Many apologies for the delay in an update. I'm still working on posts about Costa Rica and then will move on to other locations, particularly Europe and parts of the US. Seeing as this isn't just a blog about international travel, and seeing as I live in a kickass place (Alaska), I also plan to start incorporating some stories of living Up North and the fun challenges that tends to bring.
In the meantime, I feel compelled to use the typical excuse for my lack of blogging: my job! Things were really slow a few weeks ago but I'm afraid that time has passed. At any rate, my first love is traveling and so my related loves are blogging about traveling and sharing stories and pictures. More to come very soon, I promise!
Other blogs, including Go! Girl Guides (a personal favorite) attempt to inspire readers by writing about how one's job can be incorporated into one's travel addiction. The general rule of thumb is that if you have a clear goal and give sufficient notice that you can take time off every few years to do some serious traveling. I agree, of course, but I also think this information is best suited for younger, single travelers. I'm married and we are planning to start a family, so this begs the question of how to incorporate my travel addiction and my family's desire to lead a very "novel" existence with our need for basic things like income and education. After some thought on the topic, I've come up with a few vague solutions:
1. Work really hard, get the kids through school then retire early and travel indefinitely
This is a pretty cool idea, but it requires many other factors to be accounted for including the ability to save substantial sums of money while raising a family and giving up most traveling (aside from quick 1 week vacations) for years on end. Honestly, I'm not 100% certain that I can buckle down without a break for more than 3 years at a time. Another negative is that our prospective kids would not be included on our bigger adventures, as we would all be so focused on work and school during their formative years. The positive side of this, however, is that we could look at our financial and career situation and basically determine we would be away for X number of years. When we tired of traveling we could get new jobs and work less fanatically for the remainder of our careers.
2. Work really hard part of the year and take long/possibly unpaid vacations with the family
This would require a VERY flexible work situation for both myself and my spouse. The more companies allow employees to make their own schedules and work remotely, the more possible this is. However, it's important to make plans based on reasonable assumptions. At this point, I just can't assume that we could take a month or more off every year. Plus, with kids, it's important to consider school schedules. Alaska has beautiful summers, so it would be a shame to plan our travels during the summer/high season and miss that and we are opposed to homeschooling the kids for more than a year at a time.
3. Work really hard without much of a break for a few years at a time, taking "sabbatical" time every 2 to 3 years for an extended trip with the family
I like this idea too. In theory we would work and save for a few years, then pull the kids out of school for a few months and hit the road. It would be a great way to spend time together, see the world, and give our family a unique experience. The down side is that this might impede our ability to save for our non-working days and it might cause problems with our kids in terms of their educations and extracurriculars.
In short, there's no perfect solution for the average young family, unless you win the lottery! Assuming that won't happen (seeing as I don't play the lottery and Alaska doesn't actually have a lottery to play anyway), we need a game plan. The ideal option would be to combine all of the options: work really hard at my flexible job, save money for years at a time, take short sabbatical trips as a family every few years and ultimately retire or semi-retire very early to allow for extended travel as a couple.
Is this a pipe dream? Can I make this work?
Maybe a bit of both. I'm an attorney and my spouse works in accounting. At our current jobs none of these options are possible, but I will be changing jobs in 2012 so at that point we will have a better idea of our options. We both really like our jobs and want to do well with them, but we both also understand that work should not be our whole lives.
In the meantime I will be going with Option Now: working 9-5 and getting my student debt in order while saving to buy a house or something. Once I have a little stability I can work toward the future.... which includes living in an awesome, cold place and an upcoming trip to HAWAI'I!
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