F**k you money!

One of the inspiration of achieving financial independancy is best summarized by “John Goodman”.

Have a great weekend everyone. And again. Mr Bankman. See above!!

Kill the cashcow, my financial strucuture!

I’m the cashcow!

As things are finally starting to wind down (At least that is what I am telling myself) I have some time to update the bloggidy. A lot is still happening around work, renovation and life itself, but I would like to talk about a certain thing that has happened during the last month. I got a nice little mail in the post box, which is kind of rare these days, regarding renegotiating the rate rebate I have on my mortgage. It is something you usually do in Sweden ones a year if you have a floating rate., which I have. It is something I have previously done ok with and I am happy with the current rate I am paying. 1,4%. I know that there people with even better rates out there and of course I feel motivated to do an even better negotiation this time around.

So I start gathering my amounts and preparing myself with as much data as possible before I contact my bank. This is something that will affect my finances for a whole year so I take it quite seriously. As I go through everything I can see that my finance are looking a lot better compared to last year. So I am convinced that I must be doing better this time around even though I did quite alright last time.

Busy in May

Wow, it’s been a hectic month so far. There’s been a lot happening at work that required a lot of late nights as well as still working on the renovation of the apartment happening at the same time. It sometimes feel like nothing happens even though I spend a lot of my time in the apartment working as soon as I’m off from work. This has left very little time for posting on the blog, which I apologize for. Short term I won’t have much more time either but I will try to prioritize the blog a little bit more. Multi tasking for the win!

So this is a small post where I just wanted to update you that I’m still here. Just keeping focused on work, renovation and family life. Work is very busy and as you can read on previous posts, it’s something I’m not currently happy about. I really need a change in this. Family life is strained as a lot of time is spent at work or renovating. Of course I would love to spend more time in this column and the goal is to amend this as soon as possible. Renovation is still going forward. I plan to be done before the end of May. There will be smaller things that needs fixing over the year but all the major things should be done.

The change that never happend

So, in a previous post I talked about my job having some interesting opportunities regarding different roles in a new organization. I saw this as a possibility to find something more interesting and challenging to do as I currently lack some of the key motivations you need in order to do a great job. So how did it go?

Well, I had some really interesting interviews about some very interesting roles. I also had a lot of fun. I’ve forgotten how fun it can be sometimes to have interviews. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed. So how did it go then? Did I get a new job?

My net worth April

Updating my current net worth below. All I can say is that it’s been a hectic month with a lot of building going on with my current renovation. It’s taking up a lot of my time and leads to less posting on the blog, I would like to apologize for that. But for now, let’s move on to the numbers.

Assets. 
1. Apartment – 2.200.000 SEK ( 275.000 USD), I am currently on the fence on this one, I don’t know if I should add anything on this since I’m currently pouring in money into this apartment.

2. Cash – 10.500 SEK (1.300 USD), A lot of the cash has gone into the renovation. Almost 40.000  over the month on different expenses. I really don’t like seeing the money go, but at least it’s for a good cause.

3. Stocks – 219.468 SEK (27.771 USD), I recieved some dividend this month of about 1000 USD. But the stocks correct itself as soon as the dividends are paid out, and no major change happened during this month. A slight decrease in the value of around 3.000 sek. Nothing that lifts my eye brow.

Total Assets: 2.429.968 SEK (303.746 USD) So my total asset column went down a bit. Mostly caused by the cashflow going outwards to the renovation. I expect this will pay itself back later and then some. Lets continue.

Change brings opportunity.

So I’m at a point in my working career in which I feel a bit tired at what I’m doing. I have way to much un-interesting reports to do and nothing to really challenge me. Usually, this is when you should start looking around for something else to do. I am not afraid of changing the company I work for as long as I see something more interesting out there. I don’t really believe that loyalty to a company is rewarded nowadays as much as it was before. The only persons interest you should think about is yourself, as no one else really will.

In this case, something interesting is happening. The change is coming to me, or rather, the company I work for. It has been sold to another major player in the same industry. This has led to an interesting opportunity for us. There will be a merge of the company and there will be a new organization structure. In this new structure there are some new roles in the finance department that I work in. What happened next is probably not a unique thing, but quite a oppertunity. We get to apply for our own jobs, in the new structure, but not only our own job, we can add another two jobs on a wish list and apply for them as well. Of course, it didn’t take me long to find two other roles that would be a step up for me. I have already had my interviews and I have to say that it sounds a lot more interesting compared to what I’m doing at the moment.

It’s a hardknock life for us!

So just wanted to quickly update the blog with a small post. I’ve been a bit busy lately with a renovation project. It’s a lot of hard work, but I’m making quick progress.

The renovation is part of a possible side hustle idea that I will talk about in the blog in the future. For now, I’ll tease you with a picture of a hard working Finance things in Life!

Cheers

Mr. FinancethingsinLife

The “Bulletproof” portfolio!

The “resist all storms” portfolio. The SGBC portfolio.

I’d like to show that there are of course a different strategy of investing out there than the one I am using. For the more timid investor out there I would suggest using the bulletproof portfolio. In simple terms, this portfolio should perform well in all type of market conditions, no matter if the markets are going up or down.

How is this possible you ask? Well, the portfolio is divided in four equal parts. The first consist of Shares, the second part is Gold, third part is Bonds and final part is Cash. In short the SGBC portfolio.

By dividing the portfolio into these four parts you should get parts that behave differently and independently from each other. For instance, shares do very well when the economy is going up and the market is bullish. If the market and economy turns downwards, gold and silver usually does a lot better. When one part becomes bigger then the other parts, you will re-balance the portfolio and use the profit from one group (Sell high) to buy into the other groups (buying low). It makes it easier for the beginning investor to create a “safer” portfolio that leads to a more stable value increase curve.

Which basket should you put the eggs in?

How do you diversify your investments?

The first step in investing is understanding what type of investments are available out there. It can be different depending on where you live and what kind of income you have. Although, in today’s market you will have a lot of options, some would even say limitless amount of options.

So what kind of investments are there? If we try to summarize the most popular and common ones you have, Shares, Gold, Real estate, P2P lending, Bonds, and even Art. The goal with investing for me, and for all of us, is to find an asset that will increase in value.

These forms of assets are well-known and most recognized as investments in the financial market, but there are other ways of investing in things out there. For instance Bitcoin and other electronic currencies. For now, we will focus on the main investment tools out there.

My net worth March

So another month is over. March was cold and a bit uneventful on a personal level, other then a nasty cold that’ve kept me from working out the last two weeks. Alot happening at work but that’s for another post. Let us see how I fared money wise and if things are moving along the right way.

Assets. 
1. Apartment – 2.200.000 SEK ( 275.000 USD), No real change this month, trying to stay conservative even though the Real Estate market is blowing up in Sweden.

2. Cash – 48.600 SEK (5.720 USD), saved another 5.600 SEK this month.

3. Stocks – 222.000 SEK (28.125 USD), markets are going up and down this month – 3.000 SEK. April should bring some dividends for last years results, so I’m excited to see how much it will be. I estimated that it’s slightly above $1.000.

Total Assets: 2.470.600 SEK (308.825 USD) Not a huge change here, but atleast it’s going in the right direction.

Liabilities

1. Mortgage – 1.836.388 (229.500 USD) Monthly amortization of 2.200 SEK.

2. P-loan – 26.668 (3.333 USD) Monthly amortization of about 800 SEK

Total Liabilities:  1.863.056  (233.437 USD) Lowered another 3.000 SEK this month.

My net worth: 607.544 (75.943 USD). I increased my Net Worth this month with almost $1.000. It’s been a slow month. I hope to have added to this nr a lot more than I have so far. I think next month will be worse actually. The month includes an easter trip down to my family and friends. Also, I have plans to start renovating my apartment. That will cost me quite a few bucks. Even though I plan to do most of the work myself. I don’t mess with the electricity though. Stay tuned for an exciting renovation project.

Easter starts after today so I want to wish you all a happy Easter. May the easter bunny bring you lots of candy (That’t the Swedish tradition, I think we consume about 4 pounds/2 kg of candy during this holiday).