I was in Asia for most of April but I may as well have been on another planet because most of my routine wasn’t possible from the other side of the world. What’s that routine and why is it important?
No CNBC
Since I work from home, I generally have CNBC running on a computer screen at home. I have a setup with multiple monitors and computers in my house. One screen runs CNBC, one runs my trading platform, two are for work, and another screen for internet browsing or other things.
While I could watch recorded versions of CNBC segments, it was too difficult to watch in real-time being 12 hours away.
No Trading
As much as I wanted to do some trading or even catch up to some of my positions in my portfolio it was difficult to do so. After doing stuff all day then having dinner, it was hard to boot up the computer and “work” on my investments. It was even harder to stay up past 9 p.m. Asia time which was 9 a.m. eastern time U.S. I don’t think I did a single trade while I was there except for one day when I bought some more NVIDIA stock on a big loss day.
Work Calls Impossible
I couldn’t dial in to some work calls because they were at 2 p.m. in the afternoon which was 2 a.m. for me so I had to have someone else fill in for me while I was away.
No News
I couldn’t keep up with news events except for the major news ones such as the Pope dying and the tariff trade wars. I didn’t keep up at all with anything happening in my home town unless a family member mentioned something. I was out of sight and out of mind which was great in some ways.
No Friends & Family Time
It was hard to keep up with family and friends overseas because the time zone difference only provides a narrow window to talk. Calls are either early morning or late evening because it’s hard to call any other time. I had a sick family member that ended up passing away right as we returned.
Why It All Matters
My wife and I are planning on retiring overseas and we have been exploring and surveying different continents, countries, cities and places to understand what are options are out there.
While there were many things we weren’t able to do, it became clear that there were some other tremendous benefits. I’ll write more about those in a future but some obvious things are lower cost of living, improved quality of life, and ability to adventure.
Side Hustles
The other thing that has become apparent is that we can’t rely on one thing (such as stocks) to retire on. We have a fairly diverse portfolio of rental properties, stocks, bonds, and other investments but we still feel like we need a side hustle business so I am now thinking of monetizing this blog in some way.
It’s also possible we may take our skills and start a business but we’ll leave that idea for another post.
We’re Not Alone
The most intriguing thing about the trip was that we weren’t the only ones out there. We ran into couples, families and lone wolves out there all looking to get away. Most were from advanced economies such as Australia, Netherlands, UK, and the US to name a few countries. It seems the race is on to get out of many places around the world that have become too expensive or too toxic to live in these days.
There is a CNBC article discussing how airlines are seeing far more outgoing travel than incoming travel here.
I will write more about our findings in the future but we had a great time.