Another awesome spot in Portugal
To retire early and achieve financial freedom at 33, in Portugal, I will need a net worth of about €670K, which should generate a passive/mostly passive salary of about €2500 a month. It is possible for me to retire as soon as I generate a passive income of €1650, though. The reason why I want to retire early is because at this point I feel like I am dragging myself to the office every day. Sadly, I was diagnosed with the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in 2012, and I feel tired and exhausted on a daily basis. I will report all the steps of my journey in this early retirement blog.
After retirement, I plan on having a frugal life, living in a small condo in my hometown, and continue to save and invest, to grow my wealth and never put my retirement at risk. During retirement, I hope I can spend more time in nature, exercise, read, watch movies, meditate and spend time with family and friends. Of course that I won’t simply veg out, as I will continue to look for investments and do the things I like the most in life. As said by many in legendary bloggers, my retirement will be a full-time job. 🙂 Even after I retire I will have to manage this early retirement blog, which will certainly consume a lot of time.
My second goal is to become a millionaire after retirement, and before I turn 40. Once I reach this goal, and I have the means to maintain this level of wealth together with a passive salary, I will stop thinking about money for good, and I will truly achieve financial freedom.
I like my job very much, but I like other things even more, and I don’t know how long I will be able to work, so about 6 months ago I decided that I will retire early. This was sort of an epiphany in my life, as I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue (a mild version), which makes me dragging to the office on a daily basis. I want to live a life in which I don’t have to set up the alarm in the morning and I get to do what I want when I want. For example, I love to read, workout and spend time with my friends. I have noticed that since I started my job in Germany, I have progressively done these things less often.
In October 2015 I had some cash (about €30K) saved up and I started to invest it… I will report all my financial decisions in this blog, so stay tuned, because if I do well, you can simply replicate my strategy and live the good life: no alarms, no boss yelling at you and no dependency on a boring and/or stressful job.
About me
– 27, single, and very frugal (I too think twice before spending €2 on an espresso)
– Work in IT
– Love hitting the gym, reading and watching movies
– Mild version of the chronic fatigue syndrome and close to burnout due to my PhD
– No addictions, but OCD
– Type A personality
Stock Strategy (my portfolio here)
– Well-diversified portfolio of good quality dividend stocks
– Diversified on the sectorial and geographic levels
– Reinvest dividends into more dividend stocks (see my posts about portfolio re-balancing)
Real Estate Strategy (my portfolio here)
– Buy way undervalue, renovate (if need be) and rent out
– Get my investments back in less than 10-15 years
– Ignore appreciation when doing deals
– Buy close to colleges
– Multi-unit homes
– High leverage (<=5% fixed, long-term mortgages below rents, so I still put money in my pocket every month)
– Extra cash from rents (see point above) is invested in very liquid bonds to pre-pay mortgages and create maintenance fund reserves
– Address mass markets
– Buy all my real estate across Portugal (probably the cheapest RE in western Europe), in at least 4 different cities within a radius of 300km
– 75%/25% commercial/residential properties
Goals of this blog
– Update my portfolio, net worth and monthly balance every month
– Provide financial knowledge (read the disclaimer on the menu bar though!)
– Interact with other bloggers
My Financial Goals for 2016
– Increase my net worth to €115k (DONE – grew to €246k)
– Increase my net monthly income by 15% (DONE)
– Get a new job in Portugal for 2017 where I can make at least €35K/yr after taxes (DONE – found one flexible job at 18k net a year)
– Sell all my assets in Germany at market value (Partially DONE)
– Live off €800 a month (DONE)
– Improve my financial IQ (DONE)
My Financial Goals for 2017
– Increase my net worth to €300k
– Increase my net monthly passive income to €1200
– Live off €800 a month
– Make €20k in rental income
– Make $40k on my investments and businesses
– Pay RP#2 entirely
– Improve my financial IQ, reading 80 books
The rest of my goals for 2017 were presented on this post.
Last update: February 2017.