6 months into the now Two Year Plan.

Happy Independence Day!

It is a bit surreal sitting here pondering how fast the last 6 months have gone. It would seem we are screaming closer to getting on a plane with a one way ticket and all of our belongings narrowed down to a couple backpacks. As we do get closer it seems like every decision we make goes through the filter of how it will affect us in 18 months. Do we really need to buy that? If we do, does it have value that we can get back if we sell it? What are we doing to retire our debt and figure out an alternative income stream? Those look like big things as they reflect back from the screen but, there is a calmness that we have. We have definiteness of purpose. We are on a track bound for Vagabonding and this train is picking up speed. We have cut a year off of our first timeline as our focus has allowed us to move faster than we anticipated and the last year seemed like a waste of time here when we could be there.

 

People that know us would have no problem describing us as Entrepreneurs. From the very beginning of our relationship back in that summer of 1988 we have always had thoughts and goals bigger than us. We have started owned and operated businesses from Amway to Roofing, Espresso stands to wholesale delivery, and everything in between. We have created products from ideas and seen them on store shelves. We even got to go to Los Angeles and swim with the sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank. We are not strangers to taking risks and stepping out on faith to take a chance. None of our businesses made us millionaires, but we learned something new from each and every venture. We have learned how to pivot and adapt. We have learned how to get by in abundance and also in want. We make friends easily and can go with the flow. We can solve problems and we work well together. This experience easily translates into this new adventure. For us it was a simple to just decide to do it. For the casual observer it may seem that we are out of our minds or that we are just deciding on a whim and that we will soon enough come to our senses.  While we did make this decision quickly it was with a great deal of thought and several “why not us?” conversations. For us though, it just makes sense. It is no different than anything else we have done. We have come up with a plan and a timeline and are day by day marching closer to our goal. It is like our life of entrepreneurship has prepared us for just this moment and when we decide something together, there is nothing that can stop us.

Up until just recently we had been keeping plans of our future to close family and some select friends. We just told Amy’s parents, the leadership at our church and it is becoming more common knowledge. We have been given nothing but support from everyone. We are not sure if it has really sunk in with Amy’s parents and are waiting for “the talk”. We are pleasantly surprised that everyone is so positive about this. It certainly has opened some great conversations and allowed us to share our vision with people. We do keep waiting however for the big intervention where someone will want to try to save us from ourselves!

So here we are, 6 months into the now 2 year plan and we are ahead of schedule. With a few tweeks we could surely cut it down even more but, we still have a lot of work to do. We are on track to retire all of our debt by the end of this year – that is unless we keep finding ridiculously inexpensive trips! lol. We are doing a lot of research and reading, studying countries and areas we would like to go, and developing relationships with others who are already doing what we are planning.

Time is going fast and 2018 is just around the corner!