Living the Dream - What's Yours ?

[Sabbatical II]

I have been fascinated by the $500 v $5000 per month threads and realise that "Living the Dream" means different things to different folks.

I'm probably 2 years from throwing off the docklines and really Living My Dream. For me it includes:
1. Not having that sinking feeling on Sunday arvo that tommorrow
is about what I have to do, not what I want to do.
2. Soaking up the beauty of nature, creation and the creator.
3. Discovering and enjoying humanity in all it's diversity.
4. Challenging my friends to think that maybe there is more to life than
the rat race - so far none of them can see it.

Anyone like to share their dream?

Cheers
Greg

[marc2012]

Sounds like you are in tune go forit.marc

[MarkJ]

Hi Greg, they are good ones!

1. Not having that sinking feeling on Sunday arvo that tommorrow
is about what I have to do, not what I want to do.
Yes, Yes YES!

2. Soaking up the beauty of nature,
That never stops for us. Even in the most boring looking places you can still find the beuty of nature... just look closer. Sometimes we have tested it by sitting down and seeing what we can see right at our feet. The world is alive.


3. Discovering and enjoying humanity in all it's diversity.
Yes, discovering, but one doesn't have to enjoy everything. To be moved by it, it learn and perhaps understand, but not necessarily enjoy. The more we see the more we realise Australia is the lucky country. It has the best of everything in the whole world. Yes Aussies may have some problems (like the Aboriginal situation) but they pale compared to the problems of other countries.


4. Challenging my friends to think that maybe there is more to life than
the rat race - so far none of them can see it.
They will never see it, they will never come and visit, they will all die of the heart attack they are fighting against, they will all find an excuse to be/do 'same old - same old'. Thats one of the saddest things.


I think we are becoming lazy, healthy, educated, nature loving anthropologists, bioligists, physisists and chemists who are making new friends and letting old friends live vicariously through our emails.

And I am damned if I can't see why becoming lazy, healthy, educated, nature loving anthropologists is a bad thing at all

Damn its fine stuff!!!!!!!


I'm sure you will enjoy it


Oh.... and all those things are essentially free

[maxingout]

Dreams change over time.

Finished dreams:

1. Sailing around the world on a catamaran.
2. Driving offroad in Saudi Arabia and Australia in Land Rover Defenders.
http://www.positivegraphics.com/Positivegraphic55.htm
3. Writing five books on positive thinking.

Dreams in progress:

1. Creating the Positive Thinking Network with 100 positive websites.
THE HOME OF POSITIVE THINKING ON THE INTERNET.* DR. DAVID J. ABBOTT M.D.
2. Traveling in the American southwest every weekend and taking photos that I can use on my websites.
3. Being a flying doctor with the Indian Health Service flying out to Indian reservations in Arizona.
4. Working to earn Freedom Chips to finance my dreams.

Dreams in waiting:

1. Sailing my catamaran through the South Pacific and back to Australia for a second run through paradise.
2. Driving my Land Rover Defenders from Capetown to Cairo, and from Buenos Aires to Alaska on the Pan-American highway. DREAM MACHINES
3. One hundred thousand pages a week downloaded on the websites of the Positive Thinking Network. I presently have thirty-thousand pages being downloaded each week.

Final Dream:

I want to finish well. I don't know how many years I have left, but in the time that remains, I intend to finish well. I am going to make a difference in the lives of the people that I meet.

[Doodles]

Our dream or plan was not to wait until we were 65 or older and have a conventional retirement but to live a more alternative lifestyle that included one of our passions ... cruising. Knowing we couldn't and maybe wouldn't want to cruise forever, we decided to find a retirement home overseas where things were much cheaper and our smaller nest egg would last longer. Long story short, we sold the house in the US and invested part in a house in rural Thailand near the Andaman Sea and part in a sailboat. We had owned a 30 footer before that we lived aboard, so this wasn't entirely new to us. Currently, we are cruising the East Coast (while parents are still living) six months of the year and living in Thailand ashore the other six. Once the US ties are gone we'll take off cruising full time and eventually end up with the boat in Thailand.

So far its working out, but just be flexible with the dreams they can be surprising. Living overseas is a huge challenge, more than we had imagined. Its a lot different that cruising through a country or taking a vacation. This may see obvious but until you are in the middle of it you just don't know. Apart from the financial considerations (cheaper) for living overseas, we figured the challenges would be good for us as we aged. We didn't want to get too comfortable and set in our ways but to push ourselves "out of our comfort zone", something I think gets harder and harder as we age.

That's our dream or plan and so far its working.

[VirtualVagabond]

My dream is for the Aussie $ to get back up to .94 or better so we can afford to start on our real dream of bying a boat in the USA/Caribbean/Mexico and living the sea gypsy life for as long as we're having fun. We'll slowly make our way back to Aus taking as long as we feel like taking. Of course there is the small matter of selling the house first. (By the way, we're on the Central Coast, about an hour from Eleebana)
Vic (and Sandra)

[Mariness]

OP's cover most of it.
Also:
- Time to spend with my husband & kids doesn't have to come LAST on the priority list
- Kids didn't spend most of their childhood attached to a screen (and we could probably do with less of it too, so off I go for the night!)

[BlueWaterMD]

Gin clear waters and a 12-15 knot breeze!

[MarcW]

Our Dream

1. Buy yacht done (Farr 36)
2. Sell toys incomplete (Aprilia RXV550 for sale)
3. Sell house done (live aboard 4 months)
4. Sell car done (walking every where)
5. Finish yacht prep almost done
6. Quick trip back to Tasmania for things not sold incomplete (June 23)
7. Fill yacht with food etc incomplete
8. Sail off north of Perth incomplete (July 15 sailing of to warmer weather)
9. Headed ??????????????

[SaucySailoress]

The Dream:
1 - Buy a boat (done, 2000)
2 - Rebuild boat (done, 2001)
3 - Trade up for bigger boat (done 2005)
4 - Rebuild bigger boat (done 2006)
5 - Quit job (done 2010)
5b - Start living on cruising budget :-/
6 - Get boat ready (this year)
7 - Get cats and dog inoculated (oops, keep meaning to do that)
8 - GO!!!!!!!!!!!! (2012) (was 2011.....)

[RickD]

1) Sell house within 1 year
2) Find right boat for our voyage
3) Leave.

I just came back from BVI - two weeks on a 40 foot sloop. I had a crew, myself as skipper and we visited eight or nine islands, anchored out, moored, practiced docking, undocking, sailing, charting courses (yes I used the GPS to verify my location but was using charts when going places I couldn't see) and just having a lot of fun.

I can't see any reason NOT to continue to do the same thing day after day.....

[dennisail]

I am 29 years old now earning a little more than average, but not by a large margin.

My ultimate dream was to buy home, pay it off, buy yacht and sail the world on rental income and keep the home while yachting. Hopefully with a lovely lady who shares a similar dream. I think keeping the house while cruising is the most responsible plan as yachts fall in value and houses go up. Even if that means I cant buy as big of a yacht. In the meantime just go sailing where I can.

I purchased my home in 2003 and I now owe less than half what it is worth now and I have saved about 50K. I have a beach cat and went halves in a mate in a 25 foot trailer yacht and I go sailing every second weekend on the cat or over a few nights on the 25 footer. This xmas I will be going to the Whitsundays for 4 weeks on the B25.

Right now I am realizing that my relationships with woman who I have nothing in common with, and just liked because they were attractive were never going to last. I never went sailing with them in these relationships so the dream was never going to happen. The dream was forgotten as they didn't want to sail. When I'm single the dream comes back and this time if she doesn't want to come sailing its a no go from the start! I'd rather be single and sailing. Thanks to the advent of internet dating I am having a second date with a nice doctor on her yacht this sat!

I am also toying with the idea of putting the ultimate dream of full home ownership and self financed cruising on hold for while. This Tues I am going to see a financial planner and mortgage broker to get another 50k on top of my savings. Then I can use my 6 months payed leave with say a year of leave with no pay to buy a boat and cruise Asia from Brisbane for a year or so with a good reserve of emergency cash. (or sail pacific by buying in the US). My house will equal its repayments with rental income during this period even with the extra money on it due to a refinance for 30 years. When I get back I can sell the boat and if all goes will it will have only postponed the ultimate dream by a few years or even reduced it if I make money by buying a yacht overseas. Unfortunately Australia is the land of the most expensive yacht.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by dennisail

My ultimate dream was to buy home, pay it off, buy yacht and sail the world on rental income .

Thats what we do.

[SaucySailoress]

Mark - where is your home, and who manages it in your absence???

We've been looking into this for a while, but keep backing out cos we can't decide where to buy it!! Nor have we ever come across any management company / individual who we'd trust enough...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Aaza Dana

Mark - where is your home, and who manages it in your absence???
Nor have we ever come across any management company / individual who we'd trust enough...

maybe this is why the Aussie dollar goes up. We Australians do ahve a good real estate market and top line professionals to manage it