How to Stop Worrying While Traveling

Enjoy this view. (Photo: ...-Wink-…)

What do you worry about when you travel? Your car? Your house? Your possessions? Where you will stay? Your safety?

I was looking to purchase a house a couple of months ago. I looked at it as a good opportunity to build equity and have roommates pay for my mortgage.

What I didn’t want was the head ache of having a bunch of stuff, the remodeling, the collecting of rent from roommates who don’t pay. It would also tie me down to the house until I could sell it, at a loss if sold early. It would also mean joining an earning treadmill I see a lot of people on.

Keeping up with the Joneses

As a college graduate, I saw how my purchasing habits changed when my income tripled in one year. My desire for certain cars changed. I was getting ready to buy a sports car, a BMW Z4 (luckily I was looking at a 2004 model year).

The maintenance, the insurance, the car payment, and the lifestyle upkeep would be even more than a new inexpensive compact car. I actually did the math, it would be about 300% more yearly cost than my current Honda. Insurance would be nearly 4 times the cost per year, the cost of the car would be nearly 70% more in purchase price. Maintenance would substantially more, registration in California is more, etc.

I would need to earn more to drive my car. I would need to wear nice clothes with my car. I would have to work more just to have this life style. Have you heard of the Joneses? Keeping up with the Joneses is a bad idea.

If you don’t know what I mean, I mean trying to portray a sense of wealth that other people try to portray as well. Usually done through possessions such as a house, car, clothes, and many other items.

The largest problem with this lifestyle is that most people portraying these lifestyles are not wealthy. Spending more than a person earns is the key to debt and a way to avoid wealth. I’ll write more about this later, spending less than earned.

This change above is something normal I’ve seen in a lot of college graduates. I’ve been thinking about what “normal” means for people for quite a while. I’ll write about this more later. I’m actually seeing a lot of other college graduates following this way of “Keeping up with the Joneses.”

One way I’ve seen this is the announcements many fellow college grads make on facebook. New job, new house, new expensive car, new phone, new marriage, shopping, and many other ways.

What does this have to do with traveling and worrying? Everything.

If you have traveled recently, did you have a limited time traveling due to a job? Did you have to worry about someone caring for your plants, your house, or your pets? Is your car safe in the driveway?

These are all worries about possessions. To me, a job is a possession itself, it weighs a person down. The company controls the persons whereabouts usually.

In college, and after I graduated, I moved more than most people I knew. Though some terrible places I stayed was because I didn’t want to move all my possessions. Meaning my possessions tied me to the place I was at because I didn’t want to move them, and I needed notice and planning to move. I had a large one bedroom apartment filled with my own possessions out of college.

I had:

• Huge couch set + single sitting couch seat
• Dining Tables and Chairs
• Coffee Table
• Desks
• Dressers
• Bed
• Nightstands
• All normal Kitchen Items
• All normal Bathroom Items
• Two Bikes
• Too much clothes I didn’t wear
• Multiple TVs
• Video Game Systems
• Two Laundry baskets
• Multiple Computers
• Two Guitars
• Camera
• Tent
• Multiple Backpacks
• Outdoor Gear (I had a ton)
• Gym Bag
• Desk Chair
• Huge collection of DVDs
• Huge collection of books
• Filing Cabinet
• 8 pairs of shoes
• Everything in-between

While this next list might seem bigger, if you look close a lot of the items are small. I didn’t extend the previous list because it would be way too long to list everything I use to have.

Now I have:

*denotes what I had originally

**denotes I plan to get rid of it soon + had it originally

• TV Tray** (it is my new desk)
• Outdoors Chair** (it compresses small)
• Small Desk Light**
• Two Backpacks* (One original)
• Sleeping Pad
• Sleeping Bag*
• Shredder**
• Fleece Blanket**
• Toothbrush and portable bathroom items*
• Laptop
• Camera*
• Video Camera
• Portable External Hard drive
• 4 of each clothing, pants, jackets, underwear, shorts, shirts, polo shirts** (keep some)
• 7 pairs of socks** (keep some)
• Gym Bag**
• 14 or so books** (keep some)
• Document holding item** (passport, title, etc.)
• Two tote bags** (keeping one)
• Portable Heater**
• Portable Fan**
• One Computer Mouse*
• Two Laundry Bags** (did not have originally)
• Portable Printer
• 3 pairs of shoes** (will get rid of one pair)

This is literally everything I own (except my car) listed. Right now everything fits in the trunk of my small hatchback. I don’t need to fold down the seats to hold all this and still able to have 5 people in my car. Check out some of my photos at my flickr account.

Before The Cleanup

After The Cleanup

As I began to travel, I will reduce my possessions to two backpacks. My 32L backpack and a messenger bag for my electronics. Yes, I plan to sell my car as well.

Why this reduction of possessions? To stop worrying about my possessions while traveling. Also for me, less is more. I can live my vagabond life free now.

When I first moved after college to a different state, it cost more than $1,000.00 to move. Now, moving expenses are based upon travel.

I canceled my renters insurance. The person asked me why I was canceling. I told them, “Because I don’t have possessions justifying the cost.”

I hope you enjoyed this post. I plan to write more in depth the process I went through to get rid of my items. I sold most of it.

Is there anything specific you want to hear about?

Posted on January 19th 2010.