PA: The blog is alive but I’m struggling to post, here’s why

The blog is still alive! Sorry for the drama, but not writing for over a month leaves me with an itch I have to scratch. Don’t expect a new financial post, though. Just a quick personal update to get you up to speed since a lot has changed after my last blog post. Changes preventing me from even sitting down at my computer and start typing. Nothing negative, quite the opposite, even.

Multitude of reasons

I’m still very much alive blog-wise. (Un)fortunately, there are changes taking place both professionally and personally, resulting in my writing having to take another step back (for the moment). Not that I’m not preparing posts, just that I can’t complete them and consider them good enough to publish.

The undeniably biggest reason: my daughter.
I and my wife are still struggling with getting her to sleep through the night. We lose a lot of time trying to make her calm down and go back to sleep when she wakes at least 6 times during the night. Add to that that my wife has to go to the office the struggle gets real to even get sleep.

However, while our little one is a big reason for the absence of time and sleep, she’s not the only reason.

1. Employment: going independent!

To start off with the main reason professionally: I quit! I presented my resignation on 19/05/2022 and effective on 01/08/2022 I’m an independent IT consultant.

It wasn’t a clear-cut decision since my current employer was my first and only job experience where I still had good moments. But after almost ten years, I felt more and more out of place and I realized my butt had to get out of that plush office chair. On top of that, this decision was brewing in my head for years, and in the last few months it started to spill out pushing me to take the leap.

Not wanting to sound too negative about where I came from, working at an international financial institution was 100% a blessing. I met hundreds of interesting people and could work with a multitude of technologies and platforms, helping me hone my IT skills to where they are now good enough to take the leap into independence. All at an above-average salary, many in Belgium can only dream off.

Major benefits for the blog

Becoming an IT consultant will undoubtedly result in a big financial leap forward, but it also gives me many opportunities to further improve the blog and even expand it. These are just ideas though, and I need time -which I lack- to turn them into reality.

2. My finances

Maybe a quick word on my finances since we are on the topic of improving them.

My crypto.com investment and debit card usage came to an abrupt end. One of my all-time best decisions turned into a liability at the beginning of May due to their rate cuts. Right in the middle of my holidays, no less. While I hesitated for a couple of hours, I liquidated my entire position shortly after the news release. selling everything was a frustrating choice, as at one point I had a high of €20,000!

I still came out net positive. With a gain of about 100% (€4,000 stake to €8,000 total withdrawal), I have little to complain about compared to some people that even entered based on my review :(.

I already updated my original post about my experiences, but I will do a major overhaul the moment I have a bit more time.

3. Our (new) home

Another decision that I and my wife took is related to our living situation. As you may remember from previous posts, we moved into my grandmother’s home to have more space for our growing family. At that time, it was a temporary solution but we got the option to stay and take it over if we were able to make it feel like (a) home. Well, we waited till the last moment, but I’m happy to say we cut the gordian knot and decided to take it!

My second home, my wife’s first

As with any new home purchase, this one also comes with a whole laundry list of things to decide, not the least, how to finance it all. Suffice to say, with this new purchase I have a lot on my plate, especially since the Brussels apartment still isn’t ready and rented out!

Because this is my second house but my wife’s first, our home situation is rather unique. Luckily the house stays within the family so there is no rush in handing it over. With interest rates going through the roof, we can’t wait too long with budgeting and getting started on renovations, but with all the other stuff that is going, this is definitely on the lower list of priorities.

It does give me a whole lot of extra material to write about for at least 2 years ;).

I need more time to create blog posts

Finally, the status of my blog posts. While I have a lot of content in the pipeline, it has proven difficult to complete many of them. You could even say I’m in a bit of writer’s block. I never thought I’d be typing that, but it probably describes it best. Given the reduced time behind my personal computer, the little time I can spend behind it is used to try and find the words for my posts, but they are not coming out.

In the end, I can’t finish anything and as I don’t see a major improvement soon, especially as I will focus on my IT business, it’s hard to say when I can release some new finance posts. At least my monthly expenses and a mid-year review of my portfolio should still be possible.

Final thoughts

And there you have it.

A quick rundown on my personal situation. Some significant changes took place in the brief span of a month. Some things have come to an (abrupt) end, while other changes are only just starting and will undoubtedly change me as a person, both personal and professional.

Time will tell if my most recent choices have improved my family’s life. One thing’s for sure, you will be in the first row as all this is going down.