My Non-Financial Life

This blog is focused on charting my progress to Financial Independence and optional Early Retirement.  By having to continually to write about it I am forced to stay the course because I’m continually held accountable.  You the reader get to see my journey, warts and all, which also includes most of the financial research I do behind the scenes.  It stays very unemotional and fact based as that’s what personal finance in my opinion should be.

Behind all this though is a living breathing human being and also my family who are personally affected daily by what I publish here.  I rarely write about this side for a few reasons:

• At this time my anonymity is important.  I don’t think this will always be the case but right now it’s probably not a good idea if my boss knows I might retire in 18 months at 43 years of age;
• This is a personal finance site and not mumsnet;
• Even though I'm a STEM graduate it’s the financial side including all the planning that I've found the most difficult.  Executing on it including finding ways to Earn More, Spend Less by Living Well Below Your Means, Spend Less by effectively opting out of consumerism or even Spend Less by sweating the small stuff I haven’t found difficult at all; and
• Finally but importantly while achieving Financial Independence by 43 is pretty exciting stuff knowing that I eat Weetabix (I don’t BTW because I wouldn't buy a more costly brand when equivalent lower cost alternatives are available) for breakfast probably isn't.

All of that said it is of course relevant for anyone considering, but not currently on, a similar journey to my own.  Some 7 and a bit years on it’s now just the life my family and I live but thinking back our personal lives have changed a lot.  This was reinforced this weekwith a reader making the following comment:

“Have you previously posted on what you get up to in your daily life? I have a lot of respect for what you're achieving and would enjoy hearing how you enjoy daily living while being frugal. When last did you go on holiday? What do you do for entertainment? Etc. Does that make sense? Just trying to get a feel for the types of adjustments I'd have to make.”

So without further ado let me give some insights into how I live my personal life.

Monday to Friday

Monday to Friday really is all about earning the money.  You don’t increase your earnings by 44% in a year or by 128% over 7 years by working the 9 to 5.  I’ve chosen to increase earnings through my primary STEM career which means I need to be flexible, focused and hard working.  My morning starts early, this week it’s been 6am, 5.30am, 4am, 4.30am and 6am.  I always start the morning with food in my stomach.  This week it’s been from a 1kg packet of Tesco Crunch Oats Cereal at £1.99 which I know will last me 6 days along with some Organic Skim Milk.  I do my work preparations the night before (ironing, bag packing etc) so aim to be out the door within half an hour.  It’s a military operation.

Tesco Crunchy Oats Cereal

Once I arrive at work I’ll grab myself a free coffee (why anybody who can have free work supplied coffee buys it from Starbucks or Costa is just beyond me) as soon as I arrive while my PC is booting up.  I drink it while responding to the emails that have come in overnight.

I always try and break away for a short lunch break of 15 minutes or so because it just helps me clear my head and focus on what I need to get done in the afternoon.  I don’t always succeed here.  This week for instance I was able to break away three times.  For lunch I usually break my own sweat the small stuff rule (shock, horror!) and buy a salad sandwich which costs me about £1.70.

I haven’t been home before 8pm this week which then doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things, particularly as I really do function best on 8 hours of sleep. Dinner is usually a pretty simple affair with an aim to prepare in 20 minutes or less.  An example this week has been some pan fried chicken with steamed broccoli and carrots.  I buy frozen chicken pieces for cost and use by date reasons - the length of time at work can be a bit unpredictable so evening menu planning is difficult.

Saturday to Sunday

Now it’s my time.  I do no work and I mean NO work.  Breakfast is a far more leisurely affair.  Today for example is a freshly home brewed coffee with some fried eggs, fresh tomatoes and some rocket salad.

Personal Finance is a big hobby of mine.  Today I’m therefore spending the morning writing this post which is going to cost me £0.  This afternoon I’m planning a long walk because the weather outside is just fabulous which will again cost me £0.  Tonight as a family we’re staying in and a home prepared Thai Green Curry made from scratch will be the menu item of choice.

We rarely eat out, probably 6 or so times a year.  Usually this coincides with meeting friends.  This is mainly because we find our home cooked food healthier and we know what ingredients are really in it.  We would also go to the movies maybe 4 times a year also however here we go to the movie theatre that’s tucked out of the way rather than the big nearby multiplex.  Same movie, more comfortable seats, less crowded and a couple of quid lower cost.

For me the weekend is about time with family and recharging after a busy work week.  If I’ve spent plenty of family time on Saturday and then spent Sunday reading a book I’d call the weekend a success.

The Vices

This is an area where a lot of money can be spent but an area I spend little.  Let’s have a look:

Alcohol.  I don’t drink it during the week at all and on the weekend I will only have a pint or so of beer or a glass of wine if I’m with friends.  My tipple of choice is herbal teas, particularly peppermint tea.  This was not originally done to save money but simply to sharpen myself up.  I was finding that as I aged I was losing my sharp edge even if I hadn’t been drinking the night before.  I was also always a bit lethargic, again even if I hadn’t been drinking immediately prior.  This was certainly affecting me ability to perform in the work environment.  I cut out the alcohol and it was liberating.  My edge was back and I’m also saving a truck load.

Smoking.  Don’t do it and never have.  It’s known to be unhealthy and you just don’t see senior leaders of private companies hanging out in the smoking shed.  I also struggle with it ethically and it’s for that reason you don’t yet see fags in my HYP.

Gambling.  I don’t participate in the National Lottery, bet on the football results, frequent casinos or even gamble on the Grand National.  Why?  Simply because the house always wins otherwise the house wouldn’t be there.

Holidays

Last week’s reader asked ‘When last did you go on holiday?’  As I detailed in last week’s post it was actually a visit to Puglia, Italy, in the middle of winter, to suss out whether it’s a future home for us.  Before that it was summer 2014, again Italy.  As a family we take a summer, predominantly European, holiday every year.  In recent years we've been fortunate to have some fabulous times in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France, Morocco, Turkey and Malta (our personal favourite where we've visited multiple times across all seasons.

When we’re on holiday our priority is to recharge and enjoy the outdoors and history - whether that is beach, greenery or a museum.  We get there via low cost airline and always try to stay in pleasant accommodation.  While this all costs money we find that during our time there we usually spend little.  We don’t hire a car or take taxis but instead use local public transport to get around.  This is actually one of the areas that hurt my savings rate over the winter as when in Puglia we realised after a few days we just had to hire a car to get around as our location was out of the tourist hot spots (we were assessing living and not focused on holidaying) and the public transport had all but ground to a halt.  This was the first time I’ve done that since being on this journey.

We also manage our holiday food bill through mainly eating twice a day.  We’re on holiday and so our mornings usually start with a leisurely late breakfast which we always ensure is included in the accommodation we book.  This means a late lunch/early dinner is also possible.  A trip to the local market always yields fabulous local breads and produce.  On a week’s holiday we might eat at a restaurant twice.  Where the tap water is safe to drink we’ll also just drink that including tap water refilled water bottles that we had to buy airside at the airport because you can’t take water past security.

So that’s a little insight into the non-financial side of my life.  Now you can see why I don’t post about it.  It’s hardly exciting but it works for me as today I'm happier and healthier than I've ever been.