Mini Retirements

In this book, The 4-hour Work Week Tim Ferriss suggest we should stop binge traveling on preplanned holidays “skimming across the surface” of countries and cities.

He asked himself “Why not take the usual 20-30 year retirement and redistribute it throughout life instead of saving it all for the end?”

And he also provides a great quote from Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding “The simple willingness to improvise is more vital in the long run than research.”

Each year Tim recommends one, preferably more mini retirements of at least 4 weeks each. After those 4 weeks you either go home or move on to another location.  He suggest a number of travel strategies that are embedded in the book, including extreme frequent flyer point usage.

Also consider services such www.craigslist.com to find private apartment rentals for say a month (rather than hotels) and you should consider spending time in locations such as Berlin, Buenos Aires or Thailand where your dollar goes a lot further.

This has really resonated with me maybe, partially because I am in my forties but also because in the last few years I have seen some friends die way too young (long before retirement) and also the parents of some of my friends who are either dying or becoming very sick very soon into their retirements.
In some cases they are very bitter because they have deferred their enjoyment until their retirement and now those long held plans are being cruelly snatched away from them at the last minute.