{"id":3322,"date":"2012-02-06T07:38:45","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T12:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2024-06-19T07:37:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:37:16","slug":"how-i-became-the-professional-hobo-part-i-the-dream-the-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/how-i-became-the-professional-hobo-part-i-the-dream-the-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Became The Professional Hobo (Part I: The Dream, The Decision)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m regularly asked how I became The Professional Hobo<\/a>. What was the catalyst for my decision to sell everything in favour of full-time travel? How did I do it? And most importantly \u2013 why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I\u2019ve answered many of these questions in one form or another over many interviews for other websites<\/a> and newspapers, I haven\u2019t properly documented the process on my own site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here goes…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Learn
Pin this for later!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This post was originally published in 2012. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content. <\/em>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tough Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you running away from?\u201d was a question recently asked of me by a friend who was trying to help me through a rough emotional period of confusion about what I wanted to do<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel is commonly seen as running away from something or an act of withdrawal<\/a>, but try as I may to psychoanalyze my actions, I simply can\u2019t see how I\u2019m running away from anything. In fact, it\u2019s quite the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best to start from the beginning of how I became The Professional Hobo<\/a>, so I can illustrate my point.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success in Business \u2013 and Life?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Toronto\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2006, I was running a busy financial planning practice in Toronto, Canada. I was what you could call a \u201cmedium-sized fish in a big pond,\u201d having achieved a certain level of success and a reputation for helping people engineer their finances to enable their life\u2019s dreams. I focused on the emotional issues of personal finance in an effort to transform our vision of money from a taboo hindrance into something that empowers and enables instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly appeared on television, gave interviews in newspapers opposite financial \u201ccelebrities\u201d, and I spoke in front of audiences as large as 3,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But something wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a little voice inside of me \u2013 a voice that has been a lifelong friend or pest, depending on how you look at it \u2013 that said \u201cNora\u2026you\u2019re not doing what you\u2019re supposed to be doing. There\u2019s something else out there for you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those dastardly words. I\u2019d heard them so many times before, and in the past when the voice kicked in I changed careers. I\u2019d been a television producer and host, stage manager, professional actor\/singer\/dancer, operations assistant, assistant property manager, I started an administrative business, and \u2013 most recently \u2013 I ran a financial planning practice.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not this time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But this time when \u201cthe voice\u201d chimed in, I refused to listen. I\u2019d put way too much blood, sweat, and tears into my business to leave it callously for yet another career. So instead, I filled my life with other things that I hoped would satisfy the ever-growing void in me. I became a Toastmaster, an active Rotarian, I sat on boards of directors for large charities, I got back into film & television acting, and I performed in numerous stage musicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon enough, I was busy 18 hours a day, and the voice was getting louder, not quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January of 2006, I was in two car accidents in one week. People said \u201cthe universe is trying to tell you something,\u201d but I was only annoyed at this diagnosis. \u201cWhat is the universe trying to tell me, for goodness sake? That I shouldn\u2019t drive in the snow?! Get outta my way; I\u2019ve got work to do<\/em>\u201d.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced contemplation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until a few months later when two bouts of bronchitis devolved into walking pneumonia that I was forced to stop everything for a spell. Shortly thereafter, the ball dropped. I was in absolute tears about having to go into the office to do some work that I\u2019d been avoiding for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d was the poignant question asked of me when I had my head in my hands, at wit\u2019s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just want to\u2026retire!\u201d I wailed dramatically. Shortly thereafter though, I considered what retirement meant to me. What was the retirement vision I had for my golden years? I counselled my clients to describe a day in the life of their retirement so we could plan towards it, and I\u2019d neglected to do the same for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retirement\u2026.meant traveling around the world, slowly. Meaningfully. But not just passing through; rather, living <\/em>around the world.<\/strong>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rewind: Some history about my view of travel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before I go further, there\u2019s some back-story required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was 8 years old\u2026<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was sitting in class when the teacher showed us a documentary about Europe. I was fascinated. I saw people, but I didn\u2019t recognize their garb, the language they spoke, the food they ate, the markets they shopped at, or any part of the architecture or scenery. It was so completely foreign to me. And I desperately wanted to know how the children my age played, and what daily life was like inside their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the very root of my literal life-long dream of travel. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the years passed\u2026.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Travel being important to me, not a year passed in my adult life when I didn\u2019t go away for at least one vacation each year. But with a paltry vacation allowance<\/span><\/span><\/a> and limited funds, most trips were only a week long, and were often superficial attempts to escape Canada\u2019s long winters rather than culturally immersive experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in South Africa\u2026.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I took the month of December 2005 to go to South Africa. People at home thought I was nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going away for a whole month<\/em>?!\u201d They said incredulously, implying that I was somehow irresponsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the ultimate disconnect: when I was in South Africa, the heavily European-influenced locals asked \u201cAnd how many months are you here for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMonths?!\u201d I\u2019d reply in disbelief. \u201cI\u2019ve only got days \u2013 no, hours <\/em>\u2013 here! What do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at the end of my month, as I flew out over low-lying South African fields, watching the farmers tend to their livelihoods, I realized that I still had absolutely no idea how they lived. I\u2019d thought that a month would be long enough to crack the code of the South African mentality; long enough to gain even a faint understanding of the people, their way of life, and their own dreams and ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, a month of travel throughout this large and convoluted country left me with more questions than answers.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Back to my breakdown\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So here I was, bed-ridden, considering what retirement meant to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to climb the mountains<\/a> of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to break bread around dinner tables round the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to shop at markets<\/a> around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to understand daily life in remote corners of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to volunteer my services to help people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew I couldn\u2019t achieve these goals in the way I truly wanted with week-long \u2013 or even month-long \u2013 vacations. I had to go much deeper than that. It had to be a lifestyle. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could I wait another 30 years for a conventional retirement to live out this life-long dream? What if I did, then come retirement age, I wasn\u2019t willing or able to do these things any more? How would I view my life as I lay on my deathbed? I already had a few close calls with the car accidents and my illnesses\u2026what would I feel about my life if it ended right then and there? Would I have regrets? <\/em>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Retirement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After considering these things, it became obvious to me that with only one shot at this life, I had to make the most of it. I had to \u201cretire\u201d. Putting in time for another 30 years was not possible; time wasn\u2019t to be wasted or bided \u2013 it was for living<\/strong>.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finances<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had the good fortune to have saved and invested for my future from a very young age, and had a good nest egg socked away for later years when I can\u2019t work and need income. And in selling my financial planning business I was granted a small income for 2.5 years; long enough to figure out what form my travels would take \u2013 or even just to play out whatever dreams I had of long-term travel and return to the \u201cworking world\u201d re-energized and enthused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately I had no idea what form my travels would take or how long they would last when I made the decision to go. I just knew I had to go.<\/strong> And for once \u2013 the voice <\/em>agreed. Despite the counter-intuitive move of selling a business I\u2019d just built to the point where it could run itself and generate increasingly larger amounts of income, my inner voice actually applauded this decision to break out of the mold and chase down my dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so it was with a good financial footing and a large dose of faith that I put the wheels in motion for a life of travel; it’s how I became The Professional Hobo.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue on to Part II, where I discuss some of the logistics of how I became The Professional Hobo<\/a>; from quitting my job, to selling everything, to deciding where to go and what to do, to developing a location independent career<\/a> as The Professional Hobo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here I bare all: what prompted me to make the life-changing decision to sell everything to travel full-time. 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