Numbers and Money

My favorite saying is "a statistician drowned in a river with the average depth of 2 cm." Many people don't get it, but I use this in different situations, asking somebody to look at things from a different angle, or just not to take numbers or statistics too seriously. Anyhow, for reference, here are some numbers.

We visited 33 countries. One might argue rightly that I artificially inflated the number by including Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau, who some might consider part of China; Lesotho, which we visited on a day trip; France, where we spent a night in a motel across the Swiss border; Vatican, a tiny republic inside Rome; Saudi Arabia, where we only stayed 10 hours in the airport and it even includes Romania and United States (our home bases). I added all these places because they have different histories, cultures, currencies and/or borders and passport stamps. Even briefly, each experience was a special lesson for us. I think that the country model is way overrated, but unfortunately this is what we have in today's world.

North Camp of Mount Everest. China or Tibet?

We Missed Everything

For several reasons, we missed everything that was to see in New Zealand. At times it was bad luck, at times our parsimony, occasionally bad planning or just not enough time. Of course, we first missed the North Island, the bigger, more crowded part of the country. This happened some time ago, when we shortened our stay here by two weeks. Everything here is very expensive, so by missing things we "saved" a lot of money. The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) is between 0.82 and 0.84 American dollars.

Five Months Closer

Another five months passed. I am working three jobs and trying my best to keep the pace. Several significant developments happened:

1. We decided when to go.
2. We determined an eastern route.
3. We found the money to do it.

Where should we go?

Sometime in January, at dinner we asked the children when do they think we should go. They answered one after another, in a surprising show of unity: 2012. They gave their reasons, Ileana saying she would be old enough to remember most of it, Maria that it will be after she's done with the high school and before she goes to college, and Ioan explained that he still needs some time to play his computer games and he's not ready yet, but he will be by 2012! Then we played a game at the big map on the wall everyone showing how they would like to go around the world and through which countries. We will need to repeat this at various times. 

Spending most of my free time learning about this world - I had a hard time figuring out how we could go east instead of west. I finally got it, but this is just a part of hundreds of possible itineraries and will be left for later. We have no particular reason to go east, it would be an extra night to pay for, it's just good to have options.

Even more important, we have been saving as much money as possible and we are starting to see a serious improvement in our finances. A significant decrease in our debt will be soon followed by learning how to keep and manage our savings. Also just realizing that I can afford to pay interest for one year on a hundred thousands, that I can get a home equity loan and a loan against my 401 and cash another retirement plan - we can have the money and leave in two months if we want to...

Thank you Christine (from a dissapeared blog almost fearless), your book really helped, just that tip alone made a huge difference for us: 30-ways-in-30-days-to-redesign-your-life-and-travel-the-world/

I Think It's Funny

Last night I took a couple of things outside to the recycle bin and while getting back in the house it hit me: "We have to do it. It is our duty!" Such a strange feeling, I almost felt it physically as a hit on the top of my head. What sort of parents would we be if we let the kids grow up and leave our house without taking them around the world? I hope you see a funny side to this, Ileana did, it is definitely the opposite of what most parents might say. We didn't talk with people yet, and this is still more than a year away, but I would expect some comments concerning the safety of the kids and how such a trip could put some risk on their future. So, let me say it again, now that we actually thought of this, how could it be possible not to do it? We owe it to them and to ourselves!
As this blog is recording the evolution of our thoughts and the whole decision process, we continue to talk almost nightly about it. We both feel much more comfortable with the idea of a full year of travel compared to the initial thought of a six month vacation. As we learn more, we also feel much more comfortable with the idea of independence and open ended plans, where we would have much less of a set schedule and the freedom to stay more in places that we like. Comments about having a round the world trip come up much more often in casual conversations at dinner. I cannot possibly recall all the comments, for example last night somebody said something about Indonesia, I asked, "Do we want to go to Indonesia?", Ileana replied immediately, "No, I want to go to Tibet!" Her younger brother agreed with her saying something about Himalaya. A couple of days ago I was looking with Maria at the map and showed her the TransSiberian route and how we could end up in Europe from China.
As far as places to go, we leave this open as we continue to collect information, but now definitely in are New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, China, India, Cambodia, Romania. On the questionable list are Japan, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iceland, Finland, Mongolia. Probably not includes South America, Easter Island, Africa. Europe is a big open hole, were we could do everything for 3-4 month or it could be just a short stop somewhere. We might leave open any plan after Beijing, getting to Europe by train through Russia, and we could leave open any return from Europe to US and decide on the spot if we want to take a cruise or a flight. I need to remember the part about a cruise, I might forget that.

On a more practical side, I continue to make adjustments to our budget and finances, it is time to start saving some money. We have more than $130,000 in debt and maybe some $5,000 in savings so something needs to be done. We cancelled our DirecTV and changed to lifeline cable. From $95 to $10 it will be a saving of $2000 over 2 years. Similarly choosing a Tracfone over the Apple iPhone is another $2300 saving. We changed the Internet provider and that should be another $550 saving. But more importantly getting comfortable with the idea of loosing the income for a full year, that is not easy. The good news is that there is money to be made in low taxes on a year with no income. Transferring money from regular IRA to Roth IRA, potentially transferring the 401k, potentially cashing the retirement savings... The plan remains to work in 2 years for 3 and we should be OK...

Starting It All

Twelve days ago I got my annual retirement report. Ever since I started my current job, they took 3% of my salary and put it in a New York State Retirement system. It was not an option, but there were dates to remember and understand, and even to look forward to. For example after 5 years I would be vested, meaning that even if I change my job I would be able to maintain my retirement account and eventually get a pension. Another important time to look forward to was the 10 year anniversary, after that they will not draw the 3% from my salary, but my retirement account will continue to grow. On page 6 there were as usual the nice numbers of the pension I will get after working for them for 25 or 30 years. Numbers keep piling up and this is good but reading the same information again this year, I picked up a different side of it. Up to 10 years of employment I can get all my contributions back with the accumulated interest. After I work for more then 10 years the money will be "lost" forever. I will have to wait to be at least 55 to start getting some of it back. I now have more then $30,000 there and by my tenth anniversary I will have about $45,000. It is a lot of money to "lose". This got us thinking and it turns out that there is some catch to it - if I want to get the money, I would have to pay federal tax on it, they will send 20% of it to the IRS and I only get 80%. After that when I do my taxes that year I might have to pay a 10% penalty on it! Anyhow doing the math, this could be a $33,000 check to get if I leave my job before January 27, 2012!

A couple of months ago I was listening to Rick Steves audio podcast and he was interviewing a couple of parents who took their three children and traveled around the world for 8 months. They survived to write a book about it, A Brilliant Teacher: Lessons Learned from One Family's Journey Around the World. Listeners called in, including a doctor from Arizona who took his 3 children around the world. I wanted to read the book but our local library only had One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children. I bought the first book from Amazon, but we all read the second book first, even Ioan started to read it. It is a good and funny book, much better than "A Brilliant Teacher." But this got us thinking and we talked on and off about it. For several years we have been considering the possibility of a sabbatical, but mostly the doctor offers for a 6 months or 1 year job in Australia and New Zealand. That would be an interesting experience, but what's the fun if I get to work all the time and Ileana and the kids stay in some rented apartment waiting for me.

Several months ago we were talking-joking at lunch about our future vacations. Ileana wants to go all over the world, but her older sister only wants to have her vacation in Romania with her grandparents. So we talked that maybe grandparents can come to China and we have a vacation together there in 2011. This would be acceptable for Maria, but not for Ileana. She started to cry: "Dad, you don't realize, this means we won't be able to go to Australia until 2012, I will be 15 years old then, I can't wait that long!" She was so serious, so broken hearted and powerful in her cry, I had to hold her tight and assure her that she will be OK. We spent some time on the internet looking at available flights to New Zealand and Australia and her tears dried up. She moved on to a different subject, but I was left with the doubt. What sort of horrible father lets his children wait to see Australia and New Zealand until their 15th birthday ?

And again a couple of weeks ago, I got this statement from the retirement program that I could get $33000 if I just leave my job in 2012. This would be the year when Maria would have to go to college, then she'll be gone for good and all these wonderful places in the world would have to be seen without her...

What if I leave my job in January 2012, say goodbye to everybody and we take off for 6 months? We'll be back in time for college start. Ileana and the children would have to hurry up the homeschool a bit and free up several months of vacation. Maria would apply for colleges before December 2011 anyhow, so we'll know where she'd go in August 2012. The London Olympics would be in August, we won't miss it. And I have to make the jump at some point from public employment to my own private practice, this could be as good a time as any other. Thoughts keep coming. Maybe we can postpone the unplanned undiscussed 2011 China trip and meet with the grandparents in China in March or April 2012. That would be awesome! Easter is on April 15, I don't want to spend Easter in China, what would be a more appropriate place for that? Jerusalem? Sounds good. April 15 in Israel. We'd have Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Cambodia, India and China before Easter. Then Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Romania and I could be back for the annual picnic at my job before June 25th.

We need a theme. But we have a theme. There are some places in this world that Ileana and I know that would be hard to enjoy without the children. There are other places that we'd be happy to see without them. We can see Japan or London by ourselves, but we want to have the children with us when we get to The Great Wall or Taj Mahal. As simple as that.