“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” – not Albert Einstein as I always thought but actually Rita Mae Brown2019 represented my first full year of FIRE, albeit with a slip-up back to FI during the year, which was then later corrected. Despite a lot of my pre-FIRE posts being financial in nature finances actually occupied very little of my mind through 2019. Having my wealth increase by £148,000 and my spending, albeit profligate, significantly less than this certainly helped here.
What did occupy a lot of my mind, as regular readers will be well aware, was the psychological, emotive and decompression elements of FIRE. So let’s start here first and take a snap shot of where I find myself.
Nearly 14 months into my decompression I would have to say that while the days are getting easier I am still very much deep in the decompression mud. There are still many unanswered questions and much soul searching (or is that naval gazing) going on. To help with that I’ve tried to continue with the human being while changing only one thing at a time theme I started mid-year. One conclusion I’ve come to, and started to accept, is that it’s unlikely that I have a “silver bullet” single purpose in me and I’m really ok with that. My purpose doesn’t have to occupy 60 hours per week, like my previous job, so why I was thinking that is beyond me. Instead I’m starting to take great joy in many small “successes” that without FIRE I wouldn’t have been able to do. That extra 3 miles of hiking into the forest, seeing something new, because I have the time... That 3 hour lunch with a loved one that builds a stronger bond because I have the time...
The one change I have made is that an old friend asked me to help with a very short term very temporary job. I never expected it to be purposeful (so it’s a job and not work) but I did think it would be interesting so took it on. I just hope that is helping with my decompression and not clouding it.
