It’s about that time of year where I recap how my financial independence campaign plan is going.
So, first up –
Recap on what I said I’d be doing
I reckoned in the 2025 Campaign Plan that I was over halfway to CoastFI… then I said I think we’d hit it.
What was it I planned to do, again?
Investing in myself
I said I would:
- Learn to maintain the hull
- Sail to France
- Learn how to use a spinnaker
- Run a marathon
- Reduce my body fat to sub-20% by June
- Maintain blog pace and go to my writing meet-up
So I’ve already failed the marathon and my body fat goal… I think?
On the other hand I’ve been getting a lot stronger with the Jack H Woods workouts and I look a lot better. I reckon that I’m on the path of righteousness and just need to stick with it. I’ve definitely decreased in overall body fat, so something is working, but I’m not convinced that I’m near that target I set myself in the timeline I’d set to do it.
Blogging has been mostly on point and I’ve only missed one of our writing group meet-ups, so I’m on track to keep that going. I’m seeing good results with my fiction writing, too. I’d like to do more of it but I’d like to do more of a lot of things; there’s just a limit to how much time I can free up right now.
Sailing is a little up in the air. As I’ve just reported in Field Note 100, my pre-prepared sailing window may be lost now. That could throw a spanner into my ambition to sail to France this year, but hopefully we’re on track with the spinnaker.
We hauled out and I totally did achieve my goal of learning how to do boat maintenance. That’s a win! After asking around at the chandleries on island, doing your own boat maintenance is surprisingly uncommon. I guess most people would rather pay for someone else to get covered in anti-foul than do it themselves? Their loss, it’s actually quite easy to do and our boat looks fantastic with it. No way would I pay someone else to half-arse it when it’s not that big a deal.
Spending intentionally
So here’s the first thing that went out the window, but in a good way(!).
I said I would:
- Minimise clothing expenditure
- Limit the amount of time I spend out drinking
- Eat less meat during the week
- Spend on a big sailing trip
- Go to my brother’s 30th birthday
- Review my gym spending
- Haul the boat out
I then immediately bought a load of merino clothing… but, in my defence, that was to make my washing a lot cheaper and stop me needing to use the marina tumble dryer that kept shrinking my t-shirts into crop tops. So, you know, that evened out.
Barring a stay at the mother-in-law’s while hauled out, I’ve been pretty good at reducing my meat consumption and I don’t spend much time out drinking. I’ve switched to making packed sandwiches with Quorn slices, salad and mustard for lunch, and we eat plant-based usually 3-4 nights a week. This has saved us a ton of money and we also feel a lot better, so it has been dead easy to stick to. Making a bowl of grains, veggies and falafels or black beans or something has become a go-to meal for us because it’s damned tasty and easily gets in our 5-a-day.
I had a great time at my brother’s 30th in London and we’ve done what we needed to do with our haul out, so those are ticked off the to-do list.
I’m still on the fence about the gym spending. My gym is way too expensive, but I’m also working in corporate and financial law. As a fraction of income it’s small enough to justify because the proximity of the gym (it’s in the next building to my office) takes away the friction of going, so it ensures I actually do go every week.
On the other hand, I could buy some gymnastics rings and set them up on an empty play park while kids are at school and get the same workout, at a cost of about £30 total instead of £1,116 per year.
Investing money
I said I would:
- Not overpay into pensions, but meet the 5% employer match
- Invest c.£1,800 per month in shares and gold, of which £1,200 would be shares and c.£600 would be gold
- Invest in an ESG Developed World All Cap index and UK Gilts.
- Not add more to any Bitcoin or crypto.
Pension match is easy and I should probably just remove that. It’s boring to read, even if it’s super important.
ITS SUPER IMPORTANT – if your employer does a pension match, you absolutely should take it!!!
I haven’t actually met my investment number. This is partly because Lady SierraWhiskyMike is now working part-time and that meant that I had to pick up her side of the mooring fees and the dog care expenses. Which, you know, is fine: but it was a lot of pressure to maintain, so I now do this differently. I reckon I’ve been putting aside £1,300-£1,800 per month on average, but a big chunk of that has been cash for potential future ventures rather than true investing.
I also added a UK bias into my investing, following the Elon Musk Nazi salute. Given that we’re now at CoastFI, there’s no major problem with us investing into things that might be less efficient. The fund I’ve picked, a UK ESG quality factors fund, is outperforming the developed world index this year.
And, yes, I stopped buying gold after the price meant that physical coins have now moved out of my comfortable price bracket of £600.
I’ve U-turned on my decision not to add more bitcoin, partly in response to the gold coin prices, partly because of my own bias in favour of the Bitcoin movement, and partly because I’m seeing first-hand a lot of companies and private family offices adding bitcoin to their treasuries. I’m witnessing the movement grow first-hand and I’m now willing to take more of a financial risk to buy into it.
Moving forward
Why did CoastFI change things?
Well, it’s like this: when what you really want to do is have the freedom to live on your boat, and you now live on your boat while earning a massive surplus, you start to question what you’re pushing so hard to get!
Technically, as long as I can earn something like £24,000 a year after taxes and Lady SierraWhiskyMike does the same, we could like the exact same lifestyle we do now.
That means we wouldn’t need to scrimp and cut back, and we could still live in the Channel Islands: one of the most expensive places to live in the world.
That’s pretty modest and it includes getting hydrotherapy for our dog (seriously, this guy…), pricey gym memberships, guitar lessons, operating a car, our living expenses and repairing the boat, all of which are currently cost inefficient because I work in a high-stress job and just need the comfort of being slightly less frugal.
So, yeah. We have taken our foot off the gas a little bit and started to look around at alternative employment options that might better travel with the boat.
I’ve also leaned into riskier/ less proven strategies to go with my own beliefs, because even if I’m wrong and the price of bitcoin tanks and/or the US continues its history of smashing any returns from the UK then to be honest nothing particularly bad will happen to us. We’ll have to work a little longer, but given that we can now basically accept any job and still eventually retire that’s not a big deal.
Changes to the Campaign Plan
I’m looking to change jobs now because I’ve been whining about Law for a couple of years and it’s getting me down. I’d like more time and mental capacity so that I can pursue my own projects now, or to do something a little more enjoyable maybe.
I have a few irons in the fire. While those are in play, I’m going to keep putting aside the £1,000 in cash, which will become either a buffer if I decide to transition into something (or take a few months’ career break) or will be dropped into my sharedealing account as soon as I pick up another job.
If I do get another job at this level, I’m going to put money aside to maybe to a charter in the Caribbean over New Year. If I don’t and I’m still in corporate law, my Christmas and New Year period will be a no-go for taking leave, so I guess I’ll have to cry and accept the loss of the sailing time.
Despite hearing you all cry “don’t do it”, I’m still going to be putting my ‘spare’ cash into Bitcoin for the time being in lieu of the gold I originally wanted to buy. I’m going to keep the physical gold I have, but I can’t reconcile the physical prices with the difficulty of storing it when I live on a boat.
Main effort
My main effort is now going to switch from pure investing and stacking capital to one of practicing skills and looking to – eventually – work remotely or earn money while travelling.
(I guess there’s always bar work and waiting tables?)
Originally, I wanted to be a freelance writer. Well, AI has killed the jobs market, so while I still intend to write it’s probably going to be things like this blog… and fiction that I sell for pennies on Amazon. You know, fun stuff!
As of this week my ideas are one of:
- Learn to make things and repair boats, maybe get some certifications or qualifications or something
- Return to The Odin Project and maybe try to move into web development because I can freelance or work remotely (those guys have it nailed as an industry
- Find some way to monetise my legal skills for my own benefit, rather than being tied to a firm and long, tedious office hours.
There’s a lot more work to do here and I might not get things right in 2025, but you see where my head is at!
Final thoughts
I hadn’t expected to make so much progress in the three years of being in the Channel Islands and the almost-two on the boat. Seriously, it’s been game changing.
I mean we’re still miles and miles from FIRE and pulling the pin, but we’ve fairly comfortably cleared £100,000 in index funds outside of pensions. Including the pensions? I think we’re on something like £130,000-£150,000 in index funds, £8,000-10,000 in gold, a pretty decent wedge in Bitcoin and an emergency fund. I don’t actually “know” because it’s now enough to just think: “well, that’s a few years’ runway covered”.
If we factor in our defined benefit pensions and presume a fairly cautious 3x growth over 30 years then we’re in a pretty good retirement position already.
Obviously I don’t own real estate of any kind right now. Every so often that fact bugs me a little, but I also like living on my boat so maybe it’s the residual tug of society’s expectations rather than an actual thought. I guess we could always switch fire and save up a deposit on a small flat over the next few years if we really wanted to?
Right. For now, I need to start thinking ahead. Looking to the future, planning for adventure. And if I get too tired to grind it out? No problem!
That’s all for now – my financial independence campaign continues!
