I just spent a week in Cincinnati. Just a quick update on our gap year. Since we last spoke we wrapped up phase 1 – which was skiing and camping. We feel we have mastered some winter camping skills with finding campgrounds, not freezing up (or thawing quickly when we did) and also making the best of an untourism type experience connecting with locals and finding some amazing powder. We met up with some family and friends in Colorado and then sped across New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee – with some amazing stops in Stillwater, Tulsa Bentonville, and Nashville before arriving in Cincinnati. That trip across the south was WAY too fast! Cincinnati was a reset. I was in town to attend Econome, and consequently facilitate a session on travel rewards; while my husband and 3.5 kids (the dog is half human) made an 8 hour trek home to visit with friends and family. We were reunited and are back on the road for Phase 2 of our trip which will include Major League Baseball Stadiums, Mountain Biking and History. Disclaimer – there is always ice cream and hiking included in any of the Dusek Family Adventures.
If you want to follow along to get the behind the scenes details of our family gap year you can subscribe to our email list; ordinarysherpa.com/subscribe and make sure to select Family Gap Year Adventures as one of your topics. If you would like an episode or blog post of anything specific or to go deeper on a topic that I mention please reach out via email or on social media. I recognize we are living a Beyond Normal lifestyle (which I detail in my book) and love questions that you might have to help you and your family better connect through adventure in whatever format that looks like.
Today our guest is another amazing example of a Beyond Normal lifestyle and much of that is through the lens of simplicity and minimalism. However his blog post titled Travel is Overrated, Here’s What to do Instead got my attention. We often talk about the simple adventures we can do in our own backyard while being open to bigger and bold moves toward an adventurous lifestyle. Our guest is a financial planner by day and enjoys biking, farmers’ markets, libraries, and coffee shops. Volunteerism is also one of his favorite weekend activities, specifically in the sustainability arena. With a passion for cars and a disdain for liars; Vegan food is his jam. He tries to spend in an intentional manner, to allow himself to one day be financially independent to focus on the civic causes that he is passionate about. Gary, author of Financial Fives welcome to Ordinary Sherpa
Show notes for this episode: https://ordinarysherpa.com/112
Subscribe to the email List: https://ordinarysherpa.com/subscribe/ Choose Family Gap Year Adventures to follow the behind the scenes of our family gap year.
Buy Beyond Normal book, a field guide to designing an adventurous life with kids. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ordinarysherpa
Resources references in this episode
Blogpost: Travel is overrated, here’s what to do instead
BOOKS: Financial Fives by Gary Grewal, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi
Vegan Cooking Blogs: Vegan Richa, Minimalist Baker
Zero-Waster Moving Box Company: https://budgetsaresexy.com/zero-waste-side-hustle-renting-out-moving-boxes/. https://www.calboxrental.com
Key Takeaways
- When talking with clients and friends many were stressed out about planning vacation and stressed out on vacation, which kind of defeats the purpose. You can get the benefits of a vacation without going on a vacation.
- Be a tourist in your own city. Look at trip advisors top tourist attractions near you. Zoom in on Google Maps – follow the green line for pedestrian or bike paths. It’s really about having the space and blocking time to allow you to explore. Some of the best places he discovered was because he was riding his bike without a planned route.
- Libraries are like a living room for your city.
- Volunteerism helps us feel better. He looks for ways to not only reduce his impact, but also make the community better. Volunteerism is a tool to get engaged, connect with others and solve a problem – wherever you are.
- An entrepreneurial experience came from his desire to reduce waste and solve a problem by creating a zero waste moving box company.
- Great vegan food has flavor and leaves you feeling full. Many vegan restaurants also have environmental sustainability built into their operations with zero waste or compostable supplies.
- Gary is a fan of vegan one pot meals using a base such as quinoa, vegetable broth, spices, and a protein alternative. There are so many options today for protein alternatives that taste good. Vegan food could represent the flavors of adventure with creative combinations of new foods and flavors. Several resource links are included in the show notes if you’d like to explore vegan cooking.
- Financial Fives book was written to help readers learn quick tips to learn financial lessons through tips Gary learned and implemented on his path to financial independence.
- Self compassion and conscious spending can allow people to align values with desires. Learning to spend in a way that you can be happy. Aligning your your time, energy and resources is his recipe to fulfillment.
- When talking with clients and friends many were stressed out about planning vacation and stressed out on vacation, which kind of defeats the purpose. You can get the benefits of a vacation without going on a vacation.
Full transcript
Gary G
Thanks Heidi! So glad to be here.
Heidi:
When we first started having conversations I said you know I’m not really a financial podcast. But as I got to look at your blog and your material There’s a lot in there and I want to start with this one blog post that I found on your website called Travel is overrated and here’s what to do instead. So just kind of. Give me the impetus behind not just your financial blog and who Gary is but a little bit of tell me more about who you are and how did you land on some of the topics that you have in the financial space?
Gary G
Sure. Yeah, so I um I my entry into personal finance was kind of not ah planned I know a lot of people major in this kind of stuff and economics in college I was going to be a dentist. And I realized that in my first job between my gap year of college and dental school was at a financial firm and um, a lot of people looked at me and I was 21 or 22 and they’re like you’re if you’re going to take on $300000 of debt just to make x amount of money. You’re not going to be in good shape. It’s like I don’t know what you’re thinking and so I kind of crunch the numbers more and more and finance is always 1 of my my passions and never really thought you can make a career out of it I had never met a cfp until I was like 22 um so I figured you know. You’re you’re they’re right I should not take on debt for something I may not even like to do um and so that’s kind of where I just ran with the whole personal finance I worked in insurance I worked as a broker for Scott Trade which no longer exists. And um, and then I went on to get my CFP and and work as a planner and during all of that I had my own kind of I’ve always loved books I’ve always wanted to be an author. So I published my book financial fives and Twenty twenty when we had a lot of downtime during the pandemic and um and I decided to to blog to kind of.
Gary G
Put a different spin on personal finance and I felt like I could find online myself a lot of people talk about like portfolios and dividends and frugality and I think all that’s great, but there’s so many different aspects of life that personal finance touches. And that’s what I wanted to kind of explore so that topic or that blog post how travel is overrated was really something that I felt myself you know 2022 and even the year before that the headlines are all about flights getting canceled flights are so expensive. The airports are packed. Hotel prices are going crazy so people had all this fomo built up on the pandemic and they wanted to get out and explore and that’s just made worse right from Instagram and Tripadvisor and all these great beautiful places people are going and want to take a picture that they’re at and. You know I’ve talked to so many clients and friends that stress out about vacation planning and then are stressed on vacation and it’s kind of defeating the purpose. So I just wanted to write this post to say like hey there are so many other things you can do to get the same effects from a vacation that don’t require going on vacation.
Heidi
Yeah, yeah, and I really appreciate that because I’ve said from day one that you know as much as we focus on Adventure So many people classify travel as part of their like adventure portfolio right? and a lot of those things.
Gary G
And that’s kind of what was behind that.
Heidi
Can be experienced in your own backyard in everyday experiences even in so we’re on a gap year and I have said you know you don’t need a gap year to do most of the things that we’re doing the things like for example, you know we went skiing on a Tuesday well I could take off work and go skiing on a Tuesday like I could still have that effect.
Gary G
right.
Heidi
And and try it out I could go camping in the winter anytime right? but it’s not that I need to be on a vacation or traveling to experience this thing. So what was some of the things you found or what were some of the suggestions that you highlighted in that blog post or even some of the things you’ve done to really.
05:23.24
Gary G
Um.
05:34.80
Heidi
Get reacquainted with local.
05:35.30
Gary G
Yeah, it’s it’s it’s really about that whole be a tourist in your own city right? Like you know I can’t tell you how many friends I have come across and even my own even my parents and mountain family I take them places and they’re like I didn’t even know this existed and it’s literally five miles from our house.
05:40.15
Heidi
Yeah.
05:49.60
Heidi
Right.
05:53.96
Gary G
You know, um, you know we have this mentality that when we want to get away right? The whole travel industry tells us to get away go on the cruise go on the Plane. Do all this stuff. But if you just look at kind of your own Town. You’ll find the beauty of it that you know that just in simple things right. You know we we went and for a walk across a wetlands area with really nice Benches. Saw the Sunset. It’s a nice park for a picnic and just kind of spend some time and you know we go on vacation typically for our mental health and for adventure and just for relaxing and taking a deep breath. And a lot of those things can be found by going to local things too right? and so that was really the basis of that post is to challenge people to think about what they can do in their own backyard or even within a day’s driving distance that will. Give them the same effects and and positivity that you get through a vacation.
06:46.53
Heidi
Yeah, and you highlighted a couple things in your bio that I Love So let’s just talk quickly about what are some of the things you find in look like that you start to look for if people are like I don’t even know where to start or I don’t even know what this town has to offer What are some of the. Just characteristics of every town that you start by digging into or looking for when you are encouraging people to find what the gems are in their town.
07:11.80
Gary G
Yeah, so I used to start by going to like Tripadvisor because Tripadvisor had this thing where it’s like you can see theerset top activities. So it’s like yelp for travel and you can see kind of what the most popular tour spots are but beyond that.
07:20.85
Heidi
I hear.
07:28.10
Gary G
Honestly, what I did was I just would go to Google maps on my phone and and zoom in and just kind of use my finger to drag and see what picked my interest and it picks up a lot of things you know I click on a park and it starts to show other parks and you know there’s the green line in Google to show like a pedestrian or bike path and.
07:42.93
Heidi
I.
07:45.59
Gary G
That’s really something I like to explore as different bike paths and Greenways. Um the local library I think is a great resource because a lot of people that work there want to help and you know they they live in the city they’re from there and they can tell you about great places to check out or hole in the-wall places and whatnot. But.. It’s really just about having the time to explore and maybe sometimes not even having an agenda and just exploring and see where where things take you some of the best places I’ve discovered are just because I was riding my bike and I didn’t even think about going from a to B I Just thought I’d go a different route.
08:20.50
Heidi
Yeah I agree that libraries are to 1 of the the greatest resources and and it’s it’s not only filled with people that genuinely want to help and love their space. It’s there’s often. A lot of really cool things at the library that I wouldn’t think of you know things that we’ve discovered there just like crafts and social meetups and you know it’s you meet such interesting people there as well and so having conversations with people I just think the library is like a secret hangout that nobody knows about.
08:42.63
Gary G
Um, yeah.
08:49.73
Gary G
Totally yeah I like to call it’s like a living room of every city right? It’s like everybody’s welcome. It’s public. It’s got books. It’s got tools. It’s got movies got classes and activities and and it’s really just such an underrated resource in our cities.
09:04.65
Heidi
Yeah, yeah, so let’s just say you were going to bike throughout your town I’m curious about like volunteerism and some of the things you’re doing with sustainability. Can you talk a little bit about what kinds of things are you trying to inspire or what kind of things are you exploring personally now that you’ve.
09:16.45
Gary G
Um, become.
09:23.65
Heidi
Dove into like you said the living room of your library of your community I Love that that term for libraries. But how are you now going deeper with volunteerism and and trying to get engaged in like the sustainability arena.
09:35.96
Gary G
Yeah, so I um, I’ve always loved volunteering because I think it’s a great way to not only meet people but feel better about yourself. You know I I read in a book somewhere I can’t recall the book. But it’s like you know when you don’t feel good or you’re sad or you’re upset about something take ah the focus off yourself. And to someone or something less fortunate and that really helps kind of reframe your mindset. Whatever you’re going through so one of my big a few of my biggest passions are environmentalism and conservation and 0 waste. So um I also have like a 0 waste moving box company called California box rental because. I saw that there was a lot of ways associated with moving in bubble wraps so that was an entrepreneurial thing I did but the volunteer aspects. Um I used to do volunteers for outdoor Colorado we go on trips and we camp for a couple of nights and you meet really great people with the same mindset. So you make friends and have an adventure but you’re also building trails and planting trees and doing all this stuff that makes an impact for the people that come after you um I also am like a trailkeeper’s volunteer in my town. So I’m sure you’re with plugging right? You run and you also pick up trash. So.
10:41.30
Heidi
Um.
10:43.21
Gary G
It’s an easy way. You know because I go on my runs on in the morning anyway, why not pick up trash while you’re at it and kind of beautify the town. So those kinds of things events where I can help with 0 waste. Um, that’s something I’ve done as well for different. In fact, that picture of the blog post travels overrated at is that balder rock in napa. Last year huge event and they’re actually huge on 0 waste too and that’s what I was doing there as a volunteer so those are some of the things I try to do to kind of not only reduce my impact but also do things that make the community better.
11:16.23
Heidi
Yeah, yeah, thank you for that. It’s interesting because I think what people crave so much in adventure is like this freedom. But then when they have the freedom. They don’t know what to do with it or what the real what really drives them and so I mean it’s 1 thing.
11:24.64
Gary G
Um, yeah.
11:32.12
Heidi
For example, when I would travel it was an experience where it’s like this big buildup you go on the experience and then you kind of come down and you’re like well that was great but I just want to keep doing the same thing over and over again and yet you kind of feel lost after a while you know we’re taking up again. We’re taking this gap year but it’s not about the gap year right? It’s like what are we.
11:41.51
Gary G
Um, is not.
11:49.39
Heidi
Wanting out of life and how is this going to give us the time and space to be together as a family and what is it right? We’re still going to work. We’re still going to do things but I love the concept of really digging into what drives you and what lights you up and using Volunteerism as a tool wherever you are.
12:00.79
Gary G
And.
12:06.10
Heidi
To get engaged to meet with people and to help solve a problem I love that that concept and if it’s sustainability great if it’s not you know, whatever your thing is right? Ok I have to know more about this this 0 waste moving company tell me just more about the entrepreneurial journey behind that.
12:13.34
Gary G
Um, yeah.
12:23.30
Gary G
Oh yeah, so um, about ten years ago almost eleven now I was at ucla visiting some brands I had recently graduated and um I was and the dorms they’re clustered in one area and also the apartments are 2 and you know in the spring or the summer with spring semester and ended everybody moves around the same time because they want to go home to their parents or move on to different their next life and there was just so much cardboard waste and just torn up boxes and crushed boxes and bubble wrap and and I was just like you know it doesn’t make sense that where. There’s already enough waste in our in our world right? Plastic bottles and bags and all this stuff. Why are we do I mean cardboard is one of the most easily recyclable things right? This is also before like the proliferation of online shopping and Amazon boxes everywhere. So um I thought there’s there. This is just There’s got to be a better way and I had heard about this company called frogbox they’re out in Canada at the time and I saw that there were actually similar concepts in different cities but not in my hometown of Sacramento. So I thought you know it seems like a low capital startup cost business that doesn’t take a lot of time I don’t have to get any special licenses or anything like that. So I just went and bottle these boxes and put up a website and put them in storage and got a business license and just started to see what I can do in that regard and.
13:45.74
Gary G
We were able to partner with one of the biggest movers in Sacramento to be their preferred vendor and just kind of grew via word of mouth. Um, you know I always try to be personal with our customers and and make sure that they’re happy and that they found that it’s a valuable service. Um, so they don’t ever have to use cardboard and they don’t have to use tape that they’re just going to throw away in bubble wrap. Um, you know our boxes are also more durable so you know cardboard can get crushed. It can get wet and leak and break and all all your stuff falls out our boxes. Don’t do that so you know we I think it’s. I think so far it’s ah it’s still people are getting used to the concept right? I mean moving boxes that you rent it doesn’t register with people. But you know we have a 5 star rating right now and I think that just speaks to people think like once they try it. They’re like why don’t I do this before. So it’s just about growing and and making sure people know that we’re here.
14:36.98
Heidi
I Yeah I Love it. Well and I love that you just dug in right to solve a problem and to explore how you could fix it. It doesn’t seem like you it does take a risk right? Obviously anything Entrepreneuria has a risk. But I think that’s a interesting way to solve a problem and just see what works and if it doesn’t oh Wow I don’t know maybe that’s just your your perspective right? Now you’re coming across very comfortable with that.
14:55.47
Gary G
Won me all. Yeah I was just like you know in in in my twenty s and and have much you know to to worry about it was maybe 3 to $4000 in startup costs and that isn’t really anything that if you lose at all that’s gonna. Destroy your life. So I figured it’s now or never unless to see what happens.
15:16.32
Heidi
Yeah, this is fascinating. There’s so many opportunities I think that um as I’ve gotten more engaged in entrepreneurship and supporting entrepreneurship while it’s not like a huge passion of mine. It’s been very interesting. The people that I’ve met along the way and the types of problems people are solving So I just.
15:30.62
Gary G
Um, yeah.
15:34.40
Heidi
Had to ask the question all right I want to get back to this concept of um, just finding the local gems in your hometown because there’s another piece of your bio that I’m very curious about you describe yourself as a vegan guru. Well I’m going to describe you actually as a vegan guru.
15:43.90
Gary G
Um.
15:49.40
Heidi
You just say vegan food is your jam but ah that to me means you’ve got some experience in understanding finding and and taste testing so does weak vegan food. What makes good vegan food like if someone had a vegan restaurant and they wanted you to come taste test. It.
16:00.39
Gary G
Um, yeah.
16:07.14
Heidi
What would be some of your criteria in like finding really good vegan food.
16:13.80
Gary G
Um I think for me, it’s just the richness I guess of taste. But also I mean with any food right? It’s just it’s it’s the same. It’s very similar but I think the things that’s distinguished for me. What makes good vegan food versus not good is just like.
16:17.43
Heidi
Um.
16:28.39
Gary G
Being satiated like is it enough. Food. Do you feel like there’s enough different food groups at your full after a meal because oftentimes you know, plant based food sometimes isn’t going to be as filling as like meat and cheese and nachos and all the other stuff. But it can be you know I mean the nice thing about now is that we have so many alternatives for vegan cheese and vegan proteins and that we that didn’t happen ten years ago so it’s a lot easier now to have plant based food that is good. And to be honest, like I follow really great blogs that talk about vegan food and the the pictures are amazing. They turn out to be amazing. So I think just complimenting different food groups maybe different textures to kind of make it interesting makes really good vegan food. Um, and the nice thing I mean vegan restaurants already have my heart because.
17:11.00
Heidi
Um.
17:17.68
Gary G
A lot of the times they focus on plant-based food and their reasoning is also possibly environmental. So a lot of these places are focused on using 0 waste products in their restaurants and and and compostable or recycled items in their takeout and.
17:24.25
Heidi
Um.
17:33.38
Gary G
You know, paying it forward in 1 way or another in the community.
17:36.57
Heidi
Yeah I love that and I think that’s a it’s interesting because as I I don’t know I I guess I came from ah like a hunting family or something so we’ve just always had meat right? And so as I’ve explored plant based foods I’m out.
17:45.82
Gary G
Ah, yeah.
17:49.62
Heidi
Like well what do I eat other than salad right? So I think just the creativity that I see too in vegan food. Not only is it filling but like to see what people come up with is so fascinating to know like oh I could eat that like what is that taste like it’s that feels like the flavor of Adventure. If I could put it that way right? It’s It’s so fun to try different foods. Do You also cook vegan food as well. Are you? Yeah,, What’s your favorite. Nice um.
18:08.34
Gary G
Um, yeah.
18:11.65
Gary G
I do yeah I I pretty much I pretty much strictly cook vegan food and then if I want to have like fish or something I’ll go and like save it for like a weekend dinner or something like that. So I’m a big fan of 1 pot meals so I have like you know. Follow these blogs. Um vegan rich. Ah there’s minimalist Baker has really good vegan recipes. Um, and they you know they make it really easy because there’s so many the nice thing too about vegan food is you can use so many alternatives like you don’t have coconut milk. You can use oat milk. You don’t have carrots. You can use. You know something else. So it’s just like it’s easy to mix and match as long as you have your base of like um, you know you have a grain like a quinoa or faro or something you have some vegetable broth so it tastes good. You season that you grow some vegies in the oven. Um, you know you can. But the further protein what I typically do is you know you can use tofu you can use. Um, there’s there’s a brand I really love there. They have these italian meatballs Guardin really good italian meatballs. But now we have things like impossible burger and and and beyond me and so many different proteins.
19:13.41
Heidi
Um.
19:21.00
Gary G
Are made from chickpeas and tofu and pea protein and whatever and it really tastes good I Mean for for example, the impossible burger came out because they wanted to exactly replicate the taste of a beef burger right? for people who like beef I don’t particularly care for that. But it’s actually it tastes good.
19:26.78
Heidi
Um.
19:40.55
Gary G
So I really try to focus on those 1 pot meals where it’s like you just put it in like ah have a cast iron skillet and it’s great because that’s that’s your meal prep for the week and then for lunches you know it’s really easy to make a vegan protein. You know so a vegan protein smoothie. So there’s just so many things you can do.
19:48.24
Heidi
Yeah.
19:57.23
Heidi
Yeah, that’s fascinating I Love it I appreciate that and I appreciate the fact that you’re willing to share those things I know you have really come a long ways from finance right? I mean we haven’t talked yet about financial.
19:58.83
Gary G
With with plant based food.
20:09.49
Gary G
Um, yeah, sorry.
20:11.91
Heidi
And we’ve talked about you know travel and understanding local and ah entrepreneurialship journey and now vegan but let’s talk a little bit about your desire and your intentionality around financial Independence and what’s what drove you to write financial fives.
20:25.92
Gary G
It was what drove me to write. It was really about I didn’t find the advice that has helped me in other books and what I meant by that was. There’s some books out there that are really great and provide great advice but I felt like there’s just so many things that we come across in life that it would take it would take a thousand page book and many books to kind of write about that and I felt like a lot of books too were missing the point because they had a lot of backstory. A lot of just fluff and. I wanted to write a book because you know being a young professional at the time when I thought about it I was like we’re already distracted with our phones and social media and life in the city and everything right? if I want if I have 5 minutes to read I want to read something and get something out of it. So I structure the book so that there’s literally the pack. The chapters are 2 pages each and they’re just meant to be here’s what worked for me here’s what I recommend so whatever situation you’re in if you’re trying to negotiate rent if you’re going to the farmers market if you’re trying to rent a car or going vacation. What can you do to save money or make money or do something better with your money. So everything in there came from my personal experience that’s helped me on my journey to financial dependence. Um, and so I wanted to share that with others to see if it can help them too and just have a different voice in the field. Um, so.
21:49.45
Gary G
What drove me to kind of pursue financial independence was because I I had read about it. You know, being in the personal finance industry. We read blogs and articles and all that stuff. So I’d heard about it and it really resonated with me in the sense that you can do whatever you choose to do? Um, you know because. If you have a family sure you have to support them in everything you want the best for them and oftentimes especially in our culture. It’s all about the bigger house and the car and and being able to show your wealth then whether it’s a wedding or whatever it is so for me, there’s there are some issues in our country and our world that I’m passionate about. That I would like to spend more time on and not worry about oh I shouldn’t do that because I have to work or do something else. So for me I’m really passionate about sustainability 0 waste multimodal transportation getting more bike trails and walking trails and more walkability into our cities.
22:28.35
Heidi
A.
22:43.43
Gary G
And there’s a lot of great nonprofits and advocacy groups that are working towards that you know and so I felt like with me I can help in those areas and just be a better supporter of those causes So that’s being able to have the freedom to do that and not worry about my mortgage is the reason really behind it.
22:59.40
Heidi
Yeah, yeah I think when we’ve heard from other guests on the show too. It’s It’s not that it’s you have to have money to figure everything out, but when you get your money figured out a lot of other things seem to fall into place and give you the flexibility and the freedom.
23:10.61
Gary G
Um, a.
23:15.14
Gary G
Um, exactly.
23:17.13
Heidi
To really explore those other passions. They give you the freedom and the flexibility to take time to engage in activities that you may not feel you have the ability to if you’re working in a traditional 9 to 5 So yeah I I appreciate that in.
23:25.68
Gary G
Exactly.
23:31.79
Heidi
Your journey is there anything that you know as people have been working or reading your book that they’re really taking away that you’d like to encourage people to explore on their own financial journey like things to explore as a takeaway or. Ways that you encourage people to find the right system that works for them.
23:49.32
Gary G
Yeah I think it’s just being compassionate with yourself like a lot of people sometimes you know guilt themselves. Oh I spent so much money So I’m just going to keep spending or like they had a bad day or a breakup or whatever and they feel like they need to go and spend money to feel better about themselves and it’s really just about.
23:55.11
Heidi
Um.
24:08.99
Gary G
You know if you if you try something and it doesn’t work like you saved money one month but not the next month it’s okay there’s still another month coming. You know so I think self-compassion is a little bit underrated like we we feel bad about ourselves if we don’t have we didn’t get the promotion that our friend got or like. They got a new car they wanted this trip or whatever the case might be so from my book I really try to teach the whole aspect about conscious spending which is I first learned about this from ramit sadie in his book I will teach you to be rich so shout out to him but it was really just about.
24:35.50
Heidi
A.
24:42.31
Gary G
You know learning to realize what do you like to spend money on and what do you could you care less about right? like for me I love cars. But I’m also about 0 waste. So it’s like or um, you know sustainability I used to have a sports car I now I have a hybrid because I have to match my values to my um.
24:46.11
Heidi
A.
24:55.80
Heidi
No.
25:01.40
Gary G
Desire. So it’s really just about learning where you like to spend money and what brings you happiness and not spending on the rest and designing a life that you’re going to look back on and be happy about.
25:12.84
Heidi
Thank you for sharing that because I think it’s easy to get caught up in the save versus spend So I’ll share a personal story really quick. So we’ve been saving obviously for a significant amount of time um not completely financially independent but we would call ourselves like coast by obviously we’ve been saving for this caper.
25:23.71
Gary G
Um, and.
25:28.56
Gary G
Um, yeah, right.
25:30.48
Heidi
And I joked with the kids not really joking but was trying to teach him a lesson the other day that you know if we go out to eat every single day. Those are just less days that we get to travel right? So we’ve got to be thoughtful about. Do we really want this dinner today. Is it really like is culvers going to be the answer to our.
25:40.00
Gary G
Um, yeah.
25:42.54
Gary G
Right.
25:49.51
Heidi
Ah, making us more sane. Well the other day we arrived here so we’re in grand marraine north it’s Northern Minnesota along the superior coast and there’s this really good restaurant and I was like you know I want something healthy I want to get out of the r v. I just want really good food and I was willing to spend and my son even said is it worth missing two days of travel in order to have this meal and to me I was like yes it is I’m at that point today I’m where it’s worth it. So.
26:18.45
Gary G
Um, now begin.
26:19.24
Heidi
It in those can change from day to day right? It’s not an all or nothing decision on what you’re spending your conscious spending I think is really thoughtful as long as you’re making those choices because once you get into that that creep of I just want to feel good and this is going to make me feel good. Yes, and. Will it still make you feel good tomorrow. Yeah yeah, exactly exactly gary is there anything else that you if someone was following you or if someone is just finding you for the first time and we’ve talked a lot about.
26:36.81
Gary G
Um, yeah, exactly right? exactly. It’s all about intentionality. Yeah.
26:51.60
Heidi
A lot of different things I mean I could keep talking because now I’m curious about like civic engagement and volunteerism in the system’s interaction between all of those things right and sustainability. It’s not just 1 thing. It’s so many different things and your choices from financial to how you show up with your time and your.
26:56.78
Gary G
Um, ah yeah.
27:07.20
Heidi
The connections you make in the communities you build I mean there’s so many things that are built within systems is there anything else that I I should be asking you or you want to talk more about.
27:14.80
Gary G
Well I would just say that you know the the overall premise of like my the blog in the book is just about you know, realizing that there are so many ways to have fulfill it in life and be happy in life without spending. And you have the freedom to choose how you spend your time because a lot of us a lot of people unfortunately feel that they have to I mean working full time. Everybody needs to work I you know I did a blog post too about like no, not nobody months to work. But if everybody retired early.
27:31.65
Heidi
Um.
27:48.46
Gary G
Who’s going to be the one to fly the planes and cook the food and all that so work is important. But I think a lot of people get into the sense that they because their friends spent an x amount of money they should spend x amount of money. Um, but you know we don’t spend enough time thinking about. Why we live in such a great country in such a great world and because there were people before us that fought for parks not to be raised over and you know libraries to be saved and for certain protections for different groups of people and sometimes we can. We can take that for granted right? If we’re spending. Thursday nights or Saturday mornings just kind of going out to brunch for 4 hours and just kind of window shopping. You know sometimes we can get more fulfillment out of our life by focusing on and issues that are important to us whether it’s parks or multimodal transportation or or whatever the case might be. You find out what you like and what’s important to and you get engaged and I have found some of the most um, passionate people in my community by just going to a city council meeting and just observing what do they talk about? Why is this such an issue I don’t even know people talked about this things like easements and and right of ways and all this stuff that goes into just.
29:01.82
Heidi
Right.
29:02.20
Gary G
Putting in a sidewalk. So Um I think just starting to explore kind of your city like what are the issues that your neighbors care about talk to your neighbors. What are the different groups in your community and just start to see like what drives you? What’s important to you? What is the world that you want to live in. And then try to go and help create that.
29:19.72
Heidi
That is fantastic and I think it’s just great overall mentoring advice and life advice. So rather regardless of its financial, that’s driving you or your other passion, I really appreciate you coming on and and sharing all of that with us today.
Gary G
Yeah, Likewise this was a blast and I would love to do it again. Thank you.