Tonnair is the new millionaire. That simple thought, four years ago, got my finances in order.
At that time I had zero euros worth. It was even negative, if I included my student debt. Still, money wasn’t something I thought about at the time. There was just just enough. Power, that was for the others.
Then I got an inheritance of 6,000 euros from my old grandmother. The sweetheart forced me to think about it. I didn’t want to squander Grandma’s legacy. No, I would use this as the start of a real fortune. I gave myself a purpose. It was quite an ambitious goal. I don’t know where it came from, but suddenly it was in my head. I said to myself: I’m going to be a tonnaire.
That meant that I had to have 100,000 euros of freely withdrawable capital within the foreseeable future. I didn’t include the equity of our house, I can’t just withdraw that money. It should come from savings and investments.
I didn’t want to give myself a specific time span. The number of variables is too large and unpredictable for that. But within roughly five years it should be possible. There had to be pressure on the kettle. That is important in a challenge, a little pressure on the kettle.
Why a ton? The target amount had to sound impressive and be attainable at the same time. To convince myself it was possible, for the first time in my life I made a simple money plan, which I faithfully executed. I took a part-time job (thesis proofreader), didn’t buy any clothes or other stuff for a while and sold everything I could find at home on Marktplaats. With that money I quickly set up a cash buffer of 10,000 euros. The rest I invested monthly in broadly diversified index funds. As soon as I could, I increased that monthly deposit.
This savings target was certainly also impressive. I grew up in a working-class family. We lived on welfare for a while. My parents dealt with it energetically, but ability was not a word they used. From them I learned that money is a problem and wealth is something for others. I finally wanted to break that pattern with this challenge. The real goal has never been to get rich (although that’s a nice side effect). The real goal is to teach myself healthy money habits.
How it’s going? I can now say: there is more possible than you think. My assets have fluctuated around 90,000 euros in recent months. And yes, this is not for literally everyone. I’ve also been lucky sometimes. But not at other times.
What I do know for sure: if I manage to go from zero to almost tonnage with a lower than average income, then there is a considerable chance that you will succeed. All you have to do now is get started.
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