Anticonsumerist's Journal

[mathiverse]

However as far as I can tell, each province runs these programs independently, and there is no single place where you can see all available programs and for which ones you qualify to apply.. Do let me know if you are aware of such a website

Something like this? https://moving2canada.com/pnp-canada-live-tracker/

[Aspirant]

Good luck with the visa applications

Would Unemployable and Jacob recommend doing CFA for a middle age person to strenghten employability? I am familiar with most concepts, but I would still need to put in the study hours to pass. My line of work is accounting, so not quite finance. The problem seems to be the legislation part. Online international courses would have the legal stuff from the wrong country and that would be time-consuming (and mostly irrelevant).

I looked at CIMA certificate. Any opinions on that?

[anticonsumerist]

Something like this? https://moving2canada.com/pnp-canada-live-tracker/

Exactly like that! Thank you so much!

[mathiverse]

You're welcome

[unemployable]

Good luck with the visa applications

Would Unemployable and Jacob recommend doing CFA for a middle age person to strenghten employability?

If the people whose jobs you want have CFAs (but not necessarily MBAs or some other advanced degree) then yes. I would not do it just to do it. Back in the old days of first-Saturday-in-June exams now would be too late to start.

If you know CFAs you may be able ask them for an informational interview or sponsorship.

I looked at CIMA certificate. Any opinions on that?

Everything else is secondary to the CFA in finance land. Well, the CFA itself is secondary to the actuarial designations but you didn't ask that.

[Aspirant]

If the people whose jobs you want have CFAs (but not necessarily MBAs or some other advanced degree) then yes. I would not do it just to do it. Back in the old days of first-Saturday-in-June exams now would be too late to start.
If you know CFAs you may be able ask them for an informational interview or sponsorship.
Everything else is secondary to the CFA in finance land. Well, the CFA itself is secondary to the actuarial designations but you didn't ask that.

I think my next career moves would be better served with an MBA or a degree in management. But skillwise I would think the CFA would be a good thing for developing investing proficiency. I have about 20 M€ portfolio I need to take care of at work and I would like to learn more fundamentals to be able to do that well. I took the CFA work experience self assessment test and "Based on your responses, your work experience is VERY LIKELY to qualify for regular membership". It is a bit of a stretch since our organization is so small, but I bet I could get my CEO to sign up the assessment if needed.

[anticonsumerist]

Somewhat late February 2021 update:
Monthly Spending breakdown (in USD):
Therapy:299
Rent:292
Education:243
Personal Care:182
Travel/getting around:104
Utilities:53
Eating out:40
Shopping:36
General:33
Gifts:11
Entertainment:7
Clothes:4
Total:1,311 USD.

Therapy, education, personal care spending continues to be high, I will start to somewhat reduce these after march.

French lessons for eventual Canada immigration points are continuing (hence the education spending above), apparently French is a much more difficult language to learn compared to English, but I'm hanging in there.

Australia immigration docs submitted first week of March (there were costs related to that which will show up in the March update). UK immigration authorities did not respond to my application yet, advisors tell me this is normal considering covid related delays.

Continuing to apply selectively to some freelance/remote consulting work, nothing came up from that so far.

Investments:
Stocks 16%
Fixed-rate bonds 18%
Floating-rate bonds 12%
Gold 6%
Cash 41%
Real Estate 7%
Total 100%

During the month of February, NW declined by -0.9%. This is mostly due to the increase in the interest rates and the fixed rate bond portfolio declining in value as a result. My impulse is to sell them and move the cash to floating rate bonds, but not touching the portfolio until I learn more.

Your comments are much appreciated. Hopefully I'll write the March update as soon as the month is over.

[anticonsumerist]

March 2021 update:
Monthly Spending breakdown (in USD):
General 2.585
Education 301
Rent 265
Eating Out 179
Therapy 126
Entertainment 125
Shopping 48
Utilities 48
Travel 40
Personal Care 25
Gifts 19
Housekeeping 16
Clothes 3
total 3.781

The big "general" category is due to Australia skills assessment process costs. I applied in the beginning of March and successfully received a positive skill assessment at the end of March. I now need Australian govt. to start issuing application invitations - this will probably take a long time due to covid, they are trying not to bring anyone from outside the continent to limit transmission. But I have a profile in their SkillSelect database, and I am ready for whenever they re-start to issue invitations.

I'll retake the IELTS in the coming weeks to increase my scores. Only writing section is not in the top bracket (7.5/9, it needs to be 8 or above).
I'll study for that a bit in the coming weeks.

French lessons continuing, hence the second largest cost item is education. I hope to be ready for my first attempt at the French test by June.

I did reduce therapy compared to last month, I'm happy with anything below therapy line for now.

Investments:
Stocks 17%
Fixed-rate bonds 18%
Floating-rate bonds 12%
Gold 6%
Cash 41%
Real Estate 8%
Total 100%

Despite heavy spending during the month of March, NW increased by 0.3% compared to Feb. This is due to stock portfolio increasing in value. Fixed rate bond portfolio did not lose further value this month. Floating rate bond portfolio up very slightly.

Your comments are much appreciated.

[anticonsumerist]

Okay, I clearly fucked up my first attempt at journaling here

I'll give it another shot. I have been reading this forum again in the past few months (found some downtime, finally) and was so inspired by a few of the stories (especially @gravy and @sou meeting here and ending up getting married! wow!) I decided I should give this another try.

When I last wrote in 2021, I was in an emerging market, having lost a job in a highly paid financial services firm, and trying to move to a developed country. My options were UK, Australia, Canada.
I ended up finding employment sponsorship in the UK, in big-tech, and moved to London in the summer of 2021. Still living here to this day.
Discovered how hard it can be to build from scratch a community, friends network etc in a new city at age 34. Managed to build a somewhat live-able life in London in about 2 years.

Got laid off from my big-tech job in spring/summer 2023, at the very end of the bigh-tech-layoffs wave that you guys might also have heard of.. This was the second time I was getting fired and did not like the experience. Felt some amount of shame and that I was particularly unlucky.

Very recently I found employment again here in London, and joined a startup. I manage finance/investor relations/fundraising etc. for them.

Currently mostly feeling anxiety about the company/job itself (startup, needs cash to survive, I am mostly the one to raise it, we don't have a huge runway) and anxiety about making the news of this new job public to my friends, network etc. (I have this bad habit of imagining what my peers/others will think of me, as a result of the moves I made, and I am imagining most would consider this job to be a step-down from the fancier sounding big-tech job I had. I am trying to grow out of comparing myself to others, and out of caring so much what others think, but that's proving to be harder than I thought.)

Finances-wise I am fine. I'll repeat the yearly spending numbers here that I had included at the beginning of the journal, this time in GBP:

2015: 25,073
2016: 22,982
2017: 21,089
2018: 18,840
2019: 10,669
2020: 13,978
2021: 19,822
2022: 40,170
2023 8M: 36,955

Average monthly breakdown of expenses in 2023 was:
Rent 1,909
Entertainment 536
General 497
Eating Out 494
Utilities 377
Shopping 324
Personal Care 267
Travel 104
Education 56
Therapy 45
Gifts 13
Total 4,619

With this level of spending, NW/last 12 months spending comes out to 31x. 31x is not bad by objective standards, but it is lower than where I want to be (here, again I am comparing myself to my previous peer group who continued to work in bulge bracket investment banks, hedge funds, private equity etc.. and accumulated 2-3x what I was able to in the past couple of years.)

Also, there is quite a bit of optimization possible here in the expenses side. Annualized ~55k GBP of expenses for a single 36 y.o. guy is a lot, even by pricey London standards. I was mostly prioritizing building a life, building community, paying for optionality and risk reduction etc. (there is a bit of australia permanent residency visa and process costs there, just in case if i was unable to find employment here in London after the tech layoffs etc)
I will attemt to rationalize expenses again soon. Most likely beginning of next year will see a more streamlined expense structure.

Current goals outside of finances are: Trying to stick to a more regular exercise schedule, therapy, trying to prioritize time for friends and community.

Investment-wise my portfolio is 83% equities (57% S&P500, 18% Nasdaq-100, 8% broader US market), 12% cash, 5% real estate (some land I am trying to get rid of in my home country). In the last two years I read a bit about portfolio allocation, and became and index investor with all of the positives and negatives it brings.

I don't know what else to write right now, but I welcome any comments and critique of any of the above

[suomalainen]

and was so inspired by a few of the stories (especially @gravy and @sou meeting here and ending up getting married! wow!)

Haha, YMMV.

It sounds like you've done quite a bit to be proud of - rebuilding a life in a new country is extremely difficult. While job loss can cause challenging emotions, that's all they are - emotions. Shame is particularly tricky because it's like you project your own judgment onto others as if they are shaming you when in all likelihood they aren't giving you any thought at all (see, e.g., "I am imagining..."). And if your friends are actually shaming you ... they aren't your friends. What I've found helpful to countering these types of insecurities is to take full ownership of your decisions and their consequences. Bad things happen, so what. What matters is whether the stuff you did - your decisions, your actions were done well or done poorly. If done well, be proud that you did well. If done poorly, be grateful that you have the chance to learn from your mistake.

The same goes for the idea of comparing yourself to your peers. I highly doubt many of them, even the ones who have kept a high income for a long time have "accumulated" 31x their yearly expenses. Much more likely is that while they may have 2 - 3x the assets you have, they also likely have a lifestyle inflated by more than 2 - 3x your lifestyle. 31x is an incredible place to be - it in effect has enabled you to take a risk to be at a start-up. I had a professor once who had been at a start-up that blew up. He had no regrets. He said it was a great experience.

[anticonsumerist]

@suo, thanks for the positive and encouraging message!

Shame is particularly tricky because it's like you project your own judgment onto others as if they are shaming you when in all likelihood they aren't giving you any thought at all (see, e.g., "I am imagining..."). And if your friends are actually shaming you ... they aren't your friends.

Exactly, choice of the phrase "I'm imagining.." is not accidental, I'm trying to remind myself that's its only my imagination whenever these thoughts come up - as when I was writing about them I like the framing you suggested - if actions were correct and well executed (with the info at hand at the time), be proud, otherwise learn and move on. Will try to remind myself of this framing as well. But I'm finding out changing one's thinking patters is really a process, with hits and misses, and takes a lot of time.

Much more likely is that while they may have 2 - 3x the assets you have, they also likely have a lifestyle inflated by more than 2 - 3x your lifestyle. 31x is an incredible place to be - it in effect has enabled you to take a risk to be at a start-up. I had a professor once who had been at a start-up that blew up. He had no regrets. He said it was a great experience.

You're right. Most of this peer group I mentioned are married, they have kids, big houses, etc. with the corresponding expense load. I sometimes feel (imagine?!) that they're thinking me still not being married is also another form of "failure" in their eyes, but to be honest, I'd consider myself a lot closer to have failed, with their lifestyle (no time for anything) and expense structure. So I'm happy in that respect. I think I just would have liked to keep the high-paying & fancy sounding job.

Anyways, I also like the framing your professor did, and if the startup does not do well, I could be proud to have tried. And who knows, maybe I try another one with the learnings (I am learning learning a ton on what it is like to run a small company - which I've never been a part of before) and that one succeeds.

[suomalainen]

As someone who has interviewed people, I can say that experience and confidence and being able to talk about why you wanted to try a thing and what you learned from it, etc., is very interesting, powerful and confidence-inspiring. People who have seen and done a lot and are thoughtful and confident about it are pretty rare and really valuable. Take ownership of the paths you took, have a good cohesive story about why you made the moves you made, and you'll come across as someone who likes challenges and can take on risk and who is thoughtful, etc.

But you can kill that value if you slink your eyes around and say you fell into it because you had no other option ...

As to your married friends, at least the dads are all looking at you like you're the smartest fucking one of the group.

[anticonsumerist]

September 2023 Update

September Expenses, GBP:
Housing -6,418
Eating Out -845
Personal Care -453
Utilities -404
Therapy -360
Shopping -340
Travel -132
Gifts -10
Entertainment 73
Grand Total -8,889

September was kind of an exceptional month: my “normal” hosing spending is ~£2k a month, but I recently moved houses (to decrease the rent, actually!). In this £6.4k number there is a deposit, first rent of the new flat, existing rent of the old flat. In the past, I used to “adjust” or “normalize” these things (habit from working in finance and adjusting/normalizing company EBITDAs all the time) but then I realized I’m fooling myself So now I take a “cash flow” approach, and I record whatever happened as is. This will normalize itself when I receive back the deposit from the old house. Also, I am airbnb’ing the new flat until I get rid of the old one (and continuing to live in the old one in very spartan conditions ) so when those monies hit my accounts, I’ll record those inflows in “housing” as well, so in future months it’ll be less than what it normally would be.

I have decided to also Airbnb the new flat, whenever I travel outside of London – and record that income as a reduction in “housing” expenses. I was conflicted about this a bit, as reducing an expense item has a much more favourable impact on retirement metrics vs just increasing income slightly (as we tend to multiply the expenses with a number, 25x or 30x or whatever…). I have justified I am allowed to do this, as this expense level (central London rents) are not something I would sustain in a run-rate fashion, in retirement. If I was retired, I’d probably not even be living in London, let alone central London.

Tangentially related, I think my next big move to optimize expenses further will be purchasing a (relatively) cheap property here. Instead of throwing out the rent every month, if I calculated what could be bought with the current amount of rent I am paying (nothing higher) and bought that, I then would be at least letting some amount of equity accumulate in the house (this would be minimal as 85% of the monthly payments would be for interest, initially) and I would have a high likelihood of some capital appreciation. If and when rates fall, I’d refinance to decrease the monthly payments even further, and let inflation eat away at the real value of the monthly payments – hopefully the house would not lose value in real terms. I was hoping to be a lifelong renter, and to allow everything to appreciate with equity returns, but a huge amount is being thrown away living in this high-rent city.

Anyways, with those September figures, 9M 2023 becomes this:
2023 9M, GBP
Housing -21,691
Eating Out -4,795
Entertainment -4,215
General -3,972
Utilities -3,417
Shopping -2,929
Personal Care -2,588
Travel -962
Therapy -720
Education -444
Gifts -111
Grand Total -45,844

This brings LTM spending to 59k GBP / 73k USD, a height that has never been previously seen. But starting from the very first month from this point on, this will start to decrease, and will continue to do so into 2024. I am calculating LTM spending should stabilize around ~45k GBP. Further decreases are possible but again would necessitate lifestyle changes (stop eating out, start cooking. Rein in entertainment spending, holidays, etc.), all of which can be done, but I will be treading there carefully as I tend to overdo these things and make myself depressed in the process. These numbers are way higher compared to what people here in the forums are able to do, but I seem to have less free time than other people I am following here, so I am currently throwing money at everything to minimize effort and time spent, and maximize time for rest & recovery.
With the increased spending, and the markets taking a dive (overall portfolio down ~6%), my Net Worth / LTM spending number fell to 27x from 31x. Not too worried as I know expenses will start to decline from now and portfolio will recover at some point. I am re-starting to deploy some cash into indexes starting this month as well.

[anticonsumerist]

@suo, emphasis mine:

People who have seen and done a lot and are thoughtful and confident about it are pretty rare and really valuable.

I used to be really confident in the past. Finished my schools at the very top, got into very competitive jobs after college, etc. I would have expected to always remain a confident person, I honestly thought that was a character trait, or something similar that just stays with you.
After losing a job for the first time my confidence was very, very low. It recovered with moving to London and getting a good job again, but then again I think I lost a bit of it with tech-layoffs.
I have started working on it with my therapist recently, reminding myself that I was the one who achieved all that in the past, not someone else, and I am still basically the same person. Same genetics, same brain, same temperament, etc. Success may or may not be with me at a particular time due to external factors, luck, etc but this should not impact my confidence in myself. Easier said than felt, though

[anticonsumerist]

October 2023 Update

October expenses, GBP:
Housing -3955
Eating Out -633
Gifts -419
Therapy -360
Utilities -312
Shopping/Groceries -209
Travel -166
Personal Care -152
General -121
Entertainment -51
Total -6378

This is another (hopefully last) exceptional month, containing double rent payment (of which a portion I got back in November), a large gift to a friend in need, and higher than normal eating out. These will start to normalize from this month onwards. I am also expecting to receive back the deposit placed for the previous flat, which should hit November numbers.

I have obtained private health insurance from my employer that contains somewhat decent looking mental health benefits, so I may decrease therapy line item as well. Eating out - just a side effect of my friendship circle, their idea of spending time together is meeting at a restaurant to eat. I am open to suggestions to change this, but so far I have not succeeded. I don't think the other items are decrease-able.

With these October figures, 10M 2023 becomes this (in GBP):
Housing -25,646
Eating Out -5,428
Entertainment -4,266
General -4,093
Utilities -3,729
Shopping/Groceries -3,138
Personal Care -2,740
Travel -1,128
Therapy -1,080
Gifts -530
Education -444
Total -52,222

This brings LTM spending to 63k GBP (78k USD). I had thought I had peaked last month in terms of spending and this would start to decrease from this month onwards, but I now think it'll start to decrease from January. (There's a big ticket australia travel in Dec that'll hit Nov/Dec numbers).

Net worth increased by about 6% as a result of Markets recovering somewhat, and a me agreeging to a price for a piece of land in my home country that I'm selling which was higher than my carrying cost in my NW calculations. Therefore, despite the increase in the LTM spending, my Net Worth / LTM spending number remained at 27x.

[anticonsumerist]

November 2023 Update

November expenses, GBP:
General -1342
Entertainment -626
Utilities -489
Eating Out -476
Shopping -282
Therapy -270
Housing -259
Personal Care -167
Travel -25
Gifts -10
Total -3946

This month's numbers are somewhat more normal: In November I got back a rent payment (previously overpaid), which washed off of my normal rent. But instead I got costs for an Australia travel (in General plus some in Entertainment) to the tune of ~£2k. Which is near my rent payment. So this is what a normal month will roughly look like, around £4k-ish.

In December hopefully I will receive back a deposit payment from the previous flat, which will normalize a deposit payment made for my current flat in the previous month, so by Dec-end my LTM numbers will normalize as well.

With the current November 11M 2023 becomes this (in GBP):
Housing -25,905
Eating Out -5,904
General -5,435
Entertainment -4,892
Utilities -4,218
Shopping -3,420
Personal Care -2,907
Therapy -1,350
Travel -1,153
Gifts -540
Education -444
Total -56,168

This brings LTM spending to 64k GBP (79k USD). I believe this should be the peak month for LTM spend, and I will start to decrease from next month. (Assuming deposit actually comes back in Dec.) If anything unexpected comes, it may also start to decrease from Jan.

Net worth increased by about 3% as a result of Markets continuing to increase in November. Despite the increase in the LTM spend, I remained stable at 27x Net Worth / LTM spending.

Psychologically London winter is taking its toll - its really dark here now, sun sets around 3.50pm. I have 1 trip scheduled mid Dec, and the big australia trip end of Dec, which should hopefully enable me to survive the month still operational.

Therapy is going well, keeping me sane. I was unable to act so far to switch to private health insurance's therapy, so still paying out of pocket - but there is a good chance I will have enough time to do it this month. Which will be a cost decrease to the tune of ~£400/month.

I am still feeling a bit lonely, and still a bit worried about whether the startup I am working at will survive or not. Reducing feelings of loneliness (by calling friends more and meeting with them more) and worry (by working on my beliefs about what happens if the startup fails) remains the challenge / focus for Dec. Also exercise - I have not been doing a good job, using busy-ness at work as an excuse, but I should be prepared to take some damage at work to keep the exercise up if that is what it takes. Otherwise I run the risk of mental health issues, and I really don't want to go there.

Hope everyone reading this is keeping well, I welcome any comments, challenges to any of the above

[anticonsumerist]

December 2023 Update

December expenses, GBP:
Housing +680
Entertainment -381
Therapy -360
Utilities -322
Personal Care -277
Eating Out -272
Shopping -158
Gifts -73
Travel -45
General -11
Grand Total GBP -1219

This month’s numbers are lower than normal, which is “normalizing” the previous months where I had a couple of double rent payments and deposit payments etc. I did get back the deposit from the previous flat I was in, which made the “housing” expenses positive.

There was an Australia travel in December, but most of the costs of that was also paid in November, so P&L for Dec was not much impacted by it.

With the current December, full year 2024 becomes this (in GBP):

Housing -25,225
Eating Out -6,176
General -5,446
Entertainment -5,273
Utilities -4,540
Shopping -3,578
Personal Care -3,184
Therapy -1,710
Travel -1,198
Gifts -613
Education -444
Grand Total GBP -57,387

This brings LTM spending down to 57k GBP (71k USD) from 64k GBP last month (79k USD). As estimated, Nov was the peak LTM spending month, and I have started the downward trend in Dec. In Jan, this should continue to decline slightly. I am targeting approximately £4k/month levels starting from Jan. Half of this is my rent. The remainder is bills and everything else. Hope I will succeed with this – the big items to tackle will be eating out and entertainment.

Net worth increased by about 5% as a result of Markets continuing to increase in Dec. With the decrease in the LTM spend (finally!), I had an increase in my Net Worth / LTM spending number from 27x to 32x. This is still not where I want to be. Couple of years ago, before moving to London, living in an emerging market with a much lower cost structure, I was almost touching 100x levels in Net Worth / LTM spending ratio. But at the time, my total net worth was approximately 60% of what it was today. So I gained a significant level of NW increase by moving to such an expensive city. I am justifying this by saying to myself that this is a period to accumulate, and tolerate a higher level of expenses to be able to accumulate NW. I will not retire in London – either I will retire in my home country (after gaining a UK passport just in case shit hits the fan in my home country) or somewhere with a similar low cost structure. So the accumulated savings will translate into a much much higher level of “years of life”.

Psychologically London winter is still bad. Australia travel felt good at the end of Dec because I got some sun, however it was such a long flight, and I couldn’t talk to my friends as much as I wanted to due to the time difference, (10h with London) I felt isolated and bad.
When I got back to the UK, I stayed a few days with my girlfriend – which felt better. But then she gave me the flu so I have been trying to heal from that since the beginning of Jan.

I got the approval from the private health insurance company for a therapist in UK for 20 therapy sessions. I have started working with her. I have not yet let go of the other (out-of-pocket paid) therapist I had yet. I will keep them in parallel first, and then if things are going well with the health-insurance-paid therapist, I will start reducing the frequency of the out of pocket therapist, which will help with reducing the expenses.

I am still feeling worried about whether the startup I am working at will survive or not. I may have made a mistake by joining this thing, and am still trying to come to terms with it.

I have done better in Dec. in terms of feeling less lonely, by calling and chasing friends as much as I can. I have done a better job exercising. I was able to do gratitude journaling as well most days. I will try to keep these up. Main objective remains to keep calm about the startup, tolerate the excessive workload for a few more months, not kill my relationship with the CEO and the founder by lashing out, prepare a CV on the side (if I can) to get ready for another round of job search if shit hits the fan.

Hope everyone reading this is keeping well, and I welcome any comments/challenges or recommendations to anything above.

[delay]

Thanks for your update!

With the decrease in the LTM spend (finally!), I had an increase in my Net Worth / LTM spending number from 27x to 32x.

Sounds like you are FI by the regular definition. The option to stop working and to start living off investment income is there. It seems many people who reach that level of wealth still prefer to keep working! Perhaps work does provide a kind of meaning.

[okumurahata]

Couple of years ago, before moving to London, living in an emerging market with a much lower cost structure, I was almost touching 100x levels in Net Worth / LTM spending ratio. But at the time, my total net worth was approximately 60% of what it was today.

Now, you would have a ~167 NW/LTM spending ratio in that emerging city. You mentioned you would retire if you reached ~50 NW/LTM. You’ve tripled that. When is “enough” truly enough? Do you believe that hitting your next target would finally be sufficient?

[anticonsumerist]

Thanks for your update!
Sounds like you are FI by the regular definition. The option to stop working and to start living off investment income is there. It seems many people who reach that level of wealth still prefer to keep working! Perhaps work does provide a kind of meaning.

Thank you for commenting in my journal @delay!

Technically you are right. It would be possible to "mostly retire" at this level, assuming no change in my responsibilities (supporting a gf/wife/kid), no sickness or disability in my parents until they die (in my culture it is expected that I pay for that, so not paying would make all of my relatives hostile to me), me running a retirement that is a bit more constrained than what I'd like, and finally assuming no black swan event (no financial, health or legal catastrophe hitting me until I die).

As you probably got from the above, those things I listed are the main reasons I am still working on increasing the security buffer. My risk perception may be a bit warped, but in my life so far I have been impacted by a few large natural disasters resulting in loss of a house, collapse of the economy in the emerging market I was born and living in, having to relocate internationally, 1 family member having a very expensive terminal ilness that lasted about 9 years, etc. Having been through all that, I perceive the world to be a risky place, and I want to be ready if one of these things strike again. Ready here means being able to handle it without going back to work, if such a thing does happen. Because to be honest, I do not think I can go back to work again once I stop. The inertia is one of the big things that keep me going.

I conceptually understand that work may provide some meaning to some people (and it did provide meaning for me at one point too, when I was feeling very successful in my career in the first 6-7 years of my career), but I really do not want to work right now, to be honest. I am forcing myself to work every day, thankfully I am relatively good at forcing myself to do things I don't really want compared to population average (I'd guess).

Now, if I had 50x-ish London-level-expenses saved, I'd probably feel very safe retiring now. But with the current level, I feel the need to continue a bit more.