Mr. FightToFIRE

This page can contain affiliate partner links to products that I purchased this month.Higher medical costs, a major milestone with my apartment, and continuous investments in my blog, that is a good summary of September and the resulting Savings Rate. So, how did I get this number? Besides rent, and groceries that were normal this month, I had two other major expenses. First, the invoice of my SEO guy for his research on new topics that are now in the pipeline. I hope to pump out some nice posts in October, so look forward to that! Second, I had quite some medical costs. It were serious expenses in the sense that they will have a large impact on our lives but in a positive sense. The good though, is that they are fully covered by my employer's hospitalization plan, so expect a solid November or December. These two expenses caused my monthly Savings Rate to be a bit below expectations but still a solid 42%. If I didn't do the website investments and/or had the medical costs, I'd be +50%, so I'm happy. This time around, nothing complex like pre-marital savings. Just a good old salary. Thanks to ratification it's higher than normal: 2939.11 EUR. Dividends I received some dividends this month: Nvidia (24/09/2020): 2.06 EUR. Home management and ownership Back to a normal month with my largest expense being the monthly rent (322.50 EUR) and the interest I pay for the mortgage (54.90 EUR). This will also be the last month it's only 322.50 EUR for the rent. My wife won't be able to cover her part anymore due to lack of income, so it'll all fall on me now. This means this expense will double as of October (650 EUR). On top of the usual, I also bought some peripherals (43.07 EUR) such as garbage bags and some candles (for those dark winter months ;) ). This brings the total to 420.47 EUR for September. Food and supplies In terms of groceries, we didn't do anything exciting spending 310.61 EUR. We ordered food 2 times this month. Once from Burger King and the other one from a sushi place resulting in 68 EUR for restaurants. Spending in the other categories was limited at 1.60 EUR for vending machines and 39.64 EUR on other small stuff like a waffle or some icecream. Putting it all together gives me 419.86 EUR on food and supplies. Almost exactly the same as home and ownership. Online businesses Next up, expenses for my blog Fight To FIRE. This expense is the final research my SEO guy did. There was no optimization directly, but more research about interesting topics to write about related to personal finance, financial independence, and investing. I invested 406.00 EUR. This month's expense together with the previous expenses for my blog brings the total expense, from the time I started FightToFIRE until now, to 2,829.42 EUR. Person The last big category I want to detail is Person. My expenses in this category are all medical. Nothing serious but still important. I don't think it's hard to guess what (it's something life-changing), but I want to keep you guessing just a bit longer. The nice thing is that this 258.99 EUR is completely covered by my hospitalization insurance through my employer. I expect to get the last bills in October after which I will send all bills to get reimbursed the next month: November or December. All the expenses The rest of my expenses were minimal. A quick summary: Sports - 72.49 EUR: 29.99 EUR for my Basic-fit membership: I canceled this one so this was my final payment. I will do more running and use the power cage I have at my parents once a month. 42.50 EUR on sports food through body & Fit shop: ordered some protein bars (instead of getting something like snickers) and 2 Kg of peanut butter. Government - 58.00 EUR: In the form of a fine for not moving my street parked car due to cleaning of the street. Stupid but it happens. Banking & insurance - 25.38 EUR: +0.70 EUR income in the form of cashback. 15.72 EUR on my monthly family and home insurance for the rental. 10.36 EUR on my employer's health insurance. Luxury - 26.66 EUR: 11.03 EUR on Spotify and Patreon subscription. 15.63 EUR on bike rentals for a day to Bokrijk . Adding it all up makes 1687.84 EUR in total expenses for September. I'm left with 1251.27 EUR which gives me a Savings Rate of 1251.27 EUR/2939.11 EUR 42.57%!This was my September overview. Unfortunately my Belgian friends Euromoney and AmberTreeleaves were placid this month. Euromoney did share his August expenses and an overview of his portfolio. JoneyTalks talked about standing out in a competitive job market but just as important, be sure to listen to hist podcasts on Spotify. He has a lot more interesting topics he covered in September, so be sure to check out his podcast! Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Mr. FightToFIRE

My monthly Savings Rate report: September 2020

Apartment progress: 15%

Should you invest in a garage?

Personal and financial milestone progress!

My monthly Savings Rate report: August 2020