To get a better picture from what background and why the Money Mails are written, I give a little more insight into who I am.
I'm 60. Well, that's said. I was born in Brabant, had a happy childhood in a family with a father, mother and a brother, I was a good student and therefore studied at university, I worked in the hospitality industry at an early age, had volleyball as a hobby, fell in love with Alice, quickly found a good job in the Randstad and we had four sons.
At the end of the last century I started my own company together with Thijs and we moved back to Brabant. My field of expertise is project management, especially in ICT. For the past twenty years, I have successfully, and sometimes less successfully, led large programs at commercial companies, the national government and the municipal government. I dare to say that I am widely recognized as an expert in this field.
My work meant that I was away from home a lot. Working weeks of 60-70 hours, including travel, were normal. That is why I have always taken a lot of vacation and a sabbatical period of a few months regularly. And although I did a lot with the children, the upbringing of the foursome mainly came down to Alice.
At the end of 2018, I had spent twenty years as a self-employed person, in the roles of program manager, director or 'boss' of IT development. I wanted to do something different. While I honestly love my job, I was looking for something that would require me to stop being out all week, lead large groups, and always achieve the most impossible goals with limited resources.
I wanted to spend more time with my family and do so-called "house, garden and kitchen" things. Things I never had time for. Such as reconstructing the garden, refurbishing the Citroen DS together with Mart, maintenance of the house, holidays, motorcycle trips with Stijn, moving children, making time for my 85-year old mother, cooking. Seriously, because if I hadn't become a project manager I would have become a cook.
But above all, I wanted to learn again. To immerse myself in the secrets of my field. But also learn new things. I wanted to be there for other people. And share my acquired knowledge and experiences.
Despite the fact that I stopped working at the end of 2018, I have never been so busy. I did all those "house, garden and kitchen". But I also went to attend seminars. As much as possible. I started to read books and watch YouTube videos while exercising. About all kinds of subjects.
Slowly but surely a pattern emerged, a number of topics that I prefer, that attract me the most; leadership, personal development and finances.
Leadership and personal development are in keeping with my field. Particularly the participation in Tony Robbins' Unleash the Power Within event in London made a big impression (yes, I walked over hot coals, if you wonder). Not only the content of the lessons, but especially the way in which knowledge about yourself is presented in four days is something that I have never experienced so penetratingly before.
The other area that really attracted me was that of personal finance. In the past, I made enough money to provide for our family. The only provision I made were a few annuity policies and building up a pension in my company (which both later proved to be the wrong choices). What was left was in the bank.
I had learned from Thijs how to manage the finances of my own company. But no one had taught me how to manage my own family's finances. And the more youtube videos I watched, while exercising, about investing, the stock market, buying real estate, government financing, interest rate development and so on, the more I wanted to know.
And so slowly but surely in 2019 an idea arose for me how to deal with my own money to ensure that money would not be my problem. On the contrary, how can I make sure that money helps me live a happy life.
To avoid misunderstandings about this. I enjoy having enough money, but I am not "greedy". Possession does not make me happy. For example, I have no jewelry, a second-hand car (but a good one), an old motorcycle and I have my shoes soled a few times. But I can spend a lot of money on a catamaran week trip with the children or friends in Croatia.
Okay, back to that money handling. Of course, you have to earn income something first. And there are several possibilities, such as in a job, as boss of a company or as an investor. The classic book "Rich dad, poor dad" gave a lot of insight. I had no experience with investing in particular and Tony Robbins' books "Money Master the Game" gave a lot of guidance.
To ensure that you do not run out of money, it is important to know and manage your expenses. Here I was put on the right track by the "The Millionaire Mind" seminar where a simple method for getting a grip on your expenses was presented.
I can make plans like no other. So, I developed an approach for myself to make a good financial plan. Based on that plan, I am able to calculate quite well when I could stop working.
Well, and what should I do with my savings. Leave it in the bank or start investing?
The various seminars and books taught me that there is a difference in trading and investing. Trading is not for me, but investing is. Trading is short term, takes a lot of time, a lot of risk and (hopefully) a lot of return. Investing is about long term, occasionally doing it, low risk, sufficient return. And so I learned to build an investment portfolio.
And with that, 2019 went fine. The "home, garden and kitchen" things were more or less completed and I learned many new things. Now I wanted share that knowledge.
Slowly but surely, I realized that I would have liked to have had that knowledge about my own finances much earlier in my life. Between 20 and 30, when everything had yet to start. My parents did not have that knowledge and it was not discussed at school. It occurred to me that my children are experiencing this just like me; we didn't talk much about money in the family (there was enough) and they didn't learn anything about it at school either. Was it perhaps a good idea to share my recently acquired knowledge with the boys? I would do nothing more happily than that. And so I started talking to them about money. About mortgages, about insurance, about debts, about a job and taxes, about your own company, about shares and about gold. And the more conversations we had, the more questions arose. But all only fragmentary. I wanted to share the whole story. But, when?
And that's how the idea of Money Mails came about. At the beginning of 2020 I started sending two emails a week. More or less with a logical structure. Although I had to correct a lot later.
In my opinion, the first series of mails were completed at the beginning of 2021.
Now I am going to share them with other young people. It is clear from conversations with my children that young people need this. And the good thing is that they pick things up quickly.
I hope it will benefit my children and many other, mostly young people. So that is my why.
Marcel and Alice Vermeulen, the parents, live in Nuenen in Brabant. Marcel is 60 and Alice 59.
Marcel was born and raised in Eindhoven in a simple working-class family. He was able to keep up reasonably well at school, which ultimately resulted in a Master of Science in Business Administration from the University of Eindhoven. After his studies, he moved, together with Alice, to Valkenburg ZH to work at Philips and later IBM. Marcel has been independent since 1998 and earns his living leading large and complex IT projects and programs.
Alice was born in Hilversum and moved with her parents to Eindhoven when she was about 14. She completed her training as a management secretary there. At the 'market' in downtown Eindhoven she met Marcel about 40 years ago and they have been together ever since.
Their four sons were born in Valkenburg, or to be more precise in the hospital in Leiden; first Stijn, then Mart and later the twins Rick and Bram. After her career as an executive secretary, Alice devoted almost all of her time to educating the boys.
At the end of the last century the family returned to Brabant, to Nuenen. As the children slowly but surely became more independent, Alice returned to work; in clothing sales, in interior styling and as a volunteer at Dress for Success.
Marcel and Alice enjoy their children, their holidays together, their home, friends and sporting activities the most.
Stijn is the eldest of the sons and lives in the Watergraafsmeer in Amsterdam.
Stijn is now 32 and grew up in Brabant; parental home in Nuenen, secondary school in Eindhoven, study Social Media & Events at the Hogeschool Tilburg.
After he got to know a girl firend in Amsterdam, he went to live there, now being a true big city person.
After many experiences in the hospitality and fitness world, he is now Brand & Marketing Manager at the 'place to connect, create, learn & grow'; B.Amsterdam. Water polo used to be his sport, now he is a fitness and 'fine & healthy food' enthusiast.
Mart is the middle of the four sons and lives with Natalia in the center of Eindhoven.
Mart is now 29 and, like Stijn, grew up in Brabant; parental home in Nuenen, secondary school in Eindhoven, study Interior & Product Design at the University of the Arts in Utrecht.
Immediately after his studies, Mart founded his own company, MartMarcus, and has been working as an interior architect ever since. He is also founder of Gymdonkey; the company that designs and manufactures useful tools for athletes. Water polo used to be his sport, he is now also a fitness and 'fine & healthy food' enthusiast.
Mart got to know Natalia at the PSV water polo regular pub.
Natalia is a 30 year old citizen of the world. Polish by birth, spent her childhood in Manchester UK and graduated as Electrical & Electronics Engineer from Fontys Highschool in Eindhoven. After two technical and team leader jobs, she has just started as a Digital Consultant for the digitization of VDL.
She has a black belt Crav Maga and knows how to stand her ground in every area.
Together they have a dog and a cat; Lucca and Chester.
Rick is the oldest of the twins. He now lives in the center of Rotterdam with a view of the market hall.
He is now 24 and just like his older brothers grew up in Brabant; parental home in Nuenen, secondary school in Eindhoven, study Business Administration at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. During his studies he gained international experience in Portugal, Finland and Canada.
Rick recently completed his master's degree and is now working as a buyer at network manager Stedin. Unlike his brothers, he hasn't stopped playing water polo. Via Jong Oranje and learning experiences at various premier league teams, he is now in top shape and a base player at premier league club SVH in Rotterdam.
Bram is the youngest of the foursome. He now lives in a student house in the center of Utrecht.
Like Rick, he is 24 and just like his older brothers, he grew up in Brabant; parental home in Nuenen, secondary school in Eindhoven, studied Earth Sciences at the University of Utrecht. During his studies he gained international experience in Spain, Canada, Central America and Switzerland.
During his studies he fulfilled a number of student board positions and is now in the final year of his master's degree.
All brothers once played water polo, but Bram has also quit. After some experimenting with rowing, he is now busy with cycling, but he mainly looks for the heights of the Alps.
