DutchGirl's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

My father's doing fine, and I'm very glad to be able to say so. He still needs to visit the cardiologist for one extra test, to make absolutely sure he's fine. But all other tests have come back as negative, aka "good". So we're pretty confident that he'll be okay.

We've been to Paris this last week. (Frenchgirl, if you're reading this, sorry that there was no time to come find & visit you :-) ). It was a great week, spent also with my boyfriend's family. We had lots of fun together, went to Euro Disney and to the Louvre, and then it was time to go home :-) . Today was my first day at work again, and it felt like I had been gone for weeks, when it only has been one week of holiday. It was actually pretty hard to go back to work, I didn't want to. And then when I was actually working, it felt pretty good again to be active and to be helping other people by answering their questions, et cetera.

I made a decent salary in April, but I also had to cough up some taxes (due to not having paid enough taxes on the job-on-the-side in 2015 - well, free loan from the government, excellent, too bad you've got to pay it back at some point). All in all, I spent roughly 1850 euros on a salary of 2870 (partly from my job-on-the-side). So that's a pretty low savings rate for me, 36%. I hope to do better in May, as my job pays roughly an extra salary in May as "holiday pay". Still, I'll also have some extra expenses planned in May, so ...

I talked to my boss a few weeks ago, and we discussed the time that I gave up on a specific task. My boss said, that she liked how I told her that I couldn't do it. She said that she liked that better than having an employee who is burnt-out and on sick leave for an indefinite amount of time. Well, she's got a point there. So, good; no bridges burned, at least no important ones :-) Pff.

Time to go sleep! Bye!

Hankaroundtheworld
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:50 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Hankaroundtheworld »

Glad you had fun, with all those ERE ideas, there is a tendency to think too much about the future (when things will be "great" once you hit ERE), but you only have 'now", so enjoying the journey is the real goal, and I am glad your father is allowed to continue his route as well!!

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

I've made it to 90k euros! And with the current exchange rate, that's still just a little over $100k!! (Hurrah!). A really nice feeling, and onward to 100k euros it goes.

Income in May was quite a lot, due to the holiday money that is given out every year. Unfortunately, it's taxed at 50%-ish, I found out (some of that will return come tax time next year). So the 3200 promised pretax became 1600 posttax or so. But anyway. Total income of 4715 euros, expenses of 2414, and thus a savings rate of 49%. A large chunk of expenses was prepayments for our holiday in September (739 euros, and more expenses will follow), and the annual contribution to a charity close to my heart (500 euros).

The savings rate was better than in April. In May, I worked fewer hours due to some national holidays, which was really nice. I have to keep working on "what to do when I don't work anymore", though! I even got a bit bored here and there. I binge-watched some netflix series, but I don't think that's a worthwhile retirement activity.

My dad is doing fine. He had some cardiology tests and they turned out okay-ish. No reason to suspect coronary disease. His heart is a little bit enlarged, but currently there's no function loss. He has been asked to return in two years time (or five?, can't remember) for a checkup. He's already on blood pressuring lowering medication, which can help with keeping the cardiac hypertrophy under control. So I'm not extremely worried about that. And compared to the first diagnosis of "he has a heart attack" and then the next diagnosis of "he might have had a heart attack in the past", I'm pretty pleased with the final verdict.

Today we're at my parents' to celebrate my mother's birthday. I promise that we'll do a good job on that. It was sunny here, yesterday, and the late May countryside where they live is glorious. We're still in bed now (while downstairs the grandkids are laughing and shrieking - not our problem, ha), and you can hear the birds outside, I think at least five different species are singing. It's nice.

My mood is doing better. I was a bit depressed the other day, and then I remembered that I was PMS-ing. Oh, yeah, right. Hormones, baby, totally rad. So in general, with the occasional down day, it's better. I've started to listen to some meditation recordings. I really like the ones where you have to visualize yourself on a beautiful island or in another serene location. I'm wondering whether that kind of escapism is good for me (I have always liked to flee to fantasy worlds and it doesn't necessarily make your real world better), but on the other hand, I feel quite peaceful and refreshed after the 10-15 minutes of meditating, so I think that that's good. Plus I now have a wonderful fantasy garden which I may try to recreate at some point with any real garden I might get...

My boyfriend's business is doing fine. They've already made enough income to cover their planned salaries (plus taxes) for 2016, so anything extra is gravy. They're both still on a project, my boyfriend for the next two months, his companion for the next four. So it's extremely likely that more money will come in over the next months at least. After that, they'll have to start finding new projects, which isn't their favorite activity, but has to be done anyway, and will probably turn out fine.

It's almost 9 AM here, time to hit the shower. Bye!

Hankaroundtheworld
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:50 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Hankaroundtheworld »

Haha, meditation is good, something I have heard all around the world. Even very religious people that pray a lot, told me that it was the meditation-part that they liked about it. Everyone should find their own way for moments of reflection (or sometimes just nothingness -- clear the mind). I am too rational for meditation practices (and also not religious), but I can find peace in some actions and be one with the moment (and forget everything else). Other than that, good to hear that your father and mother doing fine, and they seem to live on a nice location, more important than anything else (I can know, my parents died young), so enjoy those peaceful moments and do not worry about ERE time spending, that will unfold when the time is there!!

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

An update for two months in one go? Income was reasonably high. There was a one-time work bonus this month, and I worked a lot of time on my side projects (too much, perhaps?), so for the two months together, income was at 6700 euros. Expenses were pretty high, too, due to the fact that we paid for our holiday (starting 4 weeks from now!). Total expenses were 5470 euros (of which 2300 went to the holiday, so other expenses were 3100ish for the two months).

My parents also gave each of their children a monetary gift this month, 2000 euros. I'm a bit shy about that, as it isn't income that I've earned myself, but on the other hand I'll gladly accept it to increase my net worth (or you could also say, help me pay for my holiday expenses).

So, also thanks to the recovery of the markets, total net worth is now 94,000 euros, which is nice to see. I might be able to get to 100k euros before the end of the year.

I worked a lot of hours in June and July. Already in June, this was discussed with my boss, who then could adapt my schedule for August (the July schedule had already been made at that point). So now I'm looking forward to a reduced workload for the next four weeks, which is nice.

I bought some stuff too, these last months. For example a Fitbit flex, because I wanted to quantify how much I'm moving about. I think it's a reasonable amount (if I walk to the supermarket in the morning, and then work an 8-hour-shift, I get my 10,000 steps in a day easily). Side effect is that I'm also seeing how little I sleep. You tap the fitbit when you intend to go to sleep, and you tap it again when you've woken up - there's hardly ever 8 hours between those two moments for me - and then the fitbit also shows how much time I needed to actually fall asleep. So, a "wake-up call", so to speak...
Now I've also ordered a small voicerecorder for two reasons: a. I want to see whether I can use it to record my food intake quickly during the day (and then in the evening, put it in a calorie-calculating program), and b. To do interviews with family members about our family's history. This is a fun project that I'm doing with a cousin of mine. I could use my phone for that, but unfortunately my phone crashes when I use the recording app.

So I'm quite the consumer these last couple of months :-) . Hopefully that'll become less again, soon.

Final bit of news is that my brother and his wife will have a third child, in early 2017. I've already started saving for its annual gift from me. I hope they stop after three, otherwise this gift giving (for their education later on) can become really expensive. :-)

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

We're back from our holiday. It was a nice holiday in Iceland, but quite the expensive one, too. For example, a normal bread in a supermarket would cost something like $6, where in the Netherlands, today, I bought a similar bread in a similar supermarket for $1.20. One big take-away pizza was $30 - we started splitting one pizza instead of each buying a smaller one (which would cost 2 x $25 or so). My boyfriend's not as opposed to spending money as I am, so sometimes I just had to bite my tongue, too. Compromise.

Expenses aside - we had already paid for the majority of the holiday, I'll just have to transfer $600 more to our shared account to cover my half of the extra expenses but that's it - it was a very nice holiday. We traveled a lot during those 2.5 weeks, and we saw a lot of different landscapes, and a lot of nature. I felt much calmer after a while, and I saw the same effect in my boyfriend, who is normally more restless. When I'm working, I seem to have some stress-related symptoms, like tension headaches and other muscle aches. They disappeared. Also, I have slept decent nights for 2.5 weeks straight, in all kinds of different beds. Normally, I tend to have periods where I'll wake up at 3 AM and can't sleep anymore. Never happened these 2.5 weeks.

This (again? Same as after the last holiday?) makes me long for retirement - imagine experiencing this forever instead of just for 2 to 3 weeks. I also made some resolutions to try and make my life at work a bit better, too. I believe I do that after every holiday, too, but still... Let me try to be lessed stressed out by work. Let me try to keep current on household tasks. Let me try to keep meals in the freezer so that I can grab something good and healthy when I have an evening shift and need to pop something in the microwave at some point. Let me try to spend less, so that I can retire (much) sooner.

I also keep thinking about reducing my working hours. My official work hours are 28 per week. In reality, I work some overtime, so on average it's 30 per week. However, then there's travel to and from work (often 30 minutes to an hour one-way, depending on the location), breaks ... So I think I'm really spending more like 40-45 hours per week on work-related stuff. If I were to reduce my official work hours to 24 per week, that would go down to maybe 35-40 hours per week? However, in this last year or so I've also spent a lot of time on my job-on-the-side, which is bringing in much less per hour than my real job. So perhaps, if I feel stressed out, I should let the job-on-the-side go and just focus on the real job. Spend 40ish hours per week on that, and use the other hours in a smarter way.

Income in August was 3000, expenses were 1200 (nice and low - September will be higher due to the holiday expenses). The markets did their thing; so my current net worth is 96k euros. I may very well go over the 100k by the end of the year, which is a pretty cool idea to me.

I saw that I have been writing here for five years now (first post Sept 17, 2011...). A lot of things changed in those five years, but progress is (or seems?) slow. So be it. I know other people make more money, I know other people spend less, too. But this is my path (and I like where it's headed).

Hankaroundtheworld
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:50 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Hankaroundtheworld »

And who knows, the company (investment) of your bf will pay off as well in coming years, could be a nice surprise!
Good to see you enjoy the journey as well, which is ofcoz most important, we only have "now", even though FI requires to have a plan for the future, but it is every moment that counts. Not easy in this rational world (at least western world), happiness is always there inside of us, but it is so damn hard to recognize it every day, while some say that simple meditation will bring it, every day, which is stronger than waiting for FI to happen.
Sorry for my ramblings :-) I am sure you know better than me !

Noedig
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 10:15 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Noedig »

Hey Dutchgirl

"Carry on Carrying On" as they say.

I see nothing wrong with your approach, slowly rolling that ball of savings down the hill, picking up size and speed. You have done the major thing, which is that your thinking is the right way round on ERE, and you are not a thoughtless spender.

I so agree that balancing an intentional life with the day to day flow of mood and energy, is a difficult act.

When it works you feel the flow, and life is excellent. At other times.....not so much!

Iceland is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. I envy you a lot, despite the expensive pizza!

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Income for September: 3030
Expenses for September: 1738

Always nice to get a paycheck when you've only been working one week out of the month, by the way :-) .

The savings rate for this year is 38% so far. I'm hoping to get it back up to something over 40% by the end of the year, due to the fact that I'll get more income (13th month) and plan to not spend much. We'll see.

I am close to having 100k euros in my savings and investments now, that is a very nice development. I reached 98,500, but then I had to pay some bills again. Next paycheck may push me over the 100k for the first time - and then it may very well go down again because of bills. Or maybe the stock market, who knows (I don't care too much - I'll keep buying).

Today I have the day off. It's nice to sit here in the morning with nowhere you need to be. I will go out, but when I've had my coffee - in a leisurely style. It feels like Saturday morning, more or less.

Cornerman
Posts: 81
Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 1:46 am
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Cornerman »

Nice progress, 100 K is a very nice milestone. Congrats in advance :)

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Now it is here! I have 100.250 euros now. Maybe a bit more, if I were to update with the latest numbers for my investments (I saw the markets went up last week). But I always update those numbers on the first of the month and not before. And it doesn't matter much.

I will drop below 100k again in the next month (unless the markets do really well), because of my regular bills. But maybe from the next monthly paycheck onwards, it'll always be over 100k (provided the market doesn't drop 50%, in which case it will go below it for a while, again). Onwards to 200k! :-)

Forskaren
Posts: 189
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Forskaren »

I try to avoid looking too much on how the net worth fluctuate on a daily basis, even if it is sometimes tempting to have a look.

How is your approximate investment distribution right now? High risk? A possible drop of 50% indicate mostly stocks, directly or indirectly.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

If the markets drop by 50% (assuming the stocks do that and bonds do nothing), then my net worth would drop by roughly 20k. So no, I'm not 100% in stocks.

saving-10-years
Posts: 554
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
Location: Warwickshire, UK

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by saving-10-years »

Congrats on a milestone reached. Steady progress with some interesting outings and experiments. How is the Fitbit Flex working? Is it helping you keep track of sleep? Has using it become a habit or fallen by the wayside? Did you sleep more when in Iceland. Sleep definitely helps me stay on top of stress.

message
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:57 am
Location: The Netherlands

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by message »

Gefeliciteerd!

100k NW is very nice :)
have set that target for myself for 1 jan 2018... Long way to go still :D

each 100k will now be easier, so get that ball rolling :)

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

First 100k took me almost 38 years (ha), or, more precisely, it took me roughly ten years to go from -5000 euros to +100,000 euros. I hope to reach 200k four years from now, due to a combination of more experience with saving and personal finance, higher salary, and compound interest. So yes, hopefully it will be easier.

saving-10-years ... I left the fitbit flex at home for the holiday to Iceland. I put it back on when I came home, but my boyfriend said that sometimes it bothers him at night when I put my arm around him. So now I took it off. I am considering selling it to recoup some of the money. I think it can be a good device to monitor yourself; and I also think mostly I have gotten the answers I wanted - yes, I move around a lot when I work. And yes, I need to go to bed earlier, or learn to sleep in.

llorona
Posts: 444
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:44 pm
Location: SF Bay Area

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by llorona »

The second $100K will happen faster, especially now that you've got the first $100K working for you!

saving-10-years
Posts: 554
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
Location: Warwickshire, UK

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by saving-10-years »

Thanks for that candid review. I should perhaps save my money and just keep a note of when I go to sleep and when I wake up. I have a basic step counter which is really useful for highlighting those days when I am too inactive. My DH goes to sleep earlier than I do and I intend to follow him shortly but sometimes it is several hours delayed. Because he wakes early I also wake early. More sleep would also mean less time online which would also be a good thing methinks.

More than 10k per year saved is very good and you are more confident about your plans in the past few years so should get better. Terrific work.

NickHalden
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 3:48 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by NickHalden »

Congratz on 100k milestone :D

I think it is an amazing accomplishment in the Netherlands, as I consider it one of the harder ERE climates.

I(E)reland
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:07 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by I(E)reland »

Congrats on the 100k.....great work!

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