"Start with something straightforward." A pre-revenue founder shares all of his business and living expenses.

After years of building without launching, Diego Kiedanski launched a product in 10 hours.

He isn’t making any money from it, but he launched and that's what counts. He kept his day job, so revenue can wait.

Let’s take a peek at his finances. 👇

Three years to launch

It took Diego three years to launch his first product.

💰 "I suffer from the same illness that many software engineers face: We love technology, playing with it, and finding better ways to build and optimize our projects… but we never get around launching." —Diego

Chatting with other indie hackers has inspired him, though. He decided to bite the bullet and launch. To do that, he started with some low-hanging fruit.

💰 "I wanted to start with something straightforward — a quick win that would motivate me to keep going. It seemed like a better option than starting another ambitious project that will die when things get complicated." —Diego

A number of Diego's projects have died on the vine. He applied for Carbon13, for example, but threw in the towel before pitch day. He says that product didn't lend itself to exponential growth and wasn’t really suited for funding.

He didn't want that to happen again, so he went with what he knew. Diego has his PhD in AI and he works as an AI consultant. So he built Will AI Do This? — a no brainer that took 10 hours to build.

It isn’t monetized. Just launching was a win, and he isn't worried about making money from it. He’s happy indie hacking as a side hustle and hobby.

If it gets some traffic, he’ll consider affiliate links or running ads for AI products, but he isn’t counting on it.

💰 "I’m learning a lot — there’s a long way to go before I go full time." —Diego

Now, Diego is on a roll. He just finished another product, Sudoku for Kindle and he has two more on deck.

Hard numbers

Let’s take a look at what he’s bringing in.

• Product revenue: $0

• Founder pay: $0

• Full-time job: Undisclosed ($65k-$100k)

• Personal bank account: $20k

• Business bank account: N/A

Here are his business expenses:

• Total: $40/yr

• Domain: $10/yr

• Purelymail: $10/yr

• Carrd: $20/yr

And here are his personal expenses:

• Total: $2000/mo

• Rent: $600/mo

• Groceries: $400/mo

• Medium-term expenses (computer, clothing, etc): $400/mo

• Holidays: $400/mo

• Misc: $200/mo

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Stable, long-term investments

Diego invests everything into two ETFs: Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund (VT) and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF (BND).

He wanted to hedge by splitting between stocks and bonds, and he wanted low fees. With those two criteria, he found that Vanguard was the simplest option.

And he plans to keep his money there long term.

💰 "It hasn’t been performing as well as I would have hoped, but selling is not the plan." —Diego

These ETFs are how he aims to retire, but he also puts about $100/mo into Uruguay’s mandatory retirement plan.

💰 "If you want money for retirement, don’t invest in individual stocks. And don’t panic! Leave it there. Sounds simple, but it’s REALLY hard." —Diego

Prepaid cards > credit cards

Diego has no debt and he has called it quits with credit cards. Not because he was going into debt — he paid them off every month. But because it was messing with his budget.

💰 "I have stopped using credit cards. Sure, you get points, but it made keeping track of my personal finances a lot harder." —Diego

Instead, he's all about prepaid debit cards — a feature of his digital bank.

With prepaid cards, he adds money and can only use what's on it.on a card and he can only use what’s on it. So, where credit cards made it difficult to stick to a budget, prepaid cards do the opposite.

💰 "By leaving the house with a prepaid card alone, I know that I’m staying within my budget." —Diego

He uses these cards mostly for groceries and “fun money”.

YOLO (and travel)

You might have noticed that he spends $400/mo on holidays. It's not that he's off galavanting every month; he’s putting money away for a big trip once or twice per year.

He loves to visit new cities and cultures, and it allows him to reunite with friends from around the world. But he does question whether it’s the right choice, financially and environmentally.

💰 "It’s a YOLO thing. I could be putting that money towards a home or retirement, but I feel like some of your money should be spent." —Diego

Don’t splurge

💰 "I grew up being told to save instead of splurging, and I have kept those values over time." —Diego

Diego comes from a family that cared about money more than they cared about having the latest shiny object. But he wouldn’t call them frugal.

💰 "We didn't buy the latest thing, but we we traveled quite a bit. Come to think of it, I’m seeing a pattern here!" —Diego

So he saves money by ignoring the latest gadgets on the market. He also lives with a roommate. And he doesn't own a car — he's happy to save on gas, insurance, and carbon emissions by riding his bike.

Profit before plunge

As far as advice, Diego suggests taking a page out of his book.

💰 "Make sure that you can pay yourself before becoming a full-time indie hacker." —Diego

He’ll probably wait until he’s making $1,000/mo — that way his rent and food are covered. Until then, he’ll reinvest any revenue that he makes.

Oh, and also read “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” — Diego says he learned a ton from Ramit Sethi’s financial know-how.

You can find Diego on X and his newsletter, Premature Optimisation. Or check out Will AI Do This? and Sudoku for Kindle.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!

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