Life

Today I’m grateful that our basic needs are covered. Our family is healthy and safe. We have good stable jobs with great maternity leave. We have the loving support of parents, siblings and close friends. We live in the lucky country. We are achieving our goals.

Some recent setbacks aside, we’ve had a very good year and I choose today to focus on that.

This is simply how me and my partner think about money, our overall strategy and the lessons we’ve learned over the past few years.

It’s not personal financial advice. Your situation could be different to mine and you might have different goals. Still, I think there’s valuable lessons in here that could apply to many different situations, otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing it.

My workaholism came in waves but there were consistent habits throughout my career that lead me towards burning out. Habits that I’m wanting to change before the shit hits the fan.



This is the definition of workaholism that I’m running with:



• Feeling compelled to work because of internal pressures.
• Having persistent thoughts about work when not working.
• Working beyond what is reasonably expected of the worker (as established by the requirements of the job or basic economic needs) despite the potential for negative consequences (e.g., marital issues).



And this is the definition of burnout:


Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that can zap the joy out of your career, friendships, and family interactions.

I am a big fan of the Barefoot Investor, this entertaining and helpful book gives simple step by step instructions that any Aussie can follow to become financially secure. His advice is sound and will help you to protect yourself and your family.

I’ve always been a good saver. I was content with less and avoided debt like the plague, I’ve never owned a credit card. Yet, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and applying the Barefoot strategy because it helped me put our finances on autopilot.

On June 8, 2016 Trish and I moved to London on a Youth Mobility Visa for two years, it was great!

I describe travel as one of the greatest privileges and educators, I hope to continue traveling and learning from different cultures and history for as long as my legs will carry me. Still, after a three month trip through India and Nepal and another five months in the Philippines I find myself missing home.

I gave a god-awful presentation last week at MelbJS. It was actually the second time I gave the presentation on d3 and it was a little worse than the first time, which was also bad.

Near the end of a four year stint in a corporate environment I took four weeks holiday by the beach. I relaxed, played guitar, prayed, treated acne, ate well and exercised with running, push ups and sit ups. It was a great time of recovery and healing and I started feeling better about myself and more healthy in the process.

Vipassana Meditation, The Art of Living
As taught by S.N.Goenka

This is proving difficult to write as I have no clear thoughts on what I truly believe or think about death, it’s all a bit hazy. Perhaps by the time I’m done writing this rambling piece I won’t be pestered by it quite so often.

I signed my life away to @inspire9 today, I’m very happy to be working in such an amazing community and look forward to my work there.

My first week on the outside was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying. Working for yourself somehow seems more honest, you know precisely what you have done and accomplished and are completely accountable for what you produce.

Last year was a big year. I worked really really hard, put my heart and soul into my work, only to start all over again at the end of the year.