Travel Archives - Page 2 of 7

September 25, 2023September 24, 2023

Dr. Jim Dahle of the White Coat Investor on Building the Ideal Life

Jim Dahle is the founder of the White Coat Investor, a widely consumed personal finance and investing blog and podcast specifically designed for physicians and other high-income careers. What Jim created in 2011 as a simple blog has grown into a multi-media empire that now employs fifteen people and hosts content from a range of columnists.

Jim has cut back from his full-time (plus) emergency physician career and White Coat Investor responsibilities to focus on what makes life worth living, and that’s where I wanted to pick up this conversation. Jim is a climber, husband, and father of four. Today we discuss how he’s managed to step away, at least slightly, from his hard-charging career and blogging days to what he’s now describing as his ideal life.

May 29, 2023May 28, 2023

Six Important Reasons to Reconsider Early Retirement

Today on episode 65 I’m revisiting a post published almost exactly two years ago. At the time of writing, I’d been away from my corporate job for eighteen months. I spent six months of that time living in a tiny A-frame camper with my wife and dog before resettling in the St. George, Utah area.

I was climbing a lot and working on this website, but I can now comfortably admit that I was in a bit of a low spot in terms of overall life satisfaction. The issue was one of expectations. In other words, I expected too much about a life without my career and I took for granted elements of my work life that enhanced life satisfaction. I was feeling stale with this project—I wouldn’t start the podcast until late summer—and despite having all the time in the world to dedicate to the craft of climbing, I was slowly coming to the realization that I’d used climbing as an attempt to fill a void that was not yet clearly defined or outlined.

Two years later, I’ve spent considerable time addressing each of the areas discussed in this post, to varying degrees of success. Stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for other changes still ongoing.

May 22, 2023May 21, 2023

Jeff and Priti Wright: You Might Need a Sabbatical

Today on episode 64 I’m excited to welcome Priti and Jeff Wright, two accomplished young professional alpinists from Seattle, WA. In 2020, Priti, a software developer, and Jeff, a mechanical engineer at Boeing, embarked on a year-long sabbatical to travel across the globe and climb alpine objectives in Patagonia, France, and Pakistan, finishing by the beach in Hawaii.

The trip was wildly successful, even amid the raging pandemic, including ascents of the Cerro Torre, the six classic North Faces of the Alps in a single season (including the Eiger North Face in winter), culminating in the first ascent of K6 Central and the third ascent of K6 West—both 7000+-meter peaks—in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan.

In contrast to early retirement, Priti and Jeff make the compelling case for a traditional career peppered with sabbaticals. This episode is filled with lifestyle and career philosophy, planning concepts, detailed financial considerations, and just a damn good time. And they are even planning their next sabbatical in 2024, which will look drastically different than their trip in 2020. You won’t want to miss this one.

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023

Five Lessons from Three Years of Financial Independence

One evening, circa 2011, I sat over dinner with my future wife in our small and sweaty Houston, TX rented bungalow. I was and still am an occasional cheap bastard, so the air conditioning was almost certainly set to engage on an “as-needed” basis, far from anything resembling comfort. The concept of financial independence wasn’t on the radar.

During downtime at work—I told you I was distracted—I was scouring numerous free WordPress blogs documenting the travels of zealous climbing dirtbags. They were camping and climbing and making whatever money they needed along the way. People were even starting to live and travel in vans, something I associated with sixties and seventies surfer culture. I wanted that life.

At this point in my late twenties, I was maybe barely a year into my career as a geologist in the oil and gas industry. But I could see the writing on the wall—this would not and could not be my career for the next 35-40 years. In fact, at that moment, I couldn’t see myself lasting my target three to five years until I expected to return to school for a career in academia. And there was a new problem: I’d kind of grown obsessed with this new hobby of rock climbing.

Twelve years later, I finally found a very different path to a life of freedom, if such a thing even exists. After three years of financial independence, what follows are some key lessons I’ve learned along the way.

February 20, 2023February 19, 2023

Darrow Kirkpatrick: Beyond Doubt on the Colorado Trail

Today on episode 55 I’m honored to welcome Darrow Kirkpatrick, former engineer, climber, investor, author, and the creator of the popular blog CanIRetireYet.com. Darrow began serious saving and investing in his mid-30s and retired at age 50 in 2011 from a career in software engineering.

In this wide-ranging interview, we explore why Darrow stepped away from personal finance writing after creating a popular blog, his adventures on the Colorado Trail and the inspiration for a memoir, and the journey and struggle to finding meaning and purpose at any stage in life.

January 30, 2023January 31, 2023

Lee Cujes: No Free Lunch on the Life We Really Want

Today on episode 53 I’m pleased to welcome back Lee Cujes, this time as a podcast guest. Some of you may recall the written interview with Lee back in late 2020. Lee is an elite Australian climber and route developer, with multiple 5.13+ and 5.14 first ascents to his name. But most importantly as it relates to this platform, Lee has managed to climb and develop routes continuously while carving a unique career niche and embracing a long-term investing strategy, an approach that provides the ultimate work and life balance.

October 3, 2022October 2, 2022

QA8: What If We Run Out of Water?

We’re back to the digital mailbag to answer your questions!

For this week:

Thoughts on the bear market
Getting invested with a Health Savings Account
Paying for education with retirement accounts
My philosophy on rest from climbing
How to develop financial mentorship in the climbing community
Travel and rescue insurance ideas
Determining a cost-effective approach to climbing destinations
Should I open an IRA if my employer doesn’t offer a 401(k) match?
How to not get wrecked moving from sport climbing or bouldering to trad climbing
The risks of owning property in an area that could be running out of water
Getting a home loan with inconsistent income history

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022

From Squamish, With Love

This is the second part in a travel series about our seven-week trip to Squamish and back. To read part one, start here.

September 12, 2022October 12, 2022

The Long Way to Squamish

I’ve journaled on-and-off for various periods of my life, but I was never a “regular contributor” until this past year. Switching from a form of writing meant for public consumption (this website) to something solely for me was at first awkward and revealing. Isn’t so much of what we do meant for someone else?

What follows is a selection of modified journal entries from the first phase of our recent trip to Squamish. These posts capture affectionate, curious, and questionable observations from the long road between Utah and British Columbia.

September 5, 2022September 4, 2022

Chris Weidner: Something More To The Story

Today on episode 43 I’m happy to have Chris Weidner, a long-time Colorado Front Range local, writer, husband, and father. This conversation is special to me for unexpected reasons. I hoped to interview Chris about his career as a writer, but what emerged was something far more interesting, and admittedly, brave on Chris’s part as it relates to career and finances. Chris is shockingly frank in many aspects of this conversation in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I really thank him for that, and I hope you will enjoy this truly fascinating discussion about his life, climbing, family, and career.