Mr. FightToFIRE

Managing a rare windfall: my grandmother’s inheritance

2nd May was a day I will never forget. I married the love of my life. Eventhough this was during the Coronavirus pandemic, and we were in lockdown, resulting in not having any witnesses, we were still able to make it our own and have a day that we will remember fondly. Unfortunately, a week prior, I experienced my grandmother’s passing, something I won’t forget. Without a doubt the darkest moment in my life, but I would never have thought she would take care of me even after death.

Palladium wedding rings on a wooden surface

Should you invest in Gold alternatives? Checking out 3 alternative metals

Our wedding bands — This is the render of the wedding bands we ordered to symbolize our commitment to each other.

Recently, my wife and I were looking for our wedding rings.

While checking out different stores, I started thinking. Could white gold, platinum, and palladium be good gold alternative investments just as they are alternatives in wedding rings?

Investors see gold as a safe investment in times of economic turmoil. But what about its lesser-known but more expensive and rare (metal) sibling palladium (not to be mistaken with platinum)? And what about white gold? Should you invest in any of these?

Marrying in Corona times: good for your wallet

You read that right, I'm a married man as of the 2nd of May! First things first, saving money was not the key reason we got married in this period ;). The major reason we wanted to get married was that we believe in it and want to share our lives. Cliché, I know.

YNAB Vs nYNAB Vs Excel: A Helpful Budgeting Tool reviewed

Disclaimer: This post contains a referral code to YNAB.

Important Note: As of November 2021, I decided to stop using YNAB. Their recent price increase makes it a less interesting option for Europeans who don’t benefit from Sync functionality.

The aptly named budgeting tool YNAB, short for You Need A Budget, stopped supporting their legacy tool YNAB4 on 31 October 2019. I’ve been an avid user of the tool for over 7 years, so seeing their support completely disappear made me question if a change was needed.

So using the end of support, I decided to do a review of my YNAB-usage and see what I should do:

Do the effort of moving to the new YNAB (aka nYNAB), and pay a subscription fee -the horror!-
Or move to a good old Excel spreadsheet

People wearing surgical face masks in the street

Face masks: the new gold

“Those silly people”, is what I heard people around me say when they saw pictures of people in China or Japan covering their faces with a (surgical) face mask when going out in public. Not anymore, or at least, they won’t say it in public. COVID-19, aka the coronavirus, made it abundantly clear that such hygienic measures are essential. Not only to protect ourselves against others but also -especially with face masks- others against us.