Winter is coming, the air is getting colder, the days are getting shorter and everyone is going crazy with the excitement of the holiday season. I hate this time of year. For me, we could just do away with December and January. I would be much better off.
Sometimes I even think that I started my long financial quest just to be able to exile myself to a warm desert island, while this gloom passes. Honestly, what pleasure can one have in getting up to go to work in the middle of the night, scraping the windows of one's car while freezing one's balls off, putting up with overheated minds for an entire day and returning home, when it is already dark again. It sucks.
As for me, I just want to get under the covers and hibernate. Or better yet, stuff myself with junk food, biscuits, chocolates, and wash it all down with mulled wine. Lots of mulled wine. And then get back under the covers afterwards.
But no, you have to go and earn your living without taking any pleasure in it...
To hold out, during these two long months, I watch my dividends fall (rather than the snowflakes) and I buy, I buy, I buy... I think of the girls who are going to buy handbags to cheer themselves up. But I buy stocks. It's a little less pretty, less useful and concrete in appearance, but it allows me to project myself into a not so distant horizon where I will no longer have to put up with this circus.
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Courage my brother! The darkest hour is the one that comes just before dawn! You know where you want to go and you give yourself the means to reach your goal, you will soon be rewarded for your efforts. 🙂
Thanks bro!
I love this article 🙂
Thank you Audrey!
Hello Jerome
On the contrary, I find this period exhilarating when we can see dividends falling that we reuse to buy discounted companies (Japan among others... I think that soon you will know it by heart and that's good) in order to prepare for the future and stay on the path that we have mapped out for ourselves while others get lost in side roads and only see the short term and sometimes useless consumption.
Having a goal and being able to follow it as you do balances everything else and brings an inner peace of accomplishment.
Thank you for all the articles that help everyone to progress too…
friendly
Antonio
Thank you Antonio, you give me back my morale!
It's amazing how much I share the same opinion and feeling as you. And it's nice to see that there are some who think like me, while the majority of the world is obsessed with the "magic of Christmas".
I am also happy to see that around me a few rare extraterrestrials hate this period.
For my part, I like this period. I have nothing against winter, which brings its share of pleasant activities and beautiful landscapes. I like Christmas, with my family. I like the calm after the storm of Advent. In addition, although I do not appreciate crowds at all, seeing them bustling and especially consuming reassures me: people have money, consume and keep small businesses going as well as the big economy. They keep the system running, with job creation and maintenance, tax payments, ... and dividend distribution!
If everyone had the same goal and discipline as the readers of dividendes.ch, the machine would seize up for lack of fuel. And life would be a bit sad, too immobile.
Sad? No, really… We are not monks. It's just that we consume differently. And we would also like to be able to consume more freely, what we want when we want. Not having to wait for vacations or holidays to waste like crazy but to enjoy life more fully at every moment. It's far from being sad. On the contrary, I think it's the excessive consumer society that is sad. The rat race…
The sad thing is that society forces me to consume without my wanting to. But hey, I'm just like everyone else, otherwise it would be boring if people were partying without me!
It's clear. We are not all Jacobs able to live in their trailer all year round.
I think most people looking for independence want to live normally, without tightening their belts. I consider myself much more of an epicurean than an ascetic. And that's why I'm looking for financial independence: to be able to enjoy every moment to the fullest and no longer be subject to the famous metro-work-sleep routine.
So of course, to be able to become a rentier, you have to put some money aside (unless you are lucky enough to inherit or win the lottery). But saving does not mean depriving yourself, just consuming more intelligently. The best thing is to do your budget once and see the big expense items or the small, useless expenses. Typically, where you can very quickly save a fair amount of money by changing nothing or very little in your life are: housing, transport, insurance, telecommunications, food and taxes/social security.
Most people live in homes that are too big for them, where they accumulate piles of objects in cupboards that they no longer use. In addition, especially in Switzerland, they rent instead of owning, which is a complete waste of money. Concerning transport, cars are huge money pits. Very often you can do without them by reviewing your organisation a little. Even if it is not possible, you can take a smaller, less powerful car. I am always amazed by the number of people who travel in the city with big 4x4s. It is useless, expensive, not eco-friendly, and it pisses people off. Concerning insurance, many people are covered twice for the same risk without knowing it. Since they rarely change insurers, they do not play the competition either. And generally speaking, we are far too insured. We would do better to self-insure for small risks, such as simple theft or small medical expenses for example. Regarding telecoms, I am always shocked when people I know tell me that they have mobile phone subscriptions for CHF 100.- per month. For normal use, without depriving yourself, there are subscriptions for 20.-. Ok, for this price we don't have the right to change our smartphone every x months, but honestly what's the point??? We're better off buying a phone and keeping it. Or even buying second-hand. I don't understand the craze of rushing out to buy the latest iPhone every time. As with big cars, it's a sign of wealth, useless... The truly rich are those who don't work. For food, even simpler, just eat healthily and prepare your own meals. And that doesn't mean depriving yourself of going to a restaurant and drinking a good bottle of wine. What's expensive is junk food. Finally, for taxes and social security, there are lots of little things that can help reduce these unnecessary expenses, such as a 3rd pillar, a (good) debt, part-time work, etc. More information on these topics: https://www.dividendes.ch/2013/03/ou-va-votre-argent/
In short, you can live as a (future) rentier, without depriving yourself of anything or almost nothing.
Thank you Jérôme for this common sense and wise advice.
I love this Christmas time for the family time, but I hate seeing all those people rushing around trying to get the biggest gift.
In my family, we stopped giving gifts between adults several years ago, there are only gifts for children and this without excess.
No more expensive shirts that only please the person who gives them and no more perfumes that make us smell like old bourgeois women.
Yes, we haven't done that for a long time either. On the other hand, what we can eat and drink