Thoughts

March 2026

Finances are confusing and I see a lot of my generation struggling with this.

The cost of living is up, taxation and inflation are rising and the rules keep changing. That creates more uncertainty and raises questions;

  • Where should I even save and invest for the future these days?

  • Where is my money going, and where should I cut back?

  • How do I increase the (after-tax) money I actually earn?

I'd like to solve for this. A way to simplify and automate financial planning.

A place where everything comes together, that understands your situation and local rules and enables you to select a path forward. All without other people seeing your data.

And like the idiot I am, I started building before understanding what problems actually mattered 😅. First lesson learned.

That said, I’ve built a basic MVP (video below) to start somewhere: it combines all your banks in one place and shows you where your money is going.

But I’d love to hear from people willing to give feedback: 

  • What is the hardest part about managing your finances right now?

  • What’s a problem you have often, for which there's no great solution?

  • What do you wish existed?

Leave a comment, answer the survey anonymously (link in comments) or just shoot me a PM 👇!

  • 20th Mar 2026
February 2026

Where do you save for the future if all options dry up?

  • 18th Feb 2026
LinkedIn post

Zonet kreeg ik het volgende bericht van mijn moeder;

"Ken jij de beleggings-app 'Steen Luxeris'".

Na wat kort opzoeken, zag ik meteen dat het om een scam ging:

AI gegenereerde reviews, het gebruiken van bekende influencers en perfect Nederlandstalige UGC om vertrouwen te winnen. Makkelijk herkenbaar voor jongeren, maar steeds moeilijker te onderscheiden van de realiteit voor onze ouders.

AI die het mogelijk maakt om steeds geloofwaardiger, grootschaliger en specifieker te scammen, maakt het belangrijker om waakzaam te zijn. Hier zijn wat (algemene) tips;

  • Geef nooit je geld of gegevens aan een platform zonder de opinie te vragen van mensen die je vertrouwd. Wees in het algemeen wantrouwig naar financiële platformen.

  • Geloof niet zomaar afbeeldingen en video's van bekende figuren.

  • Kijk naar de link of het email-adres van het platform. Ziet dit er betrouwbaar uit?

  • Klinkt het te goed om waar te zijn? Dan is het dat vaak ook. Termen zoals "geen risico" of "zeker rendement" zijn rode vlaggen.

  • Blijf weg van alles wat je niet voldoende begrijpt - Eerst informeren en dan pas actie ondernemen. Zoals "high frequency day-trading", "binary trading" of "crypto trading"

  • Informeer je (groot)-ouders over de gevaren van AI! Dit zijn degenen die het makkelijkste slachtoffer zijn: hoog kapitaal en beperkte technische kennis.

  • Waarschuw anderen op sociale media als je het merkt

Read the full write-up on this scam

  • 18th Feb 2026
January 2026

George Orwell's book 1984 was a warning about the dangers of totalitarianism, but governments increasingly use it as a playbook.

Privacy advocacy and tools have never been more important.

Read: How to protect your privacy

  • 19th Jan 2026

Are you a criminal? If not, please reply with;

  • your net-worth and home address

  • your email account and password

  • The full names and pictures of your children

If you won't, you must have something to hide then - and by extension, you’re a criminal!

Sounds ridiculous? Well, this is the most-used argument against privacy: that “you don’t need privacy if you have nothing to hide,” and that all private information must be criminal.

The truth is different: our data is extremely valuable and everyone wants a piece. Otherwise, companies like Google and Facebook wouldn't have grown so powerful.

Privacy is our protection against this misuse. It's often our last defense against overreach and abuse of our data.

Privacy is normal. It’s the reason we have locks, bathroom stall doors, and curtains. Yet in our modern world, it has become an afterthought.

Here are 30 ways you can improve your privacy 👇

Read: How to protect your privacy

  • 19th Jan 2026
December 2025
LinkedIn post

My bank recently closed my account. Suddenly, without any warning.

The reason? I wasn't told because they are “strictly regulated.”

Whatever that means.

The likely reason? I work for a Bitcoin exchange, and that probably raises a red flag. Funny, because we're also very “strictly regulated.”

This made me realize how dependent we have become on a bank. With a press of a button by someone you've never met, you lose the ability to earn and spend. Strict measures usually reserved for third-world countries or criminals. Apparently not.

And okay, not everyone has this "risk profile", I get that. The chance that this happens to you may seem small. But then again, I thought the same.

We also don’t expect our house to catch fire or our car to crash, yet we take out insurance anyway.

So I ask you:

  • If your access to your bank account were blocked tomorrow, would that be a problem?

  • How long could your household last? Would it be measured in months, weeks or days?

  • Is it useful to spread your reserves?

With increasing surveillance, automated closures, record savings in (low-interest) bank accounts, and a government needing more money, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to spread some risk.

Whether that is a second bank, diversified investments, some cash stuffed in your Christmas sock, or a bunker full of gold and bitcoin, I’ll leave that up to you.

For me this was a reminder that putting all your eggs in one basket can become a problem if someone wants to make an omelet 🍳

  • 20th Dec 2025
October 2025

Do you want to improve your finances? Here's the single most practical thing you can start doing today:

Track your finances 📊

Most people spend 40 hours+ per week working for money, but then don't have a clue how much they're saving, spending or investing.

Let's fix that!

The easiest way I've found to track your finances, is by using Actual Budget (actualbudget.org/)). This tool combines all your bank accounts in one place, automatically categorizes everything and gives you nice charts.

It takes +-20 minutes to set-up and 10 minutes every week to fill in. It works for multiple people, costs 1€/month and all your data is secure.

I've made a short video on how to set it up here: lnkd.in/ed-Dq7tF or you can just try it out here; actualbudget.org

If you are clueless or still stuck in spreadsheet-hell, give it a try and you won't look back!

Or if you have any other tools/recommendations, let me know in the comments!

  • 21st Oct 2025
September 2025

To understand Bitcoin, you have to understand the problem with money today. That problem is inflation.

Creating more money quietly robs the saver of their purchasing power and transfers it to the issuer. Who can spend it before prices are pushed upwards.

That's why your savings buy you less and less each year. Or why houses, stocks, gold and groceries go up each year.

This is not a bubble - It's better money.

  • 21st Sep 2025
July 2025

Over the past few years, I've gotten more into reading. It's a great way to learn from other people's mistakes. And I loved how the Kobo e-reader really solidified that habit.

It helped me become "a person that reads".

Instead of the person that keeps getting sucked into social media. The one who trades their limited leisure for scrolling SEO/AI-slop.

To improve the reading experience, I started hacking on my own Kobo. I added features to read articles from blogs, news sites, Reddit, and X, and even included custom screensavers and AI enhancements. I wrote about those mods here.

Since Pocket is now shutting down, I turned my modifications into a tool: The Kobuddy app: kobuddy.app

Kobuddy lets you sync web articles to your Kobo and import all your highlights and notes.

If you have a Kobo, give Kobuddy a try and let me know what you think! :)

  • 23rd Jul 2025

The last 2,5 years I spent renovating an old home. With the belief that it was a smart thing to do.

Experience taught me differently.

Housing is tough for our generation and there aren't really many good options. But here's what I tried:

Read: Housing is broken

  • 23rd Jul 2025
June 2025

I recently turned 30.

That means I've spent roughly 38,45% of my time on this planet (I'm being optimistic about my life expectancy)

Since round numbers are always great for reflections, I've compiled a list of tips.

A bunch of advice I would give to my younger self.

Not that I would've listened to any of it..

Read: 30 tips from a 30 year old

  • 23rd Jun 2025
May 2025
LinkedIn post

We're all extremely busy.

Work, health, family, hobbies and a social life. It's not easy to combine everything.

But life can usually be simpler than we think, if only we'd stop insisting on making it more complex.

I do this too.

So I created a "simplicity reset". A list of things to consider when life feels heavy. To remove the unnecessary.

Read: How to simplify your life

  • 19th May 2025
May 2024

A short article on the journey of switching my personal site from Rails to Next.js. It covers the steps to migrate, from building to deployment, and offers some insights into performance, portabillity and why simplicity is key.

Read the full article

Also, you should press my magic button 🧙

  • 19th May 2024
May 2023

De afgelopen 3 jaar heb ik samengewerkt met CarNext.com, waar we samen een nieuw voorraad-beheersysteem uitgebouwd hebben (vanaf 0!). Deze helpt om hun vloot van ongeveer 200 000 voertuigen te beheren over verschillende locaties 🚗.

Deze reis was niet éénvoudig (to say the least 😅), maar uiteindelijk hebben we wel een zéér sterk product neergezet waar we oprecht trots op mogen zijn!

Over die periode heb ik veel gelachen, gevloekt maar bovenal énorm veel bijgeleerd. Kortom, een periode om nooit te vergeten!

Echter, aan alle hoofdstukken komt ook een einde en was het tijd voor iets nieuw!

Momenteel ben ik aan de slag bij Van de Velde. Hier zijn we de B2C en B2B lingerie-webshops verder aan het uitbreiden en optimaliseren! 🚀

Of moet ik zeggen;

Ondersteunen 😏

#react #nextjs #contentful

  • 20th May 2023
May 2020

De afgelopen maanden heb ik full-time samengewerkt met Radix. Samen hebben we een aantal mooie features toegevoegd aan de Talent API app en ook hun customer-facing site (talentapi.com) online gezet!

Supercool product om aan te werken, alsook een team vol geniale en ambitieuze mensen 🤯!

Maar door het grote corona monster en veranderde requirements hebben we besloten om voor de toekomst meer part-time samen te werken.

Daarom ben ik de laatste weken aan de slag bij CarNext.com. Samen zijn we verschillende interne tools aan het uitbouwen om de levensloop van hun wagens beter te kunnen opvolgen (stockbeheer, verplaatsing, reparaties, …).

Vanuit mijn kot uiteraard.

Vroem vroem! 🚗💪

#react #typescript #frontend #{…buzzwords}

  • 20th May 2020