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Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

Slow Travel is Cheap Travel - with Nomadic Matt

Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Investing, Business

4.73.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2019

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

#202: In 2006, Matt Kepnes worked at a hospital in Boston, and he felt miserable. He dreaded fighting traffic, spending his days under his offices’ fluorescent lighting, drinking stale coffee. He decided to take one year off -- a “gap year” -- thinking that after his sabbatical, he’d resume another 40 years of punching the clock. He worked 60-hour weeks in order to save money for his sabbatical year. He saved $30,000, then handed his boss a resignation letter. Matt traveled for 18 months, returned to Boston, and realized he had lost his willingness to punch the clock. He couldn’t sit still in an office any longer. He re-packed his bags, bought a one-way flight to who-knows-where, and reinvented himself as a travel writer known as Nomadic Matt. He lives on a budget of $18,250 per year, or $50 per day. In the last decade, his travel information website, NomadicMatt.com, has become one of the most popular travel blogs in the world, drawing millions of visitors. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, National Geographic Travel, and the BBC. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, and he’s traveled to more than 100 countries. In today’s episode, Matt and I discuss the art of slow travel. For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode202 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You can afford anything but not everything.

0:10.7

Every decision that you make is a trade-off against something else and that doesn't just

0:13.7

apply to your money.

0:14.7

It applies to your time, focus, energy, attention.

0:17.2

It applies to anything in your life that is a scarce or limited resource.

0:20.5

And so the questions become too fold.

0:22.4

Number one, what's most important to you?

0:24.9

Not what does society say ought to be important to you, like a fancy car or a big house?

0:29.8

But what actually matters in your life just travel matter?

0:33.4

Does spending more time with your family matter?

0:35.0

Like, does having more meaningful work matter?

0:37.1

What is your highest priority?

0:38.6

That's the first question.

0:39.9

And then the second question is how do you align your day-to-day lifestyle, the way that

0:45.9

you spend your money, your time, your energy, in a way that reflects those priorities?

0:51.1

Answering those two questions requires a lifetime of practice.

0:54.5

And that is what this podcast is here to explore.

0:56.9

My name is Paula Pant, I'm the host of the Afford Anything Podcast.

1:00.3

We are normally a weekly podcast.

1:03.0

We air a new episode every Monday morning.

1:05.8

But once a month, on the first Friday of the month, we release a first Friday bonus episode.

1:11.3

So welcome to the July 2019 first Friday bonus episode.

...

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