The Master Plan

When you hear people discussing what age they would like to retire at - you always hear numbers upwards of 45. Most people are realistic and say 55 or 60, some are optimistic and say 45 or 50 ............but I have always considered 30 to be a decent age to retire.

I always thought that one way or another I would have managed to quit the City by 30. There is a range of ways in which I thought that I could achieve this. Maybe I would have made my first million by then, or at completely the other end of the scale - maybe I would be at home with the kids by 30. Well, I'm 30 now. At the date of writing I am 30 years and 12 days old. So, have I retired?

YES !!! (well kind of)

I have resigned from my job as an IT lawyer in London and I have booked myself a ticket to South America. Its not quite the same as retiring because I recognise that I don't exactly have enough funds to maintain my current lifestyle for the rest of my years. Or have I ? Maybe I could live somewhere where my assets would be sufficient to provide a lavish lifestyle for evermore or maybe if I carry on partying at the rate that I have over the last 12 years then I won't have many more years to come anyway and so I needn't worry. Just in case I can't find that special place and just in case I end up living on and on and on ................I have managed to negotiate a return to my place of work which is conditional upon my return being no later than end of June 2005. "Boring!" I hear you say. Yeah yeah yeah - well I don't have to come back - I just can if I want to. Options open and all that.

So, the master plan is as set out below. I am making a note of it now so that you can track my progress and see how it all goes/changes/evolves etc.

11 December 2004 - leaving party in London (parties are always at the top of my list!)
14 December 2004 - last day in the office
23 December 2004 - Depart Manchester for San Francisco (via chicago)
3 January 2005 - Depart San Francisco for Rio de Janiero (via bloody chicago and Miami - how long a flight! only way of doing it for less than 83 million pounds!)
3 -8 February 2005 - Carnival in Salvador
10 February 2005 - depart Salvador for Buenos Aires, Argentina
14 February 2005 - start language school in Buenos Aires to perfect my dodgy Spanish
mid march 2005 - Bolivia
mid April - Cuenca, Ecuador to join another language school for a week (to know show of my perfect Spanish) and then spend four weeks volunteering in some capacity (preferably helping underprivilleged / orphaned / street residing children)
June 2005 - Peru
27 June 2005 - Lima to London via JFK.

Lets see what happens ...........que sera, sera!

S x