Check in: Net worth $757k ($582k)

 Current net worth: $582,000 CHF or $757,000 CAD  

The increase from $457 to $582 (a $125k jump!) has come from: 

- Getting the money from the sale of the house I inherited - $50k

- Increased valuation of my apartment in Canada - $40k 

- Income from work - about $20k 

- Investment gains - about $15-20k 

Many of these things I did not take into full account last time I did this valuation. So I'm including it now. 

Upcoming expenses till 1 July 2021: 

My monthly living expenses are hovering at around $2600/month according to our finance split, but I expect this will go down as we get more efficient with our spending. $2600 (only one month left till July!) 

Trip to Canada (to see grandparents): $4500
I really wish we could have gone sooner. But COVID. It will only be me and E. Part of this plane cost will be subsidized by the travel subsidy we get, but I estimate we will be spending on other things (like car rental, travelling to see friends) so expecting that this amount will even out to roughly $2000. We will also need to pay for a hotel quarantine stay, which will be about $1300 for me and E. A COVID test to fly back will also cost $150. Other miscellaneous expenses will likely equal $1000. 

Trip to Switzerland: $3300
The flights are covered, baby! But this is still going to be an expensive trip. I'm booking one week in a hotel with points which helps, and we'll be staying with M's parents or with friends, so most of the accommodation costs are accounted for. We'll still likely spend money booking another hotel for about 4 nights ($800), there will also be train trips ($700). Other shopping, miscellaneous expenses can easily total $1500. COVID test costs will also equal about $300. 

Taxes: $8000 (Property tax and general income tax)  

Total: $19600

Upcoming income (till 1 July 2021): 

Job 1: $50000 I'm expecting an income adjustment of $15k, finally! Plus I'm expecting a lot of money coming in at the end of this contract. 

Job 2: $0 Although I'm working, the money will be offset by the costs to keep this job. Is it worth it? Apparently it is.  

Job 3: $1500 Doing some additional side work here and there. 

Total: $51,500  

Total increase in NW = $31,900 CHF or $42,837 CAD

Expected net worth July 1, 2021: $613,000 CHF or $799,000 CAD 

37% of this is in home equity, another 25% in pension accounts, and the rest is in liquid cash or ETFs. 

I've already reached 600k net worth (Or $800k in my home currency, CAD) before age 35; I'm happy with that. Again my long-term financial goals are to get to $1m CAD, or $1m CHF (stretch goal) by the time I am 40; and then up to $8m net worth by the time I retire with at least $2-3m in retirement savings. The best (and fastest) way to get there is to keep working hard - do as much as possible in my job, keep staying positive and bringing positive energy to work, which will help me to get a stable contract with all those sweet benefits, or get a better job in another organization. 

Next year, I can save about $80k or so give or take at the current pace. I'll be taking nearly 3 months off over the summer while expenses will hover at $31,200, or will even go down (Although, given I'm dying to go to a few countries in this region the travel budget for the rest of the year might be higher.) 

I'm really looking forward to being able to invest better while we're in Switzerland and Canada. By next month I will have over $100k that I want to put away in a "shopping spree" so looking forward to doing that.  

The strategy has not changed for increasing my wealth: 
1. Better investing - still haven't found a good way to keep doing this while abroad. 
2. Find a full-time job in public health - UN agency, consultancy, or university
3. (back-up) learn German, then work as a doctor 

Updated Makeup Essentials

 Time for me to do an update on what my makeup routine looks like. This is tried and true after like 5-6 years of the same routine. It is mom with young kids friendly (only takes me about 5 minutes to do the whole thing, which I sometimes find myself doing before the next videoconference).

This does not include skincare, which I am still working on perfecting! If anyone has any good ideas for skincare routines in high sun exposure areas hit me up. 

I don't believe in spending more than you need on makeup. If you have the basics, you're set. Sometimes spending $20 gets you the same results as spending $60 on a makeup kit. Sometimes it's even better. 

1. Eyeshadow palette with 3 colors: 1 dark shadow, one warm medium brown/almond, and 1 white/shiny highlight color. Should come with its own mirror and brush for maximum portability and durability. I don't like palettes with 8+ colors because who has time to decide on colors in the morning? You'll end up using 3-4 daily anyways. My palette was maybe $30 from MAC (MAC Look in a Box - All About Beige), I've used it for almost 7 years and it still has a year or two left in it.  One of my best purchases. Here it is below (it is no longer on sale unfortunately). 

I recently shopped for a replacement as it's getting really hard to get product out anymore (I "hit pan" a long time ago!). I found it surprisingly hard to find a palette with a) only 4 colors - because if you have more you won't use them, b) a mirror, and c) a useable brush. 

2. Foundation - $20-30. Right now I use a powder foundation from Everyday Minerals. I use this because I am in a hot climate. This is a more cost-effective version of Bare Minerals and works beautifully. Costs $17, with a $17 kabuki brush (so $32 total). I've used it now for 1 year and it looks like it still has another 5 years left.  

3. Concealer stick or liquid concealer, $15-20. Still looking for a good one with the right amount of cover. 

4. Occasionally, lipstick or tinted lip balm, $5. Lipstick is everywhere! I don't do more than natural lips so I don't need something more long-lasting, although if lipstick is your trademark you will probably be spending more here. 

I don't use an eyeliner anymore but I might start again. This would bump up the sum by another $20. Mascara just doesn't do it for me - I inevitably get the color transferred to my lower eyeline at some point and it becomes a pain to remove. 

Total: $85, or $105 with an optional eyeliner. 

Check in: Net worth, $612k ($457k)

 Current net worth: $457,000 CHF or $612,000 CAD  

6 months ago I was at $539k, now an increase of $73k (largely from house sale). 

Upcoming expenses till 1 July 2021: 

My monthly living expenses have really gone down. They are hovering at around $2000/month. $2000 x 3 months = $6000 
Our costs abroad: 

Daycare $800/month

Nanny $250/month

Cook $250/month

Driver $250/month 

Subtotal = $1550/month 

My half of the above =  $775/month 

Food and other things, $500/month 

Rent (my half)- $928

Health insurance (my half) - $240

Trip to Canada (to see grandparents): $3100
Trip to Switzerland (to see grandparents): $6000

Total: $15100 

Upcoming income (till 1 July 2021): 

Job 1: $64000 I'm currently working 5 days a week and a bit more. The work pace is fine and I have a good set up. I need to put more boundaries in place between work and home so I'm not sitting at my desk when I don't need to be. 

Job 2: $0 Probably not much, I don't see myself working very much and the licensing costs will eat up any money made.  

Job 3: $1000 Doing some additional side work here and there. 

Still waiting on: (I am leaving this out because I have no idea when this will come through)

$15000 from proof of tax return - my employer is inexplicably holding back $15k on proof of my final tax return. This is a very strange business model especially since I have already given them proof that I have to pay taxes as per many clear email conversations with the cantonal government. Anyways we managed to scratch this condition out of the new contract. 

Total: $65,000  

Total increase in NW = $49,900 CHF or $66,848 CAD

Expected net worth July 1, 2021: still around $520,000 CHF or $697,000 CAD 

If I can get that $15,000 owing to me this will be even higher, $530k. That is still fine with me. No change from prior, no news really. Still hoping to get to $1m CAD, or $1m CHF (stretch goal) by the time I am 40; and then up to $8m net worth by the time I retire with at least $2-3m in retirement savings. 

Right now less than 30% of this is in home equity / pension, the rest is in liquid cash or ETFs. 

This trajectory was boosted by the sale of a house. How much can I make next year? Well, I'll have about 150 days guaranteed, so $118,000 of income tax free. Expenses will hover at $34000. So I'll be able to save still maybe 80k or so, bringing net worth to 600k (or 800k CAD) by the time I am 36. I will really need to ramp this up if I want to hit $1m by 40. 

Investing while abroad and unable to access my accounts has been tricky; I need to do better at taking advantage of the times we go back to Canada. I did manage to thankfully open an investment account which allowed me to take advantage of some of the excellent stock market performance (a modest amount but still!). I just need to plow a lot more of the liquid I have into ETFs, maybe put another $70k in there when I go back (getting it up to $130k). 

The strategy has not changed:  
1. Better investing - get on top of this again. How do I do this while not in Switzerland? 
2. Find a full-time job in public health - UN agency, consultancy, or university
3. (back-up) learn German, then work as a doctor 

Check in: Net worth $580,000

Here we go!

Current net worth: $539,000 or $385,000 CHF 

Well, a year ago I was at $480k, and now I am at $539k. That is only an increase of $59k. This is kind of what I expected, but that is not as high as I wanted. At least over the next year I expect this to increase quite a bit (more below). 

I managed to re-negotiate my contract with my current employer to increase my income from $450/day to $789/day. That has been built mainly on my longstanding very good relationship with my boss (over a decade of knowing him and working with him). I'm really thankful for that. 

Upcoming expenses till 1 July 2021: 

Monthly living expenses will go down. from $3350/month in Bern to $2443 x 9 months = $21987 
We are moving to Nigeria for two years for my husband's work! Daycare expenses are going down, but rent and other house staff costs go up. 

Daycare $800/month

Nanny $250/month

Cook $250/month

Driver $250/month 

Subtotal = $1550/month 

My half of the above =  $775/month 

Food and others yet unknown, budgeting $500/month 

Rent (my half)- $928

Health insurance (my half) - $240

Trip to Canada (to see grandparents): $3000
Two trips to Switzerland (to see grandparents): $6000

Total: $30987

Upcoming income (till 1 July 2021): 

Job 1: $90000 About $10k/month working 3-4 days a week. 

Job 2: $10000 Gotta keep my license going. 

Job 3: $1000 Doing some additional side work here and there. 

Other one-time income: 

$15000 from proof of tax return - my employer is inexplicably holding back $15k on proof of my final tax return. This is a very strange business model especially since I have already given them proof that I have to pay taxes as per many clear email conversations with the cantonal government. Anyways we managed to scratch this condition out of the new contract. 

$50000 from house sale - I am selling the house of my grandmother's that I inherited, and splitting the proceeds with family. It won't be life changing (and I don't expect it to be) but it is substantial. We haven't finalized the split, but I am anticipating to receive after all is said and done about 30% of the value of the house. 

Total: $166,000 

Total increase in NW = $135013 CHF or 195898 CAD

Expected net worth July 1, 2021: around $520,000 CHF or $754,000 home currency 

Still doing well overall on my net worth projections. $754k CAD at age 34 is fine with me; hoping to get to $1m CAD, or $1m CHF as a stretch goal ($1.4m CAD) by the time I am 40. And then to ramp this up, through investing and earnings, to $8m over then next 25 years with at least $2-3m in retirement savings (I don't intend to retire early). Come on compound interest! 

Money wise, I still do have a big chunk of cash sitting in a bank account right now. This should definitely change. However it's not clear what I can do with this while we are abroad; I will not have residency status anywhere for a few years so I don't think I can open any new investment accounts in Switzerland. I will need to "get on top of this" again and find somewhere to keep this. 

The goal is still to keep being able to bank $100k/year CHF. As a consultant abroad with these expenses and no taxes, this might actually be possible. As a person back in Switzerland it will be more difficult, but potentially doable again if I can get back into a good job. 

The strategy is the same as last year: 
1. Better investing - get on top of this again. How do I do this while not in Switzerland? 
2. Find a full-time job in public health - UN agency, consultancy, or university
3. (back-up) learn German, then work as a doctor

I have firmly shifted to believing that money is secondary to career. (I guess I always thought that but was stressing over money for a long time). Actually - scratch that. Money and career are secondary to balanced, principled living. That is the focus. This, and growth, and family. 

Check-in: Net worth $490,000

Hey it's been a few years, but here we go. So much has happened since the last post. I now have a baby, have switched to working as a contractor, and am managing 3 temporary or locum jobs.

Current net worth: $490,000 

Oh man. So this is beyond my wildest dreams right now, especially considering I don't have full-time employment right now. I left the last job because I wanted to diversify my skill set, and landed on a very nice consultancy job (in terms of content. Pay is ok, but not to the level of what I was earning before). I'm working quite a lot, but at least I'm also putting money in the bank!

About 2.5 years ago my net worth was only at $180k. 2.5 years later, it's $310k higher!

So... what happened?

Well, I bought an apartment that subsequently went up in value by $120k the month I bought it.
I also got a severance package from my former employer. Talk about a soft landing.
And I've kept working. This new employer is fantastic from the technical side - amazing boss, really interesting content. I am re-negotiating the contract right now to see if I can get paid more.

Upcoming expenses: 

Monthly living expenses $3350 x 3 months = $10,050 
With childcare, our expenses are definitely not low. But at least our rent now is not expensive. 

Trip to Canada (to see grandparents): $3000
Trip to Portugal: $500
Yep, we have to buy a plane seat now for baby - talk about increased expenses!  

Total: $13,550

Upcoming income (till Dec): 

Job 1: $30000 

Job 2: $10000 Oh the beauty of tax returns. 

Job 3: $1300 There will be a little bit of extra income. Hooray!

Total: $40,300 

Expected net worth Dec 2019: around $510,000 

So, I've been hitting (or exceeding) my net worth projections, despite having left full-time employment in Jan 2019. I must admit I didn't expect this at all - back in Jan, sitting at $400k, I thought optimistically that I could increase it to $450k by the end of the year. This is therefore incredible.

One big thing coming up is figuring out what I am going to do about savings and investment now that we have moved, likely permanently, to Switzerland. Yeah, $100k of this $510k is sitting around doing nothing. I absolutely do not need this cushion as I can find work in a day (I am not joking)... so I need to get that money working for me too. I don't think my emergency fund needs to be higher than about $5k given the work situation right now.

The goal is to keep increasing net worth by ideally $100k a year. And to switch these projections to CHF, so a very reach goal - this will take a while - is to save $10k CHF a month. My three possible paths to get there are:

1. Better investing - consider buying a property/real estate funds, make sure all my money goes into index funds now, possibly other investing such as personal lending.
2. Find a full-time job in public health - UN agency, consultancy, or university
3. (back-up) learn German, then work as a doctor

But honestly, this blog should be more about my career goals than financial goals. Because although money is important, it distracts from the real goals of life - to lead a meaningful, full life where you have a great deal of positive impact on your family and through your work. I hope to get there a lot more than I hope to have money, which is really just an enabling factor. I think I lost track of this a bit in the last decade (being in serious debt does that to you!) but I am getting perspective back, and I think that is very healthy.

Shopping guide

So we just moved to a place where we have TONS of good shops around. This is super dangerous. With having a baby and working full time, I haven't shopped for ages so I need to "re-train" my shopping vigilance again. I just bought a $250 trench coat, and then found out I didn't like it but can't return it. Who doesn't allow returns?! So I just learned a few (expensive) shopping lessons again:

1) don't shop on a Saturday when you're tired and don't make good decisions;

2) make sure you know the return policy, in addition to: washability, where it comes from, what it's made of, and how it will look after 3 months, 6 months;

3) just because it looks good on the rack/model doesn't mean it looks good on you, and vice versa;

4) Stop trying to make COS and Comptoir des Cotonniers work for you, it just won't happen.

That's like $60 per lesson. Ouch. 

Really minimalist maternity wear - business casual edition

I work in an office in the United Nations. It is competitive and you are expected to look good. 

So what's a girl to do when pregnant, a working professional, but really minimalist? How on earth do you cover that growing bump while drawing minimal attention to it, but also accentuating the curves you've got?

Here's what I would do in terms of a pregnancy wardrobe, if I were making a new one from scratch, ranked from most to least important. 

1. One functional tailored blazer. 

This is going to be your go-to. Get it tailored if you can. Dark grey is best but light can also work. You are going to throw this baby over EVERYTHING and it will make it all look professional. Chances are you already have this in your wardrobe - so you can check it off your list. (Forget the accompanying pants - you can kiss those goodbye after 15-20 weeks). 

2. 3-5 simple jersey dresses, e.g. from H&M (below). 

These are what you are going to throw your blazer over. These simple dresses are only $15-20 each and can easily accommodate - and hide - a growing bump. Again you probably already have a few of these in your closet. 

3. So. Many. Tights. 

I would get at least 2 weeks's worth in case you can't do laundry one weekend. You are going to wear these every day so just get used to it. 

4. 1 pair stylish flats, and (optional) 1 pair high heels. I have written elsewhere about the benefits of wearing heels during pregnancy. Again you probably already have these. 

Seriously ladies, that's it. Everything else is external to this basic uniform, which works in every standard business situation. Jazz it up with a nice necklace and some earrings. People will be complimenting you for the whole pregnancy.