Review: RESET by David Sawyer
RESET is book aimed at mid-life professionals who feel as if they are in a rut and and want to get their lives back under control. I was kindly offered a review copy by the author, David Sawyer, so here are my thoughts about it…
The full title of the book is RESET: How to Restart Your Life and Get F.U. Money. By the latter, David means enough money so that you can say – er – “So long” to your employer if your job is causing you undue stress. The book does, though, emphasize that RESET doesn’t necessarily involve quitting your job, if you enjoy it and it is aligned with your personal goals and values.
RESET is available from Amazon in both hard copy and Kindle e-book versions. The printed version – which I received – amounts to quite a substantial 337 pages (plus a further 34 pages of preliminaries with Roman numbering!). The bulk of the book is arranged in six main sections, as follows:
1. What Matters to You?
2. Going Digital: How to Future-Proof Your Career
3. De-Clutter Your Life
4. Getting F.U. Money – a Plan
5. 11 Core Principles to Guide You in Work and in Life
6. 12 Do’s and Don’ts
Each section is divided into chapters. Part 4, Getting F.U. Money – a Plan, is the longest by some way and divided into 17 chapters. David is a PR professional, and as you might expect his book (which is published under the imprint of his PR company) is well written and presented.
RESET promotes, broadly speaking, the philosophy advocated by the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. FIRE has been largely driven by some influential (mainly US-based) online bloggers.
The general idea of FIRE is that you seek to achieve financial independence at as early an age as possible, by simplifying your life, living more frugally, saving money and investing. The aim is to build up a substantial ‘pot’ of money that you can then use to buy yourself time and freedom. The ultimate aim – in many cases anyway – is to give up your job and retire early.
That doesn’t mean just joining the pipe and slippers brigade, though. It will typically involve spending more time enjoying life with loved ones, and working on projects that you enjoy and are important to you. These might involve anything from starting your own business to pursuing a hobby or interest, learning a new skill to doing voluntary work for a cause close to your heart.
As a money blogger myself I was familiar with quite a few of the concepts set out in the book, but David has done an impressive job of researching them and bringing them together in a highly accessible (and entertaining) way. As a semi-retired 62-year-old freelance writer I am not really in David’s main target readership, but I did still pick up some valuable tips and resources that I shall be using in my own life.
If you are a mid-career professional (roughly speaking between 35 and 60) and feeling stuck in a rut, this book will open your eyes to a range of strategies for regaining control of your life. You may not agree with every piece of advice David offers (I don’t share all his views about investment, for example) but you will almost certainly gain a lot of valuable, actionable tips and ideas. At the very least, it will open your eyes to a method that is increasingly being adopted by people on both sides of the Atlantic to take back control of their lives and achieve their long-term goals.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about RESET, please do post them below.
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