The Vagabond and the future

[justsomedude1985]

I mean the travelers who work only long enough to get enough money for their next adventure. I am interested in becoming just such a world traveler/vagabond, but I just wonder what will happen in the distant future. If I work and scrounge only to travel and do not accrue any savings, what will I do when I am too old to continue traveling? Check myself into a Retirement home? This is the only thing keeping me back from pursuing my dream: the fear that I might die in a pit somewhere at the age of 62. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Greg]

Definitely a valid argument....and I'm definitely not qualified to give financial advice.

I tell myself that I would rather live now while I am healthy and young, rather than hoping to be able to do what I want one day at age 65.  With all the economical changes
occurring, it seems difficult to save enough for retirement even with a corporate job.  If I do live that long, there are the options of writing, tour guiding, consulting, or other
ways to hopefully leverage my world experience. 

Of course, my idea of a nice retirement would be to open a hostel/expat bar/dive shop on some nice island somewhere.  I do plan to retire outside of the US to multiply
my humble savings.

Just my personal thoughts!

[Vhan]

The best point I have was allready brought up by Greg. You gotta think that by the time you are of that age, with all that travel under your belt your good for a lot more than a retirement home when it comes to getting a job, or settleing down somewere. Your experience would likeley blow a couple of employers into a tailspin.

And let the record show I know quite a bit of 62 year old (My boss is one of 'em) that are more than bodily able to travel. Vagabonding isn't just for the young and restless  Srsly, my boss is insane, but he takes care of himself, the guys looks like he is 40, and he is 66 years old! lol

When it comes down to it, yea, its a risk and I don't think you can fully avoid that.

But when it comes down to me personally (meaning the rest of this responce is from a more personal perspective  ), travel has something in the way of oppertunity that most things can't or don't. A solid education, and the ability to be open towards massive amounts of oppertunity isn't something that often lets you down.

If it helps at all there is a little piece of advice I remind myself of everytime this question gets to me. "He who tries to save his life looses it, and he who gives it up gains it".

The first version of this text was written in Greek, and the speaker didn't use the greek work "bios" meaning our actual life, but the word "phyce" (I think thats how you spell it) meaning our innermost selfs/mind. We may be able to live secure, controlled lives, but that comes at a cost. There is a cost going both ways. The point is that a person can be so caught up in makeing sure they have a "Good controlled" life, they miss out on haveing any real life at all. Me I rather enjoy the thrill of the risk, do what little people do, and gain more in letting go than in holding on.
So its that risk, that makes this part of the process appealing, for me anyway. Yes it is a reality that I may "Die in a pit" because of my travel, but if I knew everything would be okay then it would lose its appeal for me. Boardom is what kills a man from the inside

But like I said, the cost does run both ways, and its too easy to focus on the extremes of each sometimes. There is no real "Moral high ground" when it comes to this. It really is a more subjective personal choice!



Hopefullly this advice helped, and don't be shy about telling me if I lost you. I find myself loseing people because I didn't explain something fully enough, or by some other means of neglect more often that I would like! 

Take care,
-Vhan

[Alex]

I subscribe to the belief that the Universe will take care of me at age 62 or 70 or 100 - at least as much as it is taking care of me now. While I don't think I will spend my last penny to travel around the world, I am confident that opportunities to make money will arise along the way. One of the greatest things about traveling is networking. You will be able to build not just a repertoire of great stories, but also great contacts. Just keep your eyes open, your ears tuned, and your hopes high. Focus on the big future, believe that everything will work out fine (or much better than fine) and then the Universe will take care of the rest. Don't care How will that happen. That's the Universe's job. :-) Just enjoy and keep on traveling !

[Greg]

I agree!  Things change so much over time, who knows that the future holds.  I feel sorry for all those guys that have banked everything on "retirement" by selling the present...only to have the market smear their efforts.

At retirement I see myself as the grizzled, leathery dive master on some Thai island....or better yet, working at a snake bar like Rambo in his
last movie.   

[Vhan]

Lol, 

[robert.kekic]

well this is a question i yhink about all the time..first i think well thats like 30 yrs away and then i did some research about alternet solutions and there are these things called hippie communes all around the worls basicly they except anyone and it is a self sustained town there are no bills basicl u do what u have to so u can survive like this guy grows veggies this guy cuts wood etc. so when ever this hits u again research..hope i helped

peace out,
robbie

[Joel]

There are worse fates than dying in a "pit" somewhere at the well-traveled age of sixty. Dying in diapers in a retirement home at eighty, with little more than the memory of four drab walls and a host of regrets springs immediately to mind. As one of those travelers who has divided his time between work and travel, I am well aware of your plight. I have at times found my thoughts troubled by this very conundrum. One could hardly blame you for feelings of trepidation, and for perhaps desiring to hedge your bets. Though I have saved enough through my time in the military to comfortably ease myself into the permanent life of the vagabond, and to sustain that lifestyle for a considerable number of years, I will nevertheless eventually face the very same predicament.

For thirty-six years I have resigned myself to a sort of half-life, a life of working long hours in number of mind-numbing jobs, while intermittently indulging in the joy of travel; typically in six months increments. Since joining the military (a job I have grown less and less fond of with each passing year), some eight years ago, the time between trips has decreased, but so has the length of each trip, such that I am able to take a three or four week vacation every year or so. While this is far better than many jobs, it is, nonetheless, a wholly unnecessary limitation, and one that would be considered insane but that humanity has decided a little security is better than a lifetime of joy.

Never have I felt such overpowering joy as when I am in motion. It is only when I have left the behind me the stagnant, paralysis of this sedentary existence, when the most important decision of my day involves deciding in which direction I will explore, that I truly experience the joy of being alive, and it is a pleasure I have too long denied myself, due to some fantasy that an easy old age is in some manner more desirable.  

It has been stated, repeatedly, that true happiness lies within, and it is a maxim to which I subscribe wholeheartedly. I have no doubts that a person such as yourself could find a sense of pleasure, and perhaps even fulfillment, by settling for the somewhat more monotonous, prescribed path of retirement and subsequent security, and, for the vast majority, this seems sufficient. My question is why? Why limit yourself to a sixty-five years of tediousness and slow death so that you may afford twenty-odd years of “security.” This notion of insurance against death is an illusion, a mere postponement of the inevitable. For my part, I had rather live now, in this moment, as Greg puts it, in the manner most in keeping with my nature and most enjoyable to me. There is nothing else.

My advice to you is go. Go and see what develops. If you must secure an education first, then by all means do so. Or perhaps you are fortunate enough to have already done so. There are a near limitless number of paths you can take, and, whether you stay or go, an even more extensive number of variables which could effect either choice, positively or negatively, thus rendering that choice an excellent one, or pure folly.

I hope to travel as much as possible, and half expect to die randomly in a bus at the foot of some mountain in Asia, and will go readily and willingly, happy to have perished in the pursuit of my transitory dream, and not to have grown old without experiencing it.

[rodger]

Greg put it so well.
Don't gamble the Present for a future that may or may not materialise