Category Archives: Investing

Monthly Update – Real Estate Rumble & The Cash Flow Index

Posted in Financial Independence, Investing, Real Estate by

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Many who seek the freedom through FIRE are loving the way of slow life. Not having the urge to tick every box, the hassle when you go out, or the need to plan everything due the limited time you have available. January is one of those months where it feels like the daily life is getting by slowly. Then again, after the speed lane called December.  Everything feels like a slow month. It’s just getting back to normal.

You could question how normal our lives really are. Everybody working their way to financial independence aren’t doing the ‘normal stuff’. They take side-routes, alternative ways and think of new methods to ditch the 9-to-5 route a lot of ‘normal’ people are taking.

Three years ago that side-route opened up for us as well. Starting with index trackers, then entering dividend growth investing. And now… Real estate investors working on growing that not so passive income.

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Monthly Dividend and Real Estate Update – December 2017

Posted in Dividend, Investing, Real Estate by

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The motivation that drives us to financial independence is the will to create a different life for ourselves. Different from the status quo, and one where we are in better control of how and on what we spend our time. To pursue total freedom and independence of somebody you have to work for in order to get money. And one of the most important question for many FIRE seekers is: what are you going to do post-FIRE? Since that is where you’ll path will lead you. 

This question has kept me busy for a while, and so far the best answer I got is: doing more of whatever we want to. It could literally be anything, as long as it is of value to us. Not very concrete, but then again we would just do more of the things we love and less of the things we don’t.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old,
but on building the new”

– Socrates 

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Finally, Dutch Personal Finance Apps Are Coming

Posted in Investing, Money by

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Photo byRodion Kutsaev

There are numerous tools and apps that help you get insight into your finances, help you with investing or even in saving more money. The only downside is that most of them, like Capital One, Acorns, and Mint are only directed to the US markets. It looks like most financial innovations are happening overseas, at least for the convenience of the regular consumer. 

We are a country that makes a lot of use of online banking (namely 83% of the Dutch population), have several companies that are disrupting the markets – Bunq, MoneYou, Knab, one new investing app called Bux, but limited availability of financial apps and digital services as it comes to our personal finances. How could this be in a country where digital innovation is so highly regarded? And where FinTech is a booming business? 

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Monthly Update November 2017 – The Portfolio & Big Life Changes

Posted in Investing by

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With the Christmas carols already jingling from the radio stations, and the cold freezing your fingers in the morning. You know the end of the year is very close.

With only one month to go, we will mark this year in many different ways. The biggest one – investment wise – has been our sell-off of the stock portfolio. We’ve changed our vision and strategy on investing completely, and therefore made some choices that will have a big impact on our lives moving forward. Instead of turning our savings towards dividend investing, we are now committed to real estate investing.

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From Dividend Investor to Real Estate Mogul

Posted in Investing, Real Estate by

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We’ve been growing, nurturing and analyzing our dividend stock portfolio since 2014. And the results have far than exceeded the expectations we had at the start of this journey a little over 3 years ago. But to all good things has to come to an end sooner or later. And in this case, it’s definitely sooner. Our dividend stocks are no more. We’ve sold the whole bunch 3 days ago. I want to give all of you an update on what exactly happened, but even more than that. Our whole vision and strategy of investing, FIRE and life have been transformed at such a fast pace, now would be the best time to present our new plans.

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Monthly Dividend & Real Estate Update – October 2017

Posted in Dividend, Investing by

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October has always been an interesting month. Winter time is officially upon us, as the clock has been set back one hour on this side of the pond. And gradually, we transition into darker evenings and colder weather. And you just know that the biggest festive season is shortly upon us.

On the financial side, our last month has been quite steady. We signed the deed for our HELOC loan, which we will use (partially) for our first real estate deal. We also received the definitive offer on the mortgage for our second RE deal. And we’re setting up some things for the months to come, like a small renovation for unit #2, finding tenants and broadening our real estate network.  Continue reading →

Becoming a Landlord – Rental Property #1

Posted in Investing, Real Estate by

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Seasoned real estate investors always say that you never forget your first deal. I hope this will be no different for us.

You’ll hope you have done everything right, didn’t overlook a small yet critical flaw or if you have used the right calculations. The practical side of things in real estate is not a mere waiting game. Getting in touch with a party to finalize a mortgage or another type of loan to fund the property. Finding a tenant that will move in as quick as possible and in doing so, reduce the time of vacancy. Make all the contracts in order. And if you want to, finding a trusting partner that manages everything for you. It’s this, and much more than you’ll face within real estate investing. Which is all part of the fun of course. 

In the past few weeks, months even, you have all been reading along on the journey we took buying our very first rental property, also known as unit #1. 

We’ve dropping some progress here and there in our monthly reports, and promising a full detailed report later on. Well, here it is. Today is the day I’m letting you in on how this deal has taken form. With all facts and figures, going the full monty.

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Monthly Portfolio Update – September 2017

Posted in Dividend, Investing, Real Estate by

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Yet again the month has come to an end. In the last update, I was pleased with the enormous progress we’ve made in such little time. Well, apparently we have surpassed our expectations again. Not only did we move a little closer to us owning our first rental property. We stepped up the game even more and actually bought a second rental property in the last few weeks!

Our dividends keep on flowing in, not much has changed there. Although our portfolio took a dive when we decided to sell 2 holdings in favor of our real estate ventures.

But the best thing and one that has the biggest impact of all, was me getting a new job!

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