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No time for formalities today friends, we have a lot to cover!

1. I Quit My Job

Boooooom! How do you like them apples!? 🙂
You might think that this big news deserves a post all of it’s own but it’s not quite as dramatic as it first sounds. I have managed to negotiate a “slow extraction” from my current company, I will be there full time until June time, then go down to 3 days a week, slowly dropping down to 1 day a week around December.
What will I do with my new found free time? Well I won’t be sitting on my laurels that is for sure. My nest egg is still more than a few short of a dozen so I still need to actually earn some money to buy goods, services, and fund my investments! I have to admit that my plan is not exactly concrete just yet but I have a few potential web development/app/software projects lined up through contacts, and have ideas of my own. The other options are doing some freelance projects, or if push comes to shove, looking for another full time gig that is more local so at the least I don’t have to endure the toxic commute. I spoke about the various options a few posts back here in case you missed it and wanted some more info!
Needless to say, making money out of this blog does not come into my plans, just in case anyone was wondering.

2. A New Direction for the blog

The above bombshell clearly impacts on my original plan I set out for the blog which was a five year plan to build up a pot of investments to around the £125,000 mark, which was to provide some income, and then work part time or on side hustles to top the rest of that up to whatever my living costs came to. In a sense, I’ve already achieved part of that goal, although I’ll be doing a hell of a lot more hustlin’ and not much 1 investment pot income withdrawin’. 🙂
So first things first, I needed to update my dear regular readers (you lot!) with the new situation, which I’ve just done. The second part of my obligations as blog owner is to make sure new people coming to the blog know the score, so I’ll be updating the welcome text with something a bit more relevant over the weekend. Comments by rodent on my expenses post alerted me to the fact that some people might be coming here, and getting the wrong impression of what is currently going on. If anyone else feels the same, then I apologise wholeheartedly.
A lot has changed since a starry eyed, younger and better looking version of theFIREstarter posted those first fateful few articles on a blog he didn’t know that anyone would ever even read, but reading it now, a lot is still as relevant as ever:
  • As stated in my first post, my now public goal is to retire from my office drone job in five years or less – Check! I’ll be “retired” from my office job this time come December, 2.5 years ahead of schedule. 🙂
  • Retirement to me simply means being able to quit my corporate office worker job, you know, quit working for “The Man” – OK, so this one is still up in the air, if I end up getting another full time job in December I will still be working for The Man. Even if I am doing proper freelance work through an agency, for corporations, I am still working for The Man. But if I manage to build a side hustle or a series of them into something that produces enough to live on, then I will have become The Man 🙂

 

3. What this blog is really all about

 Continuing on from the above… what is this really all about? What are my goals for myself and the blog? For me, it was always about:

 

4. More about me

I’ve written a short amount of information about me but at the risk of coming across as an egotistical maniac I’ll divulge some more, slightly more personal info about what I’m like as a person. Actually, the motivation to provide more info here was driven again from rodents comments on the expenses article. I have no issue with the comments, but I don’t want to come across as misleading, inauthentic or pretend to be something I am not, so here is the dirt:

  •  Despite having no worries about not spending money on myself 2, I have a pathological fear of being labelled tight in social situations. This leads to many rounds bought which I don’t get back, and never questioning the classic old even splitting of the bill 3 when out with friends. I don’t think I am alone in this line of thinking, in fact I’m lucky that most of my closest friends are the same (or maybe they are just straight up generous :), which amounts the same thing at the end of the day). But when out with a larger group or not so close acquaintances, I’ll often end up coming off with the short straw or emptier wallet. This is not something MMM recommends but that is just the way I am, it may slightly affect the time it takes for me to reach FI, so be it!
  • Following on from above it is important to realise (especially if you came here from MMM or have read some of his site first) that I am not MMM, or Jacob from ERE, and I am not trying to be like them. I may well mention those sites a lot, link to their articles and talk about their methods and philosophy, but I am not just trying to be a cookie cutter devotee that follows them to every word they write. I am a massive fan of both, but a lot of what they prescribe is not for me. So I do what any sane person should be doing which is thinking for yourself, taking what works for you and applying it to your own situation to make your life better. The same goes for you dear readers about my own little space on the internet, I am hoping a lot of it is useful but if not, then just ignore it/leave a comment to tell me your differing views, and move onto the next post.
  • Following on from the friends point, it is unrealistic for someone most people to just cease every facet of their former consumerist lifestyle at the drop of a hat. The likelihood is that one of the hardest parts of this is simply that all of our friends and family are still living that lifestyle and are still inviting you out to places, talking about what useless gadget they’ve just bought, and so on. Barring dropping out of society and living in a mud hut, or moving away from friends and family and starting your life afresh (something that Ermine quite rightly points out is not something most of us, especially UK folk, are wont to doing), you are generally stuck with a bit of a battle on your hands with, as TEA succinctly puts it, global capitalism and peer pressure.
  • Compounded onto the points above, I will fully admit that I am a slow learner, and possibly an even slower mover. I like to procrastinate on things for a long time. Upon hearing this, you might think that the original 5 year plan was more than just a little bit insane 4, but as they say reach for the stars and if you miss, at least you won’t come up holding a pile of mud.
  • I would just like the re-emphasize that I love golf and I will not be giving it up any time soon. I think golf gets a bad rap in personal finance and especially FI circles. It seems to be the sport that epitomises wastefulness, showyness and fanciness, what with exclusive membership, expensive fees and equipment, and BMW’s in the club car park. But let me tell you it costs as much as you want it to cost, and my crappy old Pug looks just as good in the car park (IMO) 🙂 – I am budgeting £100 a month for this going forward, and this is a realistic estimate from past years, which when I reach FI will take a pot of £30,000 to sustain. I am more than happy with this fact.
  • As I mention in my about me page, I do spend too much on beer and socialising. This is slowly trending in the right direction and I look forward to cutting down on the spending in this category in the coming months and years… Work in progress!… watch this space! et-bloomin-cetera! 🙂

5. FFS Stop Whining Man!

All of the above could come across as complainy-pants whining of why I haven’t stuck to the original goal, and well maybe it is. But I’d like to look at the massive positives that have come out of running the blog so far:

  • I’ve received some great advice from many commenters, other blog owners, and learnt a lot on the way
  • I’ve got some money sitting investment accounts, whereas before all my excess cash was simply devoted to spending
  • I’ve learnt the basics of running a website and self-employment, and that along with the cash buffer mentioned above has given me the confidence to quit my job way before the five years were up anyway!
  • There are so many others but that will have to do for today

 

Wheew! My brain is well and truly dumped for today. Once it’s clogged up with some more thoughts I’ll dump again in a few days time.

If you managed to read through all of it then thanks a bunch and do let me know your thoughts below.

Starter question: Am I mental for quitting my job..!?

Or just dump some random thoughts of your own if you so wish!

Welcome to TFS group therapy, yea! And it’s all gratis! 🙂 ) 

 

Cheers!

 

TFS.x

 

Brief update: Just wanted to say in the body of the article thanks for all the positive comments below. You guys are “awesome” – to use the lifestyle bloggers word of choice 🙂

Notes:

  1. in fact any, hopefully!
  2. And to a certain extent the long suffering Mrs TFS… sorry dear…!
  3. In fact that is something that really winds me up! I often find that the people who suggest not to evenly split the bill are the ones who will come out better off on that given occasion, and are the very same ones suggesting a even split the next time, when they’ve over indulged. Convenient that, isn’t it? I’d rather just split it every time without question, and trust that it will all even out over the long term, which it probably does.
  4. And let’s face it, you’d have been right