Warning - this is looong!
Well, this journal is called Douchebags Journal because I somehow don´t see early retirement happening for me. Every time I read things from Jacob, MMM or related I want to comment that this is all nice and good BUT running the numbers (as far as I can run them) tells me that I´d need to work something like 60 years. And I´d like to sit in the sun NOW.
Sigh - I think experienced Forum Users will probably already see from these very few sentences that I´m actually complainypanting:
My living space is waay to spacious for one person, I indulge in two seminars per year that are in total the equivalent of 1,5 month living expenses and I drive a car to work that is only about 8km away (one way). Throw in some splurges on jewelry, knick-knacks, books and a tendency to buy organic(like) food whenever possible and this not always within the monthly budget and it´s easy to see that this journal could also be called "complainypants journal". Also I´m not too enthusiastic about immersing myself super-deep into economy - and did I mention that at the moment I don´t like my job much and therefore am not putting in the effort I should and that I´m thirty-ish?(1)
On the up side I don´t have debt except one to a friend that runs up to 75 Euros, I set aside a little more than 20% of my take-home pay every month since November last year and I have set aside around 10 month of living expenses. My jewelry, knick-knack and book splurges are mostly in a second-hand kind of way, sometimes I ride the bike to work. I like to do arts and crafts and preferably in a way that reuses or "pimps" material that I have or got for free and I like to learn more of this. I don´t watch TV - only occacional DVD´s with my SO and eating out is also only occacionally with said SO. I can cook from scratch - thanks Mam!! - and I can give a kind of bodywork that sometimes generates a very small amount of money and I might be able to increase that. And I sometimes pick up empty bottles on the roadside that are returnable(2)
Despite all this I still have the idea that I could pull early retirement off - but using a sort of sideways approach. Like not looking at the number I think I need to retire and somehow-abacadabra reach it while incrementally increasing the amount I set aside. Probably I have a lot of you laughing at this but because I know where my problems lie I will be able to fix some of them in the future. Well, if my future holds a paying job or some equivalent at least.
And if I really can pull this off - maybe someone around here can benefit from my journal.
upcoming month:
April is already going to be a challenge - there is one of my insurances due and I want to travel to visit friends of mine. Maybe I can creat some sort of circle so that I visit several friends whilst driving only one loop, depending on how much time I want to spend with everyone. Maybe also coordinate with a neighbour that is driving in that general direction and share costs - not sure how it will work out.
I also planned a visit to an accupunturist and there are some birthday presents that want funding - I hope I can still set aside my 20%.
Goals
- biking way more to work - I find that I get a sort of cold when I bike more than two times per week to work. I think that´s a fitness issue so the plan is to increase incrementally. Starting: probably next week - as soos as the current cold is gone.
- Set up professional Flyer for my Bodywork-gig
- thinking about diminishing the seminars by one and using half of that money for a different mode of teaching (that also is nearer to where I live)
- create a fun-allowance so that I can use that for jewelry books and knick-knack and am bound to say: sorry - no allowance left, when tempations come around
- repaying the debt hopefully this month: due end of month to see if I can keep that 20% in my pocket.
- either moving together with SO or finding a cheaper but still nice place to live - due: around June
- decrease working by 20% - due sometime around next year, when it´s clear that I really can live on 20% less than now
- learn more about edible plants around me (e.g. herb gerard/ground elder) and where I can savely pluck them and use them as food (for myself only)
- Increase network by giving stuff that I only semi still want to have to people that have a glitter in the eye when they see it
- This or something better if that´s best for me and best for all living things (and now I have all the analytical kind of people frothing I think, but this is important to me and I´m being completely selfish with this journal, acutally)
Epilogue to this post:
I think writing this was already clarifying for me - so I´m getting a yield out of this, never mind if any one of you does ;-) Also I think formulating my goals will help them along, so that´s another bonus. If any of you have questions, feel free to ask. It could be that future posts are similar long - you are warned.
(1)maybe this whole thing is just a sort of midlife-crisis?
Still putting aside money as conondrum is probably a good one - if that should pass after some time I´m still financially ahead.
(2)Other plusses and minusses regarding early retirement will probably show up in later posts.
