If I remember you don’t want to buy anything before you’ve lived in an area for a while?
Yeah, I definitely would want to live somewhere at least a year before buying. I have enough to buy a house with a big yard in the countryside or an apartment here in the city. I don't think I want to buy here unless I really can't rent any apartment at all. I've been at this for about a month, so too soon to tell. I'd be tying up all my house fund in a place I don't think I want to be in the long-term.
But I'm also not brave enough to go live by myself in the country side where I don't know anybody...
This was a pretty fun week if you ignore the constant hassle of the apartment search…
I joined a choir. I haven’t sung in any capacity since high school and I was never good, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Looking back, I have fond memories of singing as a group and I found a choir here that is very inclusive (no audition). It’s one of the advantages of living in a bigger city, tons of options. So we’re not very good but everybody is nice, the songs are fun and I figured it might be a cool way to meet more people. So far so good.
I also joined a climbing club and started classes. I am very excited about this. Much better than joining classes led by the commercial gym. The club is a non-profit run by volunteers, so it’s cheaper, it includes proper insurance and a training structure for people to become certified instructors, they organize outings to go climb outdoors and people seem very cool. I had my first class, tried the kilter board for the first time, and learned some stuff.
I also went climbing this weekend, forgot there was a bouldering contest going on, got annoyed because the gym was packed with people, kids everywhere and loud music, but it ended up being a fun time. I ran into a couple people from the club who I had only met a few days before. And someone who was also climbing on the autobelays asked me if I wanted to climb together. So we did, then had a couple of beers with the club people. Got to know each other a bit better. I had planned to leave the gym at 5pm, but ended up staying until 9pm. Climbing is awesome.
I also went back to the bike house where people teach you how to work on your own bike. I changed the rear derailleur cable, learned how to adjust it (that was very finicky, not sure I could do it again by myself), greased my chain. Turns out my chain and rear derailleur are pretty beat up, but the bike works ok, just not very efficient. They told me to start with the cable since changing everything else is much more expensive. It runs fine now, maybe a bit better, hard to tell. Not sure it’s worth going with the bigger repair. I really like the structure of the organization and am considering becoming a volunteer there. If you show enough commitment they eventually put you through a proper bike mechanics training for free. It would be another way to meet cool people while learning stuff and slowly improving my bike’s condition on the cheap.
I have some apartment leads, waiting for answers, but not keeping my hopes up…. This system is very broken. More visits scheduled this week. We shall see.
I also have a call scheduled with my business counselor, and with a tax expert to figure stuff out. Slowly but surely.
All in all, I went climbing twice, running twice and really put myself out there this week.
Goals for the week:
- go running once
- go climbing once
- go visit one of my friends’ mom to learn how to process ducks and make yummy preserves, hang out with my bro and friends there.
- talk to tax expert
- continue house search
I found an apartment! I just signed the lease on it. (after reading/skimming through all 354 pages of it. This country is crazy). It’s a bit further out from the city center than I would have preferred but it has a nice terrace and a small backyard for the cat, is fully furnished and not pocket size. 44 sq m (473 sq ft) for 750eur/month plus utilities (amounts yet to be determined…). Only drawback as far as I can tell for now is that my bike route to the climbing gym will now be 45 mins each way. I can live with that.
So that’s a huge relief. The guy who told me things usually quiet down from November was right, I started getting a lot more answers and visits scheduled. I also learned quite a bit through the process and tweaked my replies to ads over time. Finally, the online guarantee I had found back in September that a realtor told me nobody accepts was actually key in getting more traction with some realtors/landlords. So lesson learned, don’t listen to just one “expert”. And that also allows me not to have to ask my friend to be my guarantor, which I was never really comfortable with.
I should now be able to spend my time and energy on work again and settling into a life here in City 2, meeting people and getting involved in activities.
I received and revised the agreement to work on the contract I was awarded after responding to an RFP back in June, should be signed this coming week.
It feels like things are finally coming together on a few fronts.
I spent 4 days where my brother lives, staying with the parents of a friend of mine to learn how to process and preserve duck. That was a great learning experience, and I think I was able to contribute enough that it was worth it for his mom as well. An extra set of hands, even inexperienced, helped quite a bit and I insisted on doing all the dishes after each step. I now have a small box of preserves from “my” duck waiting for me, which probably won’t last past Christmas.
That was also an opportunity to spend time with my brother (always nice) and my friends over the weekend. As much as I had a great time with his parents, I increasingly feel like this friend (and his wife) and I are drifting away and having less and less to talk about which is sad. He used to be my closest friend, we shared so many foundational experiences together, we used to be roommates and have a great bond. They spent the weekend on their phones playing dumb games instead of engaging with others, and now their teenage kids do the same. Oh well, that’s how it goes I suppose.
Amidst all this I only went climbing once and running once. I had my second climbing class, am learning a proper warm-up routine, more time on the kilter board, and a few routes on a steep incline. I really enjoy the structure and having someone tell me what to do during the session, getting advice which helps me finish routes I might not have been able to send on my own.
Finally, I talked to a guy who knows how taxes work, and the great news for me is that I had completely misunderstood how things work. As a US citizen I have to report all income to the IRS (that I knew), but that’s not the case in home country. So all distributions from US brokerage or retirement accounts basically don’t exist for tax purposes here and don’t count as income here. So I don’t need to figure out how to include them in my tax report here or how they will be taxed, I just need to follow the US rules for that. Huge relief, a lot less of a headache for me, especially since taxes in the US are lower than here.
Goals for the week:
- go running at least twice
- go climbing at least twice
- move into new apartment and get settled
- start work on new contract?
Congratulations on finding an apartment! Interesting to read. So applying in the off season means reduced demands, which got you near the top of the pool of applicants. Who'd have thought.
I've been noticing people glued to mobile phones, and their kids too. It's scary. It's hard to blame them though, real life is becoming very boring, especially for kids. Entertainment is the only source of competition and excitement. It's not easy to get out of it either. I've been working for a year now to eliminate entertainment on my mobile.
I've been noticing people glued to mobile phones, and their kids too. It's scary. It's hard to blame them though, real life is becoming very boring, especially for kids. Entertainment is the only source of competition and excitement. It's not easy to get out of it either. I've been working for a year now to eliminate entertainment on my mobile.
Yeah, I mean, I do it too, I play mindless games on my phone when I want/need to zone out. But not at the dinner table with friends and family... Or at the same time I'm having a conversation with someone. Weird...
It is multiple attachments. All sorts of diagnostics (energy efficiency, natural disaster risks, etc...), the whole rule book for the apartment building, and a bunch of certifications from the people who built the building, the electricians certifying everything is up to code. All the attachments kinda make sense, I've just never seen that as part of the lease itself... There is even the floorplan of every single apartment in the building (both buildings A and B)
Yeah, I mean, I do it too, I play mindless games on my phone when I want/need to zone out. But not at the dinner table with friends and family... Or at the same time I'm having a conversation with someone. Weird...
Now that you describe it like that, I remember several more examples. A friend staying on the couch with his phone and skipping joint dinner. Children being fed while watching a tablet. People I talk to mentally shifting into mobile land and back to me. It's like they are flickering in and out of this world.
I have moved into my new apartment, after a 1h30 walk-through during which the realtor and I assessed the state of every single wall, ceiling, floor, light switch, etc, and inventoried every piece of furniture and equipment. All that to get an apartment that was left quite dirty by the previous tenant.
BUT. It’s mine, it has electricity (yet another thing to figure out here) and I have everything I need except a washing machine and maybe an electric kettle. (it has an air fryer though, go figure). The cat seems to like it. I do too, it feels so great to have a place to call mine for the first time since late May.
I might also need to get WIFI. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to, because my 20eur/month cell plan has so much data I have just been using my phone for everything and as a hotspot for my computer. But the service in my new apartment is pretty bad, which is a bummer.
I went climbing twice, still loving the classes. I only went running once because the two other days I could have gone were too rainy, too cold, too lazy.
I have been biking a lot since I’m now further from town and the climbing gym, going to the bigger supermarket to get stocked up on kitchen things, going to see my friends. We’re all a bit disoriented after living together for almost two months, so we went to an Irish pub one night, to a restaurant yesterday and I’m having dinner there tonight. This will quiet down as we all get back to normal. I’m very grateful to/for them.
I talked to my business counselor who helped clarify things re my business structure. The simplified structure is even better than I had understood, so I will go ahead and close my existing business, stop showering my accountant with money that gets me not much service, and start a new simplified one that will not require an accountant and will allow me to keep a lot more of the revenue I make in my pockets.
Amidst all this good news, I had one heartbreak. I managed to break the screen of my beloved Thinkpad T420s (2011). I debated doubling down on it and just buying a replacement screen (45 eur) and changing it myself, but it’s never been great with video conferencing which has been a bit handicapping. With a new contract starting soon, I decided to buy a newer computer, refurbished. I went with the Thinkpad T470 (2017, 400 eur). I didn’t have much time to research it, I’m trying to hit the sweet spot of Thinkpad models that are still good but recent enough that video conferencing works well. We shall see. I have 30 days to return it if it sucks.
Speaking of the new contract, it’s still not finalized. We just need to agree on the due dates for the deliverables and sign it, but it sounds like it’s not a high priority project and things always take forever. I’m ok with that at the moment, between my move, my broken computer, my iffy internet connection and the upcoming holidays, I’d much rather start in January.
Goals for the week:
- go climbing at least twice
- go running at least twice
- talk to accountant to close my business
- chill. hopefully.
Last edited by NewBlood on Wed Nov 27, 2024 4:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Inspiring to see how long you were able to keep your old thinkpad going! I'll be curious to hear about your experience with the new one. I'm using one that's about the same age and quite frankensteined with all the parts I changed. I worry about what I hear about the newer models as they seem to have everything soldiered on so not as repairable. Looks like a good price for one that you can even return if it's not a good fit!
Thanks Mousse. I actually didn't have it for that long. I used to have that model at work, bought in 2012 I think, kept it for longer than the IT people would have preferred but eventually they took it from me (you're supposed to change every 3 years to keep maintenance easy or something...), so I decided to buy the same model as a personal laptop since I didn't have one. I bought a refurbished one in 2017 I think. So 7 years before I broke it. In that time I went through two shitty Dell laptops supplied by my former job.
This was a really nice week. I didn’t do much. I went climbing 3 times, spent lots of time with my friends, no running, almost no work, a lot of time at home (my home) doing nothing. I just woke up from a two-hour nap. It was glorious.
We had a proper American-style Friendsgiving on Saturday since obviously Thursday is not a holiday here. But my friend had (“had”) to take a day off work on Friday so we could do all the shopping at the farmers market and start cooking the pies and the mashed sweet potatoes. Yesterday they made the stuffing and roasted the turkey. It was a smashing success, it was our first time attempting to cook these dishes from scratch, including starting with roasting a piece of pumpkin for the pumpkin pie (when I lived in the US, I never hosted so would generally just show up with mashed potatoes or another side dish). I think it tastes better when you do it all yourself. It was delicious. The pumpkin pie could have used more sugar and spices though.
I went to my climbing class, then went climbing with someone I met a couple of weeks ago, then had an impromptu late evening climbing session with my friend. I can now climb some 6a routes on sight if the holds are good. Pretty happy with that.
The work contract is signed, I managed to get it to start in January, it was better for everybody, so I can enjoy all the family time in December without stressing about it.
I didn’t call my accountant or make any progress on my business structure though.
November finances:
This was a ridiculously expensive month…
I had to pay the apartment expenses: realtor fee (528 eur), 2 months security deposit (1410 eur. This I should get back when I leave the apartment, but for now it’s lost to me), online guarantee (400 eur) and pro-rated rent. I bought a new to me computer (400 eur), although in my personal accounting I count this as a business expense since I wouldn’t need a computer if I wasn’t working. I paid for the climbing classes up front (380 eur).
I also invited my friends for drinks and a nice restaurant meal to thank them for hosting me for almost 2 months, and participated in the Thanksgiving shopping (turkeys ain’t cheap).
About 4600 eur all in all… ouch.
income: $0
back-of-envelope adjusted for taxes total net worth (ATNW): + $11800
back-of-envelope adjusted for taxes liquid net worth: - $3700
cash balances: - $5000
Something happened this month. Apparently the markets think it’s good news. I’m skeptical but for the first time since I’m tracking things this way, both my total balance and the USD to EUR exchange rate went up.
3% of ATNW: + 72 eur/month.
now equal to 104.5% of post-tax minimum wage (aka my spending target).
4% of ATNW: + 94 eur/month.
Now equal to 139.3% of post-tax minimum wage
December expenses will also be weird, I’ll spend most of the month visiting family, with the associated train tickets, eating out and gift expenses. Starting in January I should have a clearer view of normal expenses in my new place.
Goals for the week:
- climb at least twice
- run at least once?
- call accountant to close my business
- start new business
- get wifi for apartment
I had my climbing class, dinner with my friends for one of their birthdays, we ate one of the duck preserves I made a couple of weeks ago, that was pretty awesome.
On Thursday I took the train to my parents’ place to leave my cat with them while I go visit my grandma. Spent a day there and went climbing in my home gym with my cousin. I just bouldered, which felt great, I still like it better than sport climbing I think. I was able to finish all the blue problems except one, and 4 or 5 purple ones (V3-V4), so I’m very happy with that. I was super sore (in a good way) the next two days, I think I don’t exert myself as much while sport climbing, so maybe I need to try harder routes? Not sure.
On Saturday I spent the day on the train to get here where my grandma lives, I’ll be here for the whole week. Taking it easy and spending time with family.
I did no running this week. I’m losing my motivation for running. I do a lot of biking which gives me plenty of Z2 work, I think my endurance is pretty good and climbing keeps me happy. With days so short, I find it hard to rally to go running on the days I’m not climbing. I might try to replace running with swimming.
I called my accountant, I’ll get back all the money I put into my business and will close it down and start another one with the simplified structure. Things are progressing ok.
Goals for the week:
- try to climb twice here
- spend time with family
- start new business
I spent the week visiting my grandma, making various types of christmas cookies, going to christmas markets, went climbing twice, and hanging out with cousins.
It was nice except…. I managed to hurt myself while climbing. My foot zipped and I fell vertically hurting my leg on a hold. No biggie, just a big bruise. After 4 days I had no more pain and no loss of function so I went back, had a whole session with no pain but at the very end of it felt a sharp pain under my bruise when I pushed on my leg to bring my hips closer to the wall on an incline.
I have a small tear in my tibialis anterior, so no more climbing for 2-3 weeks and I need to see a physical therapist. Kinda of annoying, but it’s pretty minor. I can still bike, and mostly walk without limping, I just can’t push or balance on my right leg without pain.
Not much else happened this week. As much as I like visiting my grandma, this last stint (10 days) felt too long. I had to work around people’s work schedules and train ticket prices hence the longer duration, but I’ll try to stick to 1 week max next time.
I will have barely been in my new apartment in December which is a bit frustrating, but lots of family time.
I’ll wait to start my new business until early January because there are some taxes that are exempt the first (calendar) year, but if I start it in late December, there goes my “first” year.
Goals for the week:
- get an appointment for PT
- get internet installed in new apartment
- schedule calls for new work contract
- chill before the holiday week
Back to my apartment this week after spending Monday on the train coming back from my grandma’s to my parents’ place to pick up my cat, then on Tuesday more train to get back to my place.
This week was spent nesting and taking care of my leg.
I went to my climbing club’s holiday party on Wednesday. We had a small “contest”, winning team wins nothing at all and then we drink and eat all together. It was really fun and I met a lot more people from the club. Obviously I stuck to very easy boulders and made sure not to put much weight on my injured leg. Talking to the instructors about it, they all told me to go see a doctor for my leg instead of just waiting it out, which was my original plan.
So on Thursday I went to see my doc who diagnosed a possible muscle tear and sent me to physical therapy. I miraculously managed to get an appointment for that afternoon. The PT however looked at my leg in disbelief, trying to find said tear, and told me I would be in much more pain while she was manipulating me. She thinks the pain I experienced when pushing on the leg is due to the bruise pressing on the muscle. She taught me how to drain the bruise (gently push the accumulated fluid up the leg while avoiding the most tender part of the bruise). This is like magic. That instantly reduced the pain by 90% and I regained all my mobility. I’ve been doing it several times a day for a couple of minutes and making sure I’m moving my ankle and leg a lot without putting too much weight on it, and I’m basically fixed… So that’s a big relief. I’ll still try to do an ultrasound to make sure, but non-emergency appointments for that are at least 3 weeks out.
I went back bouldering today, sticking to easy boulders, climbing down, no hard push on my leg. All good, I only felt it a couple of times and backed out immediately. Hopefully in a week or two it’ll be back to normal.
I also hung out with my friends on our new monthly tradition: irish pub night.
The rest of the week was spent watching netflix and reading on the couch, in my sleeping bag with the cat and a hot water bottle.
goals for the week:
- spend holidays with parents and bro
- take care of my friend's cats
- go climbing once or twice?
- take care of a tax form
- eat, chill
This all sounds lovely! The "contest" is fun, the right kind of competitive spirit. And great that you managed to get rid of most of the pain so easily! Draining the bruise makes it sound hardcore, I didn't know one could do that.
Draining the bruise makes it sound hardcore, I didn't know one could do that.
Definitely not hardcore, it's really just a gentle massage from the ankle to below the knee (upwards) as close as possible to the bruise but not on the most bruised (?) part of the bruise. It's the accumulation of lymphatic fluid (which is there to fix the tissues) that causes pain.
I didn't know about it either, hope it can be useful to others.
I spent the week at my parents’ place. My brother was there as well.
We ate a lot of good food, but holidays there are a bit depressing, not the greatest atmosphere… My dad is a cautionary tale on what not to do as you get older, not sure how that will evolve but it’s not looking good. At 70, he can barely walk anymore and is now losing grip strength and breaking dishes left and right. Use it or lose it…. But he won’t listen to anybody because obviously, he knows better. Won’t hear about strength exercises or PT… So it falls on my mom and us to deal with it and do everything.
I did manage to go climbing 3 times, my leg is totally fine which is a big relief. It’s such a good way to escape the gloom. I worked on my first 6b route! I also hung out with some friends one day, and we had a big family dinner with the local cousins which was very fun. It’s good to be home though. The holiday week was not restful.
Now that I’ve brought my bike to my place in City 2, I need a bike at my parents’ place. Relying on their car or the bus when I’m there isn’t sustainable, it took me 1h20 mins to go to the climbing gym the other day. They have 2 run-down bikes that have been sitting in a non-waterproof shed for probably 20 years. One is fully rusted through, the chain won’t even move a millimeter. The other has some kind of disk brake that’s not working, not sure how easy it is to repair. All tubes and tires are destroyed. I would definitely need to at least change all cables, cable housings, tubes, tires and chain. Not sure how worth this effort is. I’ll go to the local bike house next time I’m there, to see what they think is doable.
Today at the last minute I did a withdrawal from my 457b account since I’ve left my employer and had zero work income in 2024. I wanted to take advantage of the lower tax bracket I’ll be in this year. I hope they take into account the date the withdrawal was initiated because apparently, it takes about 5 days for the employer to approve it (?? not sure why that’s necessary since I don’t work there anymore, which is the whole reason I can withdraw from that account without penalty), and then about 2 days for direct deposit.
I have a real procrastination problem when it comes to things I’m not sure of/familiar with. I always wait until the last minute because I can’t make myself do it if I’m not completely clear how it works. Until I don’t have a choice anymore and just have to do it. It’s tiring… I might have shot myself in the foot and may end up paying more taxes than expected if it ends up counting as 2025 income instead of 2024…
I’ll go over December expenses and 2024 wrap-up tomorrow.
This completes one whole year of weekly(ish) journaling, which I had never managed to be consistent with before. I am hooked, being able to look back is very insightful, and I find myself enjoying doing these weekly reports. Hope that’s somewhat interesting to others, not a lot of theorizing or philosophizing in my journal, I’m afraid…
Goals for the week:
- start new business
- go climbing once or twice
- go to PT and eye doctor
Last edited by NewBlood on Sun Jan 19, 2025 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
