Life has been fun (new post “How to un-fire yourself: France Road Trip” is pending) and entertaining lately, hence planning a meetup got put on the backburner. But I’ve been getting multiple emails to do one again. So, here are the details for the upcoming October 2024 Fire Meetup! Where? I’ve been scouting La Place locations for a while now. Finding one that is reachable by both public transport and car, has long opening hours, has enough space to facilitate 20-25 people sitting together and is not too far a drive for us (yes, I’m lazy), is surprisingly difficult! Hence, […]
Fun , Personal
Adult Life Bingo
A spoke with a colleague the other day about his new house. At some point he mentioned that his wife had completed the adult life bingo (“Grote mensen bingo”) this year. They had gotten their first kid, moved to a new house together and she landed a dream job. Their life was good and he was visibly happy. How do you win adult life bingo? His comment made me chuckle, but also triggered some thoughts about adult life bingo. What is on this bingo card? Or what should be on this bingo card? My guess is that the bingo card […]
Finances , Fun , Travel
How to Un-FIRE yourself: part 2 – Go to Paris!
In the docu-series how to un-fire yourself: Part 2 – go to Paris! A quick guide today how to un-fire oneself fast. It’s really not that difficult to be honest, one just needs to get him/herself to Paris for a few days and it magically happens by itself! How to Un-FIRE yourself It is surprisingly easy to Un-fire yourself. Buy a big house, buy spreadsheets for your finances or go to Paris. Today in this crash-course how to unload nearly €1.600 in just 5 days! How did we do that? Well, let’s have a look! Go to Paris! To start […]
Energy , Personal
Home Battery vs an Electric Car?
Before diving into todays post, quick reminder that tomorrow we will be meeting with a bunch of internet strangers and talk money in the La Place, in de Meern. Hope to see you there! In this post from not to long ago, I looked at our expiring energy contract, dynamic energy contracts and energy trading using a home battery. I got a lot of feedback on this post, primarily offline. Very useful stuff though! It actually made us think again about a few issues and risks with the home battery for trading energy. Another thing that popped up was the […]
Dividends
Q1 2024 Dividend Update
Before reviewing the Q1 2024 Dividend Update, quick reminder that there will be a FIRE meetup on April 20th near Utrecht. Hope to see you all there of course! Life has been eventful lately, and the money pit is very much improving at the moment. Albeit we are doing really well, it doesn’t look like we will be completely finished before I attempt life as a public servant. Fortunately, the new employer has a good work life balance scheme 🙂 So, I’m fairly confident that we will be able to finish the remaining works before the next winter season (works […]
Energy , Finances
Down the Energy rabbit hole
We have been somewhat loyal customers of the utility company Green Choice the past 8 years. At the time we started they had a good price for green(er) energy and some other perks that made it a no brainer for us. We extended our contracts a few times in the mean time. Coming July our 3 year contract comes to a close. Hence, we just received a new offer and we have to make a decision what to do next. But the energy market is a whole lot different today than it was 3 years ago. So I went down […]
Jobs , Personal
Becoming a Public Servant
Life is never boring in the Cheesy household. After a somewhat unexpected loss of income at the beginning of the year, I have an update! I’ve got a new job, and one as a public servant! I bet you did not see that one coming. Me neither! Why on earth am I becoming a Public Servant? Let’s review, shall we? How a FIREd Brain works… Having a nice stack of cash (and investments) makes you review your career a bit differently, In my humble opinion. Whereas in the beginning of our careers we would focus more on money and career […]
FIRE Meetup
April 2024 Fire Meetup
As promised, here are the details for the next April 2024 Fire Meetup! Where? In the spirit of the previous meetup, plan is to keep it free and at a public location. Despite La Place being a lot more expensive than I remembered (heck, I am really getting old). They have good facilities, easy access and lots of space. Hence, plan is to meet at the La Place in De Meern (west of Utrecht). Address: La Place de Meern, Meerndijk 59, 3454 HP, Utrecht When? Saturday April 20th, 2024 from 13:00 onwards until…. (closing is at 20:00) What to bring? […]
Dividends , FIRE Meetup
2023 Dividend Totals
Before diving into the 2023 Dividend Totals, I’d like to thank all the 25-ish people that showed up during the last FIRE meetup in Leiderdorp! I had a blast, I hope you did too. We even got to the point that the last 6 of us pretty much got kicked out of the La Place as it was about 30min past closing :-). Plan is do do it again, likely around April. Location and date are to be confirmed. Keep you posted! Anyhow, what did our dividend growth share do in 2023? Here is a quick overview. Dividend Income Due […]
Personal
And… back to Koos Werkeloos
Welcome to 2024 (better late then never)! First post of the year and it’s one with a bang. I lost my job… And… back to Koos Werkeloos! Job loss The story is as follows, last year we cleaned out our cash reserves in an attempt to upgrade our money pit into a home. Albeit not finished with said money pit, I did start to look for income to infuse our cash position last yeat. I was fortunate to find a decent job, on rotation basis and abroad, on an interesting project. Fast forward to 2024 and due to tightening of […]