Author

Health,

The story of my health and the reason why I want to retire early

Hey buddies,

Today I will talk about a sensitive topic that some of you brought up either on the comments or by contacting me directly. The question that I get a lot is “what is really what you have, health-wise?”. In this post, I will address this, as this is the reason why I want to retire early.

OK, so before 2012 I was a super healthy dude. I use to feel great, energetic and fully functional. I was a dedicated (yet drug-free or “natural” as we call it) bodybuilder – to be point of considering competition! Use to run for miles day in day out and go to the gym every other day. I also had highly efficient brain activity, good performance at my work, and success with girls if that accounts for health 🙂 I am not a geek BTW. Many of you asked me whether I am a geek as I read a lot and I have a PhD and the answer is absolutely not. 🙂

Lifestyle, Planning,

2017 – a (special) gap year

My dear dudes,

As I told you in a previous post, I will be taking a year off, starting either from January 1st, April 1st or November 1st, 2017. Most likely, it will be from January 1st onwards. Before I am hit by a lot of you guys, I will be doing this because (1) I am putting my health before everything else, (2) I know that my portfolio will not decrease during the year and (3) I am willing to shift my retirement by one year.

Taken from http://o.aolcdn.com/

Taken from www.aol.com

Daily life, Planning,

A new challenge – reading 100 books in 10 months

My dear dudes,

I have suggested this before, but I haven’t really made a decision till now. But now, it is time to say that, in 2017, I will be talking one year off. The decision is made and I am not coming back. I feel way too tired and I feel that I need to rest, and work on personal projects that I really get a kick out of, including this blog and a few other projects.

In October/November, I will lay down an entire plan for the year, and how I expect to cover my expenses and grow my net worth further (I will try to add another €50k to my net worth). Right now, I want to tell you about a smaller challenge within this mega news: I will be reading, reviewing and commenting on 100 books in 10 months (this is 10 books a month).

If you haven’t noticed, I am already revitalizing the “Books” section, introducing new books and taking it to the next level. The section will catch god damn fire, so stay tuned for more!

If you have any suggestions that are NOT in here, shoot me a message.

Thanks for all the support (especially the messages sent from the “contact” form of the blog). I am still catching up on answering them all!

Ben

Daily life, Planning,

What would I do different if I could go back in time?

Hey folks,

You may know that I am an avid fan of Quora. I usually like to answer questions pertaining to Personal Finances (ranging from Real Estate to stocks), generic Life Advice, and more. I recently came across the question “What would you do different if you could go back in time?” (the question was later changed to “How do people get rich?”), in the category of Money and Personal Finance.

My answer has gotten around 70k views; I think that my vision is somewhat peculiar, and I’ve gotten positive feedback, so I thought about extending it a little bit here on my blog. So, without further due, if I’d either go bankrupt or 10 years back in time, here’s what I would do, now that I know how people get truly rich:

Stock Market,

Revitalizing my stock portfolio!

(image from businessdayonline.com)

During the past days, I have been working on revitalizing my stock portfolio. My strategy is clear: I am a conservative investor who cares about wealth preservation and increasing income. Therefore, I only buy stocks that pay dividends. Buying a stock that doesn’t pay a dividend is insane to me. It doesn’t make sense in my head. Why would you do that? If a stock doesn’t pay dividends, it is speculation. Maybe you recall these words being said by somebody else. That is possible, because Kevin O’Leary says this day in day out. And when it comes to the stock market, I second Mr Wonderful all the way up: I only buy dividend paying stocks, and in particular, solid companies which have the ability to consistently pay dividends and increase them over time. I also allocate up to 5% in anyone’s name, and 20% per sector (if possible, low volatility is desired). As I am European, I need to apply market limits as well, and currency hedges. To achieve this, I could simply go out there and buy a wallet of aristocrat stocks in different markets, right? Well, I personally want high yields too!

Planning, Real Estate,

Why will I pay RP#2 in 9-19 years

mortagerp2

Even though my buddy investors mock me with the fact that I bought my RP#1 all cash, I still believe that it was a great decision. First, it is a cash-cow which I don’t have to concern much with (it will still cash-flow). Second, it was such a great tool when I came to the bank asking for money. “Look fellas, I’ve got myself this nice property in cash. It nets me about €2400 a year. Don’t you think that I am creditworthy? Oh, and BTW, I am debt free.”

You should look at the bankers face when they saw this 27 years old who bought an apartment all cash, when they have been paying theirs for 20 years and ain’t done yet. Maybe I sound like a privileged prick right now, but that is not my intention. I am simply happy with the fact that this helps me negotiating with the bank (remember, Portuguese banks are very peculiar when it comes to lending money…).

Planning,

Planning the next 6/10 years

My dear dudes,

Because I bought another Rental Property, I spent my Sunday redefining my plan for the next 6-10 years. Here it is:

First, note that I bought a lot of Real Estate this year (3 properties and another one coming up soon) as I found what I think are excellent deals. I am getting fixed-rate 30-year mortgages at less than 5%*. I think that inflation and interest rates will be low for the next 2,5 – 5 years. After that, I think that both will raise, but all bets are off regarding figures**. I would like to limit my real estate portfolio to 50-60% of my overall net worth, in the long run.

My plan revolves around inflation, interest rates and liquidity. Based on the situation, I will take appropriate action each year. There will be years in which I care about liquidity (L) (which means that I will not amortize my mortgages and buy assets that are not liquid, such as real estate) and years in which I care little about my liquidity (NL) (just like this year), in which I will try to pay off debt as quickly as I can, and have non-liquid assets that either have capital appreciation or high yields.