1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

10 Questions with Go Curry Cracker!

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Today’s post is technically a 10 Questions. I usually publish these on Saturdays, but today I make an exception.

Normal life is a compromise. We work for 40 or 50 years. When our time finally frees up, our bodies aren’t what they used to be. What fun is having all of the time in the world and not being able to completely enjoy it?

One of the aspects of a normal job that I despise most is lack of time for travel. If your vacations are anything like mine, you get a week a couple times per year. In that precious week, you try to cram a bunch of stuff in. Often, I’ve just started to decompress at the very end of the vacation.

Perhaps the part of Financial Independence that I look forward to most is slow travel. Instead of renting a hotel room somewhere for a week, I’ll rent a home in an interesting place for a month or two months. There will be plenty of time to walk to town every day, read books in the afternoon and hear stories from the locals. We’ll immerse ourselves in the place and take it easy.

Because we have children in school, these trips will be restricted to the summer, but that is still 3 whole months that we’ll be able to do whatever we feel like. I can’t wait.

Of course, we all know it doesn’t have to be this way. Save like crazy and Financial Independence can be yours decades before most of us hang up our keyboard or tool belt. Jeremy and Winnie from Go Curry Cracker! have done just this.

Today is the 7th edition of our new periodic guest post series called 10 Questions. We have a list of 17 NEW questions we pose to fellow financial bloggers, and they are free to pick and choose 10 or answer all of them. Let us know if you would like to be featured in a future edition of 10 Questions. (If you have already answered the first set of 10 questions, please feel free to answer these new ones.)

Tell me about your blog and why it’s great
I’m still trying to figure this one out myself, but we get emails nearly every day saying our story has changed lives for the better, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling every single time. We mostly write about our nomadic lifestyle, and how it costs less than you might think, but occasionally we break out Excel and geek out on optimizing taxes and investments.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

My personal favorite part of the blog is the professional photos of each unique place we visit.

What post are you most proud of and why?
One of the most common questions we are asked is, “But isn’t every single place on the planet dangerous, except where I live right now?”

Of course, the answer is yes. Just ask Fox News.

My favorite post has one goal, to help at least one person avoid a gruesome footwear related death.

Do you enjoy writing?
Writing an essay on “What I did during summer vacation” or a book report on The Old Man and the Sea was pure torture, worse than pulling out my own hair (probably why I have none).

But when I started writing about stuff that I was actually interested in, surprise! It was fun.

Do you have Early Retirement dreams

Mayan Ruins,Tikal, Guatemala
Mayan Ruins,Tikal, Guatemala

Winnie and I retired in our 30s to travel and make babies.

We are now 2.5 years in, have traveled very slowly through Mexico and parts of Central America, and by the time you read this will be parents.

 

Do you ever miss your job?
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob”

Any difficulty adapting to your new life?

Releasing baby turtles into the sunset, Puerto Escondido, Mexico
Releasing baby turtles into the sunset, Puerto Escondido, Mexico

Even 6 months after leaving the workplace, I would find myself sometimes thinking about work.  There I was on a beach with an ice-cold coconut, and my mind was thousands of miles away trying to solve a problem that no longer existed.

I’m happy to report that this bit of neurosis has been solved by an intensive regime of more beach and more coconut.

What is a typical day?
AdaywithThompsonI follow the healthy lifestyle regime of Hunter S Thompson as best I can.

Each day typically has good food, art, and music at the core.

When you are 90 and look back on your life, what do you hope you have accomplished?
That the people who know me think I’m a good person, who never let fear hold him back.

And that I still look as good as I did when I was 40.

Rice Field in Hualian, Taiwan
Rice Field in Hualian, Taiwan

What is the best money management or investment tool you have come across?
Low cost index funds from Vanguard

How do you handle people with different views on money, i.e. spendy people?
The same way I treat everyone, as an equal. But an equal I want to be my Secret Santa.

Did you grow up with money? How did your money situation growing up influence you?
If there was a TV show made of my youth, it might be called White Trash Couture. What kid doesn’t look good in hand me downs, standing in front of a mobile home with a car up on blocks?

Money was always scarce, and there was a general distrust and anger towards anybody that might have money.  Obviously they got ahead by taking advantage of people via illegal or unethical behavior.

In a sort of crab mentality, getting ahead was frowned upon, as explained by philosopher Notorious B.I.G., “Mo money, mo problems.”  This kind of attitude is horribly self-defeating, and was something I had to unlearn.

But I also learned how toxic debt could be, and the fear of having rent due but no ability to pay.  Although I made financial mistakes early on, this background limited those mistakes to a recoverable size.  Over time I was able to turn a fear of having no money into healthy respect and then abundance.

Did your parents teach you about money as a kid? How so?

Antigua, Guatemala
Clock Tower, Antigua, Guatemala

Good money habits weren’t their specialty. For example, I learned that if you came across an unexpected windfall, perhaps from a tax return, you should spend that sh*t ASAP. But only on something practical, such as a chainsaw or a sofa with faux mahogany trim and an embroidered avocado and gold colored rose.

But I learned other, much more valuable life skills, such as a love of reading, the importance of education, a strong work ethic, to respect everyone, that complaining never solves anything, and the only person to blame for your situation is yourself.

Favorite beer?
In high school, some friends started brewing beer under the Big Shooter label. We even had T-shirts, “Big Shooter Beer for the Big Shooter in You.”

Nowadays, I prefer something distilled and aged in oak barrels for a decade or two. Perhaps a Lagavulin or Talisker.

Best thing you read lately
“It’s a boy!”

We’ve also been doing daily reads of Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar

What do you do for exercise?
I swing a kettlebell around from time to time, and do push-ups and sit-ups. Walking and biking are my preferred form of transport.

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Comments

  1. I see your site and think “if only we did this when we were younger.” I think we’re a little too rooted and would have the family guilt (really though, we’d miss them) where we wouldn’t want to be out of the country for a long time.

    My work is talking about opening a plant in China and needing people to do 1 year stints over there. I just can’t bring myself to do it though. I’m on a 10 year path and that might get me there a little quicker but I can’t bring myself to ignore the cost on my current lifestyle.

    Either way, your blog is funny and fun, and your stories let me live another life even though it’s vicariously!
    Chris @ Flipping a Dollar recently posted…Vintage 90s Nickelodeon Merchandise – Rugrats HatMy Profile

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    • Thank you kindly

      In Chinese culture, the eldest male child is responsible for taking care of his parents in old age, so I now have a Retirement Plan C

      I’m looking forward to an excuse to write less. Spring is here, and there is a baby to introduce to the hiking trails outside of town
      Jeremy recently posted…The Worst Retirement EverMy Profile

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  4. GCC, if you are living the Hunter S. Thompson lifestyle, you are almost guaranteed to look like 40 forever, but not for the right reasons! Really fun interview, and congrats on the newborn – it’s a lot like being on drugs too: always being in a daze, inability to sleep, up all hours of the night, and many other things that would seem bizarre to you just a few short months ago…
    Steve@EscapeVelocity2020 recently posted…Am I the Only Person on the Internet that Didn’t Retire When I Hit Financial Independence?My Profile

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    • Thanks Danny!

      Slow travel took us some time to figure out (still research to be done.) We were originally planning to be in Mexico 6 weeks. 6 months later… It will be a lot of fun to combine education with travel for the little guy
      Jeremy recently posted…The Worst Retirement EverMy Profile

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  12. Thank you Mr 1500, for the opportunity and the fun times

    Your description of the work/vacation balance was a major incentive for us to cut ties with the workplace. Not only the physical requirement of being in one location, but all of the mental energy that is required are two things I definitely do not miss

    Slow travel is wonderful. You are going to love it
    Jeremy recently posted…The Worst Retirement EverMy Profile

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  13. I have exactly same dreams and wishes as you do about traveling and be able to finally ease up. I do not mind working if it is more of a seasonal work rather than a rat race every day sometimes weekends and barely get a week vacation a few times in a year. Oh, I wish I started my investing journey at least 10 years earlier, I could be almost there.

    Your questions are a good source for stopping a bit and start thinking. For most of them I have answers, some are a straight “no” (like parents teaching us about money, I actually was teaching my parents about money, lol).

    Thanks for posting this
    Martin
    Martin recently posted…$SPX once again fails to break the resistance. Another fall down is likely, read why!My Profile

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  14. Jeremy, you’re right. I was watching Fox News last night and found out Baltimore is a dangerous place. Sneaker killings should go down however, because the local shoe store was just looted.

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  17. What a great post – Thoroughly entertaining. I had a similar upbringing but a little less “white trash” and a little more “mexican cheap” mixed with a side of Texas “Go-Big-Or-Go-Home” Mentality, depending on the purchase of course. Congrats on the little one and we look forward to reading about your new adventures with a mini traveler in tow!

    Reply

  18. Great post, great blogs from both you guys and girls, am enjoying myself reading and learning. Thanks for sharing!

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  19. In otherarticles they were talking about 170.000$ combined income, this is an amount the avetage high skilled educatedworken doesn’t have. I only gotto 35000$, between 20 and 33, double it when you are a couple , then only you have 70000$. These guys have 100000 ayear extra, of course they can save 1.5M $ in 13years.

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