To Stooze or not to Stooze

To Stooze or not to Stooze

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I know what you’re thinking; WTF is a Stooze!?

I’d never heard the term before either, until I started researching a nifty little trick (that I’ve been using for a while), in order to deploy “free leverage” that I used to purchase Property #1.

It turned out that the little trick had a name: Stoozing.

So, what is Stoozing then, Nick?

Stoozing: The act of taking out credit at 0% (or a low rate) and putting the money into a high interest savings account to profit from the difference in rates.

Hm. That sounds simple enough…

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Monthly Update #11 (July 2019) – The vanishing

Monthly Update #11 (July 2019) – The vanishing

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Another month has blown by, and it’s thus time for another riveting update from yours truly.

My trusty mascot, Russel the LEGO guy has unfortunately gone AWOL. My daughter claims she doesn’t know anything about it, but it’s quite obvious who’s to blame for his vanishing (unless CatZilla ate him…)!
Anyway, I’ve brought on his substitute, Olaf instead! (Who’s naturally taking the opportunity to do a bit of sunbathing!)

To no fault of Olafs, it’s been a pretty poor month, both in terms of savings and crowdlending income. Since I’ve been diversifying out of Envestio (my best earner to date), the days of €100 interest months seem to have vanished along with Russel. – But, as always – I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve 😉 Let’s see how this month turned out!

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Why you shouldn’t invest like me

Why you shouldn’t invest like me

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I’m going to be the devils advocate today, and explain why I think you shouldn’t invest like I do. It might be a bit counter-productive, but I think it’s important to own your investment strategy, and in order to truly do that, you need to explore alternative options.

My (current) strategy is based on two elements:

  1. Predictability
  2. Accountability

 
I (currently) have a set goal to reach a certain amount of money, within a certain amount of time. This means that I can track my progress (closely, as you know) every month, and make adjustments accordingly, if I somehow fall behind. My (initial) goal is outlined in this post, where I calculated that in order to reach my (current) Total Balance goal of DKK 3 mio (€400.000) in 15 years, I need to average a yearly return of 8.3% (after tax).

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Going against the stream

Going against the stream

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Last month, The Saving Ninja proposed a thought experiment, which he does every other month.

I’ve participated in his thought experiment series one time before, and then I kind of got sidetracked, so I haven’t contributed to the series since. This months (last months) topic however, really got me thinking. I know that you’re supposed to post your “answer” to the thought experiment on the same day (the 15th), so this post will not be an official “reply” to the series 😉 – But, I’m going to piggyback on it none the less (I hope that is acceptable).

A different opinion is somewhat frowned upon in our clique based society, but some of the greatest minds of all time were outliers. They weren’t scared to go against the grain and stand up for what they believed in. So, for this Thought Experiment, I’d like you to reveal yourself: What opinion do you have that most of your peers do not share?

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Monthly Update #10 (June 2019) – Robbing the bank!

Monthly Update #10 (June 2019) – Robbing the bank!

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June has flown by, and it’s thus time to look back at another record-breaking month. – Not in terms of my finances though, but the heat is breaking all sorts of records, frying the Europeans to a crisp these days!

It’s been so hot (even in Denmark) that my faithful buddy, Russel the LEGO mascot, has moved out of his green garden, and into the Frozen castle! (I cannot take credit for this – it was my daughters idea…).

Something pretty significant did actually happen in the Total Balance household this month (besides the scorching heat), as I had to “rob” the bank to pay for the final part of the Property #1 deal…

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Why I invest (heavily) in properties

Why I invest (heavily) in properties

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Faithful followers of the Total Balance blog will know that I mainly invest in properties. I recently sunk the better part of my nest egg into a single property. It is not uncommon in the FI community to invest in properties, but most FI bloggers that I follow, tend to be more invested in stocks and bonds (and crowdlending).

The reason to favor stocks, over any other asset class is quite simple: The admission ticket to this asset class is very cheap. It is also a very liquid asset class, meaning that you can “withdraw” your money from the stock market within minutes (provided that someone out there is willing to buy your shares).

Having this amount of liquidity comes at a price though; volatility. One single tweet from you-know-who, and the worlds stock markets plummet.

Having learned from past mistakes (I owned a few stocks prior to the previous financial crisis), when I decided to re-enter the investment-sphere last year, I was pretty determined, not to repeat those past mistakes.

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Bumps on the road

Bumps on the road

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A while ago, I introduced the concept of “not breaking the chain”.

In this context, I had set a goal for myself, to write at least one post per week. As avid readers would know, I’ve now in fact broken the chain… – I “missed” a post two weeks ago. Technically, I did in fact start my previous post “on schedule”, but then became occupied with other matters, and thus didn’t finish it, until a week after it should have been posted.

At first I was a little bit annoyed, but then I just decided, not to let it bother me. Small bumps on the road (of life) happens all the time. We tell our kids that it’s important to try – and fail – rather than not to try at all. Surely it must be possible, to live by this mantra, even as an adult 😉

I use the Total Balance blog, not only as an account of my journey towards Financial Independence, but also as an outlet for my thoughts, hopes and dreams. Warning: This post is of a philosophical nature 😉

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How to diversify your crowdlending portfolio

How to diversify your crowdlending portfolio

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We all know the famous quote from Warren Buffet: Diversification is protection against ignorance.

Well, admitting ignorance can also be a strength…So there! – I admit it: I’ve invested in 10 different crowdlending platforms, in hundreds of different loans to hundreds of different people/businesses of whom/which I know very little about. All I know is what the platforms (and the community) tell me. How much of this information can truly be trusted? I’m hoping the majority, but I’d be a fool to blindly trust “strangers on the Internet” 😉 – And so would you!

So don’t take my word for it! When investing in crowdlending, you need to protect yourself against (your own) ignorance. How can we best go about that, then? Well, I’ve got a few ideas that I will share with you today, dear readers 😉

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Monthly Update #9 (May 2019) – Taking the plunge!

Monthly Update #9 (May 2019) – Taking the plunge!

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Another month in the Total Balance household has flown by!

As per the standard; it’s thus time for another riveting update, on my quest towards Financial Independence.

I’m joined today by my trustworthy friend, Russel the Total Balance mascot, who in the spirit of this months headline is Taking the plunge (into a pool! – Of Money!). I apologize for the poor picture quality, but I was in a hurry – and 2 seconds after this picture was taken, Catzilla dropped by and destroyed the whole scene – so a re-take was rendered mute! HAHA!

Anyway, Catzilla and Russels shenanigans a side, this month was a pretty eventful month – so let’s get to it, shall we?!

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Finding your purpose

Finding your purpose

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It’s no secret that a lot of us (humans) often struggle to find our “reason for being” – our purpose in life.

Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? These are some of life’s hard questions, and we’ve been (probably – we can’t really know for sure) searching for the answers since the dawn of man.

As I alluded to in my last post, I too have been (still am) struggling to find my purpose. It seems so spoiled to say this, when I have everything a man could ever ask for; A nice home, a loving wife (for the most part), a beautiful daughter and a well-paying job, in an industry that keeps screaming for more employees.

This is supposed to be the dream, but somehow it’s just not enough. I feel guilty for saying it, as I know there are people around the world, who can only dream of having what I have.

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