The Wandering Writer: the road to FREEDOM might not be paved with gold... but the goal is surely sparkling

Last week, I started to unfold a plan to escape the rat race. I don’t know whether it is the right way or should I think about it even further.

The point is that the more I get into the stress of my day job the more I realize that this should not be the way for people to live. It might be that with the age I am getting a bit more philosophic and less materialistic as I was in my younger years, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

I’ve mentioned that together with my husband we had a plan and we started to develop it once again determined to put it finally into reality.

The first thing to think about is what are we aiming for?

Although the question might seem easy, the answer is not necessarily straightforward and required, at least for us a long discussion and time dedicated to think about it by ourselves and again long discussions about it. The conclusion is that what we think we want is not necessarily what we really need. So we tried to come to a compromise between needs and desires.

The answer was in a keyword: SIMPLIFY.

Making our lives easier and simpler, craft them in a way that we can really enjoy it and give it the meaning we truly want.

So to recap:

1. Exit the rat race once and for all, regaining our freedom to live the way we want.

2. Simplify our lifestyle, making it more fulfilling and eliminating any obstacle

As for the first point, this means not fulfilling the orders we get from the brainwashing propaganda that we need to work until our bodies and minds are no more able to do anything enjoyable (like traveling, for example). We decided that we are not going to remain in our working place until 65 or worse 75 years old. Considering that we do not have any idea about what the future holds for us, or how well (or bad) we will age, we decided not to take that risk and ut a deadline.

For us, it is exiting the rat race at the age of 51. This idea came when for the first time I visited Argentina, I fell so much in love with it, that I am afraid my heart didn’t follow me on the plane back home.

The most important advantage we have is not to have any debts except the loan on the house. No credit cards, no car loans, nothing at all. Moreover before I moved in with my husband, he was living in a single room apartment he bought. Once we moved to a bigger house, we decided not to sell it away and keep it as an investment. At the moment it is rented and the loan is paid with the rent we get.

Therefore we decided to save money, pay our loans for as much as possible, and retire in a cheaper (and warmer) country where we can live semi-off the grid. This means having our garden to provide us with all sort of vegetables and fruits, hunting and fishing (my husband is a great hunter).

The apartment we are using as an investment will be our primary source of income together with the income coming from another small apartment I am going to invest in.

We are planning to set up a solar power plant to provide us with the electricity to run the house in full. We have been searched and decided the kind of equipment we are going to need and the necessary requirements.

For the second point, our big advantage is that we have always lived in a very simple way, no expensive cars, no big televisions, purchasing clothes and shoes only when we need them and not just because we can.

The only thing we spend our money is traveling, but we consider it an investment for our personal growth and understanding of the different cultures.

If there is a first bit of advice to those who would like to follow us in this search for freedom, is take some time to look around yourself and think carefully whether there is something to hold you back. You might not need a five-room apartment/home if you live only with your husband. Much probably you do not need a car if you can live in an area served by public transportation and if you can walk to wherever place you need to go (in this way you will fulfill your need for training without the need to go to the gym). Much probably you do not need 100 pair of shoes or an endless amount of clothes.

Once you can figure out what you do not need and are ready to get rid of all those things, you might want to check the next chapter of this Road to Freedom, next week.