Hello my name is the squirreler and I love personal finance. I love that it provides me with tools, techniques and a mindset to achieve my goals – but I love reading about it, listening to podcasts and messing about with spreadsheets just for the fun of it!
I think about it as like my love of maps, again I love that they help me understand where I am, visualise where I want to be and how to get there, but actually I just love maps, the beauty and utility of them.
So why am I starting a blog, what do I want to get out of it and why do I think you might be interested?!
I’ve been quietly getting on with my financial independence journey before I had even heard of FIRE, and now I am ready to start talking about it. No-one likes to talk about money do they? It is seen as boring, something personal (akin to talking about your sex life), self centred or braggy, a touchy subject… take your pick.
Well I am outing myself (slowly!).
I want to
- Document my journey – have a record for myself at least
- Understand myself more, my biases, world views and challenge myself – there is nothing like writing it down, trying to create coherence from fragments of ideas to really understand what you think and why
- Explore ideas, reflect on my journey and the journey of others, learn and take action to improve
- Get feedback and challenge from others
- Engage and network with other bloggers
Why should you be interested?
I have no idea, I do hope people find it interesting and useful and I will always challenge myself to suggest actionable tips and take aways’ (if just for myself).
But please bear in mind, I have no financial qualifications or credentials and nothing I write constitutes advice – I am just an ordinary person trying to do something which I, at least, think is extraordinary – be financially independent and live my best life.
The Squirreler 
I enjoyed reading your ‘About Me page’ – I love reading about people’s backgrounds as it makes the documenting of the journey all that more personal!
Aside from using analogies like ‘having a lightbulb moment’ or like taking the Red Pill from ‘The Matrix’, I would also say that discovering the FIRE concept was like that old ‘You’ve been Tango’ed’ advert where the realisation that I could retire early was like a slap round the face!
I wish you all the best with your journey to FIRE by 57 and looking forward to reading more about your progress!
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Thank you Weenie – I think for me it was more of a incremental ‘dawning’ / realisation – in fact I think I am still have revelations!
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