We All Have to Start Somewhere
Newsletter #2: September 6, 2025
I recently read Rick Steves’ book, The Hippie Trail, where he travels from Istanbul to Kathmandu in the 70s overland via a series of buses. He keeps his thoughts and observations in a journal, and he allows himself to take nine photos per day, so that he does not run out of film by the end of the trip (can you imagine trying to limit yourself to 9 photos?). He is young at this point, and he is a bit green, but he sums it up at the end by saying that he came home with the most valuable souvenir of all, a broader perspective.
This is what happened to me the first time I traveled abroad on my own. I went to France to work in a supermarket for the summer when I was 21, and maybe that is not the same as riding the chicken bus across the deserts of Iran, but to me it was just as much of a mystery. Of course now we have the internet to tell us everything, but at that point, all I had was a AAA road map, a stash of travelers checks, a phone card and a lust for adventure. I also had two huge suitcases which probably were close to the weight limit for checked bags, only one of which had wheels to roll it.
In these gargantuan suitcases were things that in my naive mind I would not be able to find in France, like an alarm clock, which I immediately killed by plugging it into the wall plug without using a converter. I also brought paper books, and lots of them, as I can easily read a book a week, and I did not know if there would be books in English. I brought a lot of stuff, much of it that I did not need or could have bought if I had needed it, and I had to lug it through several metro stations, a train station in Paris, and another train station in Bordeaux (and back at the end of the summer!)
Lastly, when I did fly back at the end of the summer, I missed my flight home due to getting on the wrong metro in Paris. This meant that I had to wait 24 hours for the next flight, so my two huge suitcases and I spent the night in the airport.
These were some of the first of my many travel related mistakes. I learned a lot from them, but they paled in comparison to the other things I learned that summer about who I am, what other cultures are like and what possibilities are out there. I went in basically blind, so did not have a lot of preconceived notions about what the people or the place or my experience would be like, and I came out on the other side with a realization that there were a lot of things I did not know about the world as a whole. We can see things on the news or the internet and easily make a judgement based on that. However, I think that it is important to look past that, and to go and explore and to meet people and try new things ourselves, in person, and as Steves says, come home with a broader perspective.
JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM
(1) TRAVEL:
The Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is the world’s heaviest building due to it’s marble construction and it weighs in at 4,098,500 tonnes (9.04 billion pounds)! It’s also the third largest administrative building, and was the second (the Pentagon was the first) but in 2023, the Surat Diamond Bourse in India moved up to number one on the list. That’s a lot of rock! The history of it is fascinating as well: In order to build it, the leader at the time, Nicolae Ceaușescu, displaced a lot of people from the neighborhood (you can read more about it here). He was eventually shot (spoiler alert) for committing crimes against humanity, but while he was in power, he wreaked havoc in many ways.
(2) FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE:
If you don’t already listen to the Choose FI podcast, you should! They have some great information about ways to save time and money. If you are just getting started, here are a few to get you going, or if you just want one fun one, I like this one, which is an interview with the host of the All The Hacks podcast, Chris Hutchins.
(3) EARLY RETIREMENT:
There are several different tax strategies that you can use after you retire early to minimize your tax burden. You can harvest losses or gains, do strategic Roth conversions or keep your annual income under a certain amount in order to lower your capital gains tax rate. Personally, I like to do a combination of all of these. If any of these are something you would like to hear more about in a post or a video, leave a comment below.
TRAVEL TIP OF THE MONTH
I am a big fan of the all in one converter and adapter for my electronics, and I also like to have one long and one short cord for my USB-C charging needs. This one is the one I use and it is perfect for me, as it has four ports, which is exactly how many cords I have, as well as one plug in for my laptop.
Now, some homework for you. Since this newsletter is for you, what would you like to see more of going forward? Please choose below.
Also, it’s not all about me! If you feel comfortable, please click the comment button below and share with us: where are you in your financial independence, retirement or travel journey, what have you found that you like or dislike so far, and what challenges have you faced? Bonus if you tell us what your first or worst travel mistake was!
In case you missed the last few videos, you can find them here, but if you only have time for a couple, here is one of my recent favorites!
Four Money Mistakes I Have Made and Tips For How You Can Avoid Them: