Save now and travel the future!

I will be visiting Perth for a holiday with the Wife for a week or so of rest, relaxation and reflection. I have been working for more than one decade plus a couple of years and I have hardly been on any trip that stretches past one week purely for pleasure.

Student tour of Europe in 1989
Before I started my working career after graduating from the university, I went on a 28 day whirlwind student trip of Western Europe covering countries such as France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Belgium and Italy. It was touch and go and I mainly covered the cities in each of the countries visited. That trip left a deep impression on me as it opened up my eyes to the history, culture and beautiful landscape of Europe. It is a vast land made up of countryside, historic cities and interesting cultures.

Since that trip back in 1989, the Singapore Armed Forces has sent me to Rockhamption for armour training exercises and my work has brought me to places such as Jakarta (Indonesia), Xiamen (China), Brussels (Belgium) and London (United Kingdom). My volunteer activities has also brought me to New York in July 2002 (post 911) where I gazed upon the reconstruction of the gaping hole in the ground that was previously part of the twin towers of the world-trade centre. My toastmasters activities has seen me visit Hong Kong recently for the District 80 Table-Topics Contest as well as the annual convention.

Compared to my parents and siblings, I travel considerably less than them as the last real holiday that I had with the Wife was a couple of years back to the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney which was for five days or so.

How does traveling concern financial freedom?
In our daily walk along this long journey towards financial freedom, we sometimes question WHY are we doing it? Why do you scrimp and save instead of travelling many different places now and to enjoy yourself? Why do you not blow that bonus away on that trip to Tibet or Thailand? I too want to travel to experience the different sights, sounds and scenes that will leave me a different person before I stepped foot on that place. But I came to realise, by deferring all that travel in my 20s and 30s, I managed to pay off a lot of my housing debt and to invest in financial portfolio assets that yield future cash flows that will fund future travels!

By not traveling extensively in my earlier years, I channeled more of my savings into paring down my debt as well as creating an investment portfolio that grows bit by bit, dollar by dollar, cent by cent into capital that if protected and invested appropriately yields future cash flows that can then be used for travellng for the future.

It is about striking a balance. In the early days of my career, I did go for short trips of 3-4 days on Star Cruises, trips to Genting as well as Phuket with friends. It was not as if I just stayed in Singapore 24x7x365. It was just that I travelled a little bit less then so that I could travel a little bit more now and in the future.

Now as I trade parts of my youth for experience and a little bit more of maturity, while my energy level for travel may have dropped a bit, I start to learn to cherish the experience of each trip that much more. To savour even the simple fun of getting there. Walking around. Seeing how people live, work and play in another country.

Why do you want to save
The road towards financial freedom is long but the journey is worth it if we have compelling reasons why we are doing it. To postpone current consumption for the future is a powerful form of discipline that you can acquire on this journey. In order for you to stay the course, knowing the "Why" is even more critical so that you can maintain the "How" to live within your means, save and invest for the future.

I wish you a safe and satisfying journey in your own voyage towards financial freedom.

Be well and prosper.