Rube's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

47 weeks - 327 days - target
Felt better today, but not 100% yet. Hopefully tomorrow.
We have a verbal agreement about price and conditions for the house! Planning is to sign Saturday.

Will
Posts: 79
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 5:23 am

Re: Rube's journal

Post by Will »

rube wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:21 pm
We have a verbal agreement about price and conditions for the house! Planning is to sign Saturday.
Wow, that´s some huge news, congratulations! I guess it is the right move to do this now rather than later, mortgage-wise.
What are you planning to do with your current house, sell it or rent it out?

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

47 weeks - 326 days - target
Thanks @Will and indeed, one of the reasons is that at this moment we can still get a mortgage (with low interest rates).

Regarding our current house: 97% sure we will sell it. It is not really in the sweet spot for the rental market, the yield would be too low for my taste.

Tomorrow we will sign.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

47 weeks - 325 days - target
We signed early morning the contract for the house!
And we have summer holiday, we're on our way to east-south Europe.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Congrats, Rube. That's good news! I wish you all the best with your new house.

And enjoy your holidays; safe trip!

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

47 weeks - 324 days - target
Thanks @DG. We arrived late but safely at our holiday destination after a long drive. Had to think of Seppia when I saw Trieste listed on the directions signs.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

44 weeks - 308 days - target
I didn't do the daily update while on holiday. It was a holiday....it was good and relaxing, maybe a bit too relaxing :?

We still have one more holiday at before returning to work. Tomorrow we will start preparing our current house to put it up for sale. We'll need pack stuff but also do some painting, finishing some carpentry and other stuff. I expect this will take up most of our time in the evenings, weekends (and a couple of holidays) for the next couple of weeks.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

44 weeks - 307 days - target
Last day from our summer holiday, but worked the whole day to pack stuff and DIY stuff on the house.
Back to office tomorrow.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Great that you had a good holiday.

It sounds like you'll have a busy couple of weeks ahead of you, so: good luck!

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

41 weeks - 281 days - target
Thanks DG. Yes it has been busy indeed and will also be for the next couple of weeks. Step by step - while times seems to fly.
Just a few more days and the first quarter since counting is gone! I probably won't return to the daily updates, but am aiming to do a bit more than this month as I seem to forget many details and thoughts otherwise.

Work
Since our summer holiday catching up with work. It did not helped that I have taken a few days off - according the plan to work after summer till end of 2019 effectively 4 days a week. I also returned yesterday from 9 days overseas trip....so still busy to catch up with all but seems to be going okayish. I was asked by my manager to provide some details related to my role, functioning etc. While discussing many details, I also gave carefully some (tiny) hints. One of his responses was along the lines "I rather would have you part-time than not at all". I'll keep that in mind and see how the situation is around the time I am planning to give my notice.

House
Current house: Worked longs hours on weekends, evenings and my days days off from work, to get things ready for sale. It is not ready yet, but we made good progress. Two real estate agents will visit us soon to tell why we should choose for them to list the house. We'll review their quotations and advice about price and possible additional work to do on the house. Future house: Got an offer for the mortgage and so far everything goes as planned.

Financial
Financials of August:
Expenses* 4218 euro (TTM 3203 euro)
Income** 13816 euro (TTM 13589 euro)
Saved 9598 euro, 69% (TTM 10212, 76.4%)
*Expenses higher than average, mostly due to summer holiday.
**income is including rental income

NW 931K, up 10K (saved + any change in gold/stocks + paying off mortgages rentals). Still some costs to expected in Sept. or later related to the closure of the rentals in July.

The government presented their plans to make changes to the "wealth-tax" per 2022. With the proposal the tax will increase roughly from about 1.2% to 1.75% on all invested assets. For us this means we have to pay about 0.5% more tax, about 5K per year. Argh, that is equal to about 125K at 4% net! Quite a lot, but...can't change much about these plans. We'll keep an eye on it and are aware we always need to stay flexible in (reduce) spending, add alternative/additional income and/or other options to decrease the tax. That said, I am trying to avoid this will affect my target date to quit, or at least drastically reduce my working hours.

Meetup
It was nice to have a small meet-up with two other ERE members while I was overseas.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

41 weeks - 278 days - target
Work
I am frequently informed in confidence by several colleagues about things going on at the office, the department/company, their own live. Often this leads to discussions and I can help them with my view/advise.
They know I won't use the information they gave to me to gossip or do anything else with it.
This gives me interesting insides and I like it when I am able to help people, whether it is by only listening or give them some kind of advice.

This week I learned about something going on which really shows me (again) that the corporate world and HR can be so unfair and anti-social, even for (very) good employees. It is not new to me, I have seen this before, but this is on of the few occasions is is happening very close to me. I feel sad for the affected person. But this also makes me glad to be where I am on my journey.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

That sucks, Rube.

Yeah, I've seen it too. A colleague who was suffering from Parkinson's Disease (which probably affected her mentally as well) quit because she felt she couldn't do her work well anymore. And nobody from HR stopped her and said: "You shouldn't quit. You're disfunctioning, yes, but because you're ill. You call in sick and we take care of the rest." That way, she would have received medical benefits. But they just let her quit because that's cheaper for the company. Sucks.

Employees always should know their rights, because HR is *not* there for you, but for the company('s profits).

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

38 weeks - 264 days - target
@Dutchgirl, exactly. In this case it might actually be turn out for the better for the employee, but still, sigh.

Still counting down, but received a the question if I am potentially for a new position (I know the key people). They know already I am not interested full time, so I said we can talk.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

36 weeks - 257 days - target

Work
I have been taking off Fridays since our summer holiday, but this Friday is the first one I am not super busy to arrange things for the current/future house. Work is very busy though, we'll see how it goes in the next couple of weeks, months.
One of my colleagues left the company with a nice severance package. Too bad they didn't offer it to me :lol: . I will miss this particular colleague though in my office visits the next 36 weeks, the atmosphere will be different, not as vibrant, happy, energetic as it was.
I was contacted by a former manager of mine and asked if I am open to a new job. I said "perhaps, but not full time." We'll see if there is any follow up.

House
Current house is listed for sale. We spend quite some days to get it ready, but I am pleased with the result. Market is hot, so should not be a problem to sell and I expect a good price.
Mortgage for future house is finalized: 30 yrs mortgage, interest 2.02% @ 20 years fixed and half of it is annuity, the other half is interest only. Interest only gives us some advantages: low monthly cost (only interest against very low interest rate), the loan is deductible from our assets over which we have to pay a wealth tax (so it lowers our wealth-tax), but we can still pay off like it is an annuity or even more if we wish.

Financial
Financials of September:
Expenses* 4112 euro (TTM 3209 euro)
Income** 13260 euro (TTM 13620 euro)
Saved 9149 euro, 69% (TTM 10311, 75.7%)

*Expenses includes 701 euro to prepare current house for sale and 250 euro with the future move. Without these it would have been 3161, below TTM.
**income is including rental income

NW 943K, up 11K (saved + any change in gold/stocks + paying off mortgages rentals). Still some costs expected related to the closure of the rentals in July which will decrease NW a few K. Even though I have increased the value of our current house a few times in the last few years, I hope/expect that the actual sale in the coming weeks/months will bring even more, so this might push up our NW with perhaps as much as another 30K, but of course first let's see. The 1M is getting close though and we should reach this, even with expected cost for the new house, within the next 36 weeks.

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

249 days = 177 work days (Mo-Fri) target
I have downloaded a countdown app and set 30 June as target date and 30 April as day I need to hand over my notice. Only 188 days and 134 working days till I have to give notice.

I met last week with an entrepreneur, who is highly successful (as in being a billionaire). It was an inspirational meeting. His mindset and way of thinking/behaving is clearly very different from most others. I am not as aspirational as he is, but still….inspirational and I believe it will help me to develop myself further.

It was a stressful week. Some issues with a rental that had to be solved quickly, busy and traveling for work and busy with selling our own house. All this going on at the same time. In hindsight I got too stressed a couple of times, I have to remind myself more often about the possible worst outcome (not so worse) and/or don’t care too much what others think (of me). It does help to realize in what an amazing situation we are and that no matter of the outcome of the particular stressor, it will all be okay, even with some potential (minor) setbacks. Just take it step by step and day for day and being able to look ahead, past the specific difficult situation. I am much better at it compared to my younger me, but still need work more on this, learn to be more optimistic.

User avatar
Alice_AU
Posts: 136
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:42 am
Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Rube's journal

Post by Alice_AU »

You are very inspirational rube! Your journal was the first I read on this forum and got me hooked)))

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

248 days = 176 work days (Mo-Fri) target

@Alice thank you. I just read yours and you're on a good path. Most important is to continue. Simply continue with learning and applying. You'll see you will be in an amazing spot 5-10 years from now. Regarding the owning a house, you didn't list the option the value could go down (at least for some time). And I concur with Bigato's comments. And this is frome someone with 6 rentals...but very low ltv. Take your time to learn and being able to assess risks properly, before taking big and long term decisions.

I just realised my journal is 7 years old this month. I reread the first couple of entries and am amazed about what we achieved in that period. Financially things have gone much faster than I expected. Also time wise the 7 years went by pretty fast, at least looking to it from the current perspective. I should not be "working" (full time) anymore at the 8th anniversary of this journal. Let's see.

RealPerson
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Rube's journal

Post by RealPerson »

"The government presented their plans to make changes to the "wealth-tax" per 2022. With the proposal the tax will increase roughly from about 1.2% to 1.75% on all invested assets"

With 4 years advance notice, it sounds like now would be a good time to start moving assets out of the Netherlands? Maybe set up an investment firm to manage your assets in a more investment friendly jurisdiction? Is this tax in addition to a tax on interest and dividend income?

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Rube's journal

Post by wolf »

wealth-tax in Netherlands 😮 That has quite some impact on SWR

RealPerson
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Rube's journal

Post by RealPerson »

And add to that the current yield of the 10 year government bond of -0.25%. It makes your ERE progress all the more impressive.

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