Lifestyle Matters

I write whilst sitting on a catamaran somewhere off the Croatian coast. We are spending two weeks cruising. It’s the first sailing trip we have done with the kids, but Al and I sailed along the south coast of Cuba and also in the BVIs, pre-kids. Before arriving in Dubrovnik last week we spent two weeks in the South West of France; one week enjoying the coast and the surf, and another deep in the mountains. Much like last year we hiked, climbed and biked – taking in the amazing mountain scenery, staying incredibly active and eating like kings!

This is our third long summer of adventure. I think COVID played a role in helping us realise how important it is to cherish these years we have with our kids – the golden years where they are old enough to enjoy the adventures and not too old to have no interest in hanging out with us.

The fact that we are able to take trips like this is not lost on me, both from an economic point and time point. We both have our own businesses and have the enormous luxury of no limitation on how much holiday we take.

I did not take trips like this when I was a kid. We went camping in Cornwall. We loved camping in Cornwall – I don’t think I missed out on anything by camping in Cornwall. In fact, quite possibly the opposite – perhaps we gained much more from those holidays than my kids are getting from growing up thinking the sorts of trips we do now are normal.

We have had an on-going battle-of-sorts around the class of air travel. Two years ago we booked business class seats on the overnight trans-Atlantic leg of our trip on the back of very reasonably priced tickets. I had only flown business once before in my life – on a solo trip back from the UK I had nabbed a cheap upgrade at check-in.

I knew the danger – once you have done it once….

Business class is nice, it’s really really nice.

And once you get used to any sort of lifestyle, it’s hard to go back.

It’s not that you can’t go back – I know I could. We all could. We just really don’t want to.

And look, it’s what we all work hard for. It’s the one thing we want to keep.

We hear this from people like you, all the time.

“I just want to make sure my lifestyle is secure.”

And of course, lifestyle is different for everyone. Some lifestyles are big. Some lifestyles are small. Some lifestyles are about luxury travel or designer clothes. Some lifestyles are about healthy food and yoga. It doesn’t really matter – it’s all about lifestyle.

And that’s ultimately what our job is – to help people understand – how much is enough? How much do we need to keep living the life we have or want, our desired lifestyle?

We don’t want to run out of money and we don’t want to run out of time.

That’s the bit we are living now – we are comfortable enough with our money so we are making sure we don’t run out of time.