Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi Zalo! Like you all back and +1

One of the expenses out of the way as I have my driving license since 1.5 week.
No, I won't buy a car, but I can use a car at my job + the benefits that come with it.

Weirdly, when using a business car, one also receives a daily allowance for lunch and other expenses, while I did not receive that ...

Goals 2014

- Start longterm investing ~ 200 euros per month (have the account set up and did my homework)
- Do some restoration work while not dipping into savings
- Design a great frugal vacaction plan for this year
- Restoration work on our plot of land
- Automatically putting 65 % of income ...

I think it is really cool that you can shave sheep as well as processing the wool! How is your stance now on double checking figures? Did you convince yourself yet?

Off topic:
I am not even half your age but I wanted to thank you for your thoughtful comment in my thread on whether to take on a ...

2 job opportunities, I have to decide next week:

- a very fancy corporate job but also, possibly stressfull, a longer train commuting time and not always up to my moral standards. However, it will give me a annual income of 60K and job security for at least a few years. It will also have some perks ...

First of all, it sounds like you had a very unlucky turn of events and I am far too young and unwise/ unexperienced to give any advice.

Just know that your story touched me and that I wish you all the best on your path towards FI/ retirement and I hope you accept help from people you might not ...

My spouse is totally on board, in fact, he is less a work a holic than I am and much more frugal by nature.

He is working towards the goal of working maximum 3 days a week by choice or rather 4d/pw seasonally and not working in winter/ having time for other projects. He isn't good with numbers and ...

INFP (but almost ENFP)

Welcome fellow European and good luck!
I definitely recognize the confusion state.. - and also unfortunately the dropping out of courses/ degrees -
Keep up with your dreams while keeping one eye on the finances!

Thanks Frommi and Nomini for your responses.

I think a bit of a survival instinct is good, but I agree with Nomini's point of the importance of building a resilient mentality/ partly personal and a generational issue (as every generation has its 'themes').

As for the expenses: the example was of ...

Ok, i have an issue with 'fear of poverty' whereas I dramatize risks (a quarrel at work? O, in 2 weeks --> unemployed, on the street, turning crazy, diving dumpsters) while forgetting my excellent creative survival instinct completely. Which in turn leads to apathetic episodes in my life.

Actually ...

It seems from the responses on the blogs that many writers have quite high earnings from their jobs/ had fancy jobs and not much experience in involuntary unemployment. This does not discourage me - nor my spouse - but it made me think: do you actually start thinking about money when you start ...

Income
Jobs (after taxes) 3000 - 4000 € per month + 200-280 tax deductables per month

Expenses
Mortgage 718 (Annuity. Currently 2/3 interest. 1/3 principal payoff)
Electricity/Gas 80 - we have a 'smart meter' tracking our exact usage per month
Water 9
Train commute 40 (average over a few months ...

Thank you Rube! Also for the 250 posts heads up :D

You are totally right about the deductables, its just that I do want to have a spare fund -also for some renovation work- and do not know yet how big that should be. I was thinking of paying off 10 % of the mortgage next year up to 20 % when our ...

After scrolling the forums, several sites and blogs and real life conversations (both encouraging and discouraging) i decided to join the forums to track my goal which i formulated ambiteously :D.

My realistic first goal is to always have enough FU-money ( walk-away money ) at hand to quit a non ...