August was an expensive month for us, mainly for vehicle related reasons and due to it being TV licence renewal month (my almost irrational hatred of subscriptions or monthly payment commitments of any kind means we pay this in full annually). It was also the month we visited a restaurant with friends for the first time in 6 months!
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Last weekend I sold my car, and survived the dance of suspicion that is the private car sales process. Since we got the van in January, we have not had a vehicle with more than 3 seats and neither was particularly dog friendly.
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It’s spreadsheet time again. The first week of every month, I update a spreadsheet which tracks 2 things; the value of our freedom fund and our expenses for that month.
This month, I am typing my update from one of my favourite places – in a hammock in my garden. The view is restful, and the numbers aren’t bad either…….
There is no single answer to what is enough, and my enough is likely to be very different from yours. One thing is for sure, though, if your life isn’t fulfilling before you retire, then it won’t magically all come together once you have more time on your hands, if you don’t know yourself well enough (that word again) to build a life that will be fulfilling for you.
There are an increasing number of blogs talking about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) which mostly focus on achieving what at the start seems impossible. If you can suspend your disbelief and have a go, you will realise that actually it is very possible. The maths works.
What isn’t so clear is what should we all do with the time we have earned for ourselves through all this hard work and conscious spending? If a salary deposited in my bank account is no longer my main purpose, what is?
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Choosing to live a simpler life has meant the pandemic and subsequent lockdown in the UK has had less of an impact on us than many people.
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At the end of Nov 2019, we hit our magic number. Theoretically, now we could live off the proceeds of our investments indefinitely. I just didn’t have a plan for what I wanted to do next.
Finding Enough 