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Ignite your FIRE

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Ignite your FIRE

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Category: The simple life

Philosophy

What I learned from The Karate Kid

  • By That Guy
  • Sep 22,2020
  •  ♦ 2

Be warned! – This post is going to be filled with pocket philosophy, puns, clichΓ©s and bad punchlines from the ’80s!  If you’re and ’80s kid like myself, you probably know Daniel LaRusso (Daniel-san) and Mr. Miyagi from the movie “The Karate Kid” (played by Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita). I used to love those…

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Philosophy

Do you make decisions with your head or your heart?

  • By That Guy
  • Jun 15,2020
  •  ♦ 4

The last few weeks I’ve spent some time on one of my favorite activities; browsing for cars. The lease is up on my car by the end of this month, and even though I’ve proclaimed on several occasions that I was now going to bike to work, it’s just not very practical when you also…

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Reviews & Howtos

5 (free) ways to keep in touch during a lockdown

  • By That Guy
  • Mar 25,2020
  •  ♦ 0

Hello dear readers and followers of the Total Balance household! While we all try to practice safe “Social distancing” these days (to break the chain of infection from the dreaded Corona virus dubbed Covid-19), there are ways to remain social, without being close to one another! Thanks to the great invention of The Internet (and…

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The simple life

A tribute to TEoW

  • By That Guy
  • Nov 13,2019
  •  ♦ 3

Behind every (great) man is a great woman (rolling her eyes)… This is a tribute to my (eye rolling) wife. Because she doesn’t get enough credit for her hard work every day, taking care of our family. I figured it was only appropriate to use the voice of my alter ego to thank her properly….

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Reviews & Howtos

A lazy mans guide to budgeting

  • By That Guy
  • Oct 18,2019
  •  ♦ 4

I know. It was bound to happen eventually, right? – “How to do x-y-z” is the most boring blog posts of them all. I do believe we even refer to them as “filler posts”. Something we use to fill the void between the good stuff, right? – But not this guy! I’m here to tell…

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Health & Fitness

Why I rarely get on a scale

  • By That Guy
  • Apr 29,2019
  •  ♦ 5

We’ve had a lot of “money talk” lately. I feel it’s time to dig into a little “personal wealth” as well, if you catch my drift!? Part of the journey to FIRE is also a spiritual journey, in where you (most of us) try to find your inner balance along the way. What makes you…

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Reviews & Howtos

How to hack your charity donations

  • By That Guy
  • Apr 5,2019
  •  ♦ 0

If you’ve ever walked down a busy shopping street, odds are that you at one point or another, have been solicited by one of those annoying street “sales-people”, who will try to convince you to support <insert worthy cause here>. When I was living in the city (in my 20’s) this happened to me quite…

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Saving money

Confessions of a Shopaholic

  • By That Guy
  • Mar 27,2019
  •  ♦ 1

“Hi, I’m Nick and I’m a shopaholic”. OK that might be a little overly dramatic. I was never really a shopaholic. But like most of our society, I had bought into the fact that buying stuff = good! When you click that BUY-NOW button on Ebay, it instantly release a shot of dopamine in your…

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The FIRE

Show me your budget (and I’ll tell you who you are)

  • By That Guy
  • Mar 19,2019
  •  ♦ 18

Much like your clothes, your friends, your pet(s) and your means of transportation says something about who you are, so does your budget… When I talk to people about my FIRE project (it happens a lot, according to my wife), they often react as though I’ve just told them that they can’t have coffee again….

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Shower toughts

Lost & Found

  • By That Guy
  • Jan 25,2019
  •  ♦ 5

So, last week I made a bold statement, and accused my wife of stealing my stones (No, not those! – But I like the way you think! πŸ˜› )… It turned out that I still had them! They were tucked away in one of those moving boxes that you never get around to unpack (we…

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The FIRE

Hi, I’m Nick!

I’m working towards becoming financially independent – while still living as “normal” a life as possible.

You can follow my progress towards financial freedom and early retirement here.

My Total Balance Progress

My Total Balance goal is €400.000 (for now...).

€102.133 / €400.000 (25,53%) 25%
What's yours?

Recent Comments

  • P2035 on Monthly Update #26 (October 2020) – Government support
  • That Guy on Monthly Update #26 (October 2020) – Government support
  • Wednesday Reads: Soul - Dr FIRE on New lessons learned (analyzing my returns from 2007-2020)
  • P2035 on New lessons learned (analyzing my returns from 2007-2020)
  • That Guy on New lessons learned (analyzing my returns from 2007-2020)
  • Alex on New lessons learned (analyzing my returns from 2007-2020)

Recent Posts

  • Monthly Update #30 (February 2021) – Dejavu
  • Monthly Update #29 (January 2021) – Full Throttle
  • New lessons learned (analyzing my returns from 2007-2020)
  • The goals for 2021
  • Monthly Update #28 (December 2020) – Return of the Jedi
  • Monthly Update #27 (November 2020) – The Force Awakens

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Disclaimer

I’m not a financial advisor. The content that you read on this blog is my own personal preference, and is merely intended as inspiration for you to pursue your own goals and dreams.

Consider the content here as entertainment, not as investment advice. Should you choose to invest based on something I wrote, I implore you to do your own research and consider your own risk profile, before you invest your money in anything.

Top Posts & Pages

  • Monthly Update #30 (February 2021) – Dejavu
  • How your personality dictates your return
  • The (Shockingly) Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
  • HOWTO: Transfer money fast and free of charge
  • Opportunity cost
  • The goals for 2021
  • A night out - with Imbro
  • Monthly Update #29 (January 2021) – Full Throttle
  • Monthly Update #5 (January 2019) - The Return of Mr. Self-Pity
  • Gambling vs. Calculated risk

Categories

  • Beginner series (2)
  • Dilemmas & Paradoxes (10)
  • Goals & Dreams (15)
  • Health & Fitness (1)
  • Investments (27)
  • Market outlook (5)
  • Monthly updates (30)
  • Philosophy (16)
  • Reviews & Howtos (13)
  • Saving money (15)
  • Shower toughts (20)
  • Strategy (18)
  • The FIRE (24)
  • The simple life (11)
  • Thought experiments (3)
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