I Have a Plan...
- paulypop
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Or at least I thought I did.
On October 20th 2021 I posted this;
If you are new here, welcome, get comfy, grab a beer, or a wine, or a water, no judgement here.
There are over 50 posts between this one and that first one pasted above, most are me drivelling on about dating or my trips to America and even coffee machines.
Read the first four, from the bottom up, and then come back here.
But have a look at the others as well at some stage, I like the 'clicks'. (I don't care about the clicks really).
The crux of that very first post was that I had recently turned 49 and with that came the realisation that in 11 years from that date I would be 60.
60
That's a Big Fucking Number.
My wandering brain goes to Dry Eye in The Gentlemen and I feel like him tapping away on his calculator (I think it is a calculator, probably a phone) when I write 60.
Tappy tappy tap tap, pause, tap tap tappy tap tap, pause, tap.
What a superb film.
I am Mickey Pearson, although more back than silver (it's coming in though) and when I am hungry, I eat.
Like the Lion.
Ha, no, I am not comparing myself to Matthew McConaughey, he is so much (slightly) prettier and cooler than I will ever be.
I always wanted to be Bruce Willis, but with hair, think Last Boy Scout era. Another superb film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zi7Y1-rgts
Tangents! Always tangents with me.
I should apologise, but then that would be me saying sorry for who I am, and for that, I am not.
Well, not sorry for the who I am now.
Ooooh a teaser.
Are you sat there thinking, 'where's he going with this post'?
See, when I write, I imagine you and I, my ever faithful dearest reader, are sat across from each other, maybe in a nice bar, a glass of our favourite tipple each, maybe on a sofa in my lounge, or on our paddleboards toes in the water, sun on our backs and we are conversing.
Those that know me, accept the fact that when I am recounting something or just generally chatting, it is full of tangents, asides, and 'Oh! That reminds me of the time when'...
They are always relevant though, to the story, it is simply how my brain works.
I am speaking away and in some dark corner of my head is this on repeat 'remember to drop this in when you can, make sure it is the right time though and relevant, don't simply say 'I bought a watch in Turkey once' if you are speaking about biking'.
Where was I? October 2021. First blog post.
I was 49.
60 was 11 years away.
Big Fucking Number.
Needed a plan.
Got it, got it.
Ok. Back in the room.
It is now mid July 2026 and the mathematical whizz's of you will realise that nearly five years have passed.
I am around six weeks away from 54 which means My 11 Year Plan is now My Six Year Plan.
Six years is still a decent amount of time, yeah?
So if the plan has deviated or fallen by the wayside a little, that's cool.
The road to success is never smooth, success is full of ups and downs and bumps in the road, it is long and winding road with speed bumps or some other corporate bollox.
Well (and I apologise for the egg sucking training that is to follow) six short years ago we were still in the early stages of Covid and coming to grips with how it was affecting us, our lives, our liberty, our work, our social lives, our haircuts.
I have the most horrendous photo of me from 2021, I had not had a cut for twelve weeks or so, and let's say that had I posted it online the officers from Operation Yew Tree would likely be breaking my door down and asking if I liked cigars, owned a shell suit and liked singing 'Do you wanna be in my gang, my gang, my gang'.
See, six years is not such a long time is it, not really not when you think of it in that context, I bet you were slightly taken back by that realisation.
When I wrote 'I have a Plan' it really was around my financial situation and that maybe I should do something about it.
Not that it was bad, but with everything in life, I assumed it could always be better.
Like walking 10,000 steps every day, going to the gym three times a week and eating healthy.
It's bollox by the way.
10,000 steps.
That came from a 1965 Japanese marketing campaign from a pedometer manufacturer.
Ok, ok stop the shouting and finger pointing and telling me I am destroying your whole diet and fitness campaign.
But 10,000 steps, as a number or goal, has zero medical backing. As with anything regarding weight loss and fitness, it is as individual as your fingerprints, 2,000 steps may work for you just as well.
The only person you need to beat is you.
Wait, where are you going?
Come back, you haven't finished your drink.
I am sorry, I am sorry, I will not lecture anymore, back to only my usual drivel with asides from now on.
Promise.
Now, a trick of writing is knowing how to keep your audience engaged, when to up the pace, when to give them a break, add in a tease or two that may come back later on and to never berate them or put them down.
Oh. Oooops.
You love me really.
I compared myself to my friends, colleagues, all who seemed to have their shit together, houses with mortgages, relationships, savings, new cars and I guess it made me say to myself I need to get a grip.
Hence 'This blog is my journey to financial retirement' was born.
Which was probably a lie, I don't think that was ever the intention.
And it seems very final. So, what, I get to 60 and stop writing or trying to make my life as good as it can be?
That's the end?
Also I am not going to retire at 60, unless some large amount of money lands on my lap at some point between then and now.
How about 'My attempt to figure out what the second half of my life is going to look like' being more apt as a subject.
Second half, ha ha, I am 54, near as damn it, I do not want to live to 108.
I am not sure I even fancy seeing 80.
If I am being true to you, my dear reader, and of course, true to me, I was 49 and I caught myself wondering if I was trying to become someone I wasn't when really I should have, and may have finally, started working on being who I should have always been. I am not a planner, never have been.
I am not a saver, never have been. I am not risk adverse, I never think 'maybe I should not do that because the consequences could be...'
I am the guy who jumps in and says, after the event, 'well you did that, now how do you make it right'.
I have not always been nice.
I have let people down.
My concerns really were;
Am I wasting my life?
Have I left things too late?
Can I still change?
Can I become fitter, happier?
Will I settle down again?
And that leads to further probing;
Money: Will I be secure?
Health: Will my body still do what I want it to do?
Relationships: Will I have someone beside me?
Identity: Who am I when work isn’t the thing that defines me?
Regret: Have I wasted time, or have I actually lived?
Do I actually worry or care about any of the above?
Should I?
If not, why not, if yes, what am I going to do about them?
So, here we are.
This is the scene setting post.
I will not change the title of the blog (I bought the domain after all). But I have a number of posts in mind and early drafts that will deal with me changing, developing, learning, even at 50+.
There are some of you that know me and have done for years.
Some I would say knew me as we may not have seen each other or spoken for years (sorry), and you will have a version of me in your mind.
I do not think that guy exists in entirety anymore...
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