Can I be financially independent while studying in Germany?

Because the one I wrote before was quietly blocked, I sent it again, hoping to give you some simple ideas. When I re-read it, I found that some data in the article was updated again, and the specific data on the relevant official website shall prevail.

My article is certainly not the most detailed open source throttling strategy, many groups in Douban have more detailed money-saving strategies specific to what to buy in the supermarket, and the online article on how to find part-time jobs for international students is also a big grab, you can refer to it. The purpose of this article is mainly to analyze whether it is feasible to study in Germany and achieve financial independence as soon as possible, starting from an individual example. First of all, the conclusion: it is possible to achieve financial independence within the first year of arriving in Germany, completely independent of parents, but it is very difficult, because adapting to a new environment, finding a job, studying, etc. all require time costs; Economic independence within two to three years of coming to Germany is very likely, and it does not require a very hard and economical life.

This article is as much as possible in a logical structure, but the main thing is to think of where to say, will not be particularly rigorous.

1. Throttling

My first year in Germany did not have any income, all supported by my parents.

To insert a digression, as I said on the radio a few days ago, most of China's children studying abroad are still supported by their parents and families, which is relatively lucky. Germany has many international students from various countries, some of them are completely on their own to pay all the expenses, for them, part-time work is not a choice, but in order to survive, there are many job opportunities for students in Germany, which will be mentioned below.

As for whether parents abroad stop living expenses for their children at all when they reach the age of eighteen, this is not the case for the example I have observed. Parents will still support tuition and living expenses, but they will also ask their children to do their best to try to earn money. Take my former German roommate as an example, he is from a very wealthy region in southern Germany, and he was asked by his parents to work to earn living expenses after graduating from high school, his family is considered a middle-class family, but his parents still do not take what they want, or advocate letting children become independent as soon as possible, and his brother and sister are the same.

Continuing to go back to my first year in Germany, when the deposit in Germany was still more than 700 euros a month, and it was about 9,000 euros a year (now it has risen to 850 euros / month, more than 10,000 euros a year). The purpose of the government to freeze this deposit in the bank is to ensure that there is a basic source of living every month, that is, the German government feels that 850 euros per month can support the basic life of international students. So can it be?

When I first arrived in Germany, I lived in a four-person student dormitory on the mountain, and the rent for one month was 220 euros (keywords: East Germany, small city, four-person WG, mountain, student dormitory), generally speaking, the rent is impossible to be so cheap, because 1) student dormitory is difficult to apply; 2) Rents in cities with universities are generally slightly higher than in cities with similar conditions but no universities.

Every semester I also pay a semester fee, which starts at 300 euros, which includes some miscellaneous fees and a bus semester ticket. But there is no tuition fee for the university itself. However, now that NRW (planned) and Baden-Württemberg have started to charge tuition fees for non-EU students at 1,500 euros a semester, both states are well developed and there are many universities, so for many applicants, this still has an impact on their application.

The internet fee is also paid on a semester-by-semester basis, 30 euros per semester.

The monthly bills that must be paid are also student insurance (90 euros at the time, now it has risen to 110 euros), TV bills (if you share a flat room, you don't forget it), and phone bills.

Diet-wise. The meals in the school cafeteria are a flat 2.5 euro serving, including the main food + fruit or dessert. However, from 2020, if you choose dessert, you will have to pay 0.5 euros more, which is a clear reflection of the rise in prices. The coffee and bread in the cafeteria are cheap, and then the cafeteria table is also very spacious, and I often go to breakfast and then study in the cafeteria by the way. Because I don't like studying in the library, the library is too quiet and I can't eat. I miss it so much!

I usually go to Kaufland for my usual purchases. Kaufland is a mid-range supermarket in Germany, but it is very large, generally has two floors, and the same product may have five brands to choose from. There is also an Edeka near the school, which is a more upscale supermarket, and if you are a frequent shopper, you can obviously notice the difference in selling price. The money spent on a shopping cart of things in Kaufland may only be able to buy a shopping basket at Edeka. Of course, there are the more expensive organic supermarkets Bio Company, Denn's, etc., where I occasionally buy fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

I didn't find out until I found out about Too Good To Go, a software that some bakeries and supermarkets provide bread or vegetables or food that didn't sell out that day, and if there were more choices in big cities, I would use it occasionally.

Because I live in the mountains, it is very inconvenient to go out, so the frequency of eating out is very low, and occasionally I take the train to Berlin to eat Chinese/Korean/Japanese food.

Here are the hard expenses I spread over to a month's worth at the time:

Rent: 220

Semester fee: 50

Internet fee + phone bill + TV fee: 30 (approximately)

Insurance: 100

The hard expenditure is almost 500 euros, and the other expenses really depend on the person, so in fact, my security deposit at that time was barely able to cover my living needs.

If you happen to be in a state where you need to pay tuition fees, or in West Germany, South Germany, big cities, etc., then this hard expenditure must not only be this, but even 500 euros may not be enough to rent a house. If there is really no way to throttle, it can only be open source.

2. Open Source

There are actually many open source methods.

The first thing I want to say is scholarship. There are a wide variety of scholarships in Germany, and they are not just awarded to students with good grades. I was too timid and didn't speak German well, so I didn't think of applying for a scholarship. In fact, many German students will apply for scholarships, as long as you meet the requirements, you can try to apply, be sure to try! There are more related strategies on the Internet to refer to!

The second, of course, is a part-time job. The international student visa allows international students to work 120 full-day or 240 half-day work per year, and I guess it should be calculated as 8 hours a day, so you can work 960 hours a year. Germany's current minimum hourly wage is 9.50 euros, so if you work 960 hours, you can earn at least 9120 euros a year before tax. If it is a minijob below 450 euros per month, there is no need to pay tax, even if it needs to pay tax, this tax amount is very small and very cost-effective.

Some of my classmates have been working part-time since the second semester, and I had a roommate from Africa who went out to work as a waitress in a restaurant the day after she arrived in Germany.

If it is not an urgent need for a lot of money, I strongly do not recommend going to a Chinese restaurant to work illegally (meaning not signing a contract, not counting the above 120 days), firstly, the work is very tired and the salary is not high, and secondly, there is no guarantee, and you can often see the news that the Chinese restaurant owes wages to international students in various WeChat groups.

Many people worry that if the union affects learning, this is also determined by each person's situation, Germany stipulates that students cannot work more than 20 hours a week during the semester (except for compulsory internships), so you can only work up to 20 hours a week, for me, I don't think it will affect my learning.

Most student workers can work their own schedules, and I mostly queued until the morning to force myself to get up, otherwise I would probably sleep until noon when there was no class. If the course is really heavy, you can also consider reducing the working hours to 10 hours per week (minijob), or not working in the semester with more classes, and waiting until the vacation and the semester with less class. In addition, during school holidays, student workers can work 40 hours a week, so the income will increase again!

When I was a student, I worked 600 hours one year and 960 hours in the other year, which is a good use of part-time hours.

The content of my second time as a student worker was related to my major, so I also gained experience while making money, which was also helpful for finding a job later. However, my first student job was also a miscellaneous job in a graduate school, so if you are temporarily doing work that is not related to your major, you don't have to worry. I had a Korean friend before, she was very tired because of her brain, so when looking for student workers, she deliberately looked for manual work such as café waiters and cash registers, which was easier for her, and at the same time she became very good at German, because she communicated a lot with customers.

There are also some other temporary jobs, such as there were often many exhibitions in large cities before the epidemic, and you can go to the exhibition to help; For example, now you can go to the testing center part-time during the epidemic; There are often some psychology and linguistic experiments in universities, and there will be a certain subsidy for participating as a volunteer, I participated in a visual related experiment at that time, a total of 6 times, each time for 1 hour, and finally gave a total of 80 euros, which is quite considerable!

3. Synthesis

Combined with the above, it is actually easy to find that consumption is not high in small cities, but there are few job opportunities; There are many jobs in big cities, but consumption is also rising. However, now due to the epidemic, many companies in Germany allow 100% remote work, which is a great advantage for people living in small cities, who can apply for positions in major cities, but enjoy low prices in small cities (the difference is mainly reflected in rent).

4. The importance of bookkeeping

Every time my life situation changes significantly, I start keeping accounts, such as when I first arrived in Germany, after moving out of the student apartment, after starting to work... The first two times I remembered about two months, and after I got a little feel for each month's expenses, I didn't remember again.

After I started working, I kept my books for another two months, but I remember very roughly, that is, I wrote down my daily expenses in a handwritten ledger. At the time, I calculated that at the end of the month, my expenses were almost half of my salary. Then I was very happy and thought that I could increase my savings by the end of the year.

At the end of the year, I found that the number of bank accounts was not as obvious as I thought, in fact, because there were many small expenses that I did not write down, but these small expenses together are a large amount of money. For example, I didn't have an office card after graduation, and occasionally bought a single ticket when I went out, and I didn't write down the money, but when I looked back at the bill, I found that I would spend about 40 euros a month on the ticket, which I ignored (but still cheaper than the cheapest monthly pass). There are other bits and pieces that I didn't write down and then forgot, and only when I finally saw the bank account did I realize where the money went?

So at the beginning of this year, I started bookkeeping again, firstly, because I moved at the end of the year, which is a relatively big change; Second, I prepared to record each expenditure in great detail this time, using the accounting APP, so that I can see the distribution of expenditure, which is more meaningful. At present, I just remembered for half a month, I can't see anything, and I will share it with you when I am about two months.

V. Now

Personally, I started to be financially independent from the third year. The next year I took two part-time jobs, one with only 10 hours a week, and the other with an ultra-low-paying internship. It wasn't until I started formal student work in the third year that I broke even and had a small surplus. Based on the basic numbers I gave above, it is not difficult to calculate the approximate situation.

Of course, my usual life is not particularly frugal, I eat out 1 or 2 times a week, the rest of the time I cook for myself, and I don't order takeout. Because I really like to go to museums, exhibitions, movies, concerts, I have an expense on this every month. Fortunately, there are many such cultural activities in big cities, and there are very preferential prices for students, so when I was a student, I used various museum cards and performance cards to see many exhibitions and performances at low prices. There was no spending for the whole year when the pandemic began, and then it started again in the middle of last year. However, after graduation, I found that the tickets I paid before were now doubled, and I became cautious, my friend said that it was not a good movie/exhibition, and I used to go to see it with the idea of curiosity, but now I save money and don't go haha.

Another big expense is travel. I travel far about 3 times a year, but part of the money spent on travel comes from my savings in college, so it is necessary to save money. There will be a large expenditure for each move and simple decoration, which I will write in detail below.

Except for the difference in renting a house, my living standards and habits have not changed much from my student days to the present. The only thing that has changed should be that in the past I would buy some cheaper things (clothes, furniture, small items, etc.) but buy a lot, and now the consumption habits have become to buy slightly more expensive things, but reduce the number and frequency of purchases, the total amount spent is very similar, I think the two consumption habits are not better or worse, it depends on personal preferences.

Having written so much, I think the most important thing is to find a lifestyle that suits you. Because there are so many ways to get information now, I am often attracted to other people's lives. From adulthood to now, I have also tried many different lifestyles halfway, such as exquisite life, such as environmental protection, such as minimalism, such as reducing meat, such as living very economically, but finally found that they are not suitable for me, and it has been a little bit of feeling in the past year or two, and I hope to continue living in this way.