I started this post at 1 AM the other day because I felt like writing.
Though I generally write educational posts around passive income and financial freedom, I like that I can journal what’s in my heart and mind when I feel like it. I guess that’s what I love about this blog!
The Hustle
Lately, I’ve been sooooo busy. I do enjoy the hustle, but sometimes I feel like I’m in catch-up mode, and when I relax I don’t feel I can relax for that long. I’ve been busy because I’ve been working on some new initiatives, while trying to balance the cranking of new content and the continuation of my previous projects.
Sometimes I wonder…
Is the hustle really necessary?
I think about this because I’ve seen the other side of living on looooow expenses. While I was a digital nomad spending around $1,400/month on all travel expenses (including accommodations, flights, entertainment, food, EVERYTHING), I would question why people chased success so much, especially people in the Bay Area. Life can be downsized so you don’t need to spend that much to enjoy it easily.
Here are my contradictory desires…
If you look at my “What I want to do before I die” post, a lot of my goals in life are so simple.
One side of me:
When picturing my ideal retired life…it seems easy and relaxing. I always imagine this dream of living in a nice tiny house or cabin in an uncomplicated part of the world…maybe around nature, or maybe in a balance of both the beach and the city. I also have this fascination with spending a few months building a home with my two hands (who knows, maybe I’ll take it back when I start trying to do it). And then I’d grow a garden, read, paint, make music, fish, meditate, and things of that nature…simple things like that for a beautiful, peaceful life.
And then occasionally, I would go off and nomad around the world again. I’d walk around the streets of Lisbon enjoying live music playing everywhere. Or I’d ride to a cafe on the back of a scooter in Chiang Mai, where I’ll chill and maybe work on my own businesses from time to time.
The other side of me:
But then I have these other desires, just being heads down building impactful businesses, learning/mastering skills, and hustling towards financial freedom. I mean that’s why I came home, right? I wanted to build skills and grow something to inspire people to design their lives. I CHOSE to come back to this. I chose the hustle, the ambition, and the skill building. Yet I do miss the simple life.
I’m spending so much time building passive income. But when you read the above I also just want to escape, chill in nature, and build stuff with my own hands. And I know that I have the passive income and net worth to support a retired life elsewhere to do those things. It just feels sort of contradictory, because I tell myself I don’t need to chase “success”.
Conclusion
SOOO I kept thinking I was a contradictory mess, but as I typed this I realized the problem is really my desired location, I think.
I live in the Bay Area, which is one of the most ridiculously expensive cities in the world. Case in point – an unlivable shack recently sold in San Francisco for $2 million, and $1 million is pretty average to purchase a home.
Then I think about all these other fun places I could be living in, and I sigh, because I know that the cost of living is SO much lower elsewhere.
So I guess the real question is why do I choose to make enough passive income to sustain a life in the Bay Area?!
I know I need this because I’ve already questioned if I could see “home” in other places around the world. But after 2 years of nomading, I found that my best friends were still my loved ones from home. My friends and family are here. I found some close friends (expats) in Bucharest, Romania who I still keep in touch with. But aside from them, nobody could relate better to me than people from here.
And my significant other feels the same way too and enjoys life here. BUT he is okay with living in other places temporarily with a purpose of building up our financial wealth to allow us to retire ANYWHERE. I don’t want to only be able to retire using geographic arbitrage. I want to make it so finances NEVER have to be an issue. Honestly, I want to make sure I can retire not just in cheaper parts of the world, but also in the Bay Area where costs are extremely high.
So what if I moved to Orlando, Florida or Austin, Texas for a couple years? And what if I just began sort of documenting myself building a home, or recording my travels?
Who knows where life will take me, and I’m glad temporary relocation is now on the table as an option for us. I’m glad that life feels more open when it felt a bit restricted when I first started typing this :). I feel so much more resolved LOL.
So the answer to the title of my blog post is…YES. I can live a simple life, and I feel much more certain that my actions are in line with my values and goals.
