Cutting the tree down

In my opinion, escaping the 9 to 5 with any degree of success takes a certain amount of planning.

In order to cut down a tree properly it must be taken down carefully and methodically. Someone once said that the process of tree felling was akin to leaving the rat race. You take the tree down bit by bit rather than have it all crashing down at once.

So that is what I am attempting to achieve. You see once I am out I really don't want to have to go back into the system, go back to the 9 -5 office grind. Therefore it is important to me to ensure that we have made sufficient provision. It is not that I don't want to work, not at all. In fact I want to work but I do not want to work in the law and I do not want to work in an office (or at least not full time).

I feel that I have come so far in this journey that to have it all crashing down now would be a real shame. You see, even though I hate the grind and I know that money does not in itself bring happiness, I also know that to have no money is as equally if not more stressful.

Hopefully, within several months the escape will happen.

So the rough plan for 2010 is:-

1. Sell the flat
2. Keep our jobs (for a little while anyway, fingers crossed)
3. Live on 30% of our joint net income
4. Escape the 9 - 5 by autumn 2010
5. Spend six months living abroad (somewhere warm!)