FunnyDjo - Presentation

Hi guys,

I discovered this forum with the blog of Mr MP like many of you.
I have been a long time reader of Mr Money Moustache but couldn’t really find an European community that support this mindset and I was glad to find this forum.
I am biking to work (before Covid) since 2015. I was a nice move from public transportation to some sport.
I also like minimalism, enjoying this world through good food, nice travels and less consumerism.
I am a French IT developer 35 y.o. married man to an amazing American wife since 3 years. We have lots of in common but different mindsets especially around money. She will more artsy, foodie, sensible, loving travels and I will be more analytic, geeky and Mr numbers of the family.
We had quite few clashes and arguments on saving/spending money and we had to compromise saving and spending to enjoy our journey on Earth.

I always had some security issues that translated into accumulating cash and saving for troubles. I’d love the idea to FIRE but not sure I will do the big jump. I will be more happy to have more freedom than my classic 8 to 6 job.
I really enjoyed MMM article about Money and Confidence being Interchangeable. The idea being, with a Stash big enough, I could take more risk for a more enjoyable job with less hour constraint.

We still have separate accounts for now and I track my saving rate only:

I am targeting 45% leaving in Geneva as we were saving more 65% leaving on French side.
With a big hit usually on January


We have no car, no kid (for now) and leave below our means. We live in a small flat in the city center and spend mostly on food and travels.

I am able to save 45-65% thanks to my education (master) and field (IT).
My gross salary progression could summarized it as follow.

  • 2003-2006: I started with French minimum wages
  • 2006-2011: I started to work with my bachelor. x2 French minimum wages. My parents push me to continue for a Master in IT and practice English with studies abroad.
  • 2012: Graduated to my Master and started to work in Switzerland. x2 previous French IT dev salary
  • 2013: Moved from Junior, confirmed then Senior IT developer in Switzerland

Since 2016, I worked on my risk tolerance and allocate my stash from cash to a more balanced portfolio:

Bonds: I started to be expose to investment world through French Life Insurance that offer Fond Euro with no risk and also low interest gains (1-2% in 2020). I consider them as bonds as well as my LPP2.
Shares: I progressively moved my extra cash to LPP3 equivalent (PEA, PME-PEA) which are now useless as Switzerland resident. I discussed the point in French corner of the forum with @nabalzbhf. I am not sure about converting all those euro investment back to CHF. I will keep them open and may be useful if one day I cross border again. I will rebalance them to invest only in physical Euro ETF instead of CFDs. My future investments are now with IB to be more currency efficient (CHF > USD), invest with physical US ETF and to ease my tax declaration for 2022.
End goal of 2021 will be to balance 10% of cash to Shares.

I have been more active on the forum in the past month due to our move to cross the border to Geneva last year. All my French fiscal and tax knowledge became obsolete and I am still learning a lot. I am starting an IB account and invest in US ETF like VT with Mr MP referral link.

We haven’t got any Wealth number in mind as my wife is happy working and do not wish to retire or travel the world. We are quite happy with 5 to 6 good weeks on holidays but I won’t mind taking a low stress job with less constraint.

My Total Net Wealth increased since I track it and also the portfolio mix


It is now worth 14 years of savings including LPP2, LPP3.
Another objective for 2021 will be to start a joint account and help my wife get her stash going.
We will contribute to common expense with 1/3rd for her and I will take the rest.
Will she be able to invest in a LPP3 as an US citizen? Or should I start to look for an IB account?

Owning va renting :
I am not someone that necessarily want to own my place while working. I do not think it is always a good deal as buying is overpriced where we live and do not want long commute. I am happy renting as long it is well located and not too expensive.
Long term, we will ideally own our place and my idea will be to bought it when we can currently borough the money to the bank and rent it until we retire or decide to go to a low pace/small job. Ideally the city will not be in an overpriced capital necessiting High wages, still attractive with some jobs, making connections easy (Airport or trains),close to France to visit family, not a total tax killer…
Still looking…

Thank you for reading.

11 Likes

Welcome!

Nice progress and a strong savings rate on your end, congrats!

This is 2 hours more than the “classic”. :grin: (9-to-5)

Btw wouldn’t your charts look more natural to you if the time progressed horizontal and left to right?

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Welcome to the forum!

You seem to be quite an analytical nature. You’ll be in good company here. :wink:

One question: What bonds do you hold?

I’d consider only bonds denominated in CHF for myself and just can’t find anything decent.

LOL, I’m working on the same project! :smiley:

Thank you for your feedback @dbu. I updated my chart to be more readable. I worked in Paris and could not imagine 1 day finishing at 6pm. It was usually 8-9pm regularly so I am feeling very lucky. When I was biking to the office pre-coved I was making a point leaving before 6pm. Let’s see.

@Neville I have updated the bonds section of my presentation but it won’t be a big help for a Swiss resident. I considerate as bond my LPP2 and 4 Fond Euros available in French Life Insurance. This weird creation of France has no capital loss but the interest rates are lower every year. In 2020, it was 1,50 - 2,00 %. I sleep well with it and can invest the rest in shares and not worried about losing 50% of it during a crash like Covid.
I may cash out this product and invest them in more ETF at next market crash.

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Quick update after 1 year on this forum.
My base currency is still euro as it is still the country of FIRE but there is no plan or city defined.

I still track my average spending with my partner without kid in Geneva. I found it useful to define the target annual expenses if FIRE.


Our average saving rate is projected for 2022.
Our expenses are useful to evaluate the target annual expenses.

Name Value
Debt ratio 14,63%
Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) 3,75%
Target Annual Expenses 50 000,00 €
Target Net Worth to FI 1 333 333,33 €
FI ratio 65,74%
Guardrail to go back to work 933 333 €
Calc your biological age vs chronoligical age 38

I didn’t find an useful biological age calculator if anyone knows another one more accurate?

If anyone want to gain confidence to plan retirement with AI, I will recommend this podcast of Ben Optimal Retirement Planning using Machine Learning (EP.165) presenting Gordon Irlam AIPlanner.

My objectives for 2022 will be to:

  • reduce my cash allocation to 9% and increase share allocation to 52%:
  • Increase my debt ratio with an investment into a flat in France.
  • I do not really intend to quit my job as it is interesting, colleagues are nice, I got some flexibilty but no career progression. I would like to find something else.

FIRE objective is more to gain confidence to reduce working day to 80% or fund a project.

16 Likes

Nothing new here but I am keeping track of the net worth and saving rate update made in 2 other topics.

Monthly fix cost budget for a couple living in Geneva area:

Libellé CHF
Rent and heating 1524.00
Extra heating and water 8.67
Internet Fiber 44.15
Power 30.00
Swiss - Taxe Serafe - Radio et Television 27.90
Personal tax 2.10
House insurance 17.20
Laundry 20.00
ASLOCA 43.78
Cautionfees 1.67
TOTAL CHF 1719.00
My system is not as detail as the other for the remaining.

image
image

My average saving rate is stable around 64% without kid but I expect it to drop dramatically as we are expecting our first chlid beginning of Q2.

Daycare will cost a fortune but I expect joy.

A bit of conservative projection for a family of 2.

Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) 2,70%
Target Annual Expenses 55 000,00 €
Target Net Worth to FI 2 037 037,04 €
FI ratio 45,81%
Guardrail to go back to work (drop 30%) 1 425 926 €

My net worth progressed slowly in 2022 but no massive downside:

I didn’t expect to have extra cash to convert to equity:
image

My goal for 2023 I will be to invest the extra cash to reach my target of 60%.
I am more risk adverse with the family growing but hopefully I will get more confident once I will know the cost of the daycare.

8 Likes

Do you invest a different sum each month, basically whatever is gonna be left? Or how does your savings rate differ each and every month?

Since 12 months , I have a fix Saving rate and I managed to wire an fix amount to IBKR each month.

Every quarter I made an extra transfer if I mange to save more than anticipated.

Here is my annual update.

Our family annual spending went up to 75kchf.

I expect expenses to got even higher in 2024 with 12 months of daycare.
I’ve reviewed few metrics accordingly.

Debt ratio 11,48%
Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) 3,50%
Target Annual Expenses 75 000 €
Target Net Worth to FI 2 142 857 €
FI ratio 51,36%
Guardrail to go back to work 1 425 926 €

My net worth progressed slowly in 2023 but still too much cash saved for a real estale investment that didn’t concretise:

My goal for 2024 will be to invest the extra cash to reach my target of 60% :smiley:

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What happend there? :laughing:

Hoarding too much cash and vague excuses on childcare cost (witch is under control) and primary residence purchase (need to stop procrastinate and act).