Fellow dreamers! It's a busy week! Posted a lot of new blogs! I really enjoy writing them, so try to keep up!
I'll soon write about the third step in our progress of chasing the dream. And since yesterday i have Twitter, so please follow me! @H2CAD (how to chase a dream) or contact me [email protected]
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So, now that our goal is determined and divided into smaller steps, the next step is to work on your first small step. In my case, finances.
First of all, and i'll say this at least a hundred times more as we go along our journey, take some time to make this work. Remember, the journey should be fun as well so no stress!!! Maybe needless to say, but as you are trying to achieve a smaller step it's possible to divide this smaller step into even smaller steps to achieve the smaller step. You should really make an Excel-sheet with all the things that come in and go out. Putting it into a overview literally makes you feel more determined to make your financial situation more stable. If you want some help with this, the internet is full of examples. I made one specific for the situation i am in and in a overview that works for me. It's actually really easy. Take a month, see what comes in and see what goes out. In the end you see what is left to invest in your dream. Don't be shocked, everything is fixable. But that's not the issue right now. After you have put everything into an overview, you will have to determine what you need for your dream. So your dream needs to be a bit more specified for this. How do you want to travel and what is your interpretation of freedom? Is it backpacking and going from hostel to hostel or is it travelling in a RV trough Europe? And is freedom to you that you can go wherever you want twice a year for three weeks or is it all year round? Backpacking from hostel to hostel is nice, but almost impossible with a small child and a dog like me. My type of freedom is travelling trough Europe in an RV all year round. So this is where this story goes. I calculated that i need around 1250 euro's every month. 250 euro for insurances, 350 euro for food/drinks/cosmetics, 250 euro for fuel and 400 euro for accommodation to put our RV. Fuel and accommodation can change depending on how long you stay in one place or the country/season you are in. For example, you can park your RV everywhere you want in Scandinavia (well... maybe not everywhere... check Google for this) but in Italy you will have to go to a campsite. In high season it's not always possible to get a cheap place, but you can resolve this by going to Sweden in High Season (free camping) and going to Italy or wherever in the Low Season. Check these things out before you go somewhere. So now that we know how much you need every month, you will have to determine how long you want to keep this way of living. Do you want the freedom to travel all year round the rest of your life or for the next three years? In my case i want 2017, 2018 and 2019 to be my travelling years. My son becomes 4 in February 2020 and he will have to go to school. So this is the end date of my all year round travel freedom. So needless to say, i'm in a hurry. But no stress! ;) So which part of these three years will actually be travelling months. I made a small planning in Excel and decided that the months of travelling will be February, March, April and June for the first half, spend one month of summer in my home country and then August, September, October and November travelling and then spend Christmas and part of the winter in my home country with family. So this is my kind of year round travelling. 8 months per year. This can off course vary per year. But never December, this is the time to spend with family! This means 21 months of spending 1250 euro every month on my travelling and 11 months of spending 1000 euro every month on being at home. €37.250,- Impossible? Maybe, maybe not. This depends on your financial status right now. I have two cars and a house i can sell. These can make it happen. However, i will need to invest some time, effort and money into making the house ready for sale. Oh, and making my wife feel okay to sell it. But... is this everything you need? That also depends on your wishes when you come back. Do you want to start allover again? Or do you want some money to start-up with? Will you be able to find a job easily? These things will have effect on your goal and finances. In my case, i want 7500 euro to be there when i come back. This raises my 37250 to around 45000 euro. And did i mention i don't actually own a RV yet? So this also sets me back 10.000 euro... So the amount i need for these years of travel is 55.000 euro. Am i going to make this happen without doing anything from now on? No. The maximum amount i can spend is 49.500 euro on everything (depending on selling the house for a profit). This is not enough. So now i can do two things. Leave it this way and make different plans or make sure that they are sufficient by saving money where i can. I mean, it's just for 1 year! This means selling my car and buy a cheaper version with lower insurance en better efficiency, lower my extra's like the hairdresser every 3 weeks, giving up internet at home, etc. Here is where your Excel overview comes in handy. By changing amounts and skipping things you don't actually need you can directly see what your amount will be after a year of saving! Needless to say you can off course work extra to make more money or sell some stuff you don't need. Do you really need those expensive seats in your dining? Do you really need those 3 bikes? Go around your house and see what there is to sell. You are going away for 3 years... remember this ;) (the big screen you have is now worth money, but not in 3 years. The same will cost a fraction of what it's worth now! Same goes for your laptop, but the last one you need for blogging right?) So now that the finances are covered... my next step is work. Fellow dreamers, you most-likely have no idea how extremely exciting this is for me. Never thought that Blogging would really be my thing, but writing here gives me my landmarks to hold on to. I hope to inspire my readers to follow their dreams, like we are trying to fulfill ours. It's not only about the dream you chase, and not about how many miles you will have to run to chase it, but how to enjoy the journey as you chase it!!!
First things first. Set a goal. However big or small, make it real. Try to write it down in a few words. Like: "I want the freedom to travel all year round" However this may look simple, it's not. Think it through a few times, maybe even write down a few goals or dreams on a piece of paper en read it a few times. Maybe you can put some of those dreamers together into one big dream or you can prioritize your dreams. Determine what your number 1 dream is. And maybe your other dreams can be part of the journey. Take some time, it's important so don't stress out on this. People often spend years and years to figure this out. It took me ages to find my goal in life. But you have to know where you are going. Unless your dream is to not know where you are going with your life... But hey, that's your dream. And if that's your dream, you can make it happen by making that your goal. Now you have your dream. Making it happen isn't always easy, so the next step is dividing it into smaller goals. How can you achieve your dream to have the freedom to travel? What are the things you will have to do to achieve that goal. Make more money? Work more overtime to save free time from work? Search for another job? Sell your car/house? Say goodbye to your busy social life? Stop buying stuff? Save money by living cheaper? Well... ehm... it's up to you. What are you willing to sacrifice for your dream. What is this dream worth to you? Is it worth giving up everything you achieved this far, socially and financially? Having the freedom to travel all year round sure isn't the most simple dream you can have. Certainly when you have a family to look after, financial responsibilities and people you love and can't go without for to long. Like me. So, this is how i am going to do it. First step, set a goal. Second step, finance! |