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Disconnecting Completely While On Vacation?
vonsneerderhooten asks: "This summer, I took a week-long vacation, left my cell phone at home and enjoyed the liberation of being completely disconnected from the (working) world. Recently, I came upon an article stating that many people don't take vacations longer than a long weekend. Worse still, a majority are worrying about work, calling the office and checking e-mail. How far removed are you when on vacation? To what lengths will you go to make yourself (un)available?"
I've had a real problem with this; I definitely feel my anxiety level increase whenever I am "disconnected" for any length of time. Case in point: my honeymoon.
;-)
We honeymooned in Hawaii (Maui), and while there I stayed up on email via my Treo, corresponding with people back at the office. I took great care to make sure that I did this while my wife was asleep, or at other times when we weren't together. Still, when my boss discovered that I had been reviewing code for my team while on my honeymoon he immediately had my phone's data service disconnected. At first, I was rather frustrated at being cut off, but after about 24 hours I just left the damn phone in my suitcase. In the end, my vacation was better for it.
Disconnecting is definitely a tough thing to do for extremely connected people, but it's well worth it if you can manage the first 24 hours of information drought. I was more relaxed, less concerned with time; basically, everything that I should've been doing while on vacation in the first place.
Of course, I also had 2300 emails when I got back.
Regards,
Bryan Porter
You pay too much in taxes, regulations, tariffs and other regulatory costs in the UK, so more people are poor. That's a fact that we don't see charts for.
I live in the US in what most would consider "substandard" to what the average Joe has. I sold my huge house and bought a few used (and fully depreciated) mobile homes (paid off). I sold my huge new cars and bought nice solid used ones (paid off). I downsized my utilities (more efficient windows and roof means lower energy bills, intelligent lighting means lower electrical bills, dumped cable for ondemand online). I raised my health insurance deductible for 5 years while socking away more than the deductible in gold and silver, so my health insurance is dirt cheap. I cook at home more than I eat out (unless I get comped for providing referrals for local restaurants). I probably live on 16% the cost of most people in my income level -- 84% of that savings goes to long term savings and short term vacations. My savings are semi-liquid (hard metal currency and some property) which keeps me from spending it stupidly.
I'm not thrifty, I'm just future-focused. There will come a day when I'll walk away from all that work and continue to live "substandard" but travel even more -- why bother with a 2500 square foot house when my 1000 square foot mobile homes throughout the country offer me huge savings over hotels, AND I can travel elsewhere with the money I saved not throwing 37 years of interest to the mortgage banks (30 year mortgage + 7 year average refinance to pay off).
Criminals love those kinds of messages. "Yay, guaranteed no one at home for so long - time for some burglary!"
t takes me about 24 hours after landing to fully appreciate that I've left. It takes me 24 hours before the take-off flight to mentally prepare myself for returning
I feel sorry for you. As soon as I leave the office, I'm in vacation-mode. I'm especially saddened by the 24 hours preparing for return, why cut your vacation short? Get back into work mode on THEIR time, not yours.
I can not imagine NOT taking 2-3 weeks off each quarter for a real vacation. What prevents people from doing that?
Living in Japan, for example. I've got 11 days/year.
My site
Holy crap! What magical fun Universe do you live in where everyone gets 8-12 weeks of vacation per annum?
I live in Canada, and I've been at my job for 11+ years. I get four weeks per year. That's it. And, if I can't use it all in a fiscal year, I lose what I don't consume, so I don't have a chance of building up a bunch over a few years.
I'm sure the rest of us would dearly love to have 2-3 weeks per quarter to take a vacation, and the cash to go someplace and call it a real vacation. I would suggest that for the majority of people out there, that much vacation is a friggin' pipe dream!!
You are either really lucky, or really sheltered from the reality that the rest of us live in. I envy you!
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You put that in quotes, but for many people, living in used mobile homes (how old are they if they're fully deprecated?) is substandard living.
Oldest is 1987 with an energy efficiency rating 100% better than a typical newer tract home. Newest is around 1993 or 1992 (can't recall). Some I paid ZERO for (walk-aways -- people had to move and I offered to get them out of the lot lease).
The key here is the definition of living. If you like being around your home and plan on retiring in it (not ON its future value), buy a "house." I personally like the freedom of changing if I need to, or if business/life warrants it. I also do not appreciate housing prices going up over time -- it is a game of inflation, not growing value.
Being "future-focused" shouldn't have to mean stocking up on gold, food and ammo and waiting for civilization to collapse.
Why do people sometimes think that is how I live? For me, future focused means trying to manage my time today so I have more time tomorrow to do what I want. I look at an efficient time preference as the #1 sign of wealth. I know that in my 20s, I could party it up. In my 30s, the body starts to slow down. Hit 40s, and death starts knocking (and even occurs for some). The 50s is when the body really starts giving out, and when you lose the efficiency in the market (I do believe that 30 year olds are often worth more to a market than 50 year olds because of adaptability and recent experience over lifetime of stuck-in-the-old-way experience). In the 60s, you're really feeling the heat (my mom hits 60 this year, my dad is 66, and they both are much slower than a decade ago). I have to balance my best work years with my best non-work years -- that means looking to the future as a focus for what I CAN do and what I'd WANT to do.
I'm sorry, but paying off a home for 37 years is not ownership, it is slavery to a smarter party. On a typical US$300,000 house with $50,000 down (most don't have that), you pay about US$19,000 in mortgage (6.5% fixed). US$16,200 of that is interest. Over the first ten years, you'll pay almost US$150,000 in interest alone. How is that ownership? Considering a 29% mortgage-to-gross ratio (which isn't standard, today), you'd have to pay US$65,500 to afford that loan, so in the first 10 years, over 2 years of your life is JUST in interest -- 20% of those work years. No thanks. That, to me, sounds fairly substandard in terms of freedom from stress and frustration.
It is no surprise to me that a lot of marriage problems start off with financial matters. It is no surprise to me that foreclosures are up 100-200% YOY in many regions. It is no surprise to me that many people lie about their equity-to-debt-to-income ratios. I'm not embarrassed about where I live, in fact I am proud that I can actually LIVE in terms of balancing work, recreation, family and faith. I'm pretty sure I give an equal amount to each, which to me gives me the stress-free life. The fact that there is savings on top of that, and some ability to wager some market risks (business ideas, etc), I think it is a super-standard way to live.
I'm not saying EVERYONE should live this way, I'm not saying it is the best way to live, but from the horror stories I hear from 90% of my friends and (younger) family, I can't understand why everyone wants to live the way they're living.