I started running a bath, then came back into the study to finish writing an e-mail. When I went back into the bathroom, I noticed that the water from the tap has dislodged the plug from the plughole and all the hot water was merrily draining away. That left me with the option of either having a bath in two inches of tepid water, or waiting another hour for my senile boiler to cook up another batch of steaming hot water.
It felt like a metaphor for my current financial situation, so I decided that the universe was encouraging me to write another chapter.
So, where was I? Ah, yes.
I finally had enough pain to motivate me to take action and improve my financial situation. I had a cast iron resolve. I started to scrutinise my finances in detail for the first time in my life (something that I will expand upon in another chapter), and I began to tighten my belt.
I immediately hit some fundamental issues, though. My fixed costs (rent, utilities, travel, et cetera) are too high as a percentage of my income for me to realistically achieve the 70% / 20% / 10% mantra straight away. (I could probably scrape through if I lived like a monk but there is a quiet voice in me that says, "I would rather be poor and happy.") So I have taken a pragmatic view instead; and I have defined five separate stages in my financial development.
Historically, I have not saved anything (or, if I did, it was short lived) therefore all of my money was effectively going on living expenses.


Over the next 1-3 years, I want to reduce the proportion of my income that I spend on living costs, significantly increase the amount that goes into the "Dream Bucket", and slightly increase the amount that I give to charity.

Ultimately, I want to increase the amount that I give to charity at the expense of the money that I save into my "Dream Bucket".

A lot of the books I have read suggest that you should donate 10% of your income to charity (which stems from the traditional Christian practice of tithing). This is something that I find hard to relate to right now but I have included it in the hope that it triggers me to a higher level of understanding.