Wise<\/a> to be very helpful to join them all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI save a lot of time using cards for local spending, and like to have 3 cards for travel (as sometimes one will have trouble working in a country, plus there’s the risk of having one stolen \u2014 so it’s good to have backups). Already, this is complex, but it’s the simplest I can get away with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My investing philosophy is a moving target, but I am working towards simplicity. Where previously I had a rule of “no more than 10” separate retail investments, I’ve since reached a point where I don’t want any cashflow at all, let alone to think about picking stocks or reinvesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> Keep bank accounts and cards as few as possible, and pivot retail investments into a 1 fund portfolio that accumulates dividends instead of distributing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Cars<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThere’s a solid argument here for never owning a car. With where I live, it’s a huge convenience to have one though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Combine this with cars being one of my greatest passions and I’m happy to justify owning one to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, there are around 20 more that I want. \ud83d\ude42 Slowly I am learning that more cars will not bring more happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More cars means more maintenance, more registration costs, more insurance costs, more space needed to store them and as it’s been explained to me; it’s very difficult to drive more than one at a time anyway<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMy solution:<\/strong> a performance wagon (estate car). It’s more than fast enough, has room for a mountain bike or my family’s things on holidays but is small enough to park in tiny Andorra, and it looks great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Environment<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nI value easy access to trails where I can walk, run or just chill out on my own or with friends and family. The feature image of this post is taken by me, an exceptionally long distance from my home \u2014 about 5 minutes drive then 30 minutes of steep walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, valuing the environment is a great in the context of the minimum viable lifestyle \u2014 it’s free to spend time in, good for you, open all hours of the day \u2014 highly convenient!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like being close to the things that I need day to day. 15 minutes is my limit for getting to the shops, my son’s school or the gym. Being able to walk to all 3 is awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> move to a country and village where this is literally on our doorstep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Family<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n1 child is enough.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile I easily have enough love for many more kids (my neices and nephew get it instead), I’d have to sacrifice my time with all of them as it would need to be divvied up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Convenience for international travel and financial costs come into this but aren’t the major decider for my wife and I. Time is the core one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> don’t have more kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Home Base<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nDo you need one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love having a home and don’t know how people travel indefinitely without one, but it’s a good question to ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I work from home, and have found that around 110m\u00b2 is a good fit for our 3 person family. If you’d have asked me how much space I needed while living in Australia, it probably would have been triple that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More space takes longer to heat or cool, costs more to do so, and puts strain on the environment. It’s more to maintain, more to clean and you need more furnishings to fill up the space. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More importantly, it needs to get some sun, needs to be well insulated, and needs a terrace or garden that is large enough to actually live on (for my son to ride his bike, or to swing on a hammock).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though I don’t have this in my current situation, I do really want a small workshop to work on cars and bikes. If it’s not too much to ask, I want somewhere quiet too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> for now our apartment ticks most of these boxes. In a few years we will probably trade up (mainly for the workshop), but we don’t need<\/em> anything better right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Messaging & Social Media<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMy modern day pet hate is that we have no unified communication medium. As if we’re actually meant to keep our social lives organised through Instagram chat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past months I’ve had multiple friends trying to lure me onto Telegram and Signal, the current flavours of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nope, I want to be a digital caveman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t reply on Instagram, might check into Facebook once a week, and mostly rely on WhatsApp for social and some (which I hate) business life. Slack is on my laptop, but not on any phones. Ideally, everyone would filter through my email inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people hate me for this… But people I work with get my best efforts when I’m not distracted every 2 minutes. My friends get my best attention when our dinners aren’t interrupted by unimportant notifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026find a way of living that has come from due thought rather than a passive immersion in the tangles of everyday distractions.<\/p>Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nMy solution:<\/strong> limit communication mediums, limit their notifications and use them on my terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI’ve managed to avoid installing most pervasive apps, instead forcing myself to use my laptop browser to check social networks (which is usually less engaging).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I force as much communication as possible to email, video calls or face to face. Need me urgently? Remember calling people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Sports<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nI love mountain biking, hiking and enjoy training at the gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have fun on the snow but haven’t taken the time to improve in the past few years. I’m tempted to get a trials motorbike and build a drift car, but \u2014 you can see this is spiralling out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to have 4 mountain bikes. Now I have 3. I only really ride one regularly (my do-it-all trail bike), and it’s awesome to not have to maintain 4 bikes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to maximise my time during summer for riding bikes. I feel, the best way to do this is to focus on gym and business during winter, then reduce my gym days and workload over summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> spend more time doing fewer, simpler sports. Trail running shoes are so much easier to travel with than a set of skis, but I still haven’t figured out how to get a bike into my carry on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Travel Gear<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe first time I flew out of Australia I had 20kg worth of crap in my backpack and nothing warm enough for a Swedish winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now when I travel solo, everything I need is in my carry on backpack, which doubles as a pretty good hiking backpack too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, I drank the “one-bag” kool-aid but man, it’s great. No waiting for luggage, no bloody wheely bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My solution:<\/strong> packing everything I need, and nothing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Easier Said Than Done<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIf it sounds as though I have this all worked out, I’ve misled you. Anyone who knows me knows I still battle with the middle class mindset. Buying a home in Andorra is, logically, not a great move in this very moment, but I can find myself wanting to do it for security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to business, I clearly have trouble applying this model too. Simple ideas end up overly complex within about 6 hours of inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From what I’m picking it up, keeping things simple and avoiding getting sucked into more<\/em> is a skill in itself, and it’s one that I’m trying to be conscious of.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you’re treading this same path with me, I’d love to hear what is and isn’t working for you, and what you’re doing to grow! Leave a comment below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of us have been trained to aspire to more. More money. More clothes. Better toys. A larger house. A better physique. It’s never ending. If we’re not careful, it turns into vacation homes, and things that you might use once a month during summer, like a boat. But of course, it can also be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[66,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1794,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/1794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaserodley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}