Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat life
Actually, very little to report from boat life.
This weekend has been fantastic weather and we’ve mostly chilled out on the boat. There’s something cool about sitting out on the deck with the sun shade up and just chatting and thinking about stuff.
It occurred to us that our current careers don’t allow us to maximise this boat life at all. After the realisation last week that we’re not far from CoastFI now, which was the target I was aiming to reach in a little under 7 years’ time, I’ve been re-evaluating what I actually want from life and whether maintaining a highly stressful job is even necessary given our teeny tiny outgoings.
Regular readers will know that I’ve been struggling with this question for a while.
I’ve been approached by a start-up company and asked to apply for a job that would be fully remote with flexible hours, and involve me setting up as a freelancer on a fixed term contract. There are some hurdles because not only do I need to pass their interviews but I’d also need to clear this with my profession’s regulator. Still, it could be an avenue worth pursuing that would allow me to maximise the benefit of boat life.
Distractions and detours
Started reading philosophy
I listened to Ryan Holliday’s The Obstacle Is The Way on Spotify this week while I was in the gym. It’s a great book and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Stoicism isn’t something I’m too familiar with, although it became trendy for a while, so I really enjoyed the way Ryan explained it and the key thoughts behind it.
As a result of the book, I’ve reattempted reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. I’d found it to be inaccessible last time, but Ryan’s own website recommended a particular translation to read on Kindle that was in modern spoken English.
I guess Ryan, king of The Daily Stoic, probably struggled with a few readings in his time, too.
Anyway, philosophy is something that is important and I’ve noticed it creeping into my life more and more as we progress on the financial independence campaign. When you first realise that you’d like to be financially independent, you start to ask “why?” a lot.
It’s also something that I think anyone can discuss and will be helpful thinking material for anyone on their own financial independence campaign, no matter whether their goals align with mine or what stage they’re at. I’ve decided to write a separate segment of articles on this blog with this in mind, mainly to throw my ideas out into the world and see if anything comes of it. Might also help me with developing those ideas or introducing new ones, who knows?
Dirty stop out night…
An impromptu night out on Friday turned quite heavy and Saturday was a day of many hungover regrets.
So that sucked.
Many pounds out of pocket and a day wasted, maybe not the best use of time or money. Definitely a setback and a distraction.
Caffeine problems
Law is hard. You’re staring at PDF documents, searching for specific words, working out the impact of changes, and drafting frankly long and boring (but important) documents for companies that think your rates are too high but are making millions in profit from any deal. You have multiple bosses, all of whom think their requests are top priority, and your clients call up with requests that are “urgent” and “must complete this week/ today/ in the next hour”, because most people don’t value knowledge work.
So I may have been relying on coffee as my stimulant-of-choice to get me through the weeks.
Well, for the last two weeks I’ve developed muscle twitches around my left eye. Naturally, I turned to the internet, where Dr Google told me variously that it was brain cancer, Bell’s palsy or (after dialling down the drama a notch) too much caffeine and stress.
I guess I can’t rule out the scarier first two, but when I looked up how much coffee was too much for regular consumption I relied upon Occam’s Razor and identified the problem right there.
As I type this, I’m on Day 2 of caffeine free month. The idea is to detox completely, then decide if I want to reintroduce this into my life.
Actually, this decision fed into the latest round of career introspection. If I’m right, my career and lifestyle have directly impacted my health. Big red flag, will need to resolve that issue – but one bridge at a time.
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
We’re still progressing with The Evil That Men Do. I’m starting to sound pretty confident and we’re moving onto the first part of the solo, so that’s cool.
Learned this week that I strum better with my guitar at hip height. Gives me a few fretting problems, but it sounds a lot cleaner. I guess I’ll adapt my technique to be more relaxed from now on!
Fitness
Apart from hitting the beers on Friday, my fitness has been going pretty well. Getting a membership at the gym near work has been a great investment, I’m generally training intentionally three times per week. Managed to do a 1.5mile run in under 9 minutes this week (8:40-something) which is pretty good going for my age, albeit it’s on a treadmill so add 30 seconds for reality.
Final thoughts
OK, so I set myself back by going out for a night of drinking. We can all see how that’s a limiting factor in my financial independence campaign, so I don’t think I need to elaborate on that too much. It happens.
Caffeine free month is likely to suck. I’m not keen, I love a coffee, but having had spontaneous eyebrow spasms for over a week and feeling them getting worse I can’t really take the “do nothing” approach.
Which brings me back to the main problem: I work a hard job when I don’t really need to. The cognitive dissonance is very real.
I’m hopeful that this new opportunity will bear fruit. If it doesn’t, I may – for health reasons – need to look at doing something else to earn money. I need to earn so little of it to survive, I’m surprisingly close to my CoastFI goal already (so it has already paid off), perhaps I could afford to do something less stressful now?
Not a problem that I can solve this week, but it’s something to think about.
My financial independence campaign continues!
Been reading the blog from the start for a few weeks now (got no work on, but cant leave my bench!).
Its been great reading the UK perspective of FIRE Goals, and also seeing it in the eyes of somebody ex military.
Im ex military myself, and unfortunately when I left in 2007, I was so used to somebody else planning my life and bills being basic (all my rent, council tax etc was taken direct from wage), that I really struggled to stay on top of things, resulting in a lot of debt, and eventually a divorce and house repossession.
Fortunately the last few years I’ve managed to get back on top. Got 2 loans that totalled 30k, but overpaying them and got them down to under 25k in 3 months – hoping to have them completely cleared in the next 12 month.
We plan on selling the house in around 4 years, doing some travelling in our campervan, then buying a narrowboat to cruise the UK waterways.
Gutted that Im all caught up with the blog, but hope you continue to write – very refreshing to take a break from the American Blogs.
Thanks again.
Hi Mat
Yeah, I didn’t get to grips until I suddenly realised I was on my own. By 2018 they’d rolled out finance briefings, and it was one of those that suddenly hit home that you actually can use your money to make other money.
It sucks to be in debt, but the advantage you’ll have from your experience is that you’re not afraid of hardship and grizzing it out to achieve your goals when you can finally see your way clear. I’ve got no doubts on your ability to fight through those loans and onwards.
I actually thought about your last comment when I was in Bath the other weekend. Lots of free moorings on the Avon, although the quality of boats varies quite a bit. I don’t know if they’re easier or harder to maintain than sailboats, because I haven’t seen any infrastructure like marina cranes or drying berths, but then again they presumably exist somewhere.
Best of luck on your campaign!