A Perfect Day: What I aspire to after Financial Independence

‘Just a perfect day
Problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
It’s such fun’

Lou Reed, Perfect Day

Lou Reed’s 1972 masterpiece sprung to mind when I saw Saving Ninja’s thought experiment this month.  A perfect day.  He asked: “What do you need to achieve real, true happiness? What are you aspiring to?”

Big question.  What do I want in life? What do I REALLY want? I spend an unhealthy amount of time asking myself that question. To be honest though I’d rather be that way round. In the middle of the busyness of day to day survival I think most people spend far too little time on healthy, necessary introspection.

In the past I’ve written about how I don’t feel that I need to do more of the big things to make me feel like I’ve ‘done something’ with my life. Having done a number of the things that society deems to be impressive I realise that I see them mostly as a source of bragging rights rather than fundamental satisfaction. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed doing them, but I find them ultimately a bit hollow. Of course, what I can’t test is the counterfactual of not having achieved those things and if their lack would have meant I felt unfulfilled.

By contrast, what I have come to is that true happiness for me lies in smaller, less showy things. My aspirations are modest. Time with my family and friends. Being a good husband and parent. Using my body. Completing tasks. Working to improve myself. Being part of a community.

All those things are about ongoing effort more than a point in time. They are what I want to do, who I want to be, when I am financially independent. So, in response to this month’s thought experiment, let me paint you a picture of my perfect day.

And for those of you who don’t know “Perfect Day” (and indeed for those of us that do), here it is.  Enjoy.

A perfect day

I can feel the light pressing against my eyeballs but I keep my eyes shut a moment longer simply because I can. Outside the birds squabble noisily. I smile. That’s what normally wakes me up. No alarm clocks.

It’s only a moment of lying still though. I’m far too excited about what the day holds to lie in bed too long. I freeze in the process of pulling on my dressing gown as my wife stirs. She rolls over and her steady breathing resumes as I tie the belt around my waist. Old habits die hard and I’m still the first to get up.

Breakfast

The cheery breakfast show presenter chunters in the background as I boil the kettle. My phone is next to me on the kitchen table as I sip my Yorkshire tea, but I don’t look at it. Instead I just enjoy staring out of the window, watching the trees sway in the breeze while letting the sound of the songs that I can’t name wash over me.

My peace is short lived. Even from downstairs I can hear the noisy clatter of my children as they practise their instruments and get dressed. I smile and stand up to start to put out some breakfast. The loaf I put in the bread maker overnight is filling the kitchen with its yeasty smell and as I put it onto a board I can’t resist cutting off a hot slice to have with some creamy butter. The children soon thunder downstairs and I join in their banter while the kettle boils again. Two cups this time. One goes up to my wife to ease her into the day.

Work

Half an hour later and the house is silent once more. The kids have left with all of their clobber and my wife has left for work. I swig down the rest of my, now cold, tea while clearing away the breakfast things and unloading the dishwasher. I don’t hang about though, it’s a gym day and I want to make the most of the quiet window after the 9-to-5-ers have gone to work but before the lunchtime rush.

Kitchen clear and kit on I jump onto my bike and head on over. I’m on first name terms with the trainers and the regulars give me a wave between sets as I walk through the double doors. Despite going several times a week I still haven’t got to the point where I look forward to going to the gym. I do love how I feel afterwards and the way that my body feels when it’s strong and healthy though. To be honest I also quite enjoy it when I’m doing it. I gird my loins and get started.

My goal is to improve at least one thing each time I go. Today it’s pushing out a few extra reps on my overhead press. Overall the cardio, weights, stretching and a shower all mean that I put my bike back in the garage a couple of hours after I left.

The balance of the morning is about doing the tedious but necessary bits that make life go smoothly. It could be chores around the house, or getting groceries, or mowing the lawn but today it’s paperwork. Specifically dealing with renewing the car insurance and booking the car in for its MOT and service. I’ve left it a bit late to be honest but the beauty of an open diary means that I can sneak into a free slot next Tuesday afternoon.

Lunch

Chores done, I turn off the computer with a flourish and wander down to the kitchen. Time to reward myself with lunch. I have plans for dinner this evening so I just heat up last of the soup that I made earlier in the week and cut a slice off the loaf from this morning. While the soup is heating I put some Kenyan beans through the hand grinder and make myself a small cafetière of coffee. It’s warm enough to eat outside so I crack open the French doors and sit out on the patio. As I munch I catch up on my blog reading and twitter.

Achieving

Kitchen cleaned down, it’s time for me. First up, piano practise. I’m a little worried about getting everything in shape before my exam in a couple of months. It takes most of the practise but I finally crack the left hand of the Schubert that has been frustrating me for a few weeks. I allow myself a little smile of satisfaction as I get up and stretch.

Decision time. For a few days now I’ve been ignoring my novel. I know why. I’ve written myself into a plot corner and I don’t want to start the substantial rewrite it will take to fix it. Instead I’ve been cycling out to the woods to sit under the oaks and whittle a spoon (very badly). A glance out of the window shows that some grey clouds have gathered. No going to the woods today. Still not going to tackle the novel though, I crack through a first draft of a blog post instead. Maybe that will get my writing juices flowing for tomorrow.

I’m so absorbed that I don’t notice the afternoon slip by. It’s only the kids coming back that pulls me back to the present. As I come into the hallway they shout all of their news at me while demanding to be fed. Some of the flapjacks that I made at the weekend are left in the tin so I throw those out to pacify the ravening mob. We sit out in garden while they continue to talk between mouthfuls. I would like to say that it was a conversation but I only get the occasional word or sentence in.

Dinner

After ten minutes or so I leave them to it as I need to get the dinner started. I’m big fan of Jack Monroe and her Bootstrap Cook recipes. Tonight is another one of those. A yummy vegan lentil, ale and mushroom pie that I’ve made before. The kids love it and it’s an easy way to get vegetables inside them. The fact that I can finish off the bottle of ale with my dinner doesn’t hurt either.

The pie comes out of the oven just before my wife comes through the door. Perfect. There’s just some time to boil up some broccoli and carrots while she gets out of her work clothes. I put some butter on the vegetables and call my family to the table. We talk about all sorts of things as we eat ranging from politics, to what someone said at school, to the latest injuries to the Seahawks wide receivers. Some fruit topped with a scoop of ice cream finish off the meal. My wife and I carry on talking around the table while the kids clear down and wander off to do their homework.

Play

I glance at the clock and jump to my feet. Time to head to my choir rehearsal. As I walk out yelling goodbye I put my headphones on and find my French lessons. The process involves hearing then repeating sentences. Muttering under my breath as I walk down the street undeniably make me sound a little odd. I’m OK with that though. We’re going to spend a month camping in the Dordogne over the summer so I want to make sure that my French is at least passable before that.

There’s the usual cheerful chatter as I walk through the doors of the school that we rehearse in. I head over to the tenor section and we chat while we wait for the rehearsal to start. The choir has people from all sorts of backgrounds from students to bankers, stay-at-home parents to academics, doctors to plumbers. The music is what draws us together long enough to discover all of the other things that we have in common. Singing always gives me a lift and I enjoy getting to grips with the tricky piece of Whitacre that we’re going to open our next concert with.

Two hours later and job done. Time for a quick pint. Much as I enjoy the company of the choir I only stay out for one tonight. After the kids have gone to school tomorrow I’m going over to my parents to help them with the chores around the house that they are struggling with as they get older. I also have my regular Thursday night chess game with a friend. It all means I need to get some sleep. Walking back I listen to the Friday Night Comedy podcast and I’m still chuckling as I walk through the front door.

Bed

My wife is about to head to bed so I join her and we read in companionable silence until my eyes start to droop.

I flick off my light and drift off to sleep with a smile on my face.

A perfect day in the books and another perfect day is only a few hours away.

Final comments

Just writing that down has brought me a huge amount of pleasure.  Individual elements of that are things that I try to do now.  What I see financial independence bringing me is the ability to do those things more consistently.  I see financial independence allowing me to more intensely ‘me’.  That’s a prize worth striving for.

Further reading

If you want to see how other people tackled this Thought Experiment check them out below.  I’ll add more as they come in.

Saving Ninja

Indeedably

Merely Curious

Left FI

Thoughts

What does your perfect day look like?