Out of the eaves and into the rain

My life story

A memorial?

I often read here about extraordinary life stories and paths to financial independence. I am also very impressed by the many young people who are active here and already have their lives fully under control, planning, saving and, for the most part, investing successfully.

It's all different for me and I alone am responsible for that. It is always said that clever people learn from mistakes, the more intelligent learn from the mistakes of others and madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So not only did I make mistakes, but I also learned nothing from them and kept repeating them.

Where should I start? Today I am 35 years old. I've been investing in shares and ETFs for a year and have since built up a fortune of €20,000 and am debt-free, which wasn't always the case.

It all started in my hometown of Hanover, where I spent the first 13 years of my life with my mother and started "working" at an early age. I collected returnable bottles and scrap metal and handed out newspapers. Did I save this money? No, I bought myself sweets, licorice, kebabs and once a Sony CD Walkmen.

When I was 13, my mother was persuaded by her parents to emigrate back to her home country. And so I came to Sicily, where I spent the next 5-6 years of my life. In Sicily, I started waiting tables in restaurants at the weekend and earned €25-30 per evening. Contrary to what you might think, things not only continued seamlessly for me at school, but also went pretty well. However, little by little, I took actions that would, in retrospect, block my own path. In short, I dropped out of school without any qualifications and was already working full-time as a waiter at 16. At some point when I was 17 or 18, I even worked in a five-star Kempinski hotel for €1000 a month, but as I had never learned how to handle money, I spent everything I earned on consumption, fun and pleasure. Between 16 and 17, I started to think about what to do next and considered joining the military. But finally, at the age of 18, I left Sicily for South Tyrol on my own, where I began a new chapter in my life.

For the first few years, I worked in a nice hotel on Waltherplatz and, in addition to my salary and tips, I even had food and accommodation included. Did I save money? No, in hindsight you could say that the more I earned, the more I needed to live on and so I squandered my €1,300 salary plus tips every month. I got my driver's license, bought a small, expensive annual car with financing and spent what was left over on consumption. I was never really satisfied as a waiter and always thought I was destined for more, and at some point what I had expected happened. An elegant young man in his late 30s approached me and asked if I would like to join his company as a salesman. The company in question was Wenatex. They sell mattresses and bed linen at overpriced prices at so-called parties at private homes. Suddenly I was earning €3-6,000 a month, but I was also driving 10-15,000 km a month and therefore had to invest a lot in the car, tolls, taxes and no longer had a company apartment. And in the end, I wasn't successful in the long term and had to leave Wenatex after less than a year. I wanted to keep trying in sales and worked for a few months at a company that sells office supplies, where I also had good success in the first few weeks and months but couldn't keep it up and had to realign myself after a few months, which is how I ended up at Rational $RAA (+1,18%) . It was believed that I was perfectly suited to selling this kitchen machine due to my gastronomy and "sales experience", but here too I was unable to show any long-term success. And although I had a relatively good basic salary of I think €1500 plus commission plus company car with fuel card at the time, I hadn't managed to save anything, of course, but had an overdrawn account.

In the meantime it was 2012 or 13, i.e. I was 23-24 years old and unemployed again. No money set aside, bank account overdrawn, a small, cheap one-room apartment to rent in the center of Bolzano and a beautiful BMW E46 323CI. But I had no plan for what to do next. But somehow I had this crazy idea that I wanted to go to Switzerland, the promised land. And here I definitely had more luck than sense. I found a German company that had just gained a foothold in Switzerland and was looking for sales staff. I got a permanent contract there, which immediately gave me a good residence permit, and found a very cheap apartment. Unfortunately, it turned out that this company was very dubious and had already been the subject of lawsuits. It came as it had to. I tried again with a similar company and then took the step back into the catering industry. This brought some peace and certainty into my life, but also dissatisfaction. I couldn't and didn't want to imagine spending my whole life as a waiter.

Through my work in the catering industry, I then saw tour groups traveling in coaches all over Europe for the first time at close quarters in Switzerland and thought to myself what a great job it was to travel and get paid for it, so I found out in which German-speaking country it was cheapest and quickest to get a coach driving license and, contrary to expectations, it turned out to be Austria. How lucky I was that my girlfriend at the time was Austrian and was very unhappy in Switzerland.

And so, in 2015, at the age of 26, a new chapter in my life began. We moved to her home town of Linz, where I still live today, albeit single. I got my bus driver's license and soon found a good job as a coach driver. My salary in Austria is now around €2500-3000 per month x 14 and, in addition to my salary, I have two other important sources of income: tips and selling drinks. Depending on the month, that adds up to between €500 and €2000 that I regularly pay in taxes.

But did I learn anything from all that before? No, I got into consumer debt and regularly overdrawn my account. Am I happy in the privileged position I have today? No. I keep mourning Switzerland and wondering whether I shouldn't go back. However, I wouldn't earn significantly more as a coach driver in Switzerland and would have a higher cost of living. It could still pay off, but I'm afraid. It wasn't like that before. Maybe it's because I'm getting older.

Now, in 2024, I have actually gradually paid off my debts, canceled my credit cards and am investing. I now live very modestly, no longer afford any luxuries and invest everything that's left over. I still haven't built up a nest egg and I still overdraw my account from time to time.

Thank you for reading