Entries Tagged 'Lucky Box' ↓

I am bitter and alone the afternoon I land at Charles De Gaulle Airport. It is the second week of January. P has just flown back to the States and is between stints in the Peace Corps (having just been evacuated from Turkmenistan and reassigned to Morocco). He flies out the same day as me. I am going to Paris to “cheer up” from what has been an exceptionally dreary English winter. Continue reading →

After a long weekend, I’m majorly contemplating the meaning of work in today’s society. I know I’m done with “work for work’s sake” and engage only in work that’s meaningful and fulfilling to me. But I still come up against a lot of resistance when I tell people that I:
1) Will never work at 9-5 again.
2) Don’t believe a pension, social security or company of any kind will “save me.”
3) Have come to these conclusions after a lot of reading, studying and thinking.

But I am not alone!

Enter the male version of me. His name is Timothy Ferriss* and reading his book and blog are godsends to me. They remind me that cutting out the fat, traveling and working as little as possible (while obtaining enough money to live on) are what my life is all about. If you count yourself an Expy, it might be yours too.

Read Tim’s book & blog and get inspired (or listen to this interview with him by my friend Erica to see why you should!). If you’re put off by the idea of “only” working 4 hours a week, ask yourself: why? What is it you’d rather be doing in those hours you spend behind the computer or answering the phone? If the answer is travel, then you might enjoy reading about how to DEAL (Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation).

I’m working on incorporating a lot of Tim’s ideas into my life right now. I started by cutting down on the amount of information I take in (setting up an email policy was a good, easy way to do this). I then defined what it is I work for and how much I’d need to obtain, in financial terms, to live the “life of my dreams.” The good news is, I’m on the right track. Because I use public transport, bum rides or walk, I don’t have car payments. I’m not in debt. I don’t have a family yet. But, according to the book, all these things need not be true to travel the globe. In one chapter, Tim describes how families can make travel a part of their reality, too. Even after I have kids, I plan to continue exploring the globe. If they don’t like it, I guess they’ll have to lump it.

For any child of mine will know travel isn’t part of life. Travel is life.

*What a hottie!!

I once spent a month in Bali with my partner. It was the middle of summer and tickets from Japan were going to cost us close to $800 apiece. I started budgeting and stuck to the budget once we got to Bali. NO MATTER WHAT I was going to stick to that budget. That meant, of course, that some of the more pleasant moments were spoiled by my trying to figure out how much the meal would cost and whether that left us enough for the hotel that night. Continue reading →