Buenos Aires: How Is This Possible?

We got and get a lot of questions about our travel to Buenos Aires.
“You’re staying at like, a resort, right?”
“How did you get that much time off of work?”
“Do you have friends who are Argentinian?”
“I’m sorry…How many weeks did you say you’re going for?”
Most of these questions revolve around the basic question that no one’s really asked directly, which is:
“A six-week “vacation” in South America? How Is That Even Possible?
We hope that by our example, we inspire others to do similar things in their lives, but here’s the real answer to the question no one’s asking directly.
How Is This Possible?
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In a lot of ways, I don’t really know what to tell people about the idea that we’re spending a good deal of time here in Buenos Aires.
Most people’s lives are based around working a certain number of hours every week or every month at a JOB. That job is usually based in a specific location.
Emily and BoRyan (friends who are down here), are fortunate to have jobs with a company which allows them to work virtually.
But most people have that traditional job which requires that your life be structured around your work.

Also, most Americans think that when you leave the United States, or even when you’re away from home for longer than 2-3 days, that you’re actually going on some kind of vacation.
So when we say that we’re going away for an extended period of time, we almost always get very puzzled looks. So we explain that we’re actually going to Argentina to test out how we like living a lifestyle that isn’t dependent on location. But that draws even more puzzlement and confusion from people about how that’s even possible.
So we step back a bit, and explain that whether or not we’re working, or earning income, has nothing to do with being “away”.
And we are fortunate and blessed to have found a way to be able to have success with this kind of work.
It’s come through a lot of late nights, a lot of work, a whole lot of learning, a ton of struggle, and it’s come through using the awesome power of the Internet.
For most people, earning income without being tied to a location is such a foreign thought, that in order to explain it, I have to mentally step back from the picture and step back to where I started on my enterpreneurial journey – which is now nearly 10 years ago (and could probably even be traced all the way back to my parents’ design wall printing business 15-20 years ago, but that’s a whole other story).
10 years ago, I was really solidly introduced to the idea (through a guy named Dan Osborne – “Hi” to Dan if you’re reading this…) that there could be something other than “go to school, get a good degree, so you can get a good job with good benefits.” (And then work for 40 years at 40% (or less) of what you’re worth so that you can retire on 40% of what wasn’t cutting it (financially) to begin with. I knew that if you’d started in the job force prior to 1980, you would have the chance to actually succeed on the 40/40/40 plan, but I knew that gratuating in 1998, the 40/40/40 plan wasn’t really all that realistic for me, because no one I know keeps jobs longer than 5-8 years anymore. But back in 1998, I just didn’t know what the other opportunities could be).
One of the questions I was asked when I was first introduced to this kind of thinking was “If time and money weren’t an issue for you, if you didn’t have to have a job, and if you had virtually unlimited resources:
- Who would you be?
- Where would you go?
- What would you have?
- What kind of work would you do?”
And while going to Argentina feels like a new beginning, what I’m realizing is that being able to do what I am doing right now is a culmination of a process which began a long time ago.
And it’s hard to sum all of that up for someone in a way that will make sense, without going into the explanation I have just taken you through while you’re been reading this.
Having a partner alongside me to go with, to experience this new place together, is an amazing blessing (and in itself is a culmination and realization of things I’ve been working on for many years).
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Today, I’m realizing that even though this is a new journey, I’ve already come a thousand miles.
I’m so excited to see what Amazing and Great opportunities the next 10,000 miles will bring.

Related posts:

1. Stand Back, Buenos Aires!
2. Important lessons from the first four hours in Buenos Aires, Argentina
3. Crazy Crunched Cockroach Continues to Crawl in Buenos Aires: Plus A Weekend In Cordoba
4. Buenos Aires Apartment: Troubles With Our Palermo, Buenos Aires Apartment
5. 10 FAQs about our stay in Buenos Aires (so far)