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The Year of Opportunity

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Earlier this week, I wrote about the importance of tackling one thing at a time. When you have a long list of goals, it can be tempting to work on all of your objectives at once. This scattershot approach, however, tends be counterproductive. Over the past decade, I’ve learned that I can be much more productive — and happier! — when I exercise the power of focus, prioritizing one goal over all others.

One way this manifests itself in my life is through themed years or months. One month, I might make it a goal to get to the gym every day. Another, my aim might be to never eat alone, to have lunch with a friend or reader whenever possible. And sometimes, I stay focused on a particular goal for an entire year.

Starting next week, I’m going to take “theming” to a micro-level. Using the ideas of Mike Vardy (the Productivityist), I’m going to try using themed days to stay on task. Each week, I’ll have “administrative Monday”, “typing Tuesday”, “thoughtful Thursday”, and so on. I’m not certain getting this granular with theming will be useful for me, but I’m going to try it for a few months.

As a firm believer in being proactive, I’ve always chosen the themes for my years and months. That is, I decide what I’m going to do, and then I do it. I don’t let life decide what my weeks and months are about. At least, that’s been my approach until this year.

This year has been strange. This year, life has handed me opportunity after opportunity. I started January with a direction in mind, but I’ve had to make numerous course corrections as new circumstances arise. So far, 2017 has been the Year of Opportunity. It’s both exciting and scary.

Let me give you some examples. [Read more…]

The Power of Focus: Why You Should Tackle One Thing at a Time

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I used to be the sort of guy who loved to have a list of goals. At least once a year — usually around New Year — I’d sit down and make a list of all the things that were wrong with me, all of the things I wanted to change.

In 2007, for instance, I made a list of 101 things I wanted to accomplish in 1001 days. (It took me longer than three years to finish that list, by the way. In fact, I still haven’t done everything on it because my priorities have changed. But now, ten years later, I see that I have completed nearly all of the ones that still matter.)

Eventually I realized that making a long lists of resolutions is a sure path to disappointment — at least for me. There’s a reason you see newspaper and TV stories every spring about how most people aren’t able to maintain the resolutions they set at the first of the year. It’s because most of us try to do too much. (And, I think, because we try to set goals that aren’t truly aligned with our primary purpose in life.)

Nowadays, I do something different, something that’s actually proven to be successful. Instead of trying to change many things at once, I’ve learned to change only one thing at a time.

One Thing at a Time

In 2010, for instance, I focused on fitness. In fact, I dubbed 2010 “The Year of Fitness”. My aim was to lose fifty pounds. Every decision I made was with that goal in mind. You know what? It worked. Though I didn’t lose fifty pounds that year, I did lose forty. (And I lost the final ten by the middle of 2011.)

[Weight Loss Progress]

I was able to do this because for the entire year, my only goal was to get in shape. I was focused. Nothing else mattered. I didn’t have any other big goals clouding my view or competing for my attention. I set one goal, and I worked hard to meet it.

In 2011, my one goal was to learn Spanish. And I did it. Three times a week, I paid a Spanish tutor for ninety minutes of personal instruction. In my spare time, I watched Spanish movies and listend to Spanish music. I read Spanish books. I consumed Spanish podcasts. Within a year, I’d achieved reasonable fluency in the language. I could carry on converstations in South America, and I could read Spanish-language novels. (Though not all Spanish-language novels.)

In 2012, I tried something a little different. Instead of one big goal for the year, I chose to work on one goal each month. Some examples:

  • In March, I had lunch or dinner with a different friend every day. This let me reconnect with people I’d been missing.
  • In April, I embarked upon my Extreme Dating Project. I’d just been divorced, and my goal was to meet as many women as possible. (April was a fun month! And it led to my current relationship with Kim.)
  • Next, my goal became to make it to the gym every day in May. I didn’t quite succeed — I only worked out 28 out of 31 days — but I came close.
  • My next goal was “no junk in June”. I focused on my diet, which helped me lose five pounds and two percent body fat.

Sometimes I spend a year on any given goal. Sometimes, I spend a month. And sometimes I spend even longer! After Kim and I decided we wanted to take a trip across the United States, for instance, I spent the next eighteen months devoted to that project.

During the first part of 2015, we shopped for and purchased a motorhome, then prepped it for life on the road. We left Portland on 25 March 2015 and spent the next six months exploring the U.S. We paused for six months in Savannah, Georgia, before beginning our homeward journey this time last year. On 29 June 2016, we made it back to Portland. We had a blast — because for those eighteen months, we were committed to one thing and one thing only.

You get the idea. At any given time, I’m concerned with only one major goal. [Read more…]

The Guilt of Wealth

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During my recent trip to Florida for Camp Mustache Southeast, I had an interesting conversation with some of the attendees about the guilt of wealth. About half of the folks at the weekend retreat had already achieved financial independence — they have enough money to support their current lifestyle indefinitely — while the other half were well on their way to that goal. But achieving wealth can have some surprising side effects. Guilt is one of them.

For instance, one woman received an inheritance when her mother died. This woman is young. And she’s smart. She knows she didn’t do anything to actually earn that money, so it weighs heavily on her. Being a good Mustachian (or money boss, if you prefer), she’s not wasting the inheritance. She’s slowly turning that money into more money through careful investing. But that doesn’t stop her from sometimes feeling unworthy.

This guilt doesn’t just affect those who experience windfalls. Even folks who work long and hard to build their nest eggs can suffer from the feeling they don’t deserve the money they have. This is especially true for people who travel. When you explore the world and realize how many advantages you have — not just financially, but in all things — the sadness and sorrow can cut deep.

Deserve's got nothing to do with it

The Guilt of Wealth

“You know, you once wrote about the guilt of wealth at Get Rich Slowly,” noted another Camp Mustache attendee.

“Did I?” I said. “I don’t remember. But it doesn’t surprise me. It’s something I think about all of the time.”

In that seven-year-old Get Rich Slowly article, I shared two examples of folks who built wealth without windfalls.

  • One of my friends was raised way below poverty level, for instance, but he’s worked hard to obtain an education, build a career, and he now owns a couple of businesses. It was never his aim, but he has become wealthy. He’s proud of his accomplishments — justifiably so — but he also feels guilty. He’s embarrassed by some of the stuff he has, and he worries that his kids will grow up to take for granted those things he views as blessings.
  • Or there’s my former neighbor, my real millionaire next door. He’s a retired junior-high shop teacher who lived frugally and invested wisely. He built an enormous nest egg. When my neighbor retired, one of the first things he did was buy a boat — something he’d always wanted. At first, however, he was embarrassed by the size of the boat; it was so much bigger than most of the others he saw. “I was worried what other people thought of me,” he said.

Both my friend and my neighbor are generous. They contribute time and money to their friends, family, and community. They’ve built wealth through hard work, and can afford the indulgences they allow themselves. Yet they both feel some degree of guilt over the things they have — as if they don’t deserve them. [Read more…]

Reader Story: Saying Yes to Strangers in India

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This guest post from Tess Vigeland is part of the “reader stories” feature at Money Boss. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how an MB reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial freedom.

Tess is one of my favorite people. I grew up listening to her journalism on Oregon Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio. Eventually we became colleagues — then friends. Tess is currently taking a career break, traveling the world alone. She recently shared the following story on Facebook. I loved it, and ask her permission to reprint it here.

There I was, watching the Indian world go by. I was sitting on a small step beneath the famous Clock Tower in the middle of Jodhpur.

I’d forgotten to recharge the battery in my camera, so instead of having it up to my eye, capturing fractions of moments, I watched the scene like it was a movie playing out live right in front of me: wows wandering the square aimlessly, hawkers selling everything from bracelets to garlic, women sparkling with every step in their saris.

A man sat down next to me. I didn’t look at him. I’d read in several places that if you make eye contact with men here, they’ll think you’re interested in something other than eye contact. I kept watching the scene.

Then I heard him say “Are you lonely?”

I turned to him and quickly said “Nope.”

“Are you lone?” he asked again, with a slight turn of the word.

“No, not at all. I’m enjoying the view,” I answered.

I looked at him again and noticed large tufts of black hair growing out of both ears, which was enough to make me smile. Along with those tufts, I saw kindness in his eyes. “Are you with anyone?” The question again. “Where are you from?”

I relented. I said I was from the U.S.A., and that no, I was traveling alone. His eyes got a bit wider and the questions came faster.

“How long have you been in India? What do you do? Do you have a house in U.S.A.? Are you married? Do you have children? What was your salary? How much is that in rupees?”

I answered every question and ended up in an hour-long conversation with him. At some, point I noticed there was a woman sitting next to him who tried to listen intently, but clearly did not speak English. He finally introduced her as his wife.

Bhagwandas and Durga

“We come here every night,” he said. “Every night we come and we watch and we walk, and then we go home. Every night.”

I said that sounded lovely.

And then suddenly he declared “It would be my honor to have you to dinner at my house.”

I laughed and said thank you, but no. In my travels, I’ve learned to engage in conversation with strangers, but as a general rule I do not go home with them. We kept chatting and a few minutes later he again said, “It would be my honor to have you to dinner.” I looked at him. I looked at his wife.

“Did you ask your wife?” I responded.

“No. Please come.”

And for some reason in that moment, after again looking at his wife, I said yes. I said yes to dinner with perfect strangers sitting under the Clock Tower in Jodhpur, India.

Pretty much no one would have thought that was a good idea. “Single female traveler goes home with strangers and is never heard from again!” the headline would scream. But in my travels, I’ve also learned to say yes. Especially when my gut tells me to.

What followed was one of the most memorable evenings of the last fifteen months of travel, if not of my life. Bhagwandas Sharma and his wife, Durga, welcomed me, introduced me to his parents and their children, cooked for me, showed me every nook and cranny of their home.

Bhagwandas, showing the large barrels in which they store a year's worth of grain for 12 people.

Twelve people live there. They all dine together every night, though when there is a guest, the guest eats first and the family then eats later, meaning the guest — especially this time! — has a bit of an audience while eating. We all talked, laughed, and shared stories. I could not be more grateful for the experience, and now I have twelve new friends.

Durga Sharma making a delicious bread out of millet.

Was I daring fate by saying yes to this invitation? Maybe.

But as I’ve said before, I choose to believe in the inherent goodness of 99% of people on this planet. I’d rather find myself surprised by the exception to that rule than live my life in fear and trepidation of my fellow global citizens. For this, so far, and especially this week, I have been richly rewarded.

New member of the family

J.D.’s note: I’m drawn to this story because it highlights to values that are an important part of my philosophy. First, Tess chooses “to believe in the inherent goodness of people”. I do too. I think this approach to human interaction offers rich rewards. Second, Tess embraced the “power of yes”, which is the one concept that has had the biggest positive impact on my life during the past decade.

The Earth Awaits: Comparing Cost of Living Around the World

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During the past decade, I’ve learned to love travel. The old J.D. was too timid to explore the world. He was afraid of everything — flight delays! terrorists! foreign languages! weird food! — and so stayed home and dreamed of exploring the world instead of actually doing it.

Since 2007, however, I’ve visited forty-two states and twenty different countries (many more than once). I’ve camped high in the mountains of Bolivia, ridden a scooter through rural Turkey, and eaten fried grubs in Zimbabwe. I’ve been to Cape Horn off of southern Chile and the Cape of Good Hope off the tip of South Africa. I’ve strolled through glaciers in Alaska, climbed mountains in Peru, and snorkeled in the Galapagos.

I’ve spent ten years making up for the time I sat on the sidelines doing nothing. And I’ve only barely scratched the surface of what this amazing planet has to offer. It’d take several lifetimes to see it all.

The more I see, the more I wonder what it’d be like to live somewhere else.

“What if we moved to Ecuador?” I asked Kim after last year’s chautauqua. “What if we lived there permanently?” (Kim’s open to the idea, but not until she reaches financial independence herself.)

“What if we moved to Spain?” I’ve been asking myself as we prep for our vacation there in September. “What if we moved to Italy? Morocco? Or maybe to Thailand like Tess?”

I know a lot of early retirees do pack up and move around the globe. That’s one of the primary premises of Paul Terhorst’s Cashing In on the American Dream, the first big book about financial independence. And it’s what lots of modern early retirees do, from the Mad Fientist to Go Curry Cracker. But what would it be like for me? And how much would it cost?

That last question is a big one. Comparing costs has always been a barrier when evaluating choices like this. Until now. Now a Money Boss reader named Robert — who writes about money and travel at The Frugal Vagabond — has whipped up a handy little web app called The Earth Awaits. I love it! It finally demystifies the finances of living abroad.

The Earth Awaits

The Earth Awaits is an online tool designed to help folks like me (and you?) find cities and countries to live in long-term. Based on parameters you feed the app, it provides locations with costs-of-living that meet your requirements.

Let’s say, for instance, that I have a budget of $4800 per month (which is how much I actually spent in January 2017). I want to find a two-bedroom apartment in the city center where Kim and I can enjoy a modest lifestyle with low crime and only moderate pollution. And I don’t want to live in North America.

The Earth Awaits (parameters)

Based on these parameters, The Earth Awaits says there are 176 places I could afford to live. That’s a lot!

The Earth Awaits (results)

Fortunately, I can further refine resultes, either by changing the initial parameters or by applying advanced filters, such as temperature range, primary language, health care, racial discrimination, quality of life, and “freedom score”. Or I can simply choose to sort the entire list of 176 possible homes by categories like population, budget, and internet .

The Earth Awaits (filters)

So, if I apply filters based on my liberal Portland sensibilities — high freedom score, accepting of homosexuality, low racial discrimination — and opt for Spanish as the primary language, I can reduce the list from 176 possible cities to only nine — all of them in Spain. In fact, one of the choices is Zaragoza, where I already have a friend (the woman I tutored in English during 2012).

The Earth Awaits (filtered)

From the results page, I can get a detailed view for any of the suggested cities. The detailed view shows all of the data that Robert has collected for the location, including traffic levels, walkability, climate info, and a detailed budget breakdown. (You can even export the budget info in CSV format so that you play with things in a customized spreadsheet of your own creation!)

The Earth Awaits (detailed)

The Bottom Line

The Earth Awaits offers lots of functionality for free — even if you don’t register for an account. If you do create a free account, you can subscribe to changes in city budgets, track price changes for individual items, and save cities for later research. And if you sign up for the paid version, you get lots more (such as historical pricing data).

The Earth Awaits is a terrific tool. It contains tons of great info, from data on women’s rights and legal marijuana, to perceived corruption and potential travel problems. But the tool isn’t perfect. A lot of the information is vague and/or opaque. The “traffic index”, for instance, says that it indicates traffic inefficiency versus New York City. But what exactly does that mean? I have no idea. Zaragoza has a traffic index of 43.27. Is that good? Bad? Mediocre? And what the hell is the “freedom score”?

Really, though, these are minor quibbles — and they’re easy things to fix. If you have any curiosity about living abroad, you need to bookmark this website.

Note: The Earth Awaits offers more than just cost-of-living comparisons. It also provides what it calls “the internet’s first travel hacking search engine“. That might be a bold claim — AwardHacker has been around a bit, hasn’t it? — but it’s still a nice feature. Want to figure out how to use your airmiles to get from her to there? This tool can help.