행복한 30대 은퇴를 위한 10년 계획

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Li_sFNc4Q

 

비엔나에서 작은 소프트웨어 회사에서 근무하던 시절 당시 나는 테스터로 일하고 있었고, 계발 부서에 'Gabor'라는 작지만 단단한 체구를 가진 남성미가 가득한 대머리 친구가 있었다.

루마니아에서 살다가 비엔나에서 직장을 잡아 계속 일하던 그 친구는 겉모습과는 다르게 굉장히 수줍음이 많고 부끄러움을 많이 타는 친구였다. 

회사 카페테리아에 구석 한편에 배치되어 있던 푸스볼을 함께 하면서 친해졌고, 내성적인 성격과는 다르게 스포츠에 대한 애착과 성공하겠다는 열정으로 가득 찼고, 약간은 어눌했던 그 친구의 동유럽 특유의 영어 발음도 정감 있게 들렸다.

그렇게 우리는 매주 탁구를 하면서 친해졌고, 탁구가 끝난 뒤에 가볍게 서로가 알고 있는 지식이나 정보, 프로그래밍 언어에 대해 주고받으며 관계가 돈독해졌다.

 

술마시다 셀카찍는게 수줍은 Gabor(위), 몸짱 Gabor(아래) (전 회사 동료들 플로리안과 튜나도는 카메오로 등장)

 

어린 시절 가정 형편이 썩 좋지 않았던 Gabor에겐 큰 꿈이 있었는데, 30대 초, 중반에 경제적 은퇴였다.

그때 난 어리둥절하며 '응?? 한창 제일 열정적으로 일 할 나이에 은퇴를 한다고? 어떻게 그게 가능하지?'라고 묻자 Gabor는 여유로운 미소를 지으며 내 맥북에서 동영상을 하나 재생시켰다.

Mr.Money Mustache이 무슨 괴랄한 이름인가, 알 수 없는 닉네임을 가진 누가 봐도 캐나다스러운 캐주얼한 스타일에 캐나다스러운 발음을 가진 훈훈한 아저씨가 사람들이 많은 무대에 서서 샴페인을 홀짝이며 굉장히 편안하게, 격식 따윈 전혀 차리지 않은 자신만의 스타일로 강연을 해나간다.

중간중간에 나오는 위트 있는 유머라던가 조금은 투박한 어휘들이 캐나다에서 유학을 하던 그때의 정겹던 내 친구들을 떠올리게 했다.

 

회사 내에서 가장 남자답고 다부진 몸을 가진 Gabor가 내성적이고 부끄럼쟁이라는 반전 매력을 가진 것처럼, 저 편안한 복장을 가진 말쑥한 청년 또한 30대 초반에 이미 대부분 사람들이 평생에 걸쳐 허덕이는 경제적 압박감의 굴레에서 일지감치 벗어난 난자인 것이다. 그래서 저 자리에 서서 많은 사람들에게 어떻게 하면 10년 만에 경제적 자유를 이룰 수 있었는가에 대해 사람들과 나누고 있는 것이고 지금은 꽤 유명해졌다.

 

사실 처음 이 동영상을 보았을 땐 크게 대수롭지 않게 여겼다.

30대 초반에 은퇴 이후 평생 경제적인 자유를 누리며 산다고? 말은 그럴듯한데 그렇게 하려면 얼마나 많은 인고의 시간을 가져야 할 것인가?라는 생각이 가장 먼저 들었고, 그때 당시에 옷을 사고 모으는데 취미가 꽤 있었고 쇼핑이 주는 일시적인 행복감에 빠져 살았던 터라 어쩌면 내 인생에서 굉장히 중요한 터닝포인트가 될 수 있었던 그 시기에 이 소중한 메시지는 내 머릿속을 그저 스쳐 지나가기만 했을 뿐이었다.

이런 걸 보면 준비되지 않은 자에겐 어떤 기회가 왔을 때 그것이 얼마나 소중한지 인지할 수 도 없이 순식간에 스쳐 지나가 버린 다라는 것을 또 깨달은 순간이다.

 

아무튼 20대의 마지막 해를 보내고 있던 나에겐 사실 경험과 친구들과의 추억 만들기가 더 소중했기에 열심히 돈을 쓰며 별 걱정 없이 살았더랬다. 

그러다가 세월은 흘러 벌써 30대 초중반을 지나가고 있다. 

타인의 기준에 맞춰 사는 타입은 사실 아니긴 하지만, 그래도 진지하게 인생을 설계해나가고 어떻게 하면 더 행복한 삶을 살 것인가 에 대한 고민을 장기적인 관점에서 바라봐야 되는 나이가 되었고, 그렇기 위해서 경제적 자립과 여유는 오늘날의 사회에서 행복한 삶을 살기 위한 잣대 중 꽤 중요한 부분이 되었다.

그래서 잊고 있던 지난날의 케케묵은 미스터 머니 콧수염 친구가 생각났고, 비슷한 연령대의 학생분들이 많고, 그들 또한 나와 비슷한 고민을 하고 있을 거란 생각에 수업 자료로 쓰면 좋겠다 생각되어 동영상을 요약해봤다.

 

인상적이었던 구절이 참 많았는데, 임금의 높음과 낮음과 관계없이 임금의 64프로를 저축하며 허리띠 바짝 졸라 10년간 저축하면, 경제적인 자유를 이룰 수 있다는 그의 주장과 그래프가 꽤 흥미로왔고, 미국인들의 평균 저축률이 어떤지 대략적으로 볼 수 있던 그래프라 꽤 흥미로웠다. (평균 6프로... 사실 빚이 없는 게 다행인 세상이다)

또한 가정을 이루고 아이와의 시간을 최대한 많이 보내는 슈퍼 아빠가 되기 위해 이러한 은퇴 계획을 세웠다는 것을 보고, 아이를 가지고 가정을 이루는 것이 얼마나 한 개인에게 크나큰 기적과 행복을 가져다주는지에 대해서도 엿볼 수 있었고, 복이 많은 친구라는 생각에 조금 부럽기도 했다.

그의 행복관을 다시 한번 찬찬히 살펴보며 얼마나 쓸데없는 것에 내 에너지와 시간을 소모했는지에 대한 시간을 또 가지게 되면서 앞으로는 조금 더 본질적인 행복을 추구하기 위해 살아가야 되지 않을까 란 다짐을 해보며 요약본을 펼쳐본다.

 

 

Pete Adeney (Mr. Money Mustache) - Full Talk at WDS 2016 [HD]

PeterAdeney(aka. Mr.Money Mustasche) is an accidental part-time lifestyle guru and a leader of Mustachenism. 

 

What he cares about is how much better a world we're all gonna get to live in if we all become a bit more rational with our money

Choices we make with money can differ in our life.

 

 

The 3 amazing facts will make you rich

Fact 1. Almost everybody sucks at Money

Fact 2. Getting Rich enough to Retire only takes about 10 years

Fact 3. Work is Better When you don't need money

 

His story begins with the dream:)

 

15 Years ago, He had a dream of being a super dad for his baby after marrying his girlfriend.

the super dad means that he would like to spend as much time as possible to have great memories with his kid. 

but the problem was he had to work.

long story short, In order to be a super dad, He took the 10-year path to early retirement.

He graduated from a college, got a job, worked really hard, road his bikes to commute, drank bears, fixed up his house, learned about the stock market and investing, and was able to retire just before his 31st birthday and his baby was born.

 

 

His dream came true! He and his wife both as super parents, they focused on educating the little boy for ten years through small and big trips, reading books, teaching him math, physics and how to ride a bike so on and so forth.

according to him, it was a wonderful 10 years and he became a great 10 year-old-guy:)

He was able to do that because He worked remotely as a software designer. 

 

Whereas, while him being retired and enjoying his life with his kids for 10 years, his friends or former co-workers took a completely different path. they also graduated from Uni and got a job but they started to consume money for a car, house, bikes, drinks for parties, upgrade the house and the car so on... so by age of 45, they are still out of money.

get familiar with that situation? because this is a standard definition of a prosperous American middle-class life. Everybody does it.

 

 

However, He was different. He worked all his years in the cubicle in order to escape from the cubicle but when he retired, it freed him up to do things I'd love to do even more. and His loving things were carpentry and building houses. So he started running a small house building company until it became boring to him. for These recent 10 years, He has been writing as a part-time lifestyle guru career which brought him on the stage. all these things are possible because He reached the financial freedom. since he retired, He's never been frugal anymore. the more money he saves on his bank account, the more profits come. now, as he has got all this extra freedom he has been spending more time out in the hot sun doing manual labor because he loves it and work is better when you don't need money. how to live like him? how to get rich?

 

Most of us assume that luxury products and showing off our wealth are preferable to good old-fashioned hard work in solving our own problems. he used to be also much more materialistic but the things he values at the age of 41 are completely different. He would choose the standard American mid-class lifestyle but He wouldn't have bought his freedom due to the fact that he has no money nor wouldn't be able to enjoy the 10 years. 

 

The purpose of life and work and dating and all this other stuff we do is logically only one thing. it's to be happy.

it's to lead the best and most satisfying life that you can possibly lead. There might be some argues that came upon the surface that some people might say having a child is the purpose of life because we are the organism but that's not for everyone. also helping others might say helping others is what matters the most, However, both arguments have in common.

having a child is a huge part of your happiness and helping someone means you make yourself feel better by making others feel better and feeling better is a fancy way of saying being happy. 

 

 

shelter, food, and companionship are the essential elements of being happy as the picture described above. 

because they can basically do everything that makes them feel happy such as laughing, loving, learning, raising babies, actualizing themselves, and solving problems and creating music so on.

Most of the human existence has been spent in these conditions about 99 percent.

 

What about they live in that kind of life. would they be happier? 

He doubts that at some point this fantasy breaks even though it's getting a little bit close to American life.

Adding more fancy stuff taking away effort from your life is not the path to a better life.

the effort and learning and all this other stuff that we've figured out by studying in recent decades is really the stuff that makes us happier. 

 

 

"I've put these things into hexagons so they look scientific" lol

 

Those are the keywords described above truly make humans happy according to a study researched by psychologists.

Life at the bottom of the U.S spending scale is still way more than enough to be happy as long as you spend it on the right stuff(his family live on 25,000 dollars a year)

However, people who live on 50,000 or 100,000 dollars a year still claim that they are not happy. that means we are living in a trap. it's so serious. there should be a warning level. 

 

 

 

it doesn't require you huge income or fancy genius investing.

the secret is to spend much less than you earn:) 

 so here are two people earning and saving different amounts of money a year.

but the surprising fact is that they will retire on the same date how?

 

 

This graph shows the years of retirement with saving rates. 

How long after work is how much of your paycheck you can save after tax as a percentage of your take-home pay.

if you can get to a savings rate around 64 percent just as an example that puts you to a career that's under 11 years and that's exactly what he did. 

that works at almost every income level. lower incomes it's even more important to become efficient at saving but it's almost effortlessly easy for those of us with higher incomes and yet somehow the higher-income people are still almost as broke and stuck working almost as long as those of us with average incomes. 

it's wonderful to become rich enough to retire but some people might say "I like my job! I don't know what to do after retiring"

but the truth is that it gets way better if you don't need the money. 

the purpose of work is to create and to fuel your soul whereas the purpose of earning money is to have enough money. 

how much is enough? well enough to max out your happiness after that getting any more money will not make any difference in your happiness.

 

 

if you're still working when you don't need the money, you do that work truthfully. he wants to call Authenticity which is the most powerful form of marketing.

Elon musk got 164 million dollars in cash when he sold PayPal back in 2002 but He kept working for his love.

value of Tesla 's stock is equal to the value of GM's stock even though GM still sells 300 times as many cars as Tesla for now.

People are excited about an authentic entrepreneur. they line up to buy their products.

if you can get yourself financially independent not only does it give you the power to eliminate most of the bullshits of your life but also it forces your life's work to become more truthful. 

 

 

a society grows great only when the old people plant trees even when they know they won't be around to enjoy the shade of those trees. save the World :)

if you're doing it for love instead of money, you'll have no choice but to do a better job.