Project ANGELFISH | Financial Independence and Seeking Happiness

Project Angelfish - Gloves Off

THE.FUTURE: "Take that MUFF!"
HYPE.IT.UP: "MUFF has been FLOORED! Can he get up again?"
Well, being a full time dad has its little challenges. Young children are notorious for colds and illnesses. They have been kind enough to pass them around. From chicken pox for the kids yours truly felt sorry for them and developed mild shingles.
Ah London... what great things to see, do and CATCH!!!! Next up THE.FUTURE throws a low blow with the London norovirus. It has been over the news in the UK and we were one of its victims.
 This highlights the impact of living in a high density city. The occurrences of these nasty bugs  has been increasing (in MUFF's opinion). The mass transport system carries hundreds of thousands of packed commuters each day spreading their germs around. Kids meet their friends from other schools at the play ground and other public areas we frequent such as the library.
Is this storing up issues for THE.FUTURE?

BBC Headline 11th March 2013

Diet and alternative medicines help to recover from these nasty bugs. From a prevention standpoint as a family we use anti bacterial hand washes and gels and disinfect work surfaces. Perhaps our ultimate protection is leaving the damp, overpopulated city of London for the countryside. Let's see what THE.FUTURE has in store for us then!
In this post we are going to have a look at a New Project called Angelfish 
and what it has in store for us
Project Angelfish
The blogs first project MUFFLER | My Unconventional Life and Early Retirement created a tool kit called PERL | Plan for Early Retirement and Life; with the following goals

1. Build a strategy for financial independence and life goals
2. Create short, medium and long term plans to obtain financial independence, plan continuous education, look after our health and get a grasp of what happiness could look like for us.

This first project came with a spreadsheet planning tool that can be found here and a user guide that can be downloaded here.
A first attempt it was. Time to take it to the next level by spending a few months tearing it to pieces and putting it back together again. Will this planning tool be more useful to those who seek to plan their next move towards financial Independence and happiness?
It will be interesting to look at how business skills can be used in everyday life. At its core what really leads to happiness? Damned if I or anyone else knows but we can have a look at a few things that can contribute to a happy existence.
Introducing - ANGELFISH | Another New Gadget to Encourage Learning for Financial Independence and Seeking Happiness (or another silly acronym if you like).

This is to flesh out the content of PERL. Get into the murky depths to find a new FISH | Financial Independence and Seeking Happiness.

Well fight fans here we are for the next title fight with THE.FUTURE please read on for the round-by-round fight plan:

1. Project management
1. PART I - An introduction to Business Project Management and why it is useful for planning Financial independence and Happiness. 
2. PART II - This post will introduce two business project management templates and look at how they will improve FISH.  
3. PART III will have a look at their use in a couple of financial independence example situations.
    
2. Bibliotheque - Lots of books are used in the planning tool that need to be listed - it needs some work. Books are great, they are nice to pick up, feel, smell and spend blissful hours reading well the fiction books are at least! Real knowledge comes from the hard to read sometimes dull knowledge books. Why would I ever read that?
   Some books such as The Black Swan and Antifragile by Nicholas Taleeb and Paper Money Collapse by Detlev Schlichter are challenging. You need time to read these books and think hard about the message they are conveying. Surely it is better than consumerist TV, mind numbing talent contests and soap operas which are of no use to your life? Non-fiction books really do help to developing your own real talents.
   MUFF hopes a couple of books will catch your eye and hopefully they will be available at your local library for free. The purpose of the bibliotheque is to provide the foundation knowledge that is cherry picked for the FISH tool.
    
3. Rules Rules Rules - Don't you just hate them? Don't do this. Don't do that. Do not walk on the grass! Governments like to tinker and make everyone's lives more complicated. Time to revisit the 30 rules of financial independence expand the list for happiness and add them into FISH. Delete and add your own rules as you see fit - these are your own personal rules not set by someone else. Perhaps you might end up following them :o)
   
4. Checklists
1. Personal Development
2. Challenges for children
3. Happiness activities
4. Moving house and country
5. Financial evaluation
    
5. Habits - What habits relate to financial independence and happiness? What habits are missing? What softer happiness interpersonal, chill out, stress free habits might be worth developing?
    
6. Market Analysis - MUFF frequently visits several discussion boards and financial websites. Seeking Alpha is currently a favorite. They send out big picture articles (macro analysis) on the overall state of the economies and investment trends daily. So this section is related more to data gathering, analysis and critical thinking.
   It is easy to think we are right as human beings. We are emotional people and back our instincts. The best investors are objective and have no attachment to their holdings - they are there to make money through great companies at cheap valuations and good future prospects.
    
7. Investment strategy investigation - All good investors have a solid strategy. In this area this are the strategies I have been looking at for my investments from several of the greatest investors of all time. THE.PAST is littered with bull markets, opportunities, ruin and financial catastrophes. How have the best investors down the years managed to flourish? To top off the learnings from this section what is our family doing to protect our wealth.
   Most of the time our instincts are correct unfortunately getting it wrong when investing can lead to ruin. For example gold has been in a bull market for 12 years it will end sometime in the future. You cannot become attached to it you need an exit strategy or a hedge. What would Benjamin Graham or Warren Buffet do? How do we effectively analyze opportunities?
    
8. Brainstorming - this is a great skill to practice. Opening the mind to alternative ideas no matter how silly or stupid can be fun, self edifying, enlightening and challenging. Doing this on a regular basis can be philosophical and help put things into perspective - what really matters in life once the simple things are in place? What are the activities that really make me and my family happy?
    
9. Mind mapping - Got an idea? Great! Let's work out what we can do with it. Outcome planning - work with the end in mind is a very powerful tool. Visualizing the end result or objective makes it easier to define the steps to get there. Mind mapping takes one of the brainstorming activities and looks at what is needed to achieve the goal (or even discount it). A mind map can then lay the foundation for a set of smaller goals or skills that are needed for THE.FUTURE.
    
10. Last but not least - The Pursuit of Happiness - Maslow's Pyramid - What about the higher self actualization of Maslow's Pyramid. This guy was seriously clever with an IQ of 195. It will be interesting to have a look at humility, acceptance of who you are, listening and being constructive with other peoples opinions or just keep quiet. What are the main qualities and how can habits be developed in these areas - MUFF really needs to work at them.

THE FUTURE: "Is that all you got MUFF - Pfffff! Pathetic attempt to avoid the big fight!"
SPEND.IT.NOW: "You are wasting your time - everyone looses with their investments. Only the pros win. The game is rigged. Go out buy some plastic gizmo today, inflation will just erode your savings over time!"
THE.PRESENT: "Live now MUFF what happens if THE.FUTURE really takes you out it is really likely isn't it? The news is full of all this bad stuff, bombs, bugs, accidents, heart diseases etc. Go on holiday, chill out and relax and everything will be OK there is no need to worry about THE.FUTURE when you are here with me THE.PRESENT"
MUFF: "La La La I'm not listening to you. MNuff said!"
Peace and prosperity
MUFF
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