A lazy mans guide to budgeting

A lazy mans guide to budgeting

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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 you that this IS the good stuff! Why? Because, it involves the use of technology to help me (and you) to facilitate my favorite activity: being lazy.

Thanks to the somewhat monopolized payment industry, I no longer have to lift a finger to control my spending. How is that, Nick? You might ask. Well, to be fair, the monopoly doesn’t exactly help me control my spending – but it helps me categorize my spending, which is pretty much the most important part, of budgeting…

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Crunching the numbers of Year One

Crunching the numbers of Year One

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Since I’ve now been on the path to FI for more than a year (and recently wrote a somewhat philosophical rant about my first year on FIRE) I thought I’d spend some more words, looking into how the numbers have progressed during that first year. I (somehow) managed to grow my Total Balance by more than 40%! However, only 2.5% of that came from my investments (primarily crowdlending). That’s a little weak, Nick! You can do better than that!

Well, as always those numbers don’t tell the whole truth, in that I’ve made a big investment, which doesn’t pay out until the year 2023. I also have a substantial investment with Bulkestate, which doesn’t pay monthly interests, so there’s a bit of a “backlog” here, waiting to be paid out in Q4-2019. I also made a small investment with Brickshare, which is not scheduled to pay dividends until Q1-2020.

BUT, if we look at my property #1 investment and imagine that instead of a big payout in 2023 (which is currently the schedule) I’d get smaller installment payments from year 2020, the numbers certainly paint a different picture!

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Monthly Update #13 (September 2019) – Business as usual

Monthly Update #13 (September 2019) – Business as usual

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Another month, another update from yours truly! 😉

I threw out a little teaser in my “One year later” post, and promised that a little excitement was on the horizon for the coming months. Well, the excitement is still in the making, so it won’t be until next months update that I can reveal, what I’ve been up to 😉

I will say this though; Brickshare announced a new project in September (in Vanløse), and they have another one on the ramp (Rødovre). I plan to invest in both. How, Nick?! You have no cash! Oh ye of little faith; where there is a will, there is a way – and I have a way 😉

Anyway that’s for next months update! Let’s have a look at what happened in the Total Balance household in September.

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One year later

One year later

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I wrote my first post on the 25th of September 2018, which makes today my blogs first birthday (I also started to get those domain renewal reminders a few weeks ago).

Much like real babies, it takes some work before they actually come out – so obviously the blog started way before that – but I figure it’s fair to consider the day of the first post, as the “official birthday” 😛

Since that first post 1 year ago, I have published more than 50 articles and received more than 300 comments (thanks for the support guys, I really appreciate it!) from over 4000 visitors. I know these stats might not be very impressive in the professional blog-o-sphere, but to me they are pretty awesome. I really didn’t have any expectations, going into this whole blogging universe, so seeing that people actually read my ramblings (on a regular basis!) has been one of the best parts of this journey so far. I love all my readers, so thank you all for reading 🙂

Lets look back at what happened in my first year on FIRE…

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Monthly Update #12 (August 2019) – Goodbye Summer, hello September!

Monthly Update #12 (August 2019) – Goodbye Summer, hello September!

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Welcome to my Monthly update #12. The 1-year anniversary month of the Total Balance blog has arrived!

I wrote my first post on totalbalance.blog on the 25th of September 2018! So, I will save the birthday celebrations for another 25 days (give or take). This is a monthly update, so let’s focus on the month of August, for now? 😉

Astute followers will probably have noticed that it’s been a while since my monthly update has included an updated LEGO-model of my Total Balance progress (which I started a while back). The reason for this is quite simple: I ran out of bricks…In the search for 2nd hand bricks I realized that LEGO’s aren’t cheap! Spending €20-€30/month on bricks, JUST to model my progress, would kind of undermine my current measly crowdlending income, of around €100/month. And since my (not so) trustworthy mascot, Russel the LEGO guy has gone AWOL anyway (my daughter magically made him disappear), I figured it might be time to lay off the LEGO’s for a while.

And thus, a new era of the Monthly updates can commence! 😀

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Why to use multiple banks and payment services

Why to use multiple banks and payment services

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According to a study, recently conducted by the independent danish bank advisor mybanker.dk, only 48% of the danish population is a customer in more than one bank. Historically, the danish bank customers are very loyal too. 60% of them have been a customer in their current bank, for more than 10 years.

It probably comes as no surprise to my readers that I’m not part of those 60%. I have accounts in 5 different banks (6 if you count Revolut as a bank), and I regularly switch bank (according to my wife, I switch bank as often as I switch my underwear and my job. That’s not entirely accurate, but it’s close! 😛 ).

When I told my sister-in-law about this, she immediately asked the obvious question: BUT WHY?! (she obviously only has 1 bank, and she’s been with that bank for more than 10 years)

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Why consistency (and time) is the only thing you need to become a decent investor

Why consistency (and time) is the only thing you need to become a decent investor

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That’s right. You heard it here first (not really), people! The main trait you really need to become a decent investor, is time and consistency.

We’ve all heard (or read) the term “Time in the market beats timing the market”. I’m not a big fan of this saying to be honest, but I understand the message that it’s supposed to convey;

If you have money that you are willing to invest, do it now rather than later.

It doesn’t matter which asset(s) you choose to invest your money in – as long as you believe it will yield a decent return (and compound on a regular basis, preferably). As long as you invest in something you’re better off than if you invest in nothing (or worse; buy new cars and expensive gadgets on a regular basis 😛 ).

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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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