Hi,
I know this is a finance sub, but I feel my post is definitely something people here might be able to help me with so please don't delete. I'll preface the post by saying that I have the ambition of being FI and ideally retire by age 50.
Quick intro :
-32M, live in France. Dual national UK/french.
-Career : I own a small business and have done for the past 12 years. I do decently well. I pay myself a living wage and my business balance sheet grows 50k-80k every year. Finances are pretty good for my age. Own my house (250k€) and decent equity in my business (250k€), some investments (100k€) etc, total about 650k€ Currently working on an MBA also
-Relationship: recently broke up with long term gf of 7 years because I had become disillusioned and not hopeful about our future together.
My problem: I'm not happy. I think I'm lonely. I run my business alone, I live in the countryside and whilst it's very calm and relaxing, it's also lonely. I don't have neighbours. My customers are mostly older people. I rarely interact with people my own age outside of my few friends, but I don't see them that often because we all live in different places now and it's not easy to get together (plus we're getting to that age where several of them have families). I don't live near a decent size city. Maybe relevant anecdote : Recently I was on a work trip in china and I was staying in a big city. Maybe it was just the novelty but it was so invigorating to step outside my hotel and there were people, things going on, places to see and things to do just a short distance away. I feel isolated and lonely where I am. I say this as a generally introverted person.
I have hobbies but they are mainly thing I do myself. If I lived in a place with higher population density I could find clubs etc where I could share in my interests with other people but it's not possible where I am.
I don't know whether I'm being stupid and i should make the best of my situation because it's actually a pretty good one, or whether my life would be better if I made a big change. Are there changes I can make to my current situation that could fix it or are the problems inherent to my living situation?
I have been seriously thinking about selling everything and moving somewhere new. However my business would be difficult to run outside of my current location so it would mean starting over.
What I want in life : New experiences in all aspects of life. I want a family in the medium term (before I'm 40) Financial stability is very important to me. I think I'm on track to retire at 50 if I play my cards right.
Is there anybody here who has made a change similar to the one I am describing? How did it work out for you?
32M, unfulfilled and lonely in my current situation
byu/ThrowRA-Depth2067 infinancialindependence
Posted by ThrowRA-Depth2067
1 Comment
I am not in a position to give you much advice. Our situations are pretty different. However, I was pretty lonely at various points in my life. It was often difficult to envision any path to a brighter future. However, somehow things got better. Like stumbling through the dark and suddenly finding the light switch. Hang in there. Keep trying. I am confident it will get better for you eventually. Feel free to DM me.