The All Important Why…

This is the most difficult question to answer… and probably the most important. Even as I write today (just over a week into our travels), we are discussing and analyzing why we are doing this. Because this topic is so important, I will be modifying this page as we learn, explore, and develop new understandings of our situation. Please check back periodically for updates.

It is easy to think about how we could be pushing our careers forward and making progress on our “life”. Yet we know a couple things from experience: 1) we tend to spend the majority of our time maintaining our life, and 2) the improvements we do make tend to be incremental, with our style of living keeping up or outpacing the small growth.

If we were to follow the path we were on, we would have an OK retirement at about the time our bodies started significantly limiting our activities. It saddens me that this happens for the typical American. Not to say that other cultures don’t tend to have the same issue. This is just the culture I know well.

On the flip side, I also feel that we can change this! First for our lives, but also trying to inspire others to live the life they dream of without waiting for retirement.

So, why are we doing this?

1. To use a phrase from Tim Ferriss a “mini retirement”. We are spending some time living the retired life before our bodies begin to slow us down.
2. Health. Living the 9-5, fixing up our house, etc. we had a difficult time prioritizing exercise and a healthy lifestyle. We are not in bad shape, but not in the shape we want to be or feel we should be in. This trip is a time to reset our standard, exercise regularly, do activities any time the conditions are good, and eat well.
3. Budget. We grew comfortable enough with the regular income that we rarely looked at the prices of the things we purchased. Particularly food. A $5 coffee was more a question of whether I felt like it, not is it worth the money relative to everything else. We are now analyzing each purchase relative to other options. Both in cost and health. At a fancy restaurant we can eat well for €25-€35, but at a bakery or cafe plates are €2-€4 each. An espresso is €0.70. And, if you go the grocery store, meats and vegetables are CHEAP and processed foods are a bit more expensive than they are the states, catering to eating healthy. But I digress.
4. Learning. There are many progressive things that we have put off because we can’t find the time. On this trip we will prioritize reading interesting books and learning how to build a website using wordpress.org. (I will add a book list soon, as I am finding many great ones!).
5. Entrepreneurial growth. We are not entirely living the retired life though. We are also dedicating time to work on websites and find others who are building new directions in travel and business. In the perfect world we will make connections that will shape our business development of the future.