Weekly Wrap-Up, September 13

Weekly Wrap-up

September sure kicked in the front door at work after the relative quiet August we had. Some of you may indeed have noticed my absence in the comments sections on your blogs, but not to worry! You aren’t rid of that ridiculous Belgian just yet.

Nothing wakes you up like a bunch of hard deadlines at the office, much like a big ol’ face punch.  With the government formations in Belgium trodding along nicely – don’t worry, we won’t try to break our own world record this time – there’s a lot of kerfuffle all the time. As a result, I have neglected my blog and by extension my faithful readers. Mea culpa.

Complaining won’t get us anywhere though, so let’s just skip to the fun part! Past week Debt Debs’ blog turned six months, which is a pretty huge milestone considering most bloggers don’t make it past two months. Get over to Debs’ hilarious blog and be sure to congratulate her.

In other positive news, Will wrote about his bike commute. Yes, Mister Lipovsky bikes to work every single day. Every. Single. Day. Like a boss! Ever since I moved I have been riding my bike to work too because it is so much fun and very relaxing after a day at the office. Did I also mention that it’s extremely healthy? My job is about 30 kilometres away, so a daily commute sadly isn’t feasible at this time.

More healthy habits come from Mr. and Mrs. Frugalwoods, who both love hiking in the mountains. Although I was disappointed by their post – although not really – because it lacked the obligatory Frugal Hound pictures, be sure to check out the gorgeous landscapes and hiking trails they’ve visited in the past. Sometimes I wish Belgium was more like Austria or Switzerland so I could go on long walks in the mountains too.

More serious topics this week were brought up by Jason, also known as Dividend Mantra, who layed out his views on the 4% safe withdrawal rate. If you’ve read my article on the 4% rule, this will definitely be an interesting follow-up post. Folks who might want to check out Jason’s article soon are Mr. and Mrs. 1500 days since  they are at the threshold of the $1,000,000 mark. Huge milestone!

If you’re not interested on what to do if you are knocking at financial independence’s door, but would like to read on taking the first steps to investing, you can check out my effort to write an – ahem – educational post on investing. Still not happy? Tough luck! Then head over to First Quarter Finance and find out how Will’s first investment ended up being an immense failure.

Wait. Mr. 1500 days posted on rant thursday, even though he wasn’t ranty at all? Not to worry, Alicia’s got our backs covered. Apparently she really, and I mean really, hates bi-weekly pay cycles. Could you blame her though? To me they sound like an absolute nightmare.

Many rant-worthy subjects have also found their way into my life these past few days. I had to write and complain about the silly marketing letter from a Belgian bank and the foolish advice from economists on how to deal with the low interest rate in the Euro area. These posts show that there’s still a lot of work to be done by the personal finance community.

Speaking about work to be done, apparently my message didn’t cross the Atlantic yet. Erin from Journey to Saving decided to do another post on frugal meals. Don’t get me wrong though, I love food and I love frugal solutions, but was it absolutely necessary to write about waffles? No means no, Erin!

Frugal solutions are cool indeed, but there’s one thing even better: free! Steve is giving away another one of his books to a lucky winner – it’ll be me, you’ll see. All you have to do is read his short review, leave a comment, and you could be the next owner of Fooled By Randomness.

That’s it for this week! Now I’m going to try and make spaghetti sauce from scratch for the first time ever. If you don’t hear back from me in a couple of days, chances are I’ve poisoned myself. Too bad that means you won’t be able to read my upcoming net worth update and an exciting post on my first dividend payout.

14 Comments

  1. That’s a stellar wrap-up, my friend! You covered almost all of my favorite posts of late! Thank you so much for mentioning Mr. Frugalwoods and me. And, funny enough, it did cross my mind that the post was sadly sans my sweet Frugal Hound. But alas, she can’t be in EVERY post, right? 🙂 I fear it would go to her pointy, greyhound head.

    1. Why thank you, milady! The upside from hardly reading any posts all week is that you can go through them on a saturday morning and make a nice overview.

      We wouldn’t want Frugal Hound to become tired of all the attention. She deserves some time off too!

  2. Ha! I love having an excuse to rant – I’ll take over Mr. 1500’s Thursday rant if he isn’t feeling it 🙂 as Mrs FW said this is an awesome roundup. Loads of great reading in here.

    Getting back into the groove after a slightly slower summer can be rough – I am dealing with that myself.

    1. Why would you need an excuse? Rent all you want! I like nothing better. 😉

      Slightly is a major exaggeration in my case. Summer was boring as all hell at work and now everyone needs to catch up. Hope you get back into the work groove soon!

      Thanks for the kind words,
      NMW

    1. In my case it’s cycling from one city to another! Pretty cool to be the only bike in Brussels and to zig-zag between the traffic jams though. 🙂 Too bad 60km every day is a bit too much or I would go by bike each day.

  3. Aside from the hate on waffles, this is a great way to do a roundup post! I also love the word “kerfuffle.” But I have to say, if you make waffles from scratch, I’m sure they’re cheaper than the ones at that stand, and I would agree they should not be a daily habit, especially chocolate ones with whipped cream. Ick! Enjoy your waffleless weekend! =)

    1. Thanks, Erin! I started out with a simple list, but found that too boring and not personal enough. I think this mixes things up to the point people might actually consider this a normal, informative post.

      Don’t worry about the waffles, I actually really enjoy waffles! 🙂 Wish I could have home-made ones too!

  4. “No means no, Erin!” made me LOL for realz. You’re funny. I loved all these posts too and I actually had read most of them already – yay me 😉 but alas now I feel woefully behind because, like you, I’ve had a busy workweek (those Belgian bosses, I tell ya!). Now I have writing to do and blogs to catch up on and my daughter invited her future in-laws over to our house for dinner tomorrow night so I have to clean my house and cook but all I want to do is take a nap. Are run on sentences allowed on this blog?

    1. Haha, “you’re funny”, she said, like in a cheesy romantic teen movie. 😀

      Sounds like you have a busy weekend ahead of you, Debs. Don’t waste your time on my blog, chop chop!

      A full-time job, blogging and running a household can be a bit much sometimes. I’ve actually started planning writing and reading slots in my calendar.

      Have fun with the future in-laws!
      NMW

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