Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

This week we managed to swap with someone for a mooring that lets us moor stern-to – i,e. the back of the boat is level with the pontoon, so you only step across the water and you’re there.

This got rid of the step problem for the dog, and now our challenge is to train him to use a gangplank.

Despite him having used gangplanks before on other boats, he was skeptical at first. Lady SierraWhiskyMike managed to lure him halfway across with peanut butter, so that’s quite a promising start.

We’ve worked out that his concern is actually about the gangplank rather than the boat itself. He almost jumped across today, but as he gets older that’s going to be less fun for him and I don’t like the idea of him falling in and being squished.

So we’re going to invest some time into training him into using the gangplank.

It’s the last obstacle…

Surprise stock market rally

Stock markets bounced higher this week, which is probably due to the US announcing that interest rates will stay the same for now. This is something like the third announcement in a row I understand that US inflation rates are a lot more manageable than they have been in the immediate post-COVID money printing era.

It makes no really difference to me as I’m still in the early game – or maybe the start of the mid-game, hard to say – of my FI campaign.

Still, it’s nice to see numbers going up, even if that’s not necessarily a good thing while I’m still buying into them.

Opened a new GIA

I’ve decided to keep the Wealthify money invested, but all further equity payments (outside my pension) will be paid into the Lloyds/ Halifax Sharedealing account.

I’ve picked two index funds – one developed market equities and one developed world government bonds – to give me an 4:1 split of equities:bonds.

In the past I’ve been against bonds as part of my portfolio, but now we’re starting to see actual yields from developed world government bonds so I’m adding in a small allocation mainly for rebalancing purposes.

I would add gold and real estate to this to make it more diversified across asset classes, but the platform doesn’t allow me to own partial shares or fund units and I’m starting from scratch, so this would probably just leave me stuck with lots of unallocated cash without it earning interest. I’ll stick with the basics for now, and maybe buy physical gold outside the account if I want that kind of exposure.

Distractions and detours

Podcasting?

I’m toying with the idea of building a podcast into this blog after learning that I can plug a microphone we already own into the iPad via an adapter that turned out to be really cheap to buy.

On the one hand, this is A Little Bit Cringey, but on the other hand it could be fun to do.

Probably going to wait and see how the boat plan resolves itself first though. I’ve got enough things to be getting on with in the short term.

Current reading

I’m presently reading The Nobody People by Bob Proehl. The story is loosely about a journalist whose daughter gains special abilities, and it turns out that there’s a hidden community of people with these abilities who want to come out of the shadows.

It’s… OK. I’m invested in the book, but honestly the writing style is deliberately (and depressingly) dry, which makes it a hard read. There’s a sequel out but I’ll probably read this one and call it a day.

Netflix film

They Cloned Tyrone was hilarious. It’s a combination of sci-fi, satire, social commentary and slapstick comedy that somehow seems to work. Easy watching with serious undertones. Jamie Foxx’ character was brilliant.

Not for family or workplace viewing.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

We’re doing Iron Man again this week.

In the meantime, I had a go at learning Otherside by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It’s not my cleanest work, but it’s recognisable and I’ve only played it a few times, so that’s pretty cool.

My teacher has told me I need to start learning and practicing scales to get better at improvising/ soloing. Makes sense I suppose. I… haven’t done that yet, too busy playing around. I probably should start this week.

Fitness

Fitness has gone out of the window this week as everyone in the Corporate World has decided that their deadlines must be before Christmas.

It’s completely arbitrary, but that’s how things go. Your client approaches you in August, you chase them, they ignore you until December then wonder why it won’t be done before New Year.

Probably not looking great for next week, either.

Suffice to say I haven’t been to archery the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep that up, but you never know – I might get less busy in the New Year.

Final thoughts

Boat plan may or may not be looking up. We’re on the final hurdle, but it’s still a hurdle.

Fitness is taking a hit. I’m not looking forward to January. Might have a “festive” jog this year to start shifting the slovenly desk behaviours.

My financial independence campaign continues!