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

Progress on my goals

So we now have a boat

We crossed the English Channel last weekend in a 116-mile sail from Southampton Water. Boom! I’m now a salty sea dog!

That’s how it works, right?

In all the euphoria of sailing through rough seas, I wrote a post about it. Not my finest work, was a little giddy, but it’s there for all to see.

Now we need to fit it out

There’s a list of jobs as long as my arm that we need to do on her. The ones we need to crack on with before we move aboard are:

  • Modify or jury rig some way for the dog to get aboard
  • Replace the fresh water pipe from the calorifier to the galley tap
  • Fit the cooker and get a gas fitter to connect it up
  • Replace the hatch over the V-berth that we want to use as our bedroom.

There’s also a myriad of other important but smaller jobs.

The plan is to live in our basement room for a couple of months longer while doing the fitting out. She’s here now though, so the jobs are much more achievable.

Payday again!

Another contribution landed in my Wealthify.

I took stock, and I think I have around £50,000 of investments to my name. Lady SierraWhiskyMike has much the same, so between us we’re over that mythical “it gets easier after £100k” mark. Plus the non-contributory public sector pensions we accrued earlier in our careers I guess.

If we included the cash pot that’s both the “boat fund” and “emergency fund” – we haven’t separated these back out yet, we’re just topping them up at a set rate – then it’s a fair whack higher.

Not certain that I necessarily feel like it’s getting easier, but I definitely feel more comfortable at work. There’s something cool about knowing you could be sacked but still have a couple of years’ runway before that’s a problem.

So, yeah. Pretty good progress this week, feeling good about my financial independence campaign progress.

Distractions and detours

Upgraded my Nintendo 64

I sent my Nintendo 64 to David at oldskoolconsoles.com to be fitted with a Tim Worthington RGB mod. That means it should now send digital signals out instead of blurry analogue ones, and I can use an adapter to plug it into HDMI on a modern telly.

Pretty cool, eh?

Somewhat irritatingly due to timing, PixelFX have just released a preorder for a direct HDMI mod kit. David kindly told me that he’d be able to fit it if I ordered this and would consider some kind of part-exchange scheme, but as I haven’t tried the RGB mod yet I haven’t committed to paying out to re-mod the same console. Then again, it would be easy to sell on if I bought it and didn’t need it…

Big distraction, but that’s fine. I’d saved up for the £105 to make the mod and pay the postage, so I can’t feel too bad.

Potential landlord situation may have gone away

Last post (a little over a week ago! I’m sorry.) mentioned that we might be helping a family member buy their ex-partner out of their home to list as a buy-to-let.

Numbers are in. Basically, unless we become proper slum landlords and have a punitive rent set-up, this plan isn’t going to work.

There’s a bit of emotion within the family about this which isn’t yet resolved, but I don’t think the solution involves us investing further into it.

I’m relieved. Real estate isn’t a bad asset class, I’m not anti-landlord by any measure, but there are properties which are appropriate for that kind of thing – modern studio flats and one-beds are great examples – and properties which just aren’t ideal for anyone. High maintenance, older properties aren’t exactly ideal to let out to a tenant who doesn’t have a vested interest in preventative upkeep. If you’re going to be a residential landlord you really ought to be offering decent accommodation.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

I’m still on Back in Black by AC/DC. It’s coming along. Another week without a lesson, but to be fair I’ve been busy in this time! I’m still practicing most days, although I missed a couple so can’t claim “every day”.

I’m actually going to miss a lot next week due to…

Attending Day Skipper course

I’m on a Day Skipper combined theory and practical course starting tomorrow and ending the following weekend.

The aim is to teach me to operate the boat I’ve just sailed across the Channel. At the moment, I’m just a crewman; this should teach me how to manoeuvre to fit into moorings (most important) and navigate better.

I already can navigate, but that’s just because I can read maps and guide books. I’m hoping I can do the funky stuff like plan for tides after this course, which I rely on Lady SierraWhiskyMike to do at the moment.

This is kind of an investment in my own safety as well as a hobby.

Fitness

Didn’t get much fitness time in this week, but that’s because I was absolutely knackered from the hard bank holiday crossing. Fair enough.

Managed to get a lunchtime run in, so it’s not zero exercise, but probably could have done better.

Archery is being neglected

I’ve completely neglected archery and probably will do for another couple of weeks. I can’t do everything, and of my hobbies this is the one that’s sort of bottom of the pile.

Don’t get me wrong: I like it, it’s just that the timing isn’t convenient with long work hours anyway, and quite often I have to do something else on the few occasions where these things sync up.

I’d be sad if I couldn’t do it anymore, but ultimately it’s nearer the bottom of my priority list. I’m not really a competitive archer, probably a year or two away from anything like that, it’s probably never going to be more than just a hobby.

Final thoughts

Good amounts of progress towards my financial independence goals this week. I’m happy with that.

The Nintendo 64 distraction isn’t the worst. I’d saved up for it, so budgeting has paid off and it hasn’t materially compromised my investment plan.

Boat plan is progressing fairly well. We’ll see how exciting it is when we move aboard over winter. Brrr! Chilly.

My financial independence campaign continues!