I decided to finally start a journal after years of lurking and very little posting after several people mentioning in the 'Best of the ERE Forum 2017' thread that the journals are their favorite section of the forum. I'm not sure yet what I will be writing about, but I think it will be a good way of keeping myself accountable.
I'm a male in my mid-thirties from Holland. Married, two little kinds. I'm an INTP. I have been working as a software engineer for about 5 years. Before that, I studied physics and philosophy and finished a Ph.D. in philosophy of science. I have never had a desire to spend much money, but before the age of 30 that resulted in my simply not earning much money, as I didn't need much. So it is only since I got a 'real job' as a software engineer that I started saving money. Since then our combined savings have been steady, about 25.000 euros per year.
OK, I broke the ice. I'm planning to make a few more posts about our current situation and, more importantly, our goals, soon.
phil's journal
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Frugalchicos
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Re: phil's journal
Welcome Phil and keep up with the savings.
I am also in a similar situation and age. I also started to make "real money" like about 5 years ago and saving aggressively for 2.5 years.
I am also in a similar situation and age. I also started to make "real money" like about 5 years ago and saving aggressively for 2.5 years.
Re: phil's journal
Hi, 
.
.Re: phil's journal
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 etc.)
200 Car (gas, maintenance, depreciation, taxes, insurance)
200 Health insurance
200 Holidays
100 Going out (mostly to the sauna, occasionally to a restaurant)
200 Other (including 50 for 2x gym membership)
----
2500 TOTAL
I don't keep constant track of our exact expenses on groceries etc. We have joint finances in the sense that we think and act in terms of "our" money, but we have separate bank accounts and I don't want to bother my wife with stuff like keeping receipts (she is mostly in on the whole ERE thing but she is not as obsessive about it as me - and many on this forum). Every now and then she transfers money to me which goes into our savings. Some amounts above are therefore guesstimates based on our net worth growth which I do keep track of on a monthly basis. Since I have been doing that for 5 years now, at least the total above is fairly accurate.
Our "indulgences" are holidays, sauna and sometimes overly exquisite food. I don't care much for the latter, but my wife does, and as she does all the cooking that's just how it is for the moment. I have figured that if I want to lower our food expenses I have to bite the bullet and start cooking myself (if my wife would read this, she would lough out loud).
Expenses that will go down with time are housing (mortgage interest will go down as we gradually pay off the mortgage) and kids (daycare will be less once our younger goes to school, and eventually not be needed anymore). Truth be told, as the kids grow up we will probably go out a bit more thus making up for the lower daycare costs. But I expect (and surely intend) that our expenses will at least not go up over time.
On the income side, combined net income is about 4500 euro (we both work 4 days per week). So we manage to save a large part of our income. Until recently nearly all of this went into paying off the mortgage, but we have recently started investing and that is probably where most our savings will go to in the coming years (more on that in a later post).
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 etc.)
200 Car (gas, maintenance, depreciation, taxes, insurance)
200 Health insurance
200 Holidays
100 Going out (mostly to the sauna, occasionally to a restaurant)
200 Other (including 50 for 2x gym membership)
----
2500 TOTAL
I don't keep constant track of our exact expenses on groceries etc. We have joint finances in the sense that we think and act in terms of "our" money, but we have separate bank accounts and I don't want to bother my wife with stuff like keeping receipts (she is mostly in on the whole ERE thing but she is not as obsessive about it as me - and many on this forum
). Every now and then she transfers money to me which goes into our savings. Some amounts above are therefore guesstimates based on our net worth growth which I do keep track of on a monthly basis. Since I have been doing that for 5 years now, at least the total above is fairly accurate.Our "indulgences" are holidays, sauna and sometimes overly exquisite food. I don't care much for the latter, but my wife does, and as she does all the cooking that's just how it is for the moment. I have figured that if I want to lower our food expenses I have to bite the bullet and start cooking myself (if my wife would read this, she would lough out loud
).Expenses that will go down with time are housing (mortgage interest will go down as we gradually pay off the mortgage) and kids (daycare will be less once our younger goes to school, and eventually not be needed anymore). Truth be told, as the kids grow up we will probably go out a bit more thus making up for the lower daycare costs. But I expect (and surely intend) that our expenses will at least not go up over time.
On the income side, combined net income is about 4500 euro (we both work 4 days per week). So we manage to save a large part of our income. Until recently nearly all of this went into paying off the mortgage, but we have recently started investing and that is probably where most our savings will go to in the coming years (more on that in a later post).