Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat plan
We’ve had a rigger quote us £1,800 to replace our suspicious-looking running rigging with sexy Kevlar-weave dyneema ropes.
It’s not cheap. £1,800. I flinched a little. There might have been some puke in the back of my throat.
Still, we’re going to go ahead because:
- we need to change that rigging if we want to actually sail the boat, which is the whole point of this
- I don’t have the tools to cut dyneema, so I’d be bodging it and blunting all my knives for a sub-standard solution (or using less durable nylon braid rope)
- it would take me a month to do, whereas the rigger will smash it out in a day or two and I can make up the money by working for two weeks in my job.
I’m presently waiting for Lady SierraWhiskyMike to bring the dog down so that we can continue his maritime training and get him aboard.
Crypto seems to be on a tear
Since the US allowed its first Bitcoin ETFs, there’s been a surge in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices.
Long-time readers will recall that I went in heavy on crypto when I migrated to the Channel Islands, on the grounds that my investment contributions were going to see an eightfold increase because I’d just qualified as a lawyer.
This meant that the downside risk of committing my then limited ISA contributions to crypto was easily sustainable, as it worked out to be three months’ investment contributions in the New Normal.
Ugh, that was a depressing thing to write. Yes, qualifying as a lawyer and avoiding too much lifestyle inflation meant that in one year I’d contributed more to investments than in two years of earning a little over the UK median salary.
There are two lessons here:
1. Whether it’s fair or not, finance and law each pay so much that you should consider these as career options.
2. Doubling your salary doesn’t merely double your progress to financial independence – if you keep your lifestyle costs low, it massively multiplies your contributions. My salary now is around a 75% increase on my trainee salary (and my previous career), but my contributions to non-pension investments have increased eightfold.
Anyway, that side of the investment portfolio has grown at a rapid rate, and I suspect it will continue to do so after the Bitcoin halving event in April.
If we see another bull market for Bitcoin, I’ll reduce my expose and put some of the profits into more conventional investments. I don’t want to be too exposed to high-risk assets that I can’t really diversify.
Distractions and detours
Reading
Have picked up YouTuber Ali Abdaal’s book, Feel Good Productivity again after a detour into trashy sci-fi fiction.
I’m finding it a bit of a slog, but I will persevere and see what I can take from it.
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
I’d been putting off doing a string change to my guitar for months now, basically because it’s not something I’ve ever done before.
Well, last night I pressed ahead, and my now-polished and shiny guitar is sporting sleek new strings.
Sort of.
I broke the high E and B strings during the process of fitting them and had to replace them with a second set of new strings straight away. Worst thing is that I don’t really know where I went wrong, since I’ve never done this before.
There was chaos all over the saloon table as bits of guitar polish and unwound strings exploded across the boat.
The A string has a million turns over the tuning peg, meanwhile the E string got up to tension straight away and barely has two coils in place.
Will it hold? Who knows!
I left the strings long/ untrimmed at the ends so that there’s time for the strings to stretch out to wherever they want to be, but I’ll cut them short in a bit.
Might order another packet of strings ASAP as I’m pretty sure my amateur antics will have shortened the life of these bad boys.
I also – at the strong recommendation of my guitar teacher – bought a capo this week. I’ve been borrowing his during lessons and the hint to get my own have finally sunken in.
Fitness
Pulled a muscle in my calf last week, so I cycled to work every day and avoided running.
The salty marina air is eating my poor pushbike alive. Chasing the rust out is a never-ending game and I suspect I’m going to be replacing chains annually.
Upgraded to panniers from my backpack for a less sweaty commute. It… didn’t really help, because the Channel Islands are pretty damn windy and the panniers mean that I catch all the resistance of the morning headwind on my commute. Speeds have definitely dropped, but I’m marginally more comfortable.
Final thoughts
Crypto seems to be giving my portfolio a huge boost, but I’m somewhat nervous that it’s forming a large percentage of my portfolio by value (albeit this is outsized compared to the limited contributions I make to it.
It’s a good problem to have, mind you!
All my non-financial independence goals are going pretty well. This is vital because if they weren’t then I’d probably be fixating on my investments and counting down my life before I achieved financial independence. That’s no way to live.
Slow progress is being made on all fronts and I generally can’t complain.
My financial independence campaign continues!
