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I'm a jazz musician from Argentina, and, as you may already know, music hardly pays the bills. At the moment I'm working as a part-time software developer (something I've learned by myself in my spare time) which lets me have a good quality of life while playing and developing my skills at the same time.

But, besides this is a good situation, I want to move further and reduce the amount of non-musical working hours in some way, not pretending to earn a lot but just what I need for a living with some level of tranquility + gaining more time for music projects, study, rehearsals, etc...

So I'm planning to quit and get into a cruise for 6 months to play jazz or whatever is needed, getting an average of $2500 per month ($12000 in total considering some expenses), which represents a really good salary in my country, and investing it in some way when I'm back. Maybe repeat the process a few times.

So the question is, do you have any recommendations on how to invest this amount of money, any ideas or strategies giving my current situation? I'm open to new ideas.

Some facts that may be helpful:

*I'm planning to save 83%-100% of cruise income (between $10000-12000).

*When getting back to my country, I plan to spend $700-1000 per month (meaning being just fine, I can adjust the budget more is frugality is needed)

*I'm currently earning $700 per month and will receive a rise in September, which will get me to $1100, but this number may vary a lot since our currency is completely unstable giving our current political/economic situation. So what now is 700 can end in 600/960 aprox. (without/with pay rise) by the end of the year.

Thanks!!

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  • Why don't you just keep doing cruises? Also, do you mean as in a ship, or just a tour in a city?
    – Money Ann
    Jun 30, 2019 at 3:35
  • Thanks for your answer. I mean in a ship, maybe doing tours are another good option I haven't considered (money income in tours may variable, though). The issue is that I don't think I like the cruise life, specially because I have artistic projects in my city and a lot of career potential but need more free time for rehearsals, composition, etc... Being frequently out of the city may not be a good option.
    – Franco Donadio
    Jun 30, 2019 at 3:42
  • Ah, that clears it up. I'd suggest adding to your question what % of your paycheck you expect to save, how much $/mo you expect to spend in the future, and how much money you typically make from the software work. It would be easier to recommend something specific that way.
    – Money Ann
    Jun 30, 2019 at 3:44
  • Do you have the option/ability to move any saved money into an account/investment that is denominated in another currency, such as USD? External currency seems more stable against the peso than the peso seems to be against itself in Argentina, but this isn't a way to make money so much as a way to try to trim your losses from hyperinflation.
    – BrianH
    Jun 30, 2019 at 23:51
  • Im not shure, I know there are some investment products that have some of their components tied to the USD (sorry for my non technical language). But I would have to check if I can fully invest in a product 100% denominated in another currency
    – Franco Donadio
    Jul 1, 2019 at 1:47

3 Answers 3

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Investing Rule #1 for musicians and part-time workers:

Build up an Emergency Fund for when Something Goes Wrong.

  • Since the gigs may dry up, be seasonal, etc, the standard recommendation is to accumulate 12 months of expenses.
  • Do not invest this money; put it in the bank. (How stable are Argentine Banks? I know that inflation is high, and interest rates are higher, but not how often banks fail.)

Investing Rule #2

See rule #1

(I have no rule #3 for Argentina. Sorry.)

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The initial "investment" you should make is to find a way to open bank account that let you save your salaries in US dollars and allow you to withdraw it easily. There aren't many options here, but you can distribute the dollar-earning into separate banks for easy withdrawal. Like any Latin American country that preach neoliberalism policy, Argentina economy will not stabilise in the next decade.

Study the "foreign earning" tax rules of your country and keep those records. This will make sure you will not get into the taxation problem when you brought money into your country.

To the real investment:

  • Invest in yourself
    • Beware typical peer performer lifestyle that will drag you into spending abyss.
    • Make some web search and study all potential fraud that may happen to cruise worker that easily fall for quick bucks in hope to "escape"
    • I always recommended anyone to read "Thinking fast and slow" before talking money investment.
    • Hide your stash from the wary eye, "helping relatives back at home" is the perfect reason.
    • Since the cruise is not attached to any country, so it is unlikely you are able to have quick access to any country investment tools. The good news is, you will also free from potential pitfalls.
    • Avoid crooks that selling investment scheme to the cruise member on the cruise ship.
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Investing rule 1

Do not invest in anything you do not understand to a level you deem acceptable

E.g. don't invest in timeshare if you cannot do your research outside of said sales pitch, i.e. ask others for their returns on timeshare, ask people around the house, etc.

Investing rule 2

Make sure you mostly understand the risk.

Understand the risk of losing money as best as you can.

Investing rule 3

If something is too good to be true...ask why?

If a simple stock strategy can return 14% averaged over 20 years, then why aren't hedge fund managers following that strategy? Maybe it doesn't work and you're about to be scammed, or maybe they are not allowed to follow the simple strategy as they are professionals and only individual non-companies can invest in the simple strategy.

If you want to keep it simple... I suggest you browse forums like bogleheads and see what the consensus is, and people will help you in forming a simple risk reducing strategy.

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    The examples for #3 are a bit problematic for OP since Argentina is experiencing hyperinflation, and interest rates are sky high.
    – RonJohn
    Jun 30, 2019 at 22:55
  • This answer provides some reasonable advise what not to do, but it doesn't provide much useful advise for what to do, except "look elsewhere".
    – Philipp
    Jul 1, 2019 at 13:45

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