August 2016 – net worth and expenses
This month looks like an impressive jump (+8 %), but over 21k of the gains is from terminating a pension contract. I will be terminating another one at the end of the year and two more next year. All of these will lead to around 600 Euros less in expenses! We do not need this money with 65, we need it now. The less we spent, the more we can save and the earlier we can reach financial independence.
- brokerage accounts 280.6k (+0.9k)
- ETFs 8.7k (+0.8k)
- cash 59.7k (+34.9k)
- alternative investments 19.9k (-11.0k)
- taxes -27.3k
- total 341.6k (+25.3k) [+8.0%]
My goal for the end of the year is 360k. This means I need to make around 4k each month with our investments. This is possible, but the market has to cooperate. 😀
Monthly Expenses
- January 2.8k
- February 2.6k
- March 3.4k
- April 3.7k
- May 3.3k
- June 3.2k
- July 2.9k
- August 2.6k
August was a quiet month – I like it like that. We bought some stuff, so even below 2.5k would have been possible. We have a vacation coming for September (and a lot of driving), so I’m afraid we might be over 3k again.
Camper Van Saving Account
- July 2.2k (monthly savings 37 Euros)
- August 2.6k (monthly savings 165 Euros)
Like I hoped last month, this month our no-longer-expenses have 3 digits (almost 165 Euros). The next big jumps will come in 2017.
EurFI - European way to Financial Independence 
spaarolifantje 22:59 on 2016-09-02 Permalink |
Are there disadvantages to terminating pension contracts? Do you have to pay fees? Or lose tax benefits?
Personally, I’m in the Netherlands and I’m using my retirement investing options to fund my life after official retirement age, because using those accounts gives me nice tax benefits (42% of the investments are returned to me at tax time). Besides that, I also invest outside of retirement accounts to fund my life before official retirement age.
So I see my retirement as two time periods: one before official retirement age, to be funded from regular investments and savings, and one after official retirement age, to be funded by social security and my official retirement accounts.
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eurfi 10:59 on 2016-09-03 Permalink |
These were private contracts, a blend between investing and insurance. For a lack of a better word I called it “pension contracts”.
They have a very high fees, so it was a mistake signing them in the first place. But this was years ago and I didn’t know better back then. Today I would never sign them in the first place.
The gains were tax free, but what benefit is this if the gains are minuscule?
I could approach it like you: early retirement and regular retirement. I’m aiming for not touching principle. So I would like to generate 2k per month in income, without selling stocks or ETFs. Then regular retirement income (which we will also get) is nice, but not important. I would rather have the money now, instead of in 25 years.
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