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

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

Haven’t made any real progress on the boat this week.

Eberspacher still doesn’t work properly, and we’ve broken out the dehumidifier for winter now that the condensation is starting to form again. This’ll be in use probably until March, when the Channel Islands start warming up again.

Quitting and getting a new job

So… big news!

I’m joining a local start-up to help them get some crypto consultancy business moving. It’s basically official now.

We’ve agreed the heads of terms and now I’m going to need to draft some contracts for them to agree to. Anyway, if we pull it off, it’s a sweet deal; and if we don’t then it’s at least a learning experience for working in a start-up.

Alongside this there are a few other things that I have kind of in-the-pipeline but I’m not ready to announce yet. It’s all coming together though.

My plan is to take a break over Christmas/ New Year, then give working for myself a damn good go. I reckon that opportunities come if you go out and look for them; they don’t find you. We’re financially secure enough for me to roll the dice and I feel like if I don’t do it now then I’ll never be brave enough to ever do it.

To be clear: the next 12-24 months is probably going to involve me trying lots of stuff and making zero money. I’m just going to have to get comfortable with that likely reality.

Screw it, let’s do it!

I’m doing a crypto-adjacent thing because I’ve been doing legal work with cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. If my skills lay in other areas, I’d do something in one of those instead. We’re not selling tokens or anything, so think of it more like a regular new business venture than a specific crypto business if you’re trying to take any lessons from this blog.

Joining the start-up is going to have a longer term payoff even if it fails. I’ll have experience of being a single point in-house counsel at a tech start-up, which in law is incredibly marketable, so even if this flops I’ll have a CV builder and some references. Plus, I’ll learn some stuff first hand in case we try and build a different business later.

And if it succeeds… then that’s pretty damn awesome!

Distractions and detours

Sourdough starter update

We started our day with a dog walk, followed by sourdough pancakes.

An Instagrammable breakfast – I’ve obviously hit Peak Milliennial!

The sourdough starter added to the mixture gives the pancakes a bit more bite than normal. They feel heartier, more solid. Recommend.

As I type this we have a first attempt at bread dough proofing in the saloon. It’s a little cold and the starter is still a little early, so I’m expecting this to be a learning experience and can’t really expect a complete success on the first go.

If it does work though, I’m probably going to keep it up. It’s not that time consuming to do if you’re able to hang around for the day you’re making it.

Holiday planning

We still think it’s important for me to have a bit of a mental health reset.

I’m super excited about my start-up and self-employment projects, but make no mistake: this is going to be a hard thing to do, filled with pitfalls and frustrations and probably no money for a looong tiiiiime.

Lady SierraWhiskyMike and I had a look – using ChatGPT, which it turns out is a semi-decent travel agent – and we’re probably going to Malaysia over Christmas and New Year.

Then I’ll return in January, full of energy and ideas, and get straight into it.

There’s quite a big budget for this which I’m a little nervous about because money is going to be tight in the first quarter of 2026. Then again, we can definitely financially recover from that.

Writer’s club

This week’s story prompts were drawn from a deck of cards:

Love
Injustice
Friendly creature

So my addled brain came up with a story set in a parallel of Ancient Greece where a group of priestesses sacrificed a hand-reared pony to Poseidon to bless an invasion force’s crossing.

Because obviously…

Writing is weird. I never feel like I’m in control of my writing per se: I sit down, get the pen and notebook out, then stuff kind of just happens. I’m getting better each time so there’s some kind of conscious effort there but beats me what it is. Some days the muses take you, and other days they tell you to write about blood sacrifices. Go figure.

It actually went down well, even of the writers were like “duuuude… are you OK?”. We had a laugh about it afterwards.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

We’re playing Papa Roach’s Between Angels and Insects.

This is a FIRE appropriate song that I thought you’d all appreciate! Also, it’s proper banging.

Seriously: check out some of the lyrics.

You’re a slave to the system, working jobs that you hate
For the shit you don’t need
Too bad – the world is based on greed
Step back and see: stop thinking about yourself, start thinking about…
…
Present yourself
Press your clothes
Comb your hair
Clock in
You just can’t win, you just can’t win
The things you own… own you.

I didn’t pick it because it’s FIRE appropriate, that’s just a happy coincidence. I wanted to learn to play in that rhythmic nu metal style that I grew up with so I could work out how to get the guitar to do some cool stuff.

That’s tonight’s homework for SierraWhiskyMike.

Fitness

Calisthenics is definitely paying off. Still doing it twice a week, still love it, still getting good observable results.

10/10 recommend.

On the other hand, my cardio is sucking. Hard. It’s weird to think that barely 8 months ago I was almost marathon fit and this week a 5km run makes me sound like Darth Vader on a treadmill.

Eh, whatever.

As you may have gathered, the cardio is coming back in. This time though I’m (a) taking the distance build-up really slow, because I’m not training for anything in particular, and (b) doing a bit more of speed work to try and get my legs back to running a decent pace instead of a slow, steady endurance pace.

Basically I’m running for heart health and weight control. I’m not training for endurance running skills.

Lady SierraWhiskyMike and I still do a fair bit of walking. We had a short stint where this dropped off, but basically 10,000 steps a day is pretty easy for us to get in, especially on weekends.

Final thoughts

It’s a lazy, restful Sunday, and my head is filled with projects. Again.

Fitness is going well, doing a regain on cardio like I said I would. Actually, this blog helps for that: it keeps me honest.

I’m well excited for start-up life, and I’m even more excited about taking a winter holiday.

We have bread going, I’ve got some cool projects on guitar, I’m taking decisive actions to improve my situation, fitness is doing a regain… what’s not to love?

Sometimes you just get that feeling that you’re heading in the right direction, and this is one of those times.

Anyway, I have to go and see to some sourdough, then draft my own contracts. Have a great week!

My financial independence campaign continues!