I don’t want to wait to be 70 to finally take that six-months-long trip to Peru I’ve always wanted to take. I don’t want to be caught by surprise by some unexpected expense that forces me to use my credit card (for the joy of my bank). I don’t want my life to be ruled by irrational decisions pushed on me by today’s consumer society. I want to be in control of my own time and my own future.
This is why this section exists.
I opened this site to provide research-based knowledge to people in Europe and around the world who share the same goal as me. That part of the site stays exactly as it is: researched, neutral, no diary mixed into your reading. Field Notes is where the frameworks collide with a real life. Mine. This section is going to be more personal: I will talk about my situation, my thought process, my objectives, and a bit of my life in general.
Some info about me: I’m 35, Italian, working as a consultant in Spain on a normal European salary. Five-figure savings, no house, no tech money, no course to sell you, no help from mum and dad. By influencer standards: unimpressive. By the standards of anyone actually trying to buy back their time on a European payslip: this is what the real thing looks like.
I haven’t made it yet; I’m mid-climb. I track every euro I spend, and I’ve built a system where an AI assistant turns one messy monthly note into a full financial close — spending by category, cash flow, savings rate, even company-like financial statements (it’s fun, in its own way, and also instructive). My money is pre-split into named buckets so saving happens before I can negotiate with myself. Some months the numbers make me proud; some tell me there is some fine-tuning to be done.
I love learning new things, and I strive to be a better person every day; I’ll share what I learn hoping it will also be of interest to you: books that change a number in my plan, systems I build so discipline isn’t required, experiments that work, and the ones that cost me money to find out. Here you will find real decisions with real trade-offs, like the one I’m weighing right now, between a camper van (freedom this year) and investing harder (freedom sooner).
That’s the deal, then: I learn, I test things with my own money, and I share it here hoping some of it is useful to you too. And one last, honest admission: writing in public also keeps me accountable — a plan you keep in a drawer is easy to abandon; one you publish is not. If you’re mid-climb too, come back — and check on me.