Enlightened

Okay. A blog. What's the point of all of this? Lately I've been busy finding inner peace. Although that's a nice paradox, it seems to have been worth it. There are a couple of things I start to see that, to me, sound like lessons in life.


First one is, after reading some books more or less having to do with relationships from the view of non-duality, that life is life. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything is exactly how it is, right now, nothing could be different from what ever you are now experiencing. That got me through some sticky memories and made me fret a little less.

Second one is, after closely observing my close surroundings and my life so far, humans tend to feel more and more miserable and start believing they need to have more money to be happy again. With money, they could buy more stuff, a bigger house to put all their stuff in and a boat and vacations and they would, for sure, know what true happiness is. The problem with money is, it's invented to represent a certain materialistic value and by itself doesn't do anything than just being that, a number. That number must then be traded for goods and those goods should provide happiness. Craziest thing is that all over the world people seem to have confused "rich" with "having a lot of money". There has been some serious research into the question whether more money makes you a happier person. Turns out you can't buy solutions for lack of happiness.

Third one is, one of the things that most people tend to dislike is the fact they have to work. Not just work, work their hair of and work for what seems to last forever. They keep looking out for retirement which comes at some year far into their sixty. Here in Holland it's crawling towards seventy anyway. And I see way to many people not getting there at all or enjoying their well earned retirement for way too short.

With myself a little less worried about my past or my future (or at least the picture society thinks of what should be your future) I became interested in how I could change perspective of my own life. I'm not only interested in the field of meditation and inner peace, I'm also a graduated mechanical engineer. Logics and philosophy can be a dangerous combination.

After years of looking desperately to my monthly income vaporizing again and again, I took a cold shower, faced the facts (I am here, now, and this is exactly how it is) and began reading about alternatives. I came across interesting blogs like this one from a currently US based native Denmark fellow and a Canadian fellow both not interested in how the world wants them to live. They both focus on how much they actually need to spend annually and try to work up to a figure that allows them to do so for the rest of their life. This creates a completely different approach instead of 'how to earn a million bucks'. Your lifestyle is the key to early retirement. Earning more means you can quit work earlier! This provides ultimate 'social freedom', being in range for everyone. Including me!

Long story short, I thought it would be a nice idea to start a blog around my own case. First of all this gives me space to write away my thoughts, I like putting down words anyway. Second of all this gives me a nice way to confront myself with my goals. Especially with zooming out, it became very clear that my current lifestyle and debts were for sure going to keep me down in debt for at least another nine years. Looking at the bigger picture, that needs to be done with. Quickly!

Facts for day 1 of a plan upto 2030...

Personal net worth todat... NEGATIVE €  -16.256,94

Consisting of...
- Personal debt due to separation in 2013 € -16.836,98
- Student loan € -2.419,96
- Personal savings account € 3.000,00

As of now, I am paying of an extra € 300,00 monthly of my personal debt and € 100,00 monthly into my student loan. My calculation sheet tells me that, by the end of 2018, I could be debt free.

I can't afford more down payments at this time, neither do I want to spend my safety buffer which I think is now at absolute minimum. Biggest expense, besides rentals and paying of debt, is my car. I need my car for work, rents are killing in the city. Also I need my car since I'm playing drums as a hobby. But it's well worth looking around for a smaller, cheaper car! Step two... :-)

Step three would be to see if I can buy a cheap apartment in the city. Of course, mortgage is debt. But investing in a home there could save me lots of fuel and in the long run this will earn me money instead of it being wasted on rent. Other option is living with a roommate or something like that and live cheaper than with the costs of a house, that could even save some more.

It's a long shot but I am beginning to see this as a nice, conscious way of living.

Ciao for now!