Getting Started

So I have several dreams / dream jobs. The common denominator of all of them is that they would ultimately provide a way I could travel. The most very tipy-top of my dreams would be to travel full time, to live a life of vacations. Now don't take that to mean that I don't want to work or that work wouldn't be involved in that dream, just that if I had to pick one dream job it would be associated with frequent vacation like travel. For me there is something wonderful about the idea of seeing new places, meeting new and different people, and trying new things.

As I start to picture what this would look like, and to start to count the cost, a plan is staring to form. Now I know my wife would not be cool with me gallivanting about the world for prolonged amounts of time without her. I also know the traveling and living abroad costs money. Not to mention other logistic matters that would have to be dealt with.

If you're like me you have probably wanted to see the world. If you're like me you've procrastinated on doing this in your youth and now have a family. So now we need to think outside the box. The dream is not lost and gone forever, it just needs to be tweaked.

Here is my vision for my family as I have been processing this idea. Optimally I would love to explore Europe with my family for a prolonged amount of time. Ideally we would go on trips for 3 to 6 month at a time. Traveling from country to country with my daughters learning about foreign lands not from a book but from experiences.

In a lot of ways our family is pretty well set for such an adventure. We will be completely debt free somewhat soon. Our daughter who is school aged is homeschooling and can do so anywhere in the world with the curriculum we use. My wife wants to see the world with me because I'm awesome. So we are all set to go, oh, except for we need one thing we are missing. Money.

Now to make this grand plan work we are going to need some serious capitol. In future posts I hope to show the progress we are making in a traveling budget that will allow us to get to our destinations and live on the cheap. But even with creative options on the table we will still need money. To make this happen we need a money tree. Well, more realistically we will need either a stock pile of cash (Savings) or a revenue stream that doesn't turn off when we leave for our adventure. In our case I think we will need both. While a big, fat, and juicy saving account could do the trick, what happens when the trip is over and we return "home" broke? Not only would it feel like I was starting over from scratch but, what would be worse is it would feel like I was doing what Jon Acuff calls the reverse Superman. I don't want to to live that way.

After doing some research I have learned about and am looking into legitimate ways to make money online. One of those ways is through blogging and free lance writing. One of my goals for starting this blog is to not just share ideas and start a global conversation but to also help forward this dream! I am currently learning more about this method of generating online revenue and I look forward to sharing with you more details later. Another way to create a consistent stream of revenue is through the concept of passive income. Examples of passive income would be things like rental property, possible investments, and other things in that vain.

Here is a list of the practical steps we will take to make this goal of traveling semi-full time happen:

1. Making a plan & counting the cost ( We will need to have a clear idea of how much money it will cost to get to our destinations, room, food, and all other expenses. In short we need to have a plan and we need to count the cost so we don't run out of steam mid way through. It would be embarrassing to have to call friends and family to beg for money cause your stuck in Istanbul.)
2. Build up an emergency fund. (An emergency fund is not a savings account. A emergency fund is strictly for emergency's. Like getting stuck in Istanbul )
3. Build up a savings account. (This will cover the bulk of our expenses, but hopefully our "revenue stream" will be replenishing it faster than we are spending it.)
4. Building a "revenue stream" (I need to find ways to generate passive income and to also find a way that I can work from anyplace in the world. If I can make what I make now through my laptop, our family could travel indefinitely!)
5. Act! (That's right, no excuses. You have saved the money, you have a sustainable plan, now all you need do is jump into the water. No cold feet here!)

So this is the first baby step in moving this dream forward. I hope you look forward to learning from my progress or lack therein. I do have a feeling that if I do accomplish this goal, my blog will suddenly jump in popularity and in readers for multiple reasons...