Moving to Cumbria Didn't Change Our Lives—The Decision We Made 16 Years Earlier Did
Published September 2026
Recently, my wife Emma and I packed everything we owned into a 7.5-tonne lorry and moved over 300 miles from Whitstable in Kent to Wigton in Cumbria.
Friends naturally asked the same question.
"Why Cumbria?"
It's a fair question.
But the more interesting question isn't why we moved.
It's how we were able to.
The Move Wasn't the Big Decision
To many people, moving hundreds of miles away from friends, family and familiarity seems like a huge life decision.
In reality, the decision that made the move possible happened sixteen years earlier.
That was when we decided to begin building a business that produced recurring income rather than relying entirely on earned income.
At the time, we weren't thinking about Cumbria.
We were simply trying to create more security, more flexibility and more options for the future.
You Rarely Know Which Decisions Will Matter Most
Life has a habit of revealing the importance of decisions years after you've made them.
When I began building residual income, I certainly wasn't imagining a house move sixteen years later.
I simply knew I didn't want every future decision to depend entirely on one source of income.
Looking back, that mindset proved to be one of the most valuable investments we ever made.
What Residual Income Really Gives You
People often assume residual income is about earning more money.
Money certainly helps.
But after many years of building it, I've come to believe that money isn't actually the greatest benefit.
The greatest benefit is choice.
Choice about where you live.
Choice about how you spend your time.
Choice about what comes next.
Those choices are often worth far more than the income itself.
Building Before You Need It
One of my favourite sayings is:
"Don't wait until you're thirsty to start digging your well."
This move reminded me exactly why that principle matters.
You don't build financial resilience because you know exactly what the future holds.
You build it because you don't.
Sixteen Years Is a Long Time
If someone had told me in 2010 that the work we were doing then would help make a move like this possible in 2026, I'd probably have smiled politely.
Life simply doesn't work like that.
You can't predict the exact rewards.
You can only keep making good decisions and trust that they will compound over time.
Final Thoughts
Standing in our new home surrounded by unpacked boxes, I realised something.
The move wasn't really the achievement.
It was simply the visible result of a decision made many years earlier.
We often overestimate what we can achieve in a year.
We massively underestimate what can change over ten or fifteen years when we consistently build something that creates value beyond today.
That's the real lesson this move has taught me.