Hello from Finland

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jpr
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:51 pm
Location: Helsinki

Hello from Finland

Post by jpr »

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm a male in my early thirties (so a bit late for ERE :)) , work in tech, live in Helsinki and am interested in ER for the freedom it provides.

I've been entertaining the thought of ER for a few years now, and know that it would be easily doable from the mathematical standpoint (assuming I get to keep my job etc etc.), but requires work and many small adjustments to my habits. I've already been making these adjustments in the recent years, but most of the advantages have been offset by spending too much money on other things, such as eating out, craft beer and bicycles :roll:

Anyway, I hope to have some good conversations here with likeminded people.

jpr

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Hello from Finland

Post by DutchGirl »

Hi, jpr, welcome!

Do you have debts? Do you have savings? Are you putting money into a pension fund at work? What would your savings rate be, these days?

jpr
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:51 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: Hello from Finland

Post by jpr »

I have some debt, in total about 50% of my gross yearly income. Half of that is a car loan (might sell the car or get a cheaper one since I don't use it much). The rest is student loan and credit card. Not too bad and I'm in no trouble financially, but I'm still embarrassed to have debt at all :( Currently paying the debts and not saving anything, the payment have been a little over 20% of my net income, going to be somewhat less with the better pay in my new job. I think I could easily go to about 30% savings rate in addition to the debt payments, meaning about 50% total. Recently I think I've spent about that 30% on consumer stuff, bike stuff, and too much eating out, gas on commuting by car... I really need to budget so I know where the money is going. I tried YNAB but somehow it didn't quite work for me. I'm more of excel/google sheets guy, so I'm trying that next.

I don't really have any idea on how the pension funds in Finland work. I think there are some plans available but I don't know how compatible they are with ERE. I'll have to take a look.

jacob
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Re: Hello from Finland

Post by jacob »

Dunno how YNAB works, but two methods to consider is the forward-looking cash-envelope system. The other one is the tracking system where you simply save all receipts or carry a small notebook and write down every expense whenever it occurs. Okay, I forgot my favourite method which is to simply not spend any money or more than you need to. This one works very well for me but it doesn't work unless not-spending is of the highest priority.

jpr
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:51 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: Hello from Finland

Post by jpr »

I think I'm going to use receipt/notebook method with excel, and when I get a better grasp of what my spending is and where I can cut it the most, work towards the "not spending" method. I'm more of a slow changer and generally can't do big changes overnight (perhaps being an INTP explains this?).

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GandK
Posts: 2059
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:00 pm

Re: Hello from Finland

Post by GandK »

If you want to grab this info digitally, you may want to take a look at Yodlee's MoneyCenter. Yodlee's app covers a lot of different countries. It's also more data-oriented vs graphics-oriented than most. May be worth a look?

Welcome, BTW!

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Hello from Finland

Post by DutchGirl »

You could look back at your previous six months of spending and look at averages? I did this, looking at previous bank statements etc . That could be a start for creating a budget.

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