A Doing Word…

Many people have noticed that I’ve been traveling quite a bit over the last year. Some of the thoughts are converging and I will be sharing more. I’ll keep this one relatively simple.

I use “I” even though in many cases it’s “we”, but Jen can speak for herself.

Reason one: learn about traveling

Future life is going to include a lot of traveling – I’d estimate between 40% and 100%. A big part of what I’ve been doing is better understanding what that would be like including:

• What I enjoy and what I don’t
• Balancing fast and slow
• How to work a non-travel life, or create a travel life.
• How to incorporate friends and family into traveling
• How to incorporate traveling into friends and family, aka visiting them

The last two are big. Taking off on adventures has been great but the biggest tradeoff is spending time with friends. I’ll write more on this but a preview includes:

• We are very open to friends that want to join in and I will better share travel plans and aspirations to make that possible.
• Share your travel plans and ideas and lets make a plan together! It could be a big trip or just going camping somewhere for a night.
• If you’re not in Austin we would love to visit and spend some time. As with our foreign travel, we like to spend time and share normal life in a less-intense way than an average US visit might look like. Also we’d prefer to stay with you as La Quinta in Seattle is fully ten times the cost of our nice hotel here in Chiang Rai, which is in turn four times what it costs if you stay here for a month. Plus it’s just more fun to hang out together!
• I appreciate all the people that make things happen (host, visit, and plan) and inspire this journey: Rick/Marc, Justyn, Genenne, Aly, Diane, Brenda, Kyle, Ethan, CT, Jen and Andrew, Teri, Lynn, Rose, Amanda, Kerstin, Cheri and Adam, Henry, M&F, Gabi and Dan, Mike, Joe, Shaun and Jill, Chris and Cara, Rob and Theresa, and so many more!

Reason two: learn about how to live

The retirement equation centers around these variables:

• Income from all sources
• Assets
• Expenses: how much it costs to live
• Years you expect to live

And then non-financially:

• Quality of life
• What you want to contribute during this time
• Legacy you’d like to leave after you’re gone

I believe

• There is a significant chance that my assets and income are not enough to sustain us with status quo life in suburban Austin
• I don’t want to base my plan on increasing income or assets
• I can significantly increase all three of the non financial aspects above while simultaneously reducing expenses significantly

I am traveling primarily to form the plan for the last point. Much of the world is a lot better than the US at having a great life without getting caught up in the corporate/capitalist rat race, and I’m on the road visiting them and learning.

What I am working towards is a postmodern village, or maybe a global network of villages, where people live better with less by sharing assets and energy and working together by supporting each other.

I’m not going to build this from scratch. I’m looking to find places and people that are on the same journey as well as more intentional works in progress. I’d like to contribute my energy and assets to make it even better.

This all meshes with traveling as how I want to live at the home base is pretty similar to how I want to live while traveling. This is why you rarely see us in big cities or nice resorts. We’re getting into the local villages and meeting people.

Possible outcomes include:

• Our home base moves outside the US
• We partner on a home base in the US incorporating lessons from the world
• We have multiple home bases
• We just travel all the time

More to come.