Early retirement from just watching those pennies...

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Writtten 28th November 2024

I've just driven 40 miles home from my partners at 7am. It's crazy out on the motorway, everyone going off to work or school runs. We're all the same. Just trying to make money.


How many of you saw the glorious sun rise as our earth turned towards it to grace us with another day of light and warmth this morning?  How many of us smiled at its beauty? How many of us were grateful of its existence for another day?


We're just going round on a big ball, in a big universe, with each of us a finite number of days to enjoy it.


On Monday I got up, met a friend and we walked his dogs around a local forest.  Then we sat in a pub garden for an hour, in the sunshine, with a couple of pints.


Now, I'm not saying a cider at 11.35am is a good thing, but it could have been a coffee, it just wasn't (I don't drink caffeine).  It was like being on holiday.  Living the dream.  Basking in the warm November sunshine and shooting the breeze with no time constraints and no where else to be.  Heaven.


I don't do that everyday, that's probably why I'm grateful when I do.  But the reason I can do that if I want to, is because I've worked hard, and saved hard for many years.  Because I've been able to not care about having new stuff like the advertising makes us feel we have to have.  Not been persuaded by the offers, the low finance, the sales, the marketing hype.  Not cared about keeping up with the Jones...they don't even know me or care about how I live so what would be the point?


I get it. The pressure is subtle, invisible, but it is there nonetheless.  It's what motivates us to go to work, do well in school, do everything we do if you think about it.


But I've decided I've saved enough money now, I don't know how long I've got left on this big ball spinning in the universe and I know I don't need much to be happy. I've decided to concentrate on writing this blog. I think I'll get more satisfaction from my life if I try to help people rein in their spending and be content with a simpler life.

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