Inconsistence, impermanence, and the veiled threat of the apocalypse

Apokalypse was the first mutant, the most powerful of all. If you watch X-Men, you may have thought about it. A metaphor for the end, and how we think about it even when we experience a new beginning. This is my only friend, the End, as Jim Morrison said. Or is it more about the endgame? No, not the Marvel one. Our endgame, and how we plan it.

As few people explain it to us, spelling it by letter, there is more to life than work, work, and retirement when you are old and defeated. But what is that more, that extra, how do we start this journey? Well, we are in luck, because there is an energy of the new beginnings, for real, a mystical way to make it easier. At the beginning of every cycle, major or minor, it is much easier to make amends and changes. I do not know why, maybe this is the way our brain alters perception.

So my focus this year, as many others before, will be mainly on two fronts, financial education, and independence, and keeping myself as healthy as possible. First, one is not that hard but requires dedication. As I always said, you need to make a total money makeover. No? My method is somehow easy. First of all, you need to know your numbers, and for this, you need to calculate your bills, food, and other expenses. Let's say that my rent and bills cost 630, food is another 150, and other kinds of expenses are up to 300, so the result is £1080. If you add them for a whole year, the numbers are up to 12960.

I tried to check my Hive recap for 2022, to make a plan, but I think the numbers are not really correct. Anyway. Now, let hypothetically say that this is the amount that you need to get from staking HDB, then this is the reward of 20%, so the amount of HBD that you need to cover your yearly expenses is 12960 x 5 (20% x 5 = 100%) 64.800 HBD. This is just one example. Of course, if you feel the need, you can work on multiple sources of income, but before that, it is essential to have a 6-month reserve in cash, big enough to cover all your expenses, which in my case will be £6400. Only after you set up your cash reserve you are ready to invest. And this reserve should only be used in real emergencies. That's all.

Now, on the other front, health and how to improve it. This is different for any of us. Me, I do need to go to train today, and my doctor is waiting for me in half an hour for the yearly check. I cannot stop laughing, as they are quite difficult to find for a real need or appointment, but this end of the year, I got contacted 3 times, had 2 half-hour appointments on the phone, and some blood tests to do, and now we go to discuss the results. Just because some of them are borderline up (Haemoglobin A1c) or too high (cholesterol). But I am cool, I go with the flow and go to discuss, as prevention is always better than treatment. As it turned out, it was just my yearly check, and I am doing good and bad at the same time. From the diabetes point of view, I found out that my Hemoglobin A1c was on the upper limit in 2020 - 42, somehow I managed to take it back to 38 in 2021, and raise it again to 42 in 2022. Anything less than 42 is good, so I aim for the next year to decrease it to at least down to 40-41. Reaching 48 means that diabetes is diagnosed. Weight went down from 89 to 84 in the last 12 months, so this is fine. Cholesterol is up, especially triglycerides who are 2.9 mmol/L when the normal is between 0 and 1.6. This should be solved quickly. They also did my blood pressure, which was normal this time, 85/119, so no issues here.

The strategy for this is not difficult, implying more what I need to avoid, than what I need to eat, basically stopping the sugar intake and simple carbohydrates, and going more towards natural complex carbs (wholemeal instead of white flour, pasta, etc). A bit of honey is good if I stop eating sweets. Going to the gym and being physically active is also a must, as sleeping properly for 7-8 hours. That should do it. As for life hacks, sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes and eating more pomegranate should help with insulin resistance, funny enough, even my doctor knows that those two helps, even if they do not know why. I wonder if there is some research already done on this matter. I will check.

Other than that, I am starting work tomorrow, with 4 12 hours shifts in the next 5 days. This will be tiring, but needs to be done. Talking about perspective, while most of my acquaintances see work as a necessary evil, I am going to work happy, knowing that each day doing my job will get me closer to my final aim, financial independence, and never work again, unless I want to. The initial plan was to reach there at age of 47, but Covid, Brexit, and the global crisis seem to push this close to my 50 unless I get lucky.

And to close my post with a little bit of English humor, I was going to the garage to put some stuff inside, and the neighbor was in his garage too. We greet each other, and he is like:
-Nice weather for this time of the year!
-Beautiful, I replied.
Except that it was raining, that fine rain that gets you wet all the way to the skin. But then, in English logic, at least we don't have snow and ice. So then, the weather is nice for January.

See you later!
George