Mr Fu Mon Chu just loves a new project. He is a laidback but enthusiastic kind of guy and I’ve been playing devil’s advocate to his ideas and plans during twenty years of marriage, and ten years of dating before that.
I’m always full of admiration for his enthusiasm (and simplistic optimism) about how his ideas and schemes are going to work out, but my role has, for the most part, been to ridicule and pick holes in them.
I call it applying the voice of reason. He calls it being negative. Our house is amazing but not as amazing as it might be if it were finished (but he just skims over those minor details!)
It was honestly no surprise to learn of his interest in FI. As a family, we’ve had many a holiday where Mr Fu Mon Chu sits sunning himself whilst Tim Ferris murmurs sweet nothings through his ear pods, and where we’ve watched Mr Fu browsing the musings of Mr Money Moustache… we’ve really tried not to get involved, to be honest. I quite like some of the principles and ideas (in theory) but riding here, there and everywhere on a pushbike, with a basket on the front, in the cold and wet north of England with six children in tow? That’s not tempting. So I just switched off (and nodded in all the right places) without really signing up for anything.
FI, then, really took me by surprise.
Initially I was my usual self, dismissing it as the latest procrastination tactic to avoid finishing the bathroom project he started in October….
I was honestly too busy to listen. I let him get on with immersing himself in the world of FI while I got on with organising Christmas, birthdays and the social lives of our children. I was probably a bit annoyed at how fascinated he was with it all when I was so damn busy!
my lightbulb moment!
So the podcasts were just an irritating background noise for a while. Slowly, though, I started to pick up on some of the things I was hearing. Strangely, I found myself agreeing with some of the things being said. That was a bit of a shock, if I’m honest. I’m not into self-help or anything which purports to be life-enhancing. I know my own mind. I actively ridicule such things… but here I was, nodding in agreement.
I am a natural cynic – so how come I was suddenly thinking about FI at random times of the day? What had happened to me?