Author

Is 40000 a year a good salary, Ben?

Hi Ben, is $40,000 a good yearly salary? How long will it take me to retire?

The number of people who makes this question is overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be $40000; I get the very same question for $20k-$200.

I think that most people are essentially trying to know how that salary compares to what other people earn. Most people who ask me want to know whether they can retire early.

We try to measure our success based on how it looks compared to other people’s success. Money is an easy way to compare ourselves with others. I think that many people end up making ridiculous comparisons – those that completely ignore important variables. Afterall, we shouldn’t compare ourselves with others that fast. We may make tons of mistakes.

For instance, I’ve come up with really good answers to convince some people their $40,000 or $50,000 salary was good, even when they thought it was not. I’ve convinced some people that $100,000 was not exactly a good salary, given the potential, location, and goals of one specific coaching client.

What is the lesson then? Well, each salary is attached to a specific person, with a specific background and education, in a specific city in a specific country. I cannot say outright whether $40,000 is actually a good salary. It depends on many variables, which I will review in this post.

OK, but is a $40,000 salary good?

I will break it down this question into several parts, that will probably help you given the number of scenarios I am pointing out.

It definitely depends on the context you’re in…

It depends on your skills

It depends on the goal…

Early retirement

It is not how much money you make, it is how much you keep!

It depends on the number of dependents you have

You meant “Ben, is $40,000 a good salary for myself?”, right? Making $40,000 can be a very good salary for one person, but it can be a very bad one if you have many children or you need to support your spouse. It can be great as well – again, it depends on many variables.

Scenario with kids….

Now, let’s say you just graduated and you got an offer for $40k. That is most certainly enough to put you on the early retirement path if you do things right. 40k can go a very long way in the hands of a recent graduate. Especially if you’re single or you don’t have to support your spouse.

How much is 40k after taxes?

Again, this highly depends on the country you live in. I can tell you about Portugal, where I live now.

40k means $3,333 a month. This translates into $2,136 net per month, as the original salary is taxed at about 30%. This is very similar to what you’d get in the US. However, note that there are many variables here, including the state where you are, the number of children, etc.

is 40k a good starting salary

is 40k a good salary in california

40k salary budget

40k a year is how much per hour

Uncategorized,

Entrepreneurship series I: reviews of companies and products that appeared on Shark Tank or Kickstarter

Hi guys,

This is the first article of a series of 10 posts on entrepreneurship. This series will cover many angles of entrepreneurship and its main goal is to shed some light on various angles of entrepreneurship, business and connect that with early retirement.

As I said before (LINK), I started to believe that my businesses can actually play a role in my early retirement. Although I don’t monetize my blog aggressively, as I want to keep it clean, it has attracted tons of investors worldwide, which eventually become clients of my real estate company. My real estate company has made considerable money so far, and I believe I could scale it to a 300k in revenue in the next 2 years and 1 million in the next 6 years. I also wrote a post a few months ago, on the what I would do, should I wake up 10 years younger. If you read that post, you know that I actually regret having done a PhD, simply because that prevented me from becoming an entrepreneur.

This being said, I believe that being an entrepreneur is an excellent way to buy your way to an early retirement. However, being an entrepreneur is not easy. Your social life disappears, you start working way more hours than you would if you worked for somebody else, etc. In particular, your company goes through very hard times, where cash becomes tight, where you (and your partners) need to do everything from writing code to PR. You can’t stop. You can’t stop thinking and working. Your company becomes your baby and your life.

In this series of entrepreneurship, I will review some companies, products, business models, etc. The goal is to teach you very important angles of business and the connection with early retirement.

Companies that appeared on Shark Tank

mtailor

mats

betterback

kingbeard

Companies that appeared on Kickstarter

onsentowel

Real Estate, Reports,

What happened to you, Ben? (and net worth update for March 2019)

My current net worth is €527,843.94 (78.78% of my first goal – €670K).

I am sorry, guys.

This blog used to be an obsession. As I moved on with life and my illness became really debilitating, I stopped thinking about it… naturally, other priorities came into my head.

Today, I am fighting a big fight: a fight for my health. As you may know, I’ve dealing with heavy metal toxicity and other things, which cause severe CFS.

My health has been declining over the last months, although that was expected to happen. According to the protocol I am doing, it is supposed that we get worse before we get better. I just didn’t expect this much worse…

I’ve been also working hard to support my company and my partner. There are some of us know, but I’ve been pretty much away from the operation in the past 2 months, when I really got worse.

The GO-TO mode I was into was cool. I ran on adrenaline and got a kick out of life, but I crashed badly; I don’t think it was due to overwork until January. I think it was more like the normal course of the protocol I am doing and the season flu I caught. Yet, I need to rest a lot now.

So, while I am still alive, I’ve been close to dysfunctional in the past 2 months. Do not fear – Ben will return stronger and happier! I am just afraid this will take a few years, though.

So how did you increase your net worth?

I’ve learned one thing over the last 24 months: owning real estate gives you wonderful opportunities at times. Just owning it. People may throw offers at you when you expect them the less. And make tons of money too.

This is what happened. RP#4 was sold for a nearly 80k profit. This ain’t no joke! Last November, I said that I had gotten an offer on RP#4 and I decided to sell. The deal went on for a while, until the capital and documents were up and running, but it came to a close.

A lot changed since the last report, but essentially I’ve been able to sell a property at great profit. I also sold what I used to call RP#5, for a minor profit (but enable me to negotiate for real now, as I am sitting on more than 100k!).

You really need to see and read the networth report…

OK, how is my networth and how did it grow?

I can clearly see my financial independence now. It will be a matter of time, that is it. There is not much I do do in terms of screwing it up…

Networth update

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP) and I am still living in it.

The rental income in March was €2,005, which is quite some money. As I mention later, my goal is to reach €4,170/mo in rental income until the end of the year. It will decrease next month(s), because two leasings are due, but I will get back on track and more.

Now, a few things changed. More money on checking accounts and interest accounts are due to having sold one of the properties for a substantial profit.

I’ve got more money on receivables, and it is a matter of time to get them back. While I sold RP#5, I bought two other properties since (RP#4 and the “new” RP#5). These are properties that I bought way undervalue and decided to “flip” without actually flipping them (I listed bought properties and I actually expect to sell both in 3 months – without picking up a hammer). As they rent very well after being renovated, I will remodel them myself I don’t sell them soon enough. Still, the goal is to sell them after the renovation anyways (I am really focused on buying and selling now, as you may tell).

I also bought a new car (overall value 10k) and I reappraised my company.

Real Estate Company

Our company is also doing well.

The company grew a lot, shrunk a bit and it’s now operational. We decided to move more from consultancy to selling products and courses, which is a much tough biz (but way more scalable). We don’t own assets yet, but we do have quite some money in the bank and almost $10k in inventory. We have enough money to keep us afloat during the hard test of figuring out whether products is really better than services.

How much more I need?

To reach the 670k mark, I need less than 150k, but I am hoping to make 200k on flips alone until December. So yes, I plan to retire January 2020.

Even if I fail to make 200k on flips, I will probably make 50k easily and I will make at least 70k on my other revenue streams. This would some up to 120k, to which I would add my company’s worth (I hope 150k or more by the end of the year). I would not even have to sell the company – I could simply cash out 70k in dividends).

So, yes, I hope to report I am financially free and able to retire, this year, until December!!!

What to do next?

As I fear a heck of a crisis coming over, the plan is pretty simple:

1: Do not put more money on the stock market for now

I plan to have a small dividend-aristocrat portfolio which I won’t ever sell. I hope that pays enough to cover my super basic expenses, that is all I need. We’re talking about $500/mo.

But for now, I see a huge problem at the stock market. The corrections through 2018’s last quarter are simply putting off the real correction. I don’t want to put more money in there. Plus, I know how to use it for the better…

2: Real Estate flips

As I’ve been saying, buy and hold is cool, but doesn’t make us rich quick.

Becoming rich is not necessarily a goal for me right now, but attaining financial independence is, and more money would come in handy.

My plan is still the same: I will concentrate most of my money in real estate flips. I will focus on properties that I can monetize while holding onto them, but flipping them ASAP.

3: Follow the plan and don’t screw up

I really need to drop the ball badly not to accomplish my goal. The plan until December is actually pretty simple:

Make about 200k in profit from flips (but 50k-100k would do the trick too), using my highly liquid position. Remember, I’ve got 100k in the bank, expect at least 50k from the first property I’ve got listed (meaning a 25k profit) and at least 35k from the other property listed (meaning a 12.5k profit). So let’s say I’ve got 200k to play with. I definitely believe I can make at least 300k from it. Please be aware that I’ve been working with several agents for a few years now, and they go out there to find properties and buyers for me.
Make 50k from my other revenue streams. This is pretty easy for 2019.
Cash out at least 30k in dividends from my company.
This may be an aggressive goal, because we must make 50k in profit for this to happen (50k profit last year summing up to 100k).

Based on this, in December I’d been looking at:

350k in cash at the bank;
A rental portfolio bringing in about €1.600 a month (I’ve got mortgages summing up to €400/mo);
At least 20k in the sock market or equivalent;
A property worth €45.000 free of mortgage, to sell;
Wanting to buy/having bought a 120k property for myself, putting down about 15k and financing the rest;
Wanting to buy/having bought a 100k property for myself, in the woods, without mortgage.

If this holds in December, then I will have 350k+45k-15-100k = 280k, plus my dream properties to live in.

With 280k, I could easily make 28k sustainable rental income, which would make me 52k/year in real income (with 10k in mortgages), more than enough to retire (€42.000 is, even with 30% tax, almost €2.500/mo, and I currently need no more than €1.000.

Goals for April

Stick to my perfect routine regardless.
Continue on using deep breathing techniques (check out Wim Hof).
Go for a walk every single day, in the morning.
Continue to learn inverted pull ups and handstands.
Go to bed before 10:30pm.
Another 3-4 rounds of the Cutler’s protocol.
Get better; the past months have been crazy difficult.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Make a deal to sell 1 or the 2 properties I’ve got listed.
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: October 2018 (439,344.01€)

My current net worth is €439,344.01 (65.57% of my first goal – €670K).

It’s funny how things can move so fast, when it comes to mindset (especially when I grow my net worth by almost 30k!).

Last month I started off my monthly report with a solid “I must admit I can already smell great times coming”.

This month my mindset is more like “I am still going through a lot, not sure how this will shape up over the next months”.

I am afraid. I am afraid my health is not fixed or I spend decades chasing my own tail, and life goes by.

Actually, I am still trying to work hard, and it seems that time flies (even if I am not having fun). My go-to all-the-god-damn-time personality surely does not favor my healing. But at the end of the day, that is who I am.

As for my financial independence, I can still see it happening soon but I am not nearly as motivated as last month.

Despite all that, there were big and important changes this month, which will pretty much set me up for the future…

I got another offer on RP#4, and guess what, I decided to sell!

This back and forth is not something I particularly like. But, guess what… it is part of the game.

After an offer which was first taken off the table and then put back onto it, I decided not to sell the property.

This is a beautiful, magnificent property which I won’t find again (especially at the price I am selling it at). But the truth is that I am making important money which can pretty much set me for hitting early retirement sooner than later.

And this entire rationale only happens because I got a higher offer on the property and I decided to accept.

In this new offer, I will make some important k’s, something like I never made in my life (especially this quickly).

I will still undersell it, because after the reno works, I will easily be appraised at 300k, and I am selling it just under 250k. But this operation will net me something like 70k. Too much given that I didn’t even finish the renovation (the new owner will take over).

What to do with the money?

A global crash is eminent. Keeping that in mind…

Stock Market

Putting money into the stock market is a risk… unless I continue to pour it onto my dividend-aristocrat portfolio which I won’t ever sell. Over the (sufficiently) long run, this is not a problem.

This is part of my new strategy:

I will keep 10k in the stock market until the end of the year, and eventually start building from that. I will modify my strategy entirely. From high-yield stocks, I will now go with (mainly) dividend stocks that have been paying consistently but above all, have been increasing their dividends consistently. I am currently doing my research on both US aristocrat socks and European aristocrat stocks. Plus, I will acquire more and more long shots: weed stocks are one, but promising fintechs and what not are a strong possibility.

I expect to have about 30k in the stock market until the end of 2019, which a dividend yield of about 5%. This month, I will write a post on this.

Real Estate (new LLC in early 2019)

I am a buy and hold guy (thanks to my mentor). Yet, by selling RP#4, I realized that the largest amount of doe are to be made in flips. Until I hit my truly financial independence, I think that flips are more tailored to my goals (while I keep my buy and hold properties anyways).

Therefore, I will concentrate a big chunk of money in real estate that I can monetize while I hold onto it, but properties that I can flip. And I found the perfect way to do that…

So I will kickstart a new LLC in early 2019 from scratch with 50k and get the ball rolling on that strategy. Here are the most realistic projections:

In 2019 put about 50k in, and add another 15k as a company reserve. This will be enough to buy one property and sell it and do this operation twice in the year. I should end up the year with about 125k in value; At a 7% rate, I could monetize that at about 750€/month.
In 2020 I will do the very same thing: turn those 125k into about 250k with 2 flips. At a 7% rate, I could monetize that at about 1,500€/month.
Anything else beyond that is not realist to foresee, but at that point I will be able to borrow tons of cash…

Life

No human should go through what I am going through… even though I actually think that I look healthy as I said last month;

As my health declined a bit this month, my motivation went south with it.

Not sure you guys are interested in this, but I spend a lot of money every month on my health (primarily supplements)…

The Andy Cutler protocol is not that expensive. The thing is that I also do a variety of other supplements, and those are expensive. I am still dealing with extreme chemical sensitivity, which is expensive. I think I will actually remove some of the supplements just for the sake of money.

As I’ve been saying, I am a man on a mission…

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP). I may change that sooner than later, actually.

The rental income in October was €1,745. This will actually be net at the end of the year, because I have enough expenses to write off against this income.

I believe that I will rent out the last vacant property ASAP. That should rent at 270€, so I will finally surpass €2,000 in rental income. What a sweet number…

If I were to keep and rent out RP#4, I would hit €5,000 in rental income, which is really the first goal to set up a rental business for real. I will need to put that off for now…

Real Estate Company

The Real Estate business is going great!

We have been growing the products we have to offer and incorporating many great people in the company. I am so excited for what the future will bring us…

Online income

My online income in October was about €70.

Goals for October

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming. FAIL. Mercury is a bitch. I can’t visualize and concentrate well;
Learn deep breathing techniques (check out Wim Hof). DONE. Well, realistically, I should be doing this way more often, but at least I have started. I love the end result, I get out of the wired-status so fast, it is really incredible. The only catch is that the breading exercises also require a lot of energy, so not great for someone who struggles with fatigue…
Go for a walk (more runs than walks, if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning. FAIL. October was not a great month health-wise, due to the protocols I am doing (as I’ve had a relapse) but it was the cold f* me up. Why is it so damn cold these days? Not in the mood to go for a walk. Plus, it just slows down my adrenaline like crazy…
Continue to learn inverted pull ups and handstands. FAIL. Same reason as above and lack of strength and adrenaline. I am already missing the summertime…
Go to bed before 10:30pm. FAIL, but not badly. I am still to change my mindset to go to bed at that time. I am too stuck to 10.30 – 11pm. My adrenals need that time and I know it. I just get too tired at the end of the day and therefore I lose too much time cooking, eating up and preparing the next day.
Another 4/5 rounds of the Cutler’s protocol. SEMI DONE. I am now at 8 rounds (which is nothing) but had to stop the protocol for a while as it got too rough. I will restart it next month.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now). DONE.
Help my company to close 4 contracts. SEMI DONE. I helped them with 2 contracts. I am happy that the ball is rolling fast there. 🙂
Rent out my free unit. SEMI DONE. Didn’t rent it out, but got a few good prosps. I am sure I will rent it out next month.
Close on 2 properties (I didn’t talk about this because I am not sure I will be able to close 😉 ). SEMI DONE. Not done yet, but there was some progress made…
Be happy. DONE. I am even dating a sweet girl who respects my goals and health status. I am so very much liking this…

Goals for November

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming.
Continue to learn and apply deep breathing techniques.
Go for a walk (more runs than walks, if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning.
Continue to learn inverted pull ups and handstands.
Go to bed before 10:30pm.
Another 2 rounds of the Cutler’s protocol (will probably lower the dose).
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Rent out my free unit.
Close the sale of RP#4.
Close on 2 properties (I didn’t talk about this because I am not sure I will be able to close 😉 ).
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: September 2018 (412,036.27€)

My current net worth is €412,036.27 (61.50% of my first goal – €670K).

I must admit I can already smell great times coming.

I can actually see the path to financial independence before my eyes… it is certainly a matter of execution, if this continues like so.

Let’s break this down:

As I didn’t sell RP#4, we should see a spike in my net worth in the next months. After the property is renovated, it will easily be appraised at 300k.
If I continue to save at the same rate, until April 2020 (see why this date here), I should hit my “perfect” number of 700k in net worth.
Of course that savings alone won’t do it, but I have enough financial capability for a couple real estate deals that should bring in the rest of the money.
We’re excited at my company. The major shareholder predicts to start buying real estate and start doing “own” transactions (this will be a game changer).
All this said, the idea is to come to April 2020 with a truly passive income of €1000 (for which I will need 3k before takes). And this will be hard…

Why will it be hard to it €1,000 of truly passive income by April 2020?

You may actually be asking yourself… whether a net worth of 700k will generate that. It it probably does – we’re talking 5% (to yield 3k, thus 1k net), no big deal.

But in my case, my net worth is very inflated with my estate… and I am only OK with this because I can generate huge returns on those properties.

Plus, a lot of those 700k don’t even belong to revenue-producing assets. Yet, realistically, I could hit say 2k of truly passive income or 3k of “passive income” by then.

While this is good, it doesn’t meet my mark. And I am a mark meeter, where that exists or not. 🙂

Now, to hit this mark, I will need to raise money for the stock market or higher truly passive property managers. I am inclined to go towards the stock market, but the thing is that the market is highly inflated now and I am afraid to buy any stocks (other than weed, when the hype is over).

So I am stuck. On one hand, it doesn’t make sense to buy (much) more real estate because of exposure and taxes. On the other hand, the stock market may crash. Of course, I have a third option: hold onto cash. But that is not an option when I am looking to get passive income for my retirement. I actually put it very nicely in the last income report.

I will think about this until the end of the year. If you have any thoughts, please let me know in the comments…

Life today

You would not imagine what kind of stuff I go through by looking to me. I actually look healthier (much healthier than my biz partner, who is healthy as fuck).

My real estate passion definitely came back. After so much time having motivation at the bottom, I suddenly desired to rent out my own properties and buy more pieces of real estate.

As far as my health, I am still spending LOTS of cash. The other day I spent about €1000. In one day.

This is because of a few reasons:

I am dealing with extreme chemical sensitivity, so I need to filter out my home’s water, etc. My filter came out at €400. No kidding.
So basically I need to get away from all chemicals. Plus, the diet is expensive as I need to eat super clean and stuff.
I am also purifying my air, not just my water. So I bought various plants and essential oils to have at home. I breathe super clean now (which is the minimum I can do, given that my body is clogged up 100% inside). I need to buy a mechanical air filter eventually, for now plants will do.
I am officially chelating heavy metals, with the Andy Cutler’s protocol, which forces you to take a capsule of whatever chelator you’re using (I am tripping on ALA these days) every 3 hours. That is day and night. The protocol per se is not expensive. But keep in mind $500 worth of supplements is what it takes for Ben (only 10% of that is due to Cutler’s protocol).
Along with heavy meal chelation, I am 1) detoxing my body with binders, sauna and cleanses – probably try to raise Glutathion eventually, 2) doing regular low-key exercise to keep things moving, including rebounding which moves my lymphatic system, 3) restoring the gut balance with probiotics and a few other things. Soon, I will have to address infections pretty aggressively (just want to move up with chelation a bit more).

As I’ve been saying, I am a man on a mission…

I am a man trying to get his health together, first of all.

Then, I am a man trying to get to his early retirement. By April 2020 I want to have €1.000/mo secured for life. This is not easy, especially given that there is no clear option between real estate and the stock market.

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in September was €1,445, but I collected an extra €275. First, I rented out one of the vacant units, for €300. This will raise rental income to €1.745 from next month onwards. This will actually be net, because I have enough expenses to write off against this income.

The reason why I collected another €275 is because I was actually able to rent out the other unit I had vacant, but the tenants actually ended up walking away (thus losing the security deposit). During October, I will make my best to rent out the other unit I have. In fact, I hope to get over €2,000 in rental income due to that lease. This means that with RP#4 fully rented out, I will be close to €5,000 within 2018.

Real Estate Company

The Real Estate business is going great! I will comment more on it next month.

Online income

My online income in August was about €300, which is very good given the last months…

Goals for September

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming. DONE.
Go for a walk (or even a run if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning. DONE.
Start learning inverted pull ups and handstands. DONE. But this will take 6 months, if not more.
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. This should allow me to wake up just before 6am, which would be pretty cool! FAIL. 10.30 is still the mark.
Start new treatment and get some results. DONE. Heavy metal chelation. I need 3 months on this to assess results.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now). DONE.
Structure the company for the rest of the year and write 5 guest posts (aggressive, I know).
Rent out both units that are yet to be leased. PARTIALLY DONE. Well I actually did it, but the tenants walked away.
Be happy. DONE. What a happy dude Ben was this month. 😉

Goals for October

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming.
Learn deep breathing techniques (check out Wim Hof).
Go for a walk (more runs than walks, if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning.
Continue to learn inverted pull ups and handstands.
Go to bed before 10:30pm.
Another 4/5 rounds of the Cutler’s protocol.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Help my company to close 4 contracts.
Rent out my free unit.
Close on 2 properties (I didn’t talk about this because I am not sure I will be able to close 😉 ).
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: August 2018 (406,947.09€)

My current net worth is €409,499.44 (61.12% of my first goal – €670K).

Times are changing…

Ben is slowly coming back to the frugal dude who got mad over 20 bucks…

My real estate passion is slowly coming back, despite my health is at its rock bottom.

I am still spending tons of money in supplements and therapies and stuff, but I am becoming more aware of what works (or does anything for me), and selectively spend my money there. All in all, I learned that the best things are not the most expensive ones! And I was happy about it. 😉

Just like I said last month, I am a man on a mission…

April 2020

This is the date when I will lose the contracts that I currently have settled. This means that I should work on setting up a stream that yields at least $1.000 per month, 100% passively and 100% reliably. May sound odd to you, but this is how much I need to live a good life now. Note though that this should be on top of my real estate and whatever else I have (which means, like I said last month), that I should have €3000 net coming in every single month without me having to do anything for it.

The bad news is that I am pretty much at ground 0.

The good news is that I think I will make it. In fact, at a 8% yield on the stock market, this means that I need to raise about $120.000 (considering 20% tax on the dividends).

Building this side income through dividend stocks is very reasonable, given my current (very low) exposure to it. On the other hand, it is not a good time to invest in the stock market (in my humble opinion) because I can smell a mother*ing crash! Uhhhh.

In fact, as of late 2018, the only place where I don’t mind putting my money into, on a consistent basis, is real estate in markets that are not overvalued (I am lucky to be part of a company that knows which markets are overvalued and which are not).

But I don’t want to build this stream from real estate, for several reasons. 1) its too much exposure and rental laws may change, does leaving me to the mercy of the government. 2) it actually doesn’t make more sense to increase my rental income, from a tax perspective, unless I make A TON of money on top of what I make.

Very tough position to be in… more about this plan late on (probably on a separate post!).

Coming back to August 2018…

Financially, things are going smoothly even though I spent tons of money on my health and I am far from having a secure income stream until I reach retirement. This is part of the reason I want to speed up the process!

Rental property #4

I recently rejected a €100.000 offer on Rental Property #4, which would put €50,000+ on my pocket in a pair of months. Believe it or not, I am renovating it fully now, and I’ve got a total loan of €160.000. Lots of money, yes, but the property is estimated to work (before the bank, not before my eyes) €440.000! But forget about that for a second…

This property will yield, at the very least, €2.500 per month, and my mortgage is about €750. Also, because I am renovating the property, I can write off the renovation expenses against the rental income, so that will be net for at least 4-5 years. We are talking €150.000 in 5 years…

Do you know realize why I rejected an offer that would put €50.000+ in my pocket overnight? There is more than instant money. And more than that, I have already made that money when I bought the property and secured a ridiculously cheap renovation contact for it.

Rental property #5

I have this property listed for a while now. I knew from the get go it would be hard to sell it quickly, but I was counting it on selling it in 6 months, at most. It has been almost 6 months and I’ve got exactly 0 offers, which is kinda annoying… I need to sell this property urgently, because that cash is preventing me from doing more quick deals. Renovating the property and leasing it out is not an option because we’re looking at 8% yields or something. This is not good in my book!

Plus, I can’t get my head around sitting on €100,000 in cash until the end of the year. That will allow me to properly plan a stock market assault…

Health status

As I have been saying, I have been able to identify the direction I want to follow as far as my health, and I will start executing phase 2 next month. Wish me luck…

I will tell you guys all about this next month, when I should have completed an entire month of treatment.

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in August was again €1,445. The thing is that I have no mood to properly look for tenants and rent my homes out. Next month, the story will be the same, but I am confident about October because I slowly seem to be motivated enough again for the real estate game. From October onwards, I expect to have a total rental income of €2,000+.

This means that, with RP#4, I could be close to €5,000 by the end of the year, which was the goal in January.

Real Estate Company

The Real Estate business I am involved with is growing and the brand is being slowly spread and consolidated. The fact that our biggest freelancing clients shut down forced us to go after the market ourselves, so we will push the online biz more than ever. In particular, we will hire some people.

This really means that we need to get to 10.000 subscribers by the end of the first quarter of 2019. We’re still considering how much money we’ll put into this task and what strategy we’ll follow. Having the offline business feeding the online growth is something we said we wouldn’t do, but this may actually be a possibility from now on…

Online income

My online income in August was about €100, which is pretty much what I do 100% passive. This means no money.

You want to support my blog in any way (even by simply donating a few bucks)? Please let me know in the comments down below.

Goals for August

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming. SEMI DONE. Although I did it, I can’t seem to visualize property anymore. Can’t seem to concentrate well enough. I need to change this.
Go for a walk (or even a run if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning. DONE! Even on Sundays…
Start learning inverted pull ups and handstands. I would be extremely happy if I could do both until the end of the year… SEMI DONE. I started to, that is a fact.
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. This should allow me to wake up just before 6am, which would be pretty cool! FAIL. 10.30 is still the mark.
Get a freaking rebounder (for €100 or less) and a true water filter (like Big berkey – which is like €250 more expenses coming!). SEMI DONE. I got the rebounder (for €30, savvy Ben is savvy) and it seems to do the trick. As far as a true water filter, I am yet to get one…
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now). SEMI DONE. I am still late and leaving you angry at me, sorry!
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that). FAIL. Couldn’t help myself.
Structure the company for the rest of the year and write 5 guest posts (aggressive, I know). FAIL. Entrepreneurs are freaking heroes. I am not one yet.
Be happy. SEMI DONE. I certainly had ups this month! 🙂

Goals for September

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming.
Go for a walk (or even a run if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning.
Start learning inverted pull ups and handstands.
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. This should allow me to wake up just before 6am, which would be pretty cool! FAIL. 10.30 is still the mark.
Start new treatment and get some results.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Structure the company for the rest of the year and write 5 guest posts (aggressive, I know).
Rent out both units that are yet to be leased.
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: July 2018 (406,947.09€)

My current net worth is €406,947.09 (60.74% of my first goal – €670K).

It is surprising how I have been managing to keep growing my net worth even by spending tons of money every month. That behavior of Ben, who micromanaged 5 bucks on a monthly basis, is now gone. I am spending tons of money in therapies and what not, for the sake of my health.

At the same time, I was able to ramp up my monthly income, by securing some contracts, but they will end by Abril 2020. This means that my income will take a hit then, if I don’t secure any other contract (via my company or as Ben myself), so I’ve set this new goal: by Abril 2020 I should have €3000 net coming in every single month without me having to do anything for it.

The cool thing is that I think I will meet this goal. More to come on a separate post. Onto this month now…

The conclusion is kinda obvious: another great month. You may notice that this is solely due to the acquisition of a new property, which basically brings in €50,000 to my net worth. I’ve had this discussion before: “Ben, you can’t do that, because that is all artificial, you can only update the books when you sell the property”. The key thing is that I’ve got an offer on this property, right after I bought it. And the offer was €100,000… so that is what I am keeping in the books for now.

If the deal goes through (I am keeping my fingers crossed), this will represent a lot of liquidity. I don’t want to cash out on the other properties, because I live myself in RP#1 (which should actually be called PP1) and I don’t plan to move soon, and the other properties are clearly long holds (expect for RP#5, which I also have in the market).

If the deal goes through I hope to be sitting on €100,000 in cash until the end of the year. That will be a heck of an accomplishment, and a heck of a security in my eyes. Hopefully, we’ll see the interest account rise over the next months…

As far as my health, things have been retracting lately. I will take some time off again and recharge. As I said last month, I have actually been able to spot the direction I want to follow, and I am confidant that I will win eventually!

My FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Success) is still the same:

Rebuild my health. Things are making more sense as I go, and I’ve also been able to identify things that need to be fixed in my body as well as new treatments. Remember me telling last month I was about to get tested? Yes, heavy metals hello! I am so God damn intoxicated with Mercury and Lead the guys at the lab didn’t believe it. I know what I will do to get over this, because I will let the body take his time. I hope that by April 2020 (and you know why…) I am at 100% of near that.
Grow my company so that I can live off of it. I estimated I can live entirely off of my company by April 2020. This is not a slam dunk, though. We have been facing a lot of legal issues that are still not clear, and even though we are structuring the company in a way that we will all passively live off of it, this may be a big barrier. I think that only the future will tell whether we will be able to accomplish this without problems. Yet, even if we face some challenges, we will certainly be able to profit out of the monster we are building. We just need a little bit more of asset protection going forward. 🙂

Health status

I’ve been meeting tons of people with similar symptoms to mine. Some call it chronic fatigue syndrome, antibiotic poisoning (or floxies) due to fluoroquinolone toxicity (which is probably part of my problem as well), adrenal fatigue, and many other names.

Recently I decided to test myself against toxic metals. My symptoms don’t make any sense. I’ve always been SUPER healthy until I got sick, and nobody can trace back my symptoms to any known pattern (called “disease” by western medicine). So toxic metals could be a problem.

And they are.

I tested positive for mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium toxicity. Now, I didn’t simply “tested positive”, my levels of these metals are THROUGH the f* roof.

There are two important things to say:

I was right in thinking that I had skyrocketing levels of mercury in my body, together with chronic defect detox pathways. As I said last month, my body has been accumulating toxins like no one’s business over the last 4-5 years like crazy, and they decided to show up altogether.
I will have to change a lot of things in my diet and lifestyle over the next times (probably years…), including try a low Thiol diet (and keep at it if I succeed) and start the ACC protocol (follow the same link, you’ll get there). I’ve been researching about heavy metal detox, and ACC seems to be the safest method there is, so I will give this one a shot, starting in September (although the low Thiol test is to be done in August.

Now I finally have a serious diagnose to go after. And I will nail it, I am sure!

I keep concluding the same things as I go through this journey:

When you’re sick and trying to heal, you should give your body some time.
If you are tired, and you need to rest. Your body heals when rested (in the parasympathetic mode) and sleeping.
Anything that takes you from the present moment to the future or the past will only play against yourself;
If you forget about your sickness you’ll heal faster; Don’t look for symptoms, you’ll be able to see them crystal clear (which is not good).
If you look for red, you’ll see red everywhere. Try to shift your thoughts to other things other than your symptoms and how you feel;
That said, always listen to your body. We’re all different. What works for me doesn’t work for you and the other way around. Your body is able to tell you what it wants, so pay attention (without overdoing it).

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in July was, … take a deep breath … , €1,445. Guess what, I’ve got two units vacant, meaning €550 on the tame every single month. This is even with a property manager in the ground…. and no, it is not the market that is cool, they are being reckless (just like I was for two months). I hope I have better news next month!

With my mortgage rates re-negotiated, the next step is to hit €2,000/mo in rents, and I will clearly focus on that this month.

As I presented RP#4, the game changer, I am confidant that I am building a monster portfolio…

Real Estate Company

My Real Estate business is still growing nicely, and I feel blessed for the great opportunities and partners I have.

Sadly, my biggest client broke the news on me that they are shutting down for business by the end of the year. I can either take this as a huge loss or I can see the upside and grow. We are starting to push the online side of the business and this may be our opener.

If we want to go after the online market, we need to up our subscriber list to 10.000 subscribers until March 2019. This is not an easy job (unless we throw a lot of money at it, which we do not want to do). The key thing to make this happen is to establish partnerships and gain visibility. But this is incredibly hard (or time-consuming). We will keep growing our client base as aggressively as possible.

Our offline model is well defined by now.

Online income

My online income in July was about €400. This was one of the best months ever, in that regard.

I am still losing money with the blog, but making money with it is definitely not the main goal, so I don’t really care. I will focus more on this subject later on, I am not overly concerned about this right now. Let the blog gain more authority + once I have the time to write a few posts a month things will change.

You want to support my blog in any way (even by simply donating a few bucks)? Please let me know in the comments down below.

Goals for July

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming. KINDA DONE. I need to visualize for longer and be way more present. Same with meditation.
Go for a walk every single day, in the morning. DONE. I also learned to do headstands for more than 1 minute and starting with my feet on the ground.
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. FAILED! I could keep it at 10.30pm, but not 10pm… I will fix this!
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now). DONE.
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that). FAILED! No excuses for August!
Close on the new rental property and close 2-4 deals in the company. DONE! Really happy about this.
Be happy. FAILED! I was happy for 2-3 days, but the vast majority of the month I was hit by what I now know to be metal redistribution. It was tough and I experienced a LOT of fear. Things will get better, I know that. 🙂

Goals for August

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming.
Go for a walk (or even a run if I have the energy) every single day, in the morning.
Start learning inverted pull ups and handstands. I would be extremely happy if I could do both until the end of the year…
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. This should allow me to wake up just before 6am, which would be pretty cool!
Get a freaking rebounder (for €100 or less) and a true water filter (like Big berkey – which is like €250 more expenses coming!).
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that).
Structure the company for the rest of the year and write 5 guest posts (aggressive, I know).
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: June 2018 (351,715.75€)

My current net worth is €351,715.75 (52.50% of my first goal – €670K).

Finally, I surpassed the 50% mark of my first goal! This year is finally starting to shape up nicely!

This month was good because of two reasons: I’ve got a $25k bonus and my company shares have gone up. But this month has also been great because prospects are AWESOME. I actually think I will add another 100k to my net-worth until the end of the year. I will obviously keep you posted.

As I report below, I am pretty much the same as far as my health, but finances have been up. I have actually been able to spot the direction I want to follow, and I think that I did find the path to victory!

My FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Success) is still the same:

Rebuild my health. Things are making more sense as I go, and I’ve also been able to identify things that need to be fixed in my body as well as new treatments that I will soon test.
Grow my company so that I can live off of it. I estimate I can live entirely off of my company in 24 months starting from now. But as you will learn in this post and over the next 3 months, we are structuring the company in a way that we will all passively live off of it. This plan ain’t no joke! Until the end of the year, I hope my company starts to buy its own real estate and thus my shares will become a lot more valuable.

Health status

Chronic fatigue, antibiotic poisoning (I actually found out that we are called floxies, a name for fluoroquinolone toxicity suffers), adrenal fatigue, toxic metal poisoning, you name it.

If you want to know, I think that what I really have is skyrocketing levels of mercury in my body, together with chronic defect detox pathways. My body has been accumulating toxins over the last 4-5 years like crazy, and I am now dealing with it all at once.

I’ve been making small progresses here and there, but I am looking at it on a 2-year horizon. That is when I should have things fixed. Right now, I burn through €500 a month just on supplements. As you can imagine, that is the biggest chunk of my expenses right now… Needless to say that health should always be our no. 1 investment, and therefore I am relaxed about it, as long as I have the current sources of income.

Overall, I am still way too dizzy and I try to rest as much as possible (sorry for not feeding the blog as often as you guys deserve). You’ll notice I will get better as there are more articles on the blog. 😉

I am still pretty much drawing the same conclusions about health…

When you’re sick and trying to heal, you should give your body some time.
Anything that takes you from the present moment to the future will only play against yourself;
If you forget about your sickness you’ll heal faster; Don’t look for symptoms, you’ll be able to see them crystal clear (which is not good).
If you look for red, you’ll see red everywhere. Try to shift your thoughts to other things other than your symptoms and how you feel;
That said, always listen to your body. We’re all different. What works for me doesn’t work for you and the other way around. Your body is able to tell you what it wants, so pay attention (without overdoing it).

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in June was, again, €1,445. I am about €550 away from my portfolio’s potential and this is simply because I am being reckless. If I had all my units rented out I’d be making €2,000. Hopefully I will be able to do that next month.

Like I said last month, I was indeed able to renegotiate the terms of my fixed-rate mortgages to 3.85%! This is great news because it will save me about €100 per month in interest. The next step is to hit €2,000/mo in rents, and I will clearly focus on that this month.

Like I also said last month, I was able to secure a new real estate deal which will take things to a whole new level. I am also going deep into debt, but I honestly believe this will be a game changer. I will tell you all about this deal next month, when I hope to have it closed!

Real Estate Company

My Real Estate business is growing a lot, this is great news. I am blessed by having so many great clients and opportunities. But above all, my partners: they are really pushing the business further and I think my share of the company will be appraised at 100k.

We have tons of plans for the company. We’re looking for real estate investors who want to invest passively and we’re putting together a system that allows anyone to track their turn-key properties in Portugal. We believe this will be HUGE so stay tuned, I will keep you posted on this.

We hope to scale our business by a 10x fold in the next 12-24 months. For now, the keep thing is to keep growing our client base, maintaining the revenue and grow our capital reserves in order to buy rental properties to the company. The idea is to acquire a decent-sized portfolio in the company (probably all cash) and then capitalize on that to increase the profits, by selling our own real estate to investors. We absorb the risk, get things going in terms of rents and what not and we cash out by liquidating the properties (and repeating the model).

A lot more to come on my company soon!

Online income

My online income in June was about €200. I am still losing money with the blog, but making money with it is definitely not the main goal, so I don’t really care. SEO is actually going good (I increased the no. of keywords I rank for) but I can see a big drop coming (as the authority has been decreasing as well). I will focus more on the blog as time goes by. If you’re a blogger and you’re interested in writing for me, shoot me an email!

You want to support my blog in any way (even by simply donating a few bucks)? Please let me know in the comments down below.

Goals for July

Stick to my perfect routine and continue on dreaming. This has been awesome for me.
Go for a walk every single day, in the morning. I learned to do a handstand (with my head on the ground), the next goal is to be able to hold it for more than 1 minute.
Go to bed at 10pm every day and NOT at 10:30 as I’ve been doing. This should allow me to wake up just before 6am, which would be pretty cool!
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that).
Close on the new rental property and close 2-4 deals in the company.
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: May 2018 (317,769.77€)

My current net worth is €317,769.77 (47.42% of my first goal – €670K).

Didn’t really go down, but going sideways ain’t good either!

I wish 2018 was going better in several angles; it is not like it is going terrible, but is clearly the worst year of my life. As for finances are not going bad thought!

I am sad to say that my illness is killing me (literally :-P) but at the same time I’ve been learning so much…

In terms of finances, it could be going better because I am spending money like f* crazy, but its not going horrible.

My FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Success) is to rebuild my health, and grow my company so that I can live off of it. I also want to escalate my real estate portfolio. However, my company takes A LOT of time and operating at 20% is not easy.

I also owe you an apology. I haven’t been updating the blog regularly and I feel that I betrayed you guys. Don’t you worry: I will do this more often.

Health status

Chronic Fatigue, antibiotic poisoning, adrenal fatigue, toxic metal poisoning, you name it. I can’t really figure you what exactly is going on, but you can bet it: I will beat this thing. My focus is really on rebuilding my health so this will finna happen at some point. I can’t wait to get better!

I’ve been learning a few things about health in general:

When you’re sick and trying to heal, you should give your body some time.
Anything that takes you from the present moment to the future will only play against yourself;
If you forget about your sickness you’ll heal faster;
If you look for red, you’ll see red everywhere. Try to shift your thoughts to other things other than your symptoms and how you feel;

Over the next months, I will be working hard on my body, but I will make a post on that alone.

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in May was €1,445. Sadly, I am experiencing some vacancies, and if I had all my units rented out I’d be making €2,000. I have finally a real real estate business going on, but I honestly feel like escalating this, on a 10x basis. I’ve been increasing my costs, as I’ve been using debt, but this month I was able to renegotiate the terms of my fixed-rate mortgages to 3.85%/yr. I haven’t calculated how much I will save or pay (as for installments), so I am waiting for June’s installments to do the math. Soon, I will hit €2,000/mo in monthly rents, which will be pretty cool.

However, the coolest thing will be to hit €5000/mo as I have secured a new real estate deal which will take things to a whole new level. I am also going deep into debt, but I honestly believe I’ll nail it.

Online income

My online income in May was very low. Essentially, I am losing money with my blog because I am not even covering the expenses I have with it. SEO is actually going good (I increased the no. of keywords I rank for) but I haven’t been posting new articles and so it should drop eventually. Also, the authority of the domain has been dropping a bit.

My Real Estate business

My Real Estate business is growing and moving well, do due my partners – they are really pushing it. We hope the company is appraised at 100k until the end of the year.

Goals for June

Stick to my perfect routine.
Go for a walk every single day.
Go to bed before 10pm every day (I will actually try 9:45 to create a safety buffer).
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that).
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

Reports,

Net worth update: February 2018 (294,742.08€)

My current net worth is €294,742.08 (43.99% of my first goal – €670K).

Didn’t really go down, but going sideways ain’t good either!

This has been such a crazy and unique year, that I’ve been finding it hard to update the blog at all… You guys excuse me for that!

This year, I focus on my health, on my company and on growing my net worth. I really want to escalate my real estate portfolio to a huge one. However, my company takes all my time and since I am still struggling with my health, it has been quite tough to be honest.

Health status and state of mind

My health isn’t right yet. I have been poisened by antibiotics, which caused serious adrenal fatigue and a bunch of other problems. I feel this is very unfair because I’d be nailing it right now.

At the same time, I know my life is a blessing, and so I thank God for it on a daily basis.

I am quite OK with the growth rate of my net worth, but now my mind shifted to my company. We’re working extremely hard to bring it up.

This is way I have no time for From Cents To Retirement anymore, and given that I make no doe, I may consider selling the blog or put this project off for a big while. 🙁

I want to focus on my health for now. Whenever I am OK, I hustle for my company, because my partners deserve that. I do hope I can reverse my illness in 2018, and to be honest, I think I have a very good shot at it! Either way, I will live life by the day and try to be as happy as I can.

Rental income

RP#1 is still my Primary Property (PP).

The rental income in February was €1,700. I am not kidding around no more… This is real money and I can finally say that I have a real Real estate business going on. Yes, my costs are going through the roof as well (about €650/mo) but I will now be able to grow much larger without actually increasing these costs further (expect for mortages, that is).

Next month, I will stay at €1,700, even though I will have one free unit. I won’t be able to rent it out as I will need to make some adjustments including painting it entirely – these were probably the worst tenants I had up until know. I am just glad they will be paying for the maintenance works.

During 2018, I actually now think I will hit €5000/mo because of a few new investments I’ve been making.

Online income

My online income in February was, not surprisingly, very low. I am working on my SEO and I do hope this turns out to be good, but the reality is, right now, I make very little money, and I only do that from my book and affiliate links. Better SEO just became a priority now.

Actually, regarding start displaying ads, I am probably changing my mind in the near future. I must monetize somehow and if the book isn’t enough, I will have to go with other channels. Still, I won’t do anything aggressive. I am here for the long haul.

If you want to have instant cash do NOT replicate my strategy; this one is for the long haul although I started to realize that I may actually terminate this project.

My Real Estate business

My Real Estate business is still growing. This year, I will try to make about €100,000 and cash out a part of that in dividends and mostly buy real estate through the company.

Goals for February

Stick to my perfect routine. DONE!
Go for a walk every single day. DONE!
Take 1 week 100% off (and do this for the next 6 months!) FAIL.
Go to bed before 10.30pm every day (I will actually try 9:45 to create a safety buffer). ALMOST DONE!
Learn about bio-identical hormone modulation and start doing that. FAIL.
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that). YES SIR!
Be happy. DONE!

Goals for March

Stick to my perfect routine.
Go for a walk every single day.
Go to bed before 10pm every day (I will actually try 9:45 to create a safety buffer).
Fucking grow my company.
Rent out my free unit.
Post at least once on this blog (sorry guys can’t do more right now).
Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that).
Be happy.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben