A little confession and question time. When I was in between jobs (feb – april) this year I bought a 125 cc Vespa scooter (and did some day trading). I am very happy with the Vespa and I am now wondering why the hell I didn’t buy a motorcycle earlier.
The thing is, and this is the confession part, I did. You see, I also was in between jobs roughly a year before. Kinda from sept 2015 till may 2016. Kinda because I only was really unemployed from march ’16 till 1st of may 2016. But I also didn’t really had to work between sept ’15 and march’16 (part of a severance deal with my employer). It’s a long and complex story. And yes, the severance package was finger licking good. Well anyway, during that period I also bought a motorcycle (and did some day trading, yes I am starting to see a pattern here …).
I bought an old-timer. A berini m21 (probably deluxe version) form the 1950’s. It’s a beauty.
Berini is a Dutch brand and has some following in Holland but is largely unknown in Belgium. Meaning I got it at a good price: 350 euro. I haven’t really driven the motorcycle as the old breaks needed some work and I put it at a friends place who is an old-timer aficionado. But he is taking his sweet time ….
Anyway, I bought it because I like old-timer motorcycles and part of me views it as a fun pass time once I am semi-retired. Working on it. Learning some mechanical skills. Driving around the country roads here. Perhaps going to an old-timer meet up …. And old-timer motorcycles are a hell of a lot cheaper (especially if you limit yourself to 125cc max) than cars ….
I still like that idea. But with the new job in Brussels and going swimming and still needing to do some renovations at the house, our large garden and such I am not going to have the time as long as I am working full time. I do have plenty of storage space to put it. And it is not costing me anything just standing there.
On the other hand I know I can sell it and easily get my money back. It is 400 euro after all. But then, day trading in 2016 made me 2.455 USD and last Friday I passed the 3.000 USD mark for 2017. If I really want another 400 euro I can easily suck it up and do some extra day trading in the evening. I hardly do it anymore since working again because it is sitting behind a screen and staring at numbers, something I already do for 7,5 hours at my job … But it would also take me time behind the PC to sell it. So spending that time day trading would get me the money AND I would get to keep the motorcycle. And I know that kind of reasoning is a very dangerous slippery slope. It is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of the day trading. It screws with your view on money. Last Friday I made 300 USD in less than 30 minutes. You start getting these thoughts where 100 USD equals a quick in an out trade in Google… But the psychology of day trading is something for another post if some of you are interested in hearing my thoughts/struggles with it.
Back on track for this post. The confession part was that when I do not need to work I seem to buy a motorcycle and do some day trading. The question is, do I keep the Berini M21 or not? Even if I will probably not use it or have time for it the next 5 years?
Question, does the Berini make you happy? If so, just keep it and tinker with it. If not, it’s just a “stand-in-the-way” and you better get rid of it.
It wil probably make me happy in 5 years. But until then it will just stand there (not really in the way since I have heaps of room, but still ..). I’ll start with selling some stuff we really do not use and never will use again and ease my way into it that way
Probably wise to conserve it a bit in the mean time, otherwise it might be difficult to get it back up and running after 5 years!
Amen to that!
I’d keep the bike because when you sold it and you’d regret it afterwards, it will be much more expensive. (Been there, done that)
I’d be happy to hear about you day trading strategy.
(BTW were you in the paper under a fake name this weekend?)
I got mentioned but did not do an interview for the article. I am more a fan of ‘pour vivre heureux vivons cachés’. I doubted long about this blog as well actually but, well, I try to be more social and prefer this than actually having to talk to people (although progress is being made on that front as well!).
I just finished preparing two other posts (look at me being productive!) and then there is the monthly budget and investment post. I’ll tackle the day trading after that.
The article was not so good. By reading it, I immediately got the idea that the reporter thought that is was a stupid idea, only good for outsiders. That article just pulled the plug to stop reading the ‘Tijd’.