Feature Pic by Ms.K. I think I captured what BLISS looks like. Hot sunny day that was perfect for a water balloon fight on the roof top!
A few days ago, we posted Part 1 of this post. Are you ready for more thoughts from the brains of your favourite coconuts? At the very least, stay for the pics!
On The Money Front
We Do Still Think About Money, Very Dearly
Whilst on our travels, we keep track of about 98% of our expenses (am sure we let a few slip here and there but I can’t imagine it came up to very much!). The numbers of course start adding up, so perhaps once a month we do get a bit more excited (code for Ms.K getting worried). While it’s mostly in line with what we had expected, it’s always not that pleasant to see how much is flowing out without a paycheck flowing in every month. Things I haven’t gotten used to!
Related:
What We Spent Travelling for 4 Months
5 Ways We Saved an Extra $18,000 in 1 Year!
Problems Money Can Solve
This has been my favourite phrase on the trip. Every single time we’re in a crunch, I thank our lucky stars that it’s a problem that money can solve and that we have a stash of it to dig into. I can’t imagine, at this age, slumming it all too much.
Let me give you an example of the 1 night that I was by myself whilst waiting to meet the rest of the coconuts after my unexpected trip back to Malaysia. I thought I could totally manage in a 12 room hostel. It was the cheapest room in the hippest hostel (woohoo Kokopelli!).
Related: A Tribute to Family
So I arrived in Cusco, Peru after a 40 hour flight at noon and crashed on my bed. There was no one else in the room. This is the right time to mention I’m also a very light sleeper. About an hour later, I was rudely awakened by some loud chatter and laughing. There were 5 guys, loud as loud could be, walking around topless and in boxers. Hmm, did I book a mixed gender room?
I thought I could hack it but I couldn’t. I thought I was pretty liberal but turns out I’m a pretty conservative Asian. I wished the bed would swallow me up whole. I stayed in bed, absolutely frozen, till they left the room much later. I went straight to the front desk and asked for a different room and paid in full.
A problem that money can solve. It’s a great lil mantra and one that I hope we use rarely! So yes, we do think about money and always in such a grateful sense. 🙏
Do We Worry At All?
Not so much, at least not before this! We knew the plan was for us to get back into work again and the investments were bumbling about as they should. Our plan factored in a few contingencies. Certainly didn’t factor in a worldwide pandemic, I’ll tell you that!
There’s a new world order now so I do worry a little! Mr.C is too focused on watching the stock market right now to dedicate brain space to anything else. It’s the moment he’s been living for! The job market is almost certainly not looking fabulous so we’re thankful for what we do have but I hope better days are in store for everyone, especially those who are in a tighter position.
On the Kids Front
We’ve absolutely loved that we got this solid block of time with the kids. We wouldn’t trade the time we spend in bed in the mornings rolling around, laughing and playing for anything. We wouldn’t have wanted to miss watching them grow individually and together and develop new skills and say the darnest things! We were so lucky to be able to catch a lot of these special moments with the kids and truly listen to the incessant chatter.
Every now and again though, a little thought creeps into our minds.
Is There Logic in the Madness?
Maybe there’s a reason why society has developed in such a way that there’s schools and adults spend a majority of their time away from the kids! It’s no accident that our kids are enrolled in school here in Mexico for 2 months!
Perhaps it’s for some people but we certainly do know now that it’s not quite for us. Homeschooling isn’t on the cards, ever. We would love to spend the majority of the day with the kids, but not the entire day. I think the kids might actually feel the same. Coco#1 wishes he could spend every single day in school, Saturdays and Sundays included and all the way till the evenings! Is he asking for boarding school? Hmm.
On the Time Front
That’s an elusive bugger! We constantly struggle with time. There’s just never enough so we really have to be deliberate with what we do, even more so after cutting out our day job! We still end up sleeping close to midnight or after midnight on most days!
Related: The Shocking Realization About Time in Our Mini Retirement
We potentially have 3 good uninterrupted hours a day to sort our lives, sans kids. How that is enough for sorting out logistics, day to day matters, time to chat with each other, time to work on our passion projects is a constant juggle! I’ve written about it before, perhaps I was somewhat disillusioned that we actually would be having more time in our mini retirement! In fact, I actually feared I might be squandering my time away. That fear is still around now but I have turned it into an ally.
I have yet to find a revolutionary thought there other than really being deliberate with your time. Know which areas fills your life up and front-load the activities that matter. It’s not something new in the time-management space but I’ve re-discovered it.
Let me give you an example of our weekdays. We pack the kids off to school and we spend our mornings with what matters first and in this order:
– exercise,
– walk in the beach and chatting with each other,
– coffee and reading the news at home,
– passion projects for each (Mr.C does his reading, I do reading / writing / creating videos)
When the kids are back from school, I spend a solid block of time with them without any distraction. This could be chatting, playing Play-Doh, or anything at all.
Everything else that happens in the day, just happens. Anything else I squeeze in for myself is just a bonus. I got the main stuff ticked off early in the day so am good with however the day goes after that.
Looks like we’re going to have a Part 3 in this series. I find blog posts that are too long, way too hard to read so putting myself in my readers shoes here 😉 Stay tuned and stay safe!
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