DutchGirl's journal

[DutchGirl]

My guy has been McGyvering to diagnose a leak from our bathroom.



Link: https://imgur.com/a/9JNPnl1 (in case the BBCode doesn't work).

The leak on the first floor produced a wet ceiling in our living room, and sometimes drops of water would form and fall. So the drops fall in the bucket and a microphone records each drop and a computerprogram (written by MrMcGyver himself) records the time between drops. And then he would correlate the speed of droplet formation to certain actions in the bathroom (showering, flushing the toilet etc).

Turns out the leak is in the tubes that connect the sink AND the washing machine drainage to the general drainage system. The shower and toilet are downstream from the leak, so we CAN continue to take showers (ERE people who will see me tomorrow in Amsterdam will be relieved to know), but we CANNOT wash our hands or brush our teeth upstairs (will do so downstairs) and we might want to limit the usage of the washing machine until we can have the problem fixed.

We will have the problem fixed by professionals because generally speaking we're not people who build their own bathroom.

[rube]

Wow, that is really a sophisticated way of locating the leak. You might not be the people who build you own bathroom, but you probably avoided a lot of unneccesary work done by professionals.

[delay]

Right click the image in Imgur and choose "Copy Image Address" (exact words vary by browser), and you get an URL like "https://i.imgur.com/HBBjGC5.png" you can use here:

[DutchGirl]

Ah, Delay, thanks! I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. So it wasn't the BBCode but I copied the wrong image address from imgur.

And Rube, for sure: we already paid 55 euros to a guy who works as a leak specialist, he diagnosed that the leak was in the shower and that the shower drainage ( & floor) needed to be redone, but my guy didn't believe him which is how the whole project started.

We'll talk to a contractor on Monday that friends of ours have used, see what we can and want to do about it. (Fix problem & replace part of the floor? Fix problem & replace whole floor now that we're at it?).

[DutchGirl]

So for nerds here... my guy made a computer program to plot the time between two drops from the ceiling.


The lines were added later.
Before this recording started I had risen, flushed the toilet, washed my hands at the sink and taken a shower - and then we noticed the ceiling dripping, and so some time later my guy started recording the time between drips.
In the time period between the red lines he showered (potential source of the problems #1), between the green lines he flushed the toilet ten times (potential source of the problems #2) and then in the time period between the dark blue lines he opened the tap of the sink and let it run (ding ding ding ding ding - actual source of the leakage).

[singvestor]

Impressive applied tech skills, I am impressed!

[mountainFrugal]

This is a great experiment and data visualization.

[figmenter]

It stands to reason that the leak is directly above the spot in the ceiling. Try triangulating the same spot on the upper floor to see where you will probably need to open up the floor.

[DutchGirl]

The contractor will come by on Thursday. We don't know for sure how the drains are positioned in the bathroom floor (as there are no plans or pictures in our possession of their positions), but we think the drain runs from the washing machine to the sink and then there's a 90 degree angle and the drain runs towards the toilet and then the shower. And it's leaking at that 90 degree angle (probably there's a connection there that is faulty). And yes, Figmenter, that is also where the spot is on the ceiling. However, in the beginning we were afraid that the water might be running some distance in our ceiling before leaking out. That does not seem to be the case.

[DutchGirl]

So my plan to not pay any income tax this year... I have to think hard whether I can and want to pull it off.

Because, surprise surprise: I'm earning too much income this year. It will be around 54k euros pretax or so, which isn't a lot. But beyond about the first 25k, our income is taxed*, and so I would have to lower that 54k pretax income to 25k, using deductions. I'm not in the US, so I don't have a standard deduction, but I am allowed to deduct mortgage interest, retirement contributions and charitable gifts*. I've got an 6k mortgage interest deduction, I put 10k in my individual retirement account and I've made about 6k of charitable gifts so far.

So I'm still like 7k of deductions short. I've estimated that if I leave it like this, I will still owe about 3k of taxes. Not a high amount or percentage on 54k of income here in the NL, but still not the 0 I actually want to pay. I'm maxed out on eligible retirement contributions and I won't pay more mortgage interest, but I could donate 7k more to eligible charities and truly pay 0/0%. Normally, spending 7k to save 3k would be madness, but maybe I am mad enough at this terrible** government we've got now to do it, at least for this year (and hopefully the cracks that are already showing in the collaboration of political parties that forms this government will lead to its self-destruction in early 2025 so that I don't have to repeat this next year).

I'm going to do some more soul-searching. My deadline would be Dec 31, so practically I should have made my decision by Dec 14 or so.

* actual tax rules are slightly more complicated, criteria apply for the deductions to be eligible, but this is the gist of it for me.
** bad things that happened so far: some environmental laws have been cancelled, the government tried to declare a national crisis over immigration (very dangerous nonsense) and tax benefits for the rich that were about to expire have been mercifully extended.

[loutfard]

You just illustrated to me once more how Belgium is the world labour taxation champion:
- no mortgage interest deduction
- charitable contributions capped to 10% of gross
- voluntary retirement contributions capped to 1k€/year and only in extremely high fee funds
- 30% standard deduction for non-itemisers capped to ~5k€/year
- 42.8% tax from 15k€ gross, 48.15% from 27k€ gross, 53.5% from 46k€ gross (excluding social security contributions)

[NewBlood]

- 42.8% tax from 15k€ gross, 48.15% from 27k€ gross, 53.5% from 46k€ gross (excluding social security contributions)

Daaaaamn! I thought things were bad here, but that's insane.

[DutchGirl]

Loutfard: that's a lot indeed.

Seems like in our countries it's extra beneficial to be able to live on less: you'll need less income, so you'll pay less in income tax. If you buy less things, you'll also pay less sales tax. (And you need less assets, so lower asset tax and/or capital gains taxes, too). Frugal living is the way to go...

[loutfard]

Seems like in our countries it's extra beneficial to be able to live on less: you'll need less income, so you'll pay less in income tax. If you buy less things, you'll also pay less sales tax. (And you need less assets, so lower asset tax and/or capital gains taxes, too). Frugal living is the way to go...

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement.

[DutchGirl]

I hope they are that!

In my country I see some (richer) people complain about the high tax burden and while yes, it would be nice if it was lower - although I also still want at least the same government services and safety nets in place that we have now - I do see that way out that is just spending (much) less. Bartering and trading and DIY'ing will help with that, too. So basically the ERE lifestyle.

At my workplace, things are getting easier, and my co-worker who was out of work for more than a year is now really returning to work, currently I think she's at about 75% of her full work schedule. Our interim manager also thinks that by December 15, we will be finished with the work and all patients will be taken care of by other healthcare organisations. So for now it looks like every week going forward I will work less and less hours at this workplace as my co-worker levels up and the patients slowly leave for other healthcare providers.

I've already worked less hours these last two weeks and I notice that I'm finally feeling on top of things again, when it comes to the household at least. It seems like my true priorities are 1. work, 2. household basics. 3. to be determined. Ha. I'm writing this at the kitchen table which has three piles of papers, two piles of library books, one electronic apparatus from my resident IT person, scissors, and one empty plate. So when I say household basics I truly mean household basics. Household perfection is much lower on the list of priorities.
I do feel slightly more rested now than I felt a few weeks ago. Maybe my anemia is also improving? But I will check that again with some blood work in about three weeks.

[bos]

After my studies, I worked part-time in the Netherlands for a year. I worked two days a week and earned around 28K. I paid hardly any tax, but got all the allowances like healthcare and rent allowance. On paper you are "poor". If I had worked 1 day more, I would have had received almost the same amount of money, because the allowances would go away.

[loutfard]

After my studies, I worked part-time in the Netherlands for a year. I worked two days a week and earned around 28K. I paid hardly any tax, but got all the allowances like healthcare and rent allowance. On paper you are "poor". If I had worked 1 day more, I would have had received almost the same amount of money, because the allowances would go away.

Shortly after my wife just started working full-time, she got a 600€/month gross raise. That resulted in 120€/month net.

[bos]

Shortly after my wife just started working full-time, she got a 600€/month gross raise. That resulted in 120€/month net.

Exactly! Barista FIRE is very attractive in west. It makes total sense that The Netherlands has the highest amount of part-time workers in the world

[DutchGirl]

So I got a bit bored this last week. My co-worker has been working three full days per week now, and the workload is lower, so eventually it turned out I worked only 10 hours this week, spread out over three days. On Monday we went to visit my MIL and did some administrative chores for her, and during the week I had a few health and dental checkups (everything okay), so I spent some hours on those appointments, but by Friday I felt rested and got a bit bored, ha ha. On the upside: finally more free time, again!

Next week I'll have two meetings about my work future: one with the HR manager of my current workplace who has an obligation to help me find new work (it's part of the deal that the unions struck with my employer - if the employer has to downsize, they have to help the employees affected find a new job internally or externally, they don't have to guarantee that they'll find you a new job but they have to put in some effort). And one with the HR manager at my other workplace who might be able to offer me more work hours there - which would be a way to "solve the problem" for me of having to find me a new job.

So I'm also thinking about it, myself. I'm of course in the very nice position of not having to panic at all about this job loss. By the end of 2024, my net worth will probably have grown 11-13% since January (most of this due to the stock market). I might want to keep working for say 10-16 hours per week, to provide some income and to provide some challenges & entertainment & structure. I'll see in the upcoming week what the HR managers have to offer.
PS also really really nice to not have to worry at all about the job loss, I'm thankful and happy about that.

[delay]

Thanks for your journal update! You wrote about the end of your current job a long time ago, so I suppose it is no surprise. You can wait for HR to help you, or your other job to scale you up. I guess when I was made redundant, I took the passive approach as well... a LinkedIn recruiter found me a new job. Reading your story, it seems you could also choose for yourself what you want, and actively try to make that happen. What makes you prefer the passive approach?