Tag Archives: Work

Keeping up with Yoko*

Posted on by Standard Reply
*Which is not her real name

In the personal finance blogosphere, there is a general derision for any desire to keep up with the Joneses. We are encouraged to chart a different path, embrace different choices and follow the road less travelled. I’ve also recently read an article, possibly from the Our Next Life blog, about how this conversely sets a different kind of target. FIRE enthusiasts are keeping up with a different kind of Joneses (perhaps we should call them the Smiths who seem an altogether more frugal sort). This morning I saw a Facebook post. My friend Yoko is coming back to London after months of travelling. And it got me thinking. Whilst I might eschew living like most people, I definitely want to live like Yoko.

amsterdam-bikes-on-bridge

Continue reading

Side hustling: not just about the money

Posted on by Standard Reply

I have directorship in a company that my friend set up so that we could take advantage of tax laws and pay less tax. Due to my financial ignorance (and desire to remain stupid) all these years, I had never really done more than ask a few contractor friends here and there about what it was like to work as a contractor. When my friend took the plunge last year, all I bothered to ascertain was that he pays a flat rate 20% corporation tax on the money he earns as opposed to the different tiers, maxing out at 40% for his income bracket.  Continue reading

Financial Independence is essential both now and in the future

Posted on by Standard 2

It’s only been a little over 2 months since I had my lightbulb moment and began my journey to financial independence. I’m a little bit obsessive so once I discovered it was possible to retire early, that became my goal. I’ve read hundreds of blog articles, explored many options and thought a lot about how awesome it would be to be free from the tyranny of the 9-5 job. In the last couple of weeks though, I’ve realised that I’m not necessarily trying to quit work. I’m just trying to “decouple pay from work” – a phrase that I picked up from an awesome article written by Jim Wang for the Our Next Life blog.  Continue reading

Why is instinct not enough?

Posted on by Standard Reply

I spend a lot of time thinking about my options. I think before I create the options. While I’m creating the options. After the options have opened themselves up. Even after I’ve made a gut-based decision I still umm and ahh for as long as I have to. I know I do this because generally once I have committed to a path, I’m immutable. I might decide that path is the wrong path eventually but usually I follow through on my decisions. A few weeks ago I got called by a member of the recruitment team at a publishing company. I don’t care much for their flagship product but I respect the brand so I googled the company to get a sense of their culture and thought there were far too many power suits for me to ever be comfortable. My initial instincts, this is not the job for me.

Continue reading