There is no secret to what I am focused on. I am concentrated on retiring early to enjoy my life and my time freedom and making the choices I want to make about what I do want to work as. So, in a way, it isn’t retirement. It is just working at my pace and within my passion areas.
I don’t think I will ever retire. There is too much good stuff to do.
This desire to ‘retire’ comes through from my chat when I get into a good conversation with other people. But it is not something I openly preach because it is not for everyone. I am also aware that I might be ahead of others in this journey. So I am sensitive to their situations because everyone has a different story that they are living.
When pushed into the conversation, I can elaborate, but I hold back until I build trust. For context, I have been down, skinto-flinto as they would say in Glasgow, and now I am building myself back up.
That is the plan. To build like a f*cker. Full-on Bob the Builder but with a different strategy from our brave Bob.
My plan was and still remains a ‘simple’ four-point plan. I am always straight forward in saying what the plan is, but it is not always simple to execute on it. That is the part that takes patience and habit.
Patience and habit is the bit I do preach. These days people want things fast. But in my time on this lovely planet of ours, I have realised that good things take time.
My advice is always the same, get a (personal business) plan for your life and form the habits around achieving the goals you have attached to it.
But, please have some f*cking patience.
My own (personal business) plan revolves around the following key headings.
- Pay off debt and grow my savings.
- Increase my income.
- Manage my expenses carefully.
- Learn useful stuff in service of the future life I want to design.
I have been working away on all four points and I am getting on top of some of them more than others.
The other thing that I am also careful of is not missing the life I am actually living and being more present. This takes skill, and it is something I am still trying to master. I want to live my current life to the max and live my future life to the max.
It is always about the balance. (and my greed for life)
Being present for the life you are living should be the fifth element on any F.I.R.E plan that you build.
Having some good things in your life does not always cost money. You can create experiences by doing anything. It is a mindset thing. You can enjoy an extraordinary life by being frugal – frugal means being careful with money, not being so mean with money that you are miserable.
The part of living life to the maximum is in my (secret) plan. Still, when I mention it to others as part of a FIRE conversation, it always seems to confuse and contradict. Because people assume that ‘living life to the max’ is an expensive thing to do. That is why I leave that part of the plan out, most of the time.
When asked, I will always share my four-point plan. When pushed, I will add in the Fifth Element – but I will caution, like the question Bruce Willis faced in the movie, is the world worth saving? Is confusing the narrative worth it?
I will never hold back on answering that question when I am really pushed because, of course, it is. The world is always worth saving.
People are always worth it, even if it makes you look and sound like a d*ck from the future.
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