After my junior year in college, I spent six weeks on a U.S. cross-country trip and figured an around the world trip would be the next grand adventure. I dreamed about an extended around the world trip. The route, the countries, and the attractions fomented in my mind for years without any concrete developments, let alone a start date.
Several years after college graduation, with no definitive life plan on the horizon, I created two five-year plan binders with one goal: travel around the world. The first binder contained a financial plan to eliminate my student loan and car debt and then build my savings account. The second binder contained location and destination printouts and photocopies organized with tabs for each country. These binders were the physical representation of the long-term plan that proceeded my trip and helped to encourage me to stay focused on my goal.
The first binder’s plan to eliminate my financial debts went well. I used the savings from living at my parents’ home to double and triple up on student loan payments until they were eliminated. I continued with the debt-reduction strategies to build up my savings account with funds to travel around the world. Within three years I saved enough money and was left with a monumental decision regarding whether to travel around the world. Doubts about putting the second binder into action began to appear. I worried that unhappiness at a specific company was clouding what could otherwise be a fulfilling career. I switched jobs to a similar role with a new company in June 2010 to see if my career perspective would change. That company made a significant acquisition, and as part of the acquisition integration process I relocated to Los Angeles and immediately fell in love with the South Bay lifestyle in Manhattan Beach. The around the world travel plans faded with each Pacific Ocean sunset.
Life was going great until the division chairman visited our department offices in Los Angeles. If a chairman flies from New York City for an unannounced meeting on a Monday morning, it’s not to share good news. Management decided to rebrand our television network to fill an underserved demographic on the cable channel dial—wealthy, white males. Seriously. One hundred employees, including me, received their two weeks’ notice.
I was thirty-two years old. I had no debt—no house, no college, and no car payments of any kind. No credit card debt. No wife. No kids. And now I had no job.
After the termination announcement, I returned to my desk, opened Excel, and began listing countries and destinations to visit. I recalled the destinations in my second five-year plan travel binder. South America was swinging from winter to spring, and I knew from prior research that it was an ideal time to visit Patagonia and Torres del Paine. I searched for flights. I searched for hostels. I began budgeting expenses. Six weeks after the chairman’s visit, I was in Buenos Aires. As for the wealthy, white male network…it was off the air in less than four years.
I wish everyone who dreams about an around the world trip and saved sufficient funds had as bright a line as I did on when to start their travels. You probably won't. Instead of waffling on a life goal like I did, treat the money-saved goal as the travel start date, and once you reach that deadline, start traveling around the world. You will have doubts for the first two weeks. Over the following fifty weeks you will wonder why you didn’t start traveling sooner.
Several years after college graduation, with no definitive life plan on the horizon, I created two five-year plan binders with one goal: travel around the world. The first binder contained a financial plan to eliminate my student loan and car debt and then build my savings account. The second binder contained location and destination printouts and photocopies organized with tabs for each country. These binders were the physical representation of the long-term plan that proceeded my trip and helped to encourage me to stay focused on my goal.
The first binder’s plan to eliminate my financial debts went well. I used the savings from living at my parents’ home to double and triple up on student loan payments until they were eliminated. I continued with the debt-reduction strategies to build up my savings account with funds to travel around the world. Within three years I saved enough money and was left with a monumental decision regarding whether to travel around the world. Doubts about putting the second binder into action began to appear. I worried that unhappiness at a specific company was clouding what could otherwise be a fulfilling career. I switched jobs to a similar role with a new company in June 2010 to see if my career perspective would change. That company made a significant acquisition, and as part of the acquisition integration process I relocated to Los Angeles and immediately fell in love with the South Bay lifestyle in Manhattan Beach. The around the world travel plans faded with each Pacific Ocean sunset.
Life was going great until the division chairman visited our department offices in Los Angeles. If a chairman flies from New York City for an unannounced meeting on a Monday morning, it’s not to share good news. Management decided to rebrand our television network to fill an underserved demographic on the cable channel dial—wealthy, white males. Seriously. One hundred employees, including me, received their two weeks’ notice.
I was thirty-two years old. I had no debt—no house, no college, and no car payments of any kind. No credit card debt. No wife. No kids. And now I had no job.
After the termination announcement, I returned to my desk, opened Excel, and began listing countries and destinations to visit. I recalled the destinations in my second five-year plan travel binder. South America was swinging from winter to spring, and I knew from prior research that it was an ideal time to visit Patagonia and Torres del Paine. I searched for flights. I searched for hostels. I began budgeting expenses. Six weeks after the chairman’s visit, I was in Buenos Aires. As for the wealthy, white male network…it was off the air in less than four years.
I wish everyone who dreams about an around the world trip and saved sufficient funds had as bright a line as I did on when to start their travels. You probably won't. Instead of waffling on a life goal like I did, treat the money-saved goal as the travel start date, and once you reach that deadline, start traveling around the world. You will have doubts for the first two weeks. Over the following fifty weeks you will wonder why you didn’t start traveling sooner.