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

Yes, I’m aware the giggle is immature.

Progress on my goals

Boat life

I have done precisely zero on the boat because I’ve spent this week in New York on a work trip.

The taxi drivers always seem surprised when they pick me up from the marina ready for the red eye flight. I think they struggle to reconcile my living on a boat with my obviously corporate job.

Me, too.

Distractions and detours

Gulliver’s travels update

We mostly spent the New York trip doing work things, but I took an extra day there (at my own cost) to explore a bit.

Sure, I did the Statue of Liberty thing. I got New York pizza, a bagel breakfast, the usual tourist stuff.

But the coolest thing I did was go on a street art and graffiti tour of Bushwick in Brooklyn, home of the Bushwick Collective art movement.

Art attacked

Art is something that moves me more as I get older. I didn’t have much time for it in my twenties, but now I get it.

I guess some people are born in touch with their feelings and emotions while plebs like me need to get some life experience first.

Anyway, I got to meet an artist who was working on a collaboration that pretty much happened by accident. He’d made a mural and someone had tagged it (graffiti tag as opposed to social media!). He’d then modified his wall to incorporate the tag, someone else had tagged it, he’d incorporated that… and the rest became history.

So that was cool because the lesson he said he’d learned was to put aside his initial ego (“Oi! You drew on my painting!”) and in the end the artwork connected him with dozens of people he’d never have met as they learned about the collab and came to add their own twists to it. Ultimately, by riding the wave instead of forcing his ideas on it, the art actually got better.

The other thing that I think will stick with me forever is a point that the tour guide made. Obviously modern graffiti and later street art has origins in dilapidated neighbourhoods and poverty, but through art the nature of that particular neighbourhood had changed and it had become a cool place to be. The Bushwick Collective started in response to people getting murdered in the streets and eventually Bushwick transformed in response to the street art being added to it.

So the point was: this is evidence that art really does change the world.

This is a use of plants to make art, by street artist Food Baby Soul. There are elements like shrubs, benches and sculptures added around all the trees on this stretch of road.
I like how this turns a generic government supplied tree into a welcoming space.
This is by artist Mike Maka Tron. Apparently this was completed in two days! Have a look at the political imagery on the astronaut’s patches.
So this is cool. Apparently the artist didn’t expect the chicken wire to go rusty, but once it did they rolled with it for this and other works.
You can see the “Bushwick Collective” mark in green above Garfield. This is considered a polite thing to do to acknowledge that you are an invited artist.
A bit of self-interest here! However the Bushwick Collective allegedly don’t incentivise artists with money. I’m not clear on the statement here other than to make the point that art has value.
I didn’t get an explanation for this one, but it’s worth noting that the area is mainly an immigrant community from Latin America (amongst other places). It’s quite possible this is a reference to their status and perception as aliens outside the community.
This dog, Brooklyn, died a couple of years before the painting. She belonged to the wife of the original owner (and now sole owner) of the building. It’s a factory owned by Italian migrants that makes kerbstone protectors, but also holds and entire rack of art materials.
Most street art is made to be seen, but some artists like to add hidden gems. Let’s take a closer look at this “grate”.
See? Not a real grate in the wall at all! This is clearly painted and then later affixed.
I don’t actually know if Alicia Keys was ever in this neighbourhood but it’s a touching tribute.
Love the colour palette.
This is a cool piece, but if you look closely it looks like a graffiti artist has tagged it! is this a problem, or a collaboration?
Artists come from all over the world now. This piece is also a nod to the origins of the area as a brewery district where Bavarian migrants settled.
This guy is the original (now deceased) owner of the kerb protector factory.
Even temporary hoardings are seen as opportunities. I asked about this, and apparently the temporary nature of any street art is actually appreciated by the artists themselves.
I couldn’t get a good shot of this figure by Isabelle Ewing. It’s notable for its pastel colours amongst the vivid works around it.
You can see how the three artists broke this wall down. Apparently they didn’t coordinate, deliberately wanting to add an element of anarchy to the process.
I tried really hard to get a complete photo of this work. It’s effectively proposing that there needs to be more love amongst the rat race. The artist who painted the rat girl is a different person to the artist who painted the hugging woman, and allegedly they worked at different times.
This is from a deliberate installation made available to a collab of female street artists. The colours are softer, but the statements about identity and belonging are clearer.
There’s an LA artist who was invited to paint this wall. He didn’t know what he was going to paint, then he saw these Ecuadorean women on the train and knew this was the subject matter. It’s painted with brushes. I’m told he threw a street party while painting it.
I know both about this piece but it caught my eye as being on an otherwise ugly bollard. I suspect this is from someone trying to experiment with their own process and style, but I don’t know for sure.

How does this relate to the FI Campaign?

I don’t think there’s necessarily a FIRE thing in this. At least there isn’t an obvious connection.

No amount of self-expression is likely to boost my investment returns or increase my savings rate.

And yet…

…why are we doing this?

Why do we want to be financially independent, when we could simply earn more and spend lavishly? What do we actually hope to gain by years of deliberate planning and doing something that’s strange to most people?

I’ve long been a big proponent of having a reason for doing hard things. Sure, that reason could be the love of the process, but very few people who want to read about financial independence are simply in if for “number go up”.

I’m not saying that the aim of FIRE is to quit everything and become a street artist or any other painter. We can’t all do that, it would be daft.

But the main advantage of being financially independent is that we can gain control of our time. That allows us to pursue things that have value that isn’t based on money. To explore meaningful things, or attempt to, with no pressure demanding success or compromise. To ccollaborate and find community. To experiment without a cost to failure.

To change the world, even if that’s in a small and localised way.

As for me? I don’t want the sum of my life to be “he worked hard and made money”. Fuck that. Seventy odd years on this rock floating around the sun cannot be summarised as “…he was a lawyer. End.”

I at least want people who learn about my story to be moderately entertained if I can’t inspire them to action.

I’m going to think about this some more. This post is being written as I travel home and the thoughts are still fresh in my mind, but they are jumbled up. I’m not sure exactly what I want to say here, but I instinctively know that this experience was so meaningful to me because it is connected to my own financial independence campaign and my values.

Inked up Part II

My tattoo has almost healed! It’s now at the final, itchy stage. A few more days to go…

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

As suspected, I didn’t get any guitar time during my travels. Nothing to report this week.

Fitness

With the tattoo now largely past the scabby ‘orrible stage, I started to throw in some press-up circuits while in the hotel. I’ve also put a lot of mileage on my feet this week, most of it deliberately.

I reckon I can go back to the gym next week.

Final thoughts

So travel dominated my week. Again.

You can probably tell from the Distractions and Detours section above that the experience with the street artists made a huge impression on me. There’s a genuine chance that, in some small way, the encounter has changed my life. I definitely left feeling inspired and I guess we’ll see if that actually affects how I behave.

Fitness went surprisingly well and I don’t feel too guilty about the airport beer I’m about to order!

My financial independence campaign continues!