Thoughts and reflections about the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat life
The water tank mocks me. It’s still stubbornly stuck in there. We keep attacking it and coming back to it later, which is probably the pattern of life for this project. Do a little bit better each time…
I can presently lift the front end by about 5mm, so we’ve obviously started to break up the adhesive bonding to the hull but there’s a long way to go.
I reckon this will be one of those things where nothing seems to work until suddenly there’s one final straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Markets are down?
Reading through the r/LeanFIRE subreddit, markets are apparently performing poorly. I checked my figures and while my Bitcoin holdings have depreciated slightly and equities are maybe a little lower than expected there’s nothing of particular importance for my financial independence campaign.
Nothing to get excited about really. If I hadn’t read those comments, I wouldn’t have bothered commenting on this blog; but I did, so I have.
I think some people get caught up in the numbers. Assuming you’re investing and on the financial independence campaign, I’d caution against reading into the specific numbers too much. Instead, try to see your investments as fluctuating, and compare them to where you would have been if you’d not taken any action to invest.
In my case?
I’m easily £70k better off than if I’d not bothered investing and just spent money as I’d earned it. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m rich or financially independent, but that’s a pretty good level of financial security and I’m comfortable now. I definitely wasn’t this comfortable a few years ago!
Distractions and detours
Firefighter selection
I think I reported this a few weeks ago when I’d submitted my (now rescinded) notice to my employer, but I put my name into the hat for the local fire brigade jobs.
Well, yesterday was physical selection.
While I don’t think I’m likely to be number 1 on the waiting list, I did a lot better than I really should have given that I’m in my mid-late 30s and competing against 20-something year olds! We’ll see if I get invited to interview.
Firefighter jobs are a bit weird in that you go through selection to be put on an 18-month “eligible” list of people. When jobs come up, usually when there’s budget for a training course, the service offers the job to people in order of their ranking on that waiting list. As an applicant, you don’t know where you sit, and you can always turn down any offer (without otherwise losing your ranking).
I figured that although I’ve gained some concessions from my employer it wouldn’t hurt to put myself forward. It’s a pretty cool job.
My favourite bit was the confined spaces and breathing apparatus course. I had to wear a blacked-out full-face mask and fire kit, then crawl my way through confined spaces in the training “hot house”, following a guideline. There was one tiny tunnel where I had to wedge myself in and use tiptoes and fingertips to inch my way through it. I couldn’t get both arms up and fit my shoulders through the tunnel with the big tank on my back, so I opted for the superman-style one-arm-first approach. It worked!
No idea if I’ll ever be offered a job in Fire and Rescue, but it was a day of exercise and I proved that I’m not afraid of heights or confined spaces, which is always good to know. I’m also happy that I’m still pretty fit compared to your average young man, which is a nice ego boost.
Fun day out, didn’t cost me anything. Very tired and achey today!
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
We’re practicing right-hand tapping (if I was a lefty, it’d be left-hand tapping) to make cool metal-sounding solos.
I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready to be a lead guitarist, but lead guitar is definitely the more fun style of playing. Rhythm is OK, but lead is as exciting to play as it is to listen to.
Well, it’s not exciting to listen to me playing lead yet, but I’m getting there… give me a few more years…
Fitness
Reduced running slightly due to the plantar fasciitis, which has mostly reduced. It’s definitely a tightness in my leg muscles driving it and a couple of days’ rest has massively reduced the aching.
On Tuesday I repeated my 16-and-a-bit mile run from the previous week, completing at an average pace of 08:22 per mile. I learned that I suck at estimating my own pace, as I thought I’d slowed down in the last two miles but I’d actually sped up.
The FitBit is proving invaluable for these insights. When I go on the app, it shows me a GPS track of my map with colour-coding for where I’d run substantially above or below the average running pace, so I can see where things slow me down.
I then took a break until Friday, when I did a short 5km (3 mile) run at 7mins11 average pace in the huarache sandals to start conditioning my feet for running in those more often. That went fairly well, they work well on roads and well-made tracks, it’s just technical and lumpy terrain they’re still tearing my feet up on. 5km isn’t a lot, so I walked for another couple of miles just to stretch my legs off.
Firefighter selection was on Saturday, so that made it a reasonable fitness week. I’m happy with that, and my feet seem to be recovered ready for next week’s adventures.
Final thoughts
So I’ve had a fun and fairly frugal week with lots of exercise in it, but not much progress on financial independence or my life aboard.
This week has been remarkably low cost. I spent more on food, because I’ve been on leave and training hard, but it hasn’t exactly been expensive and I haven’t spent much on entertainment.
Reporting on my fitness training on this blog has helped me become more conscious of it, and this weekend showed me that I’m being rewarded for my training. That’s all the motivation I need to keep this up!
My financial independence campaign continues!
