Hi, it's been a while!

plus a bit on our philosophy... on money, and happiness

Hola and welcome to Where on Planet Earth! In case you got here by accident and are not yet a subscriber, sign up below! For more visuals on our travels follow us on IG @whereonplanetearth

Hiiiiii from Italy

I started writing this blog post in mid-January, a week or so before starting my new job and a couple of weeks before flying back home to Park City. Shortly after that we decided to sell our place there, so between the new gig, packing, and an intense desire to spend all our free time snowboarding, cooking, and cocooning at home, many months have gone by in a flash, and I haven’t put words to paper, not even a single sentence. It sometimes weights on me, but most of the time I know it’s just what I needed at the time, and honoring what my body and mind *needs* is a small mercy in the relentless push I put myself through in the pursue of things I *want*.

Now we are back on the road, traveling through Italy until September - something I definitely want, but like to thing I need :). And wow, being away from places I am used to is always such an inspiration. So much newness - different nature, food, people, and ways of seeing and approaching life - is a shock to my senses in the most wonderful way, it sharpens them! The differences in the environment make me so much more aware of everything that is happening - of how the light hits that tree, or the curious way people express themselves, or the abundance of a specific breed of dog, or how on time public transit is (or isn’t), or what is always on the menu. When I am traveling and exploring I am always asking questions, researching something online, reading about whatever I found curious that day. It makes me feel like all the 3 year olds I have spent time with recently, in a constant state of curiosity, asking myself and everyone around me: “but, why?”. Traveling makes me inquisitive, in ways that delight me and make me full of life.

All of this to say: Hi, it’s been a while!

But, although I wish I could boldly state that I am “fully” back, ready to be posting every Monday as I did during the glorious 16-month in which traveling was our full time job, the truth is that I know I can’t commit to that right now. At the moment, we are digital nomads who work full time for demanding tech startups. Yes, we are fortunate to be able to do that while also roadtripping Italy, but between exploring and working there is little time left in the day to do anything else.

That said, I will do my best, because writing always makes me understand myself and the world better, and hopefully it also brings you some joy, or inspiration, or knowledge, or simply entertains you while you are on the toilet ;)

So, back to finishing the post I started in mid-January - can you believe it’s already June?!

---

At the end of last year I finished reading “Die with Zero”, a book about why and how you should aim to die with zero money on the bank, literally.

Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but the core premise is that you should focus on maximizing your life enjoyment rather than on maximizing your wealth. In other words, you should live life to the fullest by using your money wisely and deliberately, and spending it all while you are alive and healthy.

Side note: even though this is not a book review or anything of the sorts, I feel compelled to mention - because I know there are many of you wondering about this - that the author is not suggesting you don’t leave anything to your children or subsequent generations (if that is what you want), but that you should do this while you are alive. For more on that, read the book :)

The philosophy of the author, Bill Perkins, closely aligns with our own and how we tend to look at life, so it was a refreshing - though slightly repetitive - book to read.

The whole experience made me want to write down what our philosophy is. How, exactly, do we see life? What motivates and propels us to live the way we do?

So, here is my attempt at summarizing our philosophy to its most simple form:

• We are hyper aware of our own decline and mortality, which translates into a focused hunger for *not* leaving to tomorrow what we can do today. Basically, because we don’t know what will happen in the future - how long we will live and in what shape - we don’t want to wait to live a life we love today.

• We see money as a conduit to experiences, and we see jobs as an important part of our lives but certainly not as our identities. We want *just enough* money to allow us to have the experiences we want in life. We have no desire to spend time accumulating more than we need. In fact, we see time spent accumulating unneeded wealth as a waste. A waste of valuable hours and effort, a waste of good hours days and years, a waste of life.

• We believe we will only regret the things that we didn’t do. Hence, we are generally quite open to “risky” decisions, such as quitting our jobs or moving, if that will allow us to have the experiences we are seeking.

All the above believes have led us to the life we have today, one in which we prioritize experiences and are aggressive in the pursuit of them. One in which, as an example, we quit our jobs to travel the world for 16months in our mid-30s. This was hands down the best investment of money and time we have ever made. Sure, we could have saved even more and do a more lavish trip when we “retired”. Sure, it was a risk to quit our jobs, what if we didn’t find new jobs when we were back? Sure, we not only lost our salaries during that time but disrupted the course of our careers and likely tampered future earnings. And you know what? It was worth all of that and so much more.

So, your dream might not be to travel the world or retire early or live in many places, and your philosophy might have zero overlap with ours, and that is okay! The advice here is: get clear on what your philosophy is, and spend your money to realize it. To start, think and talk about the (near) future! We spend a lot of time envisioning a certain type of life in a certain type of place (usually not more than 5 years into the future), painting a picture of it in our minds and getting excited about it. Once we have this picture in our heads then decision making to bring it into reality is so much simpler, even if the decisions are hard (and most times they are extremely hard).

Also, don’t think about this future life vision, or even your philosophy, as a forever thing. Nothing is forever! Life is full of twists and turns, and you can change your mind on anything and everything. What Alan and I wanted five years ago is not what we want today, and that is what is fun and exciting about it all. It’s easier to commit to something when you know it’s likely you will change your mind, and can pivot later on.

I always hated the typical interview question of “what do you see yourself doing/being in 10 years”. I always wanted to scream: I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T CARE! Ten years is a freaking lifetime. Truthfully, even at 36 years old, I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. I can probably tell you what I’d like to be doing in one year, maybe three, but even that is a stretch. The only thing I know for sure is that in a few years what I thought I wanted today would have changed, transformed into something new by the weight of everything I will experience from now until then. So, I am going to spend my money and time on making my near future dreams a reality! Of course it’s okay to have some big lofty dreams that never change - such as retiring early for us - but don’t let that stop you from enjoying your life today.

“The sad truth is that too many people delay gratification for too long, or indefinitely. They put off what they want to do until it’s too late, saving money for experiences they will never enjoy.” - Die with Zero

So, going back to the idea of “dying with zero” and our philosophy around money, if you have similar ideas to us then your next logical question is: what is *just enough* money and how do you calculate that? Basically, how do you make sure you don’t end up working for 2 or 5 or 10 years more than you need (and die with unused money in the bank, which is a lot more common that I thought). This is a good question and depends on a myriad of different things including where you want to live and what you want to be doing when you retire. I am not going to go into all of that now, but thankfully if you want to learn about this there are a myriad of resources out there about the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, and the different ways to approach it.

But, what I do want to share is that in our opinion even more important that having clarity on this number is to not delay enjoyment of life until you achieve that. It’s not about accumulating and accumulating until you hit that - at least not for us - it’s about having a life filled with joy while you are at it.

As an example, one of the core ideas of the book and something we found particularly useful as an exercise was this concept of “Time Buckets”. Very high level, it’s a way to understand what you want your life to look like and have some more specific direction. How? First, draw a timeline of your life from now to the grave (you can calculate your life expectancy or just pick a number), and then divide it into intervals of five or ten years. Then, and this is the important part, think about the key experiences you want to have in your life. Don’t consider the money at this point, just make your dream list.

You might want to have a child, spend a summer in Spain, go rafting in New Zealand, learn how to blow glass, run a marathon, start a business, hike the Himalayas, see the cherry blossoms in Japan, join a nonprofit board, get married by the ocean, take your mom on her dream trip, learn German. The possibilities are endless.

Then, start putting those experiences into the year buckets. This is one thing that makes this different than a simple “bucket list”. Going through this exercise makes it crystal clear that our lives have seasons, and that age can matter. So, for instance, you probably wouldn’t want to put “rafting in New Zealand” in your 80s bucket. You might still be able to do that then - who knows! - but it’s a lot likelier that you will have the energy and desire to do so much earlier in your life.

Through this exercise you might realize - as we did - that some of those experiences won’t happen at all if you don’t start to plan for them now. And, sure, the list will change with time; experiences will get added or taken out, some will get crossed out and others modified. The point is: time buckets help you be proactive. Maybe give it a try?

This is just one example of a specific tool we found useful, but the core premise is: live fully today, take calculated risks, and plan intentionally. We all want our lives to be rich in experiences and joy, but often forget we have to be purposeful in creating that. Ultimately, it's about defining your own philosophy, being proactive in achieving your dreams, and embracing the flexibility to adapt as life evolves.

Until next time!