought just over a €1 of fruit today, plums. I didn’t eat them all today, so maybe I’ll just have them for dinner tomorrow and save there. Not that I need to, mind you, the plums were well within my budget. They were under, actually, but it’s just a nice thing that happened. I’m also eating lots of oranges. There’s a tree in the garden of the house I’m renting at, very convenient.

Lunch tomorrow seems delicious. I saved 2 meals from last week because I didn’t have lunch at the canteen. I wonder about my weight. I look in the mirror sometimes and it’s clear I’ve made progress, but it’s hard to tell if I’m making progress. My arms are surprisingly muscular, actually. I noticed that today, or maybe last night, not sure.

Something else is that I’m just itching to update my net worth. I have a little sheet on GDrive where I keep my finances lined up, but I told myself it was silly to update it everyday or even every month. I mean… That would add to the obsession, it’s stupid. I don’t need to focus so much on this. My limit was 6 months. Maybe that’s too long, to be fair. Quarterly might be better, I don’t know. But I said 6 months, so 6 months it is! Only in December, damn it…

I’m curious, though. I saw this thing some time ago, I don’t remember where or what they called it, but the idea was basically judging what the hypothetical max is that I could maybe save and then seeing how much I did save. It should help keep things in perspective, how much life really costs, and also keeping my greed in check. Comparing to these rich people out here getting paid a fortune in a day… That’s just bad.

I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve been looking at shoes and shirts and pants. I really think I found my style. I hope to slowly build my wardrobe to fit it. I’ll end up selling a bunch of shirts, I reckon. Vinted stardom, here I come! I started a Pinterest board. I plan to save 5 pins for each category of thing I want to wear in the future. Hopefully, I can look back on it to guide my purchases.

Also, tomorrow I’ll get a reply from the Slowly thing. Cool app, hopefully it’s interesting. I’ll get it mid-afternoon, I believe.

Overall, feeling decently good. I’m not rich yet, and my income is low, but slowly and surely I’m getting closer to my goals.

Speaking of that, I saw this post on Reddit about what the lean FIRE number should be. Right now, people said 500k was reasonable. That sounds a little crazy, but I don’t know. If I had 500k today, I probably would retire, actually. The thing is, really, I don’t! I have barely anything at all. When I’m 50, I can expect 500k to be 1.25M. Crazy… 500k today should yield some 1.5k/month, which is actually more than I have per month! Way more. I could travel lots, so much. At my current pace, I can expect to hit 500k in 20 years. In that time, 500k will be 1M. It feels like wealth is running away from me, it’s nuts!

Still, this isn’t particularly upsetting. It’s OK, and I really do think that I’ll find ways to enjoy life on less as time goes on. Maybe I’m being naïve, maybe dangerously so, but who knows. There’s this other experiment I like to do. If I get a decent job after I graduate that let’s me save a little more per month, I can shorten this timeline so much. Not to mention, all this is being calculated with a notably high inflation rate of 3.5%. More realistically, I can get this done. I really think so.

I’m still thinking about Vietnam quite a bit.