One of the biggest tradeoffs we make in life is time for money.
Time is Money.
-Benjamin Franklin
You Can Never Have Enough Vacation Days
The money-time tradeoff that has been the biggest concern to me lately has been in regards to travel. In the past, I’ve mostly been able to travel semi-cheaply by finding fare sales/discounts or tacking on vacation days from work to make a longer holiday. But it was always a struggle to budget my seemingly insufficient number of vacation days, of which the US requires no minimum. So I was stuck with trying to maximize my travel days while also carefully managing my financial budget.
I’ve always tried to keep an eye out for fare deals, but one of the other best strategies I’ve found to find cheap flights is to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday - days that most people don’t or choose not to fly since they’re less convenient. Find more strategies here. Find a cheap flight and tack a few vacation days onto a long weekend, and it’s possible to have an incredible vacation for a song. Of course, traveling to countries where your dollar is maximized helps as well.
But at the moment, my time feels nearly limitless - I am, for the time being and for all intents and purposes, funemployed. And the wonderful thing about being funemployed and on the road means that I can afford to travel the (often) longer yet cheaper route - although, sometimes, I must say this is at the further expense of my own comfort, but that’s another discussion!
Overnight Trains & Buses
Traveling cheap and slow most often means trains and buses instead of flights. Another added benefit that often manifests itself with these types of travel is the possibility of an overnight trip. Although this can mean an uncomfortable bus trip, it frequently means a “free” place to sleep on the train if you book a sleeper ticket. Sleeper trains have got to be my absolute favorite means of transportation!
Sleeper trains are wonderful because they couple a decently comfortable place to sleep with transportation to your next destination. I’ve never flown business class, but I imagine sleeper cars are somewhat similar to business class international without, of course, a giant TV or free booze throughout your flight.
That said, you are more than welcome to bring booze (as much as you can carry seems to be about the limit) on most sleeper trains. It has the added benefit of making you immediate friends with anyone wanting to share with you. Plus, it helps in any countries where there may be a language barrier.
There’s no such thing as bad Russian, just not enough vodka.
-Tianshi Ji
I must also say that I’d never heard of “sleeper buses” until my recent trip to Mongolia during which I ended up on a sleeper bus twice (seemingly, the only route for them?). Welp, it was not nearly as comfortable as a sleeper on a train, so I can’t say I recommend it if there’s a sleeper car available on a train, but I can say that it was much more comfortable than sitting for…well, overnight.
So What’s the Point?
Well, I feel the entire point of even quitting my latest job in the first place was that I didn’t feel the tradeoff in time to money worth it. Of course, there are many more metrics to liking or staying in your job than just how much you’re paid for how much time you need to put in, but in the simplistic sense, I finally realized that what I was getting from my last employer wasn’t worth the money I was being paid or the time I was getting off to spend the “hard-earned” money I was receiving.
It’s just money. We’ll make some more tomorrow.
-Craig Allen
Something had to give, and so, for now, it makes sense for me to buy as much free time as I can. And to live every single minute of it.
Time is money, but time is the only resource you can’t get back.
So spend it wisely.
Safe travels and happy surfing!
Josh S =P
ps. Welp, I let that one get away from me a bit. Happy to be writing though…I’ll be dragging more things out of my journal in the near future…and perhaps bringing some older writings from my old blog back to the new site. Cheers!