Herefordshire or bust?

In recent times some focus in the RIT household has now switched from A Place in the Sun to what about Herefordshire?  As with any of our crazy ideas our approach is always plenty of desk research and then boots on the ground.  All I can say is that Herefordshire is everything we remember from previous visits.  An absolutely beautiful part of the world but then again at this time of year in the UK, with the leaves yellow to red and starting to fall, ugly parts are probably the exception so some care is needed.

Click to enlarge, Kingsland, Herefordshire (source)

Of course our trips have not been all about roaming around country paths, lanes and villages  although we’ve done some of that.  They’ve also initially focused on looking at the possibility of building a modest warm home.  Don’t get me wrong, we love an old historic grade II listed home like the next man or woman, but as a FIRE’ee we don’t very much like the energy performance or maintenance costs that go with them.

9 months into 2016 – The plans they are a-changin’

With the back of 2016 now largely broken this year is fast shaping up as one of the most memorable of my FIRE journey thus far.  Personal finance wise it’s been great.  My wealth passed 7 figures, I became financially independent (FI) and the rate of change in my wealth has been like nothing I’ve ever seen before or could have imagined when I started on this journey.  To put that last point into perspective by the end of quarter 1 I had added £55,000 to my wealth, by the half year mark that had become £142,000 and by the end of quarter 3 it had become an almost unbelievable £220,000.

However, this is not what is making things memorable.  That’s coming from me slowly realising that because my FIRE strategy makes me an outlier it also makes me vulnerable and exposed rather than invincible.  This was nicely demonstrated by the Brexit vote.  As a ‘young’ retiree looking to head to The Mediterranean within a year I’m sure it doesn’t take a genius to guess that I voted Remain in the Brexit referendum.  If everyone else had have been on my trajectory that would have been the result.  Instead my demographic had no influence, as the numbers of people looking to FIRE to The Med are probably not much more than one, so democracy took over and we ended up with Leave for many other reasons.  So far that result has resulted in pound devaluation (which on its own I could have coped with) but also discussions of Hard Brexit which has turned my plans from 95% The Med to 50%.  I’m a minority affected by politics and populism and because I’m not part of a significant demographic my vote just won’t make a difference.  What if the next populist democratic step is to start taxing capital and providing relief to the indebted...  We’re almost there via interest rates anyway but what if it becomes an overt policy...

Post financial independence, post Brexit, what next

FIRE in Cyprus?

There are now literally hundreds of personal finance bloggers out there in cyberspace with many of them blogging about trying to reach financial independence.  Some are more extreme than others but I have now started to see a distinct pattern that separates them into at least two categories.  The first are those where reaching financial independence in just a few short years was a doddle and where life since early retirement has been a bed of roses with low spending, plenty of international travel, new cars, new homes and nothing ever going wrong.  Then there are those where stuff, including negative stuff, happens.  The journey to FIRE maybe takes determination, maybe their company gets bought out with redundancy coming relatively soon after, maybe their company simply doesn’t agree with their lifestyle choices causing a rethink or just maybe early retirement was not for them so they have returned to work.

I’ve started to call the first the blogs that are selling a life and the second the blogs that are living a life.  I’ve also pretty much stopped reading the former as they no longer resonate with me as my journey has and continues to be much more like the second type.  If you however prefer the first type then I’d suggest you move onto your next piece of Saturday reading as this post will likely disappoint.

I’m now coming up on 3 months of financial independence (FI) and the one thing I’ve been trying to leave via FIRE (financially independent retired early), work, has already become a very different place.  My workplace and the career I chose is one that is very focused on the financial top and bottom lines.  This means that it’s no secret that as soon as my job can be done by somebody else cheaper or more efficiently in the world then I won’t have a job.  It’s also one where if you perform well you can do well financially, and I have, but also one where even average performance will result in you quickly finding yourself without a job.  For me this has helped with my rapid progress to FI (of course it’s taken a number of other choices as well) but it’s come with the sword of Damocles always in full view.  3 months ago that sword was taken away and it’s made a big difference.  It’s firstly just simply removed a weight from my shoulders as out sourcing or average performance will now just result in a nice pay off, which I negotiated some time ago when I seriously looked to move on but was still a golden child, which will further bolster my wealth nicely and result in me simply sailing off into the FIRE sunshine.  Additionally, to ensure continuous success one technique I’ve used over the years is to work very hard which gives me extra time to drive the risk out of every decision I make.  The ramifications of this are pretty long days but it did help with surety of tenure.  Since FI I’ve started to take now take more risk as there are now no downsides personally.  So far this has me back to peak performance, having dipped for a few months following extra work load, but I’m also working slightly less hours and that 0.5 – 1 hour less work per day has put a spring back in my step.  It’s still not the place I’d choose to be Monday to Friday and FIRE is still very much in view but it’s a lot better post FI then pre.