Thought Experiments on SavingNinja

Thought Experiment #11 - Spend It All

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #11.

A question is posted with the hope that many bloggers will join in and answer with their own post, creating a series of different view points to a single question. Below is the question asked for this Thought Experiment.

You’ve decided that you no longer want to save any of your income toward FIRE each month. Instead, you’re going to spend it. How would you use your new disposable income?

Tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #11

SavingNinja

One Million Journey
Indeedably
Total Balance
Quietly Saving

After moving from the UK to Sweden to live in a very affluent suburb of Stockholm, I’m surrounded by million dollar homes. Nestled in between mammoth sea-front properties is my cheap in comparison, £315k, 69 sqm ‘mini-villa’.

The 6 properties in front of me are triple in size and double in price. Surprisingly, some of the owners are not much older than myself and Mrs SavingNinja, they all have young kids and work as accountants or in the IT industry. I always think, “Could it be our family living in those 200 sqm, sea view properties if we didn’t save 75% of our salaries toward FIRE ?”

I’ve always wondered what life would be like if I spent a lot more of my income. If I threw away all of my financial independence and frugality ideals and thought, “Fuck it!” I’m going to live a normal, spendy-pants life.

What would that life look like?

Savings… What Savings?

First things, first. I need to find out how much extra income I have to spend. Luckily, the SavingNinja household recently created a Swedish Budget spreadsheet for the post Sweden Vs UK ; let’s open that.

The budget spreadsheet says that as a household, if we saved nothing toward retirement and FIRE, we could spend almost £5000 extra per month. That sounds like a lot, but how far can 5 grand really go? Writing this I realise I have no idea! I’ve never spent more than minimum wage before, this should be interesting.

To make things more realistic as there are probably some discrepancies within our budget, I’m going to bring the extra spending limit down to £4000; better safe than sorry. (I can’t help myself can I!?)

A Big House

A big house is the one thing that I’m lusting over more since moving to my neighbourhood. So, the first point of spending, and I’d suspect the largest, is a house! What could I buy with my disposable income in Sweden?

My bank told us last year that they would be willing to lend us up to 8,690,000 SEK. If we had £250k to spend on a deposit, that’s almost a £1 million budget for a property.. If we sold all of our assets (excluding our pension,) and both of our properties, we’d just about have enough to have that as a deposit; luckily there is no stamp duty here, otherwise we’d have no chance!

I’ll set 11,690,000 SEK as a maximum budget and go window shopping. Be right back!

8,000,000 SEK (£660k) would get us this Downton Abbey-esque property about 5 hours north of Stockholm. 450 square meters of living space sat on 5 hectares of land. A little too big, maybe.

Up on the maximum end of the budget at 11,500,000 and it buys this beautiful farm-style property very close to the city of Uppsala.

It has one 283 square meter main house with three double garages, a gym, and a pool, and a whole separate 123 square meter rental house. This might actually pay for itself!

Check out this bathroom…

Alright, could we actually afford this?

Looking at a mortgage calculator for Handlesbanken, it would cost us 6,570 SEK (£542) in interest and 28,297 SEK (£2,336) together with repayments. That is insanely cheaper than I thought it would be… My budgeting self is thinking, “What!?” we’d only lose £542 per month to live in a £1 million property!? We’re getting severely ripped off for our UK BTL mortgage at £300 interest.

Of course, this is for the really low rate of 1.39%, but even if it went up by double; it’s really not as bad as I thought it would be. Let’s buy it!!

Currently, we spend 10,500 SEK (£867) per month on our property, so taking that off our new home cost of £2,336 leaves us with an increased spending of only £1,469. That leaves us with £2,531 left to spend_._

That has blown my mind. I thought getting a house this big would leave us with almost nothing each month. We haven’t even spent half. And the fact that there is a rental unit that is 2 times the size of our current house would cover all of the property maintenance and bills (maybe even more).

This has made me rethink how much we really should be spending on property, especially if you can make some money with rentals. But of course, remember that this doesn’t take into account the opportunity cost of not investing the £250k deposit.

A Fancy Car

The best way to spend a shit ton of money? A private car lease. Let’s go for the best of the best, a Tesla Model S with all of the trimmings, 21” ‘special’ alloys, extended insurance. A 3 year lease for 14,695 (£1,216) per month. My stomach just hurt thinking of spending that much. How is it almost 3 times more expensive than the interest on a £1 million house? People actually spend this much on cars?

Alright, I need to rein that in a little bit and go for a Model 3 instead at 6,730 SEK (£557); cars are more expensive in Sweden than the US or the UK, I’m not a millionaire!

Let’s throw in a Range Rover lease for my wife for 6,995 SEK (£579). I couldn’t find an American-style truck to lease in Sweden, which is what she would prefer.

Taking off £1,136 for the family cars and that leaves us with £1,395 left to spend.

Beer Money

Here in Sweden there are a lot of sophisticated wine bars in food market halls and shopping centers. They’re always packed full of people drinking white wine in the middle of the day, we’ve never stopped at one of these places as for a small glass of wine, it’s about 120 SEK (£10) which is mind bogglingly expensive to us.

Although, in this Thought Experiment, I’m spending it all! So, it’s only natural that I join all of the other Swede’s and drink expensive wine in the middle of the day when I go shopping.

Allocating two £10 wines per week for both myself and my wife comes to £160 per month, a small price to pay for feeling special whilst shopping; £1,235 left.

Luxury Food

We’ve not tasted real Parmegiano Reggiano since moving to Sweden, at £30 per kilo it’s just way more expensive than what we’re willing to pay. I’m adding in £100 per month for artisan cheeses, meats, and other food treats. £1,135 left.

Increasing The Holiday Budget

Our current holiday budget is £3000 per year and we’ve managed to go on a winter snowboarding trip, as well as a summer holiday at this budget. Spending more would allow us to go on more trips, and stay in nicer places, tripling the budget to £9000 sounds like a reasonable spendy-pants number for a spend-it-all type of couple. That’s £500 per month extra. £635 left, almost there!

Conclusion

£635 per month seems like a reasonable figure to leave free. With our new £1 million house, there are sure to be a lot more expenses cropping up; we’ll certainly have a lot more space to fill with things, a lot more things to repair and maintain.

There are other things that the money could be spent on if nothing else came up. We could upgrade our wardrobes, shop in more expensive places and buy more designer clothes. I definitely don’t feel like I cheap out; I buy clothes for their quality and durability, not the price, but you can always spend more.

We could also buy a couple of horses to go on our property as we really enjoyed horse riding last summer. After the initial payment for the stables and horses, it would cost around £250 per month for both and would cover feed, insurance, and vet bills.

A large £1m house, two fancy lease cars, multiple luxury holidays per year, expensive cheeses, wine whilst shopping, and horses.

That sounds like a pretty extravagant lifestyle.

But I can never imagine myself spending this much.

I was under the impression that this Thought Experiment would be pretty realistic and that it would portray an accurate representation of what I would spend my income on, but it turns out that it’s pretty damn hard to spend it all. Sure; I can see us increasing our holiday spending, there have been some pretty nice hotels that we have ditched in favour of a cheap AirBnB. I can see us buying that Parmigiano Reggiano; but I can’t see us spending £160 per month on food market wine, or spending £1,136 per month on car leases.

I can’t see us buying a £1 million house any time soon, I’m definitely not going to be selling all of my investments just to cover the deposit. But I could see us buying a £500k house. Especially if it had rental potential on the plot, or if it’s our “forever home”. I’m really shocked at how little extra it costs in mortgage interest to go all of the way up to £1 million; it almost seems silly to not get a bigger place.

All in all, I’m grateful for this Thought Experiment as it has made me realise that I shouldn’t keep idolising my neighbours in the big sea-front properties in front of me. We could easily afford the same properties, or bigger; we just choose not to. Instead, we’re pursuing something that we believe will bring us greater happiness: financial independence. When we’re ready for our ‘forever home’, we won’t hold back, and we’ll go for a property that ticks all of our boxes, and when that moment comes, we’ll be thankful for saving more earlier when we were able and willing!

Thought Experiment #10 - COVID-19 Edition

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 08:01:28 +0000

To get the creative juices flowing again in these strange times, what better than a Thought Experiment to reconnect with the Financial Independence community?

We’ll try a different approach with this one; we’ll have no deadline. If you want to take part, write out a response to the question below and I’ll feature your article in this post, I implore all other participants to do the same.

Unprecedented events create new experiences. What fun, misadventure, or positive discoveries have you encountered while locked down?

- Thanks to in-deed-a-bly for his eloquent words

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #10

Mrs SavingNinja

in-deed-a-bly

PathtoLife2

Total Balance

Money For The Modern Girl

Quietly Saving

One Million Journey

The FIRE Shrink

Dr FIRE

TipsToFIRE

NinjaBudgeter

Mrs SavingNinja kindly took the reins for this Thought Experiment for her post debut. Don’t worry, she’s still working on her introductory post which will be next up.

When I first looked at this thought experiment I didn’t think I had anything to write about. Lockdown has been fine. Just fine. But, as I banished myself to the bed with a mug of green tea to try and write something, I realised that maybe I have made some positive discoveries and had some fun.

People Care

I naturally like to live my life quite horizontally (hence banishing myself to bed to write!) I wouldn’t say I’m lazy as such, I just have quite sloth-like qualities. So on the evening of March the 16th, when I declared that I was taking a vow of solitude for the good of mankind, I was rather looking forward to lazing in bed all morning, having a relaxing lunch with my husband and playing on games all afternoon.

At this point, schools were still open and I was annoyed about it. How dare Boris put lives at risk because he doesn’t want people to get bored on lockdown too soon.

I looked at the newsfeed on The Guardian website every half an hour to see what was being done and I regularly got updates from my school. My school had partially shut by the Wednesday as people were self-isolating as per the new government advice. By Friday they had a ‘Skeleton staff’ and were only open to one year group, the following week it was the children of key workers only and some vulnerable students.

I was happy that action had been taken but I then found myself feeling really quite sad about the teenagers that were at home in really unpleasant and abusive environments. As a Head of Year I get to know all about my year groups’ family and home lives, the evening this all occurred to me was spent worrying about the teenagers with alcoholic and abusive parents.

The point of this depressing tangent is that despite the fact I have been to a few interviews recently that are not in the teaching industry, I do actually really care about these kids.

So, positive discovery number 1 - Even the teachers that hate their jobs and want out, really freaking care about the students they meet, even the stinky, swearing awful ones. Especially the stinky, swearing awful ones.

I Love Baking

I love cooking so much and I love that with cooking there’s a lot of room for creativity. The recipe says 2 garlic cloves, I’m going to creatively add 6. The recipe says a small glass of wine, I’m going to creatively add a large glass and then creatively drink the rest.

I also love changing recipes. When Mr SavingNinja wants to make something that I’ve previously made for him, it’s impossible for him to follow the recipe and get it right because I always change it and make it mine.

When it comes to baking I’m pretty sure you can’t do this…much. Baking is a science. I can’t add a creative amount of yeast or eggs, that would ruin the recipe. So I stayed away from baking, I let him bake the bread and make the pizza bases. Maybe I was scared that as it’s very precise I could get it wrong and ruin it. I don’t like to be wrong.

But it turns out I’m good at baking! I have made croissants! I made a pie! I bossed cinnamon rolls! And I’m having so much fun. This was a very pleasant and tasty positive discovery.

Cringe Fest

I’m sorry to now get cringey but the next positive discovery is that I actually really like my husband.

So many people can’t wait to go back to work and can’t wait to get some time away from their other half. I see so many posts on social media about how they’re sick of their husband/wife etc. I know some of these are partially in jest but I’m actually going to be really sad when we have to go back to work and not spend this much time together anymore.

We are lucky, in a way, to not have any elderly relatives to worry about or help care for during this time and our families both live at other sides of the country, so it’s just us and our emotionally unstable cat. I love it.

I’m looking at this as practice for our retirement. Can we spend this much time in close contact and still be happy and get on? Damn right we can; I’m even happier! I’m definitely mentally ready for retiring together, I just hope we get to spend a bit more time in the great outdoors.

Negative Discoveries

There is, of course, going to be some negative discoveries during this time. These aren’t earth-shattering, heart-breaking discoveries, just things that I need to look at. The main thing being my lack of self-motivation.

No matter how much time I actually have I’m not going to want to exercise and I’m never going to actually want to go for a run. Going for a morning run during lockdown lasted three days.

I have always said that if I didn’t have to start work so early I would work out in the morning. That was my excuse for not doing it. I was always tired when I got home from work and wanted to cook, eat, watch TV, go to bed.

I now have no excuse and I still don’t want to do it.

I could also spend an entire day on Reddit. This is not good. I could be learning new things, tidying the house, exercising! Some days I’m super motivated and get loads done and feel great, but most days I’m sad about getting out of bed and then barely move from the sofa.

This is something to address before retirement and I need to find a way to motivate myself so I don’t become a depressed couch potato.

But hey, if all else fails I’ll just bake more cinnamon rolls.

Thought Experiment #9 - A Brave New World

Sun, 15 Dec 2019 09:39:40 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #9.

At the beginning of each second month, a thought experiment question will be tweeted under the hashtag #ThoughtExperiment and everyone is invited to participate with their own posts, these will then go live together on the 15th of the next month (you can still join in after this date). Below is the question asked for this Thought Experiment.

You’ve arrived at Firearto, better known as ‘Earth 2.0’, an exo planet located over 200,000 light years away. As you walk down the exit corridor of your spaceship along with another million colonizers you think to yourself: What will I do here? Firearto is a planet that has no monetary system, all of your needs are provided for by FSY (Firearto Space Corp). How will you live your life?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #9

SavingNinja

Othalafehu

Merely curious

A brave new world, with the time to explore it. That was the marketing slogan that FSY has thrown around for the last century. Every 5 years a new ship leaves Earth with around 1 million colonists on board and begins what will be a 100 year and 200,000 lightyear journey towards what everyone thinks will be their new life of bliss. A life filled with adventure and relaxation with the time to smell the flowers on a pristine, unravished, new planet. That’s if we humans don’t destroy it in the 100 years that it takes to get there! We have a knack for that.

FSY’s biggest trick up their sleeve is FOMO; fear of missing out. No one wants to be left on a dying rock whilst everyone else is over on Earth 2.0 having all of the fun. FOMO is what happened to me. 5 years ago my 65-year-old parents eloquently announced at their retirement party that they had been accepted by FSY on the next Firarto coloniser ship and would be leaving in the following month. GREAT was the first thought that popped into my head. . . No inheritance for me. Part of the FSY enrollment plan requires you to donate all of your earthly assets to them to help fund your journey, “You won’t be needing them where you’re going,” they assure you.

Beyond the shock of my inheritance going ka-poot was the extra-double shock of realising that I’d never see my parents again. In fact, I’d almost definitely be dead from old age before they even woke up from the FSY cryogenic sleep tanks.

“We want to taste the fresh air again,” was their lazy excuse for why they’d skip out on seeing their grandkids grow up. Yeah, yeah, I thought; you just want some peace and quiet!

After a tearful goodbye to two giddy 65-year-olds and going back to work for the season, a lot of emotions began to whack me off balance. Do I really want to continue working for the next 20 years? Should I be content with monotonously clocking in and clocking out of my death cubical like an emotionless, very tired, cyborg? Only to get home and have no energy to do anything other than sit with my family like a potato and watch shitty TV?

NO.

That Brave New World poster was starting to look a hell of a lot more attractive. I didn’t want my parents to be living it up on the party planet whilst I stewed in my grave after living a long and laborious life of work and misery. So, I signed my family up to the next coloniser voyage - and was accepted!

The Beginning of the Rest of our Lives

I rubbed my tired eyes as I stood in the exit lobby waiting to disembark. My whole body ached - sleeping for 100 years will do that to you. All of my family were standing next to me in their FSY issued jump-suits and jackets. I felt like a newborn child seeing the world for the first time. As I looked around at the other colonisers, I realised that they all had similar doe-eyed looks on their faces. Elation bubbled up from my stomach, I was almost dizzy with excitement.

BEEEEEP . . . BEEEEEP . . . BEEEEEP . . .

The whole ship rattled as the huge exterior door began to vent steam at the hinges and slowly partition. The cabin was instantaneously flooded with a brilliant sunlight as everyone gasped in unison. The first thing I glimpsed was green, a whole lot of green. There was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see, beautiful vistas of lakes and mountains in each direction. Firearto had an abundance of resource packed asteroids and moons in the neighbouring vicinity. All of the resources the inhabitants needed were shipped in from external entities, leaving Firearto’s landscape beautifully unravished.

A million ideas flooded into my head of what our new life could be like. I felt lucky - tremendously lucky to have such a beautiful planet to explore and be a part of. I also felt connected; connected to every single person living here, they were my fellow explorers. We came here together; to live a happier life. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my days helping my companions grow our new life here, exploring the beautiful landscape together, and living a life of bliss in unison.

When back on Earth, all I wanted to do was to get away from society. Now all I wanted to do was be a part of it. Wiping the slate clean of all of the worldly wrongs and resentments left a single human emotion. The powerful yearning to belong.

The Future of Work

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 06:30:59 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #8.

Thanks to Sonia from Money For The Modern Girl for the awesome question.

I recently read a statistic that 85% of the jobs there will be in 2030 have not yet been created. What do you think these jobs are, and which ones will no longer exist? What does this mean for education? What will offices look like in 11 years? Will people continue to commute to a physical office or will remote work and digital nomadism take over? Finally, how do you think this will affect the overall global economic balance?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #8

SavingNinja

Indeedably

Othalafehu

Money For The Modern Girl

Merely Curious

Ms ZiYou

Fretful Finance

Halt Catch Fire

PathtoLife2

My vision of the future is somewhat dramatic. A lot of people who I have wagged tongues with have scoffed at these predictions, although these were the same people who believed that electric cars wouldn’t become the dominate automobile for another century.

I think these thoughts have taken precedence in my mind from the fact that I’m heavily immersed within the software and technology industry.

I also read…a lot.

Or maybe it’s just that these theories excite me. Whatever the cause, I don’t just want these things to happen, I thoroughly believe that they will, and soon!

I believe that within the next 10 years…

We will become a multi-planetary species.

We will create some form of super-AI.

We will create a fully functioning quantum computer.

We will extend our life expectancy by unparalleled amounts.

If we’ve not solved these problems within the next 10 years, I think that we’ll at least be very close.

So, with these somewhat extreme thoughts in my head, what do I think will happen to people’s jobs? How will the economy change? What will be the future of work?

Adapting to the Future

The world will be going through a growth period of unprecedented change. With the creation of super-AI, technological advances will be occurring at a rate in which we will struggle to keep up.

The world will see an even bigger shift towards using AI for almost everything. AI will take the jobs of surgeons, teachers, builders, even hairdressers. Who needs to go to school when you can connect your brain to a super-computer and learn everything within seconds?

We can see this shift starting to happen already. Whilst the majority of the UK struggles with mass unemployment due to factory and shop workers being replaced with AI, the software industry is booming.

Even with hugely inflated salaries and signing bonuses on offer, every single company I’ve spoken to is struggling to fill developer positions. There simply aren’t enough developers to satisfy the massive investments being funneled into technology.

Mass Revolt

As the economy moves more in this direction the only people that will thrive will be the intellectuals who are adaptable and quick to learn. The blue-collar workers which were a vital part of our economy in the past will no longer be needed as the world turns more cybernetic.

Some people simply can’t adapt and struggle to learn new technologies. I know this as my parents are people just like this, they struggle to even use a smartphone. In the vast majority of cases, these people tend to be part of the older generation.

Admittedly, some older individuals seem to just have the knack for adapting (ever seen an 85-year-old woman with an iPhone?) But I’ve not met many youths who lack this special ability, growing up in a world of rapid change probably has something to do with the forming of this superpower.

The world will go through a period of fight or flight for the unadaptables, they’ll suffer unemployment and potentially extreme poverty as a result. The younger generation or the government will be forced to financially support their aging family. Uneducated and lower-income areas will be forced to protest and riot as they simply won’t have the means to support themselves with their now obsolete skills.

How will we Adapt?

As a society, we’ve been through changes like this before. How do you think the miners reacted when their life long skills became obsolete when they were replaced by machines?

These periods are fraught with extreme struggle as the world shifts its balance, but we as a collective always get through them eventually.

The sad fact of the matter is that the unadaptable will eventually die of old age. The education system would have changed enough to ensure that each child growing up in this new world is sufficiently equipped to be a part of it.

How will the Economy Change?

As we venture out into the cosmos and expand our habitats, undoubtedly the people of Earth as a whole will take on a more united, ‘single entity’ viewpoint. No more will we have petty segmentations like ‘China’ and ‘The United States’, we will become Earthlings!

Broadened horizons will need the formation of a singular government to represent earth and help progress occur with the planets’ best interests at heart. A single government would also make travel and relocating extremely easy, obliterating the caveman-like tradition of being confined to the tiny spit of land in which you were born. This will also pave the way for a singular currency to be used throughout Earth.

Having a world currency would obliterate a lot of the world’s problems, we wouldn’t have to worry about exchange rate fluctuation or inflation based destruction. Having a singular currency would make the world your country, you’d be able to easily live and work anywhere, there would be no boundaries.

Travel and Remote Work

We’re already seeing a huge trend in remote work in the big tech hubs of the United Kingdom. As software becomes more reliable and easily obtained companies are realising that employees can work just as well (if not better) at home than they can in the office.

Some forward-thinking companies have even done away with the office altogether, cutting their costs drastically.

The next 10 years will see the trend continue until almost all software jobs will be remote-focused. The introduction of advanced holographic and virtual lenses into the workplace will allow colleagues to completely simulate meetings and discussions whilst bolstering the tools available to them.

Companies will no longer be limited to the talent in the local vicinity, they’ll have the whole world at their disposal. Whole swathes of land will become available to be developed into living space and recreational areas, increasing the average house sizes and quality of life for everyone.

Travel to anywhere in the world will become extremely quick and easy with transportation advances allowing you to live in Hong Kong and get to a face to face meeting in London in just 34 minutes.

Increased travel speed and remote working capabilities will drastically reduce the need to live in the inner city. London property prices will crash to depths they’ve never before seen as the city goes from the to-be place to desolate. The government will have to focus heavily on refurbishing and transforming all of the empty commercial buildings into living hubs in order to make it more attractive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0

It’s a Good Thing in the End

No matter the struggle that we will have to go through to change, when we do adapt - and we will - it will be worth it.

The world will be a much more equal and compassionate place. As the borders evaporate, there will be less segmentation and hatred amongst the population. We will be able to advance as a single civilization and reach beyond the heavens without our bitter anger and patriotism holding us back.

People will be excited again as we move towards an ever-expanding future. We will be rid of disease and unnecessary suffering. Old age will no longer be fleeting and it will be able to be enjoyed with generations of family.

It’s a world in which I’d definitely like to live in.

How about you?

What is Happiness to you?

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 06:30:06 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #7.

Most people’s lives are filled with so much commotion. We’re constantly moving and thinking like an electron jumping from atom to atom. There are very few moments when we experience true clarity, when we have a chance to really think clearly. These moments may come when reaching a mountain peak in the early hours of the morning or when you’re sitting up late one night and silently staring at the stars. Lots of life-changing decisions can be made in these moments; when you have the time to think about true happiness.

So, for this Thought Experiment, I’d like you to create one of these moments for yourself. I’d like you to think, and I mean really think about what you want and need to make yourself and your family happy.

What do you need to achieve real, true happiness? What are you aspiring to? Paint that perfect picture, you will need it as a guide whilst you make your way through life.

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #7

SavingNinja

Indeedably

Caveman @ Ditch The Cave

Merely Curious

Left FI

Othalafehu

Fretful Finance

Pennies For Cents

I slide my sleek glass doors open wide and walk out onto my wooden veranda into the blissful, fresh mountain air. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath in through my nose. I can smell pine mixed with the roasted coffee that I’d just brewed, it smells good.

I can hear absolutely nothing, everything is tranquil. Opening my eyes, I see the beautiful site of trees and mountain peaks. Nothing but nature for miles around.

I feel…calm. Anxiety; nothing but a distant memory. The constant tension in my head; gone.

There’s simply nothing to worry about anymore. Everything that I’ll ever need is here in my mountain home. A space for reading, an area for music, cooking and relaxing, a workshop for building.

I even have a high-speed internet connection for when I need to plug back into the rest of the world. The joy though, is that I can pull that plug straight back out whenever I want, I can fully disconnect, have the room to…breath.

I have enough money to last me 1000 years, this is what allows me this luxurious life of solitude. A detached way of living where connecting is a choice, not a necessity.

This is a scenario that most people would lust after. A mountain home with scenic views, access to a library, and blissful peace and quiet - I know I have!

It’s the perfect place to unwind and relax. But only when I started thinking about this Thought Experiment did I realise that happiness for me is not about a specific place, it’s about the conditions.

I thought, ‘What do I want to be happy? Do I want a pool? Maybe a lake? Do I want to be in Switzerland or California?’

Only after begrudgingly picking a scenario and beginning to write about it did I realise that I could swap any physical landscape or condition out with an entirely different one, they just needed to have one thing in common: be a place of solitude where I can disconnect.

This trait can be emulated anywhere in the world. I will be content as long as enough private land is owned to satisfy my family’s desires and we have the ability to reconnect to the world only when we choose.

This discovery is shocking to me. I always believed that my dreams lay in travel and far away lands. My wanderlust consumed me , to the point that I refused to think that happiness could be achieved elsewhere.

Coming from the ideology that I need to travel to a specific location (notably the USA) to finding out that all I really need is the ability to disconnect and not engage in forced interaction, whilst having enough space (and money) to keep me comfortable and occupied is almost…refreshing.

The dream is more achievable as the whole world is now an avenue which I can venture down to find true happiness. All I needed were the core ingredients.

The Who, the What, and the Why

Why do I feel like this? Why do I crave solitude and quiet over all else?

I could blame it on my social anxiety, or the irritation I feel against certain individuals or scenarios in public. I could even blame it on the fact that I grew up in the city, never experiencing the space and adventure that a country life can give.

Am I fed up of the chaos?

These would be valid explanations, but it wouldn’t explain why my wife (weird to say that!) feels the same way as me, craving escape to a peaceful retreat. Most Devonshire folk of our age move towards the bigger cities in the hopes of having more of a social life.

This brings me to the idea that maybe we want this way of life because of each other? Since we met 8 years ago, we’ve barely spent more than a few days apart. We’ve simply always enjoyed our own company more than the traditional socialising that most 20-somethings partake in.

So, putting it mushily - although relevant as I am writing this from a log cabin during my honeymoon! - maybe we desire a life of solitude because we’ve found a soulmate in each other?

We’ve simply found a person who we’re happy to interact with forever, so we can cut out the negative interactions and run away to the mountains to live our lives stress free?

I know, of course, that life isn’t really that simple. Humans are emotional beings whose needs and wants change all of the time, but I think I’m right with my current theory. I certainly wouldn’t desire the same life that I’ve depicted in this post if I was alone.

To be Continued…

Alas, I have to stop! I’ve written the majority of this whilst road tripping through California on my honeymoon, I arrogantly thought I’d have loaaads of time to write this post whilst away, but I’ve just been having too much fun.

It’s now 8pm on the 13th of August in Sequoia National Park (4am on the 14th of August for you guys in England!) and I’ve ran out of time. BUT I really don’t want to cut this post short as I’ve got so much more that I want to write about, so I’ve shoved a ‘to be continued’ on the end as I will definitely be coming back to it.

I’ve also missed the latest monthly report, however, don’t threat as I did get a chance to tally up my total investments on the 1st of August, so you’ll have two updates to look forward to when I get back :)

See you guys soon!

The Weird One

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 06:25:27 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #6.

A different opinion is somewhat frowned upon in our clique based society, but some of the greatest minds of all time were outliers. They weren’t scared to go against the grain and stand up for what they believed in. So, for this Thought Experiment, I’d like you to reveal yourself: What opinion do you have that most of your peers do not share?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #6

Saving Ninja

in-deed-a-bly

Caveman @ DitchTheCave

Mr A Way To Less

Miss A Way To Less

Merely curious

Marc @ FinanceYourFire

Dr FIRE

A Simple Life

Money For The Modern Girl

Fretful Finance

Left FI

Andy @ liberate.life (on Rebo)

James @ Rebo

theFIREstarter

Eyes On The Goal

This is a difficult Thought Experiment for me. The question was actually proposed by the wonderful Indeedably , so in essence, it’s kind of like the first Thought Experiment that I’ve taken part in.

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to join in. I thought, “What opinions of mine are different than most of my peers?” I’ve always wanted to be the popular guy, (suffice to say I rarely am) I don’t generally strive for being the “weird one.”

But then it hit me, I am the weird one!

The only difference is I’m generally the weird one in private. I write about weird stuff, I do weird stuff with my money. It’s even weird to read books these days, let alone every day. I am a right strange one in the eyes of society!

A present from my colleagues

Being this strange means that it’s only normal for a few of these weirdities to slip out and disrupt my perfectly conforming demeanor. In-fact, I’ve been dubbed the ‘money saving tips guy’ in multiple places of work. My last company got me a Money Saving Expert pig as a leaving present for god sake.

In my current company a few people have seen me betting on my phone. This mixed with my reluctance to spend money has got them thinking that I’m a broke gambling addict. Not that I’m actually making £1000s per month EW betting . If only they knew the truth of how weird I actually am?

SO, let’s get all of this stuff out of the way. Yes I am weird in the corporate world. Anyone in the FIRE community is, most of the country don’t save anything! Being under 30 and saving 80% of my after-tax income makes me a notch higher in the strange scale. But I’m not going to focus my attention on that during this post. Most of my readers are on their own saving adventures so it wouldn’t provide much of an insight talking about it; you’re all weird!

How am I Different From You?

One view that I’ve always been inclined to is that spending less money makes you happier. And no, I’m not talking about the fact that spending less means you can save more so you’ll have more money later on to make you happier (sure this might work too, if you use the money to buy time.) I’m talking about the concept that spending less will actually make you happier, the process of doing it.

I believe that most things you can buy will only grant you happiness in the forms of instant gratification, not a true everlasting joy. I’m not just talking about the big luxury items like iPads and cars either; I’m talking about pretty much anything.

Buying a bread maker or food mixer? I think you’ll be happier making the bread and mixing by hand. I believe that there’s a certain dark shadow that most contraptions cast over us and that there’s only so much we can include in our lives. It takes us further away from the beings that we are, making us less grounded.

That’s why I’m aiming to buy a homestead and to live off the land, I really think that’s where I’ll find real fulfillment and joy. Maybe I need this escape because I’ve moved so far away from nature in my career (Software Engineer working in London, bit against the grain of what I’m saying, right?)

Buying that bread maker also brings the negative connotation with spending money. You’ve parted with your hard work and time for that contraption, you’ve given it your life essence. When it breaks you’ll feel sad, bringing more unhappiness from the item that you bought.

It’s almost better to just not buy anything, at least that’s what I try to do. Of course, sometimes we need to part with money in order to buy something that we need (at least we think that we need!) Or something that will provide value in our busy accumulating stage of life. And of course sometimes, advertisements will get to us and we’ll succumb to that instant joy (and feel shitty afterwards no doubt,) but less is always the goal we’re striving for…

I’ve written more about how spending less relates to happiness in this post , check it out if you want some real life examples (although it was one of the first blog posts I’d ever written so go easy on me if you see any mistakes!)

Unpopular Opinion

Another view that me and my partner share (which is very unpopular) is that it’s better to split all of our expenses 50/50 no matter how our incomes differ. This keeps us completely independent from one another when money is concerned.

Although this technique can be infeasible for some couples, it’s worked very well for us. It unshackles us from a lot of arguments regarding money. I can’t imagine trying to tell my partner that I’m staking thousands of pounds worth in horse race bets whilst EW betting if we shared our finances. I’d also feel a lot worse if a side-hustle I attempted failed.

Keeping this department separate gives us free movement when deciding what to do with our own money. It also motivates us to try harder to earn more if we want to increase our lifestyle.

You can find out more on why we keep our finances separate in this post .

Conclusion

That’s all I can think of that’s worth discussing. Of course, there are a lot of financial topics to discuss which makes me different from 75% (or more) of the population, but that would turn into a book if I delved into that!

What has this Thought Experiment taught me?

That it’s OK to be weird.

In-fact, it’s better to be weird; normal is boring.

What to do When You Retire?

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 06:30:06 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #5.

Life is good. You finally did it! You pulled the plug on your day job after reaching financial independence. You never have to work for money ever again. But, you’re bored. You need something to do… You need a project! You grab a piece of paper and a pen and start thinking. Now that you’re financially free, what projects do you want to complete? However ambitious, however small, you now have the time to pursue anything that you like, what will you accomplish?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #5

in-deed-a-bly

CaveMan @ DitchTheCave

A Way to Less

Cashflow Cop

Merely curious

Sam @ A Simple Life

Gentlemans Family Finances

Marc @ Finance Your Fire

Dr FIRE

The FIRE Shrink

Young FI Guy

Fretful Finance

theFIREstarter

What Life Could Be

Money For The Modern Girl

Reaching financial independence is a dream for you and me but have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? A lot of people would quickly jump to the conclusion that it’s because they hate their job but when you dig into the root of it, you’d realise that it’s actually time that they desire most.

You always look back towards your former years with longing, missing the freedom and happiness that having more free time grants you. When you’re in school, you don’t realise how much free time you actually have, time that you can dedicate to whatever your heart desires. The leakage of your time gets progressively worse as you work your way through college, university, your career, and eventually; kids.

People long for that time back. They look back with misery at all of the free time that they wasted as a youth when they’ve undoubtedly collected so many dreams during their adult years but simply don’t have time to pursue any of them until they’re at the ripe old age of 68.

It’s sad to think that the majority of the world will never get to realise their dreams. They’ll never even get to begin their projects or deduce their ideal life. Since leaving adolescence people always tell you to kick your dreams to the kirb… “Get a real job that pays the bills,” they say. Our society is built off of these broken dreams, the broken dreams of a civilisation. Who would truly choose to work for 5 days a week, sat in front of a computer screen, if money wasn’t part of the equation?

That’s what makes our FIRE movement so special. We say F U to the norms of society. We will not wait around until we are grey and old to realise our dreams. We will realise them as soon as we can, we won’t fall prey to the materialistic propaganda.

So, what will I do once I am free, once my “real life” begins?

The Thrill of the Game

When growing up I always wanted to be a game developer. This type of job seemed so out of reach when I was in school, I felt that it was almost like saying that I wanted to be an astronaut or rocket scientist. I went to college to study Computer Science, knowing that I wanted to do something which involved computers. Then, to my delight, I found the perfect university course to pursue my passion: Computer Game Development.

Unfortunately, money took control after I left university and instead of going after the much more difficult (and lower paid) job titles such as game developer, I went into mobile application development. But I still knew that I wanted the thrill of making a game. Nothing quite beats the feeling that you get when you’ve made a game from a bunch of algorithms and then watch someone play it. I told myself that I would make games in my spare time whilst working in a higher paid job… But of course I haven’t, due to one thing…

Time - Or lack thereof.

Making a game is hard work, it would be incredibly difficult and stressful to do so whilst working a 9 till 5. But nothing would be more exciting than not working and dedicating a whole year or more to designing and developing a fully fledged indie game. Having a title on the Steam store (or maybe Project Stadia in the future?) would be a dream come true.

Writing

One of my favorite hobbies is reading and since starting this blog, I’ve started to quite like writing too! One of my retirement projects will definitely be to write a novel. Not just any novel, I want to write an epic fantasy.

Much like my desire to create a game, I’d love to sit down and design a huge character set and plot line and methodically write each chapter and sequence (see the Snowflake Method ). It’s said that writing a fantasy novel is pretty darn difficult, but I’d have time on my side, and with that, I think I’d be OK!

Mobile Applications

Throughout my long career as a mobile application developer I’ve released dozens of apps for Android and iOS but I’ve not yet had the time to create any apps for myself. I’ve started a bunch of them but seem to never finish! When retired I’d have to keep my skills up to date and I’d like to do so by creating my own applications.

These apps would probably start off with useful software that would help with my own life, I’ve already got a half built app that helps me keep track of my spending! I really should finish it soon…

Building

This would be a more long term project and I think the most important one. I’ve always wanted to buy a big plot of land and build structures myself. I’d start off with a simple wood shed and eventually build my own sawmill, barn, and stables. Eventually I’d love to also be able to build my forever family home. Although it may run the risk of turning into a shanty shack!

Ultimately this project will be the Ranch project where I’d try and build a fully renewable living facility which includes its own power generator, waste disposal, water filtration and crops. I may be way too overambitious with this one, real life isn’t much like Minecraft! But with time on your hands, you can learn anything.

These are my main passion projects that I’ll pursue when I retire. I’d never realised before that all of my dream projects revolve around creating things. Each one involves building something and being able to share that creation with others. When I’m ever feeling low on my journey toward financial independence, I’ll refer back to this post as a reminder of why I’m doing all of this:

To take back my time and chase my dreams.

What will you do when you are retired?

If You Lost Everything

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 07:15:07 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #4.

You wake up one rainy morning and after checking on your accounts you find out that you’ve been ‘wiped-out’ by a cybercriminal. You’ve lost all of the money and assets that you’ve ever owned and you can’t get them back. What will you do?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #4

CaveMan @ DitchTheCave

QuietlySaving

in-deed-a-bly

Marc @ FinanceYourFire

Merely curious

FIRE v London

Gentleman’s Family Finances

Young FI Guy

What Life Could Be

Fretful Finance

Dr FIRE

What would I do if I lost absolutely everything? My house, my pension, my ISA, my belongings, everything. I would effectively be landing on a Snakes & Ladder’s snake and going all of the way back to the start.

You would think that this wouldn’t be too detrimental to me as I’m still close to the beginning of my career. I could effectively get to the same amount of savings (including house equity) in a little over two years, but I think I would still suffer an adverse effect.

Having everything taken away from me would set me back in a monetary sense but I think that the psychological effects would be more detrimental. Working towards something for a prolonged period of time and then having it ripped out from underneath you would be damaging to most people. I would be full of anxiety thinking that history would repeat itself. Why should I work such hard and long hours building my wealth when I may just lose it all again?

Let’s role play

The door slams shut behind me and I find myself standing next to my partner outside of our home. The wintery day is stark and chilly, I pull my partner closer to keep her warm. ‘It will be OK, we’ll figure it out, we always do.’ I say with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. In my own head the anxiety monster was starting to take over. “How could this happen to us?” We lost everything to a hacker, I’m a programmer for god sake! I should have been able to safeguard against this…

Decision #1

The first decision that I would have to make will be what to do at that very moment. We’re now newly homeless, have no money or assets and have nowhere to go. We do, however, still have our jobs.

One of the things that we could do is move in with one of our parents. We wouldn’t be able to stay anywhere that costs money and it would be difficult to get a bank loan before the cold night closed in. We’d have to somehow contact our parents and ask them to kindly reel us in.

Another option would be to ask for a loan from our parents or potentially our friends. If we could make it to our next paycheque, we should be pretty safe from there on out.

No matter what option we take, the first action should be to find a way to obtain shelter, food and safety, and ideally a way to continue to go to work. We don’t want to be looking for new jobs when this is the time that we need them the most.

Decision #2

Decision number two would need to be made when we had regained our equilibrium, when we can sustain ourselves on our own again and have a semi-permanent abode to live in.

The question we would then have to ask is this:

What do we want to do with our lives?

Do we want to continue on the same path as we were on previously? Will the pain be too great if we continue as we were, knowing that we were over 2 years behind schedule? Knowing that the catastrophe might even happen again? These are the questions that will take us a lot of mulling.

I could continue to chase money and work in whatever role was willing to pay the most, regardless of my own happiness. This would be the fastest route to nirvana, to true financial independence. After all, I chose this option in my “previous” life, why should I stray now?

The other option would be to go part time and work in the least stressful position that I could find that is the closest to home. My living expenses are below minimum wage and I’m fortunate enough to have an in-demand skill set. I would effectively be able to work 2 days per week and still get along just fine. This could give me the ability to chase side-income generating projects for most of my week and hopefully one day have enough passive income to cover my expenses.

Shit. Is this just another way of obtaining FI? I’m currently perpetually chasing money at the expense of my time. If I was to chase time instead, would that pay dividends in passive income earned? I’ve always been entrepreneurial. Hell, even with being out of the house for over 13 hours per day I’ve still managed to create and run 3 different side ventures. What would I be capable of if I had 3 whole days during the working week to pursue them? Maybe I’d be “FI” already?

Should I just hand in my resignation tomorrow? I probably should but it’s just so hard to throw away something that I know is good. Maybe I should do what Andy@TFS has done and go part time? Even just to test the waters, to see what I’m capable of.

No… I think that I need to continue to press the throttle down as far as it will go. Continue to work in the highest paying position that I can get and continue to run as many businesses as I can… Continue to burn myself out.

I don’t yet have children, I may as well burn out now and slow down when I need to. I only hope that the burn phase doesn’t leave any lasting scars. As long as I make sure to invest as much as possible, it won’t all be for nought.

Wow, I’ve veered completely off topic here. I’m meant to be thinking about what I would do if I lost everything, not what I should do in my own life, but I guess that’s what Thought Experiments are all about? -To make you think!

That little off-road ramble proved something to me though. It proved that no matter what happens, I’ll continue to grab at anything and everything that will pay me money. I’m definitely addicted to work. I’d like to think that if I lost everything I’d reconsider my life choices and choose to live a less stressful life, but I really don’t think that I would. I’d plunge back into my “previous” life at full force and probably work even harder to try and recoup my losses.

I can tell this is going to be a major issue with me when I get closer to my “fatFI” number: I’m not going to be able to quit work. I have no ‘off’ button. Maybe I’m perpetually doomed to chase money until I drop dead?

I sure hope not…

What would you do if you lost everything? Let me know in the comments below!

If You Could Reset Your Life

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 07:30:13 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #3.

At the beginning of each month, a thought experiment question will be tweeted under the hashtag #ThoughtExperiment and everyone is invited to participate with their own posts, these will then go live together on the 15th of every month (you can still join in after this date).

The year is 2030, you’ve just spent your life savings on purchasing a ticket to ‘reset’ your life. You’ve gone back in time to your first day of school. You have the chance to live your life again. You have all of your current memories. What would you do differently?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #3

OthalaFehu

in-deed-a-bly

Caveman

FinanceYourFire

Bankok2Blighty

TotalBalance

WhatLifeCouldBe

Fretful Finance

If I could go back in time and start again, knowing what I know now, what would I do differently?

This type of question seems to crop up multiple times amongst friends and co-workers, “If you could go back to University, what would you study?” Or, “If you could do any job you wanted to, what would it be?”

That’s basically what this proposition would allow, the ability to pursue any career that you want to. We, of course, have the same opportunity when we’re going through life the first time, but we never grasp it fully. We don’t have much knowledge of life and we’ve not had many experiences, we make the wrong choices.

How would I make sure that I make better choices this time around? Who’s to say I won’t be disappointed with the outcome? I might even end up preferring my original life. That’s a worrying thought. I’ll have to be careful when thinking about this.

The little things

It’s easier to start with the little things. What small bits would I change if I could go back and do it all over again?

1) I’d be nicer to my parents

I was an absolute nightmare growing up. At my parents peril, I didn’t care about much, other than the current thrill I was seeking.

Whilst away at University, one day after having an argument with my partner I realised that I had been terrible to my Dad about 5 years prior and came to the realisation that I’d never said sorry. I rang him up bleary-eyed and said I was sorry for all of the horrible things that I’d done. He naturally thought something was wrong as I have a great relationship with them now. I simply informed him that I felt wracked with guilt as I realised I’d never apologised.

Naturally, my parents aren’t perfect. But knowing what I know now, I know that not everyone is. We can only control the way we behave and I definitely could have behaved much better.

So, if I could go back, I’d be nicer to my parents. As I would know that I’d regret it immensely if I wasn’t and I’d known that they won’t be around forever.

2) I would read more

I currently read for at least 2 hours every single day. I love reading, it’s my favorite hobby. My perfect retirement dream is having enough time to read a lot more books. But I wasn’t always like that. My lifetime ‘books read’ count actually stood at under 10 until around the age of 22, which is embarrassing to admit.

Knowing what I know now, I realise that my life could have been filled with a lot more joy and learning if I’d read throughout my childhood and teenage years. Now, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, hense pursuing FI/RE :]

I would focus more on learning Italian

My parents both speak Italian and all of my family on my father’s side don’t speak a word of English. I moved over to England when I was 3 years old.

Although I can understand and speak a little Italian, I am by no means fluent. I’m getting worse the older I get. It’s always been on my to-do list to actually make a concerted effort to learn. It’s just so difficult when you’re an adult to find the time to do so. Especially when I’ve got so many other income generating pursuits.

I realise now that the best time for me to do this would have been when I was growing up and still living at home. I lived with two people who spoke fluently; my mum and my dad, it would have been way easier to learn. It also would have been a lot easier to dedicate time to it back then.

By the time I left home I could have been fluent, I’d be able to go through life with my very Italian name and say “Yes, I do speak Italian” when other Italians I meet assume that I do.

I’d be able to communicate with half of my family, including my late Nono[note]Nono is Grandad in Italian.[/note]. I’d also have a pretty awesome life skill to add to my resume.

I would learn how to play the Piano

Like reading, I found my joy for the Piano later in life. I just don’t have enough time to properly learn and get graded. If I could start again, I’d make sure I dedicated some time to learning this instrument as I know that perfectly playing a piece of music brings me a unique kind of joy.

The bigger picture

I’ve covered the little things, what about the bigger picture? Would I still choose programming as a career path? Would I still have gone to University? How different may my life become?

I always jokingly say to friends that if I could be anything, I’d be a Shepherd. I’d have my lot of land and country house and all I’d care about would be my sheep and my spritely Collie dog.

I think the reality of being a farmer would definitely not live up to the dream… I may be stuck in that profession with hefty leases and not much chance of obtaining financial independence.

The fast-track to an early retirement

My passion for making money has been realised over the years from my tendencies in video games and real life. I quite like spreadsheets too. I think I’d be pretty good at managing other people’s money.

I’ve also always liked Math, maybe I’d enjoy being a Investment Banker? There are a lot of horror stories of 80 hour work weeks and a lot of stress. But, with my knowledge of FI/RE, our beautiful community - would this matter? I could stash away as much money as I could into investment accounts and retire as quickly as possible. I may even be able to top my current savings rate of 80%?

Now that I think about it, that option just seems silly. If I had the opportunity to start over, I’d pick a pretty hard, high-stress job, just so that I could quit as soon as I could? Hmm.

What do I enjoy most?

I’m trying really hard to think about this. It’s worse than the question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I don’t know! Argh.

I quite like the idea of building things, but I don’t like the thought of committing to hard physical labour for potentially decades. I like the idea of being a farmer, but again, I don’t want a tough, long working life.

What I know I enjoy is programming video games. There’s a certain thrill that you get when you program a piece of code and it works. With video games, this thrill is two-fold. You’re actually seeing shapes and animations and gravity form on a screen from the piece of code that you’ve written. When I first programmed a smooth moving first-person camera in C++ 8 years ago, it felt SO awesome. I can imagine it’s the same feeling a carpenter gets after they’ve finished building a structure that they’re proud of.

But, in my current life I’ve already tried to pursue a video game development career. I have a degree in it. I ended up choosing the money and going down a more traditional programming route where the jobs are plentiful and the pay higher.

I traded in passion and joy for money in the hope that I’d eventually go back to Indie game development when I ‘have more time.’ I didn’t know back then that I’d need to be retired before I got that time.

The final commit

Before doing this thought experiment I really thought that if I could do it all again, I’d get into a finance career. I thought I’d train to be an Accountant or Investment Banker. I like financial topics, I know more about personal finance than most people that are double my age and I like making money. Simple choice, right? Not really.

Nothing’s ever that simple. When sitting back and thinking about it properly, I’ve realised that I’m pretty happy with my current career choice. As a programmer, specifically a mobile developer, I still get that thrill and artistic-like option to design, architect and build something which you can visually see and be proud of. There are no barriers to higher salaries related to your age or years of service, you just have to be good at coding. I can work remotely whenever I like and most days are pretty chilled out.

I guess that makes me pretty lucky? It’s a blessing really to analyse your life and discover that you wouldn’t choose a different career path. I’d probably even stick with the same companies that I’ve worked for. They each gave me just what I needed at the time in order to move on and progress.

I would definitely still reset my life though. I’d do it for the little things. The little things make all the difference in the end.

If You Had 10 Years Left to Live

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 07:30:55 +0000

Welcome to Thought Experiment #2! The last one, ‘If you won £1m ’ went so well that these will now be a monthly installment. At the beginning of each month, the question will be tweeted under the hashtag #ThoughtExperiment and the posts will go live on the 15th of every month.

I recommend to all who want to participate to have your posts written before the 15th and then post them on or after this date, I’ll then add you to the list!

To participate in a Thought Experiment, read the below question and put your thoughts directly into a blog post. No major editing allowed, these posts should read like an internal monologue.

What would you do if you knew with absolute certainty that you would die in exactly 10 years time. It doesn’t matter how you know this or what you will die of; in 3652 days you will drop dead.

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

Thought Experiment #2

in-deed-a-bly

Ms ZiYou

EarlyRetirement

Caveman

Othalafehu

SteelKitten

Young FI Guy

Dr FIRE

Inspiring Life Design

theFIREstarter

Impending Doom

I place down the letter and squeeze out a shallow breath. A stinging lump forms quickly in my throat, tears begin to fill my eyes. I’ve just been told that I have 10 years left to live. As I lean back on my chair, a million thoughts fly through my head.

Shock. My strongest emotion is shock. All of these years I opted for a cheaper house, cheaper and less frequent holidays and I never bought gifts for my loved ones. That’s just meaningless consumerism anyway! It doesn’t mean anything. Right?

I feel lied to! The perfect life that I wanted to build for my family will never come to be. We’ll never experience living on a beautiful remote mountainside in a log cabin that we built. Never enjoy drinking hot chocolate on a snowy day with the log fire blazing and our children smiling.

I feel an overwhelming sense of loss. An imploding urge to tell my loved ones that I love them. I should have told them that more. All I can picture is tears. The tears of my partners shuddering sobs as I tell her the news of my impending doom. Our lives were intertwined immensely, we don’t live near any relatives and have few friends. We’re different people now. People that rely on each other to function, how will we go on apart?

I can see the angry tears of my parents. Having a single child wasn’t a choice for them. My mother’s health disallowed me from having any siblings. How is the child they cherished and protected so dearly being taken away from them?

What should I do? I could run away. Leave, without writing a note, and suffer through my last 10 years in solitude. Surely my family would be happier thinking that I had left them rather than left this world? No. There are too many unknowns. They must know. The only option is to maximise my family’s happiness. This needs to happen in the little time that I have left. I need to find fulfillment within my soul and be content with passing away. I need to convince my family to be content too.

I lift myself off my cheap second-hand sofa and doggedly make my way across my tiny flat in search of a pen and paper. All can be fixed with a good plan.

How to Maximise Happiness?

I’m lucky that I and my partner need the same things to be happy. We’re at our happiness peak when we’re exploring new and exciting places with each other. When we don’t have to worry about work and have time to relax and enjoy ourselves. Traveling has always been a dream for us, to see and experience everything this life has to offer, to be free to roam wherever the wind takes us. We would be truly happy on one big never ending adventure.

Have you ever wondered why when you get older, your days seem to fly by faster and faster? This is caused by falling into the monotonous slug of the daily grind. When you’re younger, you experience new things almost every day. When you experiencing new things, a simple week can feel like forever! We need to pack as many new experiences into this last decade as possible. If we successfully accomplish this, the next 10 years will seem like they lasted a lifetime. This will maximise our happiness!

But, what about my parents? They won’t want to not see me for my final years… And I can’t take them with me. They’ll be heartbroken. I really don’t think that there will be be much that can change that. I’d want to minimise the length of suffering that their old hearts will have to deal with. They shouldn’t have to go into their 70s heart-sick due to my illness. I won’t tell them. I’ll focus on me and my partner reaching a place of happiness and acceptance. At the end of my journey, I can let them know a year or so before my expiry date and spend as much time with them as possible.

How Can We Go Traveling For 10 Years?

We don’t have enough money for this. If only I’d got this news a handful of years later; we would have had enough! This is what the saving movement is all about; preparing for scenarios like this. But it’s too soon, I haven’t saved for a long enough time.

If we sold our house, our net worth would sit at 60k. We’d need at least 20k per year for traveling — we’d run out of money in roughly 3 years time. That won’t do. I’ve also got to think about what I’m leaving my partner with; 37 years old with no money and a 10-year gap in her career? There must be another way.

I could carry on working for 5 more years

Pros:

We would be able to sustain ourselves for 5 years
There would be money left over after I’m gone

Cons:

Half of my time left would be wasted working
Would be demotivating to carry on working very hard and long hours

This could be an option, but throwing away half my life continuing to work these long hours would be very dissatisfying and difficult with the knowledge of my life-span foreshadowing everything.

I could start contracting and work only 6 months of the year

Pros:

We would have enough money to travel for 6 months every year
There would be money left over after I’m gone

Cons:

Half of my time would be wasted working, longing for the next 6 months to come
Long stints of adventure and soul searching would never be able to happen as I would constantly have to be thinking about returning to work

I would easily be able to try this option as I am in the right location and have the necessary experience under my belt to start contracting. The only trouble is it means I would still have to work half of my remaining days.

I could try and find part-time, fully-remote work

Pros:

This would allow us to travel indefinitely
Any surplus income can be invested and left behind after I’m gone

Cons:

It may be nerve-wracking knowing that I’m still dependent on finding work
Depending on time-schedules and internet access, it may limit where we can travel

This would be a very good option, if I can pull it off. A schedule of 1 week working remotely and 3 weeks free time would be preferential. Depending on how good the contracts are, we could even stop completely after 5 or so years.

The only problem I see here is if it’s possible to obtain this, if it is; how long will it take to set up? And how reliable will the contracts be?

I place the pen down gently on the table and gaze up at the wall, reiterating the plan in my head. I will hand in my resignation and I’ll start freelancing immediately whilst continuously searching for a fully remote position. I’m bound to find one eventually. I’m determined enough! Why didn’t I do this sooner?

My eyes are misty, I must have been crying. “Why don’t I feel better?” I think, as my stomach roils with sickness. My heart begins to beat faster, it feels like it’s about to be ripped out of my chest…I don’t want to die! I don’t want to emotionally stab a dagger into my loved ones hearts. Why does this have to happen to me?

Regret. I’m filled with so much regret: For not loving harder, not grasping life with enough passion and for not being the best that I can be. I’ve lost so much. I won’t be able to look into my partner’s excited eyes as we catch the first glimpse of the yearly Christmas market. We won’t be able to drink spiced mulled wine or cinnamon infused tea whilst walking in the woods as the autumn leaves fall around us… We were meant to grow old together. Now I’m leaving her alone—‘Baby? ‘What’s wrong?’ I startle as I feel my partners hand grasp my shoulder. I struggle to swallow due to the ever-expanding lump in my throat, I look into her eyes as tears begin to betray me once again, ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’

What Would You Do If You Got Given £1 Million?

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 07:30:31 +0000

This article signifies the start of a new post category which I’m going to name, ‘Thought Experiments’! The way this type of post will work is by starting off with a question, like “What would you do if you got given £1 million?”, and the blogger will have to write whatever they first think of. No pre-planning or major editing allowed and blabbering is definitely encouraged! It should read like an internal monologue. Right at the top of the post, I’ll post a link to all of the other bloggers that have participated in the thought experiment (I encourage other bloggers to do likewise!) You’ll then be able to see a vast array of different opinions to the same question. I’ll also be taking question requests in the comments below! So, without further ado…Thought experiment number 1! What would you do if right at this very instant you got given 1 million great British pounds? This could be from a lottery win, an IPO, a scratch card, you name it. No tax needs to be paid, it’s just been plopped directly into your run of the mill bank account.

Thought Experiment #1

Ms ZiYou

theFIREstarter

Quietly Saving

in-deed-a-bly

EarlyRetirement

SteelKitten

DrFIRE

Inspiring Life Design

GoodPersonalFinance

Retire In Progress

The Poor Swiss

Tweet @SavingNinja if you’ve participated and I’ll add you to the list!

One million pounds is a lot of money. It’s actually 4x the amount that I currently need to be financially independent. It would allow me to ‘safely’ withdraw double my current annual expenses (2%), but…I don’t know if I’d actually retire if I was given £1m today. I think the difference between me and lots of other FI seeking individuals is that I’m not burnt out; I actually quite like my job. I’ve definitely got a few good years left in me at least! The temptation with the £1 million would be to just invest it all and let it compound for another 5-10 years. If I carried on at my current savings rate I’d have a hefty £2.4m net worth in about 10 years time and that’s only with a modest amount of interest! I’ve now got images of Scarface in his golden bathtub flying through my head. The possibilities are endless! I could actually be rich-rich?

The temptation to do this would be massive. I guess this is the same feeling people who are close to FI get; the one-more-year syndrome. It’s crazy though as I would be able to retire right that day and ‘safely’ withdraw over £30k per year. That’s more than enough for me, surely? Ah, but is it enough for me and my partner to stop working?

It probably is, but it wouldn’t leave too much room for our future endeavors. Would working for just a few more years and letting that massive pot compound some more not be the easiest option? Especially when we’re both in our career peaks and earning decent salaries. I’m now seeing a few possibilities:

1) The nothing’s changed route

This would mean investing the whole lot. I’d probably have to get an accountant to ensure that tax is properly paid and then I’d carry on working full time and saving as much as I could. I’d aim for at least another few more years of saving and hopefully end up with a pot of over £1.5m. At this point the pot should hopefully be big enough to compound above £2m or even £3m after I stop working as I’m a big believer in the notion that Spending Less Makes You Happier , so my spending probably wouldn’t increase that much. It would probably mean that money is truly no object and that when I reach my ‘traditional’ retirement age I really could live like Scarface and invest in that golden bathtub! I may consider increasing my holiday spending if I took this route. I’d love to go on a big snowboarding holiday each winter and an adventurous holiday during the summer, I currently just pick one or the other. That sounds good!.. But, isn’t this breaking all the FI/RE rules? I would have more than enough to retire early, why would I continue working? Would I really not change jobs, or work part-time? I can tell this is going to be something I’m going to have to think about a lot. I’m a self-professed workaholic, I’m actually not happy unless I am doing something productive. I may deem it necessary to take a ‘gap-year’ and go traveling to try and soul-search for a greater purpose. Surely I’ll find my true purpose somewhere in the world?

2) Retire early and win the game

That’s it! I’ve won the game of life, I should just quit right now and retire…Right? I’d have more than enough to cover my current expenses and then some. I could leave Mrs Ninja working and spend all day playing video games and blogging…Sounds fun! But do I really want to be doing that for the next 50 years? Probably not. I would most definitely end up doing something, as Mr Money Mustache puts it - You’ll end up doing what you love, and most things end up generating money, potentially more money as you love what you’re doing! But…Would I get depressed? I’d be stuck in my current house and country, as my partner would still be working. I wouldn’t be able to leave her behind and go traveling or work abroad. I’m not exactly in the most enticing residential area for fun-loving early retirees to participate in activities. If I was by the mountains in Canada, this would be a different matter entirely! I’d probably rather work an additional few years and then move away to a fun place with my OH than turn into a couch potato with an excellent KDR on Overwatch!

3) Go part-time

This could be a great option. I’d be able to ‘test the waters’ of retirement by becoming semi-retired. I could work a few days a week or take off half the year. My new found free time could give me a great opportunity to try different hobbies and business ideas and see if I wanted to quit work entirely. Even if I chose to retire fully, it would probably be a good idea to do this for at least a little while first. The problem is; I’d have to work longer before moving to my dream retirement life. If I carried on working full time, that life could potentially only be a few years away. Working part-time is also pretty shitty as it brings a lot of the same stresses of a full-time job; interacting with a**holes, having to commit to someone else’s schedule, and being forced to work on those days where you really rather wouldn’t. It also doesn’t have a lot of the same benefits of being fully retired; being able to bugger off and go traveling for a year or two, being able to say yes to anything that crops up (business or fun), or being in control of your own schedule.

So many choices!

What would I choose? I’m leaning more toward option 1 - To carry on working. I’m not in a position where I feel I have to go part-time; I’m not burnt out and I don’t have kids that I need to ferry around. I really want to live life on my own terms. I want to build things, travel and move to the mountains. Working part-time wouldn’t allow that and it seems like a waste to retire completely when I feel I could go for a little bit longer and have so many more possibilities available to me. I would probably invest it all and use my remaining working years to gain citizenship for Canada or the USA. The 5 or so years it would take me to get citizenship would be a sufficient amount of time to create a big enough pot that I truly wouldn’t have to worry about money for my whole family again. I’d then also be in a country where I can retire to the mountains and fill out my winter seasons with my passion; snowboarding. I’d be able to bring my future kids up snowboarding and potentially have enough land to be able to build things. Wouldn’t it be awesome to build your own barn or a log cabin! In theory, the £1m would just speed up the time it would take to get to this dream. Even though my FI date is set for 5 years from now, I wouldn’t actually retire at this point. I’d probably relocate and buffer it out. I also don’t plan on retiring without my OH. Things may change. No one knows what the future may hold, although thought experiments like this are great to see where your mind takes you and they really help you think about what you truly want from your life.

These thought experiments work best when as many people get involved as possible, so I invite you to create your own answer to this question. When you do, send me a Tweet @SavingNinja and I’ll add your article to the list up top. It’s always interesting to see other peoples views!

Opinions?

Do you like the idea of ‘Thought Experiments’, do you think this should be a monthly feature?
What other ‘Thought Experiment’ questions would you like to see bloggers answer?