How I Did It

I wanted to write a post how I am able to take this time off to travel. I know a lot of people are envious of my plans so I want to give them an idea of how they could do it themselves. I encourage people to take risks like this because almost no one regrets it.

I want to get out of the way that I'm very fortunate and thankful for the opportunities that life has presented me. Not everyone is dealt the same cards and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't realize this. There are a few things for my situation that are beneficial for my travel plans that are difficult for the average person to change. First, I had an above average income. Getting a college education, and years of ambition and hard work really are paying off now. Second, I'm 37 years old and still single. I've known couples that have done stuff like this together though. Finally, I have no kids.  I understand that kids become your #1 priority for nearly 20 years so this is probably the biggest freedom that I have in my situation. 

Living below my means has been the biggest thing that I've done to be able to afford this opportunity. I had a decent amount of credit card debt until a few years ago. I was focused on paying that off by watching what I spent my money on. I already bought various stuff, but I needed to pay it off. That got me into a habit of being frugal. Every dollar spent was asked "Is it better to spend this on more stuff or put it toward debt?"  I have a couch, a coffee table, a dining room table,TV, a bike, and all that stuff. But my couch I got for free, my coffee table was from Craigslist as well as my dining room table, my TV is now 8 years old and works fine, and I've had my bike since 2005 since the engine is more important than the actual bike. I have stuff, but I get stuff and use it until it dies. Also, a lot of my stuff isn't really fancy, but is decent enough and is functional.  On my personal blog, I wrote an article about lifestyle inflation a few years ago. I refer back to that post to keep me in check. 

As my income has increased over the years, my expenses have gone down. For example, I'm always looking for ways to cut my utility bills. I dropped DirecTV years ago, cut the cord, and now get by with Netflix, Hulu, HBONow, and a TV antenna. All of that costs about $40 compared to $100 previously. For Internet access, I'm calling every 3-6 months to see if there are ways to cut my bill even if it is temporary. I think I've had a $10 monthly promo for the last 2 years with TWC. A relatively inexpensive programmable thermostat paid for itself in 3 months from the power bill savings. I'm not an extreme couponer, but I do use them. All of this extra money just goes to savings. 

Over the last few years, there have been many articles that state that people value experiences over things more. I grew up fairly poor and didn't have much as a kid so once I was on my own, I was all about getting "stuff". More stuff, fancy stuff, new stuff. Most of that stuff is now in the trash. I realized this on my own slowly through the years but these articles really hit home. I got into traveling again about 4 years ago and realized I'd rather be seeing the world that staying home and collecting more "stuff". Now, every dollar spent is asked "Is it better to spend this dollar on more stuff or put it towards savings so that I can travel?"  Every bonus, every stock sale, every RSU sale had 10% going to my slush fund and the other 90% went to my savings account.

I'm a planner. When I'm bored, I make plans. I have an idea and think about what could make it work. Then, what could go wrong pops up in my head. Then, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D start to form. I'm almost always thinking about these plans. For example, if I ever unexpectedly lost my job, I have a plan written out of what to do that day, the next day, and the day after that to get back on my feet. I'm 37 years old and have a will. I've quit my job, moving to another state, and plan on traveling for at least 6 months. I've thought a lot about the pitfalls to this plan and I've done a lot to mitigate the. The best that I could. There's still the "hit by a bus" scenario, but that's why I now always walk around wearing a bicycle helmet and a life jacket. Because you can never be too careful. I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but I'll figure those out as I go. 

Between being frugal, fighting lifestyle inflation, realizing what is important to me, and planning, that's how I am able to do this  

Franklin BBQ

A part of my third life crisis is doing the things in Austin that I never got to do.  One of the biggest draws in Austin is to wait in line for Franlin BBQ.  They are closed on Mondays so I decided to wait in line on the next day that they were open, Tuesday.  I ended up getting into line at around 8:50am that morning.  There were some veterans and they said that that was the worst that they had ever seen the line.  After doing some exploring and some detective work, UT had let out the prior week and many grads were graduating and moving out of Austin to jobs.  They had the same idea as me and of the first 50 people in line, maybe 6 were over the age of 30.

The waiting in line begins.

There were several cool people around me and we chatted to pass the time.  Since I'm a bit anti-social, I also brought some stuff to do there as well.  However, once I got into the whiskey a bit, I didn't care about the work anymore.

What happens is that there are a couple of staff members managing the line.  One person gives expectations about what is left and how long the wait will be.  Another person comes by and actually takes the orders.  The orders are just estimates to give people an idea of what is available.  Whenever I placed my order, ribs and turkey were out so I put in an order for 1 pound of brisket, 1/2 pound of pulled pork, and 1/2 pound of sausage.

There was a bit of rain off and on, but nothing too heavy.  I was in my official Austin gear of shorts and flip flops, so I was a bit chilly at times.  I'd rather have this weather instead of sitting outside when it is sunny and 95*.

At 11am, they opened the front doors.  That doesn't mean that the line moved fast though.  It was nice to get under the awning, but this was the view for a very long time.

The staff at Franklin is great.  They were friendly, helpful, and nice.  They were also walking around selling beer, wine, and water while people waited.  I went through most of my whiskey and had an additional beer as well.  I have to get as many of the Texas brews as possible.  The line moved very, very slowly.  I think it took me about 2 hours to go from under the awning to actually inside the restaurant.  This allowed me plenty of time to take pictures like this.

At around 2pm, we were finally able to get inside.  Once again, I was so happy that it wasn't hot this day.  We could smell the delicious meat and smoke inside.  Franklin BBQ is all about the "Keep Austin Weird" mentality and sold mostly local beers instead.  Here is a picture of Blue Owl Brewing which is a great Austin brewery that specializes in sour beers.

Franklin BBQ started out as a food trailer just like many of the other Austin icons such as Torchy's Tacos, Gourdough's, and Odd Duck.  One of their signature things was this huge garden gnome in front of their trailer.  Now that they have a big time place, the gnome still has a presence.

At this point, we are almost ready to order.  Much to my surprise, they still had all the meat although they said that ribs and turkey were out.  It was close, but when I was ready to order, I got 1 pound of brisket, 1/2 pound of pulled pork, 1/2 pound of sausage, 1/2 pound of ribs, 1/2 pound of turkey, and 1 pint of all the sides.  Yes, this is a lot of food and I have no regrets for ordering this much.

Total with tip was about $80, but I'm not worried about it.  I enjoyed it a bit later and here are my thoughts.

The ribs were easily the best thing that I had.  They were fall off the bone tender.  Brisket was the 2nd best thing followed by the pulled pork.  There was a bit of a drop, but then the sausage was the 4th best and the turkey was the worst of the bunch.  Don't get me wrong; the turkey was good, but if you had to rank everything, I enjoyed the turkey the least.  It was smokey and seasoned, but just a bit on the dry side.  I actually enjoyed the turkey more the 2nd day once it had sat in the paper and was moistened up a bit by the other meats.  I also got 3 sauces: a light vinegar sauce for the pulled pork, a typical medium BBQ sauce for the brisket, and a dark coffee BBQ sauce.  I didn't like the dark sauce at all, but the others were damn good.  The sides were good as well with the pinto beans having some brisket in them, cole slaw with cream, and really mustardy potato salad.


Looking back, I'm glad that I went one time since this is one of the cool Austin things to do.  The food was phenomenal, don't get me wrong about that.  But was it worth a 6 hour wait?  That's debatable.  If you have an opportunity to go through the experience, I'd say go for it, but if you don't want to wait in line, there is plenty of great BBQ around Central Texas to enjoy.

Day 0

Today is Day 0 of my travels for my third life crisis.  This is my last day at my current job.  BTW, I mean "third life crisis" as the crisis that happens in your life in your late 30s between the quarter life crisis of your 20s and the mid life crisis of your 50s.  I don't mean that this is the 3rd life crisis that I've had, and I hope it isn't as bad as the first two.

I'm going to keep the opening post short and sweet.  I'm really, really excited about my travels for at least the next 6 months which is getting kicked off by a move to Denver, CO.  After a month getting settled there, the traveling will begin!