54%! Very Proud!

Hi y’all!

October 2014
Mortgage: 32.64% (0.09% increase)
Emergency fund: 395% (3% increase, due to the closing down sale of the side business)
Stash (=EF + stocks): 15.75% (slowly getting to 20%)
Income to spending ratio this month: 54% (Now that’s the way to do it!)
Income to spending ratio this year: 61% (<60% here we come!)

I’m very proud of the 54%.

I expect November to end up around 60%, due to certain purchases we have in mind. In December I’ll fetch my end-of-year bonus, so we’ll definitely stay under 60%. All in all, <60% spending to income over 2014 should be achievable. Wootwoot!

How did you do?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Ridiculous Impulse Buying

The closing down sale is ridiculous. I already turned over a couple of thousand. I mean…these people woke up this weekend not wanting to buy the shit they bought…but they did. Funny how I’ve changed my view on consuming. I started the business 7 years ago and I was a spendthrift myself back then. Now, I feel a bit guilty for tricking people into buying the greater part of my stock. But on the other hand…instead of writing the stock off I’m making money off the stuff…and making some customers happy??? I don’t know about the latter part, but the spendthrifts amongst my customers will certainly be happy with their purchase…for about ten minutes, because that’s how that works….doesn’t it?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

P.s. Please, be nice! 🙂

Closing Down Sale

I’ve been extremely busy with the closing down sale of the side business. Everything is ready and tomorrow we’ll send our customers a newsletter about the extreme sale prices.

Yep, I’m trying to tempt people to buy this shit. This is exactly why I’m going to quit the side business. Since I am not a person to buy useless shit anymore myself I couldn’t cope with selling people shit. I’d rather help them get their finances in order.

Hopefully the holiday season will help getting most of our stock sold. This is also why I waited with the sale…people are more inclined now to buy other people presents.

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

I Just Gave People Financial Advice…

And I loved giving it! They asked for my advice (which is something I should wait for instead of giving people financial advice who didn’t ask me for it) and I shared my view on their financial situation with them. It came down to: throw lots and lots of cash at your mortgage. (They’re an elderly couple with a mortgage that’s way too high for them…it’s higher than our mortgage, for cryin’ out loud!)

I really think I should become some sort of budget/howtohandleyourmoney/getoutofdebt type of coach person on a professional basis. It would just give me so much pleasure to help people out, giving genuine advice on how to handle their finances. The thing is…if I want to do this professionally I’d have to charge people money. However, asking people for money for my advice who are already in debt would make me feel rather uncomfortable.

So this is actually a very bad business model, haha!

I’ll go and think about this…any suggestions?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

The Side Business Continued

Thank you for all your thoughts on the side business.

Hiring an employee is a great idea! However, my side business is situated in an integrated part of our home. That would mean this employee would have to trot through our home in order to do his or her work. This is not an option.

I’d still like to be an entrepreneur. It’s just that this particular side business isn’t working for me. Firstly, I just can’t combine having to pick orders and send them with being a mother. Secondly, this side business just isn’t in line with my latest view of the world. I am selling crap and here I am condemning buying crap. That just doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t feel right anymore. I am thinking about becoming a budget coach or something like that on the side.That certainly would be more in line with the new me, don’t you think?

By the way, the day I told myself I was going to quit the side business felt like a huge load off my shoulders. I just know this is the right decision.

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Christmas

This week was tiring, but great! We visited family for Christmas and they provided all the meals and entertaining. So there was no pressure whatsoever for us to think of Christmas recipes, do groceries, decorate tables and whatnot. This year’s Christmas was one of the best ever. Nothing fancy, just a simple meal with family. I hope we get to do this every year from now on.

Yesterday we spent €800 in a baby store. Ouch! About half of that amount was spent on a new maxi-cosi and a click-fix thingy. The second-hand maxi-cosi was over five years old and then it just isn’t safe in a crash anymore. That’s why we were willing to spend money on a new one. The click-fix thingy is a non-necessary item, we know. We will enjoy it a lot, though. It will save us lots of fiddling around with seatbelts. Oh well, we decided to treat ourselves to this luxury.

The other stuff consisted of things like a mattress, baby bath, blankets, towels and other items a baby needs. Combined with our second-hand purchases we spent about €1400 in total on the baby and we think we’ve got it all. I prepared the trip really well. I made lists of things we’d need so we were in and out in about two hours. Still, it was a very tiring experience. Why on earth would anybody want to hang around these stores on a weekly basis?

Because of all these activities I couldn’t find the time to actually write a blog. I’m still working on the index investing for Europeans total blog post. Also, the side business is extremely busy. The company’s bank account is taking in lots of ‘stash. Yay! January is usually also an extremely good month for my business. So I guess next month I will be rather busy with the side business as well.

The baby is still kicking like crazy and she tends to wake her mother a couple of times each night using her bladder as a trampoline. Oh well…

The husband will be leaving for his short snowboarding holiday on the 1st of January, early in the morning. I’m excited for him. He’s really looking forward to this, but he does feel a little bit guilty. I’m the one pushing him to go and enjoy it. I’ll be queen of the castle in the meantime and wash all this new baby stuff and fiddle around with other things on my to-do-list. Can’t wait!

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Side Business

The side business is kind of busy at the moment. Tis the season and people are shopping like crazy. I have found a new product which is doing great. I can sell the stuff for 8-10 times purchasing price. Those are always cool cash cow products.

However, it is getting a bit weird being on “the other side” as well. I am living a rather frugal life myself…but I am encouraging people to buy my stuff. It’s rather small stuff, does that make it any better? 😉

Oh well, there will always be consumers and frugalists. It would be weird to quit the side business, just because I wouldn’t buy the stuff I’m selling myself. That would also mean that I shouldn’t be investing in stocks…because, hey, those companies are trying to make money by selling stuff as well. Right?

And on the other hand, I am trying to convince other people not to spend money on stuff they don’t want, avoid debt and save/invest the surplus. So I’m doing the right thing here, aren’t I? Not that I’m doing something evil while running the side business. My customers are happy and my customer service is excellent.

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

This Weather Is Bad For Business

The side business isn’t prospering right now. In fact, it’s near-dead. The sun doesn’t shine that ofter in The Netherlands and whenever the weather is kind of summerish everyone goes out to enjoy themselves. They don’t shop online anymore… This is a pity for me, but hey, they’d be crazy to be shopping online right now. I’m not worried or bothered. It’s rather Mustachian of them!

All the more time for me to work on the app my husband and myself are creating. I think we’ll launch a test version within a couple of weeks.

I have been playing around with an idea for an app to teach people to get out of debt and handle their money properly. What do you guys think?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

New Strategy For Failed Orders

I noticed that sometimes payments don’t come through when people try to order things in my webshop. I just left these unfinished orders and hoped my customers would come back.

That’s a lazy-ass thing to do, isn’t it? And rather moronic as well. So, I decided to type out a nice general text in which I tell the customer I saw the unfinished order in my administration interface and ask the customer whether they need some sort of assistance.

This decision was golden since customers really appreciate this, come back and finish the order!

You learn something new everyday being a (side business) entrepreneur.

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Making Money In February

I don’t know why it’s happening…but the turnover of my side business has already exceeded that of February last year. January 2013 also exceeded January 2012. I’m liking this!

Though…I can’t really tell where this unexpected increase of turnover comes from. I do feel like products from a new supplier are really popular. These products are high quality and can hardly be distinguished from the same products by popular brands. So instead of focusing on low quality goods I am going to focus on these brand-less high-end goods.

The new cashflow feels great. I keep buying stock every week or two weeks from this new supplier and the goods keep selling really well. This increase meant an extra mortgage payment in January. Let’s see whether I can pull off the same thing this month?!

You haven’t got a side business yet? Get your ass in gear! It’s FUN!

Do you have a side business? What’s up with your turnover?

Love,

Mrs. EconoWiser