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Dmitrii goes public - Issue #3

Tomorrow I’ll dispatch to my first team retreat in The Netherlands so I’m writing this on Tuesday.

How is your week going? Feel free to answer me back and let me know how you are handling this summer heat if you have one.

Also, there was something wrong with my “From” email domain and confirmation emails didn’t work. So if you tried to subscribe to the newsletter, please try again!

🇳🇱 Stuff I’m doing in The Netherlands

In the middle of the year, I already realized that I will blow away my annual goal. It was to reach $1k revenue with my project Taco Digest. To be honest, so many things changed since January 1st, 2022, so I’m not surprised or disappointed at all.

But I want to reach some accomplishment this year, so I picked a goal I’ve never done before—run a half‑marathon. It’ll take place in Amsterdam on October 16, so I have plenty of time to prepare.

I started by downloading Strava’s half‑marathon preparation calendar and following it. First step is building endurance, so I’m focusing on long runs. Last week I managed to run for an hour, which is a good achievement already. I’ll keep you updated. I also want to read more about food and water consumption during runs.

One amazing thing about running in the Netherlands (true not only for running, but more noticeable): when you meet someone’s eyes they immediately smile or nod to acknowledge you. I love this—it gives a nice boost of confidence and mood. Kudos if you smile at strangers. If you don't, just try it.

A shocking revelation from last week was the curtains industry. We have quite high windows in our rental (~3.50m / ~11ft), so most curtains should be custom. We asked the company that’s been doing curtains in the building how much it would cost. The answer: €1200! For curtains! 🤯

After some consideration, we ran to IKEA and bought default curtains for €9.99 each and hung them ourselves. Yes, we now have ~30cm (12in) off the floor to the curtain. But we saved a buttload of money, and it does the job for movie/gaming sessions—our TV stand is right near the window.

As I mentioned, my wife and I are going to our company retreat for five days and I’m looking forward to it. We’ve worked with the company for almost 5 years already but were always remote. There are even some people we’ve never met, so it should be fun. The company rented a house somewhere in the west of the country.

👷 YouTube and my projects

I’m ashamed to say that I still haven't started with either of those. I am determined to start today since I took the day off. A lot is going on: buying and assembling furniture, planning trips for the summer, and simply dealing with immigration/documents. Sometimes I find myself deep into all that and wake up in the evening having done nothing for my projects.

Huge thanks to people who continue watching my videos and leave nice, encouraging comments. It’s always the best motivation.

💰 Finance and FIRE

As I mentioned in the last issue, I intend to be more transparent about my finances and FIRE goals here. Let’s start with FIRE.

For those unfamiliar: FIRE means Financial Independence, Retire Early.

Several studies show that if you have 25× your annual spending invested, you can live off it forever (the 4% rule). There are many caveats, but let’s keep it simple for now: ~4% of your net worth is a safe withdrawal rate per year.

We arrived in the Netherlands to work. We’re also planning to get a local passport here after 5 years of living in the country. These 5 years we’ll be employed here, accumulating our net worth.

Net worth progress

Plans after 5–6 years are still unclear, but the goal is to reach FIRE in this timeframe. After that, we want to either get back to traveling or move to another country—worse for work opportunities but cheaper. Portugal is a good option for us so far, but let’s see how things change.

As mentioned, we’re currently at ~30% of our FIRE number (with a 4% safe withdrawal per year). So we should contribute around 10% per year + investment returns to stay on track. It’s realistic for us, but depends on many factors—for example, kids, which we don’t have yet. That’s a topic for another discussion.

🎁 Content I’m consuming

Unfortunately, my PS5 keeps turning off by itself, so I’ll send it for repair. Hence, I’ll take a break from Horizon Forbidden West or any PS5 games. It’s a shame, especially considering that I just bought Cyberpunk 2077.

At the same time, we’re considering buying a second console (we’re a family of gamers). Maybe another PS5 or an Xbox Series X—we’re still thinking.

I'm watching a lot about life in Europe on YouTube and discovered the channel hello erika. It's a lifestyle channel about Europe and a bit of travel; I enjoy her style and sense of humor. Check her out if you’re looking for light, funny videos.

We stopped using our pirate service (useful while traveling in places with terrible streaming), so now we have to stick with traditional streaming. We started with a free Amazon Prime month and picked up the last season of This Is Us. I loved this show at the beginning but, to be honest, it’s getting repetitive and a bit boring.

That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed my mumbling. As usual, hit reply with anything, and have a nice week!

—

Written on the balcony in The Hague,

Dmitrii