Rube's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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fips
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by fips »

If you really look closely, you can even see a little curve in that net worth chart - it's exponential growth :D

I'm wondering if bonds and gold can make up for the next crash in stocks though ... :|

rube
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Haha, yes you can see it is indeed exponential growth.

Stocks make only up about 12% of our total Net worth. Even if it would half, we would "only" loose 6%. I am pretty sure even that will be partly made up somewhere else and gives us a good opportunity to buy some good stocks! I would love to buy stocks and get a 6% dividend yield on KO, PG, WMT etc.

rube
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Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

September update
Wow, September went very quickly (again). I spend 12 days away from home on 2 business trips around Europe. Most weekends were full of social activities.

I was a bit less busy with the financial part of ERE and enjoyed most of my time. Especially the weekend in Southern Europe, exploring the city I was and all paid by my company. And the birthday party of DD of course. It did remind me even more though I would gladly welcome more free time ;)

Journals
Not sure if it is me but the amount of new journals started here looks more then it was a while ago. But I am also missing some updates on the older journals (like MBGI?), I am wondering if some of them have abandoned ERE or just mastered it and moved on to new interests. I must admit, I gave up to read all updates and new journals myself, though I still read many. Specifically the ones of people that are (just) "retired" like Akratic, Spoonman, Tyler9000's, Elegant's, Hankaroundtheworld are getting more interesting (to me). We're still far away from that point but it might help to prepare ourselves what to expect and making timely adjustments. One of things is that we might need to start thinking more seriously about what the "running to" is, instead of only focusing on the "running away from". I've got several ideas, but most are still vague and it might be a good idea to get some more focus/clarity on possible activities, projects etc. I think it will help our motivation (specifically for dw), we can start preparations ahead, it will improve the chance we choose the things that will really improves our lives.

Traveling-holiday's
I have written about holidays' & traveling before. The comment from J_ in Feb this year is still echoing in my head:
I took a 6 week period to travel with my wife and daughter of thirteen to see a big part of Australia, and the next year I traveled with them 6 weeks through the east of Canada (ere style youth-hostels etc). The impact of these holidays is still (30 years later) great. So make it yourself not too difficult to do things you long for, is only what I want to say.
I think DW and I both agree that we like traveling and think it is important to our family. So yes, we'll probably will do some longer and further trips with the family in the future. Even if we do it ERE style, it will costs us quite some more money then the current "usual" holidays. But I won't see this traveling as a recurring cost for the rest of our lives, rather a certain amount of euro's per trip multiplied by a certain number of travels.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Expenses 2115
Income 5985 (5422 regular income, 436 Interest, 64 Dividend, 63 sales)
Savings ratio 65% (ttm 62%). After three low(er) months, finally again on 65%.


Special expenses
Spend an "obscene" amount of 500 euro on gifts this month (24% of our total expenses). No regret though, one part consisted of a practical gift and the other part was given with pleasure (as asked by the receiver a money gift for a specific goal). But we were also reimbursed by employer for 560 for several expenses past couple of months, so I deducted this from the total expenses.
In the end, the net expenses were again (finally) more in line with the average and the goal: € 2115.

Income
The income from regular work is very steady. No real further news on this side.

Net worth
Investments were down a very little, net worth increased with 3635 euro to 346K. I hope to reach 350K next end of this month, but otherwise it will November (unless investments go down).
Net worth increased with 99.5K since starting this journal 23 months ago..

Graphics
Image

Thanks for reading :D

DutchGirl
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Nice :-) . Almost at 350k euros net worth... It's always nice to reach a milestone.

rube
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Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Ok, so I haven't made an October update, that means I will make a combined October and November update in one of the following days.

Two main highlights:
As I mentioned in the last update, we were planning to spend some more on traveling/holidays with the family. And so we did. Last weekend we bought tickets for our summer holiday next year. We we'll be going to S.E. Asia. It's still 10 months, but I am looking forward to it.

And, I can already tell that we did indeed hit the 350K in October and are now around 357K for November. That is despite the almost 3K we spend on the tickets. Yes, the market was exceptionally well the last 6 weeks.

More details in a few days.

DutchGirl
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Looking forward to the update. And yes, the markets were kind these last few weeks.

Hankaroundtheworld
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by Hankaroundtheworld »

Rube, I was wondering, as you seem more an exception from Dutch system point of view. Most people in the Netherlands have their pension build-up by (a) social security by 69 or so and (b) company pension plan. As a consequence, most people only save a bit next to this, but not excessive. This is for sure changing, but you seem to be ahead of it. What bothered me for those that want to build up their own pension in the Netherlands, is that the government is treating this "pension" wealth as personal wealth, and will tax it (the 1.2 % in box-3), unless of course, you shield it in a tax-deferred personal pension scheme (and then pay tax on it once you let is pay out during retirement). Anyway, I was just curious how you were able to avoid the wealth tax in all of this. I feel the Netherlands system is not really promoting saving a lot, too much tax penalties...

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Thanks both.

Regarding taxation: own primary house value is not taxed at the 1.2%. Also some money that is in a business won't be taxed. As well as some other...eh..items of value.
But you are right, we can't really avoid it for the majority of our net worth.
And I don't like it. On the other hand, if the market does well we don't need to pay additional tax. We'll probably pay around 2.4k to 3K this year orso, but Net Worth is increasing with about 60K. So 'the penalty' is not enough to stop the savings :twisted:

But at a certain point it could be worth it, financially, to move to another country.

rube
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Ok, so the planned update to be posted a few days after end of November turned into about 5 weeks...that makes it a quarterly update.

UPDATE October, November and December
It was October that this journal entered the 2 year mark and, although I still keep track of all finances, we’re moving towards (e)re more or less on auto-pilot. Of course we take certain decisions on purpose and we consider some ideas carefully, but the day to day stuff just goes automatically. Most likely because we simply always have been frugal and it always has felt as a waste to me to spend money on certain things as most people do. We just spend what, in our view, is needed and what we think is worth it. With the (E)RE in mind, we have just optimized it further and gotten more understanding of our goal(s) and how/when we might be able to reach them. As mentioned before, it is like a marathon. Slowly but steady it goes.

January non-financial
I'll leave in a few days for the annual company trip to Hong Kong and planned to meet a ERE forum member in the weekend.
When work is finished, I will spend a few holidays in SE-Asia. Since the company paid the ticket to Hong Kong my cost for these holidays will be very limited. All in all I will be 2 weeks away from home.
I look forward to this, but I also know that at the end of the trip I look forward to go home. Not so much to be "home", but be back with the family and stop traveling.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Calculations
Previously I deducted “kids expenses” with a tax benefit we received for a couple of years. But because that that tax benefit will end now, I decided to change the calculations and treat it as additional income. That way we’re able to compare and check details better. It doesn’t change the amounts we saved, but it did decrease our ttm savings rate with 2%. DW will start working 15% more as of January, so the end of the tax benefit will likely be offset with the higher income and it will likely not affect our future savings rate.

Mortgage
We have paid off another 10% of our mortgage January 1st, yeah! I also checked what the penalty would be if we would pay off the remaining mortgage all at once, but it was way too much to make it worthwhile. So we just will pay 10% each year for now.

Permanent Portfolio and other investments
I moved 20K from some savings to the Permanent Portfolio and also bought for about 5K individual stocks as part of a separate (small) Dividend Growth Portfolio. Not sure if I will continue with that though, too complex for me and I do not think that (at this moment) I do have enough knowledge (and time) to beat a broad index fund.
As of January I am planning to put investments for the Permanent Portfolio more on semi-autopilot, every month the same amount at the same time. This should help me to prevent the monthly savings pile up and actually to decrease the amount in savings and checking accounts.

Expenses – income – savings ratio
Expenses October 2094
Expenses November 1949
Expenses December 2708
Income October 5659 (5518 regular income, 141 dividends)
Income November 7024 (5516 regular income, 1240 interest, 205 dividends, 63 sales)
Income December 6264 (5694 regular income, 418 interest, 87 dividends, 65 sales)

Savings ratio 63%, 72% and 57% (ttm 61%)

Special expenses
Per previous post, we bought plane tickets for the next summer holiday. Costs was almost 2700, more than our average month expenditure….I have included 10% of this in the November and December expenses and will do this for the next 8 months coming.

Furthermore we bought a tablet and some clothing in December and had some more expenses then usual on gifts. Also we donated some charity and had a once a year insurance costs. Expenses seems to be creeping up now and then, but I am still satisfied and just keep an eye on it.

Income
Income from regular work is very steady. Annually Interest in November was from our CD’s, these will run for another 4 years.

Net worth
Net worth went from 345K in September to 357K in November, despite having paid almost 3K for the plane tickets. The market “gave” us almost 5K extra compared to the normal month on month increase. And in December our net worth rose another 4K despite spending more then usual.
We ended the year at 361K. We're happy with that.

Coming months financial
From January on our income will change a bit (wife works a bit more, changes in tax/pension, benefit) and a little in expenses (paid off 10% of the mortgage). But it will probably take a few months before the exact changes are clear.

I Expect around February a (for me) considerable bonus due to a good result of the company. And I hope also to get a small annual raise around then.
If there are no major changes in the Market I expect we should go over 370K in Feb. From that point I might be focusing more on our Net Worth excluding our house which should be then around 200K.

Graphics
Graphics follow soon (I will really try... :) )

rube
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Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

The graphics...
Despite the expenses are creeping up (at least, that is what I *feel" and I want to have them down instead) the graphics and savings rate is okay with me:
Image

Note: the 10% paid to the principal of the mortgage was done at the 1st of January and not visible here.
Image

Note that regularly money was (and will be) added to the different components and therefore this is not representative for "the" standard EU PP.
Yield is calculated as (((current value + dividends) - actual investment & costs) / average invested money since the start))
Incredible how much the LT-bonds ETF's have increased in value.
Image

rube
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Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

I'm late again for the monthly, so it will be a late January and February update combined. I will be including less financial details from now on anymore as I think it is not adding too much information and I don't need it for myself. But I will keep on posting the main graphics and major happenings.

Went to Hong Kong in January on the annual business trip. Met forum member Hong and a friend of him over there. We had a good walk and chat, I liked it. Thanks Hong! Had a short holiday thereafter in SE Asia which I loved, even though I spend too much (again?). Next time I want to do it more ERE style. Also went on a local business trip in Feb. All in all still 3 weeks away from home in 2 months. I like traveling mostly, but I don't mind it will be a but less the the next months.

DW seems to be more and more convinced that (E)RE is feasible and we starting to talk slowly about what we will do when the day is there. Perhaps the graphics and spreadsheet helped :-). The market went up a lot, which is nice but I need to be cautious and prepared for similar or worse decline sooner or later. But we're nearing the 400K mark rapidly. Our monthly expenses are creeping up, but after August I expect we can get them slower a bit lower again.

I am planning to make this month a small raised bed in the front yard to grow some vegetables and fruits according the square feet garden principle. Maybe I will post pictures of it in the other thread when it is a success :-)

Image
Image

Quadalupe
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by Quadalupe »

Good job rube! It looks like you're getting there slow, but steady :) Nice to see that you are close to the 400K, your 'basic FI' level. I have to see, it's very encouraging and inspiring for a young fellow like myself to read how fellow Dutchies like you, J_, Henk and Dutchgirl try to achieve FI, each through their own means and philosophy. Keep it up!

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

Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Unfortunately, the "basic FI 400K" mark was excluding the housing, while the total net worth posted above was including our house...I wasn't very clear about that :? . So we're probably still about 2.5 years from the "basic FI" probably, but no complaints. We're going slow (compared to some others here) but steady.

Please tell us a bit about yourself if you wish. Maybe we should have a meet-up somewhere in NL in spring, as it seems there are quite some Dutch people now here.

On another note: we're looking into the option to buy a rental. With the high prices compared to the rent it's quite difficult to obtain a good yield overhere, but I think 7% net would be possible. And I know it will come with some work and cons, but I would like the steady flow of income and something more "physical" compared to the PP.

rube
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Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

I have send an email today to terminate our cable.
We still have netflix and the 3 free public channels.

The (direct) saving is only 10 bucks a month, but it should help (mainly me) to avoid watching too mamy useless programs and commercials.

simplex
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by simplex »

@rube A meetup in spring is a great idea. I can provide a place with campfire, free sauna, and basic food/drink. However it's not at a major "verkeersknooppunt". So maybe some place around Utrecht would be a better option?

J_
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by J_ »

@rube ok I am in for a meeting, can come to simplex place.

reepicheep
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by reepicheep »

I'm not Dutch, but I'd try to make it to a meet-up!

rube
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Ok, I guess there are enough people that can and will join. I will make a new topic for this meet-up so it is more visible and we can schedule it!

dxxr
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by dxxr »

I would like to join as well. I live in the south of Netherlands.

> I will make a new topic for this meet-up so it is more visible and we can schedule it!
Can you please post a link to this topic?

thanks!

rube
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Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
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Re: Rube's journal

Post by rube »

Let's discuss the meet up here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6213

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