Rube's journal

[rube]

50 days = 36 work days (Mo-Fri) target

Dealing with things which are not fully in control by myself
I have a couple of things going on at the rentals, our own house, work etc. Each on its own is no major issue, but together they are causing a bit stress to me. So I decided to write them down in a table with the columns: what (why it does "not feel good") - Actions I take/have taken to solve/mitigate this - the worst case outcome - and basically all of these could be translated to money and a maximum estimated loss which I filled out in the last column.
Looking at it this way, helped me to put things in perspective - yes the worst outcome would still costs us maybe half a year of expenses more than I hope/planned - but overal it would not change anything we do and in the end all these things can be solved. So I try to be a bit more patient, see how things go and not stress too much as it is mostly merely "just" money. And with that I continue to the next topic.

The good life and gratitude
Last Saturday I got back after doing some more work on one of the rentals. There might be still an issue in the bathroom, it's not clear yet. As per above I told myself, worst case outcome is too bad but no reason to stress about it.
So after I returned home, I sat end afternoon in the garden, in our hammock (which we bought 20 years ago in Mexico), enjoyed the sun and realized I really like our new house, it's location and garden much better than our previous house. Yes, it is a luxury. In the evening we enjoyed a barbecue with own baked bread and other good food. The family is healthy, our children are happy, bright (and for us easy) kids, money or work is not an issue. The coming three months I am working 4 days a week and I expect in a couple of months to work even less or even no longer work for the paycheck at all. All in all, LIFE IS GOOD for us and I am enjoying it. And this brings me to the next topic.

The ERE forum and its members
I started my own journal in 2012, after reading lots of other journals vigorously during my commute. Those journals were very inspiring to me and certain aspects were eye opening.
Some journals stopped suddenly, we don't know what happened (Spoonman, My_Brain_Gets_Itchy, Brute, Hankaroundtheworld, Ripirian where are you!!). Others continued to post updates, some more frequent than others, and I have followed every post of them over the years like those of Dutchgirl, C40, Bigato, Bluenote, Seppia, J_, Stevio73, Akratic, Elegant, the animal, ffj (and several others I now forget). And from several others I read very frequently updates (JennyPenny, 7Wb5, Tophatfox, Ego, EdithKeeler and many more others).

I also had the opportunity to meet several ERE forum members on three continents over the years, some of you I have been able to meet even several times (slsdly, Reepicheep, J_, Bluenote, DutchGirl, Figmenter, McTrex and several others) and those meetings were always very interesting.

I haven not posted or engaged very often in many of the interesting discussions as some of the other frequent posters do. Nevertheless, this community feels a bit like family. All these journals, updates and the meetings (also from many persons I have not mentioned) have been important to me and have helped me to be where and who I am now. So thank you all, and of course Jacob who started this and enabled this platform.

A good way to start the Monday

[rube]

45 days = 32 work days (Mo-Fri) target

Work Work is relatively low pace the last weeks. No business trips and wfh full time definitely helps. And it feels good to have the Friday's off.
I'll probably start the discussion with my manager to work part-time a little over a week. This would give us about four weeks to discuss and come to an arrangement. If they don't want part-time, I can resign end of June and end of August is probably my last official day ( I have have already scheduled to be off 3 weeks August)

House Since our move 5 months ago, my tools and DYI stuff were all scattered around the house in different boxes, cabinets. I finally cleaned out the garage and rearranged all the boxes so that all the tools and stuff is easy accessible. Much easier to get stuff done.

In preparation for the solar panels, I removed another two pipes from the roof. Since I was on the roof anyway, I cleaned the gutter. I will do tomorrow the other side.
I also found a way good way to get the cables from the roof to the garage and fusebox. First solar panels received, more panels and materials to come.

I hired someone through a website to get the chimney fixed. I looked all good, till he (almost) started. The way he wanted to fix it, was not as we discussed and agreed earlier. He left. Looks like it was con, trying to charge good money but do a very poor job which you will only find out after a few years (if you don't watch closely). I will take another look at it tomorrow, I might do it myself after all (I do have a safety harness and ropes to secure myself).

[rube]

43 days = 31 work days (Mo-Fri) target

I was planning to clean the other gutter yesterday, but I woke up with a headache, it got worse during the day and I finally felt better in the evening. I have headaches (towards migraine) now and then. Sometimes I can pinpoint the cause in hind sight, like going to bed too late, stress, jet-lag, food/alcohol (no, not the obvious hang-over), weather changes. But these things do not always cause it. And at other times it just seem to happen and I can't determine the cause. I don't keep a diary about this, but I am pretty sure the frequency of my headaches reduced significantly since working from home and being almost at home due to Covid-19.

In any case, as a result, I wasn't too active yesterday. But in the morning I managed to review our car insurance and decided to switch from all-risk coverage to liability only. The car is 9+ years and value about 3K only. I also stopped the combination of a investment policy-life insurance which was related to the mortgage of our previous house. We no longer need the life insurance and the cost of the investment policy was way too high. I decided it is better to use a low-cost ETF despite losing the fiscal benefit. This will reduce our insurance costs with about 450 euro / year.

[rube]

41 days = 29 work days (Mo-Fri) target

Retirement - social interactions
Quotating from EdithKeeler journal:

I will tell you, though, that this lockdown time has really had me thinking about what retirement will look like when I do quit my job. My work is a huge social outlet for me, and while I’ve actually really enjoyed having some down time and having the at-home time, it’s really underscored the need for me to have other communities and activities outside of work.

I have read/heard this more. While I do kind of miss some of the traveling and some of the social contacts, I don't really have an issue with the limited social "live" contacts at the moment - so far. When I had my own business - 15-11 years ago, I worked full time from home and with the (limited) social contacts (I had no colleagues), I was doing fine. Interesting to see that this really differs from person to person.

Work We have a public holiday tomorrow and I am off on Friday, so today is my last work day for this week. I still plan to start the discussion with my manager to work parttime next week.

House I installed two new LED lights and motion sensor in the garage to replace the old flickering and yellow-ish fluorescent lamps. The motion sensor makes it easier in the winter when one of us come in with the bike and it is dark outside and the light switch located a few meter away. A small luxury which I like to have.

[2Birds1Stone]

Your post from May 11th made me smile today. Through the years I've really gotten a ton of value from the posts and journals on here and a few other forums, and have made some friends and met some people "offline" which is always a great thing. Communities like this are special, as this isn't some forum with 100,000 or even 1M+ members like the more mainstream ones.

Hopefully with enough time passing this Covid thing will blow over, we will be able to meet more of our fellow forumites. If you're ever in Eastern Europe after July, look me up.

[rube]

37 days = 27 work days (Mo-Fri) target

@2Birds1Stone thanks and if/when I would be going to your direction, I'll contact you!

I'm now on my 4th day off this week. I have been working on various "projects" in a relaxed pace. I cleaned the other gutter, did a bit of work in the garden (made a construction together with DW for all the tomato and pepper plants we have), started to remove some build-in closets and walls on the attic as I want to insulate it up to current standards and remodel it completely, did some work on a few the rentals, prepared the routing for the cables for the solar panels, bought material for repairing the chimney. On its own nothing major, but several small steps on many "projects".

I received a quotation for the renovation of the rental. I had hoped it would be "okay", as in price looking good. But it came in at 31K and without too much specification of materials, so hard to judge if the price is reasonable. If they selected good expensive appliances for the kitchen, bathroom, toilet etc. it might be a reasonable price. But my gut (experience?) tells me that they just pick the cheapest/what is available and so it would be (in my view) roughly 7-10K too expensive.If I would be no longer working AND our own house would be ready, I would definitely have done most of it myself, but for the next 12-24 months I will be too busy. So I'm okay to spend even a few K more than reasonable and don't have the hassle of organizing things myself, but not if it's really 7-10K on top of a reasonable price. But I'll visit the rental myself soon, as I have been there only a year ago for 15 minutes, so I can make a better estimation/calculation myself and thereafter discuss the details of the quotation to determine if it is reasonable or not and determine course of action.

I'm still planning to reach out to my manager in one of the next days to discus to working parttime.

[ertyu]

I'm now on my 4th day off this week. I have been working on various "projects" in a relaxed pace.

This is one of my favorite things about not working. You can take your time, you can slow down if you want to, you can do half of it now and the other half next Wednesday. You're not trying to cram tasks into limited time or force yourself through the errands you need to get done 'cause there's only one weekend.

Good luck with all renovations

[rube]

36 days = 26 work days (Mo-Fri) target

Thanks @ertyu.

I spoke with my manager. He's very confident we can work out a part-time arrangement. I'll draft and send my proposal in the coming days for further discussion.
I guess when we can work this out and it is finalized, I will have to update my headers with #'s of days target

[DutchGirl]

Have you already come to an agreement, or not yet? I'm curious what it'll be. I hope you will have a nice couple of weeks of vacation before you might start working parttime; that would probably help you unwind (and have some time for family tasks and repairs etc).

[rube]

29 days = 21 work days (Mo-Fri) target.

@DG: I did send my proposal last Wednesday to my manager. Starting as of 1st of August working 20 hrs a week. This would not change my planned holidays (every Friday till August) and 3 weeks summer holiday in August. So a good time to unwind before starting with 20 hrs a week again.

So far no reply, perhaps it needs to discussed with others (HR) or the details were not wel received, or it is just something to take a few days to reply ....I don't know. I'll wait the coming days and ask otherwise for a response this week. I have just updated the May numbers and the totals. I am comfortable to pull the plug completely if my proposal, specifically the max. 20 hrs per week won't work.

With this, this is my updated target: resign/parttime: 60 days = 35 work days (Mo-Th)
It is "only" 14 workdays longer due to having off all Fridays already. And it might be parttime instead of stopping completely.

[rube]

Original target 25 days = 17 work days (Mo-Fri) target.
updated target: resign/parttime: 56 days = 32 work days (Mo-Th)

Work - ERE
I did send a friendly reminder on Wednesday to my manager and asked for a response on my request, or a call in case details need to be discussed. If I have not received a reply by mid next week, I will call to get feedback/discuss it. I want to have this finalized-officially latest 3 weeks from now.

Holiday - Weekend - evenings and wants versus needs
It's Friday, so I am off again. Recently I have become more relaxed when I'm off on the Friday and weekends. I think this is at least partly because I don't have the self induced pressure I need to be effective because it is costing me another holiday - and I have only so many left etc. Soon I have more time available.
As an example, last Saturday I had planned to do some errands in the afternoon, but around noon I decided to join DW and kids for a visit of my parents in law instead. Now I no longer don't really need to work for the money, I want to be able to be more "free" and available in the evenings and weekends for the family and things I "want" to do, not those which "needs to be done" and can't be done during Mo-Fri 9-5 because of work. Of course I still work 4 days a week for a while, but soon that should be less.
Another reason why I feel I am more relaxed on my days off is likely CVID-19: no commute, no business trips, way less social activities so less time needed on those days off to get errands and other things done.

Rental-renovation
I received two quotations for the renovation of the rental. They were both very similar which made me believe that this is probably a reasonable price in the current market. It's still a lot more as I expected originally and when I calculate it myself it is still about 20-25% less, but than again: I am not that experienced in this, when I am doing DIY stuff like a new kitchen, flooring, etc. I do it "efficient", i.e. quality matching the needs and buying efficient. This won't work for a renovation like this when the person of the kitchen can't wait for the person of HVAC and he only get the cheap option next week etc. I decided to give the task to one contractor to take care of it all. Hopefully it goes all pretty smooth and we can rent it out soon again. Since this is kind of "new" for me to outsource so much (at once), I'll try to see this as a learning opportunity both mentally (spending a lot of money/not fully in control myself) as well as practically (how it is being done) and investment wise (its a rental investment - it's not another/new job - largely passive yield is the goal).

socially
We visited my parents last weekend. This was for the first in 3-4 months we saw them again. I believe the risk on COVID-19 in our situation is pretty low, but since the are in the risk-group we have been pretty careful. DW, kids and myself were pretty used to keep distance, probably because we have been to a few stores and situation where we already had to keep distance, my parents had more difficulties with it and we had to remind them now and then. But it was good to see each other again. It was the 2nd time in 3 months we saw parents in Law last weekend also. They are not as strict with distance etc., even though they are in the risk-group as well.

Age
Very, very soon I'll turn 44. I guess both "E's" from ERE won't be applicable to me (anymore). But I like to be part of the crowd

Have a good day/weekend y'all.

[rube]

Original target 22 days = 16 work days (Mo-Fri) target.
updated target: resign/parttime: 53 days = 31 work days (Mo-Th)

Weekend We enjoyed the weekend, did a bit of everything : worked a few hours on the house, walked for a few hours with the family, relaxed, watched a few episode of a netflix serie with the kids, some reading, minor gardening (DW), baked a cake (DD), baked bread (DD).

work In both cases, resigning or parttime, I want to transfer some taks/inform people about things going on so. But I don't yet what it will be, so I can't inform them yet. Nevertheless, as part of the preparation, I have started to copy a few persons on emails re. cases of which I think they should handle in the future by them with a FYI note. And making some other few changes who's receiving what information etc. I also added a bunch of rules in outlook to move non important "updates", "newsletters" etc. to dedicated folders. This last I should probably have done already way sooner.
And perhaps most importantly, not taking the lead on too many things, but only on the key/main/difficult stuff that I need to do and "ignore" (or put it in the "wait" folder) for items which are not so important for me or my department.

[rube]

Original target 20 days = 14 work days (Mo-Fri) target.
updated target: resign/parttime: 51 days = 29 work days (Mo-Th)

House
I finally was able to make an appointment with the company to install the solar panels. It all took much longer as I had hoped as they're very busy. But now it seems the're able to install sooner as I expected. I need to finish some of the preparations in the coming 2.5 weeks.

Finance
We're probably going to lend money out and receive a mortgage in return. Amount 55K, interest rate 6% for (max) 5 years, LTV about 50%. One time fee of 2%. It goes via a specialized company and get legalized by the notary. There is always some risk, but I think it's very limited as the LTV of the security (1 house/2 apartments) is pretty low. The main risk I see is the borrower pays off sooner, but that just means we need to find a new investment opportunity for it. The other main risk: higher interest rates, I don't see happening soon. But if it does, our own mortgages are around 2% for 10 and 20 years fixed so I see this a bit as making money on our mortgage: Instead of paying of our own mortgage @ 2%, we're getting between 4% (1 year) and 5.4% (5 years).

Other
I like to work with a sharp knife. I mean, in the kitchen, not in some weird twisted plot with Jason and 7Wb5 around.
No, I just mean SHARP knifes. I was reminded that I should get a good sharpener, when I used our new knife the other day.

[rube]

Original target 18 days = 12 work days (Mo-Fri) target.
updated target: resign/parttime: 49 days = 28 work days (Mo-Th)

Rentals
Rental 2: installed a new hot plate in the evening earlier this week. Installed a new shower cabin today.
Rental 6: renovation is in process. Besides a few mails/calls and minor comments I am not involved in the work and organization of it. Will see if this works for the whole renovation.

Work
My manager confirmed by email he's okay with my proposal for part-time work. I found out HR is also already informed. Next week I will talk to them. I hope it is just a matter of formalizing the reduced number of hours with them.
So it really looks I'm going for part-time and able to pick out the nicest tasks and transfer some tasks (which are not interesting to me) to some of my colleagues.

[rube]

updated target: parttime - 20 hrs/week: 45 days = 26 work days (Mo-Th)

I spoke to HR and so far so good. I have the feeling that they don't like it, but as long as my manager is supporting it should be okay.
So I am working on making the required changes to reduce my workload and start working parttime as of 1st of august.
I changed my target line to reflect this. No other major news

[DutchGirl]

Fingers crossed that it'll work out for you. Hopefully HR is peacefullly conquered by your manager to for-gods-sake let you do a good job at your own terms...

Edit 6/26: typing error.

[rube]

updated target: parttime - 20 hrs/week: 36 days = 20 work days (Mo-Th)

Thanks DG, so far so good, but I guess by the end of the year I can also really say if it is working for all parties.

Work
For the last 10 weeks I have been on a 4 day work week schedule, which was perfectly fine with the workload (probably partly because I haven't travelled). With the actions I took in the last couple of weeks, my workload is already further down, so it is going into the right direction. I do have another 5 weeks to get it a bit further down to get to the 20 hrs/week. I also heard through virtual water cooler talk that every VP was asked to shrink the head count by X-percent. I might have helped him with that.

Rentals
Renovation rental 6 is going on, but will take longer as it was "promised" to me earlier. Also a few things that could have gone better but due to lack of communication of the contractor. Nothing extremely major for a rental, but could just have been a bit better. I will keep a bit of a closer eye on it in the coming weeks, to avoid too big mistakes. Hopefully end of July it's ready and I am happy with the result and it can be rented out again.

House and garden
We're harvesting a few first vegetables from our garden. It's very limited, but more is expected in the coming weeks/months. So far some strawberries, mint leaves, a special version of a turnip, some edible flowers.

I did some more pre-work for the solar panels: drilling holes through the floor for the power cables and installed internet cables (crawling on the floor space), did some work on the chimney last weekend and have planned to do some last work on it the coming weekend. The solar panels will be installed on Monday. Unfortunately I can't use the solar panels immediately because the utility company will first need to change our connection from 1 phase to 3 phase and I don't know how long that will take . This was due to lack of adequate communication from the company who will install the solar panels. It is a pity, because now I can't check all their work after they leave and they're supposed to get paid...

Financially
We are continuing with the deal to lend out 55K @ 6% with mortgage rights. And I have two other options to do the same for two other buildings, roughly same conditions. If we continue with those as well, our net cashflow from the rentals* and interest received should be in a few months around 6K/month. Our average personal cash outflow* (incl. paying of primary mortgage) is around 4K euro. So we have a margin of around 2K.

*I am looking at the rentals as a business, so I take the net cashflow as "income". You could also look at it as the gross rent is our income and all expenses related to the rentals belong to our personal cash outflow. The margin would be obvious the same, but the ratio would be different.

After this, we would have about 100K in cash left, which I might than move slowly, i.e. in a period of 1-2 years, towards stocks/bonds/precious metals (Permanent Portfolio/Golden Butterfly).

At the same time, we're still working (for now) so still adding more to our nest egg.
I always loved to see the graphics (like those of C40) when I started this path, but I haven't upload my own graphics for a long time because I see them myself, I don't really need to compare them anymore etc. But perhaps I'll do it again a bit later.

General
I'm feeling a bit anxious, mostly because I am not full in control of the renovation, the installation of the solar panels and this is about a lot of money. And there are other things, family life, the house, things at other rentals to be arranged, work etc., going on which needs to be taken care off. It's not too bad, and as I mentioned earlier I see this (again) as a learning proces and in the bigger picture it doesn't really matter even if something doesn't goes exactly as planned, but the feeling is a bit uneasy for me.
End of July most if not all of this should be finished, plus my parttime starts as 1st of August and we have summer holiday in August, so I expect in just a few weeks this (uneasy feeling now and then) is all over.

Apart from that, it al goes fine, we have great weather, have seen some friends and family lately and all is fine here.
The number of infections of COVID-19 is way down here, but I know it is not everywhere and there has been a lot of unrest wrt BLM, I hope and wish everybody here on ERE stays safe.

[rube]

updated target: parttime - 20 hrs/week: 33 days = 20 work days (Mo-Th)

House
I did the last required work on the chimney and made an ethernet (internet) connection for the transformer. All ready now for the installation of the solar panels tomorrow.

Other
We're toying with the idea to travel for a long time in 2022. Like a few months to a full year. The idea is still early stages and we haven't take a decision yet. But, I like the idea so far. We'll investigate how to organize this with the kids-school etc.

I didn't had a haircut for the last 4 months and it was really getting too long. While the barber shops are open for a while I still didn't go and so my wife offered to do it. The result: It looks fine. No fancy model, but not really any different from what I get at the hair dresser so she might do this more often or always from now on.

[mooretrees]

Just about a month until part time work! I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking of pursuing some version of maintaining my job as a part timer before quitting entirely. Still some time to go so not worth a count down. I've enjoyed your countdown tracker! I also appreciate your description of how you thought and planned about rentals some time ago, it was illuminating so thanks for that.

[rube]

updated target: parttime - 20 hrs/week: 28 days = 16 work days (Mo-Th)

@mooretrees, thank you, glad you enjoyed.

House
Solar panels and the new fuse box are installed, yeah! Now waiting on the utility company to make the change so we've got 3 phase instead of 1 phase electricity so the panels can actually start generating electricity.

Rental
Renovation rental 6: sigh. What to say. The different "issues" are each on its own not an issue, but all together I don't like it. I hope it will be "okay" and it's done end of this month.

Work
HR confirmed they'll send me an addition to my current contract to confirm the reduce of my hours and that's it. I informed a few more persons. Seems to be going all okay. Work is okay.

Finance
Lot's of spending, i.e. solar panels, the renovation of the rental. But this is kind of budgeted for and as expected. The "normal" spending is okay.
I signed to lend out money for three projects against 6% interest with mortgage rights. It's quite a large sum now, so once this is finalized we're "done" with that. As I mentioned before, I'll likely move the remaining cash position slowly to "the market".
I'm also still following real estate, but not really active working anymore on a new deal-rental. The market is (too) expensive, we're already heavily in real estate and I don't want to take on more work at this moment.

General
When you start something, you often think/look at the (end) goal and think I will be so glad if I get to there. And during the process you get used to it, you already make new goals (it was not an end goal) etc. I have noticed this during my journal several times, i.e. certain milestones financially like NW amounts or passive income amounts, quit working (or in my case now working less) they seem so special, but because you're working on them and you see the progress and they're not so special anymore once you reach them and instead you're focus is on the next goal.
I don't see this necessarily as bad, I think it is good to stay busy/active and have some goals whatever they might be, but I should not forget to enjoy the path towards the goals. I am getting better at it, I guess partly because of age (experience) and partly because of FI, but I can still learn here.