About

Why are we here? No, that's not meant to be some deep and meaningful lead into a debate on the meaning of life. Why is this blog here?

I've been a career workaholic - I've built, ran, and sold my own company; done a degree and a PhD; and worked my way up through the software industry to roles at the top of the tree in a few industries. A combination of a modicum of talent; a lot of determination and hard work; and copious amounts of luck, have gotten me to a position where I earn a salary most people never even dream of and all the trappings that come with it. On a typical day I work upwards of 12 hours; and even outside of that, I'm constantly available and active due to the wonders of modern collaboration tools. This is great, it's what I love - building teams; delivering product; solving problems - I'm never happier than when I'm swamped with stuff to do. Or so used to be the case.

The kids are starting to grow up. It's an old cliche, I know, but with a boy just tiuned 5 and a girl of 3, the early mornings and late nights; regular flights around the world for various internal and external events; and general lack of time I find to spend with them has largely restricted my interactions to weekends and FaceTime. Not good.

Someone in my distant past (and I really should have remembered who, as I owe them a great degree of credit for the times I've used or relayed the advice), once gave me two pearls of wisdom:

• “Always negotiate on the way in.”
• “If something's not working, don't bleat, change it.”

I'm sure I'll discuss the former in a post elesewhere at some point, but the latter is very relevant here.

A few days ago, sat on the train, I decided it was time to change it and that I'd had my fill of corporate politics and long hours and would like to spend more time with my wife and kids. Not an uncommon revelation, you might say. So why is this blog any different from the thousands of similar blogs that have come and gone before it on similar topics? Well, candidly, it probably isn't, but hey, that doesn't mean it won't be interesting or useful to some of you. What is likely to be different is the scale at which we're talking about financial independence.

I'm not a saver. Never have been, probably never wil be. My attitude to most things in my life has always been to work on the top-line rather than trying to optimise the costs. It's probably why my fitness regime of ignoring my diet and focussing on exercise never really reaches the goals I set for it. Nevertheless, it's the way I work, so let's give it a go.

What does that mean? Well, it means to reach financial independence; stop commuting 3 hours a day (round trip); working crazy hours; and generally being a weekend father and husband, I need to supplant a large 6-figure salary with alternative income. As I've never been a saver (I think I mentioned that), pensions have never been the top of my agenda. I have a handful of corporate ones from various past (and current) lives, and thanks to the healthy salary levels, some of these are doing OK, despite my tendency towards low contribution levels. Pensions then aren't a quick win - it will have to come from some creative ideas (ooh, look, a blog on financial independence); technical savvy (this could be a stretch, but hey, I've got away with it this far); and some interesting investment practices.

So, the question I'm sure you've all been dying to ask (no, not 'Why am I still reading this drivel'. Keep those kind of questions to yourself, and don't spoil it for the rest of the class). What on earth does 199 Days have to do with any of this? Well, when this revelation that I needed to make a drastic change hit me, I started thinking abut a few things - what alternative income streams can I rustle up; how big a pot (pension or otherwise) would I need to make this work; how much do I have in assets and (much more likely) debt; why on earth did I agree to a massive house extension just before this bombshell hit me. Oh, and what's a good time to cut the cord and step off the corporate treadmill? The latter question lead to a little calendering. Again, thanks to some dumb luck and hard work, my high paying job as a “technical executive” brings with it the perk of a fairly large annual bonus. So, I thought, when will that hit the bank account and what level of freedom might that give me to cut loose and plunge into the unknown of a non-salaried lifestyle and more time to build lego sewers with the kids (don't ask - Ninja Turtles). I ran the numbers - 199 days between that day and the day the bonus would hit my bank account.

Hmm, 199 days. Seems like a long time (yeah, OK, probably not long enough, but lets be positive here); Has a nice ring to it (99 days would be better, but let's not be too crazy); domain name exists; I can write about this stuff and some poor mugs savvy individuals might read it, and thus an empire would be born and I could live off the adsense revenue. Adsense delusions aside, this seemed like a good place to start. First toe in an alternative income stream; nice place to document what I'm doing and share a little; opportunity to play with some tech stuff on a day to day basis (this is no ordinary wordpress malarky you know). Tick; tick; tick. Domain registered, and we're away.

So, dear reader, you join us at the nexus of a great journey - will we make it? Will the dollars roll in? Will the house extension turn into a tent in the park and living off the land? Will it just fizzle out and leave me glued to the coporate ladder debating 'target operating models' for the foreseeable future? - Who the hell knows, but it might be fun along the way and we'll all learn something (maybe how NOT to do this stuff, but hey, all valuable)

If any of this interests you, check out the Numbers page for more details on the crazy targets we need to hit to make this work, or just follow along for the ride as we attempt to reach financial freedom in 199 easy steps.