My goal is to achieve some 10 000kr (ca 1000 Euro) per month in dividends until my retirement and to reach that I am investing in different stocks. Last year I had an increase of approximately 45% (sounds more than it is) of dividend achieving over 4500 kr (ca 450 Euro) in dividends that year. This money is all reinvested and will (hopefully) generate more dividends for this year…like Einstein said the compound effect is the 8th world miracle.
Cilj mi je dostiči 10 000kr (oko 1000 Eura) u dividendama mjesečno do moje penzije i zato ulažem u razne dionice. Prošle godine sam povećala sumu dividendi za 45% (zvuči više nego što jeste) i dobila sam oko 4500 kr koje su ponovo investirane u nove dionice. Kao što je rekao Einstein da je kamata-na-kamata efekat osmo svjetsko čudo.
Half year has passed and I am until now having only 15% less dividend this year than the whole last year which is motivating even though I admit I haven’t been buying as many stocks as I wanted lately due to movement and adjustments in US. In any case when I see the bars I do get a little motivated for the future 🙂
Pola godine je već prošlo i sad već u polugodištu imam samo 15 % manje dividende nego što sam imala u čitavu prošlu godinu što je motivirajući iako nisam kupovala toliko dionica koliko sam htjela. Ipak je tu bila i selidba i privikavanje u Americi. U svakom slučaju kad vidim diagram motivirame to za budućnost 🙂
One of the things I love and I want my kids to love is the visits to the library. I assume that every city has a public library and so I found out about the public library in White Plains. The building seems to be built in 60’s which means it is really ugly (my opinion).
But like in many other things it is the inside that counts. Inside is ok. It is for sure not the most beautiful library but it works fine. The trick here was though that even if living in White plains we couldn’t register in this library but we had to go to another town to which our community belongs to and register as members. Means unless you know exactly to which library you need to go, check it up before going to one, or do like us. Drive her and forth to get a library member ship. The thing that it is for free in the land where everything costs a fortune was motivating. They have very nice exhibition of different things that schoolers have done which I find very nice of the city to show as proper art. It has a very big children area with toys as well as very nice books which is what I essentially need.
Jedna od stvarih koje volim i koju hoću da mi djeca zavole su posjete u magični svijet biblioteke. Pretpostavila sam da svaki grad ima neku gradsku biblioteku i tako sam pronašla jednu i u White plains. Zgrada je napravljena u nekim 60- ili 70-im što znači da je izrazito ružna (moje mišljenje). Ali kao u dosta stvari računa se unutrašnji dio i tu je ok. Nije sigurno najljepša biblioteka koju sam vidjela ali haj, ispunjava svoju funkciju. Naravno nije bilo samo ući i prijaviti se kao član nego su skontali da pod našom adresom pripadamo nekom drugom gradu tako da sam maksuz otišla u drugi grad da nabavim bibliotetsku karticu… Samim tim ako ikad dođete živjeti ovdje onda se preispitajte kojoj biblioteci pripadate jer u današnjenjem visokotehničkom dobu sa internetom i tako to ne možeš da se registruješ bilo gdje nego samo tu gdje pripadaš:P U državi gdje sve košta jedno bogatstvo osim članstva u biblioteci (džabe) to me onda malo motivisalo da se vozikam tamo vamo. U biblioteci imaju lijepe izložbe od raznih stvari od raznih školaraca što mi se baš svidjelo jer prikazuju školsku kulturu na lijep način. Dalje ima velik odjel za djecu gdje imaju čak igračke i dobre knjige (što je u biti zbog čega smo došli). Slabi su sa “internacionalnim gradivom” što me dovodi do zaključka da ovdje naših ili ne postoje ili ne čitaju. Ali ne vrijedi samo za naše nego i za švede ako ćemo biti korektni.
During the day they have some activities for kids which is nice when you have no where to put your youngest kid. One thing though is their café which is also nice but they serve everything in paper mugs or plastic. I do not like to eat soups from a paper mug unless I really really have to. But in a “everyday healthy” café with “organic coffee” I don’t see the point of using paper mugs, plates and plastic cutlery. It just looks very cheap! Another thing is the soup doesn’t cool down so I asked for a porcelain plate for my son and they didn’t have one single normal plate in the whole café. I was asking in three different ways about the plate thinking they hadn’t understood me…then an old lady proudly (?) tells me that is American “culture”. I was looking at her and swallowed and fought with myself for a moment. I wanted to tell her lady ” ballet, opera, wonderful art are culture. Culture is something positive for the environment. Drinking coffee in a paper/plastic mug is NOT culture it is actually LACK of culture! Maybe it turns culture the day all the Michelin star restaurants start serving their food on paper plates and plastic mugs… but until then… it is for sure not “culture”! Then I remembered I was here to learn about new “cultures” , to open MY mind not someoneelses mind. So I took my kids out to the kids area and let them choose some books. These are the first books they borrowed in an American library 🙂
First borrowed books in an American library/ Prve iznajmljene knjige u jednoj američkoj biblioteci
U toku dana drže se aktivnosti za djecu koje su super kad nemaš gdje ostaviti najmlađe dijete. Imaju i kafić! Everyday health (Svaki dan zdravo? ili kako to da prevedem). Ono fazon ekologija sa ekološkom kafom i hranom…koja se servira u papirnim tanjirima sa plastičnim escajgom? Nisam skontala to korištenje papirnih tanjira, plastičnih čaša i to. Meni to samo izgleda jeftino a da ne pričam o promjeni ukusa kafe, hrane itd. ili zagađivanju prirode. A onda nastane problem da se supa neće da ohladi i hem tako ti ja odem pitati imaju li oni “prave” tanjire…ali me nisu skontale. Pa sam na više načina probala da objasnim da hoću porculanski tanjir… tu mi se onda jedna starija žena ponosno (?) obrati i reče da je to “američka kultura”. Nekoliko sam je momenata posmatrala i borila sama sa sobom. Htjela sam joj reći “ gospođo, balet, opera, divno slikanje su kultura. Kultura je nešto pozitivno za okoliš. Piti kafu u papirnim /plastičnim šoljama NIJE kultura to je, ako ćemo pravo, NEDOSTATAK kulture! Možda postane kultura tog dana kad Michelin restorani počnu servirati na papirnim tanjirima i plastičnim čašama…ali do tad… ovo sigurno nije “kultura”. I onda sam se podsjetila da sam JA ta što sam došla da se učim o novim kulturama i običajima, da otvorim svoj um a ne tuđi. Tako da sam se (kiselo) nasmijala i djecu pozvala i otišli smo u magični svijet knjiga. A ovo su prve knjige koje su izabrali u jednoj američkoj biblioteci 🙂
After arriving to the hotel and then experience the first chock with one bed to little we made a complaint and got a bigger room with two beds but from the next day. It is not a catastrophy but after such a long trip that is the least problem you want to have… where to sleep :/ So can someone please tell me how someone comes to the idea to book one room with one bed for 4 people? Anyway… the rooms where nice and it is more like a small apartment, since we are stying here for a week or two that is ok. Funny thing is though that in each bedroom there is a tv. All in all three tv:s in one apartment… People seem to like watching tv here.
Since we are living in hotels since a couple of days we had a lot of laundry to do so imagine my chock when I heard that each wash is like 2.5 USD and additional 2 USD for the laundry detergent. 4.5 USD for one wash :/
At least someone liked to put in coins…:P
One thing I couldn’t even imagine was that they don’t have the plastic bottle deposit for all plastic bottles but only for some bottles in some places. I hope I have misunderstood it and there is a system that I still haven’t found out but for the greatest economy in the world it is a disgrace if they don’t have it for each and every plastic bottle.
Today we also went to see the house we rented. It was in much worse shape than we expected and it was left very dirty so we got approvement from the company that we can paint the worse rooms. Let’s see how that turns out!
In the morning we ate breakfast and immediately went to the airport with all our luggage. We had all in all 5 big suitcases , two small and additional backpacks, and two car sits for the kids… and two small kids that were, to say the least, excited. We had to give back the rental car and it took some time. Then suddenly all the baggage cars where gone. Like vanished. No where to find. After some 15-20 min we finally got some and could than continue. We made the check in (sounds like it took 5 min but in reality it was an Odyssey) and then we finally entered the business lounge. We prepared the kids for the flight, talked and wondered why only our kids run, scream, dance, climb, hide and so on. I couldn’t tell if people smiled at us because the kids were fun or because they felt sorry for us. In any case the wilder the kids got the more I feared that this will be a long…very long journey. I mentally prepared for the worst on top of the feeling of actually not liking to fly. Taking our seats we were served whatever we wanted in real glass not plastic! So much about the “security” and the prohibition of bringing all possible things on the plane.
The kids got the cutest airplanes! I got champagne !
I promised Ada that she could watch as many cartoons as she wanted! And shortly after taking off the food came. It was tasty like real restaurant food.
However, lucky me my back started hurting from all the bags I had been carrying and lifting up and down so I could hardly sit during the flight. The pilots where really flying fast because we landed almost an hour before the schedule.
Finally we arrived in Newark!!! After the most stupid and useless control I have experienced in any of my trips ever (of course we are not allowed to take picture there) we finally got out from the airplane. A taxi waited for us and drove us to a hotel in White Plains. If you are an expat and deal with Americans my tip to you is to be VERY specific (foolproof) in what you want. For example we needed a hotel room for four people and also said that expecting well beds for all… We got one bed and a couch?? After paying business class tickets for the whole family they save money by booking a hotel with one bed for a family and that after a 20 hrs trip… No comment! Welcome to America 😛
