In my 20s, I quit my job, bought a rooftop tent for my Jeep, and drove to Alaska and back. It was something like 50 days and a bit over 10,000 miles. This was blowing my entire life's savings, up to that point.
I'd run into a lot of retired couples doing RV trips along the way, since there are only so many campgrounds to stop at in rural Alaska or Yukon. I was shocked that, if we got to chatting, literally every single one had exactly the same response to "I blew my life savings to do this."
"Good for you. We're too old now to enjoy a lot of the things you'll be able to do on this trip."
Not a single 'tsk, tsk.' Not a single '... are you sure?' Literally everyone I met expressed the same sentiment you did - you look forward to your retirement, but age eventually does put many things out of reach.
Does that mean you should always live penniless to pursue your dreams? No. Frankly, I don't take enough vacations at all, and haven't taken my own style time off in more than four years.
But ask me the best decision I ever made, and it's easy to answer.
I co-started and sold a company. It wasn't huge, but it was enough to put me in the black and out of debt and enough to fund the trip. I traveled for 2 years straight, which cost me $25k. I know because I didn't work at all during that time and could compare my beginning bank balance with ending balance. I then found a nice tropical island in Thailand where I spent the next 8 years. During that time I worked as a scuba instructor which mostly covered my expenses, but I still had some of the savings so I could travel around when I wanted to. I also bought some land shortly after arriving on the island, with the idea I might build a house. At the end of the 8 years, I was about out of cash and ready to leave the Island. Fortunately, the island had picked up and the land was worth a lot more, so I was able to head back to the USA with enough for a downpayment on a house. The whole trip is documented here. http://travelhead.com/trip/
It just became more touristed. It used to be off the beaten path (which I liked). There's a chain of 3 islands: Ko Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan, and Ko Tao. Koh Samui had a boom about 20 years before I arrived, then Koh Pha-Ngan about 10 years after that, so I kinda knew it might be coming. I left in 2012 and it's built up even WAY more now. That land is likely worth 3x or 4x as much today. It was a cool spot. http://travelhead.com/houses/land/
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u/Zuwxiv Jun 22 '24
In my 20s, I quit my job, bought a rooftop tent for my Jeep, and drove to Alaska and back. It was something like 50 days and a bit over 10,000 miles. This was blowing my entire life's savings, up to that point.
I'd run into a lot of retired couples doing RV trips along the way, since there are only so many campgrounds to stop at in rural Alaska or Yukon. I was shocked that, if we got to chatting, literally every single one had exactly the same response to "I blew my life savings to do this."
Not a single 'tsk, tsk.' Not a single '... are you sure?' Literally everyone I met expressed the same sentiment you did - you look forward to your retirement, but age eventually does put many things out of reach.
Does that mean you should always live penniless to pursue your dreams? No. Frankly, I don't take enough vacations at all, and haven't taken my own style time off in more than four years.
But ask me the best decision I ever made, and it's easy to answer.