Wannabe Walden

The Quick Takeaways

This month savings rate: 0 %

Passive Yearly Income (5 % withdrawal with taxes): 17.000 DKK (2600 $)

% change since last month: – 2 %

So What The F#ck Happen This Month?

• Leaving Denmark in order to start my mini retirement in Asia
• Spending many $$$
• Figuring out how I’m going to write

My Mini Retirement in Asia

My second part of my mini retirement has officially started. I have been looking so much forward for this trip. But it is also the part that scares me the most.

At the moment I’m in Indonesia. I’m here as a co-skipper on the boat Orbit. The main skipper is called Mathias, and he has went to the same school as me. So we know a lot of the same sailor people.

Mathias is the bomb. And I’m taking some weight off his shoulders by doing some of the repairing on the boat. We have spent the last 7-8 days in the marina of Sorong to do some repairing. We do whatever we can in order to leave as fast as we can.

My timeline for my retirement looks like this:

• 2 months in Indonesia as a co-skipper.
• 2 months in boracay (Philippines) training Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
• 6 months as a skipper in the Philippines, Indonesia and East-Timor.

Spending Money Is Awful

Even though the only thing I’m going to pay for is the two months in the Philippines where I’m going to be on my own. I still had a lot of shopping to-do before I had to leave Denmark.

I hate shopping.

It is the worse thing I know. Walking from store to store. To buy loads of shit that I feel like I’m not going to use. On top of that, I feel the inner environmentalist in me screaming.

I don’t do budgets. So I really don’t know what I have spent my money on. But I have been spending 3-4000 $ the last month, in order to get ready to leave Denmark for 10 months and being a skipper.

Writing Without a Computer

Yes I do have have a computer with me. But it is hassle using it. It requires so much more time to charge than my phone. And I’m quite busy all day fixing the boat we are going to sail. So I’m trying to develop a new habit of writing on my phone. It does go a bit slower. But I don’t have to sit down at a desk, and figuring out where I’m going to power my nearly 10 year old MacBook.

By writing on my phone I can do it on the go. I have set my phone up so that the first screen I see when the mobile is open, is writing related apps like WordPress, google docs and mailchimp.

I hate being a slave to the mobile. Interacting too much on social media and stuff like that. And from the moment I got a phone again. I can feel how much useless time I’m spending on it. So if I instead can spend time writing on the phone. I should be able to keep this blog running. Even though I might be 100s of kilometres away from shore.

I’m excited about trying to write 95 % of this blog on my phone!

See Photos of My Trip

My friend Jacob from jiu-jitsu gave me a crash course on how to make instagram stories. So I’m getting pretty good at taking some footage, and share it on instagram.

If you want to see what I’m doing on this long trip, you can go and check me out here:

@LouiLam

The Quick Takeaways

This month savings rate: 0 %

Passive Yearly Income (5 % withdrawal with taxes): 16.800 DKK (2550 $)

% Change since last month: 0 %  

So What The F*** Happen This Month

• 1 Month till I leave for Indonesia
• Got a mobile again (sadly)
• Leaving for Croatia

Clock is Ticking

The airplane ticket is booked for the 29th of October.

That means there is less than a month till I will be leaving my home country Denmark. In order to sail and dive my ass off down in the pacific ocean for 10 months.

There was a little misunderstanding between mOcean and I. They had me booked two months onshore, so that I could go for the diving instructor education. But I had to pay it out of my own pocket. Which is an expensive education, and I don’t know if I will ever use the instructor role again.

The schedule will look something like this:

November & December 2019:

I will be joining Orbit (the boat) in Sorong, Indonesia. In order to learn everything about the boat from Mathias who is the captain now.

Sabrina (the diving instructor onboard) is going to up my game as a diver. And making sure that I have 80 dives in a safely manner.

January & February 2020

For now I think that I will go to Boracay in the Philippines. They have an awesome fighting club, where I can live and train brazilian jiu jitsu for only 500 $/month. And it is not to far away from Carmen Bay, where I’m going to jump back onboard on the boat. Hopefully a friend from my BJJ club will come and join me.

March to September 2020

I’m going to get the title as the captain of Orbit, along with my friend Sabrina which is going to be the diving instructor onboard.

We will be diving, and do a bit of sailing in the Philippines before we hit back to Indonesia again where Kasper and Anders will take the boat for more adventures.

My dad has just booked a trip on the boat. So he will be along for the last two months of the trip, which I’m super stoked about! Thanks for that dad!

Call or Text Me!

So the other day my sister gave me her old phone. (Thanks Luna!)

I can already feel how much time I end up spending on it. Which is a pity. But when I’m going to be in asia for 10 months, I find it a bit nice to have a mobile phone along with me.

Inorder for me to think it is nice to get a phone again, I think that you should be able to contact my directly on that. Call or text me if you have questions on FIRE or just want to say Hi!

My number is +45 71792322

Hallo Split!

I sit in my room in Split, Croatia writing this blog post.

We are 13 people down here from Oure Folk Highschool. In order to learn how to manoeuvre bigger boats.

Tomorrow we will onboard three boats. One 45 foot, and two 48 foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey from 2014. Which is going to be awesome. I don’t think I have ever sailed so new boats before!

The Quick Takeaways

This month savings rate: 0 %

Passive Yearly Income (5 % withdrawal with taxes): 16.500 DKK (2500 $)

% Change since last month: 5 %  (26.000 DKK / 3.800 $)

So What The F*** Happen This Month

• I have stopped leveraging my stocks
• Competing at my first BJJ competition
• Simplifying my monthly updates

Quitting My Leverage

The main reason for why I’m quitting my leverage is the following:

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others a fearful.

Warren Buffett

But isn’t that market timing Loui?! You might think.

Sort of. The thing is I can feel I start worrying about having 200.000 DKK (32.000 $) of leverage, while I’m not earning any money. I fear going away for my sailing trip, and during that period a recession will hit. Then I need to pay attention to my portfolio while I’m in the middle of paradise. Which is not something I strive for.

The other things is that I have had +30 % ROI this year which is the equivalent of earning + 100.000 DKK ( 18.000 $). So instead of being greedy when things are going great, I start to worry.

Then Nordnet has turned up the rates from 1 % to 2 % for their investments loan. Which is also something I dislike. They could suddenly turn the rate from 2 % to 5 % while the stock market plunge. That would be a risk I was willing to take if I had a job. But not know where I don’t have any steady income.

I’m not completely done with leveraging, but until I have a new job there won’t be any leverage.

BJJ Competition in Dublin

I have found a new love for a sport named Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

My old coworker Steffen broad me along for class after I got kicked out from the national team in rowing. I never thought that a martial art would be something I would find fun. But I’m madly in love with this new sport.

I love it because it gives your ego a reality check. Whenever you feel that you are getting better, there is one who is better than you, whooping your ass.

In BJJ you don’t kick or punch each other. You try to choke, or “break” an arm or a leg. And because of that we are sparring 100 % at each training session. Which is super fun.

Last weekend I went for my first competition in Dublin. Despite losing my two fights, I thought it was fun, and I have learned a lot.

Monthly Updates – Less is More

I have decided to give the monthly updates a little brush up.

The only “quick takeaways” there will be is the very essential ones.

This Month Savings Rate: Is how big of percentage of my salary I have saved. Since I’m not working at the moment, I’m not able to save anything.

Passive Yearly Income: Is the amount I’m able to take out of my portfolio yearly. I think the 4% rule is quiet conservative. And that’s I why I have chosen to go for a 5 % withdrawal rate. And then I subtract 33 % to taxes. It is a very arbitrary number, since our taxation system in denmark is quiet complex.

The equation would look something like this.

(Total Portfolio Value x 0,05) x 0,66 = Passive Yearly Income

Change Since Last Month: Is how much the portfolio is up or down since last month.

The Quick Takeaways

This month savings rate: 0 %

This month leverage: 0 %

Rolling savings rate since February 2016: 50 %

Total value of portfolio: 725.000 DKK (109.000 $)

Years worth of annual expenses: 7.59

% Change since last month: -2,6 %  (- 19.000 DKK / – 2.900 $)

So What The F*** Happen This Month

• One year anniversary for Wannabe Walden
• Back at the folk high school
• “Dad” approved skipper
• Stock market decrease

One Year of Blogging

I can’t believe that one year has passed so fast.

And lots of (surprising) things has happened since I started.

It is always fun to see the start of an action to where we are now through some stats. I love numbers, so why not try to make some awesome graphs.

The chart above is a summarize of my 12 months of financial independence updates.

Stocks, is shares I have bought with my own money.

Appreciation, is the price of the funds that I have bought accumulated.

Cash, is my cash holding at a 3 % savings account.

Leverage, is money I have borrowed in order to invest.

As you can tell my portfolio has grown 200.000 DKK (30.000 $) since I started this blog. Which is an awesome development. Unfortunately that growth is not going to continue since I’m not working at the moment.

My investment strategy from here will be whenever the market drops a significant amount, I’m going to spend some of my cash holding in order to hit my old “all time high”.

Visitors at WannabeWalden

6.600 people has visited the blog

16.000 pages has been seen by those visitors!

And I’m very grateful for those numbers, thanks to all of you guys who finds my writing interesting (and hopefully inspirational)

Back At Oure Folk High School

I have just joined the next course here on Oure folk high school, which is named:

Pro Skipper

On this course they teach us how to become a captain on a boat. And makes sure that everything goes smooth. Right from the mechanics of the boat, to the mood of the guests on board.

I’m eager to learn more!!!

The last weekend my dad, sister and I sailed my dads boat home from Stege – Møn to Svanemøllen – Copenhagen. And that is where my dad official said to me that I’m allowed to take the boat by myself.

That is a huge honor when he says that. Because I know how much he concerns about the boat, and me for that matter. So a big shout out to my dad for trusting me as a captain.

Stock Market Decrease

So the market dropped a couple of percentages the last day. Which doesn’t concern me at all. The only thing that irritates me is that I don’t have too much cash to throw into the market if it really tanks.

I have just made a payment on 26.000 DKK (4.000 $) for the next three months on the school. Which could be the last money I spent this year. From november will I be on the boat in the pacifics and not having any expenses from there.

Which means my 2019 expenses will be about 80.000 DKK (12.000 $). And that will be a record low for me.

The Quick Takeaways

This month savings rate: 0 %

This month leverage: 0 %

Rolling savings rate since February 2016: 49 %

Total value of portfolio: 744.000 DKK (119.000 $)

Years worth of annual expenses: 6.55

% Change since last month: 4,2 %  (+ 30.000 DKK / + 4.500 $)

So What The F*** Happen This Month

• Working as a sailing instructor at Oure Summer
• No salary
• Booming stock market
• My first sponsor

The Ocean as an Office

For the last week I have been working as a sailing instructor here at Oure schools.

It is a deal they give us when we sign-up for their “Pro-Skipper” course on the folk high school. If we want to they offer us three weeks of work, so that the course become cheaper.

They pay us 5.700 DKK (950 $) for a week. Which is about half the money that I would earn as a building constructor in a week. So money wise it is a pretty shitty deal. And I think I would have a hard time finding some building construction work for a single month.

But is super fun. I don’t see it as work. Everyday we get a new team who has little to no sailor experience. Sailing with a bunch of people who has never been on a boat before is quiet demanding. I can’t relax for 1 minute, because they don’t have a qlue of what they are doing.

I would love to work even more as a sailing instructor, even if it means earning half of what I would as a building constructor. Swapping the cafeteria out with the dock is priceless.

Earning 4.500 $ With No Job

This is the very first time since I was 16 years old (12 years) that I didn’t make any money. And it is also the first time in 5 years that I didn’t buy any stock shares in a month.

I had some pretty serious expenses last month:

• Buying an airplane ticket to Sardinia
• One month of rent in my apartment in Copenhagen

And that ended up costing me 1.400 $.

Even though I managed to spent 1.400 $, my networth still increased 4.500 $. Which I think is insane. If I hadn’t spent that money, my networth would have increased with almost 6.000 $, while doing nothing for it.

I don’t think it is unusual that people have 10 fold of what I have in their portfolio. And those people would probably have made 50-60.000 $ last month.

But is important to remind yourself about that too shall pass, and bad times will come as well.

The strategy from here is I’m going to buy stock shares when my portfolio is lower than the all time high.

So if my portfolio drops from 119.000 $ to 116.000 $ in month, I will buy for 3.000 $ shares.

My First Blog Post Sponsor

Thanks to Finimize for being the very first sponsor of a blog post.

They have a free mailing list where you can get the news about the financial markets, in less than 3 minutes a day. Which I think is an awesome offer.

Check them out here.