Quick service announcement. I really suck at this whole FIRE thing, seriously no idea what I’m doing. We first bought a million euro plus money pit and now I go back to work! So, I’m no longer Koos Werkeloos. No Longer Koos Werkeloos! Credits: PixabayOne does relate to the other… Despite the fact that we could live in the money pit on one income. We have depleted our cash reserves quite a bit due to the renovations (which are still under budget, surprisingly) and lack of income from my end the past year. It got so bad that we only had about €4-5k left on our regular and savings accounts. That ..read more

May is typically one of the slower months of the year from a dividend perspective. But we still received a total of €556 in dividends for the month. No complaining here! Now that we also sold a lot of our real estate, one of the considerations is to start buying a few more dividend generating shares. Anyhow, here is the May 2023 dividend update. Dividend Income No major changes or dividend modification this month. Nice and boring, but again more dividends than the year before! We reached our $1000 threshold again in cash, and bought some BCE (Bell) shares. We like to DRIP our shares to limit c ..read more

As of today, we reduced out real estate holdings significantly. We now only have one more rental unit, instead of the 6 we still owned last month. Rather than being landlords, we are now acting as the bank, as we provided the buyer of our real estate with a mortgage. So we went from landlord to lender. From Landlord to Lender Mortgage House Cash – Free image on Pixabay – PixabayWhy? Why did we sell most of our real estate holdings and turned lenders? There are quite a few reasons to be honest. It was also a process that took many months to culminate. In no particular order: We moved to our mo ..read more

Oh boy is our money pit taking up a lot of time and effort! But progress is being made and we have a new roof, windows and the outside is being improved at the moment. Hence, didn’t have much time (or energy) to blog. But fortunately the passive income continues to flow in! Love dividends. Here is the April 2023 dividend update. Dividend Income April is typically a pretty good month. However, the year over year growth limited this time, which had it’s primary cause in AQN slashing it’s dividend by 40%. It hurts a bit, might have had to shift/sell quicker with that stock. A well, that is why on ..read more

Welcome to March! February was pretty uneventful for us. Not a bad month perse, but just not a lot going on. The home renovations are progressing slowly, but are still progressing! Our dividend portfolio did the same, no major movements but still a steady climb year of year on monthly basis (special dividends not taken into consideration). Anyhow, here is the February 2023 dividend update. Dividend Income February is typically a slower month. But looking at this past month, a “slow” month is now providing more income than a “good” month a few years back. Isn’t organic dividend growth great? Fe ..read more

Welcome to 2023! Today a quick look at the December 2022 dividend update and the overall yearly numbers of course. It’s been a great month and year, albeit the exchange rate had some impact to prevent a record month in euro terms. We did actually pull it off in CAD: $1505 in labor free income in December. Lovely. Dividend Income In 2022 we hit 8 months with more than €1.000 in divided income, which is an absolute record. In the previous years we didn’t even manage to get to that monthly number! Now, one month has it’s cause in a special dividend, but that still leaves 7 months of more than €1 ..read more

We wish you the best for 2023, all in good health and financially succesful (of course)! Happy New Year! The new year will no doubt be interesting on all fronts. It has not been boring the the last few years, I expect no difference in 2023. We plan to finish the renovations of the house, optimize our finances. Perhaps even find new employment (or some other challenge to make daily life more entertaining). Net Worth Drop Financially we dropped a bit in Net Worth/Cheesy Index terms (still need to calculate how much), obviously because of the purchase of the money pit and limited income in the se ..read more

As noted in another post a while back, the Dutch Real Estate investors are under attack. The question remains, do you (partially) sell and move on with your money. Or is an assessment of your portfolio from a tax perspective a good idea (it always is). But now with the aim to find the financially best mode of investment if you want to keep your real estate portfolio and retire on it. Box 1, 2 or 3? What tax changes, when and how much? Those are the first things we need to know. Box 1 and 2 change are likely limited. Box 3 will obviously see big changes. These are: Leegwaarderatio changes (i.e ..read more

Catchy title, eh? But it is true! Today an short assessment why real estate Investing is under attack in the Netherlands. Why is it happening, why is it (partially) a good thing and why it is a sign to run for the hills. Dutch Real Estate Market The Dutch Real Estate market was red hot until about early 2022. Cheap mortages and high demand made for an explosion in housing prices. Pretty much the same as what happened in most of the world during the period 2017-2021. Now, real estate investors obviously made use of this (as did we, albeit we have only bought and not sold any real estate). Some ..read more

A golden oldie, from the archieves (but slightly updated)! One that is worth reposting on the renewed blog. I’m a disciple of the Church of FIRE. I stick to its 10 commandments and rarely sin. Some say we are a cult, some say we are crazy & doomed, but we have faith in money! Oh, and our holy drink is brewed with love, just so you know. The Church of FIRE In case you are not familiar with the Church of FIRE. It is all about worshipping the mighty $ (or €/£/Etc.), its investment potential and it’s compounding effects. This elixir of gold has the potential to provide you with even more ..read more