Why Quittong My Six Figure Job Was Best for My Family
Growing upwards, my family didn't accept much money, then we never took any holidays. What I knew of places like Paris, Cairo, New York, or Venice, I learned from hopping from 1 casino to the side by side whenever nosotros drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. I didn't go out the US until I was xx. In fact, prior to flying abroad to go to higher in Philadelphia, I had merely been on two flights in my life.
And then what I missed out on before this betoken, I've been making upward for always since. I've now traveled to over lxx countries, many of them multiple times, and more and more now for extended periods in one place. I've met so many incredible people along and have shared countless adventures with them.
I've turned a hobby of taking photographs into a way of life where I can tell stories and inspire others to reach for something only a little bit out of their reach. I've done it pretty economically as well, and that's made all the difference.
Time vs Money
I studied economics at the Wharton School of Business, and mayhap the most of import lesson I've learned from my time in that location and subsequently working at the largest nugget direction firm in the world is this: fourth dimension is your most precious commodity.
Certain, in our world, it'south pretty tough to live without money, just it'south time that levels the playing field betwixt everyone. I learned this in the nigh random of ways.
While earning a adequately adept salary at the historic period of 23, I was able to squeeze out of every last vacation twenty-four hours I had to become backpacking to new countries. I stayed in hostels, I bargained for everything, and I took the cheaper form of transportation whenever it fabricated sense. Information technology rejuvenated me to return to the grind each time. Until I was went to Costa rica. There I became friends with a random group of people, who didn't intendance what I "did". The question never came up.
After a week together, they asked if I wanted to head over to Nicaragua with them for a few days for some adventuring. It seemed so simple, but reluctantly, I told them I had to go abode to a chorus of "boos" and "whys." I explained that I had a meeting with Deutsche Banking company on Mon to effigy out our pricing contracts for a new group of funds…
No one cared. They were bummed. I was bummed, but that's just how it goes. I got it, but it still bugged me. For the offset fourth dimension, I was earning enough to be able to go almost anywhere I wanted, and still I couldn't.
But Why I Tin't Travel More?
And then I remembered meeting others earlier who somehow had this freedom I didn't. I remembered a feeling of jealousy grow whenever I heard that they had been on the road for 4 months or 6 months or in the instance of this 1 girl traveling on her own, xv months. They all worked for a bit to salvage up for the trip and and then constitute a state to work in when they ran out of money. And and so they were off once again. Rinse and repeat.
I ran the numbers in my caput and this is what came out. Every bit much equally I was making, a large part was taken out to pay Uncle Sam, and so a clamper for my San Francisco rent. And then some for all the happy hours, the eating out, the taxi rides, the new clothes, and the new gadgets. I made a fiddling more each yr, but also spent more. At the end of the yr, I saved up a bit, but not nearly as much equally I idea. For some of my colleagues, they inappreciably saved anything at all.
So despite a six figure salary, for which I gave up 48 weeks out of the year, I had very piddling to show for it, other than that I made it through the year. But and so did 'dreadlocks' from Australia who I met in Vietnam. Except, he worked for a chiliad total of xvi weeks, across a few different jobs in a few unlike countries. He likewise had very little to show for it, other than the fact that he was traveling and just having fun for the other 36 weeks. This made very little sense at all.
And it made perfect sense one-time in the fall of 2010.
I had been working pretty hard and getting recognition in the company. The adjacent promotion I was gunning was for was to leapfrog for a Managing director position, running my own group. A group that I'd be in charge of. No more sneaking out. No more than two weeks away from my Blackberry. Definitely no more backpacking and staying in hostels walking barefoot everywhere. How would that look for the company?
I worked out the numbers and there was a definitely a number for which I was about to mortgage away the rest of my twenties. When everything was accounted for, information technology was not a very impressive number.
So About Ice Cream
I love good water ice cream. Y'all e'er have to get it in a waffle cone. Two scoops. Completely unlike flavors like hazelnut gelato and mango sorbet, or mint pistachio and strawberry rhubarb. You pick the dominant season and put that in first. And y'all never eat it with a spoon. By licking information technology, you lot maximize the surface expanse contact to volume ratio.
When you lot put a spoonful of water ice cream in your oral cavity, y'all're just tasting the exterior surface expanse. The residuum is by and large swallowed away. What a waste. You're taking in the calories and missing out on the potential oral fissure/natural language contact. Amateur 60 minutes.
When I'm on the road and detect an ice cream place, information technology's incredibly difficult for me to choose a flavor or 2. There are so many to choose from, and I want to make sure I've made the correct decision for the side by side 10-15 minutes of enjoyment. Who knows when I'll be back again. Why not only get more yous ask? Because Carl, there is too much of a proficient matter.
It'due south agonizingly difficult and the stress is unnecessarily high, salve for knowing that every bit shortly as I decide, I will commence on a flavor trip fo velvety goodness. Unless I made the wrong choice. You get the signal.
So on that fateful day in the fall of 2010, I had a moment of clarity. If I stayed and locked myself in for that Director position, I'd be looking at 3-v years before I can brand some other decision. I'd exist giving upwardly the rest of my twenties to this job. Of course I can always earn a lot of money and and so travel at some point in the time to come (mayhap), merely it became suffocatingly clear that if I stayed, I could never practice so again in my twenties. It was an existential dilemma I was facing.
Only of course I had done the math, and and so the decision was pretty clear. At the moment, it only wasn't worth it for me to stay. I didn't know what to do next, but I felt like my time was only more valuable doing something else other than working. The decision was easier than figuring out which two ice cream flavors to choice the next time I was at Salt & Straw in Portland.
I Quit.
So I quit. It was a footling more than complicated than that, but for all intents and purposes, I was no longer an employee of the company. And so I bought a one way ticket to London to begin what would go a year of traveling around the earth. That part was a logical conclusion too. If I hadn't figured out what I wanted to practise side by side already, sitting there wouldn't change that. I needed to be somewhere else. Doing something else. And then why not travel and figure it out abroad.
It's coming on ix years now and I oasis't stopped traveling. Somewhere between Morocco and Indonesia, I decided to pursue photography full time. And then somewhere between Thailand and Argentina, I decided to create a blog so I can document the journey. So hither we are. I've learned a lot of things nigh how all this works and I've had a damn good fourth dimension doing it. It's definitely been a learning process. Some things came easier than others and I've certainly made mistakes a long the style. Some sucked, others were learning experiences, and a few turned into some of the almost wonderful, unexpected things I could non take planned for if I had crystal ball. Hopefully I can help you avoid some of easy pitfalls if yous are looking to exercise the same thing. Experience free to engage and reach out.
Source: https://whereandwander.com/quitting-six-figure-job-easier-choosing-ice-cream-flavor/