Like magic, twenty years later, I am going to do it again.  Some how my life was easy, and I just made a snap decision to reclaim my youth of care free adventure.

Ummmm…. No.

I returned from that trip, went back to my old job – apparently they were harassing my family a couple of weeks before I got back, wondering when I would return to work.  A few months later I decided to change my career from Human Services to Massage.   I worked and taught in the field of Massage for twelve years, and then transitioned into working with the Electronic Medical Record.  Sprinkled in between all that, I bought a condo, had car payments, accrued and paid off credit card debt (tuition & two transmissions), and had major surgery (my head is literally screwed on tight).

You can travel inexpensively, and on some modest savings.  Before you do that, though, debt elimination is key.  It can’t be cheap travel, if you have to support significant living expenses back home.

It took quite a while for me to be able to do international travel again.  It took quite awhile to pay off the debt I had accumulated.  It felt like forever, anyway.  It took me about fifteen years to pay off debt, including car payments and my mortgage.  Yes, I said mortgage.  Why did it feel like forever?  I lived far below my means, and sent all additional monies towards paying off debt.  Not a whole lot of fun.  There is no short-cut.  There were years where I held my bills clutched in my fist, paced and cried.   I’d look at the bills, then at my nearly empty bank account, wondering how this was going to happen.  I would have a couple of jobs at the same time.  One was for food, the other was for debt.  Many years I made Christmas and birthday gifts, instead of buying things.

I’ve done my reading/research on the internet.  I have seen people doing the things I want to do, and others criticizing, or complaining, saying some of the following:

Well, it is easy for you, because:
•    You are getting support from another family member/mate
•    You have/had a great super well paying job
•    You don’t have any debt, you must come from money
•    It must be great to have a job you can take such a long break from, and get back into with no problem.

I can’t do it because:
•    I don’t have the money
•    I have too much debt
•    I can’t take that long off my job, and expect to be able to get back to the same work.
•    I have kids
•    I’m not in shape

How much do you really want to do this thing?  How much do you really want to do extensive travel?  Think of any major goal of your life.  What did you sacrifice to achieve that goal?

There is never a good time to do anything of importance.  If something is important, the best time to do it is now.  Identifying a goal, and then figuring out what you need to do to achieve it, and then DO IT.

 

Note: This is for NANOWRIMO, and will probably get edited later.