Life on Fast Forward with Vivi
I would say the best thing is that my life feels like a movie. I get all these amazing experiences, meeting all sorts of amazing people. I feel like I'm living life on fast forward.
Amberly:Welcome to the podcast where we learn about life, finances, and how to live just a little outside the norm. Life outside of our hometown can be exciting and lonely and changes in ways we never thought possible. Being a digital nomad opens up a world of possibilities, which makes life ever so exciting. And sometimes you're on the side of the road waiting for a taxi, trying to conduct a meeting while having spotty Internet and on your way to the airport. It can be not so fun.
Amberly:Our guest today took a leap of faith and decided to leave her hometown, her relationship, and quit her job as an aerospace engineer to be a digital nomad. I met Vivi through Instagram, and we became fast friends. Vivi and I didn't actually meet in person until a year after meeting online. We were both going to the same conference and, well, we decided to share a room together. This is what I love about people who travel.
Amberly:You just take leaps of faith, you just try new things, and you say yes to opportunities. Vivi is definitely someone who reinvented herself and is so much better for it. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Now back to Vivi. Vivi, you're leading a somewhat ordinary life in Orange County and things start to change for you.
Vivi:Yeah.
Amberly:And you take a huge leap. Tell me about that.
Vivi:1st, I am an engineer in aerospace, working my 9 to 5 job, making great money, doing the thing that I was supposed to do, but I realized that I don't wanna die working like this. I don't wanna spend the next 40 years just going to work, going home, watching TV, and doing it all over again. You know? So I decided there's more to life and money is good to have, but our time is more valuable. I was in the pursuit of financial independence, but I decided what's the point of having money when you don't get to enjoy your life either.
Vivi:So I decided one day I was gonna quit my job, become a freelance graphic designer. That was my dream at the time to be an entrepreneur and work for myself and do something creative. So I just went for it, and it was tough, but it ended up being worth it.
Amberly:It's really interesting because big life leaps like that can seem so scary. And I bet now you look back and you're like, no brainer. That it led you to an incredible life. And had you not done that, you wouldn't be where you are today. Do you ever think about that?
Vivi:For sure. I think at the time when we make these scary decisions, of course, it's so scary because you have no idea what it's, what's going to happen. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know if it'll be worth it. But I think through all those challenges along the way, of course, you're going to fail and make mistakes. Those are the things that lead you to where you're supposed to be.
Amberly:I totally agree with that. I just had, doc g or Jordan Gremmett on, like, literally right before you, and he talked about purpose and how so many people will stay stuck in a life that they don't like that will eat at them forever. And he does hot he he's a hospice doctor. Right? He will watch people on their dying beds finally wake up.
Amberly:And how incredible that you woke up in your twenties. Like, that's incredible. Yeah. It would totally suck if you're like, hey. 40 more years, guys. Peace.
Vivi:Yeah. Oh, cool. Honestly, I'm very motivated by death, especially with COVID. Like, you realize how life is and we can go at any time. So how do we make the most out of life when we can be gone at any moment?
Amberly:Yeah. And I like that you're doing things responsibly as well. And we'll talk about that in a minute, but you decided that wasn't enough. Graphic freelance graphic designer. Is that what we call it?
Vivi:Yes. Freelance graphic design.
Amberly:And then you decided, I'm gonna take this a step further and make my life even more different than the ordinary person. So, tell me about your first day in Denver.
Vivi:Oh, great question. So I've always had this dream of traveling and working remotely, but a lot of things were stopping me. First of all, I didn't have a remote job, but I ended up getting one. I was in a relationship with someone who could not work remotely, so I didn't even think about it. But I had this opportunity from someone who happens to be you.
Vivi:I think I expressed to you that I wanted to travel and work remotely. And I don't know. I just sold you because why not? And then the perfect opportunity came up where your friend needed a cat sitter for 5 weeks and you sent it to me. And this opportunity was 2 weeks from now.
Vivi:And I was like, oh my gosh. This is way too much. I'm not ready. Woah. But I decided, why not?
Vivi:What's stopping me? I made sure my mom was okay with me being gone for that long. So I went for it. It was amazing. I think my biggest fear was, am I gonna feel lonely?
Vivi:Am I able to live alone? Am I gonna miss all of my belongings? But, honestly, I didn't feel any of that stuff, and that opportunity made me realize that I can do this full time. So once I got back, I broke the lease on my apartment, sold everything, and started traveling full time.
Amberly:And here we are today, and you're still doing it. That was 2 years ago.
Vivi:Oh my goodness. Yeah. Times wise.
Amberly:It really does. When you lived in Denver, we used to go for our sushi Wednesdays at Sprouts. And Thank you. John and I recently did that and had our little sushi in the car date, and we were like, oh, Vivi needs to be here.
Vivi:Good times. Yeah. I think being able to spend quality time with you was so meaningful and eye opening for me. If I came to visit you for a weekend, that'd be great. But to be able to spend a whole 5 weeks close to you and just come over for dinner, drop by whenever, it it was just so nice, and I wanted more of that.
Vivi:The Yeah. Those kinds of experiences.
Amberly:Do you find that you choose places based on friends or location or bucket list?
Vivi:It's always a different reason. It varies. Maybe there's an event I wanna go to or certain friends I want to visit or a certain lifestyle that I wanna live, a certain city I wanna explore. But I would say for the most part, I've been following friends.
Amberly:I never did the digital nomad thing. I just did the nomad thing where I go and find odd jobs because this was in 2,009. So I left home at 2007, and then basically lived between US and abroad for years. I would just do odd jobs and I would find cities that my friends were in. So if they were in Australia, I'd go to Australia and I get the one year working visa and I worked there for a bit.
Amberly:Or I go to Germany and I had learned German and hang out with my friends there, whatever it might be. And for me, I found that was a really nice anchor into a place because everything is new. Like where what's the grocery store even called? That's the thing that people don't think about is it's not King Soopers or Mhmm. Safeway if you're in California.
Amberly:It's something completely different. And so everything is new and your brain's kind of on fire in the beginning. And I find having that friend group can be really anchoring and grounding in the experience. For you, what is grounding for you?
Vivi:What is grounding? Wow. I definitely agree with you that it's the people. I feel like, there's plenty of different types of cities out there. Some offer more than others.
Vivi:But if you're in a city that's, like, just okay, but you have a community of people, I think that makes all the difference. I think having people that can support you, that you can turn to for help will be there for you if you need it. I would consider that ground.
Amberly:Okay. You just jogged my memory on something. So there's one question I hate when people ask me because they've, like, learned I've traveled and things like that. So I'm not gonna tell my question. Is there a question that you get from people all the time that you're like, find something more inventive, people?
Vivi:That people ask me about my travels?
Amberly:Yeah. Or being a digital nomad?
Vivi:I don't think so. I think people usually just ask, oh, where have you been? Where is your favorite place? Where are you going to next? Yeah.
Vivi:I can't think of anything.
Amberly:Okay. Good. I'm just more judgmental than you. Awesome. Yes.
Amberly:Whenever someone's like, what's the your most favorite place you've ever been? I'm always like, I don't know how to answer that. Are you asking what the best food was? Or where my best friends were or the best experience I had, or I grew the most or had the most like mental breakdowns? That's I find that question is so difficult to answer because I might give 3 different answers.
Amberly:Like, oh, France was one of my favorites. Cause I had a lot of friends there when I was really young, and it was my first foray. But I find that question could be so I don't know the answer to that. Like, the the appropriate answer.
Vivi:Yeah. I get it because there's so many different reasons that make a place special. Right?
Amberly:Yeah.
Vivi:And I think that what makes it in the interesting perspective you get from traveling is that you change so many little pieces of your life that you, that it helps you understand what is valuable to you. You know what I mean? Oh, I had safety here or I had friends here or had, like, good food here or I had good career opportunities here. What's important to you?
Amberly:Exactly. That's why I think your twenties, though financial independence is really important to strive towards and to start making small steps towards in your twenties because of compound interest. There's something about making mistakes and doing big things in your twenties like that, where you get to learn all those little parts of you and then take them with you wherever you land. And you can land in the most ordinary of places, but you are now less ordinary. And that's something that I find really important about your twenties is to take those leaps of faith and try something new.
Vivi:For sure. I think if you put yourself in different environments, whatever that may be, even, like, working at a different coffee shop, you'll get a new perspective that you did not expect.
Amberly:Totally. Okay. So you have a digital job. So you stay in Airbnbs. Correct?
Vivi:Yes. Correct.
Amberly:Awesome. And tell me about the finances of that. So one of the things that hold a lot of people back when it comes to traveling, I heard all the time in my twenties, Amber, I cannot believe you can go splittering around the world. But we had the same job. I'd be like working with them at a restaurant, and I just happened to save some money to go do whatever I was doing.
Amberly:And then I'd find ways of doing it cheaper or better or different. How do you manage your finances on the road?
Vivi:You know what? Surprisingly, I've come to realize that traveling can actually be cheaper than, like, living a normal life. Okay. So I used to live in a studio apartment in Irvine, California, pretty expensive city. The rents today is 22100 a month.
Vivi:That's not furnished, no utilities, and you need to sign a 1 year lease. So that's it's a lot more than 22100 a month. So what I do when I book Airbnbs is I always stay for more than a month because you will always get a monthly discount and it's like way cheaper. So on average, I paid like 1700 a month for a place. These places are not amazing.
Vivi:Of course, they're super small, but it works. It works for me. I've spent that much in in San Francisco. But, of course, if you go to other countries that are more affordable, you'll spend much less. Those places are furnished with utilities.
Vivi:And plus, since I don't have an actual home, like I'm not ever buying stuff because there's nowhere to put it. And I don't think we realize how much money we spend on stuff, like for our home, our clothes. And it's so easy to buy stuff when you have the space for it.
Amberly:It's $15 here, $10 here. Like we I see the image Amazon packages come into our house and we're doing home renovations. So then it's, oh, one tool And then this, and then you need a place to put all this, and then you need to move it to your new location should you move. And as someone who used to live out of literally 2 suitcases, it gives me anxiety sometimes when I look around and I've got a bunch of properties. So I've got this and my 2 properties in Denver and 2 of them are fully furnished.
Amberly:So I'm like, if I have to get rid of these, this is so much work. Yeah. To get rid of it all. And holy moly. So you're basically constrained by a suitcase.
Amberly:If you can't fit in the suitcase, it's not coming with.
Vivi:For sure. And trust me, there are plenty of things that I've seen that I wanted to buy, but I physically couldn't because I had nowhere to put it. So that in itself has saved me a lot of money.
Amberly:Do you have anything that you do take as a souvenir?
Vivi:If I buy a souvenir, it will be something like ridiculously tiny, a card, like something flat or like a figurine for some reason that was meaningful to me, but I find myself shopping more when I travel. So for me, it's, like, functional, and it's a souvenir at the same time.
Amberly:It's been 2 years. And you've got, I'm sure, your clothes that you originally purchased, all the stuff that you brought with you. Is there anything that has stuck with you that you're like, I could never not get rid of this? And what is something that you pitched right away?
Vivi:I'm not the most minimalist when it comes to packing, to be honest. I used to travel with my Ninja Bullet Blender. You know what I'm talking about? Like, it's
Amberly:not I remember you bringing that. Uh-huh.
Vivi:It's it's huge because I really like my protein smoothies, but I realized, like, how much space that weighs and how heavy it is. So I do not have that anymore. I bring my apple HomePod with me, which is like the same as an Alexa because yeah. It's not, like, super necessary, but she's there for me to play music. She wakes me up with the alarm, so I feel like more it just feels more homey to have her around.
Vivi:Yeah.
Amberly:I have friends that bring steak knives. Not steak knives, like chopping knives, French knives. I don't know. Where you, like, chop vegetables with because every Airbnb has really dull, crappy knives. But it also means you always have to check your bag.
Amberly:You can't just bring your bag onto a flight should you be flying. So they bring knives.
Vivi:I love that. Whatever is important to you. I totally support that. Yes.
Amberly:That's one thing with me having short term rentals. I think, what did I need when I was traveling that people just don't think of? And more often than not, it's just making sure the kitchen actually has the things you need to cook in it.
Vivi:Yeah. And I've stayed in your Airbnb and used the kitchen and cooked delicious meals and wow. It was very well stocked. It had all the things you need. I didn't have to buy anything.
Vivi:So Good. I appreciate that.
Amberly:Yes. I do too as a traveler. I went to a place in Scotland once, and they had those old Teflon pans, and there was 2 of them. And they were so scratched up that even just putting anything on them, you get more little flakes. I'm like, I don't wanna touch this.
Amberly:This is terrible. And every every time I go somewhere new, I I remind myself that this is so important for people.
Vivi:It's so hard. I feel like I've really had to lower my standards with living and food and home stuff because I don't get to choose what shows up in my Airbnb. And I don't have all the things that make me comfortable, but it's okay. I learned to live with it. It's worth it.
Amberly:Yeah. It's part of the kinda give and take of the lifestyle. Right? So that makes sense. Do you have a daily routine or something you stick to?
Amberly:So because you have to work. Right? You've got deliverables, things you have to do. What does a day look like for you?
Vivi:It's definitely really hard to have a routine when you're living in a different place all the time. An Airbnb might not have a good desk that is comfortable. Internet might not be good. So something that has been really valuable for me is getting a coworking membership, which is basically like a library that you pay for. There's other people working there.
Vivi:Wi Fi is amazing. There's free coffee, beautiful workspaces. I go to a place called WeWork and it's a chain. They're all over the world. That has been probably the most consistent thing for me in terms of work, just because I know that I have a reliable place to work and be productive.
Amberly:It probably also gets you out of the house and into the city that you're in. Right? When you could spend all day at your computer. I know I can. So then if you have a place to go, you've gotta walk there, public transit there, Uber there, so you actually get out.
Vivi:I think it's contradicting in a way to, like, travel but work most of the time. I work a lot. But I think creating an experience of working in a different city, like that in itself, I find pretty exciting and entertaining to just experience the commute as if I live here.
Amberly:It's like just going to the grocery store. Right? You just you do the things you would do in everyday life. Yes. But you're just doing it somewhere different.
Amberly:Yeah. Yep. Me too. It's my favorite. Okay.
Amberly:How much does a WeWork, pass cost? So if someone wanted to go there for a day or it sounds like you have a a year long or a month long membership, what does that look like?
Vivi:So I was paying 1.50 at the time per month, but the price went up to 200 now, and that gives you access to a 150 locations around the world. But there's about 500 WeWork locations. And if you want access to all of them, it's more than that, 300, maybe more now. So it just really depends what works for you. But for me, I think 150 a month is so worth it because you get reliable Internet.
Vivi:If you drink coffee every day, that basically pays for itself. And if you go to a coffee shop to work, you still have to buy coffee, and it's not as reliable.
Amberly:I've actually gone to coffee shops where I went, bought coffee, maybe a snack, and then I sat down and their internet was out for the day.
Vivi:Oh, you're like,
Amberly:I have
Vivi:the worst.
Amberly:Yeah. You have to go to the next coffee shop, do the exact same thing, because you can't sit there for free. That's something like, oh, and I don't even drink caffeine. So if I do buy a caffeinated beverage, it's a it's a nice, I'm like ready to work. Mhmm.
Amberly:I cannot have 2 caffeinated beverages. That would just I'd be like grinding my teeth, and I don't know. You'd find me on the moon or something.
Vivi:Yeah. I was gonna say check the Wi Fi before you buy something, but some places make you buy something before they give you the Wi Fi.
Amberly:Exactly. Or you could ask, but I forget. Cause I just, I I'm a 21st century gal. I assume everywhere has wifi. It's free in some way.
Amberly:Like whether it's a purchase or $3. I don't know.
Vivi:Yeah. And I get anxiety because, like, you never know if the coffee shop will be full or if you'll find a spot where there's an outlet nearby to charge your laptop, it's very stressful for
Amberly:me. Yes. A 100%. I got myself a new MacBook Pro. Oh.
Amberly:I think I told you this. And it lasts so long. I, like, no longer have that anxiety. I can bring it I just brought it today to the co working space I went to, and I didn't even bring the charger.
Vivi:Wow. Powerball.
Amberly:I know. Pretty ballin'. Okay. So thanks for telling us the price, because I think that's important to know. When you're saying too that if you were in Irvine, you spend 22100 plus utilities, plus furnishing your place.
Amberly:You're probably looking at utilities for an apartment. I don't know. A $100 a month, let's say. So 23 a month plus whatever extra you put in there. A $150 to $200 coworking membership on top of your 17.50 on average rent, all inclusive, is still cheaper.
Amberly:And, again, you get an experience to go somewhere else. You get free coffee and you get other people around. Although, sometimes people talk in co working spaces, but most often I don't think they do unless you're, like, in the same spot every day. Do you make friends there?
Vivi:I have met some people. I wouldn't say I've made friends, but if you want to make friends, you totally can. I'm not very social. I've actually found clients at co working spaces too. So that has paid for itself.
Amberly:That's amazing. That's really great. I guess people can see or walk by and you can quickly say what you're doing because you guys are talking about work more than likely if you're like, hey. What are you doing here?
Vivi:For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a great place to network and be social. It's since we work remotely, it gets lonely.
Vivi:You don't have office mates. So it's fun to go to a co working space to see the same people.
Amberly:Yeah. Again, it's one of those constants and grounding that you can build into your nomadic life, which makes it a lot easier because it is hard to go somewhere new all the time. There's always really amazing things about living a life of being a digital nomad, new cities, new food, all this fun stuff. You can post it on Instagram and you look really cool. Yeah.
Amberly:And then behind the scenes, maybe you cry.
Vivi:Oh, man. We're going there.
Amberly:What are you finding the best things, but also the worst things about your lifestyle?
Vivi:Wow. I would say the best thing is that my life feels like a movie. I get all these amazing experiences, meeting all sorts of amazing people. I feel like I'm living life on fast forward. Like I live 1 month here, 1 month here.
Vivi:I get to experience so much in a short amount of time and start over and do it again and just get a glimpse to all these different places. I love that. The cons. Woah. It's very lonely.
Vivi:It's very hard to have a routine. It's hard to take care of your health in terms of eating and exercising consistently. Yeah. But I would say the the hardest thing for me is the loneliness. I think community is super important to me.
Vivi:And I was the loneliest when I was in Japan because my friend who I was traveling with left, so I didn't know anyone. I was, like, 16 hours ahead of everyone that I knew in the US, so that was another layer of feeling isolated. And, it's tough. And making friends with locals is really hard too because of the culture difference and the language barrier, and they don't have much of an incentive to make friends with me who was only there for 2 months.
Amberly:I appreciate you're sharing that because when we do see all those photos, we don't see the behind the scenes. And we don't see those moments where you're like, I don't have anyone to talk to right now. I lived in Thailand and taught English there for a year. And I found that it was the coolest thing not to be able to understand anything that went around me. So I just walk around in my own bubble and I learned a bit of Thai, so I, I knew a little bit, but I also found that so lonely because it was just me and my thoughts.
Amberly:Every day walking streets, I couldn't tune out by hearing other conversations in a coffee shop. I was just, it was always just me. And I had a fight. She threw threw a drink in my face when I told her it was a dumb idea. Oh my god.
Amberly:Had a fight. She threw threw a drink in my face and I told her it was a dumb idea.
Vivi:Oh my gosh.
Amberly:Yeah. It was great. We still talk about it. This is back in 2009. I remember when she left, all of a sudden, this really big grand adventure shifted for me and felt less exciting because I didn't have anyone to share it with in that way.
Amberly:And Wow. It's nice to be by myself, of course, and I really loved it. But I would notice that those times of loneliness would hit harder than they did when I had someone to maybe bounce thoughts and ideas and that feeling off of.
Vivi:Wow. How did you deal with that?
Amberly:Oh, I eventually left too. But really, journaling. I would listen to songs and I would journal, and I would just take time to be by myself. Now looking back, I didn't do enough physical activity when those moments would happen. I would stay inside in my apartment.
Amberly:Maybe I go for a walk. But I didn't use my resources as in okay. I have 3 pillars now of health. Right? So am I eating?
Amberly:Sometimes I don't eat enough. Am I sleeping too much? So am I taking too many naps during the day to pass the time versus or deal with my emotions? And my third one is, am I getting outside and having a walk? And what I learned in my twenties is I didn't do enough of exercise.
Amberly:So had I spent more of my loneliness in a gym or walking around, I think I would have been in a better mental state, and therefore wouldn't have maybe spiraled so low in in my low days.
Vivi:I love that. I think it's so easy to forget to take care of our basic needs, but that makes such a big difference.
Amberly:For me, having some sort of, like, literally those pillars, like, I have to check-in. Okay. Am I sleeping too much? Am I not eating enough? Am I getting outside?
Amberly:Whether that means just standing outside in the street, looking up for 5 minutes or going for a walk or even I could do that. Yeah. Like, those pillars for me were great. I could stand. I could hang out, look out a window.
Amberly:Yeah. I thought those were really important things that I determined in my late like, when I was 29, that's the things I figured out that were really important. And everyone has something else for their pillars. So just because those are my pillars doesn't mean they're yours or or someone else's. So that loneliness, I totally understand that.
Amberly:And I do think that there's a whole other level of loneliness when you're in a culture that you don't connect with as well or you don't speak the language. That's a lot of stuff.
Vivi:Sure. For sure. I think how I dealt with it was reaching out more to my friends from home and, having calls with them. That was really helpful. And I actually, I also decided to embrace the loneliness.
Vivi:I decided that I was, I was ready. I, the, the next thing that I wanted to do was go back home to a place where I had a huge community. I was planning to go to LA after and stay there for a while. So that was waiting for me. But the time that I had left alone, I wanted to embrace it and make the most out of it before I come home and become overwhelmed by too much social stuff.
Amberly:Basically, sit in the uncomfortability of it all and make the best of it. Because that's what the whole lifestyle is about. You are always gonna be uncomfortable in certain ways, whether, again, it's stretching your mind trying to figure out what the local grocery store is, how far away it is, what does your root work routine look like? All your Airbnb doesn't have the things that you need it to have. You're just gonna be somewhat uncomfortable.
Amberly:And I think the more you get okay with that, the better your life becomes. One thing
Vivi:for sure.
Amberly:I was I have a pet peeve about living in the US in the suburbs. And I think this would fix everything. Is someone just having to sit with uncomfortability. In the US, there's this thing where if someone parks on the public street outside of your house, some people get upset. I just had this conversation like a week ago with someone.
Amberly:And they were upset that there was someone's car in front of their house on the public street. And the first thing I wanna tell them is, oh my God. First of all, do you have a passport? And second of all, go use it. Because life is so much more than who parks in front of your street.
Amberly:Who's legally allowed to be there. And it's one of those things that where I think that sitting in the comfortability of it all, sitting in, like, loneliness, sitting in new culture, sitting in trying to figure out a new language can cure a lot of our suburban blues.
Vivi:For sure. It really helps you appreciate things that you take for granted.
Amberly:Are there any misconceptions that people have about travel, so they've approached approached you thinking it's one way, but really isn't like that at all?
Vivi:I think people assume that when I am traveling, when I'm living in another place that I'm going out and having fun and doing cool things. Like I'll say, oh, I was in Tokyo for 2 months and they'll be like, oh, did you go to Osaka, Kyoto? Did you see this? Did you see this? And the answer is no to most things because I was working most of the time.
Vivi:And I try to, like, think about it in their perspective. With you living your life living in one place, like, how much do you get done in 1 month? How often do you go out and go sightseeing and go on adventures and stuff? I'm still trying to live a normal life and not get burnt out and do stuff all the time. So I think that's hard to explain.
Amberly:You're right. You're just transplanting a lot of the normal vanilla day to day stuff to a new place. And that's a great way to lose all of your money that you're saving while living in Airbnb. For
Vivi:sure.
Amberly:So do you find that you are still have an eye on your future for retirement now?
Vivi:For sure. It's obviously not like a huge priority to retire as soon as possible. I definitely want to balance enjoying life and doing all the things, but also retiring at a reasonable time. My standard is at the minimum, I have to max out my 401 k and IRA. And beyond that, I am free to spend.
Amberly:I call that the anti budget where basically you take care of your future. Maybe you have some savings for other things, and then you can just do whatever the heck you want with what's in your account. And it's, like, the most liberating, amazing experience.
Vivi:And it saves a lot of time too. I'm sure I can, like, track every dollar and save a bunch of money, but I I feel with eating. Right? Like you can track all your calories, your macros, and that would be great. But if you eat well, make good choices, then that's pretty good too.
Amberly:Yep. Would you call yourself someone who'd love to travel before this?
Vivi:Yes, for sure. I didn't get my passport until age 23, but after that, I really prioritized travel. I traveled as much as I could while having a 9 to 5 job. But, yeah, I finally took the leap, and now I can travel as much as I want.
Amberly:If you could tell listeners one thing to do to start a journey to travel or be a digital nomad, what would be one piece of advice you would give them?
Vivi:My piece of advice would be to stop waiting for the perfect time to do it because there will never be a perfect time. If you wanna wait till you get your bonus, wait until you reach x milestone, something else in your life is gonna come up that will prevent you from doing this or give you an excuse to not do it. So stop waiting and just do it because you will never be ready. It will never be the perfect time.
Amberly:Go live your life. Right?
Vivi:Yeah. That's right.
Amberly:Well, there you have it. Taking leaps of faith, reinvention, doing something outside the norm is the key to living a good life. If he was able to do it, now can you? Oh, man. I have been on a vacation for, like, 2 years, and a vacation is not the same as being a digital nomad or traveling a bit more long term.
Amberly:Me and my family, we're looking actually to travel in November after baby number 2 is born to Mexico City for a few months while we finish up my mat leave. So fingers crossed that we get out there, do some digital nomading, and get to experience something new in life. As a reminder, one of the best things you can do for this podcast is leave a review. Other ways to support Join Fin Talks, a weekly conversation with friends about finances, because who else can you talk to so openly in your life about something that is just so taboo? So join us every Tuesday.
Amberly:You can find us at amberleygrant.com/fintalks. We'd love to have you.
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