Have fun in Laos! You've waited a long time for this.

One of the best inspirational quotes of unknown origin... And true.

"I learn more from failure than success."

I'd take issue with the too many McDs... They only exist because people are basically inclined to immediate gratification. Everywhere. But in America, there has been enough disposable income to make it happen faster than elsewhere.

In the mid to late 90s, I had a retired physician friend who told me that about 90% of his patients had self-inflicted ailments.

Few of us have grown up, passed through adulthood and into aged without buying into that culture defined by the greed of human nature.

Keep working on minimalization!

Sorry to hear this, well look at it this way it happens to us all. Still it's good to see you're keeping up the cycling at your age, quite impressive

Yup, right out of college, I got sucked in, and spent a few years working part time in addition to my full time job, paying off the last payments to get out of the "insurance."

At 77 now, I do have some IRA withdrawals coming out, but not a lot. If I knew then what I do now, I would have packed away investments instead. For me, it was a really hard lesson. If I had worked it right, I would now have plenty of discretionary funds... Sigh!

"Too soon old, too late smart."

That post you referenced definitely got me thinking of doing something similar, see the next entry for more details

Looks very interesting, thanks for the link. One of the metrics I'm going to explore for this trip is 'value per unit' or in this case dollar. The cost breakdown is a great one, but I want to look more in terms of what I'm getting for the experience rather than just dollars.

If you indeed are going to Thailand on your summer trip you might want to check out the "BruceStats" at the end of the trip we just took. https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/gravity/brucestats/

This is exactly correct what you say and can be tied into the minimalist philosophy. I'm really impressed that your kids were able to benefit from this financial competence. The bike trip is going to go into a lot more detail about how the spending works, both for the planning and what actually happens on the road. What I'm hoping for is to create a trip of abundance and illustrate how this comes from mindful spending

I think I got into the habit of frugality so long ago that I don't even know how to spend too much without severe and immediate anxiety. I tried, with varying success, to instill financial competence into my kids, who have come a long way (and make a lot more money than I ever did). I keep my life as simple as possible, too, although that may look different than your minimalism. I pay my bills when they're due, don't charge anything to the credit card unless I know how it will paid for (emergencies excepted but I'd better have some kind of standby for those), don't eat out (at least here in the states where restaurant food is outrageous), and cultivate an attitude of undeserved abundance (and subsequent gratitude), because you and I have traveled enough to know that we live like kings, no matter how minimalist we are. Unlike much of the world, we have choices, the ultimate luxury goods.