Author of 5 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, early-stage investor, host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast (1B+ downloads), and collector of the strange.
In February of 2004, I was miserable and overworked. My travel fantasy began as a plan to visit Costa Rica in March 2004 for four weeks of Spanish and relaxation. I needed a recharge and four weeks seemed “reasonable” by whatever made-up benchmark you can use for such a thing. A friend familiar with Central America dutifully pointed out that it would never work, as Costa Rica was about to enter its rainy season. Torrential downpours weren’t the uplifting jolt I needed, so I shifted my focus to four weeks in Spain. It’s a long trip over the Atlantic, though, and Spain was close to other countries I’d always wanted to visit. I lost “reasonable” somewhere shortly thereafter and decided that I deserved a full three months to explore my roots in Scandinavia after four weeks in Spain. If there were any real-time bombs or pending disasters, they would certainly crop up in the first four weeks, so there really wasn’t any additional risk in extending my trip to three months. Three months would be great. Those three months turned into 15, and I started to ask myself, “Why not take the usual 20–30-year retirement and redistribute it throughout life instead of saving it all for the end?”
The idea of mini-retirements was inspiring. Thanks for sharing the origin story!
Love the idea of distributing retirement time throughout your working life. Makes me think of Stefan Sagmeister's TED talk where he shares a similar idea (every 7 years, he closes down his studio for 1 year to take a sabbatical and says that the work that comes out of the next 7 years is way more inspired): https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off?language=en
Great example of making our money work for us and then spending it wisely.
The famous “mini-retirements” mentioned in 4HWW :)
I'm toying with the idea of moving to a new continent every 3 years
I totally read this with the voice of your audiobook narrator in my head. So good.
Great fantasy story. Most people work for others and barely make ends meet.
It feels impossible until it's done
100%... it takes some planning, but why wait?
Anteambulo to Businesses and Individuals seeking Transformation and Change Management.
1moAn account of life through its journey than what accumulates at the end.