a bit more about me
I’m just a regular guy living in the south-west of England in my early fifties, but it just so happens I gave up full-time work in 2022 and we’re financially secure, or to put it another way, we don’t have any money worries.
The essence of my book is to share with you how we achieved this, and to give you confidence in your own financial outlook and planning that you could also have a more financially secure. I was born in the south but moved to East Anglia shortly afterwards and my family lived there through childhood and school, leaving for university in the Midlands reading Manufacturing Engineering and Management and then returning after graduating. I wasn’t a stellar pupil, never really challenged the top of the class, but have some O-levels, A-levels and a 2:1 BEng degree.
I stayed for a couple of years as the early 90’s was a challenge to find a graduate job, but I eventually secured one with a manufacturing company in the Midlands, partnered with a local University. I worked through an interesting time, with the introduction of e-mail, mobile phones and the challenge of the Y2K. I rather drifted into IT management, but wasn’t particularly technical, but could apply technology to operations, which lead to a move to a distribution company, having met and married my wife along the way. Whilst there I gained more experience, closing and re-locating facilities to Scotland, and also getting involved with the company’s pension scheme.
The final chapter was a move to one of the major players in the parcel business in the UK, and whilst I met some fantastic people, it was tough and not a particularly enjoyable experience. But they say every cloud has a silver lining, and it was through this that I joined Amazon and was involved in the creation of their logistics operation.
Along the way, my wife and I formulated a plan that would allow us to ‘retire early’. Whilst we both had good careers, it was probably the impact of our parents that drove this approach, with my Father-in-law having a stroke in his 50’s and being disabled as a result, and my own Dad suffering poor health as he got older.
We took the view of not wanting to be the richest ones in the graveyard, and that we wanted to focus on being financially aware to plan a long ‘retirement’ whilst we were young enough to be able to enjoy it.