Category Archives: Sensible saving

December Numbers

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December 2015
Mortgage: 34.72% (+0.23)
Emergency fund: 100.02% (the 0.02% is interest received)
Stash (=EF + stocks): 20.09% (+0.13% YEAH! We passed the 20% mark!!! Multiply this amount by five and we’re FI)
Savings rate this month: 30% (Yikes, however…our mortgage payment for January was already collected this month, so we had two mortgage payments in December. It should relieve January 2016 off monetary pressure)
Savings rate this year: 40% (So, 40% it is!)

How did your 2015 fare?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Last Month’s And Last Year’s Numbers

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The husband is off to Austria. He’s on a rather expensive snowboarding holiday up to and including Sunday. So the only sensible thing for me to do after waving and kissing him goodbye was calculating last month’s and last year’s numbers, right? I’m such a geek these days! 😉

December 2013
Mortgage: 31.08% (0.07% increase, I continue to hate the fact that we can’t make extra mortgage payments anymore…)
Emergency fund: 248% (4% increase)
Stash: 8.47% (0.33% increase)
Income to spending ratio this month: 79% (NOT fair since the mortgage was already taken from our bank account on 31st December 😦 Without that early mortgage payment it would have been 64%…but now we won’t have a mortgage payment in January 2014…yay!)
Income to spending ratio this year: 65% (bang on the lower challenge I set!)

Mind you, this was the year in which we went to Austria three times to have fun in the snow. We also bought some bits and bobs for our house and we spent dough on getting things ready for the kid. We went to a couple of music festivals and we treated ourselves to a two month indoor skiing membership during the summer. (Yeah, we like the snow) We also paid off the interest-only part of our mortgage. Furthermore, we saved a lot on groceries and we hardly went out for dinner or squandered money in likewise forms. We didn’t feel deprived of anything at all. I am actually rather proud of the fact that this year we spent 65% of our income compared to last year’s 84%! It’s all about spending money more consciously.

Are you happy with your 2013 numbers?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

November Numbers

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As today is the first of December the November numbers are in!

December 2013
Mortgage: 31.01% (I continue to hate the fact that we can’t make extra mortgage payments anymore…)
Emergency fund: 309.18% (187% increase! Thanks to the endowment.)
Stash: 8.14% (4% increase, almost at 1/10 of being FI!)
Income to spending ratio this month: 57% (verrrrrrrrry happy about this!)
Income to spending ratio this year: 63% (1% decrease, yay!)

The husband and myself high-fived over our income to spending ration of this month. We “only” spent 57% of our income (I didn’t add the endowment to the income). The “unexpected” spending went to changing to winter tyres, a board game festival, a donation to help out the Philippines, a couple of presents, new bathrobes, maternity underwear, a second-hand nursery for my parents so that the little one can stay the night there sometime in the future, other second-hand baby stuff, one lunch with a friend and uncovered health insurance expenses.

Without all of these “unexpected” expenses we would have stayed well under a 50% income to spending ratio. We are so getting better at this! If we’ll really be able to spend less than 50% of our take-home pay we’d be FI in sixteen years. Cool, I’ll be 48 by then. Our goal is to have this mortgage paid off by the time I’m 50…so our ‘stash by then should more than cover our expenses. Whoohooh!

How did you do last month?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

€1700 a year saved on childcare

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Yesterday we talked to our neighbour who is going to look after our kid for a day a week. From the end of August 2014 I’ll start working three days a week instead of four for a whole academic year. The plan is as follows:

Monday: Mrs EconoWiser
Tuesday: Husband’s parents
Wednesday: Neighbour
Thursday: Mrs Econowiser
Friday: Husband

My parents were not able to look after the kid during weekdays after all. They’re entrepreneurs and for my mother to come in and look after the kid for a day would mean they would have to hire an extra employee for that day. But they have offered to look after the kid during evenings/nights and weekends if and when we’re interested.

This means that we only have to pay (the husband’s parents don’t want to get paid, obviously we will give them other things to show our appreciation like taking them out for dinner every once in a while or something else they like) for childcare one day a week.

The cost comparison with a daycare centre is huge. Our daycare charges a monthly membership fee of €310. As I don’t work during all school holidays, we would still have to pay for those days. So that’s 12 weeks a year extra, whereas we only need 40 weeks a year. A daycare centre would cost €3720 a year. In The Netherlands childcare is subsidized, which means that the government will repay a certain percentage and that depends on your income. However, our combined income is way too high for this subsidy, so we’d be paying the full price.

Our neighbour charges €5 an hour and food is included. She’ll look after the kid for 10 hours a day so this will cost us €50 a week. She won’t look after it during all school holidays, which means we’ll pay for her services for 40 weeks a year and that comes to a total of €2000 a year.

I still don’t have a clue about how I’ll feel about working and leaving the kid with other people…we’ll see. For now, it looks like we have a sound plan.

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

One In Three Does Not Have An Emergency Fund

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According to this Dutch article one in three fellow Dutch(wo)men do not have an emergency fund! About another third does not have a sufficient emergency fund, which means the amount is lower than €3500. Only 21% of the Dutch have an emergency fund that exceeds €5000.

I find this shocking. A lot of people would not be able to make ends meet for one month if for one reason or another they wouldn’t receive a paycheck that month.

Our minimum emergency fund would cover us for about six months, we’d probably stretch every euro and make it last for eight to nine months. Right now our total ‘stash would cover our expenses for a year and a half, maybe even two. We think that’s way too much and we’re thinking about investing the surplus. Well, if you’ve been reading this blog you know all about it. The husband is going to calculate our different options.

How long would your emergency fund cover your expenses?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Savings Account For Kids

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I know I’m already thinking ahead here…but I have this vision of us walking into the bank with the little one to open his or her first bank/savings account. Oh, and teaching valuable money lessons we’re going to teach the kid.

We’re just not quite sure on how to handle this whole thing. On the one hand I’d hate for the kid to squander everything we’ve saved for him or her when he or she is eighteen. On the other hand, that would be a life lesson and maybe we will have raised a kid wise enough to not squander that money.

The advantage of an account in the kid’s name is that, for example, grandparents can easily transfer money to the kid if they want to invest in the kid’s future. 

What are your thoughts on saving money for your kid in their name?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Lower Tax Brackets

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Our government is thinking of lowering our income tax brackets. Actually, the majority already agreed on this idea. It’s sort of a compensation for lowering the mortgage tax break. We have four tax brackets in The Netherlands.

Tax bracket 1: €0 up to and including €19.645 37% tax (it’s not clear to me whether this will change)
Tax bracket 2: €19.645 up to and including €33.363 from 42% to 38%. (The average Joe in our country earns about €33.000)
Tax bracket 3: €33.363 up to and including €55.991 from 42% to 38%.
Tax bracket 4: €55.991 and up from 52% to 50%.

Good news!

How much income tax do you have to pay?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser