Quick service announcement. I really suck at this whole FIRE thing, seriously no idea what I’m doing. We first bought a million euro plus money pit and now I go back to work! So, I’m no longer Koos Werkeloos.
Credits: Pixabay
One does relate to the other…
Despite the fact that we could live in the money pit on one income. We have depleted our cash reserves quite a bit due to the renovations (which are still under budget, surprisingly) and lack of income from my end the past year. It got so bad that we only had about €4-5k left on our regular and savings accounts. That’s as little as we have had in the last 20 years. Needless to say, it didn’t feel good.
Now, due to some other developments (tax returns, passive income, investments, etc.) we are back at a more respectable €20k in cash. For some people this is a lot of money. Who am I kidding, this is a lot of money. But not enough to have at least a 6 month emergency buffer, let alone 12 months which we prefer to have if we only have one income.
There is also still some more money to be spent on the money pit. A heat pump is part of the plan for next year. And we still have about €2.500 in new high insulation glas to put into various windows. Plus a whole slew of smaller expenses to fix the place up to a good standard that should last for years.
Hence, we need more money.
New Job
I had been trying to find a new project to work on since the last one I was working on got shelved. That project still has not recommenced yet (has been on hold for more than a year by now). I therefore had to look for other prospects. This did not go very smooth. Had several interviews, some even succesful, some not. But in all cases it didn’t go through at the end. In the mean time, I continued to be my own contractor.
Credits: Pixabay
Until I got a phone call, out of the blue, from a recruiter a few weeks back, which led to an interview, and negotiations on rates. Which were succesful and I’m now scheduled to fly to a new construction project next Monday. Yay, really looking forward to it! It involves something I have not had the pleasure to do before. Since I love new challenges and acquiring new skills, I’m very excited.
The money is good too (considering the location, role/responsibilities and industry), rotation is a very acceptable 3 weeks on, 2 weeks off. All in all, a win. Albeit the only thing that sucks is the timing. The money pit is not finished yet, I have not had a real vacation in about 2 years and I’m tired. Would have been great I the start date was in September…
What to do with the money?
What are we going to do with the extra money? Besides increasing the noted cash reserves and pay for remaining renovation items. Some of the money will go into index funds, I might also start with the purchase of some dividend funds here in Europe (small positions). Furthermore I would like to fill my pilar 3 pension gap, for which we didn’t have enough cash to max out over the past two years.
Besides the renovation costs, we also need a new bed/matrasses (current ones are almost 20 years old…) some furniture and new (work) attire (I’ve lived in old rags and construction cloths for the past year). In short, most will disappear, some will be invested.
How’s your life going?