Jr Adventurer
We were in the land of traffic jams and strip malls this summer, visiting family and friends who work for those big tech companies.
Over a glass of wine (or was it a bottle?) a friend popped the question… “So, you think you would be interested in working again? Our team is hiring… you could easily get a big salary and a juicy stock package.”
“Hmm, that sounds interesting“, I replied. “But I just don’t think I could find the time.”
This wasn’t a sufficient answer, I soon learned. (An aggressive type-A personality is a common trait amongst my Bay Area techie friends.)
“Can’t find the time!? But, what do you do all day?!”
What do you do all day?
I’ve been asked this question literally hundreds of times by now. And really, it is the wrong question.
A day is much too short of a time span to do anything. Take it easy; relax, man. I didn’t enjoy the structure while working, why would I impose it now?
But I suppose we do have a theme: we travel when we feel restless, relax when we need to recharge, and create when we feel inspired. Intertwined with everything we do, we are nurturing an energetic little (now almost 2 year old) adventurer.
Travel
We’ve been ambitious travelers as of late. Over 12 months we visited 16 countries across Europe, North America, and SE Asia. A healthy chunk of that was free or heavily discounted. In a few weeks we will return to Europe, where we will visit France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Greece, to start. This will bring the total in 5 years to 30, plus or minus.
This is our version of slow travel. We will settle in one location for weeks or months, and then go forth once again.
While we were working, Winnie used to make elaborate spreadsheets for our vacations. Time was precious. Now, our pace of travel ebbs and flows; there is really no need to rush. Some days we walk 10+ km exploring a city, others we don’t make it much further than the nearest playground adjacent coffee shop. Our commute is the occasional flight or train, but seldom enough that moving from point A to B is still enjoyable.
Based on 5 years of experience, the *right* amount of travel is in the range of 6 – 8 months per year. Let’s call it 1/2 (50%) versus the 1/12 (8%) we had before. More than that might be too much, because sometimes you need to…
Recharge
Listening to your body is something I’ve only recently experienced.
“Get out of bed, you’ll be late for school!”
“Listen, are you gonna have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?”
“Some jerkface manager can’t make a schedule, so now Saturday is mandatory to make up lost time.”
“You go to bed, Winnie, I have to finish this presentation for the exec review tomorrow.”
From an early age it seems that we are shaped to the world, rather the other way around. Those who fit the mold are a “good boy”, a “model student”, and a real “go getter.” Those who don’t will “never amount to anything.”
But… maybe I would be more interested in school if I slept for another couple hours.
Maybe instead of writing TPS reports, I would rather play guitar, read true stories of modern life, or… just do nothing.
Maybe I would be more productive if I didn’t come to work on Saturday. Or Friday. Or Thursday.
After a few years of experimentation, I think the right amount of annual laziness is 3 to 4 months. Isn’t that about the amount of time we had off of school as children?
Recharging goes remarkably well with travel. I can literally do nothing, anywhere.
And the lazier I get, the more inspired I become to…
Create
Raised in the Protestant work ethic, practicing the Art of Laziness felt weird at first. But I rather enjoy letting my hands be the devil’s workshop.
Winnie is much better at it than I am. She recently published her first book, a collection of travel stories and photos with a bit of financial voodoo mixed in. She has another in the works. (Both are in Chinese only, sorry.) She managed to do this while keeping me in line and even creating a whole other human being!
I’ve embraced my natural curiosity for how things work and applied it to getting free flights and hotels and hacking our taxes. Since I was figuring this stuff out anyway, I wrote a bunch of it down on the Internet; blogging has got to be one of the coolest creative releases ever invented. I’ve also occasionally lifted heavy things and recently started playing the ukulele, a nice little travel instrument.
If I had to do any of this stuff to get a grade or earn a living, or even on a fixed schedule, I would probably hate it. That adage of find what you love and you’ll never work a day never seemed accurate to me.
But engaging in productive activities is fun from time to time… maybe 2 to 3 months out of the year, but not consecutively.
Nurture
Jr has been our constant companion these past 2 years (and really, a few months longer than that.) Everything we do is through the lens of doing right by him.
He and I are good buds. I was there for his first breath, saw his first steps, and heard his first words. We play cars, read books, play the ukulele and sing songs, go swimming, and go on long bike rides under the airport flight path (our current bicycle is known as the “daddy car.”) Sometimes we get so exhausted that I’m forced to take a nap with him.
In many ways, parenting is a full time job. In other ways, it is not a job at all. But if I pause and look at the outside world for guidance, it appears that we could outsource this role so we could once again become respectable members of society.
I rather enjoy the current approach, however. It’s nice having the little guy underfoot.
Total time: 24/7/365, and then some
So I have to wonder…
How did I ever have time for a job?
Between traveling, recharging, and creating, it looks like I’m already trying to cram 15 months into each year.
Add parenting to that, and I’m severely over booked.
What do you do all day?
Like to travel? By far the best travel is free travel (imho.) See how we use credit card rewards programs to fly and stay for free.
Work on my figure by walk 10-15 km daily to recover from three months of USA hotel ‘ground hog breakfasts’. Would have been nice of USA had it seen fit to provide competitively priced self catering accommodation.
I’m a big fan of walking too. The only better way to explore a city is by bike
Serving sizes are definitely too big in the US of A. Those buffets are like feeding troughs.
‘Free’ breakfast and expensive and limited selection of non-sugary, non-preservative groceries suitable for taking bush resulted in excessive stoking up at breakfast to beat the hotels no-takeaway rules. Self catering options seem to have become more expensive in the Airbnb era in USA.
I retired early about 18 months ago at the age of 37. Now doing the relaxing and recharging and a bit of traveling in SE Asia, currently in Thailand. I would never go back to working a job again. Not only do I not have the time, but I have seen the light.
Living the dream, Andrew.
Lucky you, I discovered your blog 2 months ago, completly change my way of living. We are a couple of French (31 and 34 yrs old) people with a 6 months baby, working in Houston for almost 4 yrs now. Our target is to be retired in 10/11 years while my target was 60yrs before I read you.
Thanks a lot for all the tips. What you are doing in the US is impossible in France, my friends do not believe me when I tell them my goal.
Looking forward to be on the travel forever life like you.
Wonderful, this is very nice to hear.
People do say it is impossible in Europe, but you can see from the comments that there are plenty of people doing it nonetheless.
It is possible in Europe but on the whole just a bit harder than the US from what I can gather at least.
As usual depends on your exact situation and how much you are willing to switch up in your life to get to the line faster.
I think the people who think/ask what do you do all day have got a severe lack of imagination issue!
Lack of imagination is definitely a factor. I find that the people making this type of comment tend to be up in years, and have long stopped exercising their imagination muscle. They’ve just done the 9-5 for so long, that without it they have… nothing. Sad, really.
Dang, I am still working a ‘job’ and will likely be doing so another 10 years. However, I am living the place I’d wanted to retire to and my day gig is nice, not a bad gig at all. Still, being able to sleep in, exercise and take 30 day cruises is in my future. Enjoy this life, we only get one right?
Definitely a good way to look at life
Love this post! So inspiring. I work all day…. and am working hard to change that!
We are leaving for a bareboat sailing charter in Phuket on Friday. I have spent many hours planning possible routes through Phang-Nga Bay and the Andaman Sea. Guess what I have discovered? Eight nights is JUST NOT ENOUGH to sail Phang-Nga Bay. :) I am with you, I don’t have time for a job. Hopefully I will be leaving it in the dust in 2 short years!
Sounds like an awesome trip! 8 days is definitely not enough.
We did a 2-week charter in the BVIs many years ago, and are looking into one on the Dalmatian coast this summer (hoping this works out!)
Yeah I definitely don’t have time for a job. The cat, my hobbies, sports, rentals, blog, family, friends…. Some of those fall through the cracks because I simply don’t have time to do everything I want.
I’m exhausted just reading this
Hi, is there a way to email you questions directly and personally, instead of asking questions on a public comments list like here?
You can try the contact page.
I do my best to read all of the email we get, but I don’t always have time to reply.
After regular retirement, my mom has the same problem! No time… Great that in FIRE, you get the same.
Having read your story and the story of many others, i now also believe in slow travel. Rather than rush to see all highlights, let’s pace down. We will give it a first try this summer.
In case you have questions on what to do or not to do in Belgium, feel free to ask.
We would love some Belgium travel tips!
When we first started traveling, we had big plans to tour all of Mexico and Central/South America in the first year. 9 months later we were still in Mexico…
It seems so strange now that most people’s idea of retirement is sitting back and doing nothing. I’ll admit that used to be my view. But I can think of a million different things I would do to fill my time. I just don’t understand when people say they would be bored in retirement. Don’t you have any hobbies are things you want to accomplish outside of work?
I think many do not have hobbies. Work routine is all they know. So they retire and come back as consultants. Waste of precious time if you ask me.
It seems to me that the longer it takes for people to opt out of the socially provided life plan, the more likely they will be unable to find purpose or meaning outside of a job. Their creativity has atrophied due to decades of neglect.
“But I suppose we do have a theme: we travel when we feel restless, relax when we need to recharge, and create when we feel inspired.” Damn…this sounds like the life. I do find that when I have a time off from work, the time seems to disappear pretty easily. I can imagine financial independence would have a similar effect, but with more of a focus on the things that are actually important to you.
I guess you could say our life has been… optimized ;)
I think the great thing about FIRE is that you can free up the time to do things you enjoy and other passion. Yes they might not be monetary generating but it could be time consuming nevertheless.
That about sums it up
This is legitimately exactly what I dream of for FI, right down to estimating a few months of laziness to recharge.
Thank you for inspiring me – I’ll be good to go for at least a few weeks now. ;)
I’ve been toying with the idea of working part time for a while, or working out an arrangement at work where I might just work a few months here or there for extra security and pocket change. Not sure if that’s the best idea for long term happiness though.
I toyed with similar thoughts… work part time, work a different job with lower pay, have investments cover life’s necessities and then work to cover play and entertainment… I don’t think there is any one answer, but thinking about intermediate milestones helped a lot.
Jr GCC made quite a few appearances in this blog post. I can see that his modelling career is taking off! I’d say he must have made a good 5500 in modelling fees with this blog post alone, enough to fully fund his Roth IRA for this year. Quite the impressive entrepreneur. You must be a proud father!
He only earned a small fraction of that, but I’m proud nonetheless :)
For details on what Frugal Professor is referring to, see this post.
It’s so true the kids are like a second job. Even beyond them though I don’t know how people could be bored in retirement. Maybe if you have no money to enjoy it I guess, but otherwise I can see all types of hobbys and travel opportunities.
The wife and I did not “early” retire at 57 and 60 respectively, but we would not go back to work either unless circumstances change dramatically for the negative. Just got back to TN from staying three months in FL and SC, all on the oceanfront. Definitely a slower go of it, since we don’t run around when traveling that way (for long periods of time), but just relax and move at our own pace. Still get a lot of exercising in, though, so we come back in better shape even with all the outside meals.
Now that we are back home and spring has sprung, I am recharged for tackling the four acres of yard work. Since I do everything myself I possibly can around and inside the house, I can spend my days pretty effectively doing chores, investing, going out to eat multiple times per week, exercising, … Like yourselves, how did I ever have time to work?
Continued best wishes for safe travels and an enjoyable life.
Yeah that’s pretty much how I’m operating these days. I have a self-imposed schedule of travel-relax-recharge built in due to the kids’ traditional school calendar. Like you say, when you’re a kid you get several months of vacation each year. Why not continue that as an adult!
After a month or two of traveling each summer we’re ready for some plain old boring doing nothing at home (and that king size perfect mattress at home!).
Right now I’m in that lazy relaxation – spring is coming – prep for our big 2 months in Europe trip – what should I do today? mode. Maybe we go out to the park. Or maybe I drink a cup of coffee, read a book, listen to some music, and then watch some Netflix.
How DID I ever find time for work? :)
The traditional school schedule would also be a great work schedule. The down time is where most of my good ideas come from.
That’s true. Grind it out for a few months, take a mandatory 2-3 week vacation. Grind it out another month or two, take a week off for spring break. Then have 3 months off in the summer.
That’s sort of our consolation prize/plan since we found the FIRE community in our 30’s with 6 figure consumer debt.
My wife is a teacher so she already follows the school calendar. I’m a small business owner so once our debt is cleared I’ll shift my schedule to spend Summers with her and kids and then hustle the rest of the year.
Still hope to retire around 50 but taking Summers off will make the next 15 or so years easier to swallow:)
I have a taste of semi-retirement when I was first laid off in 2008 and I thought the same thing, “how did I have time to work?” Now that I’m back full time I’m feeling the effects of that. I have to cram two days of leisure, entertainment, errands, cleaning in and then…back to work. I know with more time I’m spend it on my blog, creating videos I want to create, having coffee with friends, reading, exercising, hiking. I was never bored back then and doubt I would be now.
I would love to be able to slow travel. That’s one of my goals when I retire actually. I want to slow travel the U.S. in an RV for several years and see all the sites I want to see.
We will probably do the US RV tour… one day. So little time
I know the feeling. I’m busier now than ever after I ER’ed. Where does the time go?
We’re actually starting to ramp up our travel schedule this year. While not 3-4 months a year, we’re improving our pace — one month of travel and then several months off.
I recently had a friend pose the same question asking what am I going to do with my spare time. The answer is that I have a ton of cheap hobbies I can do so long as I have the time for them. It’s getting hard for me to fathom how exactly I used to live life while still dedicating 40+ hours a week to a job. But for those people who lack the creativity to figure out what they would do with all the free time, it probably is better to keep working.
I dig the ukulele idea! We have been talking about how we could take some instruments with us while slow travelling. The guitar and keyboard are a bit much, but a ukulele sounds ideal :)
This just makes me want to accelerate or trajectory toward this life. Is whole job thing really gets in the way of my life. There’s just way more to it than the rat race.
I could definitely see us becoming even more productive on more valuable things. soon we will be able to join you on your quest. but in the mean time keep inspiring everyone!
One of the things I learned when I first hiked the 500 mile Camino De Santiago was the insanity Americans see as the norm when it comes to vacation. I was 26 and the ONLY American. In recent years the American presence on the trail has changed with new docs and films about the Camino being released but still most on the trail are retired! I wondered how could it be that the land of the free was so chained to work they didn’t even have time to travel. The more I spoke with my fellow hikers the more it sunk in… By law every country in the EU has 4 paid vacation weeks per year. The average american worker receives 10 days. How are you supposed to recharge on 10 vacation days per year?? It’s crazy! Mind you, I am not complaining on my behalf. I work on average 3 days a week but the constant weight of exhaustion that 15 years of being a flight attendant has blanketed me in is enough to wonder how anyone can work 5 days a week! Bravo to those that can and do! The goal of FI keeps me going in hopes that when I retire I finally have the chance to really recharge. Once I am done with that, I hope to follow a similar schedule as you all have done and I certainly won’t feel the need to justify it to anyone who asks. The education you are giving Julian is awesome and the fact he has two parents who love him there for all those special moments is incredible! Thanks for letting us follow along with you. :)
Funny you mention that. When I asked my sister in law about hiking the Appalachian trail, which she did right after college (and before work), she said most of the people hiking were “older” and retired. I was a bit surprised by this, but hats off to them. I can’t think of better exercise for both mind, and body, than hiking.
So true! I started the Chicago Chapter of American Pilgrims on the Camino hoping to meet some fellow young hikers. The first year everyone who joined was over 55. Haha – not exactly what I had in mind! I was hoping to meet some like minded people my age but instead I hike alongside people with more experience and knowledge of life than anyone my age could muster. I guess sometimes you get what you need and not what you want!
Anybody who cannot fathom what they will do with their time without work has a severe lack of imagination. Personally I think I could live to 1000 and still not run out of things to do and try and learn and explore etc.
Anyone who asks the “what do you do all day” question is severely lacking in imagination. There is a world of things out there to learn, explore and experience; and with the internet it has never been easier. How can it possibly be a worry that one would lack for things to do?
Your schedule sounds heavenly. These four more years cannot go by fast enough for me.
This is one of the best posts I’ve read in a long time because it reminds me of what I’m striving for. I don’t give a $#!7 about money or some magic number, I’m trying to buy back my time so that I can do whatever it is I want to do.
You know my current stomping grounds well (I’m in King County, WA). You probably even know people that I work with. I cannot wait to become much more antiquated with your current lifestyle.
Hmmm, if I know people that you work with then I can definitely understand part of your motivation to retire asap ;)
Thanks much!
I can definitely see kids being a job of its own.
I find that even while not working, it’s possible to pack your entire schedule and never be bored. The amount of flexibility that comes with early retirement is just so much better than the structured schedule of work.
I’m plenty busy as well. When Jr was young, he took up a ton of time. Now that he’s in school, life is a lot easier for me. Today, I got Jr off to school, went to the gym, worked on my blog, read a bit, I’ll take Jr to wushu class, and make dinner later. That’s the whole day already. Life is good.
You are right on. Pass this truth on to your children (which will be an enormous struggle against prevailing education models) and your parenting will have been a success. I see it so clearly now, I am grateful and starting to show my boy.
I quit my job 15 months ago and am still not sure what I do all day. When people ask me I say: when you have nothing to do there is just not enough time to do it. It’s like a reversal of Parkinson’s law.
I feel like every year I am adding more and more to the plate of my life, in addition to working more and harder than I have ever worked in the past. Not sure what I did with all the time I think I had back in the day… I love that you and Winnie are both there for Jr. I work with children around his age and it is extremely rare to have both parents involved in the child raising. I can’t stress the importance enough of having both parents involved, not to mention the exposure and experience he is gaining throughout your travels. Major props to you guys!
#lifestylegoal :) While life seems way too short to spend working all day long, we’re still a long way from being able to make our own schedules. That said, working definitely helps me appreciate “free time” more. Love reading your posts as they have been very inspiring! I’m still a fence sitter (on whether to have kids or not), but if we do have kids I really wish we can spend as much time with them as possible, like you guys with your son.
We started traveling full time in an RV last summer. I was REALLY worried that I might get bored (husband was never worried because he’s always had a ton of hobbies whereas I didn’t have as many), but it’s been great! Between the travel planning and research, actual travel, photography, writing a blog, meeting old friends who have moved across the country, making new travel friends in the RV community, hiking, relaxing, and keeping up with ‘normal life stuff’ (laundry, dishes, groceries, maintenance, etc), I’m always plenty busy. In fact, we thought we were “slow traveling” by staying in each place at least one week, but we’ve come to the conclusion that we should stay at least two, if not three. It’s amazing how quickly the time gets away from us and we end up saying “we’ll need to come back here some day and finish checking this place out…”
I wake up, work, some days I hike or play or cook.
At 24, I’m on schedule to finish this by 30 and become a full time world citizen, following your inspiration.
Like your post! I am just starting on this path but it is so nice to see how you fill your days post-fi. And nice of you to visit the Netherlands! Are you visiting The Hague? It is a wonderful town and easy to bike :)
Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll make it to The Hague this time. So many places to go, so little time
motivation! You’ve got the life man. Keep it up! We plan to do a lot of slow travel when we retire. One of the goals is to make every weekend in retirement a long weekend.
We keep a home base in the U.S. and make sure to travel monthly, from 3 days to 3 weeks in duration each, so we always have something around the corner to look forward to. About half those travels are to see family and friends, about half are exploring the country and the world. Most travel is paid for with credit card miles and points. While at home, we read, volunteer, plan our travel, walk and go to the gym, visit friends, cook, go see a movie weekly, do home improvement projects, and the usual household chores. (retired married couple, 40s, no kids, two cats)
What do I do all day? That is the magic question. Or, more to the point, what should I do all day. I arrived at the Early Retirement party a little late. So currently, raising a large family, working full time, and trying to design my life (financially, and every way, since I no longer want to be, as you so eloquently put it, ‘we are shaped to the world’), take up more time than I have. It’s a huge tug-of-war between achieving, and taking the time to enjoy.
Thanks for your blog! I have been reading for a long time, and it has kept me motivated during the last 3 years, since my eyes have been opened!
-The Tepid Tamale
I know you have your sources of info but this is a great supplemental source I use for CPE credits and tax related info: http://www.cpaacademy.org/signup . It’s free and as far as I know you don’t have to be a CPA to sign up. I just listened to a webinar on residency changes made me think of your situation.
I love the fact that you are slow traveling through all these places. Working on FI, not RE, but when you like what you do I could maybe say that I am FI in some respects.
Wow! Your travels sound amazing! One day I will get there. Continuing to hear amazing stories like yours keeps me motivated to keep working hard.
Awesome! If you make it to the island of Paros in Greece please do get in contact. Greece is such a beautiful country, it gets pretty crowded in July and August so unless you like crowds and costly accommodation come during the other months. The rest of the year we mostly have the beaches to ourselves.
We’ll be in Athens in early May, and plan to head to the islands from there but it is all still TBD. Any tips or recommendations?
May is a nice time to be here. Before the season kicks in and before it gets too hot. There are like 2000 inhabited islands in Greece. We live in Paros, which is a 45 minute plane ride or 3 to 4 hours by ferry from Athens. It’s part of the Cycladic group of islands, which are south of the mainland. We can see the island of Naxos from the house here. Mykonos and Santorini are the the most famous of the Cycladic islands but also the most visited. I haven’t been to Santorini but it does look incredible. Paros is a quieter island (see some of my photos here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4zjntqu4uq1k5s5/AAATa61mbIVoiahNNsn6nqNKa?dl=0). I think there are five island groups in Greece overall. I have also visited Corfu and Lefkada in the Ionian islands (west of the mainland) and the larger island of Crete in the far-south. I think if you’re coming in May, you can be pretty relaxed about it, jump on a ferry, find yourself a room when you arrive somewhere. If you’re interested in visiting Paros, a friend is opening new apartments in the beautiful village of Naoussa (it’s the most beautiful town on the island in my view). They’ll be properly launching at the end of May but during May she is opening it up to family and friends for free. When I told her you were coming to Greece, she said she’d be very happy to extend that to you (she’s interested in FIRE too :-) Drop me an email if you’re interested, and I’ll put you in touch with her…
“True stories of modern life.” I got a good belly laugh from that. We just hosted a day-long, continuous reading of that at the arts organization I volunteer for, in honor of Amazon selling out of it.
I think of this pace more and more as I get more defensive of my slower mornings. I like to wake up, drink coffee, and read personal finance blogs (and a few other life-enhancing websites.) I’m not aggressively working on my writing or headed to the gym. It’s leisurely. It’s jarring when I look at the clock and see that I have to get ready for work. I have the luxury of setting my own hours in the Spring, so usually I don’t to be there until 10am or so. But still, the idea of having time for INTRINSIC motivation to kick in again…well, that makes the pursuit of FIRE all the more urgent.
I hear that the movie Gaslight is also worth viewing.
Slow mornings are wonderful indeed. We don’t have as many of them these past 2 years, but I wholeheartedly agree that intrinsic motivation is where it is at.
The reality is that you don’t have time for a full job. When you do, you sacrifice other things, in particular your personal creativity and your family. I see it constantly, in particular now that we have 3 kids: my wife has to stay at home the whole day to handle them while I selfishly go to work. It’s not a life for her, it’s not a life for me. We’re doing ok, don’t get me wrong, but that’s the reality: we sacrifice a lot for the jobs.
Also, I see that shimajiro is pretty much in every asian household ;)
I had to look up shimajiro. In Chinese he is call Qiao Hu (巧虎)
Of course the real answer is we sacrifice life for our jobs. That is probably obvious to all of the people who don’t ask, “but what do you do all day?” I think you’ve captured this beautifully/hauntingly with your phrasing
I am one of those people that can’t wait to retire so I have TIME to do things I want to do. I can’t wait to go hiking more often locally. There are so many beautiful outdoor places in TN to see, where I live. I’d also like to have more flexible travel options, like my wife does, who doesn’t currently work at a job and is out of state visiting her parents as I sit here chained to my desk at work, sigh.
I agree about the blogging, I am new to it but it’s an excellent creative outlet. I found your comment about the Protestant work ethic interesting. I am Catholic but had a lot of Lutheran friends growing up and in College, so I definitely know what you mean. Those people work hard. I work, but in a more lackadaisical fashion. I hope to retire in 4 months after I turn 41. Woot, woot.
I’ve been lucky to have a flexible schedule. I left the corporate world 4 years ago. Now, I work part time, 2-3 days per week, and I take time off between projects. Since I don’t have kids, I find that it is the sweet spot for me between full time, salaried work and full time early retirement. I have enough time to focus on creative personal projects, while keeping my skills up in a career that I actually enjoy. I will never go back to full time work with ‘benefits’ or what I call the golden handcuffs.
My husband and I are planning 6 months or so of travel in early 2018. We are planning a one way ticket to SE Asia and pretty much play it by ear from there. I also solo traveled for a 3 week trip half way around the world. I recommend that everyone try a solo trip, especially women. It is such different experience.
Similar to your ukulele, I plan to learn the harmonica so I can take it with me on trips. :)
Long time listener, first time caller! :)
My wife and I had been somewhat frugal. We did buy a house, but it was during the housing bubble, and bought it for a good price. Mostly everything we did was to prepare us to be a one income family. Just like others I was planning on retiring at 60 or 65. I ran across J.L. Collins, I don’t know how, I think googled how to invest and clicked on his blog, and well it was a life changer. Made changes on the way I was investing and thought that there is more to this. I saw that he mentioned Mr. Money Mustache clicked on his blog and that was another life changer.
I found your blog through Madfientist. Your blog has opened a motivation for our family to travel and explore. I have been reading your blogs for about a year and I have enjoyed it very much.
Regarding your comment “Raised in the Protestant work ethic, practicing the Art of Laziness felt weird at first. But I rather enjoy letting my hands be the devil’s workshop.” Most of the protestant work ethics is how we use our time at work or at home. You seem like you are a active guy, creating music with your ukulele, spend time with your child, hardly a lazy guy. A lot of protestants forget that our number one job is to raise our kids, which your blog and others provide the knowledge to do this.
It really is shocking how similar our lives are (down to the kid aged <2, amount of slow travel time/lazy time, wife having published a few books in the past few years, etc.). Given that, I know you have a pretty amazing life. ;)
I love that you embrace the laziness; we totally enjoy down time (whatever there can be, with an infant/toddler) interspersed with seeing as much of the world as we can. Enjoying Japan right now. It really feels like we're getting away with something.
Amazing is the right word :)
I think most of us want to enjoy travel time/lazy time more. imo, it boils down to 2 things: (1) do you have $$ saved up (or investments accumulated, or mom/dad money) sufficient to pay for life (i appreciate how GCC details this out) . (2) are you ready to release the connection to a daily job (steady income and insurance).
Personally..i’ve lived too much of my life spending too much and not practicing being frugal. It’s taken me until my early 50s to save enough to consider a nomad lifestyle. I hope too to “get away with something” soon too! Thanks GCC for the details that help me figure out how to make it happen.
Hello GCC,
im from Spain but live in Germany for 5 years now. I started to earn “real money” 4 years ago and discovered the whole FI movement 1 1/2 year ago. Never was a huge spender but I was not conscious about money itself. Now been saving > 60% and hope to get to 70 by the end of the year.
I guess because of taxes (43% in Germany for my current salary) it takes a bit more time to reach the FI-level in the EU Region but it is definitely more than possible and I hope to be reaching it in 5 years. I love my job though but freedom to decide is priceless.
This whole stuff is pretty exciting and amazing, thank you for sharing your life!
It would be nice to meet you around here :9
Abrazos,
Miguel