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

Progress on my goals

Boat Plan

The boat has had a new set of sheets and other ropes made up to replace the previous rigging which had it turns out almost failed.

We were genuinely close to losing sails when we crossed the Channel. Oo-er!

Well, now she has some sexy Kevlar weave dyneema ropes. Our savings took a punch, but safety seems important.

We don’t have the tools or experience to cut dyneema, so we paid a rigger to do the sheet changes for us. He has now shamed us on his Instagram account for our worn-out running rigging. Not sure how I feel about that!

There are still tons of jobs outstanding on her, but we’re planning to take her sailing locally in the coming months anyway. Saltier sea dogs than we have told us that if you don’t do that you never actually sail your boat, and I’ll be damned if we’re doing all this just to live in a creaky floating house surrogate.

Distractions and detours

After my musing about lifestyle design last week, I was approached by a recruiter for an in-house risk and regulatory law job that promises to be both more interesting and more reliable hours than my current job.

I like the people at my workplace, but you don’t let opportunities pass you by with these things. Needless to say, I threw my name into the hat and so far I’m about halfway through a recruitment process.

This may not take off, but it’ll be exciting if it does!

If I’m able to stick with law – which, at the current demand levels, is only a maybe – I can work on a remote freelance basis in around 3-4 years’ time. This would mean that when I hit CoastFI and we set out on our world adventures, I would have the option of working ad-hoc level jobs as we travel and therefore keep/grow our FI pot.

At the moment, private practice is starting to wear me down, so I have been repeatedly considering my own breakout business ideas in other fields.

So if I’m offered this job, I’m likely to accept it. If things work out, I’ll be earning well and can prepare to enter freelance work when we eventually travel. On the other hand, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll only be in the same position I’m in now (but with a few more months’ extra pay).

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

Still no lessons until next week. I’ve been practicing Layla and it’s starting to come together.

Not gig ready, but it’s coming together.

Fitness

Weather is improving, so I’ve been doing a lot of running around the cost and up the cliffs.

Things were going well until yesterday, when I pulled my calf muscle jogging into work. It’s my fault for not warming up enough, I’m obviously a dork.

I run barefoot/ zero drop, so my calves take a lot of stress. This was a conscious decision after years of military service made looking after my knees a bigger priority. Despite the increased risk of injury, calf muscle strain is infinitely better than burning out all of the remaining cartilage in your knee joints.

That has happened to a surprisingly high number of people I know. It’s all the running in weighted kit that does it.

Well, I’m probably set back about six weeks while the strain/pull heals up and works itself out. Back to cycling and swimming for a bit.

Some you win, some you lose. I still got four runs and a cycle in last week, so I’m happy enough.

Final thoughts

Seems to me that I live in a constant state of change. I have to presume that most people do, for the most part at least.

Will be good to get some sailing in soon. Bad weather this winter and an infinite list of jobs to do has kept us in the marina, but part of launching the boat plan early is building up sailing experience.

So, out she comes. There’s a good girl.

Potential new job sounds promising, but if that falls through then c’est la vie. Of course, if I get hired then that cash I’ve been saving for my own projects can be instantly invested and the investment plan can get back on track.

My financial independence campaign continues!