The Importance of Travel

I’d like to cover why I prioritize allocating money for Travel with the family over Investments. Please keep in mind that I am past a Cruise Fire stage in my investment career.

Tolerance

A subtle benefit of travelling is that you become more tolerant towards other cultures. Being immersed in other people’s history, their past, their struggles, their day to day, their weather, festivals, smells, sights and sounds; all give you a foundation to be able to see from their point of view.

You might say - “we’ll that’s nice but I don’t care”.

Nature works in cycles. Ying and yang. Outcomes usually balance out in the middle. Leaning too far to one side or having bias means you will be off center and might make decisions that aren’t pragmatic or a probabilistic reality.

Tolerance is an important part of being a stoic and balanced, logical thinker.

Becoming too extreme of anything is never any good and the more balance you can find and internalize - the better. I personally can get off track given enough time of me hanging out with myself, coupled with the influence of negative global news.

Just as a thought exercise - imagine having a conversation with Gandalf the Gray and trying to get a heavily biased answer from him. Sages would always give a balanced answer. Become Gandalf.

Investment Opportunities

You are living Your Last Life. You have nothing to lose - you are only here for a short period of time.

Undertand what your ideal life looks like then make it happen. Understand that money isn’t essential to making this happen as

the best things in life are free

However money does give you options which can help facilitate lifestyle design.

Aim to be wealthy so you can exert more influence on the world and shape it how you want it to be.

Seeing various parts of the world are massively helpful for you creating points of reference compared to your home base. Are there opportunities occuring where you are travelling that aren’t occuring back at home? Can you bring them back home or sell them locally and monetize upon that? Are you missing out on something that others can see but you’ve been missing out on?

Keeping all of your eggs in one basket is foolish and that compounds as we progress through periods of Weak Men Make Hard Times. The future is Austerity, increased taxes, capital controls, wealth confisciation.

Ensure that you take some of your resources. Right Now. And re-direct them into diversification. Treat it as an insurance policy. Yes your returns will reduce for this year, however you need freedom to be able to navigate towards your future destiny.

Finally regarding being locally familiar with a place yields a huge amount of confidence in potentially investing in that area. The minute you start establishing some relationships with people and companies, trust and clarity will ensue.

Some destinations that I’ve long had earmarked for travel - Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Uruguay. I’m learning Spanish to help open up more opporutunies for me and my family in Spanish speaking countries.

Expansive Thinking

At somepoint during a vacation, after you have gotten past the stress of travel and the unfamiliarity of the area. After all of the activities are done and familiarity sets in. When you have no burdens or work assignments expected - you are finally able to let your mind wander.

This downtime is exceptional for future thinking. It is open, no time constraints and yields fruitful thoughts. This quiet thinking or meditative thinking is something I do a lot. But requires quiet time and no external factors demanding your attention.

During this period of quiet time, reflection and contemplation you can really take a step back and stop being reactive from a thought point of view.

It gives you the ability to look, backwards and forwards in time and overlay your lifestyle design ambitions into future action for when you return from your vacation.

Personally I do this in the morning daily as I drink coffee, before the family has woken up. This is my favorite part of the day.

Time with Family

For me, this is the most important reason. For deepening family bonds, being present and having a stress free time with your most loved ones.

A goal of mine is to build a big, strong, independent family with multigenerational influence and resources.

I realized a bit too late that I wanted more childeren, however I will channel my energy on the children I have and in turn channel energy onto their children.