
2018 is over.
So the other day I made room for a new chapter in my personal finance Excel Book. The name of the chapter was 2019.
Just for fun I would throw some numbers around. I don’t know why. But it kind of surprise me that if could cut back my spending even further. I would be quiet close to have enough money a year from now.
In 2018 I have been spending around 10.000 DKK/month (1500 $). And if I subtract my student loan payment, and some work related expenses. My spending is around 8.000 DKK/month (1200 $).
I have then decided to try live a month for less than 6.500 DKK (1000$). I know that Jakob Lund Fisker from earlyretirementextreme.com, has a yearly budget on 7.000 $/year. And being active on various forums. I hear about people who has Monthly budgets below 3000 DKK (500 $). I think it is very inspiring to hear people living on very low budgets.
Starting a Fresh New Year
So I thought to myself. Why not just try to start 2019 with a monthly spending significant lower than my previous years. If im able to only spend 6000 DKK (950 $), I can then subtract all of my job related expenses and my monthly student loan payments. Which means I’m more likely to have expenses for 4500-5000 DKK (800-900 $). And that would be around 30-40 % less than my previous years. If I don’t feel like spending that little, I can just spend more the next month. My theory is that no matter how little I spend, it will not affect how happy I’m. So why not just try to spend way less than normal. At least just for a month.
With expenses around 4500-5000 DKK/month (800-900 $), my annual expenses will be something like 50-60.000 DKK (9.000-10.000 $). And if we multiply that with 20, I will need around 1-1.200.000 DKK (150.000-180.000 $). And with some leverage I think I can hit that number in 2019.
Even with no rate of return I should be able to go from 600.000 DKK (90.000 $) (my current statement) to 1.000.000 (150.000 $) in 2019. With 200.000 DKK (30.000 $) from my own pocket, and 200.000 DKK (200.000 $) leverage.
Budget For January
My payments this month (January 2019) looks like this:
Rent: 2350 DKK (400 $)
A-kasse (Salary insurance): 1344 DKK (200 $)
SOS (Children charity): 235 DKK (40 $)
Student loan: 1005 DKK (180 $)
Internet: 219 DKK (40 $)
Food: 600 DKK (100 $)
Laundry (half-year payment): 400 DKK (80 $)
Fuck up money: 600 DKK (100 $)
Total: 6155 DKK (950$)
This is what I “budget” to spend for January 2019. The biggest difference will be how much I spent on food. I’m sort of frugal according to how I spent my money on food. But it is definitely a place where I can save money.
I have read about how Jakob Lund Fisker is shopping at exotic grocery centers. To buy big bags of rice, beans and onions as the core of his food. And I have checked the prices at my local shop called “Asia Bazar”. If I buy 5 kg of rice, 3 kg of beans and a large sack of onions, I will approximately spent around 160-180 DKK (30 $) and that food will last for 10 days, ish. (Yes I eat a lot).
I will make a weekly update, on how things are going.
And feel free to join me, and let me know how you are doing as well.
Back To the Roots
In Denmark we have this luxury of free education, and being paid while doing so. I think that a student who is above 18 years and is living on their own, gets around 5500 DKK/month (800 $).
What I’m trying to say here is that there is a lot of young people who spent less than 1000 $ a month.
I kind of did that myself when I studied as a building constructor. But I did manage to get 100.000 DKK (15.000 $) in student loans. It was first at the very end of that education that I had a totally mindshift about money and freedom. It happen when I read mrmoneymustache.com for the first time.
1 $ Traffic of Your Choice?
I’m came up with this fun experiment. From this day on I’m going to sell sponsors for every blog post I make.
The first sponsor is going to cost 1 $. The next will cost 2 $, the third 3 $ and so on.
You will get a headline, 50 words and a link for your site at the bottom of a blog post.
I think the average page views a day is around 50, and on the best days they are around 500.
If you would like the very first spot for 1 $ let me know by writing me on:
Loui@wannabewalden.com