Starting my journey

The starting point

Savings rating including debt payment: 1,17% (yikes!) Savings rating excluding debt payment: 13,08%

There it is. My first report. As you can see, an early retirement is far from in sight.

Since this is the first report, I'll explain the all the categories.

House

• Mortgage - I have linear mortgage, so my costs go down per payment. These costs are the combination of repayment and interest
• Electricity - You might think "This is big number for a 2-person household". However, we've moved away from gas utilities in our home and everything is done with electricity. We've also installed solar panels this year, but the costs won't get recalculated till the end of the yearly contract.
• Community taxes - These are the taxes for the community/municipality. These taxes include things like property tax and garbage collection.
• Home insurance - This is for any house related accidents/damages.
• Life insurance - This is a life insurance in case either me, or my partner dies, then the remaining person can still pay the mortgage.

Health

• Groceries - Normally we have a monthly budget of 550 euros but because we keep getting into trouble at the end of the month I decided to add 100 euros as a buffer. This amount is not actually spent but put into a separate account.
• Health insurance - Health insurance for the both of us. Luckily we're both quite healthy, so we don't need any special packages.

Partner

• Monthly expenses partner - These are the monthly expenses my partner has. This includes costs for the primary car, a few subscriptions to tv streaming services and her hobbies.
• Free budget partner - This is a monthly budget of 250 which my partner can spend freely. This month it was increased by 200 for a special occasion with her mother.

Transport

• Fuel private - These are the fuel costs of the Primary car and the motorcycle. Due to the Secondary car being paid for as company expenses.

Hobbies

• Bouldering - Costs for entrance and rental shoes. Started this only recently. Might go for a membership and own shoes if I enjoy it across a longer time.
• Gaming - I enjoy playing a game now and then so occasionally I buy a new game.
• Music - I enjoy listening and producing music. This budget is for both equipment to listen and to produce music. This month I had to pay import taxes for a guitar I bought that got shipped from the US.

Luxury

• Secondary car road tax - Taxes for the secondary car.
• Secondary car insurance - Insurance for the secondary car. Reduces yearly due to no-claim bonuses.
• Spotify - Spotify subscription for me and my partner.
• Motorcycle road tax - Taxes for the motorcycle.
• Motorcycle insurance - Insurance for the motorcycle. Reduces yearly due to no-claim bonuses.
• Travel insurance - Insurance for travel related incidents.
• F1tv - subscription for live streams of formula 1 events.
• Legal insurance - Insurance in case we need legal support for anything.
• Trips - For any expenses we make for doing Trips. We had a small trip to a photography event this month.
• Snacks - For any food and/or drinks we buy outside of groceries and eating out.

Buffers

• Maintenance primary car - Any costs related to maintenance of the primary car. In this case some new windscreen wipers.
• Dogs - Any costs related to the dogs that is not food related. This month for example they got a vaccination.
• Health insurance deductibles - Any costs not initially covered by the health insurance.
• Maintenance house - Any costs related to maintaining the house in good condition.
• gifts - Costs for gifts. We had a birthday this month.

Savings investments

• Stocks - I set up an account this month and had to make a 1 euro cent validation transaction.
• Debt parents - My parents helped me out paying for our home and the rebuild. I'm currently in the process of repaying them.

The next steps

Rethink the car situation

One of the biggest impact on our expenses is the secondary car. I've bought this mostly as a luxury for my partner. Since this would give her more freedom of movement when I would be away from home. Now, with the corona pandemic and working from home, this luxury is painfully expensive. Therefore, we've started scouting for a single car to suit all our needs.

Formula 1

Another expense I want to have another critical look at is the F1tv subscription. Our internet provider includes broadcasts of formula 1 events. We would lose the great commentators of sky sports plus the ability to replay past events but save 8 euros a month.

YNAB categories

Writing this report has showed me that I made some silly decisions when making/grouping the categories in YNAB. I want to reorganize them, so they make a bit more sense.

Have any questions or suggestions? Mail me at sound@soundsthesameas.com