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 »

Seppia wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 3:06 am
p.s. I was just in Amsterdam for work this last weekend, got back to Italy yesterday. I remembered it was a beautiful city but not that it was THAT beautiful.
Without all the junkie tourists that flock to the city because of the weed it would be amazing
May I suggest you take a train to Leiden, Delft and/or Gouda the next time that you're in the area? Same type of city style, less junkies. Maybe you like it even more...


PS. I logged in again to share one "win" from May. My boyfriend's not very enthusiastic about (my plans for) early retirement. He wonders what I'll be doing when I'm retired. However, I've started tracking his networth once per month, and I've seen it grow a lot over the last few years. He recently started on a work project that'll probably last for three years and give a reasonably high income during that time. I told him that by my estimate, with his current assets plus three more years of investing, he could very well be financially "set for life" by that time. The win: he really did like that thought! Perhaps he won't stop working right then, but it seems like at least he wants to reach this milestone.

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Seppia
Posts: 2016
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:34 am
Location: South Florida

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Seppia »

Will definitely Italy try to take a day to travel next time I'm there, thanks for the recommendations

Eureka
Posts: 340
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:03 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Eureka »

Great to read about your progress, but hard to read that you think that not working equals "doing nothing". There are so many better and more fullfilling things to do than to be employed. You can study and gain new knowledge about whatever you desire, make smaller and bigger projects of your own, have more time to spend in nature and with people of your own choice (and not those who by chance happen to be employed at the same place as you), time to read and get fully absorbed, time to take better care of yourself, time to let things happen when you want them to and not having to postpone until weekend/vacation/old age.

Even without a job, I have so many things I'd like to do that I have to prioritize my time.

thegreatvoid

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by thegreatvoid »

You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

The funny thing is, Eureka and thegreatvoid, that I actually believe that my job has some meaning. I work for the blood bank. I make sure that the people who come to donate their blood are safe and well (1). And I make sure that the blood they donate is safe for the patients (1). I believe that making sure that safe blood is present in the hospitals for the patients is something that is valuable. Zooming out twenty steps, I think that helping to save people's life is generally a good thing (2).

So... to me it's relatively easy to see the benefits and value of my job and that someone does it. Me, in this case. I think by the time that I'm FIRE I'll gladly retire and let someone else do it (and earn the income from it), but I like the idea of it, and I will probably have to create new meaning for my life if I quit this job (3). And new challenges. And new structure.
Sometimes the work invigorates me and gives me energy. Sometimes it's tiring.
I'll definitely have to adapt to a life without this job, and that's okay.



(1) Very rarely this doesn't completely come true and a donor faints or gets a big bruise, or a patient gets a fever, but all in all my job adds more safety.

(2) In general ... we can discuss about whether saving a life is always worthwhile, say for example giving a specific terminally ill patient blood just means he lives one more week in pain and discomfort, or one more week in an unconscious state of mind, and then dies anyway. Worthwhile?

(3) I used to really really need to see what value my life could create for others, or else I didn't see a point at all. Talked to a psychologist who pointed out that that's just one way to see things. It probably has to do something with my past. I am a bit more relaxed about this now, but I'm guessing others still have less trouble with this "life's meaning" stuff.

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by chenda »

DutchGirl wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:00 pm
The funny thing is, Eureka and thegreatvoid, that I actually believe that my job has some meaning. I work for the blood bank.
I think it has a lot of meaning and that's something to treasure.

Unfortunately, I'm one of those who always faints during a blood test. Every single time...

herp
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:11 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by herp »

That's definitely a meaningful job in my book, DutchGirl.

My last job was working in a small business that made software solutions for publishers. While the product was reasonably meaningful, I just didn't have great hopes for the future of the business, as I didn't think the quality of the products and services was all that great, and the infrastructure made it very hard to improve upon (not something a single employee can meaningfully do, anyway).

Now I work in the public sector with personnel administration (as a developer). While it may sound boring at first, it at least has some meaning as many thousand people are dependent on it.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

chenda wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 5:31 pm
Unfortunately, I'm one of those who always faints during a blood test. Every single time...
Aww, poor you. Yes, Chenda, some people just have that. So I guess we won't be seeing you at the blood bank, and that's okay. Others can do that without breaking a sweat. And you're probably really good at doing some other things that other people can't do.

chenda
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Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by chenda »

@Dutchgirl - thanks! maybe ;)

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

June results: income 3700, expenses 3000 euros.
Total income after taxes for 2018 so far 22,600. Total expenses so far 16,340, so a savings rate for the year of 28%.

We bought furniture this month, my share was slightly over 500 euros which is ouch & sigh. But the upside is that we now have real clothing cabinets and a nice guest bedroom. Especially the cabinets were something that was irking me, as our clothes so far had been on wooden shelves out in the open, which brings a lot of dust and a chaotic touch to a room... My boyfriend on the other hand was super glad with the new guest bedroom, as he has always felt uncomfortable inviting people over before, when they had to sleep on the couch (or, if we wanted, we would have to sleep on the couch). We have already used it to host my parents, and his parents are probably next in a few weeks.

All in all we are getting close to "the perfect house", where the kitchen, sitting room, bathroom, bedroom and guest room now are fully functional and furnished. I might want to knock on wood here, because who knows when the next leak springs or whatever. But okay, hopefully we're getting closer to the situation where we'll only have the regular expenses for housing.

There was also another charitable donation during June, the last big one for 2018, of 600 euros.

I already worked some extra hours this month, and was just informed that they will be paid to me in the next month (instead of being carried forward as already-worked hours for the next month or so), so I'll see a reasonably nice uptick in salary in July (roughly 400 euros more than normal). From the first of July I'll officially work more hours per month, so in August there should be a sustained increased salary of roughly 10% or so more than before.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

DutchGirl wrote:
Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:59 am
All in all we are getting close to "the perfect house", where the kitchen, sitting room, bathroom, bedroom and guest room now are fully functional and furnished. I might want to knock on wood here, because who knows when the next leak springs or whatever.
Last night we heard a noise. Upon investigating, it turns out that part of the ceiling came down in the study room. Hmm. We had this made 6 months ago, so we have to contact the handyman to come back and fix this issue.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Random conversation last week:

The BF: "So you really think I can retire in three years time, when I've finished the current project?"
Me, while quickly pulling up the excelfile to check his numbers: "Do you know how much you're spending per month?"
The BF: "No, not really."
Me: "Hmm, in three years time you'd probably have enough to retire. You'd be able to spend 25k euros/year forever, and I think you're actually spending way less than that."
The BF: "Hmmm... I don't think I will retire. But it's nice to know that by that time I don't have to worry about getting a new project ASAP. Instead I'll be able to pick one I like."

Yes, yes! Now we're talking... :-)

herp
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:11 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by herp »

Well done, DutchGirl! It seems that he's slowly coming over to join us :twisted:

Were you able to get the ceiling issue resolved?

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

They're coming today to clean the "remaining" ceiling to prepare it for a new layer of stucco (or plaster or drywall (dryceiling) or something like that). The hypothesis is that the previous time, they prepared the new ceiling onto an old layer of paint, and that the layer of paint couldn't hold the added weight. If you look at the pieces that have come down, then that very well might be the case. Where the pieces have come down, the ceiling is now bare (no paint). So you could see it as a quite expensive and very time-consuming way to remove a layer of paint...

We've cleared the room so that they can work. That sucked, but it took only an hour or so of our time.

I had hoped that my salary would come in on Friday, as I have very little left in my bank account (and I refuse to take money out of investments or CDs). However, it didn't, so I'll have to wait until Monday and just be a bit frugal until then. I already know that my paycheck is bigger due to a one-time bonus, which is going to be nice. I plan to put 1000 euros in savings as a small immediate-emergency fund. The rest will still go to bills and to investments, because I like to see my investments grow...

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

The men came on Tuesday afternoon and stripped the ceiling clean so that they can put a new one up when they have time. Then on Wednesday I went upstairs to open some windows, and I discovered that now the ceiling is coming down in the other room as well. That's the room where we put all of the stuff of the other room so that the workers could work.

I work a full work week this week, so I'll think more about this after today. It has been a tough week. The weather is very hot here; and on Monday and Tuesday I worked at a location with a failing airco system. I'll work there again today and am not looking forward to it. (Perhaps the best thing about today is that we start at 8 AM and end at 4 PM, while on Monday and Tuesday I worked until 9 PM).
There were a lot of unhappy, complaining colleagues as well, and we've tried to get someone to promise us that they will look at the airconditioning and spend some money on repairing / upgrading it, but so far no takers from the main office/work conditions department.

The weather will probably cool down a bit this weekend, so next week should be better.

My salary came in on Monday morning, so I paid all the bills, put some money in the savings account and transfered the rest to my investment account. That was fun :)

herp
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:11 pm

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by herp »

Doesn't sound good with the lack of aircon. Good thing I'm off work this week and next week, because it's pretty hot up here in Denmark as well.

Those ceilings just won't stop coming apart, will they?

Payday is indeed fun! I love thinking about my net worth growing a bit every time I make a contribution to my investments. I wonder how much I will miss it if/when I pull the plug to working. I suppose working part time could give you some of the same benefit.

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by rube »

Good luck with the ceiling. And the heat, but that goes for more people.

m741
Posts: 1187
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by m741 »

Glad to see you making progress in spite of the heat and ceiling.

A little too much heat sounds good from Uruguay, where it's consistently 10-13 C (and rainy) right now :).

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

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

July results: income 4200, expenses 2620 euros.
Total income after taxes for 2018 so far 26,800. Total expenses so far 18,960, so a savings rate for the year of 29%.

Income was high due to 600 euro income from my very parttime job-on-the-side and a high income at my main job due to a one-time pay-out of some type of bonus, and due to working increased hours (they already started paying me for 32 hours/week, I would have expected that to start with my August paycheck, but I'm not complaining).

I paid my annual (term) life insurance premium this month. It covers my total mortgage debt; I don't completely need that, but I want it to be as easy as possible to pay off my mortgage if I were to die ... and getting a life insurance payout will make it quite easy I think, easier than my heirs needing to find and sell all my investments (which would be the other way to pay off my mortgage). I will cancel this insurance in roughly five years time, as by then the mortgage will be so low that it becomes inconsequential.
I also spent 330 euros on "other stuff" this month, including two dinners with friends and families for 75 euro total, two books about money for 35 euros and a footmassage machine for 58 euros. This is a bit much, and I need to work on getting this amount lowered in August and beyond.

I also found out this month that I will get a tax refund for 2017 of slightly over 800 euros. The Dutch tax agency will wire this to me some time in the next three months.

Thanks to the increased income I was also able to finally put some decent money into investments again (well, 1000 euros), which felt good. Hopefully more to come next month.

Berninger
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:20 am

Re: DutchGirl's journal

Post by Berninger »

Hi dutchgirl,

I red your journal. You have a come a long way, and are nearly at the finish :-). Nice to read.

I am also from Holland. I have a wife and 1 kid, second kid is comming in september. We bought a house last year, and working hard to pay of our mortage asap. 121k left atm.

I just starting my journey towards FI. I was wondering if you have some tips for me. Especially on the investing. Can i ask how and where you started investing? And how much interest did you get over the years with investing?

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