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July 2018 – Getting back up to speed

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

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After a disappointing June 2018 month, we managed to get back up to speed in July 2018. We had some strong savings this month. Nothing extraordinary, but pretty good still. We were able to increase our net worth significantly.

Since today is Swiss national day, Happy National Day to all my Swiss readers.

We went to Orléans one week this month. I also spent one week in the army. It was my last five days to serve in the army! Other than that, nothing special happened. It was a good month overall. Let’s go into the details now :)

July 2018

Several things happened for us in July 2018, but nothing really related to finance. We spent a week in Orléans, France. I was there for a conference related to my previous work. It was a really nice trip. Orléans is an incredible city. We both found it better than Paris!

Orléans Cathedral
Orléans Cathedral

I also spent one week in the army. It was my last five days in the Swiss army. I am finally done with this! This is really great. In total, I did 245 days in the army. Next year, I will be called to give back my military things. This will save a lot of room in my father’s home where I store all my military stuff. And some room also in our apartment since I store my weapon and a few more things here.

Our garden is starting to look great now. We have been able to collect many salads, some zucchini, eggplants, peppers, and white cabbages. Really good :)

A few fresh vegetables from the garden
A few fresh vegetables from the garden

I also had about 200 CHF of profit from selling things online. So far, everything I tried to sell did sell correctly. This is starting to save some space in the apartment. I still have a box of things to put to sale that I will do next month. Overall, I am happy I started to make some order in my computer closet.

Financially, it was a very good month. We saved 53.45% of our income. It is still a bit higher expenses than we would have wanted, but pretty happy with the result. We spent reasonably on vacation but we had more eating out than usual. We also stocked a bit our freezer.

Expenses

We managed to keep the expenses to a reasonable level this month. We had to pay some extra for Billag until the end of the year. Next year, we will pay less of Billag. But we should pay nothing for Billag since we do not use it… Aside from this, we spent some unusual money during our vacation. And also we spent more on our groceries budget than usual. We did an extra run at Aligro to stock our freezer with meat. We still manage to keep our food budget quite low.

Here is the final breakdown of all our expenses for July 2018:

  • Insurances: 555.10 CHF: The new average
  • Transportation:223.30: Average
  • Communications: 352.01 CHF: Above average because of Billag
  • Personal: 603.01 CHF: Average. Mainly things we spent in Orléans.
  • Food: 582.06 CHF: Well above average. We spent a lot in Orléans and we bought some extra to stock our freezer.
  • Apartment: 1247.00 CHF. Average
  • Taxes: 746.20 CHF. Average

2018 Goals

Goals as of July 2018
Goals as of July 2018

Looking at my 2018 Goals, nothing changed much. I am still getting way ahead of my Investment objective with already more than twice more than I thought. I transferred 5500 CHF this month from my checkings to my broker account. Finally, this month we were able to stay below 4500 CHF expenses. Only a very small dividend of 4 CHF this month. The last PostFinance fund is still loosing too much for me to sell it. My blog posts objective is much more than I thought as well.

Overall, it is not so bad I think. Only the months higher than 4500 CHF make the goals look worse. And since I went back on my bonds decision, the 5% bonds objective will never be fulfilled. But that is fine :)

Net Worth

It is time for the net worth update now. It is been a great month for this. The market is back to some small earning again. And I was able to save quite a lot this month. And I finally received my second pillar certificate (6 months late). My pension estimates were a bit too low. This makes a nice difference too.

Net Worth as of July 2018
Net Worth as of July 2018

Our net worth increased to 114’323 CHF! It is a pretty great result :) This is 35.11% higher than last year. Not bad! Since next month will not be great, we will not reach 120K next month. Unless the market goes really well, but I do not think it will. We should be able to reach 120K in September.

The Blog

There is not a lot to say about the blog this month. Nothing special happened. I have not had any problem with SiteGround yet since I migrated to SiteGround. There has not been any big referral this month, so traffic is back to normal lows. I have been able to write a lot this month. Especially new posts in the Investing series.

Excluding the index of the blog, here are the three posts that were the most popular in July 2018:

  1. My monthly personal finance routine – 11 things I do each month
  2. 5 Things I hate about Switzerland
  3. Index Replication in details – ETFs and mutual funds

What about you, what post did you prefer this month?

Next Month

Next month will be pretty bad in terms of finance! We are going to have our second wedding ceremony with more people. The first ceremony we only invited very few people because we were pressed by time. The second party, we have around 50 guests. We went with a restaurant to not have to worry about food and service. We did not do a huge thing, but it will still cost us significantly. And because of the way my new work is handling vacations, I have to take unpaid leave for our honeymoon. This sucks. But it is still better than canceling our honeymoon. Even if it is only four days, it will a large amount removed from my salary. With these two things together, August 2018 will probably be a negative month.

After August, we will not have any big things for a few months. At least, that is what I think, but I am generally wrong about this ;) We will probably have a trip to China for Chinese New Year in January 2019. But nothing is set in stone yet. I hope to start in September, we will be able to stabilize our budget.

What about you? How were your finances in July 2018?

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Baptiste Wicht started thepoorswiss.com in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. This blog is relating his story and findings. In 2019, he is saving more than 50% of his income. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence. You can send Mr. The Poor Swiss a message here.

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12 thoughts on “July 2018 – Getting back up to speed”

  1. That’s so cool! I didn’t know you were in the army!

    Also, well done with your net worth update. Like always, you’re doing great. I know you mentioned about the wedding party and honey moon with unpaid leave but I think your experience will be so worth it. I hope you have lots of fun! :)

    January 2019 still seems far from today but planning a trip to China sounds awesome! :D

    1. Haha, it’s not so cool in Switzerland :P Army is mandatory here ;)

      Thanks a lot panda. Yes, it’s going good :) Better than I thought possible even one year ago. I hope too that we are going to have lots of fun. In fact, I’m sure we will!

      Next month is September already and Chinese new year is in early February, so 4 months in advance does not seem too much planning for me :P

      Thanks for stopping by ;)

  2. Same situation here haha. I just received two letters the past few days about being done with the army with their new system. I will give back my material by the end of this year. So happy. (Still hesitating if I give back my weapon or not. Shooting is fun once in a while…)

    1. I’m glad for you! It feels great to be done with this!

      I also was hesitating for the weapon, but you have to pay to make it yours. And you have to do “Tirs en campagne”. I probably won’t keep it. But yes, it’s fun once in a while indeed :)

  3. Congrats for the end of military service ! I remember my last day 8 years ago, what a pleasure it was to put aside the uniform once and for all and wear plain jeans and T-shirts again ! (And another pleasure was to get rid of all the equipment and and that silly machine gun, cluttering the basement).
    And those vegetables do look awesome indeed!

    1. Thanks JB :) Yes, it feels great to get back to plain clothes! I probably have to wait until next year to get rid of all my equipment. But it will save a lot of room!

      Thanks, the vegetables turned out well finally :)

  4. Great job on the savings and net worth! I hope you had some time to enjoy Orleans and were not stuck at the conference the whole time. And those vegetables from your garden look great!

    My July finances were a bit over budget. July is a busy month for us because we have our anniversary, both our birthdays, and USA’s Independence Day. We also have some biannual expenses that fall in July. But it was an enjoyable month and I expect the next few months to be much better financially.

    1. Hi Gary,

      Thanks, we are quite happy on the savings. We had a lot of time to enjoy Orleans. The conference gave a lot of free time.

      Wow, so many events in the same month. I guess that can make a big dent in a budget. At least, it’s enjoyable for your birthdays and anniversary! Happy birthday ;)
      My next month will be very expensive but also enjoyable because of wedding party and honeymoon. Budget is not all, we need to live :)

      Thanks for stopping by :)

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