Back in August 2019, my blissful bachelorette living situation was turned upside down when my sister and nephew moved in with me following their relocation back to the UK.
I’d been happily living on my own for around 12 years so it was a big change to my life and lifestyle.
Actually, it was a big change for everyone, since the last time us siblings had lived under the same roof, we had been squabbling teenagers.
Anyway, all will be quiet again for me as by the beginning of next month, they will have moved out as my sis has bought a house and I will be all on my own again.
I have mixed feelings about this.
All Change Again
It’s all very well me thinking that I would have been alright during lockdown had I been on my own but the reality is that I’ve been extremely grateful that I had some family around me during the worst of the pandemic, particularly as I’ve been unable to travel to see other members of the family (I last saw my parents and my Gran in summer 2018…).
I believe the COVID situation was made a lot more bearable having others in the house – a couple of my friends who are on their own have really struggled with coping with isolation and are a lot more desperate for things to return to normal.
Anyway, in the same way that I had to prepare myself mentally to live with other people again back in 2019, I will need to prepare myself for living on my own again.
Yes, of course I will miss them and their company, but in a way, I’m also looking forward to being back on my own again, with my own quiet space, doing my own thing.
My sister’s new home is less than 15 mins away in the car so not so far that I can’t just pop round to see them (or vice versa).
I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with, to get to know and to see my nephew mutate from a little boy into a gruff-voiced (though still very chatty) teenager.
I’ll miss my sister’s cooking (I’ll be going round to theirs for the odd Sunday roast!) but also relish going back to cooking for myself again – I have a few more recipes in my personal cookbook now compared to before!
I think the first few nights after they have moved out will feel rather weird.
The Psychology of Money
On an unrelated topic to the above (I’m squashing two draft posts into one), one of my goals this year is to read four non-fiction books – easy for some but not for me as I far prefer to spend my spare time getting lost in fiction.
Anyway, 1 book down, 3 more to go, as I recently read ‘The Psychology of Money‘ by Morgan Hounsel (it was on my Christmas wishlist and a member of my family kindly obliged!).
I thought this book was easy to read and digest, full of interesting stories, anecdotes, wisdom and great advice.
It’s not often that I enjoy reading educational/informative books but I did enjoy this one.
Not all of the stuff was new to me but it was nice to be reminded of it and to re-learn.
I won’t give any spoilers as I’d recommend that people pick it up to read but the chapters intriguingly include:
- Luck & Risk: nothing is as good or as bad as it seems
- Never Enough: when rich people do crazy things
- Confounding Compounding: $81.5 billion of Warren Buffett’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday
The book reminded me that all this FIRE stuff goes far beyond just numbers on my spreadsheets, because us humans are such complex creatures with complicated relationships with money.
Despite these lessons however, I’ll probably continue to make some mistakes with my money – the key is just to not so many mistakes!
A book to keep and re-read.
Thanks for the book recommendation it sounds interesting. I am also more of fiction bookworm, so need non-fiction titles to be easy to digest as well as informative 🙂
I recently read and enjoyed ‘Enough’ by John Bogle – worth a read if you haven’t already. I suspect his idea of ‘enough’ is quite different from mine, but never the less, very different from most of the financial world.
Hi Wombat
Thanks for the recommend, am a big fan of Bogle but not read any of his books (yet).
Agree, everyone’s ‘enough’ is different!
Thanks for stopping by – I see you have a blog so I will swing by to see what your ‘enough’ is! 🙂
Thanks for flagging up the book weenie. I have followed Morgan Housel for some time…I think when he was writing articles for Motley Fool back in the day. One of my favourite quotes – “some good advice is simple but it’s made complicated because professionals can’t charge fees for simple stuff”.
Hope the move goes well and you soon make the re-adjustment.
Hi diy
Yes, I think there were a few bits in the book which I thought I might have read previously on his blog but it was worth reading them again!
Love that quote and thanks for the kind wishes.
Read it recently too and also liked it. It’s all nicely summarized and easy to read, he does seem to have quite a FI mentally, which made me connect with another since page number one.
I am sure you’ll be ok on your own once readapted. Hopefully, we are learner the last weeks of lockdown for good!
Cheers Tony – glad you enjoyed it too and yes, looking forward to the easing of lockdown at last!
“Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems” – I think I could take this advice in my life outside of personal finance too tbh, especially recently. Nice book recommendation, I’ll see if I can find it when Waterstones opens back up 🙂
Hi AMM
I totally agree, that quote can be useful in all aspects of life!
I love pretty much anything Housel writes and that book is on my wishlist but the 3 chapters you’ve highlighted sound suspiciously like blog posts I’ve already read of his. I hope the book is not just one of those blog posts smashed into a book type of thing?!
I can totally understand your mixed feelings on your sis and nephew moving out. It will feel eerily quiet for a while until you get used to your new / back to the old normal again won’t it.
It was similar to when my daughter recently went back to school after 3 months of being at home. I was looking forward to regaining some time back in the day, but when it happened the house seemed empty without her. It’s amazing how loud little people can be
Good luck with it all, as always
Hey TFS
I recognised some of Hounsel’s stuff from his blog but haven’t seen any negative reviews to state that the book is just a regurgitation of those posts.
Cheers and yes, I think it will be similar – that said, it means I can fill the quiet with my music again; sis normally has the tv on and that’s not something I will miss!