Early Retirement Extreme Forums

It is certainly possible for a couple with well paid jobs and one child to have a high savings % in The Netherlands. To get better and more specific advice, it would be helpful if you laid out your income and expenses so we see what goes where and what you might be missing. In addition to what other...

@LookingInward, you say that you have 3 years experience as an IT consultant and have programmed professionally. So why would you need a bootcamp or CS degree to 'enter the market'? Am I missing something?

I think it is wrong to assume that comments to an article are representative of what society thinks. Comments tend to be negative, regardless of what the article is about. 'Positive' comments are usually just replies to negative ones... As for the article, well, it mostly seems to confirm the stereo...

We don't have kids yet unfortunately The downside of all this is that my job is extremely demanding and taxing: i travel around 66% of my time, often internationally (100+ hotel nights in 2017), so i don't see my beloved wife often Should I state the obvious? If you really want children you should ...

@TheRedHare, why did you find it tough to learn programming on your own? There are tons of resources for learning Java out there for free (or at the cost of a book purchase) if you could overcome that. Is the certification you mentioned the official one by Oracle (OCP)? As far as I know that is the ...

+1 to what Seppia said. In a market where you compete with computer algorithms that have way more information and are way more sophisticated than your excel sheet (sorry for being blunt), getting huge returns without significant risk is impossible. If such returns were indeed possible - and the stoc...

Welcome Sarah. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy myself and can relate to the feeling of academic philosophy not really being "working". I have since moved on to something else and never regretted, although on the other hand I am glad to have had the experience.

The following topic might be of help for your "battle" with your husband: https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7894 I think you should take it very slowly with him. Drastic lifestyle changes are not made overnight by most people. Trying to "convert" h...

In a situation like this I would normally just test the waters and see how serious the road signs are to be taken. Maybe the building won't start for a long time. Or the owner really doesn't care about a single cyclist. But then you are in the USA with your laws about gun ownership and trespassing.....

I’m sure a programmer with experience could do this in 2 minutes. Ehm... no. There is probably some tool out there that you can use for this, which will require some configuring, not programming. To build it up from scratch will take days and requires programming knowledge way beyond an introductor...

Software developer (Java) here. Agree that if your goal is to create a decent website you don´t need to be able to program. As programming languages are concerned, I would rule out R as a first language to learn because it is specifically tailored to statistics and data science. C and C++ are ´old´ ...

The problem with creating excuses by committing to other things is that it just sets you up for more of the same. She might change her working days, ask you to take care of the puppy before or after the yoga class, etc. At some point you will then have to get straight with her, and then she will pro...

To give some more context, I have two little kids, one going to daycare, the other to primary school. In the winter season, they (and therefore my wife and I) have colds on and off. I am perhaps with a cold one third of the time. In 90 percent of the cases the symptoms are mild. So what should I do?...

@EdithKeeler, I knew employees in the US have ridiculously few holidays, but I didn´t know about the limited sick time thing. In Europe employees are much better protected in that area. In Holland, where I live and work, I can report sick and my employer can basically do nothing for a week or so (at...

In Holland (and perhaps elsewhere) it is not uncommon for companies to pay a bonus to their employees depending on how many days of sick leave they took in the previous year. Like for each day of sick leave, 20% of the bonus is scrapped. This is somehow legal (salary cannot be withheld during sick l...

In Michael Lewis´book Boomerang, there is a story about a (very wealthy) guy who bought 1M worth of nickels. Very entertaining book anyway.

It is more efficient to make more early due to compound interest. Though this doesn't mean that it is the best option for everyone. On the other hand, when working less hours per week the tax rate is lower (at least in my country this makes a big difference). I agree that both are valid options dep...

Thanks Frugalchicos and daylen for the replies. Here's a rough breakdown of our expenses (in euro): 700 Housing (mortgage interest, a reserve for maintenance, taxes, gas and electricity, water, internet, insurance) 500 Groceries 400 Kids (daycare, sports, swimming lessons, trips to indoor playground...

Someone somewhere on this forum (forgot who and where) dropped a very telling graph about about at what age men and women find the opposite sex the most attractive versus their own age. Men find women of about 20 years old the most attractive, irrespective of their own age. For women, on the other h...

Fascinating story Astra.