Today is Thursday, a very busy day at the office. At any given moment there are several groups of people in the room talking to each other, loudly. Not all conversations are work related. There's a radio playing the same popular music I've been hearing for the last couple of months and cell phones are ringing. The collective noise is driving me crazy, it's ridiculous and I'm unable to get any work done. I simply can't concentrate. A great opportunity to put on my noise cancelling headphones and write another article on my blog.

As an office dwelling gnome I don't get much exercise when I'm at work. And that's a large part of my day, so I need to compensate by working on my physique outside office hours. In the past that has been proven to be quite difficult, because often I come home feeling exhausted. Even though I get no physical movement at work, working behind a computer screen (actually I have 3) is energy draining the heck out of me.

I really wanted to write an article about my 'side hustles' and tell you all about what it is I'm doing for fun that also generates some extra income with the minimal amount of effort. Sadly however, I haven't yet been able to start any side hustles simply because I didn't have the time or the energy to actually do it. This is the everyday reality I'm facing while having to go to the office full time. Work is time consuming and energy draining. It can be called a small miracle that I'm still able to push myself to work out and eat (somewhat) healthy every day.

I've been meaning to write another article sooner, but since I had a short vacation planned I decided to wait a little longer and write this article after my trip and make it all about my trip. You may have already guessed from the title of this article that I've been to green and rugged Ireland! The home of spuds, Guiness and leprechauns.

One of the things I've learned by reading several books and blogs on financial independence is that I need to keep track of my spending. When you make a monthly detailed list of all your spending you will become more aware and in control of your spending behaviour and your money. In the pursuit of financial freedom it is imperative to know what you're spending you hard earned cash on.

It's 6:45 Monday morning and I'm woken up by my alarm clock. Time to get up and get ready for work. Yet another work-day, yet another work-week. It is still dark outside and temperatures are barely above freezing point. While thinking about all the good times I had in tropical, far-away places the thought off having to go to work fills me with a great sense of gloom.

According to the Roman Catholic church there are seven deadly sins that form the ground on which many other sins are based. The seven sins are quite obvious and self explanatory. They are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. These sins are basically the excessive versions of our natural desires and behaviours. I'm not a horrible person, but I do have to admit that some of these sins do apply to me. Being a sinner and a non-believer will probably guarantee me I will someday find myself at the closed gates of heaven. If such a place exists.

Before I give you my overall strategy of becoming financially free, I have to remind you that this is not an official financial advice. I'm not an expert on finances nor am I licensed to give any advice.

The basics of becoming financially independent seem quite simple and straight forward.

A happy new year to all my readers! I don't have many readers just yet, but that's OK. I wish all my readers (and future readers) all the best for the next coming year. I also wish you all the best for the years after that, but I will remind you about that next year.

I've been investing my money in ETF's for well over 5 years now and during that time I saw a couple of big 'dips' in the value of my portfolio. In most cases corrections on the stock market caused this sudden drop in the value of my investments. Each time I saw my portfolio drop by 4-5% and the value lowered by approximately €15.000. A pretty big chunk of money.