{"id":167860,"date":"2025-04-02T08:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T08:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/investing\/refire-and-a-2019-half-1-review\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T08:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T08:30:36","slug":"refire-and-a-2019-half-1-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=167860","title":{"rendered":"reFIRE and a 2019 Half 1 review"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\nA few months after returning to my industry, albeit in a different role in the pursuit of meaningful work, I\u2019ve left the company and am back to FIRE.\u00a0 Soon after joining it became very obvious that while there were some pieces of meaningful work (where I define work as something you do for purpose) the vast majority of what I was going to be doing was just a job (which I define as something you do because you need the money) and right now I don\u2019t need a job.\u00a0 The excellent tool over at Engaging Data<\/a>\u00a0clearly shows that provided history rhymes my biggest risk now isn\u2019t running out of money but running out of life.<\/p>\n
\n\"Is<\/a><\/div>\n

\nClick to enlarge, Is the risk running out of money or running out of life<\/i><\/p>\n

Reflecting on this I think a few themes are emerging…<\/p>\n

Firstly, some people can learn by brainstorming or thinking while some people learn by trystorming or doing.\u00a0 I now see that I learn the best when I can do the second.\u00a0 So going forwards I need to always find ways of experimenting before going all in.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I deliberately went back to a similar role that I had done a number of years previously which at the time I felt was the highest level of meaningful work I had ever experienced.\u00a0 Living it again enabled me to see that the role, my industry and my own needs had changed beyond recognition and at some point, much like the boiled frog, my meaningful work \/ career had actually predominantly become just a job with me just not noticing.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on this change… I originally pursued FIRE as back in 2007 I saw some changes starting to occur that made me think my job at the time would eventually be outsourced to a low cost country.\u00a0 Faced with no job I came up with the choices of FIRE or retrain into a new career.\u00a0 I took on FIRE.\u00a0 Looking now at what had forced many of the changes to my industry, making me also now incompatible, it was largely driven by what I initially saw.\u00a0 That is globalisation requiring extreme cost reduction and reduced quality achieved by investment reduction, partly achieved by outsourcing, while at the same time ramping expectations far faster than answers could be found.\u00a0 So while the changes occurring didn\u2019t directly take my job directly by the time I FIREd they certainly helped reduce the level of meaningful work.<\/p>\n

I have also changed a lot.\u00a0 Having achieved financial independence I no longer need a job and having been FIRE\u2019d for 6 months I also came back into the game with fresh eyes.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s much like a battery chicken knows no different but if they were able to try free range life they would I expect look upon a return to the battery very differently.\u00a0 My needs had clearly changed and I suspect even if the work had been unchanged it is still likely it wouldn\u2019t have provided the same motivation levels that it once did.<\/p>\n

My big learning in all this is for any readers out there who say I love my work and so I never intend to retire I\u2019d now say great but it\u2019s still worth pursuing financial independence as either that work or you might change in the future making it not so meaningful.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, the ermine<\/a>\u00a0who is far more experienced at this early retirement lark than myself has in the past made a good point which I\u2019m now buying into.\u00a0 To paraphrase – only make one major change at a time and let that stabilise before doing another.\u00a0 My first attempt at FIRE had me leave my job, leave my home and leave my country all within the space of a few days.\u00a0 This time around I\u2019m going to follow his good advice.\u00a0 Instead of now figuring out how to now get closer to meaningful friends \/ family<\/a> quickly I\u2019m just going to enjoy what\u2019s left of the British summer and be a \u2018human being\u2019 rather than a \u2018human doing\u2019 for a while.\u00a0 After that it\u2019s off to visit some meaningful friends and family to do some extended trystorming.<\/p>\n

The past 9 months has seen a lot of change in the RIT family.\u00a0 Let\u2019s now look at how this has affected the personal finances.\u00a0 The short answer is that between proliferate spending since FIRE, a short job experiment and Mr Market wealth is up \u00a378,000 since I retired the first time to the end of June 2019.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the details since I closed out 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nSPEND SENSIBLY <\/span><\/h2>\n

Half 1 2019 spending has been crazy averaging \u00a33,935 per month.\u00a0 Not unsurprising when you move from Cyprus back to temporary accommodation transitioning to longer term rented accommodation in the South East of England.\u00a0 You can see the overspend play out in the rental and miscellaneous categories in the chart below.<\/p>\n

Looking forward I see this reducing greatly in the back half of 2019 to something like \u00a32,400 per month which will still be higher than what I have planned to spend in FIRE<\/a> which is more like \u00a32,000 per month (\u00a324,000 per annum).\u00a0 There is no need to panic here though as I can see that this will be solved with a home purchase either in the UK or in one of two other locations.\u00a0 This time around we think we\u2019ll be looking for the location with the most meaningful friends and family as that\u2019s now risen to one of our highest priorities.<\/p>\n

\n\"RIT<\/a><\/div>\n

\nClick to enlarge, RIT Spending\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Spending Sensibly score: Fail<\/b>.\u00a0 Spending far higher than planned but I have been saved by the work experiment.\u00a0 Net salary from that minus spending over plan results in a positive number so while it\u2019s a fail no financial harm has actually been done.<\/p>\n

\nINVEST WISELY<\/h2>\n

2019 (05 January 2019 to 06 July 2019) investment return closed at +10.3%.<\/p>\n

Investment wise the portfolio continues to be positioned for FIRE drawdown<\/a>.\u00a0 Cash and cash like holdings (NS&I Index Linked Savings Certificates predominantly) for a non-mortgaged home purchase and to give me a few years of cash buffer as I enter FIRE now sit at \u00a3320,000 (was \u00a3342,000 at the end of 2018).\u00a0 The difference is largely explained by a decision to fill my stocks and shares ISA for 2019\/20 rather than draw the dividends from it.\u00a0 Depending on where we finally purchase I may need to extract that as cash again.<\/p>\n

Living off just the dividends remains important.\u00a0 My drawdown plan was based on spending the lesser of a \u2018safe\u2019 withdrawal rate (SWR) of 2.5%<\/a>\u00a0or 85% of the dividends received<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a02018 total dividends were \u00a328,704 which drove the \u00a324,000 annual spending plan.\u00a0 In contrast the 2.5% SWR would have allowed \u00a330,000.\u00a0 Positively, dividends in 2019 are shaping up to be closer to \u00a332,000 meaning under the dividend rule I can now be spending closer to \u00a327,200.
\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n\"RIT<\/a><\/div>\n

\nClick to enlarge, RIT Annual Dividends<\/i><\/p>\n

For completeness this is what my asset allocation looks like today.<\/p>\n

\n\"Current<\/a><\/div>\n

\nClick to enlarge, Current RIT Asset Allocations<\/i><\/p>\n

\nI continue to invest as tax efficiently as possible with my tax efficient holdings from a UK perspective now consisting of:<\/p>\n