Quit work and travel?
 

Ok, this is a question for those of you who spend your life traveling and don't work for a living... How do you do it??

I often find myself daydreaming about coming into enough money that I don't have to work anymore, then riding slowly around the world on a 250cc bike, staying in a different place every night, no commitments, no attachments.

... But then I pull myself back to reality. What would I do for money? My savings would run out sooner or later. I've worked hard on my career, I would be throwing that away. What about my pension for when I'm older? I don't make vast sums of money, but I make a comfortable living and am used to being able to afford to live reasonably comfortably. How would I cope with thinking "no, you ate restaurant food yesterday, you'll go over budget if you eat at a restaurant again today."

Then again, there are plenty of people living that life, so it must be possible. My question is how do you do it? A rude question I know, but are you privately wealthy? If not, do you worry about what will happen when the money runs out? Maybe you have the kinds of skills where you know you'll just be able to walk straight back into a job when you need to?

I'm just interested really. Maybe it just comes down to having the balls to put all the middle aged worries about savings, pensions and mortgages to one side and just doing it. Maybe I'll never be adventurous enough to actually do that, but I'm still interested in how people made the transition from a normal 9-5 life to a life traveling.

Sad but true. It is the reality of long duration travels. You can't sleep every night in an hotel, or have every meal in a restaurant. You could, for sure, if you travel for a week, maybe four. But leave for several months and you just quadrupled or quintupled your budget. What do you prefer to do on the same amount of money? One month of travel, or six months?

My rules are simple. Cheap hotels when I travel late... No choice. Otherwise stop riding earlier and find a camping spot. Camping can be free and as much enjoyable as an hotel room. Of course, in some countries, the delta is much less. Two dollars for camping in Morocco (or free in the boons) vs $5 or $6 in a cheap hotel, sharing room with ticks.

People who leave for a long time are usually free spirits. Not necessarely rich people. Perhaps they don't think about their pension funds and their taxes. Life matters more. Do the riding while your body can do it. Not in 10 years. Do the riding when political conditions allow it. I should have ridden the Middle East 6 years ago. Sadly, I missed the opportunity. I should have ridden Lybia before France and The US invaded Lybia and killed Khadafi. My bad, again.

If you are young or at least healthy, now is the time. You'll get another job later, next year. I have my own race parts company. I work alone. If I decide I leave for 4 months, I have the freedom to tell my customers I will be away and to order now. I am lucky I am not missing sales as I get them back when I return from travel. I did 20,000km thru France, Spain, Morocco, Corsica, Sardania, Sicily Tunisia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium and Germany a few months ago. ;-)

My next strip is awaiting "pacification" in the Middle East. I have to go there before I die. And I am only 54... ;-)

Take whatever I wrote with a grain of salt. ;-)

Lee

PS Travelling will make you meet great people and will expand your mind. This is worth all the world's gold.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...psfnoqogby.jpg

Yup. Mohamed is a Moroccan shepherd with only one leg. Got bitten by a snake. Leg had to be cut. Met him in the middle of dry nowhere. The dude was brilliant.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...psgpwj9ur6.jpg

Unless you are independently wealthy it is not possible to spend your life travelling and not work, those of us who travel a lot usually return home for periods of work or sometimes manage to find casual work where we are. The people who travel indefinitely are either digital nomads or good writers and photographers who actually work quite hard to make a living selling articles and photos and giving talks while on the road.
If you want to travel long term on a limited budget you would have to cope with not eating in a restaurant everyday or every week for that matter unless you are in a developing country where a meal is only a dollar or two.
I find having a trade fits in well with travel, I am a toolmaker and find it easy to come and go with employment as it is a job rather than a career, my employers don't care that I have been away for six months or have worked at five different places in the last ten years only that I can get on and do the job when I turn up for work.

So there's no magic secret, and it's back to either hoping for a lottery win or take the plunge and quit my job, hoping I can find another good one when the money runs out... :)

Who knows, maybe someday I will. In the meantime, I'm living vicariously through this forum!

Live simply and save your money for a year or two. When you have all your money saved, explain your employer you have this great project. Ask him if you can have your job back after the journey. Maybe he will hire you back. :thumbup1:

Work for 40 years and then spend 20 traveling.

I think many fear it'll end up as work for 40 years and then spend 20 travelling to the local hospital and back.

If only life were simple and we could just fire up the bike and head off without money (or any other) worries. Wouldn't we all do it? Well, no, I don't think the vast majority of people would. Maybe those of us frequenting this site might be closer to doing it than most but how many here have gone off with an open ended commitment to life on the road - without any secondary consideration such as write a book, reassess my life, rite of passage / prove a point etc. Even if you've gone RTW (as a number have) you eventually end up back at your starting point (in all senses).

I suppose that as the longest trip I've done is about three months I'm not really qualified to judge anyone's desire to travel endlessly as a lifestyle choice but I've been at those junctions a few times over the last four or five decades. I could do it right now if I chose. I probably have enough money to sustain myself for years, particularly if it was out of high cost areas like the EU / US. My wife and I have looked at a number of lifestyle change alternatives that we could afford to do, with travel being one of them. The reason it probably won't happen is not for practical reasons but because when you dig a little deeper there's (for us anyway) a fundamental flaw at the heart of hedonistic travel.

You have to ask yourself why am I, or would I do this? "Because I enjoy it" isn't really good enough as an answer because what happens when you stop enjoying it - and, if you travel for long enough, you will eventually stop enjoying it. It'll become routine. The adrenaline fuelled uncertainty of some bribe laden 3rd world border will just become another depressing rip-off, the colourful locals you meet in a waterfront bar will be just another bunch of half wit chancers and the endless sun that seemed so desirable when you left the UK will start you wondering about those new brown marks on your shoulders. Paradise will turn out to have feet of clay. If a travelling lifestyle is the answer to your current situation what will you do when it, in its turn, becomes the problem.

Expanding on that will have to wait until some future point as my lifestyle today is telling me I have other things to do, deadlines to meet etc. And that of course, in a somewhat nihilistic way, (:rofl:) is where we came in ...

Bravo! Well said Stuart.

You've nailed it. :yes:

backofbeyond - very insightful post! Of course, you're right, not only is traveling forever hard to achieve practically without a lottery win, what happens when it loses its magic and you tire of that lifestyle. I was actually thinking along these lines myself last night... One of the thing I do in my spare time is play drums in a local band, and I love it. Wouldn't I miss that if I spent my life on the road traveling? Maybe there are a whole load of other things I'd miss about my current life too.

So you're right, for most people traveling indefinitely is either a bad idea or at least an impractical one. I think what is more realistic is planning a career break for a couple of years to do the RTW trip. Certainly I'm starting to think more in that direction now.

There are worse than that, the whining Daily Mail reading/Fox news watching ex-pats who complain that (insert country of origin) is not like it used to be and is full of bloody foreigners and the locals here are just a bunch of.........

Apart from that I agree more or less with what you say.

Great post, thepinproject! I found it very interesting, because I suppose my dream is traveling around the world with what people call 'passive income,' so the sort of thing you're doing by renting out your apartment. Still, I always thought you'd need at least $1000 a month minimum (after tax) to do something like that. So it is inspiring to hear that the two of you are achieving it on half that.

I will have to check out your blog and learn more!

A good insight into life as a long term traveller and how much you can manage on.

I am not familiar with the tax regime in other countries but in the UK you would not pay tax on an income of $1,000 a month, our tax free allowance is £11,000 or $14,300 a year.

Go while you can
 

Back in the last century, I came into some one time money. i was 29, no wife, no kids, no dog, no mortgage. I had owned bikes, never had a car, never really traveled. The mature thing to do, I was told, was to put the money as a down on house with attached rentals, use those to pay off the mortgage, and lead an normal life. I had dreamed of travel all my life, realized if I did the adult thing I would never have another chance in my life. Bought a used bike(did't know how to change the oil!), got a National Geographic map of South America(if things went really sour I could always walk home), took a left hand turn at Houston, followed my nose, and shot for Tierra del Fuego. Ran out of money in Bolivia, went to Lima, worked 1 1/2 years teaching English. Even tho I didn't reach my goal, I had a great time and when I returned I was able to get good jobs, a wife, kids, a mortgage and occasional pets. Did I do the right thing, IMNTBEMFHO yes. If I had waited for 40 years to travel, I would have been past the point where I could go. Your choice, travel or buy vinyl siding for your home.:mchappy:

Nah, vinyl siding looks crap anyway :rofl::scooter:

Hi

Been following this debate and cannot recommend a right or wrong path. I can just give my story.

I retired early at 58 because I believed at 60 you have 10 good years - both physically and mentally. I realised at that time I had devoted my life to others be it work, family and yes keeping up with the Jones's. Now I have limited my reponsibility to enjoying life and doing what the hell I want to do. I still satisfy my community membership when I am home by volunteering as a first responder, firefighter and manning the rescue boat.

I am now 67 and I acknowledge I belong to a lucky generation in many ways with full employment, work and state pensions and inflation increasing the value of our biggest asset .

Looking back I believe the stress of corporate life , with artificial deadlines , pressure from above and below to have the biggest impact on my health. For the three months after I finished work I could feel and sense that stress easing away. Since I finished work I haven't had a cold and the back pain I suffered for years has gone, despite a more physically active lifestyle.

Two of my best mates settled down much later than me with limited career options. They are still working and would love to put their feet up but just cannot afford to -but they do have some wonderful memories. By working I did have options. As you age you have less options but with some financial resources and owned assets you can make things happen.

After 9 retirement years of travelling on bikes, motorbikes and motorhomes I am still ready for more. Next month I am heading to Peru and Ecuador for a three month ride on a second hand Chinese bike. I will be solo but you soon meet people and a strong reason you go is to meet the locals and experience the culture and that often is a lot easier with individual travel .

My point is it can still be done if you want to when you are older , if the desire is there. You will be slower, get up more times in the night and look at the sights through thicker glasses but you can still be doing it.

Ride safe

Peter

If you look at a site like advrider and check out the long term ride reports, you'll notice a common pattern. Very few of the posters are 'rich' - almost none are lottery winners, sold their software company out to Microsoft, etc.

Most of the folks who go for long term (3+ months) rides are penny-pinchers who work hard, live cheaply, and stack away all their spare change so that after years of saving, they can finally afford to take that big trip.

A significant number are also newly retired, and either have significant lifetime savings or a healthy pension to finance their dream ride.

For maybe the last 12-15 years, I've been hoping to ride a loop around South America, but any time I get a decent amount of savings put aside, some circumstance or other wipes out my savings. Luckily I do have a pretty decent pension coming my way in about another 5 years at age 55, and unless I win the lottery, that'll be the only way I can afford that ride.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences, I'm finding this thread pretty inspiring to be honest. What I like about it is that it seems there is no one right way, everyone has done it slightly differently, and ultimately where there's a will there's a way.

I've also got to be honest with myself, while I admire those who can live off extremely limited money while traveling, I like having the safety net that if I need to get my hands on money for any reason I can. So for that reason, am I going to quit my job and go traveling tomorrow? Probably not. But I am going to redouble my efforts to save so I can reach a place where I can do that.

I'm 33, currently no wife/kids other responsibilities to factor into my thinking. So unless my personal circumstances change, it might not be too unrealistic to think that by 40 I could manage it. Whether I actually do or not, it's a good goal to aim for, and a nice thing to dream about in the meantime!

Thats what everyone else can do as well but more importend then how to earn money is to know how not to waste it too quick by not using BMW or Apple products while there are Honda and Android etc. Its also way cheaper to travel in a third world country then to live in Europa for example: http://reisemotorrad.eu/?report=en_faq&design=nature

Anotherbiker as someone closer to your age than some of the others, here is my take on it. It's possible to have a bit of both world's. To keep the job and to travel a lot.

For example my previous workplace had a policy called 48/52, where they allowed you to take an additional 4 weeks of leave each year (8 weeks total) in exchange for receiving 4 weeks less pay each year.

Basically it was an agreement to let you have 4 weeks unpaid leave each year.

8 weeks leave per year can mean several big trips each year, even with family commitments.

Another option (and the one that I've taken) is to go down the expat path. Currently I get 12 weeks per year leave as an expat. But I also get to draw a salary for the remainder of the year. I use those 12 weeks to travel extensively and still have the security of a paycheck.

Not bad if you can find it!

For my wife and myself the dream was about 10 years in the making from the initial idea to actually starting our RTW on 18th June 2014 (we're currently in Panama). I quit work at Microsoft when I was 50 and my wife quit her job when she was 47.


The preparation, for us, was mostly financial. We paid off the mortgage when I was 43, we lived on my wife's salary, we didn't buy new cars in that 10 years (as many of my work colleagues would often do) and acquired no major new bits of "stuff" that can so often tie us down. We had/have no debt. We did invest in the house which has paid off for us as we now have a monthly rental income that allows us to travel comfortably. Everyone is different but we see very little fun in traveling being an endurance trying to save every last penny, especially if you are traveling long term as we are. Don't get me wrong, we have a budget but it's a budget that allows us some luxuries every now and then and we don't feel guilty if we eat in a restaurant. I think traveling on a really tight budget for a short period, months instead of years, is fine but I could imagine, for us, it could get pretty tiresome year after year. Not spending money on national parks, not learning to scuba dive, not swimming with whale sharks, not going whale watching and so many other things would have been missed if we were on too tight budget.


A major factor in monthly cost is how quickly you travel. When we stop for a few weeks and maybe rent a nice place for $300USD/month our daily average spend drops significantly compared to when we're moving all the time. In the USA and Canada we camped maybe 85% of the time, accommodation is just too expensive.


We are not rich, far from it, but we are extremely fortunate that we both had full employment for at least 10 years leading up to our departure. We made choices in that 10 years which ultimately allowed us to embark on this new lifestyle. We didn't sell the house which we've seen so many other people do in order to realise their dream. For us that would have been a step too far. When thinking about the financial long term the house will provide us with capital when we sell it and downsize. We both invested in pensions during our 30+ years in employment so that will also help in the future, whatever that brings.


One interesting observation. When I quit work and told colleagues why most of them said "I wish I could do that". The reality is that financially most of them could but very few, if any, will take the plunge and cut themselves free of the corporate world and all the PERCEIVED benefits.


One thing we have learnt is that there are so many ways in which people prepare financially for their dream and everyone's circumstances are different. There is no silver bullet (OK, maybe winning the lottery counts). One thing I can guarantee is that only YOU can make it happen. If it's just a nice idea and not something you're focused on, regardless of how much money you have, it probably won't happen. We've met so many people along the way that say they would love to travel but when we ask them why they don't/can't what they come up with, to my mind, are excuses and not real reasons.


After just over 26 months on the road we continue to enjoy this lifestyle and envisage traveling for a number of years yet. Long term travel is not going to be for everyone, that's for sure. All I can do is recommend you give it a go and see what happens. Better than regretting not going later in life when it's maybe too late due to health issues.


Saludos
Steve and Janette
RTW Tiger 800XC
www.tiger800rtw.com

Brilliant! bier

another option
 

There's also the "intermediate option" of moving abroad and working there ... We left the US more than 20 years ago, and consider ourselves permanent expats. We choose a base, work there several years and explore it and the surrounding countries on shorter trips, and then move on to a new continent. Did a couple of locations in Europe, currently in China, and moving to Australia next month - has the advantage that you can really explore a new place and culture, yet have cash in pocket while doing so ...

That's the question I have been pondering lately as well......how to do it? Having had a break in my professional employment many years back I had the opportunity to "just go!". I made plans to stay semi-retired for like 9 months. I proceeded to prepare for a trip from So Cal up the coast I don't know where. But, I knew I would just go and enjoy the scenery, people and the bike. I did it solo. I didn't have an issues mechanically with the bike so it was pretty easy. I mostly camped but that got old at times and I had some money saved up. I would motel it about every three days (or as much as I could stand myself). I had a great time and eventually decided to travel into Victoria Island and North of Vancouver. My family was worried about me but I had done many 3 day trips around California and Nevada up until then. If I was going to do this .....now was the time. When I hit the Olympic Peninsula I got a call from a friend I had contacted about a dive trip to Truk Lagoon. I really wanted to dive those ship wrecks and intended to go once I got back.......which was ...... I dunno. That was the beauty of it actually. I had never had that attitude or really that luxury to just wonder. No real plan or destination other than to travel and see what I have never seen first hand. I did go on that dive trip some months later. The job market wasn't great at that time .....so, off to the South Pacific!
I'm about 10 years from retiring (assuming I can actually retire) and my thoughts wonder to that time and how that freedom made me feel. I should mention that after that trip I took an even longer moto trip through the Midwest and Southwest. The route loops I made on that trip would confuse and probably irritate my younger self LOL. But that was the point. To see as much as I could and meet as many people as I could along the way. Staying in little back water towns and taking the roads less traveled as it were.
I look forward to reading the stories on HU.
At times some stories seem like the hassles to ship a bike and cross borders can be a pain. I guess that helps make it an adventure. Getting stranded out in a desert miles from the nearest facilities doesn't sound like fun either. It's tough to make that decision but I think I will at some point before my health leaves me and I cannot even ride a bike let alone lift it after a get off on some dusty trail.

Its really a difficult question and there is no real simple answer.

Being financially secure into retirement is very important given our life expectancy is well into the eighties now. What my partner and I decided is that we would build our super up and pay off the house so we can retire early with a transition to retirement from age 55. We have a food van that we do every second weekend to bring in some extra $$

By 60 we should be retired from full time work and will keep doing our food van in the holidays to bring in some more $$.

We will then rent the house out for six months and head OS which will help pay for our trips.

In the meantime we keep an eye out for cheap airfares and head OS for a few weeks every year to somewhere different. Our soft panniers are our travel luggage and we hire a bike for a week or so when we are OS. It scratches the itch.

Barring a serious illness like cancer I would hope a good 15yrs of active travel together seeing the rest of the world.

Just my 2c and of course not everyones cup of tea.

cheers and have fun beer

There is a comprehensive thread about this here.



http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-lifestyle-458

The hardest part is going back
 

"Home is made for coming from, and dreams of going too. Which with any luck will never come true." Wandering Star.

The world is large, wonderful, full of interesting people, places, smells, food, and experiences. Who could ever get bored? I'm still 18 years old, and have been for 45 years. And still act my age. :rofl: I'll worry about my old age when I hit it. :oops2: You only have one life this time around, next time it will be different. beer

I could tell you how great it is, but then everyone would want to do it. and that's not a good idea. Let sleeping dog lye, lie, lay whatever.
Find yourself, find a life, live it. Do the occasional project for the money, then move along before they ask for it back. :scooter:

Off to South America in a few weeks, just for a short time, then planning my next RTW for a couple of years. Hoping to meet up with loads of friends I haven't met yet. I'ts a grand life if you let it be. :D

An excellent summary that deserves to be re-posted and perhaps should be written as a footnote or even a foreword in every publication that promotes long term travel. Well said backofbeyond bier

Absolutely!

We've met a few on the road that were "traveled-out" but wouldn't stop because they told people they would go "forever" or ...

Very, very quick for us: We're 33 and 34, started our first big trip by combining our paid holidays from year X + Y, so we went for 3 months to Australia (nov-dec-jan) and actually got married there as an added bonus. Of course this meant two years working without a single day off, unless overtime. Never regretted it.

Then the year after that we did another 3 months, then the year after that another 6 months, then a full year on the road, then we left to go and live on an island and now after two years of living in paradise, we got "bored" again of the working routine and will leave again for I don't know how long before settling down again I don't know where for God knows how long.

How we do it?
Come to the HUBB UK (we'll also try to make it to Ireland) as we plan on having a talk about money and some options of how to travel and some insights on how we did it. And I am not a free-spirit in the sense of money, as unfortunately by only concern for going again is what to do after the next trip and how to make money again after that trip, but then I just know that the trip will be worth it, as it has always been.

So my advice: if you're not sure on how to, build it up slowly. From 0 to long time is not always the best option, as gradually by travelling more and more, you will find your style and way of travelling. There is no right or wrong way, there's YOUR way that you enjoy, can do, and are happy with.

Now, it's sunday, back to the :Beach: for an hour, 24ºC on the 27th November. :innocent:

Western culture is exceptionally powerful in brainwashing people into thinking their happiness is not their own, but rather something that is only achieved externally (to be happy, you need money/security/a partner/a house etc). The constant, incessant, overpowering message that our model of socio-economics is the only acceptable way of life left me frustrated for a very, very long time! After my 18-month solo ride across South America I came back home to face the matrix, and it was pure misery. Going back to a 9-5, worrying about taxes and pensions and savings, adhering to schedules, regulations, staff manuals, strict hours and 30-minute lunch breaks; shopping; listening to work colleagues gossiping and talking about sports and crap they've seen on TV; only having a certain amount of 'free' time after work and during the weekends... F*ck no, I thought to myself, we're human beings, we're born free and we can live freely, and if I want to travel the world on a motorcycle and roll in the grass and sit around bonfires listening to the craziest stories, and cross deserts and meet shepherds and poets and hobos, and drink beer and talk shit and keep on rolling under the stars - then that's what I'll bloody well do.

So I did.

I've learned a whole bunch of new things. For example, worrying about jobs. Can I quit my job, will I find another job, should I find a better-paying job? F*ck that. I have a huge problem sticking to other people's schedules and hours, so instead of looking for the least insufferable job, I have created a job for myself. I created a digital business; I absolutely love what I do, and I do it on my own terms. Sometimes, I work 17 hours a day. Sometimes, I'm off for a week. But 95% of the time, I don't even feel that I'm working because I sincerely enjoy what I do. And, I am not tied to any particular location - I can work from anywhere in the world. I am not tied to anyone's schedule and expectations but my own. I am not accountable or responsible to anyone but myself.

It's a risk, sure. But I value my freedom more than a pension, and I am willing to take this risk because I want to live. Now. I'm also much happier in knowing I will be taking care of myself when I'm older, no thanks to any particular government or social security system; I'll simply save my own money.

Some things have become a real pain in the ass. Getting visas into certain countries is difficult as I don't own property and don't have a 'proper job' or 'family ties' to any particular country. I don't have an address which drives some people and systems nuts. I don't have a phone number, so PayPal won't confirm my account. I am a bureaucrat's worst nightmare. Still, I prefer these minor inconveniences to modern wage slavery.

Traveling can become a routine, true. In fact, it did, at some point. I was frustrated again; if 'I' am not defined as a world traveler, then who the f*ck am I? Still, traveling just for the sake of traveling had become pointless.

Then I realized that the world does not owe me anything. We constantly want to be entertained, impressed, thrilled. So we choose adventure riding, because it is entertaining, inspiring, thrilling. But after six months, a year, three years on the road, another mountain is the same as the previous one, a gold miner from the Amazon is the same as the guy in a rice field in Vietnam, a border crossing is just a tedious discomfort. And that's when it dawned on me that the mountain, the gold miner, the border officer do not owe me anything. They do not exist so they would impress or thrill me. They just are. It's me who owes the world. I should be creating something of value, I should be the one who inspires or thrills or excites others, so it can all be multiplied and shared. So I started interviewing the locals wherever I went, and it turned out that the gold miners, the men in the rice fields, and the goatherds in the mountains all had the most fascinating stories to tell. I listen to those stories and write them down. Other people read them and smile, or feel terrified, or sad, or amazed, or inspired. Even if it's just for a few minutes. Connections happen all across the globe.

Lots of long term travelers get into storytelling, photography, art. Some volunteer, teach, guide. Some, get temporary jobs or simply help people on the way. When you get over the initial thrill and excitement of being free to roam the world you start thinking what you can offer to the world in return.

Because our culture lulls us into believing that the outside world is responsible for our happiness, people demand manuals. How do I travel the world without money? How can I afford this or that lifestyle? Where is a step-by-step guide to financial or other independence? Go and create your own. Go and find out for yourself. Go and discover. It's up to you to live your life to the fullest. If, for you, that means traveling the world on your motorcycle, go and do it. The world does not owe you to spoon-feed you exact steps all the way, it can provide ideas, suggestions, inspiration - but it's your task to make it happen. If you want something passionately enough you'll go and get it.

Five years ago, if somebody had told me I'll be traveling around the world by bike and running my own business I would have laughed (bitterly). I simply would not have been able to imagine it. Coming from an ex-Soviet country I was told to be humble when dreaming, work hard, and be grateful for the food on the table and roof overhead. So that's what my life looked like: I did not dare to dream big, I worked hard, lived paycheck to paycheck and often felt guilty for my depression and restlessness (people starve in Africa, how can you be so ungrateful). What I believed in manifested in my life. What I thought of myself and the world was mirrored in reality.

Today, I think we humans are limitless beings. We can create the most amazing things imaginable. We continue to learn and grow towards the sun, always, and the only limitations are our own.

Have faith in chance, and trust the unknown. The universe loves courageous fools!

VERY well said... bier

Kinda says it all .........
If you really want to do anything in life then you'll find a way past even the most difficult obstacles. If you prefer to talk about it without doing it then even the gentlest breeze will be enough of a reason to stop you.




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It isn't easy, so it requires either extreme luck, or a whole bunch of sacrifices.

I know a guy who worked 2.5 jobs at the same time. Studied while he was off. Slept on the floor. Never bought anything. Almost never available. Did that for 5 years straight during his prime years.

He's 30 now and retired.