Personal Summary For 2015
Family:-
Family life is magnificent. A few years ago I did not know it was possible to love fellow human beings as much as I love my family (I did not love myself so how could I really?). Now I feel a connection and fulfillment in family life that words cannot express.
Friends:-
Due to my year of 100+ hour working weeks I became a bit separate from some of my friends. I guess that just helped me realise which ones are the most important to me. I have evolved and changed at such a rapid rate over the last few years it is difficult for me to know exactly who I want to be close friends with or indeed what I want from them or to give to them so time will tell what circles I move in. Suffice to say the people I enjoy spending my time with seem to be mostly the same people as before anyway!
Finances:-
This was the year I finally took note of money and its real part/value in life. Previously I had no respect for money (distaste in fact). As a family we now live using cash with almost zero use of any credit (in our day-to-day spending). I have some small debts to pay off on credit cards (mostly arisen through laziness/lack of respect) but nothing I consider substantial. In a way I am cash poor even though I have a decent income but I must always remember that one reason for this was my decision to use debt and leverage to expand my property portfolio (see below). I also cannot lose sight of the fact that I live in a very nice area in a very nice house and we have a very good life situation!
Property Portfolio:-
I have not actually added any properties to my portfolio this year but I do have an offer accepted on another house which has been going through for over 3 months now!
Not including this new property and also not including the house I live in (I would not consider where I live a financial asset as it does not generate income) I own property worth approximately £660,000. Outstanding mortgages on these properties is approximately £480,000.
When I look at that I am super pleased with the equity I have behind me (£180,000), the potential for capital growth on the £660,000 (this is the main attraction of property - that you get growth on the property value NOT just on your own money) and then on top of this there is the rental income (something I am aware of but largely ignore as I reinvest it all).
The rental income has been the most interesting factor this year. The UK government is about to hit landlords with some tax increases and new legislation. This has made me look hard at my rental income and has in fact caused me to find ways of making more money than I was previously! It is an exciting time and so long as I don’t fall into the “something for nothing” mindset and keep giving value then I am sure all will be fine.
Job:-
Not a lot changed here. One of my customers has brought a lot more business to the company I work for but it is not all in my particular area so not really any extra work for me.
My understanding of and compassion towards my fellow human beings has allowed me to now see my work colleagues in a totally different light to how I used to see them. I used to have a lot of resentment and resistance towards them and this caused me to become exactly like them and to become everything that I hated about them. That is all gone now and that means my relationship with my work is a good one.
I predict big changes at work over the next year. I am sure that they will all be for the best. 
Being on Coaching for Profits (poker) at BPC:-
The reason I joined CFP (in September 2014) was to learn how to make $10k per month playing poker. I left in October after 13 months and on that day of leaving I would not have described myself as even beating the games at NL50. So as far as “was my goal achieved?” it is a resounding “NO!”. However, 2015 has been a fantastic year for me personally. Mostly in terms of finding out a lot of things about myself and about life in general and I put a lot of it down to the whole experience of being in the CFP programme. So it was a positive experience for me (although I have the consciousness now to accept that things we might label as “bad” are all part of a greater good so take it how you will) and I will always be grateful for that experience. Whether I would recommend CFP to anybody else is a different question entirely
Negative money beliefs:-
I realised I had some deep rooted incorrect beliefs about money and rich people. “Money is the root of all evil” kind of thinking. When I asked Helen (my wife) if she thought this might be the case she replied “I have known you for over 20 years and it is obvious”! So I worked extremely hard to eliminate this belief, almost to the point of going too far, and now I feel I have found a very good level of understanding of the value of money and the part it plays in life. The most important part of this realisation was not, however, the removal of the belief itself but much much more important was the discovery of how our thoughts (or more specifically the thinkings of the egoic mind) can cause us great stress, pain and suffering. In fact it is working on the removal of this incorrect belief which has finally propelled me to live my life in the present with full consciousness and awareness rather than living in the past (or indeed the future) like I did before.
Enlightenment:-
I am unsure how to label this paragraph and enlightenment is the best word I can come up with. What I feel has happened to me deserves a word as “big” as this but then there is a small worry I could be overstating it too!
I will try to explain it briefly for the purposes of this article but I believe I could be explaining it in more detail to people for the rest of my days (and longer)!
I am no longer run by an ego or by my mind. I do not live in the future - for example I do not believe I have to own anything more in the future, or earn anything more or achieve anything more in order to become something that I am not already right now (of course this deserves many articles so will not be done any justice by these few sentences). I do not live in the past - for example I do not let events of the past have a negative influence over me, I believe that everything that has happened in the past has turned me into the person I am today (somebody who feels great peace inside) and that some of what I used to consider the worst things are in fact the things that pushed me nearer to this state of enlightenment (I believe that extreme “stress” or “suffering” will push you to a place where you finally see the truth, almost like people on their last week on death row who are apparently totally calm and at ease).
It is not necessary for me to say anything else about this at the moment. It will be something I talk about for a long time to come so if it interests you you will get to hear and read a lot more soon.
Sleep:-
I spent the first 8 months of the year (and at least the whole previous year too) living on 4.5 to 5 hours sleep per night. I do not recommend it! It is possible if you really need it for some reason but I spent a lot of that time operating at around 50% efficiency (guess of course). Fortunately my desire for self improvement (inner peace is a more accurate description) helped me find some great medical articles which helped me snap out of that way of life rather quickly!
Overall:-
A great year for me. Almost certainly my best year. Certain events of the past (marriage and children) are of course much more memorable life events but this was definitely the year I realised that LIFE and LIFE SITUATION are two different things. My LIFE SITUATION changed very little this year but my LIFE exploded into magnificence!
