What surprised me a bit is that Christmas seems to be a huge event in Japan, while only 1% of the population is Christian.
I saw Christmas markets, Christmas decoration, Christmas trees, Christmas music and so on.
I realized that Christmas isn't about religion anymore for most people.
For example I haven't been to church in like 10 years and on Christmas I don't even think about religion. It's just a time where I meet my family and have some cozy time eating cookies, playing board games and listening to Christmas music.
- a house is always a good and safe investment
- buying a house for yourself and pay off the loan is better than renting out a flat/house
- investing into stocks always means buying single stocks that you think will go up in value
- your money grows when putting it into a savings account
These are just a few of many bad financial advice my parents tought me as a kid.
Nowdays I'm trying to educate my parents, especially my mom since she isn't interested in finances at all and just spends her money. But it's like talking against a wall. 😬
Many foreigners think that it looks like in the first picture everywhere in Germany. 🤔
But in reality I guess most of Germany looks like the second one. 😂😅
There are way more ugly cities than pretty ones...
3 days into working after the holidays and I'm already so exhausted.
Things at work aren't going that well... 😔
Do you know the "rm -rf *" joke? While being a bit sleepy I accidentially did it on one of our servers.
This command permanently deletes ALL files and folders recursively.
I caused quite some chaos. 🤧
Not a cool move of me, especially during these current mass layoffs at our department. 😶🌫️
What is my financial conclusion after my first year of working at a company and earning money? 🤔🧐
I NEVER will become rich or even just reach the wealthiest 1% here in Germany by simply working my 9-5 job as a software developer. Even though I currently invest the majority of my income mathematically this isn't possible...
The gap between rich and poor, even the one between the wealthiest 1% and the rich is pretty big here. For belonging to the rich in Germany you need way more...
This isn't possible with a normal job. You need to be very lucky or take a lot of risk building up your own business to reach these dimensions... 🤔😓
It's not my plan to become rich. I just need enough to be able to financially protect and to provide a carefree life to someone I love.
Happy New Year Everyone!!! 🎆
Is anyone still here...? 😟 Noise turned silent...
I'm back from Japan for a while now...
The first days in Japan where so stressful and in general I felt lonely most of the time. But overall it was a valuable and beautiful experience.
It was a cool adventure and I got a lot of impressions.
Next year I want to travel again. But I'm not sure about the destination yet.
Maybe again Japan if I find a cheap flight, maybe the Philippines, maybe Iceland or maybe just something close like Austria.
I will properly think about the destination first since it's not clear if I can keep my job.
I'm currently in Japan! :O
Are you interested in some pictures? I just posted a few on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/rektflip/status/1729066974481883137
Living a minimalistic life in the Japanese country side.
No need for expensive cars, expensive clothes or other products. There is no need to buy a lot of food because most of your food is growing in the garden.
You don't have to work. All your running costs like health care, internet, water is payed by your investment returns.
Since work turned extremely stressful I started thinking about this idea again...
Comparing yourself to others will always make you feel left behind. There always is someone you know who is richer, prettier, more successful than you.
Instead you should compare yourself to yourself from the past.
Don't measure yourself on a scale that isn't your own.
That's one of the reasons why social media like Instagram or Facebook can be so toxic for our mental health and should be avoided.
The best way to invest into stocks is a forecast-free highly diversified investment into the profitability of the global economy via index funds or ETFs (exchange traded funds).
You can imagine these as baskets of stocks. Instead of speculating that a single or a few stocks will rise you are just buying "all". 😅
Your thesis with investing like this is that in the long run there still will be companies which are generating profits AND it doesn't matter which it will be.
Big learning for me during the business trip:
You shouldn't start talking about weeb stuff and show "anime music" to your colleagues who don't even know the difference between anime and manga. 😵
Even if everyone is pushing you to do so. 😬
They didn't even have a clue...
My sister moved into her own flat as soon as she got her job.
Even though she has to pay for rent, food, etc she would be able to save and invest as much as I do. 😲
I would guess her monthly expenses to ~700-800$ which is pretty cheap!
But what's her trick?
She got her next boyfriend and moved together with him. 😅 They are splitting all costs 50/50. Instead of ~800$ for rent each is paying ~400$, instead of 50$ for internet each is paying 25$, and so on...
Even electricity and heating is cheaper for each of them since the freezer, lights, heaters etc are running anyway.
There are even tax advantages...
Together you are stronger and mountains turn into little rocks.
I'm on a "strategic business trip" this week.
It's the second time this year.
It's also the second time I'm seing my colleagues in person since we are distributed within Germany and even different countries.
Seing all makes me realize again that computer science isn't really popular amoung girls.
There are 4 females out of 43 engineers. And two of them are about to retire soon.
It was the same during university. I wonder what's the reason for that...
Currently I'm just sitting in my hotel room enjoying the silence before the storm. 😬
My "social battery" will be at -80% after this day... 😵
During the week I spend my days working at my 9-5 job. After work I'm always so exhausted that I need some time alone to gain new energy.
Basically my days are eat - work - sleep - repeat!
During the weekends I'm always visiting my mom and also have to do my household chores.
The time I have left for anything else is so little...
I realize that during university I had way more time for myself.
Back then I got ~6 months of holiday a year.
Nowdays I only have 30 days off work which the company allowes me to take.
The difference is that now I'm getting paid...
I used to drown in thoughts and feelings.
I was feeling overwhelmed and wasn't able to handle what was going on in my mind.
Maybe you remember the highly emotional me who always was wining on noise.cash...
But luckily the doctor knew a solution.
He was against medication for what I was facing so we first tried breathing excercises, natural supplements and meditation.
Meditation brings you the ability to handle any kind of feeling, emotion or thought that is stuck on your mind.
When you master meditation you will be able to let go of anything on your mind and make some "space" in your head.
Imagine you can enter a state where it feels like your whole body is filled with pure sunlight and warmth and you are just sitting there thinking about nothing.
Currently there is a political discussion here in Germany that every 18 year old should receive 20000€ from the government for more equality and to have some money to "start life".
Financed by an even higher taxation of heritage.
I think this is a dangerous development.
When the gap between poor and rich gets bigger such ideas come to the surface.
In 1952 there was a law called "Lastenausgleichsgesetz" to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
Rich people had to give 50% of their wealth.
Just imagine you or your family worked really hard to build a significant wealth and then 50% of it is just taken away.
The reality is that the government has to do the best for the people. And when 98% of the people are poor and 2% are very rich the government will do what's the best for these 98%... Otherwise people start to riot.
One advantage of working remote from home is that you can just sit in your pyjama at your laptop and cry your eyes out.
Nobody will ever know. It's just you in your room on your computer. If you work at an office you can't do that.
Where I work it also isn't common to turn on the webcam during meetings which results in some people going for a walk and talk using their phones...
As a software developer you can basically work from everywhere. You only need a stable internet connection and your laptop...
Most people at my age who got their first salaries start spending their whole money on expensive cars, clothes, vacations and tech.
But my dream is being able to protect!
Emotionally and financially.
That if I ever would be allowed to experience mutual love I would be able to protect my wife like a solid mountain in the stormy sea. 😅🤦
Like a knight protecting his princess with his life. 🤔😅😂🤦
Even if the company wouldn't fire me I still have to keep saving and investing my "whole" salary for the next 3-4 years. Only this way I would be able to build the first foundation of my financial wealth in a calculatable way.
There is no short cut when it comes to investing and building wealth without taking high risks.
It's just a dream. But if I wouldn't do anything and wouldn't have a plan it will be just a dream forever.
Do you have a dream? Then ask yourself what you have to do to achieve it, create a plan and actually start working on it. 🤔
Just a tiny little step at a time.
In two months around this time I will already have spent my first few days in Japan.
I haven't even planned what I really want to do and see there...
There is only one event I already plan to visit.
The "Kiyomizu-dera Autumn Illuminations" in Kyoto.
Because I will be there in autumn there are a lot of colorful leaves and many illumination events across Japan. Like a maple leaves festival.
I kinda wish I wouldn't be alone in Japan and have someone by my side to share this experience... I would feel much safer and less anxious. I also watched a lot of youtube videos of people visiting Japan with friends.
But I guess solo travelling can be cool too.
There is one "cheat code" for getting a visa to live in any foreign country.
And that's marriage. 😅😂
A few years ago I was thinking about moving to Japan and looked into different ways to get a visa because as a German you can only stay for 180 days without one.
I don't have a lot of money so an investors visa wasn't an option.
I'm not married to a Japanese person so a spouse visa wasn't either.
My only option was a "highly skilled professional" visa for which you need an university degree in the field of natural sciences and a Japanese company who hires and vouches for you for.
Work is pretty tough recently.
The company isn't profitable at the moment.
My boss told me that I have to watch out to get stuff done properly to not get negative attention from his boss... Especially in the software developing department they are looking to reduce costs...
One from our team already got fired.
And I have to assume that there is a high probablility that the software development team will be outsourced to Poland or India in the mid- or long-term. A whole tech office at the company already got outsourced to Spain...
There is one positive thing about that. If I survive another 3 months I will unlock my first social security benefit. The government then will pay me my salary for 6 months after being fired.
So my goal for now is not being fired for another 3 months. 😬 And 1 year of work experience puts me into a better position at job interviews in the future...
410 Japanese companies, 8300 Japanese people, Japanese garden, Japanese stores, Japanese food, Japanese school and kindergarten, Japanese doctors and hair dressers, some Japanese people walking around...
When you look at these pictures you probably think that's Tokyo.
But that's "Little Tokyo"! 🤓 All these pictures were taken in Düsseldorf!
In Düsseldorf is Germany's the biggest Japanese community.
That's just a short drive from where I live but I still wasn't there a single time...
This week I didn't work. I got covid and the doctor wrote me free from work. I'm pretty knocked out.
This forced break from work and stress made me realize something. Maybe I shouldn't have sold myself for so cheap to the company.
The starting salary for graduates for my job in my area is around 42000€ a year. Even with all the benefits I'm not close to this number. 😓
When discussing my salary during the job interview I asked for less than what the company was offering me...
It's probably okay since I "earn" work experience which will lead to higher salaries in the future, but maybe I should have ask for a little bit more... 🤔😔
This whole year of rejections crushed my self esteem a lot...
Your life, your decisions. Your own pace and plans. You are doing you.
Nobody besides you is allowed to tell you what to do, how to live life, who to love or what to believe in.
- One relative of mine who is a bit more wealthy wasn't okay about her daughter marrying a "poor" roofer.
- My dad wasn't okay with my sister getting a tattoo.
- I think my grandparents weren't happy when I decided to stop being an altar boy and stopped going to church.
At the end we did it anyway and they accepted our decision.
NOBODY defines yourself and your way of living besides you. Not your parents, society, friends or partner. Not even institutions like the government, church, your company or clubs.
As long as you aren't hurting anyone it's okay.
If they don't accept your own decision they don't actually care about you. Only about someone they want you to be.
Back in 2019 this article introduced me to the term "frugalism" which defined my current financial habits and investment strategies.
Frugalism isn't about cutting back on life and fun. Frugalism is about living a simpler, but happier life.
It's about discovering which expenses really make you happy and benefit your life in a sustainable way and cutting back on the useless stuff. The money you didn't spent on useless stuff you invest to let it work for you. This way you can focus more on what is really making you happy.
And eventually one day your investments allow you to fully focus on these things.
I found this "Relaxation Film" with footage of Germany and calm music:
https://youtu.be/K0uAIFbuPm8
I don't know what it is but something about this video is really relaxing...
And it made me realize that Germany has many castles... 🤔😅 Google is telling me 25000... And I feel like it could be true. The closest castle from where I live is just a ~15-20 minute walk away.
And there are more than one in this range! 🤔
Anyway... August has been really tough for me. September will be too, but I'm feeling much happier this month so far.
Besides a few posts and messages here on noise I don't have any social interactions besides family and work.
This week I didn't talk a single word at work. I just sent a few messages. 🤔
If I exclude talking to my mom last weekend I have maybe talked 20 sentences in total this week. 🤔😅 All to my dad who I'm currently living with.
Isn't that funny? I thought I will experience more communication when I will work. But since I'm a software developer I just silently code on my own. 😅
Do you know "beFour"? Probably not.
It was a German band active from 2007-2010.
It was one of these edgy bands that were very popular amoung young girls. These bands always were two boys and two girls. They also always had their own TV show. 🤔
During primary school my sister was a big fan of them. So I listened to some of their songs back then too. 😅
I found this video from 2009. Everything looks so old and nostalgic... 🥺
https://youtu.be/CqO-jvt3Y_Y
If I ever have a wife and she is telling me: "Hey, Flip. I'm unhappy with my current 9-5 job. I want to craft origami and sell them online instead. That's what would make me happy."
Then I want to be able to make this come true.
My agressive investing won't make me rich. But if I keep pushing I can become able to build some wealth and provide a certain level of financial security.
And if life doesn't turn happy for me I still can do something good with all the money. Like buying a house for my mom. And a farm for myself to run an animal shelter...
Until I turn 30 my dad allowes me to live with him to be able to save and invest the majority of my income. Life is unpredictable but for now that's my plan.
@RektflipOnNoiseApp
