Dmitrii goes public - Issue #3
Tomorrow I’ll dispatch to my first team retreat in The Netherlands so I’m writing this on Tuesday.
How is your week going? Feel free to answer me back and let me know how are you handling this summer heat if you have one.
Also, there was something wrong with my “From” email domain and confirmation emails didn’t work. So if you tried to subscribe to the newsletter, please try to do this again!
🇳🇱 Stuff I’m doing in The Netherlands
In the middle of the year, I already realized that I will blow away my annual goal. It was to reach 1k$ revenue with my project Taco Digest. To be honest, so many things changed since the 1st of January 2022 so I’m not surprised or disappointed at all.
But I need to reach some accomplishment so I find one thing I want to do this year - run a half-marathon. I've never done that before and it’ll take place in Amsterdam on the 16th of October so I have plenty of time to prepare.
I started by downloading Strava half-marathon preparation calendar and following it. The first step is that you have to build endurance so I focus on long runs. Last week I managed to run for an hour which is a good achievement already. I’ll keep you updated on how this is going. Also, I want to read a bit more about food and water consumption during the run.
One amazing thing about running in the Netherlands compared to the other countries I lived in. It’s true not only for running but it’s more noticeable. When you meet with someone’s eyes they immediately smile you back or nod or do anything to acknowledge you. I love this, it gives you a nice boost of confidence and a great mood. So kudos to you if you smile at strangers. If you don't, just try it.
A shocking revelation from the last week was the curtains industry. We have quite high windows in our rental apartment (~3.50m/~11ft) so most of the curtains should be made custom. We asked the company who’s been doing curtains in this building how much it’s gonna cost. The answer was astonishing. It is €1200! For curtains! 🤯
After some consideration, we run to IKEA and bought default curtains for €9.99 each and hang them ourselves. Yeah, we have a bit ridiculous space for around 30cm (12inch) from the floor to the curtain. But we saved a buttload of money so I’m quite happy. It does the job of closing the light when we play or watch movies. Our TV stand is right near the window.
As I already mentioned, my wife and I are going to our company retreat for five days and I’m looking forward to it. We work with the company for almost 5 years already but we were always remote. There are even some people we've never met so it should be fun. The company rented a house somewhere in the west of the country.
👷 YouTube and my projects
I am ashamed to say that I still haven't started with either of those. I am determined to start today since I took the day off. A lot of stuff going on like buying and assembling the furniture. Planning and figuring out the trips for the summer. Simply dealing with all remaining things related to immigration and documents. Sometimes I find myself deep into all that and wake in the evening when I did nothing for my projects.
Huge thanks to people who continue watching my videos and post nice and encouraging comments. It’s always the best motivation.
💰 Finance and FIRE
As I mentioned in the last issue I intend to be more transparent about my finances and FIRE goals in the newsletter. Let’s start with FIRE goals.
First of all, for all who don’t familiar with the concept. FIRE means Financial Independence, Retire Early.
A few studies show that if you have 25 times your annual spending invested, you can live off them forever. There are many arguments to that but let’s keep it simple for now. Also, it means you have 4% of your Net Worth safe withdrawal rate per year.
We arrived in the Netherlands to work. Besides, we’re planning to get a local passport here which we'll be able to do after 5 years of living here. All these 5 years we’ll be employed here accumulating our net worth.
Plans after 5-6 years are still unclear but the goal is to reach FIRE during this time. After doing this we want to either get back to traveling or move to another country. Which wouldn't be great for work opportunities but it would be cheaper. So far Portugal is a good option for us but let’s see what will change in such a long time.
As I already mentioned, we’re so far at ~30% of our FIRE goal number (with 4% safe withdrawal per year). So we should contribute around 10% per year + investment returns to stick with the goal. It’s a realistic goal for us but it also depends on many factors. For example, kids, which we don’t have yet. But that’s a topic for the whole another discussion.
🎁 Content I’m consuming
Unfortunately, my PS5 keeps turning off by itself so I’ll send it for repair. Hence, I’ll take a break from Horizon Forbidden West or any PS5 games. It’s a shame, especially considering that I just bought Cyberpunk 2077.
At the same time, we’re considering buying a second console (we’re a family of gamers). Maybe we’ll get another PS5 or Xbox Series X. We’re still thinking about what should it be.
I'm watching a lot of videos about life in Europe on YouTube and I discovered the channel called hello erika. It's a lifestyle channel about Europe and a bit of travel. But I enjoyed her style and sense of humor. Check her out if you’re looking for some light funny videos.
We stopped using our pirate service which was helpful when we were traveling in countries where even Netflix is horrible. So now we have to stick with traditional streaming. We started with getting free Amazon Prime month and picking up the last season of This is Us. I loved this show in the beginning but to be honest, it’s getting repetitive and simply boring.
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed my mumbling. As usual, hit me in reply with anything, and have a nice week!
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Written on the balcony in The Hague,
Dmitrii