Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@rube: I think it applies to the "beleggingshypotheek" as well. And I think you can by a savings product within that "beleggings" part that has an interest equal to your mortgage rate. (But I am not 100% sure, since I do not have one.)
Anyway let's say your mortgage interest is 5% (post-tax 2.4%). 5% (post-tax 5%) is also the interest on the savings part of my mortgage. The interest on a term deposit is like max 3% (post tax 1.8%).
Let's say you choose between saving in box 3 or paying down. By paying down, you forfeit 1.8% in income and do not have to pay 2.4% in mortgage interest. Hence, paying down is 0.6% more attractive vs saving through term deposits and not paying down.
But if we compare putting your money into the savings/beleggings vehicle, then you earn 5% instead of 1.8%. Hence this is 3.2% more attractive than saving in term deposits. And 2.6% more attractive than paying down.
You can also do both: depositing into vehicle and paying down, since both have limits that are probably much lower than what you could do.
Do note that there are a few conditions for your "beleggingshypotheek" to qualify for the box 1 treatment (KEW). It needs to last at least 15yrs since inception. Also contributions for the beleggings-part need to be done every single year of those 15 years. So if you pay down 10% p.y. for 10yrs you will be rid of your mortgage to early. All your returns will than be taxed! (This may already be a danger in your current approach)
Tax details wrt to KEW can be found on the website of the "Belastingdienst":
http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/c ... gen_woning
Other caveat to look out for is fees in this "beleggingshypotheek" when you do non-standard contributions.

I like graphics. In an eye blink I can "read" them, they're just so much easier and faster as plain text.

C40 is a great example on good graphics! Thnx to C40 for the examples AND his explanation how to post pictures
So this weekend I cleaned up my excel sheet, simplified/improved the formulas I used and added some graphics. It will be an ongoing improvement, but hereby the first graphics of the 1st 6 months of this journal.
No explanation or text this time, details were given already earlier.
Feel free to comment on the graphics, what you are missing, what you don't like, what you would like to see differently etc. Thnx!
Pictures are clickable for bigger versions:

I submitted last month the annual tax papers (well, no actually papers, but digitally).

On our gross income, we’re paying about 33% of taxes.

That does NOT even include yet any VAT, Municipal tax (for the house, sewage, garbage), Car tax.

*sigh*, ah well, I guess we’re living in a country we’re we also getting some back of it (some directly, some indirectly).
Note the next part is about Dutch taxes and mortgages. Skip if not interested for you.

@Krul:

We do not have a “savings”mortgage but a “stock-bond”mortgage. That means that the “savings” interest is not the same as the interest rate of the principal loan.

The capital gain is completely depending on developments of the underlying values (ETF’s of the stock-bond market). So it could be better, but doesn’t have to be.

Also, we’re only able to select a limited number of ETF’s and the fees are quite high.
That’s why we have chosen to pay of the principal loan by 10% per year (that’s the max.) and to setup a Permanent Portfolio ourselves completely separated from the mortgage.

The PP has much lower fees and 100% freedom to choose the ETF’s etc. we want and to always have 100% access to it. We will still be required to pay around 110 euro each month into the ETF’s funds of the “stock-bond” mortgage, until it’s paid off completely. So I believe this is the best and most secured diversification we can do at this moment.
Also, when not paying off the principal loan, there is the risk of losing my job and not be able to deduct the interest against the current 52% tax rate (and that will be the case anyway once we have reached ERE). Another factor is that I do not believe the interest deduction adjustment, as announced recently, will not be further and quicker decreased. So even the return of paying off our mortgage is now only (5.5% * 0.48) = 2.64%, it will increase in the future sooner or later to the full 5.5%.

So I am happy to take the 2.64% +1.2% (because the assets tax does not applies to 1st own house) = 3.84% for this part of our investments.

Revised March details:

When checking the April details I found out I missed received interest of 1062 in March. It’s because I expected this actually early April and I don’t check those accounts daily. In any case, after correcting the figures it boosted the savings ratio to 72%. Our highest ever, quite pleased with that number
April details:

Income: 5381 of which 211 came from CL sales.

Expenses : 2007. Two new tires for the car against 125. No unusual expenses otherwise

Saved : 3374

Ratio: 63%

Assets: 272K
averages last 7 months:

Income: 5963

Expenses : 2199

Saved : 3764

Ratio: 63%
Going steady but strong if I may say so myself. Every time I look at these numbers I am amazed how much we do save each month over and over again.

Although we’re far from being 100% FI, it is a very, very nice feeling.
PP implemented

PP is implemented for about a third of our assets. Gold crashed about 12% a couple of days after we bought it. But today gold is down “only” 6.4% and the whole PP is only -0.17 down. Thus far the PP seems to be doing what it suppose to do.
May forecast

Next month we will receive holiday allowances, this is common in the Netherlands to receive in May or June and is 8% of our annual salary. So our income will probably be the highest since starting the journal here. But, one of these months we will also spend more on the preparations and finally the actual holiday. So on average it will probably not increase our savings ratio (a lot) but it could become the highest monthly savings ratio.
Other

Still need to work on more exercising, watching less television.

Spring arrived finally, love the sun and warmer weather.
Graphics

tracking finances

The Excel file I used to track all our financial details grew from just a few MB the first month to almost 35MB(!!) in March.

Also it took me too much work to update it each month, despite (or maybe because) the used formulas.
But after modifying I was able to reduce the size to 5 MB recently and tonight I brought it further down to only 200 KB (!!). All with all the same functionality AND probably even more important, a lot less work to make new monthly updates.
Obviously I hadn't thought well about it when I started with the original Excel file
In any case, I'm happy with the result and the new “sumifs” formula I learned, which I must admit, I never had used before even though I use excel quite a lot at my work as well.
being an introvert at work

Speaking about my work: I’m an introvert and at my physical working place I am surrounded by extroverts co-workers only. Imagine: Engineer vs Sales guys. So often we’re on a waaaaay different level. But since reading this forum I have a much better understanding why this is and its helpful to me.
The Curse Of Knowledge

The other day some of my co-workers were complaining about their big mortgages, the declining house values etc. but mentioning in the same conversation “well you got to live” and “that’s a cool car you have”. I wanted to try carefully to explain them just a little bit about my thoughts, living efficiently, saving, the result of compounding interest and real value(s) etc. But I stopped after two sentences, not any use at all with these guys. Internally I was laughing but also I felt a bit sad for them. It did remind me about the other thread here of “The Curse Of Knowledge”.

May details:

Income: 9153. Exceptional high because of the annual holiday allowance (common in the Netherlands). No CL sales at all this month

Expenses : 2161. Little more than the previous three months due to various reasons, nothing very special.

Saved : 6992

Ratio: 76% Whoooopa!

Assets: 277K
averages last 8 months:

Income: 6361

Expenses : 2196

Saved : 4166

Ratio: 65%

As expected this was the month with the highest income and savings rate thus far. It increased the average saving rate by 2% over the last eight months. But as mentioned before, in the coming months we will also spend some more due to our holiday. And apart from some additional interest income and tax return in the next months, the income is expect to be fairly normal, which is in our case around € 5200,- per month. All together I expect the average savings rate will go therefore a little lower. Can’t wait to see what it will be September, when I have will have the data of 12 months.
PP

EU (my) PP not doing so well, -2.7% since implementation in April. I don’t care too much and I don’t check it every hour or every day anymore.
June forecast

In June I do expect some interest and perhaps the tax return of 2012. We might book our holiday and have to pay some in advance. Furthermore nothing special expected.
Other

I guess this journal might be getting a bit boring for others because I mostly write only about the financial part, which is actually only a small part of ERE, and I don’t post such long and special thoughts/experiences like MBGI (and others). Often I think about it, but I don’t take the time for it and before I know another month already has passed and I only update the finance part.

I guess it is partly because I work already the whole day on my laptop and I don’t want/have/make the energy in the evening to get out my laptop again to type it all up. I do however read like 85% of all posts here on my phone. Now I am typing this during work time (don’t expect my employer will ever finds out…) so I have a little more time and energy, however work is quite busy these months. If I spend too long on other things then work I will feel bad because it feels like I am getting paid too much (which might be the case anyway for my job/position, but hey, I don’t complain:-) ).
A few of the main questions I am asking myself lately are:

1) now savings looks to go okay, how do I actually make enough money of my net worth to be able to live from it later on. I started the PP and hope/expect this will be a part that works out. Also we might rent out our current house by that time (if we move to another house) that generate income. But, it’s all a bit new to us and we have to see first how it works. In any case, we still have enough time to build up expertise and experience with that.
2) Currently our Net Worth is around 10.5 years of living. Based on this I have made a couple of FI scenarios. The most promising to me, read: attractive and possible still achievable, is the one whereby I calculate with a 4% yield, that we’re able to continue our savings like we have done in the past 8 months and to reduce expenses further with € 535 per month once I quit working. When I would quit working there would be no daycare, no commute costs and I could save a little more here and there, all together estimated at € 535.

In this scenario we would be FI in 5.5 years from now.
But….in 5.5. years from now the costs will likely to increase also some because the kids are getting older, food-cloth-school-sport costs for them will probably all increase a little. Also, I do prefer to have some money for them available when they go to college/university, which would be in around 11 years from now. Luckily college/university is by far not as expensive here as it is in the US, but still it will/can cost a considerable amount. To save for this I might add another 1-2 years to this scenario of 5.5 years.
And one of my real big dream is to build my own house that is energy neutral or even energy plus with the possibility to grow some of our own food. This will be certainly more expensive as our current house. To obtain the additional money for this we will have to add probably at least another 2 years, more likely 3, of working and saving.

I think I will likely don’t have a problem to work for another 3 years in order to complete my dream by then. But to buy a plot and add now already another 3 years to the 5.5 years is resulting into a time frame too long to be able to oversee. Many things can change in 8-10 years. On the other hand, DW does not want to wait so long before moving and settle elsewhere. So the question for ourselves is what we want to do and what is weighting more.
Now back to work, since we’re not FI yet

Graphics

Just a short June update

Expenses: 2407
A bit higher as usual, partly due to some upcoming holidays. Total 2407.

Income: 6094
Wage was normal (5176), quarterly interest (708), dividend (138, first time from the PP ), sales CL (72).

Savings rate: 61%, 3.7K.

NW: 276K
About same as May report despite the savings. Reason: PP went down a bit and I discovered a miscalculation of a few K. Still hope to hit around 300K around the end of this year/early next year

I still follow and read most of the forum, but now I am in the 10th month of tracking everything exactly I am getting a bit the feeling of participating in a marathon. I don't want to "wait" for another 5-10 years or so. But I have not a real good idea how else to improve the savings ratio (with keeping the family and myself happy). Well, just keep on continuing probably *sigh*.

I will give a full finance update again in August and maybe include some more details about the life around the finances. Although maybe it will be a finance update after all, I am probably just not so much of a writer as others here. But, if you have any questions, feel free to ask or let me know what you would like to read about.

Thanks Bigato, you have given me some food for thought.

Alternative income streams:
Yes, I have thought about it. On one hand I am reluctant to do this:
1: The amount I can make in my spare time is probably not significant, not sure if I want to trade my spare free time for a little more money
2: I used to have a business for a couple of years and was always working. Have done this also for a while besides a full time job. Now I am not doing it not anymore and I feel so much more relaxed (see 1). It's much better for myself and my family.
3: I lied a little at 2. Recently I am doing a little again for this business besides my job. It's not a lot of hours, not generating a lot of income, but perhaps it is the right way to start again slowly to create a 2nd sustainable income stream again.

I will think about it though what else I can do within this or outside this business further. I would love to do some consultancy work, in the same field as my FT job is. I could do that easily on any location and any time (like my FT job). Unfortunately I am not allowed by my contract which I understand (conflict of interest). And since the specialism is so small, I cannot do it "secretly" either.

Exercises, diet, energy
Ehm, yes, exercises is my weak point. To put it simply: I don't.
Well, also that is not 100% true: I biked yesterday 20 km with a friend. (If he's reading this, hi R ). And two weeks ago I had a whole weekend of phyisical labour, which I will do again in another 1.5 weeks. But, I don't do it frequently, I am not pushing myselfs to limits with thos activities and it's certainly not a routine.

My BMI is okay though (178 cm - 72 kg, BMI 22.7). Also I eat reasonably healthy, enough vegatables, fruits. But there is room for improvement.

So yes, I should and I want to improve myself here. It's a matter of will power to make the actual change.
Part of it is (lame excuse) that I find it difficult to fit it into my daily routine. I get up (6-7 AM), go to work, work, go home, cook/take care of kids/bring them to bed (20:00). My real free time during weekdays is limited from 20:00-22:30 orso. Sometimes I do have to do some work also in the evenings (not paid extra, comes with the position / salary). I mostly sleep around 23:00-23:30. Which give me about 6.3- 8 hours sleep. I need this, otherwise I do not functioning well.

So maybe my energy level is not really that low, I mean I do work FT, am busy with the family (although my wife does more), we do things in the weekends and so on. It's just that I do not have a lot of energy in the evenings (20:00-22:30) to undertake a lot. I'm wondering if more people here do have that feeling and/or if they have done something about it? Especially for those with small kids.

But regardless that, exercising more would definitely be better for my health and give me some more energy. Now I have to find how to incorporate that in a daily/weekly routine.
Oh, and no I can't bike to work (75 km) and if I am working home it is just a stair case. I do walk to and from the train, walk the kids to school etc. But that's all very limited.

Detailed expense
Average monthly expenses over the last 9 months, from highest to lowest:
423 Housing
382 Supermarket
339 Transport
302 Kids
207 Medical
178 Holiday / day out / entertainment
100 Gas/Electricity/Cable/Internet/Mobile phone
97 Clothing
86 Other
81 Shops
78 Municipal taxes
72 Gifts
42 Hobbies
13 Insurances
13 Eating out
9 Bankcosts
6 Barber

This is for the four of us.
Housing cannot really cheaper. Actually, every move we would make (including renting a much smaller space) would not be cheaper.

Supermarket yes, we could save here. Not sure exactly how much, but it would be possible.

Transport this is including my commute costs of 100. We will get about 30 of that back by tax early next year. The remaining is for the car: fuel, insurance, tax, maintenance. We drive about 15K per year. A small part of this is for work, so I get some reimbursed. We could save some, but it would mean seeing family, friends less. I (and DW) don't want that. Public transport with the 4 of us, won't be cheaper.

Kids about 200 out of this is for daycare (3 days a week, after school). The other is for sport, swimming lessons, school trips etc. Unfortunately our parents live far away and we do not have such a close social network that somebody would take care of 2 kids 3 times a week after school. Though if we really, really would like to, I am sure we could find a solution for this. So we could improve here about 200 max.

Medical insurance required by the government. No way for further improvement.

Holiday etc. sure, room for improvement. But, would be tough with DW and I like holiday myself.

Gas and other utilities this is already pretty low and I do expect moving forward the average will become even lower as I had made some changes in this since I keeping a record of it. Not really major improvements possible. About 20 (cellphone) is reimbursed by employer.

Clothing oh yes, this is 1200 per year, 300 per person a year. I am not spending that. And even though we buy a lot of the clothing for the kids 2nd hand very cheap, my wife does have not a shoe fetish, some how it looks to me it is more than needed....

Other mostly cash, of which 48 is for staying over at school during lunch. See kids. If we really, really want to, we might save some on this.

Shops all kind of stuff. I don't think it's al needed, but...

Municipal taxes can't change that

Gifts ouch, that much? I think we could save here

Hobbies well, 20 per person per month. Could save some but not sure we want.

Insurances, eating out, bank costs, barber is all pretty low already.

So, yes, we could save. For sure if we would really go extreme, like arranging day care differently (200), no holidays (178), kids not staying over at lunch (50), Supermarket (100), Gifts (40). That would be like 570 orso.

But looking realistically, keeping the family and myself happy, I think it would be limited to like 50 for supermarket, 20 clothing, 20 shops, 20 gifts about 110 in total. Ehm, still quite a big difference from what would be possible.

As I said, you have given me food for thought. Have to think what we/how we can save without making the family unhappy of let them feeling they are sacrificing anything.

Yeah, biked another 20 km this early morning!
I did not went too late to bed on Friday evening (as I do too often). Got up early morning and biked 20 km through the fields, along the waters. Saw a few hares, lot of birds, two hunters and a few farmers. I didn't saw any graffiti artist asking me to take his picture though

Came home, ate some slices of home baked bread and then worked for a few hours on the administration of the side business. Going tonight to a social gathering around my hobby.

Feels like a good start of the weekend and pretty ERE minded.

Wow, haven't update my journal in over 2 months...but that doesn't mean I am not working on ERE. And also I still read most of the post here, at least all the journals.
Two things for now only:

• I Picked raspberries yesterday and made two jars of Jam. My first time I really got my own food out of the "wild"

• I just paid off another 10% of our mortgage. Will reduce our monthly expenses a bit further.

Complete July, August and September updates will follow in a week orso. Then I will also have the first 12 months financial data!

Jacob mentioned that after 250 post you become "automatically" FI, so a good reason to make another update .

Our net worth increased from the first post of this journal, October '12, till now with 39K and 33 Postings. About 1.18K net worth increase per post.
Out net worth would increase with 256K if all would go on at the same rate. But with an additional 256K we're not FI yet
So I guess I need actually post less


Here some the highlights of the last three months:

General
Helped friends another weekend with building a house. I did this also in June. Nice to be physically active, to work with some like minded people and to learn a lot. Will help them again this month.

Helped a friend to install solar panels on his (high) roof.

Went on holiday for two weeks with my family, which was great.

Did some biking, not regular though

Financially
My salary was increased with about 70 euro's net a month! I wasn't even informed by my manager, found out after hearing it from colleagues and receiving the payslip. Well, every increase is welcome.

Because our youngest child goes to grade 1 now, DW is able to change her hours. Means we can quite one day daycare (for after school). It will save us monthly net about 70 euro or so from November onwards.

We probably need to pay back about € 500,- on tax over 2011 and again € 250,- over 2012 that we received too much back, ouch. Still waiting on the final outcome.

Side business
Got two small orders. Not too much money, but virtually no effort so always nice. BTW, profit from side business won't be visible in the income figures because it will increase net worth directly.

July
Savings ratio 63%
Average last 10 months: 65%

August
Savings ratio 30%
Average last 11 months: 62%

Savings ratio was the lowest over the last 11 months due to additional day care costs (holiday kids-DW and I working) and our own two week holiday.
It was more or less anticipated, no other real big expenses.

September
Savings ratio 71%
Average last 12 months: 63%

And with that, I have a full year data. Pretty satisfied with 63% and quite okay for a family of four in Europe I think.
I hope with the changes that were made during this first year and some coming into effect later this year, we will be able to increase it a bit further. But it will likely just a few percent, I target 66%. 70 percent would be great, but we would need to reduce our spending with another 20% and that is very unlikely. And I don't foresee any big income increase either, we're both getting paid quite well already.

Some graphics:


Hope to hit the 300K line in January 2014.

The Permanent Portfolio was only implemented since last March-April, so it's only a half year.
Not doing very well so far. But keep just steady (and only 27% of our current net worth is in the PP).

Over the last 12 months, we made 5K by interest, dividends, sales on CL. Though not an awful lot yet looking at our net worth, it's still about 7% of our total income.

Thanks for reading!

Only numbers...

October
Total expenses 1859
Total income 5259 (11 CL sales)
Savings ratio 65%, average over the last 12 months: 63%
PP value increased (less loss) with 1363 compared to September

Side business: got one small order, another has been confirmed and I am waiting on the payment.
Profit from side business will increase net worth (does not show up in income)

Mortgage: paid off 10% (we're now at 80% of the original amount).

Business trip's
Went on a business trip last week. I enjoyed 4 days of luxurious dinners and nice lunches as well. All paid by the company of course.
Going out for dinner like that is nice to do once in a while, but I wouldn't miss it badly if I would be ERE. Maybe once a year as a special treat would be nice.

Also in December I have a business trip (meet-up 7 Dec. Toronto: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4262)

And another business trip in January to Asia. I like to travel once in a while and after these trips I expect it will be 6-9 months before I'll need to travel again. Mostly when I have to travel for business I extend my stay with a few days to see/do some things and I do this also with my trip to Toronto and to Asia.

ERE method?
Coming back after my trip last week, I wanted to watch a movie with DW. We found out the receiver-amplifier wasn't working anymore.

Of course I followed the 1st ERE approach, could I fix it myself? I opened and measured there is a current on the incoming part of the transformer. But no current on the other side of the transformer. Although I am not a specialist, I guess the transformer died.

It's quite a specific transformer with multiple connectors, can't find it on the internet. Keeping in mind the piece is about 8 years old, likely it's economically not worth anymore to get a spare part (if possible at all).

Now I need to consider if:
(1) this is a good moment to downgrade (go without one means I wouldn't be able to use my turntable and the 7 surround speakers are only for show).
(2) buy a second hand one or
(3) buy a similar new one (or perhaps "last years model") which will have some new features like internet radio etc. compared to the one that died.

I'll decide about in 4 weeks time when I have the time to buy/do something if I want. Currently I think I will go for a 2nd hand one or a nice priced "last years model" (after a final attempt to see if I might be able to repair the transformer).

Taxes
My tax correction over 2011 was not accepted. Means they don't accept my public transport deduction. When I receive the formal/final outcome, I have to file more documents again as a last attempt. If that won't be accepted either, it will cost me about 750 euro's max.

Side business
Received a nice order which will nett about 2K. It's from a customer that ordered the last 5 years every year the same and for us it requires only a few emails to get things arranged. Will take a couple of months before it is finalized though.

Investing
Moved 40K from a savings account @1.8% to a CD @3.1% - 5 years.
With the next re-balance of the PP, likely in March when the PP is 1 year, we'll buy additional stocks and gold and I'll see this CD as a part of the bond section within the PP. The CD gives more interest then the (short term) bond position and I don't think there is much more risk.

I consider to use the dividend growth strategy for a part of the 25% stock position within the PP. However, I have to educate myself about this subject before I will take a decision about it.

Pretty cool, Rube, your income/expenses ratio. I also don't think the CD is high risk, I assume it's with a bank backed by the national bank of the Netherlands, so when they would go bankrupt, you'd still get your money back?

Thanks DG. I guess the combination of a strongly increased income (a bit lucky) while not inflating our lifestyle, is the key to this ratio.

CD is backed by the National bank of Belgium, same principle as the Netherlands. If the EU will let default Belgium, I think we have other and more serious issues here. The diversification off the PP, savings at other accounts and real estate (our house) should protect us a bit if TSHTF

Sounds like your CD is certainly as safe as Belgian government bonds. So sounds good.

November
Just some quick numbers for November (final figures might change slightly with still 1.5 day to go):
Expenses: 2108
Income 5021
Savings ration 58% (average 12 months 62%)

Special expenses (given amounts is more then the 12 months average):
Clothes 235. Last time I bought some was 11 months ago.
Several gifts for "sinterklaas" holiday 130.
Charity 50

Income was 230 lower due to paying taxes (correction from 2012)

Despite the lower income and lower savings ratio as average, net worth increased to just 297K. This was partly due to some side business deal as explained in an earlier post.

I'll place some graphics later

December
We need to pay about 800 euro on income taxes, it is a correction over 2011. Still trying to see if I can fight the decision, but will need to pay first anyway.
If no other exceptional expenses, we still might hit the 300K net worth milestone.

First: Happy 2014!!

November (final-corrected, graphics combined with the below December update)
Expenses: 1910 (a bit lower as reported earlier because some expenses didn't showed up before December)
Income 5021
Savings ratio 63% (average 12 months 62%)

December
Expenses: 2193
Income 6279 (5534 regular income, 671 interest, 52 dividend, 23 CL sales)
Savings ratio 65% (average 12 months 63%)

Income was 826 lower due to paying taxes (tax correction from 2011, as reported earlier here). Therefore income was this month lower as usual. However, it will be partly compensated by my employer the coming months for this. They didn't had to do this at all, so it's appreciated a lot and shows it's a pretty good employer. And, DW received unexpectedly a bonus!!
Expenses were a little higher as usual, some gifts, some transport (visit family), some entertainment. And some costs will be reimbursed by employer. So, the little higher expenses are not disturbing me.
And, as expected (hoped), we crossed the milestone of 300K this month by just a couple of hundred. Wow, feels like a lot.

I added 2 graphics, one how the assets are divided and one showing the details of the non-regular income (interest, dividend, sales from the Craigslist equivalent).



Other December
I reported earlier my receiver-amplifier died and I was wondering how to deal with that in an ERE manner. Well, I told someone and it turns out he had a "spare" one. It was doing nothing already for some years. So I got it and its working. Looks like an ERE methode to me.

Furthermore, I really enjoyed this month. I met some great people at the ERE meeting Toronto. Even though it was just few hours, it was really nice. Also at the day trip I made when I was there I met some nice people.
And during the week I met some coworkers I hadn't seen for a long time (or even at all). Went out some nights with some of them and although I'm mostly quite introvert, I didn't feel like this then. This was probably because I felt really comfortable with these people. I had some holidays at the end of December, saw family and enjoyed it as well.

Forecast January
We will pay our health insurance for the whole of 2014 in January. This will double our average monthly expenses.
I don't know yet if it I will "correct" it for 12 months in my statistics or just keep it as it is. Actually it's not very important, it's just statistics.

I am now for another business trip in Hong Kong. I like it, but I know also it will be a busy time for me. I am already behind with work because of the holidays and I know from previous cases I will get more behind when traveling, sigh. Anyway, I know I will "survive" and I look forward to a couple of holidays at the end of this trip.

The one year traveling idea
We have a wild plan to travel for a year with the family in about 3.5 years. We hope/target to have about 500K by then, that is "only" about 2/3 to be FI for us, but it would be the best moment for the kids-school. So it's very tempting, but on the other hand a bit scary as it might take much more time to complete our path to FI when we return and much more stressful to find and take on other jobs.

One idea to overcome this is to see if my employer will agree I'll work remote and (much) less hours for 1 year. I’m thinking to work just like 8 or 16 hours a week maximum during that year. That will be enough to cover all costs for the year (together with the income of our assets). And this way I will be able to return back to Full Time working with this company after the year. I think I will have enough leverage and credibility to get something like this arranged. On the other hand, a lot can happen in 3.5 years work-wise and personal-wise and it's just still an idea right now. We'll see.

Education
One of the two brokers I use (interactive brokers) is holding several free webinars. I registered for a couple as I want to learn some more about investing. Even though I think I won’t like some of the subjects, I want to follow the webinars in order to be able to have a little more understanding. The webinar about dividend growth investing is one I am really eager to follow, as this is something I want to learn more about.

I am also thinking about learning something else, just for the sake of learning something new again. Coursera.org might be a good start, I am only afraid I will have difficulty to free up enough time (discipline and family priorities).

Anonymously?
I read in the other thread re. living in the car that two ERE’ers s found out they were actually working for the same company. That's weird and funny too. I don't really care too much if people I know find out about the figures and stuff I write here, but other stuff is more important to me to keep private, so I simply don't write about it. If somebody thinks he or she recognize me, not really difficult if you know me and read all the details here, please let me know . It would be nice to know who is (unexpectedly) also interested in ERE.

Thanks every for reading and shout or PM for questions!

January
Expenses: 2354
Income 5508 (5363 regular income, 145 CL sales)
Savings ratio 57% (average 12 months 62%)

Expenses: the government stopped the benefit we get for using day-care after school a few times in the week. I only wanted to change it from 3 to 2 days, so we don’t needed to pay back a lot later, but somehow they stopped completely. Therefore our expenses are a bit higher than they actually are. It should be corrected in the coming months. Also I paid our medical insurance for whole 2014 at once, but I calculated it per month (I hate big swings in my savings ratio )

Income: was a bit higher for DW during working a few more hours, will be permanent (well, permanent for now). My income was a slightly lower due to changed taxation. Also I should have received a few hundred compensation from employer, but somehow they messed it up. Let’s see if they will include it in Feb…

All in all income was a few hundred lower and expenses a few hundred higher as expected, but it will be corrected in the coming months. If all would have been correct, our savings ratio would have been 62%. Still targeting to get the average savings ratio above 65% this year (the blue line below, currently fairly steady around 62-63%)




Other January
The dishwasher died. It’s too old to spend money on it. Also other parts of the kitchen are falling apart. Long story short, we need a new kitchen. We’ll spend some money on it, but trying to do it the ERE way. More about this in coming journals.

I made a short trip to a SO Asia country after my business-trip. Met some old friends and challenged myself with a great physical exercise. Really enjoyed it, but it already feels likes months ago. Cost for these days was extremely low as I could this stop as part of my business trip.

I followed some webinars and read some online about dividend growth investing. I might use this strategy for a percentage of the stock part of our PP.

We made a payment of 4K to the principal of our mortgage. It will lower our monthly expenses (just) a little bit and it's part of diversification of our total net worth. You can see the green part of the graphic above = savings accounts, is slowly getting smaller since I start this journal. More payments to the principal will follow later this year.

(Forecast) February
Nothing special (yet).

General
I read a lot here, but do not post so much. During the week I often think of something that I should include in my journal, but don’t really feel like to open up my laptop in the evenings and do it.
When it’s weekend I forgot about and/or have other things to do. Sometimes I just feel like I have too much to do, or it could be I am just too lazy

Really cool graphs! Can you teach me how to do them?
Thanks!