Thoughts and reflections about the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat life
We’re temporarily not on the boat because the dog has developed a minor skin infection and the Cone Of Shame he’s forced to wear while we clean it doesn’t let him move around on the boat.
So we’ve been living in the mother-in-law’s spare room. Not ideal, I already miss our boat, but it was really nice of her to make space for us while His Dogness heals up.
We don’t know for sure what’s caused the infection. The antibacterial stuff we’re treating him with seems to have cleared it up pretty quickly though, so it could just be something he’s vulnerable to as an older dog with a double coat of fur.
Payday!
Getting paid is always a good thing.
Apart from my company pension match, I put in another big chunk of money to my Lloyds Sharedealing account, split 80:20 between my Vanguard ESG Developed World passive fund and an UK gilts fund. I also bought a quarter ounce gold coin and sent that to safe storage.
Traditionally I’d bought gold sovereigns as my physical asset of choice. They’re low premium and a pretty good place to start. However, the Royal Mint has announced that 2025 will be the last year that sovereigns are minted in the rose gold alloy they use. While I don’t think that will affect the value of what I already hold, there is a chance that it might do, and I’ve decided to diversify (well, sort of) within that asset class by having a few 24-carat coins in the mix.
24-carat is always sellable. The downside is that the premium is higher on quarter ounce coins than it is in sovereigns. Still, my goal for that kind of holding is to have an amount of it stashed away pretty much forever in safe storage. The slight loss at acquisition is probably not that big a deal.
I’m not rubbishing gold sovereigns at all, but I have a lot of them already and thought it was time to add some purer gold too.
Distractions and detours
I mostly spent this week doing long shifts in front of a computer while clients shout and cry to get things done “before Christmas”.
This means I’ve had quite a boring week really. Not much has happened apart from getting slapped about by my workload.
This is probably going to continue right up to 24 December when I have a day booked off for Lady SierraWhiskyMike’s birthday on Christmas Eve. Eurgh.
Actually, I have an appointment with a recruiter on that front because I’ve seen a law-adjacent/ finance(ish) job that sounds interesting. I don’t know if anything will come of it because every job in the world is now advertised as having a “competitive” salary and benefits – which means precisely bugger all – but it’s worth a look.
Thinking about material goods
Christmas is a time for gift-giving and I don’t want to make anyone feel bad about buying things to give as gifts. That’s not the point of this section at all.
I’ve been thinking a lot about – and recently reading about and watching videos about – the concept of overconsumption and overproduction.
Part of me is alive to the fact that producing too much stuff is a net harm for our environment and society. Plastic has been getting a lot of rightly-deserved flak in recent years but it’s far from the only offender. I’m usually pretty good at making stuff last, but even I’ve gone through three laptops and about four games consoles in my lifetime that have probably all ended up in landfill somewhere, contributing to the piles of electronics waste in the world. I’ve probably thrown away more possessions than I’d be willing to be confronted by if they were all piled up in front of me.
To a certain extent that’s unavoidable given the society we’re all living in. I can’t waive a magic wand and convince manufacturers to make better quality goods without planned obsolescence factored into their designs.
What I can do though is try to buy fewer, better quality things – which is what I’ve started doing anyway, purely because space is finite on the boat.
So now I’m thinking about deliberately targeting longevity when I buy things, what kinds of materials they’re made from, and whether these things can be made or maintained at home. I’m also thinking about what skills I could learn so that I can do these kinds of repairs and maintenance tasks.
This is probably something that I need to develop my opinions on, but as we all get ready to throw our money at meaningless festive tat to burden a reticent family member with it’s something that’s at the back of my mind: am I actually giving something that will be used, or am I just sending out plastic crap they’re going to have to deal with?
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
Guitar was cancelled today because my teacher has the lurgies.
I’m a little concerned that with all the drama and thrash at work I haven’t played at all this week. Unfortunately, with the career I’m in that’s just the way things have to go at this time of year.
See? This is why I was never an unbelievable rock god: I’m a corporate sell out. Sadness!
Fitness
Actually did OK here! Got two 8-mile treadmill sessions in this week, plus two sessions targeting pull-ups, dips and upper body. Happy with that.
Still think I’ve got a little bit of plantar fasciitis but my legs are easing off now that they’re reconditioning, which is fantastic news.
I weighed myself at the start of the week using the all-body scanner. No real change from last month on either weight or body composition. I suspect that disappearing off to Paris in the last month, which involved much wining and dining and very little exercise other than walking, was probably to blame here.
My body fat percentage is still a little high, at just over 21%. I’d like to lose about 5kg between now and the marathon in April, just so that the running is a bit easier on my joints. No idea if that’s possible and it’s a self-driven goal, but it seems reasonable. I reckon that will put me in the 15% body fat kind of area which is hardly super-ripped and shouldn’t require too much dramatic effort to get to.
Final thoughts
My dog has kind of been at the forefront of my mind this week. Well, that and the mountains of client demands.
Investments went in as planned. No fuss, no really effort. Steady away.
The consumerism point is something I want to reflect a bit more on. I know that living on the boat has saved us money overall, even with the travel costs and the maintenance of the boat. We own expensive stuff, but there isn’t much of it. I buy more technical clothing and pay a premium for it, but I don’t have much of it and I wear it to death.
Otherwise, my main feelings of the week have been about just getting my head down and grinding away. Pure survival mode, no real fun.
We’re hoping to return to our boat tomorrow night, depending on what the vet says about the dog’s condition during the daytime appointment. Fingers crossed! I’m going to make the most of the convenience while I’m staying in a house tonight, might even watch some more television.
My financial independence campaign continues!
