I’ll try to keep this page brief with some bullet point info:

I’m a 32 years young web developer currently working for a major corporate FTSE 100 company in the UK.

How am different from the majority of people I have encountered so far in my life?

I am planning a route to early retirement in 5 years or less

I am slowly finding myself further opting out of consumerism and to a certain extent popular culture and ways of thinking in general. I can only see this becoming more and more pronounced as time goes on but we’ll see ;o)

I love the environmental message that generally goes hand in hand with being frugal by reducing consumption – this greatly helps facilitate a high savings rate and early retirement.

I would just like, at this point, to emphasize that I am not, in any way shape or form, some sort of Saint, or in any way special, and genuinely am not trying to paint myself in that way.

It would be very silly (and misleading) of me in making myself out to be some sort of all noble, holier than thou character: saving every single penny, eating only the healthiest of foods and with a carbon footprint of negative proportions. And I really hope you do not think that I think I am from any of my posts. I just want to share some of the best wisdom I’ve come across in my life so far, wisdom that I think is worth spreading, and advice that I happily admit I need to work at following.

So for full disclosure then, here is a completely non-exhaustive list of my vices, both past and present. As you can see I have a long way to go before I can call myself a badass:

  • I gambled fairly heavily from the age of 18 to 31. I still have the occasional lapse on this front…!

  • I like golf, and am even a member of a golf club although am no longer a member of a golf club. However this is something I have no intention of giving up, even into early retirement. This is my one “vice” I have decided to allow myself.

  • Like most people, I enjoy a drink. Health wise and wallet wise this is obviously not good for you, so like most people this is something I do really need to cut down on!

  • I have a 50” flat screen television, plus many other of the latest gadgets. Most of it bought new. What can I say, I got caught up in the “wahey let’s buy lots of stuff” phase that most of my 20 something mates were doing at that age.

  • My house is full of clutter, books, DVDs and other crap. De-cluttering is something I really want to work on.

  • I’m about to spend/have just spent over 10 grand on getting wed and a 3 week honeymoon. What the woman wants etc…! I’m obviously not pretending I won’t / haven’t enjoyed all of that though, it’s a once in lifetime experience of course!

So there you have it, I’m a pretty regular Joe on most accounts, with as many “faults” – or let’s say areas I can improve on – as the next person. Hopefully if there are any doubts on whether you – if you want to call yourself an average person – can try to follow the same path as I am trying to follow, these have now been disbanded.

If you want to find out anything else about me let me know in the comments below!

Keep on FIREing my friends!