Small and winding road to freedom

[Aspirant]

The december financials a bit late (as usual).

The month was pretty hectic considering the we had COVID restrictions. I went on 2 trips. Other mandatory military and other combined bday-party and taking care of crap in the capital. On the plus side, I got to see my sister and my godson who turned out to be a funny little fellow

The expenses are a bit fuzzy. There was lots of beer drinking that is not showing in the expenses of this account and travel costs (which go from rental expense account). The Xmas time was very relaxed. I spent a lot of money on gifts, but I got a gift money for that from my mom, so +/- 0. The food budget was surprisingly small considering all the xmas delicacies, but we managed to stretch the ridiculous amount of food for about a week. We tried to use the minimal sunlight hours and play outdoors with the kid and played board games etc. Kid plays the games surprisingly well for a 5 year old. All in all pretty chill, but I didn´t have the time to read books, which has been my traditional Xmas holiday thing. Maybe I need to work on my concentration skills, because I certainly had the hours available for reading.

Income 4510,63 Gift + daily allowances military
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -600
Broker account transfer -500 To kids account
Food -499,86
Lunches -41,8
Gasoline
Car
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -40,1
Beer & restaurants -110,7
Travel
Misc -567,6 Xmas shopping
Credit card payments -90 cash withdrawal

[Aspirant]

Happy new year to everyone. After a relaxing Chrismas holiday, it is time to give a few thoughts on the new year 2021. Hopefully it will be better than 2020, although my year wasn´t that badly impacted by COVID. All in all finland has been doing pretty well with the virus, and family has been pretty safe. Less social hassle has actually given a bit more time for the family stuff.

Now that I have full year of expenses tracked, I should see what I can do to reduce them. Overall I think the big picture will look about the same as previous years. salary will not increase by much, and the minor raise to salary will be offset by higher taxation, Thank you socialist government
DW continues to be on scholarship, so I will have to carry the majority of household expenses. Hopefully she will get the phd done in 2021 and gets a "real" job.

I deposited 11500 to savings and brokerage accounts. This is about 29 % direct savings rate.
I deposited about 12000 to mutual account with wife to cover shared expenses. This is housing, one rental apartment, housing fees, daycare, electricity etc. About half of this is loan repayments, so some savings to there as well.

Food bill is pretty high. 477 €/month on average. This includes most of our family´s food, so it is not bad for 3 persons, but DW also does some grocery shopping. It would be possible to nib about 100 € away just by thinking about eating habits.

Beer budget need to go down significantly. It is bad for my health and finances. The beginning of the year will be sober almost by necessity, because it will be the busiest time of the year at work. But even after that I need to reduce alcohol to be able to achieve my health goals. I don´t think I spent too much on restaurants and family dinners outside of home, and this might change a bit next summer when vaccinations start to take effect and restrictions will loosen.

Health expenses were the largest ever because of one surgery paid out of pocket. This will reduce even though I might start spending on preventive stuff.

Credit card spending needs to go away. 2020 I had 2 stupid watch purchases and I needed to get some new working clothes. My current working environment is pretty casual, but I need reasonably formal clothing for meeting with bankers and auditors. I haven´t gotten much new dress shirts in 3-5 years so my favorites started to fray. Some online shopping is best to do with a credit card, but I will always pay the balance within one month.

Shopping and sport should be a bit less next year. I try to reduce shopping but I will buy some new sporting equipment. I am not yet sure what, but I think my main goal is to increase exercise so if some spending is required, then I will use money rather than stay on the sofa. Kid will need new sporting equipment almost yearly because he is growing. I want to teach him downhill skiing and skating (already bought ski boots and helmet and looking for some used skis).

My tracked expenses were about 17700 for the year. If I can chip away 1000 for health, 1000 for beer, 500 for CC and 500 for shopping, I should realistically look at 14700 expense level. This is doable by all means. There will always be surprises, so let´s see. If I will aim at 1000 €/month level, then this could be done even with surprises. Travel will be costing more, since 2020 was pretty much staying at home.

Side project survived first full year of business in COVID environment, and I am pretty happy about that. 2021 we will need to finish the basic stuff about the project and start to build some added value and fun on top of the core. I will most likely get all of my invested capital out as dividents so the payback period was less than one year When we get the wagon rolling properly, I can reasonably expect to get something like 5k out of it per year as dividends. This would mean a big increase on my direct savings rate. I can not reasonably stretch to another side hussle in 2021 so I will be working on this one, and try to maximize this.

I have been thinking about actual goals for 2021. And it is hard. I need to reduce some of the time sinks in my life before I can proceed on goal setting.

What I would like to do:
1. Physical fitness
2. Outdoorsy life
3. Learning both at work and off work
4. Studying investments and working on a investment portfolio strategy
5. Family time
6. Hobbies with kid
7. Fishing
8. Small business building (side project)
9. Build stronger relationship with DW
10. Read (Currently I am reading the investment book I bought this summer and Acemogly´s why nations fail. Next will be Harari´s 21 lessons for the 21st century. Reading is slow because of lack of concentration so I would need to slow my brains and clean up extra hassle from my life to actually enjoy reading. this is work in progress with better habits)
11. Maybe I need an actual hobby and time for myself?

Actually I would need to focus on just one of those wants to make a meaningful impact on progress towards goals. Now if I want to do 10 things, I can´t expect much to happen in any single one. If I can guess what is going to happen, I will dabble with all of them all year and wonder where all the time went one year from now

This is where the web of goals comes in, I guess? I can see combining 1,2,5,6 and 7 by going on a fishing trip with the whole family next summer.
Also 3 and 4 can be combined if I choose to study wealth management. 1 and 2 can be combined by getting a decent mountain bike and start exploring local trails. 1 and 6 combine with coaching soccer to kid.

What I want to do less in 2021 is sit at the cough and mindlessly scroll through my phone.

[Aspirant]

Frosty greetings to everyone. This morning it was -25 deg C (-13 fahrenheit). So its going to be a few weeks of groundhog days
I don´t mind, since financial statement period is the worst time of the year for me. So focusing on staring at numbers instead of any worthwhile activities. Now the days are getting a bit longer, so I actually see some daylight, albeit briefly. These are the "perks" of living close to arctic circle.

We tried to enjoy the winter activities a bit more in January. Went skiing and practiced downhill skiing and skating with the kid. Now it is too cold for that, but that will continue in a week or two.

January financials were a surprise. I thought that I was doing so well. Had a dry month, so the grocery store bill didn´t include any (alcoholic) beer. Few zero-% beer for after cross courty skiing and sauna (how Finnish is that?). Also DW went to get a big load of groceries, but still over 400 €. The kid is growing up, but not that much, so I got nobody to blame but myself. Shopping includes bday gift to kid and some work stuff that was reimbursed. Birthday gifts will continue to pile up, since we are upgrading the kid´s room as our big present. Luckily we found an used bed, so largest cost is already tackled (if I manage to put it together).

We budgeted a bit less for joint account. Slashed some services and got a better deal on mortgages.

I still have analysis-paralysis about investing. The markets seem to be quite volatile, and that usually implies some corrections. There is certainly a good basis for a market correction, but I am not sure if I should bet on that (markets can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent). Maybe the WSB movement will cause the institutional investors to think twice about their bets and maybe deleverage their short positions? I think that I will hold off a few months and not do any rash moves. The main street economy is heading for a difficult time because the covid year financial statements are being published during the Spring. I am still thinking about alternatives on what to do.

Options:
1. Keep on investing in varied stock (Maybe megatrend ETFs like clean energy or robotics/AI)
2. Build stronger cash position
3. Start paying off mortgages
4. A better idea, anyone?

Income 3320,59

Expenses JAN 21
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer -100
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer
Food -426,52
Lunches -68,4
Gasoline -101,85
Car -5,8
Health -26,8 (vitamins)
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -386,8
Beer & restaurants -15,3
Travel
Misc -10
CC payments -547,85

[Aspirant]

I think the groundhog days are finally starting to get me.

I have been browsing the internet for stuff to buy. And for some reason I got fixated with replacing my car. I think I need group support to get over this madness

This started because a friend had a tip on a car with my specs on a very good price (supposedly a well kept 10 year old vehicle). Because of the Finnish obsession with taxing every penny out of cars (or just about anything actually), I can´t find decent cars in my price range.
My tactic with a car is to be a scavenger or bottom feeder. I am driving older, but reliable vehicles with much less depreciation to value. I need to get rid of the cars before major engine repairs since I don´t know jack shit about repairing cars.

Now that the driving technology seems to change in greater speed, I need to replace the car with one that I can ride until the decent full-E cars come to my price range. I am afraid that the current car is not going to last until then.

Second point is that I want a car that enables more outdoorsy lifestyle. This means four wheel drive and more ground clearance. I have been thinking of Subaru Outback for a couple of years now, and maybe it is really time to get one. It still gets 30+ mpg so not half bad, but the repairs will be more expensive than in my current car. Subaru is supposedly very reliable vehicle, but the repairs sting.

[ertyu]

I think the groundhog days are finally starting to get me.

I have been browsing the internet for stuff to buy.

Hahaha same here. Got ideas of all sorts of "projects" thus I will need all sorts of things for said projects . I even bought a dilapidated fixer-upper apartment

Stay strong cool you're noticing this

[Aspirant]

Thanks for the support

It has been pretty cold so I have been surfing online for outdoorsy clothes. It is about -20 celsius or -4 fahrenheit, so warm clothes are a necessity. I have plenty of clothes, but I would like to get a durable hardshell jacket for 4 season outdoorsy stuff. I had to go shopping for warm clothes for the kid. He spends hours per day outside in the daycare, so some merino wool underlayers and woolen shirts are needed.

I have been planning for fishing and hiking trips, so gearing up in advance might alleviate the sting from the summer. I don´t need much, since I have been slowly getting BIFL equipment, but as any hobby goes, the wants far exceed the actual needs. I am trying to differenciate between wants and needs and try to get the needs. Staying dry would be a need in this northern climate. I discovered this last summer when getting wet in a rain jacket that is 18 years old

[Aspirant]

Hello everyone.

Things have been pretty good during Feb.Just the financial statement season is pretty time-consuming. I stare at excels a lot. I managed to not buy a car (thanks ertyu), but bought a rain jacket. A nice hardshell and almost new condition for less than half the price of the ones I was looking for. I know it is a non-neccessary spending in the end, but

We switched mortgages to a different bank and accounts are a bit messed up. There was one payment for rental apartment´s fees from my expense account instead of joint account and so on. The move saves a bit on mortgage interest and potentially a bit from insurances as well. So little improvement in the expense front.

Other expenses were ok. Kid had bday parties (multiple, because of CV-19 restrictions) and we renovated his room. It turned out quite nice and was a small DIY project (painting, plastering, furniture assembly). He is happy to have a big boy bed and forest scenes in the wall. The bed was second hand, which saved a bunch and is of higher quality than what I found new in the local store. We bought Legos and sports stuff for presents as well. So for the shopping and sports expenses most were for the kid.

DW pitched in more with the expenses so a little smaller grocery bill and no gas for the car. Driving was less obviously as well since we are working mostly from home.

The side project officially survived first operational year in Covid environment. Now I just have to get the accounts audited and we can pay ourselves dividends. We will get all of our invested capital back and some beer more on top 2021 will be a lot better since we started from zero in 2020.
The project is a cultural center for artists and craftspeople. So we rent them working spaces and try to build a nice community for them. In the grand scheme of things in my city I think we are doing a worthwhile contribution on the cultural scene. So this kind of pays off in non-monetary terms.

Income 3204,29
Joint account transfer
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer
Food -376,2
Lunches -6,3
Gasoline
Car -5,8
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -225,63 Renovation project kids room
Shopping & sport -320,14 +150 jacket
Beer & restaurants -74,7
Travel
Misc -459,85 Rental fees from wrong account
Credit card payments

[Aspirant]

March finances are a bit wobbly. We changed banks so maybe there is some transactions missing from my accounting. Not that you can tell from the expenses The bank change was due to cheaper mortgage. Now I am paying 0,5 % + euribor (capped to 0 %) interest for my actual mortgage. The investment loan is a bit more expensive, but still under 1 % interest. So I am not actually hurrying up to pay mortgages

We splurged on food and restaurants. We had a sushi night with one friend and some wine tasting and we have been lazy to cook, so a few take-out lunches as well. The work-at-home rut is getting to us. The food bill includes half a reindeer that I bought to the freezer. Xmas was cancelled because of Covid, so we had to eat Rudolf...
Overall "discretionary" expenses were 1541 €. Broker account transfer got spent almost immediately because there was a new listing in the Finnish stock exchange. With this market hype, I was glad to find a normal company without unicorn fluff all over. The hobby rent will hopefully be offset by dividends from the hobby company and some home brewed beer.

Hopefully April and May are better considering expenses. Then I can take it easier during summer. But with the spring coming there always is some house related expenses coming up. Hopefully I have bought most of the yard stuff and tools needed. We should start seeding some salads etc inside, so we can plant them in June (or May if we are lucky). Again, arctics are not a nice place for gardening

Next summer I am thinking of staying in Finland. No hurry to go abroad to catch whatever plagues still running around most civilized world. Instead just nature trips to fishing/camping locations and few cabin rentals.

Income 3280,79
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer -2000
Food -762,73 Incl. Gift to kid
Lunches
Gasoline -66,62
Car -110,8 Vehicle inspection
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -232,13 Outdoors stuff mostly.
Beer & restaurants -198,8
Travel
Misc -170 hobby rent, gift
Credit card payments

[Aspirant]

After the March madness in spending, here comes even worse month.

Original plan was to spend 1/3 of the bonus on fishing stuff and invest 2/3. Well the other spending got out of hand as well. April was a weird month that there was still some wintery expenses (2 skiing trips with kid) and summer expenses. I got a used fly rod and reel from online thinking of saving money. Well, Brexit bit my arse and never received the reel, so I had to buy a new replacement. Now the reel is sailing somewhere between customs and vendor, so I hope to get it in the summer.

The hardshell jacket was a good purchase. I have used it in downhill skiing and fishing trip and general arctic outdoorsy stuff for a bit.

Guitar amp was to the brewing room, so there is something to do while the beer bubbles... The cost of the brewing room will drop from the 120. If you build it, they will come. From June onwards my cost should be 40/month, which is still quite a lot for beer, but it is a hobby expense. We got some old freezer and will convert them to controlled temperature fermentation boxes. Also possible to use them for lagering, which is cool.

Summer time will be more relaxed on the expense side. I will eat out, go for a beer with friends, buy lots of barbecue and care less about stuff. I got 4 day work week until my summer holidays, so I have time for my own stuff (finally). After couple of weeks, I am starting to feel what it might be like to have some actual agency in one´s life. I don´t think I can do this permanently since my workload is not moved to anyone. I am just doing all the work in 4 days, but I can see it piling up in the long term.

Current plans are to work on the side project a bit and try to have some fun for a change. I am planning to learn more about fly fishing and fly tying and get my ass outdoors more. Seems that my weeks are pretty scheduled during evenings, so I have soccer for kid 2 nights and meetings and similar stuff for 2 nights. So that leaves fri and either sat or sun free to do what I please (not what I have to).

Income 4504,16
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -3500
Broker account transfer
Food -646,43 Incl. Some organic food court items, Easter dinner specials, one barbecue with friends
Lunches
Gasoline -110,72
Car
Health
Electricity -73,67 This was from the wrong account, should be from joint account
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -1019,76 Fishing stuff, skiing tickets, skiing stuff for kid, quitar amp
Beer & restaurants -135
Travel
Misc -480,3 Tax payments 2020, beer room rent, charity
Credit card payments
-2361,72

[Aspirant]

Forgive me for I have sinned

First of all my financial updates are behind. I know nobody cares about the numbers, but I have made commitment to myself to follow my spending. And apparently I can´t leave that to autopilot just yet.

I have been messing up the spending frontier for 3 months in a row. I don´t know if I have some extra stash somewhere, but it seems the money doesn´t run out even though spending is negative. It seems that I spend more on the change of seasons. I splurged for fishing equipment (which can be considered as investment of course). This is the force that needs to be controlled. Spending accumulates both ways. The small purchases (30 € here and 50 € there) accumulate really fast. And especially hobby related purchases. Now I have bought a lot of stuff and so far I haven´t had a chance to use them a lot. The stuff is pretty long lasting, so I get to do it eventually, but maybe I should curb the buying again. I expect to use the fishing stuff for decades and the shell jacket for at least 5 years.

Also I tried to quit smoking. Not a success. I had medication for it, and tried 1/4 dose. Last time I tried with full dose, I had bad mental symptoms. Now the symptoms were manageable, but it still was a strain (to family relationships for example). And the meds took at least 3 weeks to clear from my brain. It seems that I can quit, but it requires a different approach. I need to build more mental fortitude and start to cut the habit piece by piece. The habit is etched into my brain by tens of thousands of repetitions, so it will take a long time to get rid of it. For the mental fortitude I need to be less tired and in better shape.

And the video games were for the kid. Last time I bought anything like that was 2014.

May 2021 finances
Income 3112,97
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -800
Broker account transfer
Food -581,1
Lunches -212,92
Gasoline
Car -63,2
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -40,62
Shopping & sport -595,2 Fishing stuff, camping stuff, video games
Beer & restaurants -162,9
Travel
Misc -114,22 Club membersip, solidarity
Credit card payments -253,95
-711,14

[Aspirant]

And June stuff next.

We did midsummer trip to one river where I tried fly fishing and stayed in the woods. Mosquito situation was such that we had to switch to a beach in a lakeside for the second night. I don´t know if you are familiar with Finnish mosquito situation, but something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55m54U8On3A and next morning when mosquitoes stopped, the horseflies invaded the airspace. But a family camping experience anyway (this was on a bucket list).

I also did a cabin weekend trip with couple of friends. It was fun, even though the fish didn´t bite so much.

I was wondering how I can get minus months in a row, but in June I had a transfer from savings account, so that explains it. I should always aim for net positive months no matter what. Of course this is not possible if we make larger purchases such as housing repairs etc. But the normal situation should always be in the green. This accounting is not exact science since I have more accounts. But I try to put all the basic expenses to this account.

Now I have been slacking and it shows. The food is actually not much larger than normal considering I got something like 100 € back from friends (to a different account). I replaced bike tires which were something like 6 years old already (can you tell the bike doesn´t get enough mileage). Bought inflatable mattress for family camping purposes. It is wider and comfier than my own mattress.

This is the last week of work before holidays. 4 weeks off, and not much big plans. Lots of small plans, so maybe I get to relax and get my shit together for the winter. The 4 day workweek is now tested. I can do it occasionally but not constantly. This has been the slower part of the year, so it has been positive.

For the habit part and smoking, I am reading Duhigg´s The Power of Habit. Maybe that will help in the future. I am dissecting the habit to small pieces, and trying to figure out the correct response to each part. Part of the craving is from the nicotine and part of it is just a habit ingrained in my brain. So far I have noticed which habits are the easiest to ditch, and I am doing it one cig at the time. I will relapse, but I am still smoking less already.

June 21 financials
Income 3683,97
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer 700 Transfer FROM savings account!
Broker account transfer
Food -527,04 Got reimbursed for some of this
Lunches -59,07
Gasoline -159,57
Car -3,6
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -131,83 Summer stuff and gardening
Shopping & sport -433,35 Camping stuff, biking stuff (new wheels), books for kid, sending a gift to godson
Beer & restaurants -98,3
Travel -121,2 Midsummer trip (gas is higher than normal month)
Misc -105 Fishing permits, club membership
Credit card payments -60
1785,01

[Aspirant]

July was a holiday month. I had 2 weeks in July and 2 weeks in August, so financially both months were pretty much messed up

We had a cabin week with family, went fishing and saw some bears and wolves. We explored the local attractions with kid, because DW was working while me and kiddo were on a holiday. Science park, amusement park, museum, movies and so on. Lots of eating out during the "action days".
Also I bought some games for the kid (mostly loaning the playstation games from the library).

Sadly this is what the finances look when I am not paying any attention.

On top of this I bought a car The previous one was 17 years old, so maybe it was time to let that go before it developed serious engine problems. It was a good car in economical sense, but there is a potential risk of the family getting bigger, so we might need a bit more spacious one. Now I just need to attack the car loan when I fix all the stuff from the new car (needs a bit of work and upgrades).


Income 4236,58
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer
Food -629,48 Grill party + cabin week etc
Lunches
Gasoline -251,36
Car -106,4 Mostly parking
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -582,37 tickets, gift for baby and godson etc, rent for brew space
Beer & restaurants -714,66 Family dinners, eating out a lot
Travel -72,9 Train tickets
Misc -10

[Aspirant]

Well, I am so late with these... Maybe I will just post few months without much commentary and then say something about the fall as one.

August

Income 3112,96
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer No savings because of car
Broker account transfer
Food -367,73
Lunches -47,2
Gasoline -303,75 It is a gas guzzler, plus couple or trips away from the city
Car -1524,59 Fixing up the new car, sigh
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -348,28
Beer & restaurants -444,45
Travel
Misc -200 Friends bday gift+party expenses
Credit card payments

The new car needed some fixes and improvements, so I had a few trips to the repair shop.

[Aspirant]

September

Income 2959,97
Joint account transfer -1100
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -1500
Broker account transfer
Food -436,51
Lunches -51,52
Gasoline -118,96
Car -74,09
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -178,8
Beer & restaurants -322,45
Travel
Misc -481,9 costs from a rental that were taken from the wrong account
Credit card payments

Expenses from the trip for friends birthday. Shooting, food and beer. Sounds very hillbillyish. Well, it was :)

[Aspirant]

October

Income 3036,46
Joint account transfer -900
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -1000
Broker account transfer
Food -239,89
Lunches -31,3
Gasoline -94,51
Car -241,14
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -239,86 Wedding flowers 50 €
Beer & restaurants -255,32 Wedding dinner for friends
Travel
Misc -20,54
Credit card payments

The big extra expense for October was a wedding for friends. It was a small event. I bought flowers and paid for wedding dinner for our little group.
Car costs for the new car and inspection for the old car for selling purposes. The old car checked out fine, so I am not expecting too much repairs before I manage to sell it.

No investments because I am stacking up money in the savings account to pay for the car loan. Food and gas expenses were quite low. Food was record low for the year

[Aspirant]

November

Income 3525,15 Got a small raise + some reimbursed expenses
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -1000
Broker account transfer
Food -300,84
Lunches -29,8
Gasoline -205,39 It seems that normal gas consumption is about 2 tanks per month
Car
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -37,35
Shopping & sport -338,06
Beer & restaurants -192,7
Travel -149,7 Work trip
Misc
Credit card payments

Pretty standards expenses for the month. Shopping includes dues for kid´s football for 2022. And there was some 80 € purchase I don´t have a clue what it was. This is why the tracking should be monthly

Still stacking money to the savings account and not investing.

Fall months have been quite uneventful. Last days of november and first days of December I got to spend a week in military training. It would be a nice change to the daily routines, but nobody is doing my work while I am gone camping. It seems I am still able to survive sleeping in a tent in the arctic winter

So the rest of the december has been pretty bad workwise. Work is picking up pace. Lots of stuff going on and missing a week didn+t help much. The developments have been mostly positive so while I am exhausted after the work week, it has been pretty interesting. I can say that I am waiting for Christmas break more than ever.

All in all, the end part of the year hasn´t been very good from the financial perspective. I think I need to finish up selling the car and figure out some plans how to make things better next year. We have been spared from covid as a family, but there has been two incidents at work. So I think we will catch it next year. Hopefully we get the third shots of vaccine and the kid gets at least one before it happens...

[Aspirant]

December 2021
Odd month expence wise. Not much savings (which was planned).
Christmas shopping was quite extensive this year. We spent the Christmas with the family of DW and bought bunch of food and drinks there. We also bought winter gear for the kid. This winter is pretty good so warm clothing is much needed. I also bought a sleeping bag for myself and presents for mom. I have been planning to get a smaller sleeping bag for campping trips since summer so this was not ad hoc purchase.

We visited Santa Claus village in december, had a road trip to DW´s family and I went to see my mom with the kid after Xmas. We went downhill skiing and the kid started to learn pretty well. Controlling speed is still a bit hard so we went together all the time. Fun anyway. Lots of driving, but the covid and working from home have reduced the driving during the normal times. On average the new car is pretty thirsty but still manageable.

Income 3178,43
Joint account transfer
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer
Food -450,24
Lunches -98,4
Gasoline -396,8
Car
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -750,73
Beer & restaurants -287,46
Travel -243,3
Misc 3,4
Credit card payments -26,89

[Aspirant]

Some thoughts on 2021.
I revisited the goals from the start of the journal and most of them are still not ready. I am in a bit better position with the kid and relationship with DW. Also the side gig survived second financial year.

The health part is getting worse. I am still continually tired. I tried starting with a personal trainer, but Covid got in the way so I haven´t even started the weight training. Which kind of sucks.

Financially things are not looking so great. Finally managed to sell the car and cut the car loan in half. DW submitted her phd thesis so now she is unemployed while waiting for the revieving process to finish. She is looking for works obviously, but I have to take care of the finances even more so than previously. There is some larger expenses on the horizon and the stock market is not looking very good. So I think I am not doing much investing during the spring and just save the money. If DW gets work, then I can dump the extra into the stock market (of pay off the car loan). Now the investments are sliding slowl downhill, so I am not too keen on dumping money on the stock markets. I know I know. I should just dollar-cost-average mindlessly every month...

2021 average income and expenses
Income 3170
Joint account transfer -700
Travel account transfer 50
Savings account transfer -583
Broker account transfer -167
Food -430
Lunches -33
Gasoline -151
Car -167
Health -2
Electricity -6
Phone 0
Hardware store -33
Shopping & sport -409
Beer & restaurants -233
Travel -55
Misc -185
CC payments -55

The expenses are 1759 on average, not counting the transfers to various other accounts. I think the food bill will climb up a little bit (inflation and DW not earning anything). I think I need to give some spending money to the missus, so she can still do stuff now that she finally has some extra time. Shopping, beer and other frivolous spending can be cut. Maybe I will a) drink less or b) do more homebrewing. Sport expenses will climb if I get the personal trainer thing rolling. the kid is growing up, so his stuff will get more expensive.

[Aspirant]

Well, it´s been a while. I have been struggling with energy and welfare issues, so I haven´t had much energy to focus on finances. Money stuff has been effed up for the whole year. DW took a final spurt for the PhD thesis, and decided not to participate on joint expenses. So I had to take care of loans and mandatory stuff for the two of us. So that pretty much ended my possibilities for saving. But the general frugality of our situation made it possible to make ends meet with one salary.

I failed with the car loan as well. I had a goal of finishing the loan in a year. So far I paid about 12k€ off in 14 months, but couldn´t finish it because of the above.

The side gig has been struggling with the energy issues. I should put more effort in accounting and get some compensation out of the company. The situation in the neighbourhood is changing and the property is switching owners. We have an opportunity to to a graceful exit and leave the stuff in more professional hands in a property management sense. We are still cool with the artistry side of the gig. Basically this would be a natural ending point for our efforts and we have created a creative hub of more than 100 users for our city.

August spending is getting back on track, and things seem to normalize since DW started working. So things would get brighter in a financial sense.
...but no.

As soon as the PhD project was getting finished we found out that we are expecting kid number 2. This is a happy occurence of course but financially this will suck. I am planning to take some time off as paternity leave. If I can negotiate things my way at work, I will take about 5 months off next year (hooray to the northern socialist utopia).

As if this is not enough. I got a great idea of how to dig my hole even deeper I have been looing at vacation property lots close to where I was born. There was a few nice ones and some that were just plots. I decided against it during the summer (phew). This week I noticed that there is a small cabin on sale right next to my "ancestral grounds". I think it is the same cabin that I have first looked at about 25 years ago!

August 2022
Income 3515,24
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -1000
Broker account transfer
Food -276,82
Lunches -22,8
Gasoline -178,97 One trip to bday party, so a bit over average
Car -6,5
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -59,44 More stuff, but reimbursed to this account (Bachelor party, wedding gift, mtg cards etc)
Beer & restaurants -73,8
Travel -20,6 Taxi bills reimbursed by others
Misc -130 Charity, annual dinner party for a club, party membership
Credit card payments
Total 746,31

[ertyu]

While reading this, I had an intuition that you should go for the cabin and that if you don't you would regret it. It's not anything rationally motivated, just, occasionally I have a gut feeling or a knowing about random things and figured id share.