I have come to the realization that traveling is good and no matter your budget or financial standing, you have to try and travel at least one a year.
One of my foremost dreams in life is to have 3 stable countries of residence—where I can spend 3 months each year in one, another 3 in the other and 3 months in the third.
I also want each place to be home, such that I would not have to carry things from one place to the other.
For the last 15 years, I have been working on making this possible. Sometimes, dreams may take long but with persistence, they happen.
One day, when I am chilling and constantly travelling between 3 different countries, remember it took me more than fifteen years to make it happen.
The most important part of this dream is to have a source of income that is not location restrained, and I have achieved that already.
As a minimalist, I would rather want to have such an experience of living for the remaining years of my life, instead of working like a donkey to buy things I do not really need (and things that do not bring me any true contentment )—just to please society or people or to feel part of this insane culture of measuring people by the material things they own.
By the end of the year or early next year, I intend to sell or jettison my car in the U.K. and have no car in the U.K. I hope to rely on the cars of friends and family and use more of public transport.
In the last 1 year, I have not used my own car more than 30 times. Yet I continue to pay insurance of about £70 a month on it.
Elon Musk does not own a home and yet he is one of the richest persons in the world. He finished selling all his 7 multi-million dollar homes last year, 2 years after he pledged to sell off all his physical possessions.
I love people like Musk because they seek to break away from popular lifestyles and challenge some perception about living and possessions.
I will turn 39 years next month and by 40 years, I would want to pay off all credit cards and cut them into pieces (and leave just one behind for protection purchases).
At 40 years, I want to retire, meaning, take up legal and media consultancy jobs only because I want to and not because I need the money to settle some bills. This means, I need to drastically cut down my monthly outgoings to almost nothing and rely on passive income sources.
Imagine working just between 2-8 hours a week at your own time. That is what I want.
Warren Buffet has just one house and he has lived in this same house since the 1960s, because he is okay with that and he says acquiring more houses would not bring him further happiness.
A lot of these rich people are minimalists in the sense of the true meaning of the word. Focus your energy and time on the things that really bring you true contentment, and ignore those that take you away from the former, even if society instructs that you chase these things.
The last few years that I have been focused on those things that really matter to me have been fulfilling. I have been travelling, reading, meeting new people, forming new relationships and acquaintances and cutting back more and more on work (which stresses me me a lot).
This afternoon, as I reflect on my life, this watermelon has been my companion, reminding me that life is like a watermelon.
Indeed, life can be sweet. But you have to define it.