Irritating Buzz at Two Dragons Guesthouse

My first day in Siem Reap has been eventful and fulfilling day. I did not get much sleep the previous night, but I didn’t feel that tired. I was really happy things were working out for me and I got to teach Cambodians English on my first day in Cambodia. My supper at Home Cocktail Restaurant was delicious and since I was already far away from night life in Siem Reap and close to Two Dragons guesthouse where I was staying, I headed straight to my room to perhaps catch up with some sleep.

I felt rather disgusting as it’s really hot and humid in Cambodia so I was sweating whole day nonstop. I stank and my feet were dirty from walking in the dust wearing sandals whole day. Shower would feel like a life saver and so it did, but I was so tired I just fell in the bed and lay there motionless for a few hours, contemplating the need to take shower, but struggling to find strength to lift up and walk to the washroom. The room was hot but provided air-conditioning fixed it all up within minutes. General lack of sleep from previous night and long day travelling prior started to show eventually and I felt really tired, ready to crash.

It got dark fast and everything in Two Dragons fell quiet. It was night hour. I went to take my shower at last and feeling clean, I lay in my bed ready to get some sleep. To my most unpleasant surprise, there was this extremely loud, irritating buzz shaking my room. It was brutal. I’d be sitting on my bed and all I hear is this horrible buzz. It felt as if I was sleeping inside a giant power station where buzz from ultra high voltage is deafening. The buzz of Two Dragons was no less of an ear tearing experience.

I switched off the air-conditioning, switched off all the lights, made sure no water tap is open but the buzz was persistent and appeared not related to anything in the room. Headache from the noise was getting more severe and I have quickly come to realize that I won’t be able to fall asleep in such painful conditions.

I was surprised I did not hear any commotion outside. I’d think someone would already complain or the management would notice and try to resolve it. But everything was quiet and everyone seemingly asleep already. I opened the door and walked out on the hallway to learn that the buzz is present there as well. There was no particular place it was coming from, it was just there. Extremely loud and omnipresent.

I walked up and down the hallway and noticed the buzz was much stronger at the southern end of the building, where my and most other rooms were located. Northern end where balcony and coffee table were was still getting the buzz, but the intensity was a bit lower. It’s hot outside even at night in Cambodia and if it wasn’t for mosquitoes who love my blood, I would crash on the balcony floor to avoid getting my head burst from that horrible buzzing.

Since there were no signs of life anywhere in the building, I opened my suitcase and dug out the earplugs. I could not believe I was sleeping in a $12 a night establishment and was forced to use earplugs to sleep. Everything about Two Dragons seemed to go downhill and I started to regret my decision to book stay here for a week. Wearing earplugs all night long provides breading grounds for bacteria in your ears and feels uncomfortable. I hated having to do that and could not wait for the morning.

My Friend Lisa

I’ve had this weird relationship with Lisa for years. It’s hard to call it a relationship as we have never really been a couple but we’ve always been reasonably close. I met her in a club shortly after I’ve realized the toll corporate lifestyle has taken on me and decided to change my life and make it exciting once again. I was glad to see her as it was a while since she came out last and I wanted to tell her all about how I realized how worthless a life I was living and what I was going to do in order to change it around. But when I suggested going for a walk so I can explain myself, she turned me down thinking I had some side intentions. It was funny cause I really wanted to tell her everything that kept me excited and sharing this excitement would make it double.

She eventually agreed to go for a brief walk around the building with me so I got a chance to at least suggest that I’m looking to take a whole different approach to my life. As the time went by and I got much closer to polishing up the strategy of my new start, I called her to see if she’d be up for supper so I can sit down with her and follow up on previous brief introduction to my lifestyle change. I believed it needed more explanation as by briefly explaining that I’m gonna leave work to travel may have left wrong impression that I have gone mental. Unfortunately, I was not having any luck getting a hold of her on her phone for weeks.

It wasn’t until one week before my planned departure that I called her number and she answered. I didn’t even know what to say I was so surprised she picked it up. There’s been nothing but answering machine lately and I don’t talk to the answering machines. I briefly stated over the phone that I was leaving in a week and that there was no knowing when or whether I will be coming back. I thought it would be a good reason to go out one more time to enjoy the meal together.

She responded by reminding me of a terrible meal experience she had when I went to dine with her last time. It was the day before leaving for the Dominican Republic. I thought she over reacted as it really wasn’t that bad, but I get it that she didn’t like the food. However I did not even remember that anymore and she kept it in her mind and based her unwillingness to go for supper with me again on that. Duh!

I promised her we’d go to some nice place, such as Padmaradi – a vegetarian restaurant in China Town in Edmonton which is really awesome. And so we did. It was mostly a monologue on my part and I wasn’t even sure if I was making any sense to her. I had a lot to talk about. I actually realized how this reasoning behind leaving the corporate lifestyle and how it turns life into a miserable grumpiness and switching it for the lifestyle that brings daily adventure and excitement was difficult to explain. I saw it clearly in my mind, but putting it in words was failing and seemed like it didn’t have the beginning and the end and the stuff between was all over the place.

I find the same difficulty trying to explain my reasoning in words here. It is as clear as the sky in my mind, but often I fear that I don’t have the right ability to put my thoughts on paper without making myself sound like I went mental.

As I sat with Lisa over a bowl of nice coconut rice with fake curry chicken and fake beef, I spoke and spoke, presented one argument after another and despite being unsure if I made any sense, Lisa ensured me that I was making perfect sense. I already had most of my stuff stored with Dave and only had a few left over to take care of and Lisa in all her awesomeness offered assistance in that regard. I was also offered help taking care of checks that would be sent to my mailbox from my on line ventures. We made arrangements that I would give Lisa the key from my mail box, she’d get the mail and if there are any checks, she’d deposit them for me. I already knew from my bank that during my physical absence, other people can deposit checks that are made payable to me into my account provided they have my account number which needs to be written on the back of the check. So I would just need someone reliable back home to have this taken care of. Lisa offered to be the one.

Lisa has also offered to store the rest of my items I needed to keep and as form of payback for her services, I ended up giving her a lot of my possessions she really wanted. It worked out perfect. I wanted to unload myself so I can travel, she needed some items cause her job doesn’t pay that well and she can’t afford them. So I gave her whole pile of stuff and she’s gonna look after mine while I’m gone traveling.

Further to that, Lisa offered to give me a lift to the airport on my day of departure. That basically took care of most of the issues that needed to be taken care of and I got whole couple steps closer to leaving. Lisa kicks butt.

Making Merchandise Donations to Charities

I was only a week away from my departure to Siem Reap, but still had a lot of possessions I didn’t get rid of during my mass disposal. Everything I didn’t touch within last two years went to the garbage bin, along with everything I saw no immediate need for. However I still had a bunch of items I thought were very usable and could improve someone’s quality of life. I was out of time and wouldn’t be able to take care of it myself, so I started contacting one Edmonton based charity to see whether any accepted Merchandise Donations.

As it turned out, making monetary donations to charities is easy and vast majority of charities will have some mechanism in place to make it fast and convenient, however when it came to merchandise donations, things were vastly different. Most responses I got said that they did not have the manpower and/or the facilities to store merchandise donations and wouldn’t be able to accept them. However with each such response, I was provided more contacts on additional local charitable organizations which the person responding believed may be accepting merchandise donations. So I kept relentlessly sending emails or making phone calls until I got the first positive response stating that a person could come to my place with a van tonight to pick up just about everything from the list as it seemed I had a whole pile of usable items.

This was exactly the type of response I wanted to hear. A person who knows what they are doing and is able and willing to take immediate action. I formerly thought I would split the donations among several charities so people from various walks of life could benefit, but as I thought about it further, I came to realize that this type of thinking made no sense. All I wanted at this time was to make sure that my donations will make someone’s day. If just one person could feel like it’s their lucky day today because they got a pile of stuff from me, then it would be all worth it.

I had an estimated $8,000 worth of merchandise to give away. It included the following:

  • Kitchen Ware – utensils, pots, frying pans, toasters, knives, etc.
  • Books – all sorts from expensive photography tutorials, through dictionaries, all the way to fantasy tales
  • Toys for Kids – I used to use those as photography props in the studio
  • Electronics – TV sets, DVD players, stereos, etc.
  • Leisure Items – skates, roller blades, backpacks, etc.
  • Home Decor – curtains, lamps, chairs, bedding sheets, etc.
  • Clothing – all sort of summer and winter clothing for all occasions
  • Household Items – various pieces from toilet paper through screwdrivers to power drill sets, etc.
  • …and a whole pile more

I realized that when you are donating, all you care about is to make sure that someone in need benefits. That’s why trying to split the donations would be contra-productive. How would I decide which items go where? It simply made no sense as a person here as well as a person there could benefit from it just the same. Great thing about charities is that there is no rivalry. There is no competition. There is only sincere desire to help those in need. At the end of the day, if person’s life is improved thanks to my donations, then it all made sense and was worth, regardless of where this person is form or how they got to the situation that they are in need of donations. Hence any attempt to try to find “the right charity” is contra-productive. There are only two types of charities – ones that truly give to those in need, or the corrupt ones that keep donations for themselves and only use people in need as store front to trick potential donors into donating for them believing the donation will go to those in need.

After I got an email back from Todd from One Child’s Village, I knew he was the right person to give all of my merchandise to. Their website speaks heaps about the work they do and I’ve been hinted by other charities that were no able to accept merchandise donations that One Child’s Village was a good charity to look into. On top of that – I like dealing with people who know what they want and are able to make decisions. Todd responded to my email promptly and got right to the point. He said: “It looks like your whole lot is full of useful items. I could take all of it. When is the best time for me to come with the van?”

How can you not love dealing with someone who doesn’t beat around the bush. There was no time to bounce emails back and forth. I needed to make this merchandise donation as soon as possible as I only had a few extra days left for everything else. Todd was at my place right after I got back from work and we loaded his van up full. This whole deal got taken care of within one day and without much hassle. But most of all – I knew my merchandise donations were in good hands.

One Child’s Village operates in Africa and these items would make their way to impoverished people in need and as I have said – if any of it could make the life of any person in need better, or even the day, then it was all worth it. For me personally – I no longer had any use for any of this. I was gonna leave the life dedicated to work and accumulation of possessions for the life of travel and volunteerism to find my place on Earth and do something I’d be proud to talk about when I get old.

After I have finalized my merchandise donation to the One Child’s Village charity, I was left with near empty apartment. Just the way I wanted it to be. With only a few days left until my departure, I only had a few things to take care of and one more big merchandise donation – my car.

Shredding My Life Away

As part of my commitment to cut down on the stuff I own, I went through a lot of paperwork which no longer had value to me or made no sense keeping. I had endless piles of credit card slips, cell phone bills, bank transaction records, official letters sent to me for various reasons and a whole lot of other paperwork I for some reason thought I needed to keep. There was a lot of it there in the boxes and since all those papers bore some form of personally identifiable information, I couldn’t just dump it in the garbage bin. So chunk after chunk, I would be taking a stack of paper with me to work, I would purposefully stay overtime, waiting for everyone to leave and then I’d proceed to occupy the shredder for an hour to shred all this paper I had brought. I kept doing this for a few weeks, day after day until all of the papers I no longer needed was gone. I have literally shredded my life away but it felt good. I have already been liberated from possessions, I just needed to take it a step further and liberate myself from paperwork.

Because of high volume of paper I had to shred, I had to split it into several days because the shredder would get filled up every day upon my use. I was hoping it would go without someone becoming too suspicious but luckily it went with no bigger issues. My life was shredded away. I was yet another step closer to becoming free. I have followed up by calling all of the institutions I still deal with to quit sending my statements by mail and strictly stick to electronic communication only. For one this is an important environmentally friendly step and secondly – I was not gonna be here to empty my PO Box anyway so the less unnecessary stuff makes it there, the better.

Independence and Freedom vs Corporate Slavery

I had it all clear in my mind. I knew this was it for me and my lifestyle of a corporate slave. Everything came nicely together, I had not a slightest doubt that spending whole life in servitude so I can enjoy myself when I’m 65 was an awful lifestyle choice. The challenge I was facing now was to choose the best place to start my worldwide travels. It was a challenge, but it was one I was happy to face because it provided me with the most amazing feeling, the feeling of freedom and independence.

For the first time in almost ten years I felt like it was me who’s in charge of my own life. Nobody had absolutely no say about my next step. It was going to be my unconditional choice. How awesome is that? This true freedom of choice opened up my eyes to accept new horizons and I’ve realized that I spent near a decade of my life living conrtolled by somebody else. I had to get up when the alarm clock went off, not when I felt like, I had to go to the office regardless of how beautiful a day it was outside, even though I’d much rather spend it by the lake, I could ask for a vacation but had to do it with advance notice and only had so many days I could use – everything in my life was being determined by someone else, not me.

And here I found myself with firm grip on my own life, independent and free, no longer the property of my employer, my government, my family or anyone else. There was just me and my goals. I was choosing directions, I was choosing speed, I was choosing terms of service.

By becoming a corporate slave you give away your independence and freedom almost entirely. While I was employed, I wasn’t the person I was dreaming to be. I was the tool of my employer. I was there to take orders and deliver the product as per the requirements. The value of my life was given a price tag. I did what I was told so I could collect the paycheck and spend it according to the current community standards. There was no real freedom or independence in my life. My purpose as a corporate slave was to please my masters – the employer. Being a corporate slave, I obediently obliged which is what slaves do to avoid being punished. Corporate slaves, same as normal slaves in its true meaning live their lives in fear. The fear of being punished by being fired, or otherwise put into an undesirable situation.

The actual difference between a slave and a corporate slave is that corporate slaves have their minds locked up, not their bodies. Even though physically imprisoned, actual slaves were provided with food and shelter – corporate slave must provide their own shelter and their own food out of after-tax money they receive in exchange for their obedience. Unlike an actual slave, a corporate slave who loses his shelter must still come to work and follow his/her orders or else he/she could be punished.

The saddest part is that corporate slaves not only lead themselves into this imprisonment, they even ask and strive for it. Their life’s joy is provided by the reality shows on TV. And so their whole life becomes a rat race. They work during the best days of their lives, get taxed and whatever they’re left with is spent on things. The culture of consumerism controls their spendings by keeping them on high through advertising and media exposure.

Most corporate slaves are voluntary prisoners. It is not possible to lock someone up in a cage physically nowadays so setting oneself free is a matter of choice. However, most people will stick with slavery and turn independence and freedom their backs. Cage is the world they are familiar with. Walking out could be risky. And so they spend their lives instead of living them and will die without realizing how much they could have accomplished in life.

It is hard for me to hold it against anyone. I was exactly like that only a few months back. However, I’ve allowed myself to step back and look at the bigger picture from the distance. And when the first glimpse of bigger picture has offered itself, I have followed it to see what the rest of it is all about. I have not stopped until I got clear idea about what the world outside of the cage looked like. Like other corporate slave, back then I felt comfortable in a cage too. It wasn’t the life I would have wanted for myself, but there were forms of security in place that kept me inside. World out there could be dangerous – at least that’s what the media says. Staying inside of the cage offers some protection from this wild, wild world. And if you do what they say, there will always be a place for you in a cage.

I walked out. I dared. I exposed myself to the fresh air and the sound of the ocean. I felt the touch of independence, felt the touch of freedom and chose to soar on my own wings. I can go as high as I wish, take a turn whenever I see fit because it’s me who holds the reins. And this time around I’m not letting go easily. I’ve done it once and it cost me 10 years of my life. I know what I want and I’m gonna take it. My life belongs to me so from now on, I’m rowing my own canoe.

I do realize that freedom and independence come with responsibility. There will be no one to make decisions for me, now one to blame. But I’m ready and willing to accept this responsibility. It will be like the old days when I lived on my own terms. I’m back to my old me and I’m ready to kick ass. My first task as a free and independent man is to choose my first destination where to start my travels. It’s gonna be awesome.

Motivational Quotes To Keep You Going

I have been talking a lot about Early Retirement and tried my best to put my thoughts into words. I have one last thing left to conclude my attempt – to share a few encouraging, motivational quotes to keep you going. Or to get you going – wherever in life you are right now. These sayings have been left to us by wise men and women of the past and bear a great deal of wisdom. Read through them each time you are feeling blue or discouraged. There is nothing more encouraging than well said quote that hits just the right spot. Without further ado, this is the collection of motivational quotes to keep you going that I come back to often myself:

I’ve tried my best to transform my thoughts into words but found myself struggling each time. Everything makes perfect sense in my head, but trying to put it in coherent sentences was challenging. More often than not I felt like I’m not doing my thoughts a justice by failing to properly express my feelings, but I’ve tried never the less. If just one person finds encouragement, if just one person finds inspirations, if just one person changes their life for the better as a result of these words, then it was all worth it. I would like to start with my favorite quote of all. It’s the quote by Jonathan Swift who summed everything I’ve been trying to say in just nine words: “May you live all the days of your life.”

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Zig Ziglar
Will you look back on life and say, “I wish I had,” or “I’m glad I did”?

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Les Brown
You are the only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Martin Luther King
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Richard M. DeVos
The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Ivy Baker
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Swedish Proverb
Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Barbara Sher
Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do – can love things that no one else can love. We are like violins. We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music. You know what to do.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Vincent Van Gogh
Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Buddha
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Jim Rohn
You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Denis Waitley
Chase your passion, not your pension.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by William Jennings Bryan
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Danny Kaye
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Rabindranath Tagore
I slept and dreamt that life was Joy./ I woke and saw that life was Duty./ I acted, and behold, Duty was Joy.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Billy Graham
We cannot truly face life until we face the fact that it will be taken away from us.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Alexander Woollcott
There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Unknown Author
There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Kevin Welch
There’ll be two dates on your tombstone/ And all your friends will read ’em/ But all that’s gonna matter is that little dash between ’em…

Inspirational and Motivational Quote from Psalms
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Roman
While there’s life, there’s hope.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Leo Buscaglia
What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Buddha
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by George Eliot
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Lieh Tzu
Living a life without limits is the highest state of existence.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Henry Ward Beecher
No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Friedrich Schlegel
In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Theodore Roosevelt
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Robert Frost
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Abraham Lincoln
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Anna Robertson Brown
Be wise in the use of time. The question in life is not how much time do we have. The question is: what shall we do with it?

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Henry James
It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Diane Ackerman
I don’t want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Lewis Grizzard
Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Dale Carnegie
Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Bertolt Brecht
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Harold Whitman
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by B. C. Forbes
Don’t forget until too late that the business of life is not business, but living.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Eric Butterworth
Don’t go through life, grow through life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Richard L. Evans
Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Jim Rohn
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Robertson Davies
If you don’t hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you’ll get.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by T. S. Eliot
If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Mark Houlahan
If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and everyday you have the opportunity to write a new page.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Ovid
Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Marcia Wieder
You can come to understand your purpose in life by slowing down and feeling your heart’s desires.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Michael Cibenko
One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
One should count each day a separate life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Eleanor Roosevelt
The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Joan Borysenko
The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Marilyn vos Savant
The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Cicero
The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a life well spent is eternal.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Horace Mann
Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Arnold H. Glasgow
Make your life a mission – not an intermission.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Leonardo Da Vinci
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Somerset Maugham
It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Walt Whitman
Oh, while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Richard Bach
Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by William Lloyd George
He’s no failure. He’s not dead yet.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Jim Valvano
How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal and you have to be willing to work for it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Leland Bartlett
I believe life is to be lived, not worked, enjoyed, not agonized, loved, not hated.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Proverb
You can’t take it with you when you go.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Wayne Dyer
You have everything you need for complete peace and total happiness right now.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Jonathan Swift
May you live all the days of your life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Zig Ziglar
Remember, you can earn more money, but when time is spent is gone forever.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Oprah Winfrey
Right now you are one choice away from a new beginning – one that leads you toward becoming the fullest human being you can be.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Art Buchwald
The best things in life aren’t things.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Charles A Beard
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Stedman Graham
When you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, you then have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Mother Teresa
Life is a promise; fulfill it.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Coretta Scott King
Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Helen Keller
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Inspirational and Motivational Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man’s genius contracts itself to a very few hours.

Hope you have enjoyed my collection of motivational quotes to keep you going. Wise men and women of the past and present had the way with words, something I do not and left us these precious gems as guidance. Come back for more inspiration should you find yourself stranded in doubt. Here’s to an abundant and enjoyable life.

Be the Change You Want to See

9 out of 10 people don’t like where they are in their lives at this moment, or would put themselves in someone else’s place if they could. Are you one of them? If you are – don’t worry. For one, you’re not the only one who’s desperate for a change and secondly, if you knew of the hardships others are going through, you would likely want to keep the lifestyle you currently have, regardless of how much you think it stinks. Many people desire a change and they should. Life is meant to be abundant and enjoyable. However, lamenting will not deliver change you desire. It will only make matters worse. Change requires action. Action on your part. You be the change you want to see in yourself. Be the change you want your life to fall into. Be the change you’ve been dreaming off and it will come to be. For there is no greater power in the universe than the power of yourself. Help yourself and the powers of the universe will re-arrange to help you too. The change starts with you.

Change begins with clearly defined goals. Unless you know exactly and undisputedly what you want, how can you expect to get it? If your life right now doesn’t seem fulfilling, take a minute for yourself and go through your goals. Take a note that you are the master of your own life. Whatever has happened in your life so far is in the past. The past is the time that’s gone forever. A new day has started and it could be the best day of your life if you let it. Don’t hold back, don’t fear change and don’t be afraid to take risks. Better life is just around the corner. Believe in miracles. No matter how good or bad current situation may seem, it will change. It always changes. Change is a constant. You can start your change by getting rid of everything that isn’t useful, cheerful or pleasing. Don’t waste your time succumbing to envy. Let THEM envy you the lifestyle you are embarking on.

This is about what you love in life so don’t take “NO” for an answer. The seduction of money and prosperity may be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Ask the right questions to get the right answers and know it is not the money you want. It is the lifestyle you were falsely lead to believe could only be had if you had a lot of money. If you dig into it a little bit deeper, you’ll easily learn that the cost of lifestyle you covet is oftentimes lower than the cost of your current lifestyle, the lifestyle you are trying to change. To be laying in a hammock on a private island, clipping your fingernails off while cool ocean breeze washes off the sweat after an endless walk along a tranquil beach doesn’t require you to be a millionaire. You can have the lifestyle you desire by changing your focus from making money to ensuring positive cash flow.

Society today conditions its members to spending. Why do people who are in debt continue buying? So much useless junk in their houses already yet they keep spending. And those are not isolated incidents – I used to be one of them myself. And that’s why I can relate. Advertising, media, soap operas – all the biggest junk of modern cultures condition you to buying new gadgets you don’t really need, but are brainwashed to believe it is the way of the world so you follow. Set yourself free from conditional spending, set yourself free from possessions that are not essential for your day to day life and breathe the free air again.

Designer clothes, expensive homes or flashy cars are not signs of wealth. They are merely a sign of a great deal of money spent. Don’t feed your ego. No one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time showing off with expensive gadgets. Furthermore – feeding one’s ego is a losing fight. No matter how much of your hard earned money you spend to get the biggest rig on the road, one day you will stumble across someone whose ego made him buy an even bigger a toy. The satisfaction you experience after acquisition of ego fueled merchandise doesn’t last long. It will just increase the demands laid upon your spending by your own ego. There is so much of it out there, that no matter how much you keep buying, you will always want something else. This is a sure fire way to becoming a rat racing champion.

Change your life by being the change you want to see. You have all you need to do it, you just need courage to put it in motion. We’ve all made mistakes in the past, learn from them and use them to your advantage. Never dwell on them. Past is gone and it’s not coming back. Enjoy the present and look forward to the future. Today is the best day of your life. Stand up high and see yourself for a magnificent being that you are. You deserve the change for the better and it will come your way if you let it. Everyone who got where they are had to begin where they were. Every hour you save for yourself, to spend it the way you enjoy, is like an hour added to your life. So grab at it and become its leader for life is like a dogsled. Unless you are a leading dog, the scenery never changes (quote by Lewis Grizzard). The clock is ticking. Are you gonna watch it tick away or use it to your benefit?

Positive Cash Flow

You’ve heard me mention Positive Cash Flow number of times during previous lectures on Early Retirement. Positive Cash Flow is the key to retiring young. As someone who understands the value of time, it became clear to me early on that the goal is not to score big financially. Aiming for a big payday puts everything into way distant a future. To retire rich, you may be faced with decades of tight lifestyle before hitting jackpot, but to retire early, you may need as little as positive cash flow of $50 a day. The former will keep you stuck in the office until you’re too old to enjoy yourself to the fullest, the latter could send you on your way to endless adventure in a few months.

My Positive Cashflow

I got my positive cash flow out of the websites I’ve been running for years. I set up my personal photography website back in 2003. In 2004 I added ten more websites to my portfolio but they were each more of a hobby, rather than a business venture. I had a little bit of income through promotion of affiliate networks, but it only amounted to about $50 a month. As years went by, I learned a thing or two about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), learned a little bit of web programming and by 2006 I already had a network of 20 sites running.

I’ve been working on them diligently every day and come 2007, the popularity of some of them grew to a point that a server upgrade was needed. I was still only making pennies a day even after investing a lot of work into them on daily basis. I was doing it because I enjoyed it. There was a little bit of money, but hardly anything to reasonably compensate for the work put into it. Continuous growth resulted in complete necessity to switch to a fully dedicated server in 2008. I was getting a lot of traffic but kept failing in monetizing on my sites. The cash flow was vastly negative at this time as my monthly cost for the server was $199 yet income from my sites was only in the $100 neighborhood.

As the traffic kept growing, I was forced to upgrade my server once more in the beginning of 2009. This time my traffic amounted to half million unique readers a month and that required more powerful server with more available bandwidth. Monthly cost just went up another $100 draining $299 out of my pocket each month for just webhosting itself. Negative cash flow ruled, but I kept financing it out of the money I was making at my government job.

My life was awful. I spent whole day in the office, then when I got back home I worked on my websites. Yet cash flow remained negative. At that time I started to travel again and the phase of my spiritual awakening was initiated. I started to question the premise of going to work until retirement and bit by bit, these pieces of scrabble that combine into a complete picture as presented here in my blog, which opens you up to the life of enjoyment and abundance came together and made me see things I was brainwashed to ignore. I realized that I’d wasted too much of my precious time as a corporate slave and started to work my way to early retirement. There was one and a half month lag between full awakening and my departure.

I used most of that time securing myself with positive cash flow. I knew the websites with lots of traffic were there. After years of putting so much work into them I was faced with the biggest challenge of my life. I’ve realized that 20% of my websites make 80% of all the money. The rest either didn’t make any money, or only very little but together amounted to very high server costs. The idea of getting rid of those websites was extremely difficult to swallow. I put years of work into them and believed that they were on their best way to make it big. If I only stuck with them for a bit longer, I could really hit the pot of gold and become financially secured. But that was exactly the issue – there was a possibility of it happening one day in the future. And as I have come to realize, focusing on future instead of this moment makes you waste your precious time. You don’t live, you enslave yourself because you believe that one day in the future you will get the reward.

I understood it clearly. Happiness is a journey, not a destination and this 20/80 principle is something that accompanies everyone throughout their lives. I worked really hard to get those websites to grow and become popular and now I was playing with an idea of dumping them. I had an option to stick with them, continue doing what I’m doing and look forward to one day in the future when someone with lots of money notices my sites and offers me several figures just like that. Or I could just let them go, quit waiting for something I hope will come, render all the work I put towards them over the years useless, but gain positive cash flow that could set me out on a journey of a lifetime within a matter of weeks.

Since you are reading the blog about Early Retirement with entries from my adventures around the world, you know what came next. With biggest sites gone, my server and bandwidth costs decreased significantly and my negative cash flow changed into a positive cash flow literally overnight. But that’s not all – those biggest sites that were eating most bandwidth and bringing least money were also biggest eaters of my time as maintenance of such busy sites required a lot of dedication. By freeing myself from the clutches of busy but negatively performing sites (in terms of cash flow), I gained more time to focus on sites that previously made 80% of the money.

Within days, I was able to end my $100 negative cash flow and turn it into a $300 positive cash flow. One and a half month later, I quit my work and sat on the plane to South East Asia. During initial weeks of my early retirement I lived frugally but not cheaply and I put some work towards my money making sites, increasing positive cash flow to $1,000 a month. And I just went with it from that point on.

The only trouble was, that my life instantly turned from this miserable rat race in the office to an exciting adventure that never ended and I was enjoying myself every day to the fullest. Early Retirement rocks. But because of that, I’ve been only putting a few hours a week towards growth of my online business so my positive cash flow has not increased significantly since I’ve reached the $1,000 a month net income. My monthly Early Retirement costs fluctuated between $600 and $700 so the cash flow remained positive even after all of my expenses. And this is all I could need. I’m having the best time of my life. I’m enjoying myself every day. If I did not go for it, I’d be in the office right now, doing what my boss tells me, fixing other people’s problems. Then when the paycheck comes, I’d go and spend it on something because that’s what consumerism we are brainwashed into by the media is all about. We enslave ourselves by dedicating the best days of our lives to working for corporations and end up spending our compensation on material things we don’t actually need to be happy.

I don’t own that much right now and I’m way happier than when I owned all the crap in the world. I have my laptop, my digital camera, few things to wear and a whole world to explore. Would I be better off if I continued focusing on retiring rich when I’m 65? No way. I’m perfectly healthy right now, I’m enjoying myself while I still can. The whole world lies before my feet and I explore it unhindered every day.

My goal is to increase my positive cash flow within the next 6 months so I have enough back up and I would also like to diversify the activities so I have some positive cash flow from different sources. Retiring rich puts the lifestyle you desire in indefinite future. Retiring early enables you to get the lifestyle you desire as soon as your positive cash flow reaches the level that meets or exceeds your comfort level.

The quest for cash is a fool’s errand. Rich people can become poor on any given day and all you have worked for will be gone, but once you have the positive cash flow happening, you don’t concern yourself with whether you’re rich or poor. But that still doesn’t matter, because if you build up the positive cash flow and use it to retire early, you will have lead rich and fulfilling life full of amazing moments to share with your friends and family. Don’t save your life’s enjoyment for the end of your journey on Earth. When you are on your death bed, you will wish you had spent less time with your boss in the office and more time with those who matter to you. The life is now. Instead of giving yourself reasons why you can’t, give yourself reasons why you can and make it happen. Go with confidence in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

“The minute you choose to do what your really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.”
— Buckminster Fuller

Retiring Rich

Most people associate retirement with money and want to retire rich. And I can’t blame them. Before I embarked on my journey to early retirement, I used to think that in order for someone to retire, they must have certain amount of money or else their retirement will stink. Back then, the rat race through life was all about retiring rich, all about this coveted life that’s supposed to come one day in the future. Questions about retiring rich and how to achieve that goal seemed perfectly valid, but it only lasted until I realized the importance of asking the right questions. “How Much Money Do I Need to Retire” is a fundamentally wrong question because as most wrong questions it implies that possession of something (in this case “money”) is necessary in order to retire. But that’s something I have already covered in my How Much Money Do I Need to Retire Early article. So why am I coming back to the same topic you ask? Because I believe it is important to realize that retiring rich should not be the goal, otherwise it will lead to the rat race. Hunt for the riches can cost you a lot of time, the commodity you only have the limited supply of. If you waste your time trying to get rich, trying to achieve a goal that you believe will bring benefits in the future, by the time you are a baby boomer you will be so short on the time left, that even if you have accumulated riches, you will have little time to enjoy them to the fullest. And that doesn’t even take into account worsened health you will have developed by the time you have reached that age.

Retiring rich should not be the goal, retiring soon, preferably now should be. If you make retiring rich your goal, you will set yourself on a long path using the best years of your life working like a slave. Whereas if you make retiring now your goal, you will look towards the ways to establishing a cashflow that will set you free from shackles of corporate slavery and send you on your way to enjoy life.

Forbes Magazine has a list of Rich People. According to their definition, a rich person is someone with annual income of at least $1 Million. This is Forbes’ definition of “Rich” – their understanding of “Rich” has everything to do with the amount of money. My definition of “Rich” would be vastly different as what Forbes considers rich people are simply people with a lot of money to me. Just because they have heaps of money, it doesn’t necessarily mean they live rich and fulfilling lives. But that’s not the point at this time.

Given Forbes’ definition of rich, if you wanted to retire rich, you would be aiming at gathering at least one million dollars before you retire. If you happen to score a good paying job, let’s say one that pays $60,000 a year, you might be able to put away $2,500 each month towards your goal of retiring rich. If everything goes without obstacles and you remain diligent and never fail at putting away $2,500 a month, it will take you 33 years and 4 months to reach your goal and retire rich.

Now – if you take into account that you won’t score a job that pays $60,000 a year right off the college, you may not be able to start with such savings until let’s say – the age of 27. This means that my the time you have saved enough to retire rich, you will have been 60 year old. Great – you’re an old vegetable. How does it feel to retire rich?

Why would you want to make retiring rich your goal? It could condemn you to lifetime of servitude as corporate slave, wasting the best years of your life in a cubicle or wherever your workplace may be so you can have the retirement you desire when you are 60? Let me remind you of the fact that to live it up as though you have retired rich, you do not need much money in your bank account. As matter of fact, you don’t need any money in your bank account and still be able to embark on a journey of a lifetime. What do I base such bold statement on? I base it on a fact that I personally know a guy who retired in his 30’s just like that – myself.

Not only did I not have any money when I retired, I was actually $30,000 plus interest in debt. Yet I’ve wasted no time and set out on my merry way to early retirement and never looked back. How could I do that? Cashflow and belief that I can do it. That is all you need to retire young. Or simply retire at any age. If I could do it, anyone can. Get rid of the notion that you need money in order to retire and quit focusing on the size of your bank account. Because if you keep asking yourself how much money you need to retire, you will be putting your retirement off into the future. And what you put off once, will be put off again. There will always be obstacles, challenges and changes in your life. At one point it will be more money that you need to retire, then completion of the project you are working on, then fill in the blank. If you see it in the future, it will always be in the future. Future is the destination, but that’s not where happiness lies. Happiness is the journey.

Let me recapitulate again why the idea of working yourself to exhaustion so you can save enough money to retire rich is a silly one and why working to save money for the future is a fundamental loss:

  • Being employed provides you with security of a steady paycheck, but at the same time it is the type of income that’s taxed more than anything else and offers little control over how big a chunk of your hard earned money is taken off as tax
  • Going to work requires dedication of your time to job tasks and time is the most precious commodity you have
  • Employment doesn’t come with significant fluctuation of money earned. In order to earn more, you’d have to either work more (take overtimes or second job) or work harder
  • Employment has little or no residual value. You get paid for work performed and/or time spent at the workplace. In order to get paid again, you need to do work and/or spend time at the workplace again

Does the idea of spending your whole life being a corporate slave with the goal that one day you may retire rich still sound appealing to you? Being an employee is to be the most underprivileged member of society. You will be taxed near 50% of your income and you will only have the after-tax left overs to pay your rent with. But the worst thing is that you will spend the days of your life while you are able bodied doing anything but what you want to do. Days you have only so many of before your time is up. If you are going to invest it towards securing your retirement, don’t do it with the goal of retiring rich. Invest it into getting some cashflow happening for yourself so you can retire now, whatever your age and start spending your precious time doing things that matter to you, things that excite you, things that fulfil you. This way, when your time comes and Grim Reaper knocks at your door to end your journey on Earth, you will feel rich. Not Forbes rich, but content with the way you have led your life. You’ll leave this world happy and fulfilled.

What You Need to Retire Young

Now that you feel inspired and the idea of an early retirement starts making sense to you, you most certainly want to move to the next level, to the level of action. You want to know what it is you need to retire young so let’s take a look at it:

#1 Need to Retire Young – Positive Thinking

If you want to retire young, the first and the most important step to take is to start believing in yourself. You have to switch your thinking to “I can do it”. The “I can’t afford retiring young” thinking you were demonstrating as you were reading through previous chapters of my Early Retirement section must be put to rest. Keep in mind that whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t – either way you’re right (words of Henry Ford). Positive thinking is the key.

#2 Need to Retire Young – Get Rid of Self-Doubt

Second most important thing you need to retire young is to quit doubting yourself. How many times has it occurred to you as you were reading about my Early Retirement that it worked out for me, but you don’t think it will work for you? You are doubting your own ability to turn your life around and you are lazy to take action to make it happen. Door to your freedom will forever remain locked if you continue doubting yourself and remain lazy to take action. When I was on the cross roads of turning my life around, I had an option to go for it and pace my way to an exciting and fulfilling life, or let my self-doubt prevail and go back to work and continue working hard until I retire. Do you want your life to go forward or backwards?

Do you recall the pickup line from the Fight Club? “The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.” It is the same with retiring young – the first rule of retiring young is that you can do it. The second rule of retiring young is that you CAN do it. Getting rid of self doubt is just a different way of saying that you need to think positively. They are two different things yet they are the same and whether you succeed or fail in your quest vastly depends on whether you see yourself as successful or as a failure. Think like a winner if you want to win and keep in mind that you can’t win unless you risk the loss.

#3 Need to Retire Young – Cashflow

Thirdly, to successfully retire young and sustain your retirement, you need cashflow. I see cashflow as the key to sustenance of your early retirement. You don’t have to be rich, you don’t need lots of money coming in on daily basis, but you need enough to meet the needs of your comfort level. Fact of a matter is, a person of fair standards can comfortably live with as little as $600 a month in many of world’s safe countries. You wouldn’t even score a half decent room for rent in exchange for this type of money in the USA or Canada, but it’ll get you by with medical insurance, all the food you need, rent, transport, entertainment and more in countries like Ecuador, The Philippines or Cambodia. Monthly cashflow of $1,000 is recommended as it will allow for better standard of living and it’s always nice to have some extra. Cashflow is an essential ingredient in the pot called early retirement.

I personally do not believe such things as “plan” are what you need to retire young. Life will continue being exciting and enjoyable when you don’t know where the adventure takes you tomorrow. Follow you bliss – let your heart guide you. Don’t sit over the map or on the internet to pick your “perfect” destination. Be adventurous and open minded. Afterall – happiness is a journey, not a destination. Plan is a destination, it is a possibility of the future. Quit worrying about the future and start living for the here and the now. Now is the best time of your life. Yesterday is long gone and tomorrow – nobody know what tomorrow brings. If you have the cashflow secured and are enthusiastic about the change, then in my mind, you have all it takes to retire young. That which seems as the end of the caterpillar is the beginning of the butterfly.