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

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

We’re travelling back to the UK on Wednesday, ready to pick up our boat and sail home (!) over the weekend/ early next week.

It’s our first Channel crossing, so we’ve given ourselves a 7-day window to do a 12-15 hour trip. That way, we’re able to wait for a good weather window in case of surprise storms.

I don’t want to invite the wrath of Poseidon by rushing to a deadline. That would be bad.

Investments

The investment plan is working well, but the investments themselves are a mixed bag.

Equities (I.e. Stocks/ Stonks)

Stock markets are flat/ have taken a short-term hit this week, so my equities aren’t the darlings of my portfolio. I suspect that this will continue for another year or so, the world isn’t in a good place to kick off another growth spree.

My Wealthify portfolio is doing much better than the Trading212 portfolio. That’s probably because of diversification and regular rebalancing across asset classes. I’m giving serious thought to pulling out of Trading212 altogether and putting the liquid stack all in Wealthify for the automated management, but it’s not a done deal yet.

Alternatives

The gold I’ve bought over the last couple of years is still 5-10% up on average, which is basically just inflation.

Bitcoin is having a rally so my small crypto portfolio is carrying the team at the moment. Institutional adoption seems to be growing.

I didn’t bother to check my pensions, which are mainly equities anyway, as I can’t do anything about them really and won’t have access for over a decade. The aim is set-and-forget for those. I also didn’t check on my Crowdcube buys, because they’re just not liquid. I have hopes for Flexi-Hexi because I’m seeing their packaging everywhere, but most of them won’t yield much return and a few have gone bust.

Distractions and detours

Not many distractions this week!.

Work has been keeping us going at pace, which isn’t great for stress but is pretty awesome for keeping my budget on the straight-and-narrow.

I guess boat life is a bit of a distraction? We’re eyeing up projectors/entertainment options, talking about upgrading the ageing sails, wondering about re-upholstery… it’s easy to get carried away there. Then again, our furniture is the boat, so there’s a natural limit where you just can’t buy any more because it won’t fit aboard.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar teacher has given me a song by The Offspring – one of my consistently favourite bands – to learn. That’s awesome, I’m dead chuffed with that. It’s Come Out And Play, for those of you who also struggle with both being “the Man” while wanting to “stick it to the Man” and know US punk rock’s back catalogue.

The irony is strong. Then again, isn’t a financial independence campaign just using capitalism to escape capitalism? Discuss!

I think I reported this last week, but my swimming pool is closed. Added to that, there’s work being done to the house we’re lodging in, so my usual kettlebell training spot is now home to a rubble heap. Fitness is taking a slight hit, but I’m getting some running into my week to prevent early catastrophic death or obesity. Less than perfect, but OK.

With the boat life starting from next week and a fibreglass home being a terrible place to store what is basically a cannon ball with a handle, kettlebells are probably going to die as a fitness activity. They’re great, I really rate them, but it might be time to bite the bullet and pay too much for a local gym membership. I’ll have a think on that one.

My financial independence campaign continues!