When a No-Touch Plan Meets a Better Idea

There’s a special kind of chaos that happens when a perfectly reasonable financial plan collides with a shiny new idea.
A small twitch.
A gentle itch.
A whispering voice saying, “But what if…?”

This was the beginning of my latest Financial Fail — or, depending on how charitable we’re being — my latest quietly sensible upgrade.

I had a six-month no-touch financial plan in place.
A good one.
A grown-up one.
One specifically designed so I wouldn’t tinker, optimise, or rearrange my money the moment I got bored.

And for three solid months, I held. Iron-willed. Unbothered. Disciplined. Practically a monk.

Then Monzo said two words that turned me into financial mush:

“Five percent.”

In today’s low-interest world, 5% is basically the financial version of a forbidden romance. Slightly reckless, entirely exciting, and guaranteed to stir up trouble in even the most stable of systems.

So yes — I touched the plan.

But let me tell you how it happened.

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The No-Touch Rule I Thought I Could Actually Stick To

I should start by admitting something: I am a recovering perfectionist.
Not in most areas of life — I can happily let dishes air-dry, emails rest unread, and laundry wait until “a better mood.” But when it comes to finances? Oh, that’s where my inner overachiever emerges with a clipboard, a colour-coded spreadsheet, and a slightly judgmental eyebrow.

So when I sketched out my six-month no-touch challenge, I meant it.
A total freeze.
No tweaks.
No upgrades.
No “quick improvements.”
Just set, forget, and live in the boring middle.

The boring middle is supposed to be peaceful.
In theory, it’s where your systems do the heavy lifting while you quietly get on with your life.
In reality, it’s a test of how long you can stand a lack of financial drama.

It’s also exactly where things fall apart for recovering perfectionists.
Because when everything is working…
and nothing needs fixing…
suddenly every new idea looks like a potential improvement.

Which brings us back to Monzo, and the day my self-control met a financial siren.

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Enter the Siren: A 5% Savings Account That Outsmarted My Mortgage

There I was, minding my business, scrolling through updates, when I saw it:

Monzo launches new savings challenge: earn 5% AER.

5%.
Five.
Percent.

In this economy, that’s basically a unicorn wearing a top hat.

This wasn’t just a savings account. It was a challenge — the kind where you save 1p on day one, 2p on day two, 3p on day three, and so on. A sweet, harmless little behavioural nudge.

Except now you could choose the 4× version, meaning 4p, 8p, 12p… you get the idea.

Cute.
Fun.
Low effort.

And then I saw the interest rate: 5% AER, which is — somewhat outrageously — more than my mortgage rate.

In other words: I would literally be making money by funnelling pennies into a gamified savings pot.

Do you see the problem?

This wasn’t temptation.
This was a loophole.
A delicious one.

A financial siren calling me toward the rocks of optimisation.

And suddenly, the no-touch plan felt less like discipline… and more like stubbornness.

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My 24-Hour Debate With Myself

I had exactly one day to decide.
Monzo was opening the challenge on the 1st of January, clearly hoping to catch all the “new year, new finances” crowd — and, inconveniently, people like me who had sworn not to change a thing.

The next 24 hours were basically a one-person psychological experiment:

Logic:
You made a promise.
You can’t break it.
Stay committed.
This is about discipline, not pennies.

Curiosity:
But… 5%?

Discipline:
No.
Stop it.

Recovering Perfectionist:
If you fail once, will you ever reach FI?
This is how it begins.

Bored Optimiser Gremlin:
Yeah but… 5%.
Faster than the mortgage.
This is good maths.

Existential Voice:
Am I sabotaging my future or participating in a fun little financial game?
Hard to tell at this point.

There was guilt.
There was annoyance.
There was the creeping awareness that I might be three months into a six-month challenge and already breaking my own rules.

But there was also a spark.
A tiny one.
The kind that whispers, “What if this is okay?”

By the evening, I had a headache and a slightly melodramatic sense of doom.

By the next morning, I had a Monzo savings pot.

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Did I Actually Fail… or Just Human My Way Through FI?

Calling this a Financial Fail is both accurate and misleading.

On paper, I failed.
I touched the plan.
I broke a rule.
The recovering perfectionist in me felt the sting of it.
Three months of willpower undone by a shiny 5% headline.

But if you zoom out — and compare not to my personal sample size of one, but to the actual population — well, I’m still doing better than roughly 98% of people when it comes to managing my money.

Still, comparing yourself to others is never the point in FI.
The point is the plan.
The discipline.
The systems.

And yet… the human side of FI is full of these moments:
micro-wobbles, small temptations, tiny upgrades that hijack our sense of identity as “disciplined people.”

So is this a fail?
A win?
A lesson?

Honestly, it’s a bit of all three:

• Fail: I touched my financial plan.
• Win: I gained access to a legitimately good 5% rate.
• Lesson: Don’t reduce the plan — but if an improvement feels overwhelming, pivot back to simplicity.

The biggest fear I had was that breaking the rule would trigger a slippery slope:

“What if I start changing everything?
What if I fall into optimisation hell?
What if I undo months of progress?”

But do you know what happened?

Nothing.

Truly nothing.

Not a single part of me could be bothered to scour Google for more optimisations. The fear was real, but the laziness was stronger.

And honestly?
Iconic behaviour.

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The Boring Middle and the Beauty of Staying 98% On Track

The funny thing about the boring middle is that it’s actually where you build real wealth.
Not in the tweaks.
Not in the optimising.
Not in the shiny accounts.

It’s in the repeatable, almost dull rhythm of:

Earn → Live well → Save → Invest → Go for a walk → Sleep → Repeat.

Your systems carry you.
Your routines cushion you.
Your consistency builds everything quietly behind the scenes.

One tiny deviation doesn’t break the spell.

If anything, it reminds you you’re human — and humans are messy, curious creatures who occasionally get excited about a 5% interest rate like it’s a new season of their favourite show.

And here’s the part I find oddly comforting:

I didn’t remove anything from my plan.
I just added a little side quest.

The core remains untouched.
The structure stands.
The boring middle continues.

A recovering perfectionist hates deviation.
But a financially wise human knows a 98% track record is basically perfection in real-world terms.

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So… Should I Turn It Off? (The Debate Continues)

Even now, part of me wonders whether I should shut the whole thing down and return to simplicity.

Because the truth is: simplicity is my FI compass.
Fewer accounts.
Fewer decisions.
Fewer moving parts.

But optimisation is seductive.
And 5%?
Well… that’s basically foreplay for finance people.

So I sit in the tension — between wanting everything tidy and wanting everything slightly better.

And maybe that’s the whole point of FI.
Not perfection.
Not discipline to the point of rigidity.

Just… awareness.
Experimentation.
The ability to laugh at yourself when you inevitably wobble.

You can be committed and curious.
Disciplined and human.
Focused and slightly dramatic when your favourite bank app dangles a shiny carrot.

You are allowed to be all of it.

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A Gentle Close

The funny thing about financial independence is that it teaches you as much about yourself as it does about money. The spreadsheets matter, yes — but the mental stories matter just as much.

There’s a quiet honesty in realising:
“I made a tiny change I wasn’t supposed to make… and the world didn’t fall apart.”

Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do on the FI path is recognise that you’re not a machine. You’re a human with curiosity, hope, habits, limits, impulses, and the occasional soft spot for a high-interest savings gimmick.

And maybe that’s not a failure at all.
Maybe it’s just the lived reality behind a long-term plan:
a meandering, imperfect, mostly-on-track journey that still gets you exactly where you’re going.

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Gentle Questions for the Road

• Where do your own financial systems wobble when a shiny new idea calls your name?
• What does “good enough” look like in your own money life — and how often do you let that be enough?
• If you zoom out, what’s the bigger picture your small “failures” actually reveal about your progress?
• And finally: which wins more often for you — optimisation or peace?