𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 - Epilogue (My Personal Story)

A couple of months ago I noticed that I was never given the Best Financial Advice so I started giving a bit....

Best Financial Advice Ever (Improving Health & Wealth) - Part 1

I even got an honorary title: Mr Wolfe

And if you like me are getting old and forgot about this guy: REFRESH

It ended up being a way too long series with a lot of advice on how to sort out your Financial Mess that ended with the below episode:

𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 -𝕋𝕚𝕡𝕤 & 𝕋𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕜𝕤 𝕋𝕠 𝔾𝕖𝕥 𝕎𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕖𝕣

Now somewhere near the end after talking about my portfolio, I got a comment that opened up my eyes ......

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Conservative Investor

It had to be pointed out to me, because I am standing too close to my own investments, but:

FrankDaTank was right.

My current investment plan is pretty conservative, as I only have 40% in assets and 60% in fiat to buy more real estate in the coming year. And I do not want to risk that 60% because I need to make that downpayment. Well I do want to risk it, but I can´t because there is more to life than investing.

More To Life

What could be more important than investing and making money?
Well, what fun is money if you are living in a place that does not allow you to utilize the full potential of living?
I bought a lovely little apartment two years ago, when I finally got rid of my debt and had the means to invest. I bought it because it looked like a great investment.
The price was right, the location was good enough, and the interest on my mortgage was low. It was a perfect little investment.

Did it make me money?
Yes, my current costs altogether are lower than the rent I was paying for a similar place 2 years back. And when I say similar I mean similar, same street, same building. While at the same time, a portion of that cost flows back into my pocket by repaying the mortgage.

The best financial decision would be to stay here and invest what I can put aside each month.

But..... I am not.

Money is not the most important thing in life, there are two things I definitely like better love and happiness and you can´t buy those with money.

Money does allow you to easier spread love, and increase your chance of happiness.

Right now having money in the bank does not make me happy, it makes me worry and think....what would make me happier.

Well investing makes me happy, and even though I know bricks and mortar do not have the same return on investment as stocks and BTC does owning more of those will not make me happy. Owning more property might make me enjoy life even more.

A little garden, less neighbors on my lip, the option to put a pool in my garden, a spare room that could be used for increasing my family.... and hopefully being able to keep my apartment and rent it out. Hence having someone else pay for my real estate, while I pay for the other one.

Now I am very much aware of the risks involved in renting out an apartment, but I can always sell so let's try it and further diversify my investment.

If the rent pays the bills, which it easily would some one else is slowly buying me an apartment. While if all goes sour I still have a very affordable place to fall back on.

On top of that, I expect that the house I plan to buy will increase my joy in life a bit.....where do you get that nowadays right?

So even though it might not be the best financial decision, I prefer to invest in happiness.

But the best part is that at this point in my life, I can make these decisions. I am at a place right now where I would not expect to see myself ever, and certainly not 7 years ago.

On A Personal Note

Seven years ago I was deep in debt, spending approximately $1200 dollars more a year then came in ending up with a debt of 11K and a student loan debt that was about the same amount + about 3K on old debts.

So 25K not in the pocket. And things were not improving, the more I made the more was spent. For all the reasons I mentioned before.

This debt was basically caused by 3 things:

1. I was never told about the cost of debt
2. I was never told about the benefits of investing
3. I allowed someone else to make the final financial decisions

I always knew a way to just lend that bit more to allow us to do things we did not have the savings for. A Car, A Holiday, A Birthday, An Ipad.

I planned but she would change the plan, causing us to always overspend. And even if overspending was only 1K per year, over 12 years...... it is a lot.

Flip The Switch

Things needed to change because financially I was going nowhere and emotionally I was going down the drain.

If you are in a relationship and you are not on the same page, fix it or end it.

Signed,
Mr. Wolfe

The relationship ended, but it did not flip the switch....right away.
It took some time and Another Love to flip that switch and get me in the right financial mindset.

This is how I did it

One day I saw how much interest I was paying on these debts, well I probably saw it 100 times but now I finally looked and let it sink in.

That hurt but it flipped the switch. And started my fight with the beast of debt.

I knew I had to change things around, as I was amid my divorce I could finally take full ownership of my financials.

That is the trick; own up to your mistakes, your debt and fix it.

In all those previous chapters I told you plenty of tricks that I used, but I needed to see the light and flip that light switch on first. As long as that is not done, you have lost before you started.

Once that switch was flipped it almost seemed as the universe was coming to my aid.

I was able to get a bank loan to pay off my credit cards.
I put all my credit cards to 0 and paid at end of month.

Now the only debt I was paying was 100 euros each month against 7% interest instead of 27%.

I wrote down a budget plan and made sure I stuck to it. This meant that in the beginning, I had nothing left at the end of the month except for less debt than the month before.

Then at the end of that first year, I had a serious promotion and all of a sudden I had 100 euros left at the end of the month.

A year later I got a big birthday gift from my dad, until this day I don't know why.....but as I was debt-free I was able to invest for the first time in my life and I bought BTC at 27K in 2020.

I started renting out my parking spot and made a little extra each month, or paid a little less.

Then in 2021, I got a letter I needed to vacate my affordable rental apartment. And damn that felt horrible, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.

I had saved up a little bit of money, I could lend a bit from my parents which allowed me to qualify for a mortgage on an apartment in the same building.

The total cost of my current apartment is lower than what I paid in rent. Hence another nice bit into the saving jar and things kept going well because in 2022 another significant raise.

All the time I had been putting the money I did not spend aside, which is now quite a bit but most of it in the bank. The place where I did not want it in the first place but as explained in the first part, I have my reasons to dance with the Devil.

I am now by my lonesome saving up at least 500 euro a month to buy more real estate.
These last 18 months I have used 2% of my wages to buy stocks in the company I work for at a 15% discount.
Every quarter I am putting 150 euro into Silver & Gold.
Every 6 months I add 500 euros to my crypto portfolio.
And tomorrow I have a call with a broker from the bank to see what the additional costs are if I start to invest monthly in a stock fund or ETF.

Oh and the luck did not end there, I had an inheritance that allowed me to pay off the student loan.

This was No Fairy Tale - I did not wake up that poor again

Summing it up like that sounds like a fantasy tale, and it is true although I did have plenty of setbacks during those years I was able to deal with them without falling back into the debt trap.

It meant no car, no holidays, no trips, always on a budget, being serious about my job ensuring the promotion opportunity, no impulse shopping, doing my shopping by bike, and wearing non-brand clothes bought on sale.

A death trap ehh dept trap I got in when I was 15 years old and started smoking weed and figured out that I could withdrawlm the money from my paperroute twice. I stopped that 12 years later and it took me another 12 years to flip that switch. So I have been in debt for the biggest part of my life.

I started this story long ago by saying I wish that someone would have told me that very important lesson.

Do not spend what you don't own and start investing as early as possible.

The Ultimate Bottom Line

Making Money Is Fun
Saving Money Is Only Fun If You Can Invest It And Make More Money Or More Happiness
Debt will remove happiness and is bad for your health in many ways.

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Thank goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!
Source Pic MyI & AI