Hi from Aarhus - Denmark

[Henri]

Hi guys

I found Jacobs blogs after taking Janet Luhrs Financial freedom and simple living course. The funny thing about it was that after the course, I have cut back a lot on my wants and in return I don't feel as stressed as before. Also I now have time to use the stuff that I have chosen to keep, instead of always buying new stuff and never really having the time to use it.

My current situation is that I have been a full-time member of the "working force" for about 10 years now. Even though all my jobs has been very exiting and meaningful - working with development of different products as a scientist and for the time being working on a hospital develping new methods for cancer research, something is and has always been missing. Taking the course and really listening deeply to my heart, i've found that what I wanted was not things, but life. Time for my friends and family - not coworkers. Sleeping until im awake. Watching the sunset without the need to get up early the next day.

Some observations:
Looking at animals. Eventhough they dont have the freedom of choise, they are way more free than most people. (Working people)
Being a slave to the alarmclock.
Not being able to stay up and enjoy the summer sunset, without having to cut deeply down on sleep, because you need to get up the next day a 6.
My aunt died of cancer last year. She was 60 years old. 2 years before her "retirement", where she should be able to enjoy and have time being together with her hosbond. Now he is just alone and will retire himself in 2 years time to an empty house.
Not really being able to be there 100%, with my friends, because everything need to be planned around being able to get up at work the next day
Not being able to travel for more than 2 weeks/year, because one needs to get back to work
Having to work/live like this until 70 years old. That is not freedom. That is just making a dying for 70 years, with the reward of getting 5-15 years in "freedom" if in perfect health.
Wanting to have more time for my meditation practice
With the industrial rev. the wealth in society increased a lot, meaning that if the wealth was equally distributed - people would be able to work way less - maybe 10-20 years should be enough. Unfortunately the society are not interested in happy individuals. The society wants slaves - unaware and dependant people that it can use and discard when it wants.

Right now, I have approx. 250.000 dkk on my savingsaccount and are able to save around 10.000 dkk each month.
In my retirementaccount there are 250.000 dkk and there goes 4000 dkk every month automatically through my job. (It costs 60% to withdraw the money out and it is not always possible before you are 65-70 years old)
I think that I'll just begin investing a small amount in stocks and then see what happens to get a feel for how it work practically.

I hope that I'll be able to find some good ways to invest my money so that I'll attain the freedom that my soul yearns for.
Travel and stay a place for more than 2 weeks.
Throwing away my alarmclock.
More time being together with my friends and family.
Work a bit for fun, whenever I choose to.

I don't see myself a capitalist in the old sence. More like Jacob, I just want to have enough for ny needs. Shelter, food etc. to be able to live ok.

I hope that I'll be able to find some brothers in arms in here. Maybe also from Denmark, since we live in a place, where taxes are a pretty heavy part, so it could be nice to have some other perspectives on what they'll do.
Right now i have read:
ERE (Of course )
"The Dhando investor"
"Your money or your life"
"En sikker investering"

Do you have a take on what else could be a good read for investing?

Looking forward to following what happens in here

Best regards

Henrik

[FBeyer]

...
I think that I'll just begin investing a small amount in stocks and then see what happens to get a feel for how it work practically.
...

I think the general advice is to start out with goes like:
0.5) Read up on the Danish taxation laws. They are critical if you actually want to put gains in your own portfolio.
1) Overall investment strategy.
2) Asset allocation. Stuff like: correlation of assets, different strengths in different markets (bear/bull/inflation/interest hikes/etc), expected growth over time, volatility of assets, geographical factors concerning every asset class.
3) An asset allocation that supports the strategy built with LOW COST index funds!

While you're building a portfolio you'll get a feel for how markets (mis)behave. You can read up on stocks and stock picking while the 'lazy' portfolio grows and you can choose a percentage, say 10, of the portfolio for stock picking. The better you get at it, the larger the proportion of the portfolio is in hand-picked stocks.

In other words once you know all you want to know about lazy portfolios you'd move on to actual stock picking. If you KNOW you don't want to know about building a lazy portfolio, then I guess your chosen MO is appropriate.

Be aware that trading through your bank will most likely cost you a prohibitive amount of money in the long run, compared to trading through Nordnet.dk.

[Henri]

Hi FBeyer

Thank you very much for the idea on starting. I have seen that Nordnet.dk has been written about here a couple of times, so i'll look at bit more into that and how to build a lazy portfolio.

Thanks

[FBeyer]

In that case:
The four pillars of investing - Bernstein
The intelligent asset allocator - Bernstein
All About Asset allocation - Ferri
Fail Safe Investing - Browne

That will cover the why forego picking stocks. Why not to panic when the market breaks. How to spot a bubble. What components go into a portfolio. How do those components behave. What can you expect. How to build a portfolio that will keep on trucking through thick and thin. Then search the internet like a man in the desert looks for water and follow the discussions on allocations to see if you can follow the reasoning. Also search around for ideas concerning the inclusion of gold and commodities, and global portfolios.

[knap82]

Hi, Henri

I can recommend Lars Tvedes "Børshandles Psykologi" as inspiration and a look into the volatility created in the markets by stupidity - it's an easy book to read and quite entertaining.

Then there is http://jlcollinsnh.com/ which I find quite good on how to invest for ERE - at least it worth look into his approach which is a bit different of the ones of Mr. Money Mustache and Jakob here on ERE. But it will give you a lot of stuff to think about regarding passive index investments.

/knap82