How to save up for Tesla, working remotely for a Western company

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

With the popularization of remote work, a whole caste of IT specialists has emerged who work for Western companies and receive from $ 20 to $ 150 per hour. Find out how they save and spend money, and what you can learn from them.

The average programmer's salary is $ 5,000 per month

We asked two programmers. Nikita does the backend for a Canadian company, and Arthur does the same for a US company. Both get paid the same - $ 30 an hour. But Arthur has almost $ 60,000 set aside, enough for a new Tesla car. And Nikita does not always manage to complete the month without reaching the credit limit. What kind of miracles? Let's calculate how much our programmers earn:

Is it really possible to get $ 5,000 and not save up for Tesla? Let's see what our heroes spend their money on.

Just count how much money you spend on food

Catering is no less a strategic task. Lack of thoughtful catering will make a dent in your budget, while proper menu planning will help you save money.

Nikita goes to the Azbuka Vkusa not far from home. He does not adhere to any system, he just takes a cart and picks up the products he likes. Among his purchases, marbled beef is often found at 2,000 rubles per kilogram. He has never spent less than 3,000 rubles for a hike. When Nikita is too lazy to cook, he calls delivery or goes to a restaurant. He spends $ 50 a day on food, that's $ 1,500 a month.

Arthur purchases every two weeks at METRO. In his smartphone he has a menu that he himself has developed taking into account his needs. He no longer checks the list, because he remembers everything that needs to be bought by heart. Once every 10 days, Arthur invites his girlfriend to a cafe. It takes him $ 300 every two weeks to shop, plus $ 50 for the cafe. Total: $ 750 for meals.

Advice: make a menu for the week and plan purchases. How to do this, Lifehacker wrote here.

Clothes can be bought in sets

The days of cigarette-smoking programmers in old sweaters are over. Looking stylish is a basic skill of a modern person. Advanced IT people periodically update their wardrobe, and very advanced ones know what kind of clothes suits them and makes them more attractive.

Nikita loves to walk around shopping malls. Often he goes to sales and there he acts according to the principle “I like it - I buy”. So a navy velvet jacket and red moccasins stuck into his wardrobe. He also loves printed T-shirts and spends a lot of time looking for them on eBay. But he does not always guess with the size, and some things have to be donated or sold on Avito. During the year Nikita bought clothes for $ 2,400 - $ 200 a month.

Arthur renews his wardrobe every six months: before the summer and winter seasons. He knows all his sizes, so he may not try on clothes, but simply order them in trusted stores on the Web. Arthur borrowed the idea from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, he uses presets - ready-made sets of clothes. Its presets include gray, white, black V-neck T-shirts, dark gray blazers, blue jeans. Everything is of excellent quality. Arthur spends $ 500 on clothes every six months - about $ 80 a month.

Advice: use presets, capsules or basic wardrobe.

Taking care of your health pays off

Steve Siebold, author of How Rich People Think, spent 30 years researching the habits of millionaires and formulating 21 differences between the rich and the poor. One of Steve's discoveries: rich people take much more careful care of their health. Not surprising, because this is their capital.

Nikita has four advanced caries, and his teeth often bother him. But he has an ordinary compulsory medical insurance policy without dentistry. Recently he had to go to a 24-hour clinic at night with acute pain; tooth extraction and anesthesia cost him 10,000 rubles. Now he needs to pay for prosthetics, he should count on at least $ 1,000.

Nikita also has a subscription to an expensive fitness club, but he is often lazy to train and cannot wake up in the morning. But Nikita always has the newest model of a fitness tracker. Hall - 26,000 rubles a year, fitness tracker - 3,500 rubles. Changes every six months. Total: $ 50 per month plus 10,000 rubles (165 dollars) per tooth and 1,000 dollars in the long term for prosthetics.

One of the biggest monthly fixed expenses of Arthur is the business insurance policy. It includes both dentistry and endocrinology. Once every two months, Arthur undergoes an examination and takes blood tests.

In the evenings, Arthur runs 6 km in the park with a fitness tracker of the simplest model. He does not pay for the gym, but he pumps his muscles with dumbbells at home. Voluntary health insurance "Business" costs 80,000 rubles a year, 120 dollars a month.

Ordinary people never associate money and health. Rich people know that money can save your life.

Steve Siebold author of How Rich People Think

Advice: buy a VHI policy. It pays for itself. Get tested and heal all infections, including dental infections.

To buy an apartment? It is possible if you count well

The whole Universe is available to man, but all he wants is his own house with a garden, the classic said. The housing issue has a high priority in people's lives. Save up, take out a loan or withdraw?

Nikita rents a spacious kopeck piece inside the Garden Ring for 70,000 rubles. For a month now he has been going to find out the terms of the mortgage and start saving for the down payment, but he will not have enough for an apartment inside Sadovoe, but he is already used to it.

Arthur bought an apartment on a mortgage in New Moscow for 1.5 million rubles, in a residential complex under construction. While the house was being built, he rented a very modest one-room apartment in the region for 20,000 rubles. What a difference for a programmer where to live, if the Internet would be! Now the price of Arthur's apartment has tripled. He is thinking of buying another one-room apartment under construction.

Advice: save up for the first installment and buy your own home. Choose liquid odnushki: they are always in price.

Only Tesla makes sense

Gone are the days when people were judged by the car about the toughness of a person. Now a huge car is more likely to cause confusion: traffic jams, parking, taxes, fuel.

Nikita likes big cars. He has a 2015 Mazda CX5, for which he pays a loan of 30,000 rubles a month. Any breakdown, even a burnt out light bulb - and Nikita has to fork out. He wants BMW for a long time, Mazda is fed up. Credit, OSAGO, CASCO, fuel, maintenance - it takes 55,000 rubles a month.

Arthur bought himself a three-year-old Volkswagen Golf. He can afford an expensive car, but why? His Golf requires service a little more often than a new one, but parts for it are much cheaper and always in stock. Golf maintenance - 10,000 rubles per month.

Why do you need an expensive car? To show everyone? We are not monkeys for a long time. I only see sense in Tesla because of the battery.

Arthur

Advice: choose an economical car.

Getting a salary can also be optimized

Our heroes work remotely, and not every foreign company can draw up a contract. Therefore, they use electronic payments, and taxes are processed at the place of residence.

Payment system commissions can gobble up a decent chunk of your earnings. It makes sense to carefully study all electronic payment systems and choose the one where the commission is lower.

Nikita uses an electronic payment system linked to eBay. But that system has a big problem: frequent blocking of funds and an unfavorable internal exchange rate of dollars for rubles. Nikita has no time to think of anything better: he needs money now.

Arthur tested all noteworthy services. Previously, he also used the notorious system, which had the habit of blocking money on the account without explanation. He switched from PayPal to Payoneer, but ATM withdrawal fees and withdrawal restrictions forced him to look for a better option. He settled on ePayments because of the low fees and the fact that a prepaid card is included with the e-invoice.

Advice: choose a payment system with a low commission and an associated debit card. So avoid blocking and save time for withdrawing funds.

You don't have to spend a lot to get good rest

Scientists have long proved that you can't just work. It is imperative that you alternate between work and rest periods to stay productive. But rest is a change of activity. Therefore, study can be considered a rest from work.

Nikita travels to Europe or Asia every six months. Travel costs at least $ 3,000. He loves beaches, five-star hotels and nightclubs. Nikita loves to watch TV shows in bed on his 50-inch super plasma.

And he considers shopping on the Internet to be the best rest. In a week, 10 hours are typed, which Nikita spends looking at new offers. Nikita cannot cope with himself: if he sees a thing better than his, he buys it, and sells the old one for half the price on Avito or Facebook. For a month Nikita just for the pleasure of buying spends time on $ 1,200.

Arthur always combines travel with business. He tries to travel for the company: attending exhibitions, hackathons, seminars. Some travel is paid by the employer. He flies by low-cost airlines, he doesn't see the point in nightclubs.

Arthur spends two hours a day after work developing his own video game project that will bring money in the future. While relaxing, he plays League of Legends - he has fun and is inspired by ideas for his project.

Rich people prefer to study and earn money, rather than to have fun and look for cheaper places.

Steve Siebold author of How Rich People Think

Advice: combine work and leisure. Alternate activities.

Better to save than buy

Avoiding debt is a basic habit of a reasonable person. Putting aside some of your income is a habit that can make a person wealthy in a short time.

Nikita finally got ready to invest and bought bitcoins. He watched them grow and was glad that his fortune was growing. But just at this time, he fell in love and gave the bitcoins to the girl so that she, too, would be happy. But he fell in love unsuccessfully, because the girl left with the bitcoins.

Nikita has three credit cards from different banks. If he needs to make a large purchase, he pays by card. He also buys when he sees an attractive offer on eBay, without thinking about whether he needs an item. There will soon be no room in Nikita's apartment.

Nikita's philosophy: "Why do I work then if I can't spend my money?" It is she who prevents him from getting rich.

If we add up Nikita's expenses, we will see that he spends $ 4,650, and this does not include spontaneous shopping.

Arthur splits part of his salary into two deposits at once: in dollars and in euros. If something happens to one currency, it will not be left without savings. Arthur is eyeing securities, testing bonds this year. He maintains a budget in the AceMoney program, knows his daily limit and never exceeds it. Arthur spends no more than $ 2,000 a month. It will take him less than two years to save up for a new Tesla car.

Advice:do not put all your eggs in one basket. Distribute across different deposits.

Investing in your free time pays off

It makes sense to spend on something that will bring more money in the future or free up time for more productive activities. Buying equipment for work and paying for services that save expensive programmers' time is an investment, not a waste.

Nikita pays for cleaning services once a week. Cleaning of a two-room apartment costs 2,000-2,500 rubles.

He has an ambush with technology: he constantly changes gadgets to newer ones. He has a red iPhone 7 and another Android phone. Several old smartphones have also accumulated, which are not for sale in any way, but it is a pity to throw it away. But Nikita does not lose hope. Nikita's friends do not lose hope either: they know that soon he will get tired of looking for a buyer and he will give away all the smartphones. Nikita's friends know that you can ask him to add money for anything and he will not refuse. It is not necessary to return: he will forget anyway.

Arthur also pays for cleaning - 1,000 rubles for a one-room apartment. He knows that his time is worth much more than the cleaner's time, so he prefers to spend it on his projects.

He also has a decent electricity bill, because the air conditioner is constantly running: Arthur is hot in summer and cold in winter. If you do not maintain the temperature, then he will not be able to work productively.

Arthur lends money to friends only if they don't have enough to pay for their studies - that's the principle. He uses a Xiaomi smartphone and considers it the best in terms of price-quality ratio. Arthur's only weakness is the good red wine he orders online from Invisible.

Advice:spend on things that can save you time, keep you healthy, and make more money in the future. You can afford a little weakness.

Arthur has already saved up for Tesla. Here's what he advises:

1. Live just below your income limit. There is no point in flaunting your lifestyle.
2. Ordinary people often live beyond their means. Rich people live below them.
3. Don't put all your investments in one basket. Keep your savings in different currencies, for example, part in dollars, part in euros. This will protect you from market surges.
4. Take a closer look at bitcoins and securities, now you can buy them online in two clicks.
5. Invest time in what will make money tomorrow. Template everything you can: food, clothes, rest.
6. Calculate your budget for the day, minimum and maximum. Do not exceed it. Save up for big purchases or skip them if you can't afford it.