Rube's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
slsdly
Posts: 380
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:04 am

Re: Rube's journal

Post by slsdly »

Re: the goals, I hear you. I woke up one day a little while ago and realized I achieved my original ERE goal. It was underwhelming. But I've had a lot of fun getting there. Learned and done so much I might not have done otherwise. It is good to think to oneself, past you would be very proud and give yourself a little pat on the back. I don't post much (at all?) to your journal, but I always read the updates. Too bad a Toronto meetup isn't in the cards this year :).

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

@slsdly, yes, this year a Toronto meetup is likely not going to happen. For me at least. Too bad, I always look forward to meet you and the others. That part of business travel I do miss, the chance to meet other people, wander around in different (but sometimes familiar) areas. Well, if the part-time job is working out and covid-19 is "solved", perhaps I can be there next year again. Maybe it's time you organize a local meetup this year??

Indeed, if the past me would look at the current me, he would be pretty satisfied, so I can and should keep that in mind.

My physical activity has been limited lately. So I decided to walk to the grocery store yesterday evening. This is just a short walk of 20 minutes or so, but still better then nothing or taking the bike.
This afternoon I was off from work and plenty of other things on my to do list, but I decided it would be good for me to walk some more. So I walked 9 km. I combined this with picking up a free electrical toothbrush. This "free gift" was part of my healthcare insurance, but it was unclear when it would become available due to Covid. Earlier this week I received an email I could pick it up, which was excellent timing as my other (old) electrical toothbrush got defect just recently.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

parttime - 20 hrs/week: 22 days = 12 work days (Mo-Th)
Work Only 3 more weeks of 4 days before it's 20hrs/week! I feel relaxed re. work.
Rental Renovation rental 6: oh well, contractors, communication and myself being precise and want to have everything clear is a difficult fit.
General Still some things not fully in my control and are not clear to me when/what will hapen (rental renovation, solar panels 3 phase change, waiting on Notary for lending out money) which I don't like, but should be hopefully all done/clear in a few weeks.
We're planning to go away with the family next weekend. And we're making plans for our holiday in August. I look forward to both.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

parttime - 20 hrs/week: 21 days = 12 work days (Mo-Th)

Pension I never really incorporated social security and the pension plans we have in our overview. But since over the years this has become a substantial amount I have (tried) to add this.
The difficulty with the pension plans is that some show a current net value, but some are based on an expected monthly payment upon retiring. Hereby the age ranges between 65 and 68 over the different plans. Because all the conditions are different, it's impossible to calculate a current total net value and/or calculate an exact payment upon a certain age. So this is all just a rough indication but my no means very precise.

The main points:
Pension plans current value ~ 117K
This is for those plans that give a total value and thus excluding the defined benefit plans. These defined benefit plans are making up roughly one third of the estimate monthly payments, estimating the current net lump sump value gives ~ 33K, so in total the value would be about 150K )

Pension plans estimated monthly gross payments ~ 1421 euro (starting with a very low amount at 65 years old and reach full amount at 68 years old)
Social security plan monthly gross ~ 1740 euro (starting at age 68)

Social security and pension combined ~ 3161 / month (gross) at 68 years.

This is all still 24 years away, too far to estimate what will happen with the social security plan, the changes of the plans / laws, inflation/yield etc. Still, as it looks now it is a substantial amount so I won't count fully on this, but will keep regularly track of it from now on.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

parttime - 20 hrs/week: 15 days = 8 work days (Mo-Th)

Okay, it is official now, signed by all, 20 hrs per week per August. Which is only another 8 work days from now. Is that "half" ERE ? :D

We go camping this weekend. We rented a very basic cabin for the Friday evening, so tomorrow morning we leave, back on saturday evening. Just two days, but the weather should be good and it's a location of our country I actually hardly have been. We'll visit 1-2 villages, do some hiking and maybe some rowing. Should be fun.

Rental renovation, changing the 1 phase to 3 phase fuse box, waiting on other people for some information I need, sigh :cry: . Costing too much time/energy, while it's all fairly simple. I'll will focus on the good stuf (like the 20 hours and the two days camping) and try to be patient in the mean time.

I'm reading a book about health-food etc. On one of the first pages the writer tells about his experience to hike with a small group of people through the Pyrenees for 10 days, no phone, no luxury, walking lang distances, preparing their own food (including any food that lived they had to kill themselves). I want to do something like this also in the not-to-distance future. I need to see how to arrange this with the family and my parttime work, but...I think I would like the experience.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

parttime - 20 hrs/week: 7 days = 4 work days (Mo-Th)

It is Friday so I am off again. I decided to do important things, at least to me, first. As otherwise the "to do" list takes over. Like the jar analogy with the rock, pebbles and the sand...

So I woke up at 7AM, but got only out at 8.30AM. Took a shower, skipped breakfast on purpose and went for a ride on my bicycle this morning.
The sky was grey and I stopped halfway to shelter for some time for the rain. It was a nice ride, almost 22 km on small roads through the typical Dutch landscape.

As pictures say so much more than words, hereby a couple of photo's:

Image
I'm living in the suburb of a small town. The "nature" is nearby, this is 300 meters from our house

Image
Dutch cows

Image
More meadows

Image
A swan family with some newborns

Image

Image
Curious sheep

Image

Image
Nice and quiet roads to cycle

As I mentioned in another thread, the camera of my cheap phone is not of the best quality. It was a very grey sky and the pictures came out very dark, so I adjusted the color of the pictures a bit.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

parttime - 20 hrs/week: 0 days = 0 work days (Mo-Th)
Today was my last "full time" workday. As of Monday my part-time schedule of 20 hr/wk starts. Yeah!!

Though, a couple of things (outside work) are ongoing which is why I don't have a very relaxed feeling yet. But, fingers crossed, these things should be all or for 95% finalized next week, just before we go on holiday. I look forward to that and hope and expect to get in a relaxed flow soon.

ertyu
Posts: 2893
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:31 am

Re: Rube's journal

Post by ertyu »

awesome pictures, thanks for those. congrats of transitioning to part time!

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Good luck with the remaining to do-list, Rube! I hope you'll feel relaxed soon and can enjoy your holiday to the fullest.

And yes, the Netherlands can be beautiful; thanks for the pictures, it reminds me to go out more and enjoy the countryside.

BlueNote
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:26 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Rube's journal

Post by BlueNote »

Hi Rube, I just finished reading most of your journal from Jan 2020 to now. Working part time sounds great, that's actually what I think I want my future self to do too. The rental business sounds like a headache to me, but that's my personality. I'd get disgruntled with tenants contacting me with urgent issues all the time. I'd need to have an employee who handles all that crap and I'd just deal with them. However it sounds like it fits you well.

It is too bad we can't all meet up this year. Hopefully we can all get vaccinated and do it in 2021 or another year.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Rube, was updating your journal a task in the wrong part of the workweek, the part that you now don't have to do anymore? :lol:

How are you? I hope you are enjoying yourself and your shorter workweek?

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Lol - I'm still here, all okay. Will write a longer update probably in one of the next days!

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Okay, so I got out of a habit of posting frequent updates...

The first week of August was pretty busy with work and a few other ongoing things of which most were finished or 95% finished before we went on holiday for two weeks. After that one more week off while staying at home.
End of august I received my first parttime paycheck, about the amount as expected.
Actually, when it concerns the expenses side I believe my behavior had not changed too much in a sense that I am still careful/cautious as I was always. But when it concerns the income and total net worth I am less and less busy with the exact details and totals. It's running as it is, we have a large buffer, no need to spend (waste) too much energy on this anymore.

Due my holiday, I am only now in my 2nd week of parttime working. Especially after the holiday it was a bit hard and I am still a bit "behind", but I am pretty good in shutting work off to avoid I am working too much but getting paid way less compared to before. I guess that I'll need a couple of months to get in a good flow of my parttime work.

Working less feels great, although I still am busy with a lot of "to-do" stuff. I am aiming at getting the "to-do" stuff/list shorter. Yes I will always be busy with "projects" etc. which is fine, but these needs to be nice primarily nice things which I choose to do. Also this is work in progress.

Solar panels are producing. Rental renovation is done for ~ 98%. Renters should check-in soon but property manager is a bit slow/unclear on exact date (they're too slow for my taste, costing me rental income).
Own house: currently removing all inner walls, finishing and isolation of out attic in order to isolate it much better and with a slightly different lay-out. I expect this will be a project for the coming ~3 months.

@ertyu @DutchGirl @BlueNote Thanks all for your replies.
And @BlueNote, I mostly write about the negative side of the rental business. if I look how much time and real crap it was since I started with this, it's actually not too bad. Especially not if you look at the income. At least, that is my view. But yes, some of the things are not bringing me pleasure so the aim is to automate/outsource certain things over time further. And yes, I hope we can meetup again in 2021!

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Nothing special or major, but another week passed by so I thought I will just post a short description of one my days I enjoy now to be off from work.
Today, "off" from work, it was very hot (another record I guess) for our country and even more this late in the season.
Although I have a long to-do list for the house, I didn't feel like doing those things today. So instead I did other things I always wanted to do more when I had the time, which is now. So I made soup and a salad from scratch all from fresh vegetables, I biked 20 km (boy it was hot!), did some minor administration and household work and....I took a bath and relaxed. And this all during the day. Which was previous "during office hours".
Being FO and working parttime does not mean there are never disappointments, never any issues etc. But....it feels good :D

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Nice, Rube! Sounds like you had a well-earned good day :-)

It's good to have time for this now. And yes, it was hot today. From tomorrow it seems like we'll have nice weather instead of too-hot weather, so I'm looking forward to that.

Also, we had insect screens installed in our house last week, so I'm very much looking forward to sleeping with open windows to cool down the house and *not* being eaten alive by mosquitos (because yes, they always choose me).

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re:

Post by rube »

8 years anniversary of my journal (forget about the one day being late)
rube wrote:
Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:46 pm
First a short introduction:
...
With the target savings rate this gives 9.5 years before FI.
The above was my first post in this journal. Looking back I can conclude we reached FI even (much) sooner.

I am now effectively in my 8th week of working 20 hours per week. All is going well so far. Besides work I spend much more time working on the house, family, relaxing, walking etc. And much less time behind the laptop.

The house improvements have my main focus (instead of previous work) and this will probably for the next 12- 18 months. Slowly I also want to improve or make changes (habits) to other areas such as food, sleep, exercise. I have learned I can't focus on too many things at the same time and expect they all will work out, so I won't do that.

While working on the house and doing research for the projects coming up I learn all kind of new things regarding insulation, ventilation and heat exchangers, clean air in-house etc.

Anyway, all going well here. Stay safe.
Till the next update.
Last edited by rube on Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

J_
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:12 pm
Location: Netherlands/Austria

Re: Rube's journal

Post by J_ »

Well done Rube! And the things on which you are focussing now are as important.
I think you and your family are a very good example of how freedom to choose how to live can be reached in a rather short time. By research and thinking first and doing next.

GreenGentleman
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:44 pm

Re: Rube's journal

Post by GreenGentleman »

Hey Rube! I've read through your entire journal and loved reading your progress and updates.

I'm curious about your updates when/if you fully retire. Perhaps there won't be any more updates as you'll be too busy living and loving life. :D

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Thanks @J_ your comments are appreciated.

@GreenGentleman: not a fixed timeline regarding the parttime work. I am eyeing summer 2022 as perhaps to stop with current employment. It is a bit depending how it goes with the now parttime job, development of covid-19, how I or my family feels, how does it go financially, and any other thing that might happen or I come across that are relevant for this decision.

But we'll see, work is...different now. It is easier to distance myself, have a different, more relaxed view. And even I am making half of the hours, I might be even more in control. Or perhaps it feels I am more in control because it is more balanced with life. Also the days I work are going very fast, many things to do and to delegate (ha!). Relatively to before, more meetings (zooooom) with my team members to delegate and checking how it goes. This compared to more hands-on working on assignments in the past with a lot of typing etc. This change gives me still a lot of social interaction and helps me to type less compared to before.

I'll try to continue to post some updates. I know that I loved to read those long running journals and still like to read the updates from others like Dutchgirl J_ C40 and ffj (and several other "veterans").

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Hey Rube,

Yes, please, updates, updates... I'll love reading them!
You worked hard and made some smart decisions to get to where you are now, and thus I hope you'll enjoy the heck out of it, and I hope to read that in the future.

Glad to read that you are now shaping your life with parttime work and with more time for family, friends and hobbies. Enjoy!

Post Reply