So been having a mini-slow-burn awakening of sorts over the last few weeks...

Have realised that 95% of my mental dialogue is repetitive, trivial, unproductive and uncreative.

I've realised this primarily by finding Eckhart Tolle on the web...

I've spent way too much time playing around with finances in my head... projecting myself forward into the future financially etc. In other words, making my daily life now subserviant to some far-off concept of Financial Independence/Retirement from Day-Job.

I've been letting the glorious moments of the present day past by without notice because I've been blinkered by the idea that having 100,000 in savings (for example) will make my life complete.

So have made a few small changes:

I was planning to be debt-free by next April. The only debt I have is a Bank Loan. The current balance is 4442 euro and the last monthly payment is due to be made in October 2010. I've decided to let the Bank Loan run it's course until Oct 2010.

I've taken 1000 out of my Cash-Savings and put it into my checking account as a buffer/overdraft to myself. I won't include this 1000 in any Net Worth-type calculations - it will be there as a buffer to save me from going overdrawn if anything unforeseen happens.

I'm not going to think of my car as an asset. Mainly because it depreciates every month and I don't like having assets that go down in value monthly. Also while it does give me a lot of freedom to travel, it costs me money as opposed to giving me money.

I've separated my Retirement Savings from my Bank Savings and Shares. Mainly because my Retirement Savings can't be accessed now/won't provide me an income for many years to come - so I don't want to think of them as assets until the day they start giving me an income. I'll keep contributing to them to avail of the tax-break.

Targets - I'm doing away with them. My life will not undergo a major transformation when my savings reach 20,000, 50,000 or 100,000 - and a lot of things unfinancial in nature will happen along the way - I could find a partner, have children, move abroad, change job etc etc These life-experience things will enrich my life far more than reaching a certain financial target.

I'm not saying I'm going to throw caution to the wind financially - I'm not. I'm just going to live my money life month to month. My current monthly budget will my primary financial thought process - as long as I am spending/saving this month's income according to my best interests, there really is nothing more I can do.

All the habitual playing around with numbers/worrying about numbers will not add an iota to life.