How To Create More Time

 

Let’s talk about TIME and how to create more of it.

Unless you’re Dr. Strange, time travel as we typically think of it is not possible. However, creating more time for yourself every day is very possible. This article is going to give everyone the power of the Time Stone.

Quick disclaimer: This article is meant to help people who are not happy with their jobs or wish they had more personal time. If you truly love your job or you already have a career that gives you immense satisfaction, then you can skip this article. You’ve already hit the jackpot.

Before we get started, here’s some woke comments I found on YouTube.

“Time Off”

The average American employee (sheeple) gets 2 weeks of vacation a year. If you’re lucky and you’ve shown loyalty to your company, you might get 3 weeks. Somebody with this type of limitation can realistically only take 1 or 2 actual vacations a year (outside of quick, weekend getaways). Many people will not even leave the country during their extended vacations because they not only appreciate the downtime at home, but they need it to take care of personal chores and responsibilities uninterrupted. There’s even a cute name for it : staycations. The desire to stay at home during a vacation is completely understandable when you’re always working, but this is truly a waste of your valuable vacation days (otherwise known as your “time off.”) Interestingly, the opposite of “time off” is “time on” which means your time is only considered on when you’re at work.

There is no such thing as turning time on or off, there is only optimizing how you choose to spend the time that make you happiest.

time off vs time on

How many of us try to think of the best ways to maximize our limited vacation days? Do we use all of our days at once to get a super-long weekend? Or do we try to use them during national holidays to try to make those feel as long as possible? It’s a sick game of trying to juggle a finite resource that is limited even further by your job.

Most corporate workers might aim to visit 1-2 new countries a year (which is all they have time for) which translates to 10-20 countries over a 10 year period (I do this annually). And because of the limited vacation days, their trips are usually jam-packed and activities are usually forced into a tight schedule. This, from my experience, is not an optimal way to explore a new country (but it’s better than nothing I guess). No wonder people are exhausted after a vacation and feel the need to “take a vacation after a vacation.”

5 Categories of Time

I like to break time down into 5 major categories:

Me-Time: the time you’re awake and doing whatever you want to be doing

Sleep: the time you’re sleeping

Wake Up, Commute, Work: the time you spend earning your income

Exercise: depending on how much you like exercising, this could fall under me-time. I’m making it a separate category since there are some people who exercise only because they feel like they have to or should

Chores:  the time you spend doing things you don’t really want to be doing (i.e. laundry, cleaning the home)

An increase in me-time (such as taking vacations) is correlated to an increase in happiness. This article from Time backs me up.

Sheeple’s Daily Routine Breakdown (M-F)

There’s 120 total hours during the weekdays. The typical work schedule is Monday – Friday, 9-5 daily. Most people have some sort of commute, and some like to wake up an hour before work to mentally prepare.

Here’s how the math breaks out during the workweek:
Sheeple's Daily Routine Breakdown
This gives you a grand total of 3.5 hours (or 14.6%) of me-time each day. That’s not a lot of time. Throw in happy hours, dates, mandatory after-work events and you can see how quickly your entire week disappears. Add in hangovers and it makes the following day even more brutal. And I know many people in advertising who often work until midnight…just no.  This drops me-time down to 0 and completely removes exercise. It’s a sick cycle of wake up, commute, work, sleep.

Sheeple’s Daily Routine Breakdown (Weekend)

Yay the weekend! There’s a reason we say TGIF on Friday and say on Monday “we have the Monday blues.”
Here’s how the math breaks out during the weekends:
Sheeple's daily routine breakdown weekend
We love the weekend because we get to spend more time doing the things we want. Mostly. In lieu of work, we use this time to handle our personal responsibilities and chores like laundry, or cleaning the apartment. If you’re into bottomless brunches on Saturday, then you’ll likely have a hangover to deal with on Sunday (which means you’ll wake up late, skip the gym) and then you’re spending half the day Sunday dreading Monday. It’s an awful cycle. This is not how human beings were meant to live. It isn’t healthy. And quite frankly, outside of a few specific careers, it isn’t necessary. Not when we have the power of a computer in our pocket. We can and should be empowered to work from anywhere we want. We should be paid for our productivity, not because we show up for some  arbitrary set of fixed hours (9-5). Surprisingly I’ve never read the 4-hour Work Week but through my own personal experiences I’ve arrived at the same conclusion. Speaking of productivity…

Why the 40 Hour Workweek Doesn’t Make Sense

When you have a 9-5 job, you are generally paid for your time and not for your productivity. A corporation is literally trading people’s limited time in exchange for money. Guess which is more valuable?
By escaping the rat race (which trades money for some arbitrary fixed set of working hours), you can re-balance the scales and find or create a career that pays you based on productivity instead. Let your iPhone and laptop become your mobile office. This also can reduce your commute time down to 0. And if you want to push it even further, you can move to a country like Thailand where you can earn US-based income remotely against a significantly lower cost of living. Work less, get more. My friend told me she’s getting a 1-hour massage in New York City this week and it’s going to cost her $110. That’s the same price of ten 1-hour massages in Thailand. With tip!

How I Spend My Day

I feel happiest when I am free (me-time). According to my Daily Routine Breakdown chart below, I am free for 11.5 hours a day, every day of the year. Over 365 days, that means I spend 4,197.5 hours in freedom. This comes out to 174 days, or 48% of the year. If we remove sleeping time, then I am enjoying freedom 72% of the time.

Adam Francisco's Daily Routine

Compared to sheeple, they are free for 3.5 hours a day during the weekdays, and 12.5 hours a day during the weekend. Over 365 days, sheeple have 2,210 hours of freedom. This comes out to 25% of the year. If we remove sleeping time, then sheeple are free 37% of the time.

As you can see, I have found a way to almost double my freedom and thus, I’ve created more time. Factor this out across 10 years and you can essentially live 20 years in 10!

The top 5 deathbed regrets are:

1.  I wish I’d have the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2.  I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3.  I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.  
4.  I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5.  I wish that I had let myself be happier. 🙂

We should learn from our elders.

So How Do You Create More Time?

As you can see, you don’t need a Time Stone or Dr. Strange’s powers to create more time. You just need some creativity, be willing to take a risk, and an open mind.
  • Think about what your current company is paying you to do. And then think if your skillset can translate to a career off of your phone or laptop. Some of you might have jobs that require you to be on-location such as a doctor or nurse. But if traveling more is something you wanted, there’s always jobs like traveling nurses (this is a huge industry). There’s always a way to improve or obtain whatever it is that you think is lacking in your life, regardless of your career.
  • Always respect yourself. If your company is taking advantage of you or not paying you what you feel you deserve, do not show them loyalty. If the company was struggling, they would have no hesitation in laying you off. I’ve seen it happen to close friends and good people.
  • Consider living in a more affordable country while earning income remotely. Work less, get more.
  • If you’re in the rat race for the foreseeable future, make as much money as you possibly can, as quickly as you can and invest. Do not buy a Prada bag or the new Jordans if you do not yet have a healthy portfolio or real estate investments. Only spend your money on things that will grow your money. “Make your money move.” Your money can literally quadruple in 10 years.
  • If money is limited and you feel like splurging, I recommend splurging on experiences over appearances. Invest in a trip, not an expensive clothing item. The clothing item will surely go down in value but your experiences will never be forgotten.
To end this article,  I want to leave you with 2 things. A beautifully-said post by my friend Tara Atwood and one of my favorite shorts, Rat Race.
Tara Atwood 75 years

How are you going to create more time?  Leave a comment or you can e-mail me adam@befreemysheeple.com. If you enjoyed reading/watching this, you can follow me on Instagram, @adamfrancisco & @befreemysheeple.

Be Free My Sheeple!

The Best Advice Before You Rent A Rental Car

 

Hey guys ! This is the best advice before you rent a rental car. As someone who regularly rents a car when traveling, this is the best way I’ve been able to defend myself against extra charges and sometimes even fraudulent charges.

Take a video of the entire exterior of the car

I strongly recommend you always use your phone to film a complete 360 virtual tour of the vehicle before driving it off the lot. I like to do this in front of the rental agent so that they see that I’m a knowledgeable and educated consumer. I want them to know they’re not dealing with a schmuck. What I’ve noticed is that they’ll sometimes even proactively point out hidden damage, damages that you may have been liable for if you did not protect yourself.

Below is a video from the Europcar pick-up location in the Sofitel Bangkok lobby. You’ll see at the :25 mark, the agent points out some paint damage on the passenger side mirror (remember, I’m in Thailand – the cars are opposite here lol).

Below is another video I recently took of a car rented from BizCar in Don Muang Airport. I wanted to make sure the agent saw with his own eyes that I was giving a very detailed search of the car for scratches, dents and damage. As you’ll see I found a number of scratches and dents that the rental car company might have otherwise passed the blame onto me for.

So has a rental car company tried to screw me before?

YES.

Let me tell you about experience that I had in Reykjavik, Iceland when I rented a car from Flizzr. When I picked up the car, I was warned by the agent not to go off-road as gravel and rocks are a guaranteed way to scratch up the car. I specifically made it a point to drive only on paved roads.

When I returned the car, the agent pointed out a number of scratches on the front bumper. For a moment I was scared. I thought that maybe when I was driving on the highway some gravel might’ve hit the bumper. I really thought I was going to be liable for this damage. But then I remembered that I had the Chase Sapphire credit card which includes collision protection.  When the agent went inside I quickly called Chase to confirm that the damage to the rental was covered. Confirmed! Phew. This gave me momentary peace of mind. It calmed me down enough to think, “Let’s take another look at the scratches.”

Below is the video and you can hear my genuine reaction.

Would you believe it? Turns out that the “scratches” weren’t scratches at all. It was dirt! I was able to use my finger (and some saliva) to remove every single mark that the agent circled in white chalk. When he came back he looked absolutely baffled. He said “What happened to the damage?” and I said “Come on man…you knew those weren’t scratches. You knew that was dirt but you were trying to charge me for it.” He awkwardly smiled like an idiot and said, “You just saved yourself $3,000.”

Unfortunately I did not make a video before I rented the car even though in this instance it wouldn’t have helped as it was dirt, not damage. But this experience taught me a very valuable lesson :  Always film a 360 virtual tour of the car in front of the rental agent and point out any damage you see, no matter how small or trivial.

Please share this article with anyone you know that is going to be using a rental car! You might end up saving them a lot of money.

Did you find this advice helpful? Have you had any similar experiences?  Leave a comment or you can e-mail me adam@befreemysheeple.com. If you enjoyed reading/watching this, you can follow me on Instagram, @adamfrancisco & @befreemysheeple.

Be Free My Sheeple!

Celebrating a 35th Birthday in Bangkok, Thailand

One of my best friends (also named Adam), landed in Bangkok on December 9th, which happened to be his 35th birthday. We thought about driving to Pattaya to party.  But after a 24 hour flight from New York City to Bangkok, he didn’t want to add any additional travel time. Here’s how we celebrated his 35th birthday in Bangkok, Thailand.

Khao San Road, Bangkok

A great place to pre-game in Bangkok is Khao San Road.  You can get delicious street food here like pad Thai, meat skewers, spring rolls & smoothies. After a long 24 hour flight of eating only airplane food, Adam jumped on the first food cart he saw (spring rolls). The hot sauce was too spicy for him, but not me because I’m Mexican.

After filling up on spring rolls, there’s no better way to digest than a foot massage (along with a vodka soda bucket). I also showed Adam my newest magic trick (appearing beer).

Before we left, I had a fresh mango & banana smoothie and it paired perfectly with my lukewarm vodka soda bucket.

Riding a Tuk Tuk in Bangkok

The most efficient way to travel around Bangkok is a motorbike because they can weave around traffic. The most fun way to travel around Bangkok, especially if you’re with your friend, is a tuk tuk. And from my experience, almost all tuk tuk drivers speak at least a little English.

The only negative is that there’s no meter so you’ll need to negotiate a little bit on the pricing. The first driver we asked to take us from Khao San Road to Patpong Night Market (a 20 minute ride) wanted 500 baht ($15 uSD). The second driver we asked wanted a more reasonable 300 baht ($9 USD). In the US, a difference of $6 during a night out is almost irrelevant (I used to spend $200-300 every Friday/Saturday night in New York City), but here in Thailand, that’s the cost of a 1-hour massage.

Patpong Night Market, Bangkok

After Khao San Road, we headed to Patpong Night Market, a fun place to shop for clothes, electronics, souvenirs, etc. Lining the streets along the market are bars (some with go-go dancers), live music, restaurants, massages and the infamous ping pong shows.

Now I’ve been living in Thailand for almost 3 months and I never really had any interest in checking out a ping pong show. For those of you who don’t know what a ping pong show is, you can read more about it here. You’ll understand why this form of entertainment isn’t high on my list of priorities.

We got to Patpong Night Market a little too early as many of the bars were empty. We asked one of the bar managers if there was a busier bar. She led us to a staircase leading to a bar upstairs and I told her that we did not want to go to a ping pong show. She confirmed that this was not a ping pong show (“no ping pong show”) but of course as soon as we sat down, it was a ping pong show. A good rule of thumb when you’re at Patpong Night Market is if the bar is on the 2nd floor, it’s probably a ping pong show.

Looking back we should have immediately left. Instead we figured that since we were already there, we might as well have a quick drink. Adam got a beer and I ordered a vodka soda. I told him to drink as quickly as possible and not to engage or stare at the performers as if this would prevent us from being scammed (as I read these places tend to do online). The performers ignored us as we sat in the corner trying to quickly chug our drinks and GTFOH.

Ping Pong Show Scam

The bar was advertised as “no cover charge” with drinks being 100 baht ($3 USD).  What they failed to mention is that there isn’t a cover charge for entering, but there certainly is a cover charge for leaving. This is referred to as a “looking fee.” The looking fee (the fee for looking at the performers) at this fine establishment was 1,500 baht per person ($48 USD). There was also a 1,200 baht “service fee” per person ($37 USD). Our bill for 2 drinks (which we finished in under 10 minutes) … 6,000 baht!!! Roughly $180 USD. LOL.

We explained to the cashier that there was a misunderstanding :  we were told by the bar manager that this wasn’t a ping pong show (which is why we were leaving after 10 minutes). We settled on paying 1,000 baht ($32 USD). Still too much, but not on the scale of 6,000 baht. Had we engaged with the performers at all, we would have understood the charges. Our experience was consistent with many others that I’ve read about online here.

Soi Cowboy, Bangkok

After avoiding being fully scammed at a ping pong show, we went to the legendary and iconic Soi Cowboy. Like Khao San Road, Soi Cowboy was named in my article The Craziest Party Streets I’ve Been to in the World!

Soi Cowboy is a great place to have a few birthday drinks while looking at bikini-clad bartenders and hostesses. There’s also live music and restaurants so you can eat between drinks.

Pretty soon after we got there, I stopped vlogging. In keeping consistent with my vlog, I’ll end the article here. Let’s just say it was a wild and memorable night.

Bangkok is a great place to celebrate a birthday or bachelor party. I wish we had time to hit up a rooftop bar or RCA, but there’s always next time!

Have you celebrated a birthday in Bangkok?  Leave a comment or you can e-mail me adam@befreemysheeple.com. If you enjoyed reading/watching this, you can follow me on Instagram, @adamfrancisco & @befreemysheeple.

Be Free My Sheeple.

My Quick Reaction to Avengers Endgame’s 1st Trailer (26 screencaps)

 

After waiting what seems like forever, the Avenger Endgame trailer was finally released by the Russo brothers at 7:59am EST on their Twitter account. 

WARNING: This post is going to contain details from Avengers Infinity War so if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it and then come back and read this. It will also include theories for Avengers Endgame.

Here’s my quick reaction to Avengers : Endgame’s 1st trailer 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Tony Stark Iron Man

Iron Man’s helmet looks like it’s in pretty good shape considering it received multiple punches from Thanos in Avengers Infinity War. There’s some symbolism here showing the weakened, fragile and vulnerable state Tony Stark is in.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Tony Stark Iron Man

A sad, defeated Tony Stark alone in space with the remaining pieces of his suit. Not surprising that Tony’s helmet has voicemail features.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Tony Stark Iron Man

You can see the hopelessness in Tony’s face. Watching him leave a “voicemail” for Pepper Potts is a heartbreaking scene and more great acting from Robert Downey Jr. He really was perfectly cast for this role. Marvel casts the human, DC casts the superhero. This is why Marvel > DC.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Tony Stark Iron Man

Epic space shot. I love seeing the MCU moving more towards cosmic threats. In the comics, the cosmic threats were generally the more dangerous ones and opened the door for more crossovers. All signs pointing to Galactus and the Fantastic Four arriving shortly.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Tony Stark Iron Man

Tony alone in space. This reminds me of the Black Mirror episode USS Callister where we see Robert Daly floating off into the abyss at the end, alone, with no hope of rescue, for all of eternity. Except here we can assume Tony will be rescued. My bet is courtesy of the Quantum Realm.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Marvel

Incorporating the dusting into the Marvel Studio 10 years logo is awesome and a reminder of that we just saw in Avengers Infinity War.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Thanos

Thanos’ armor is looking like it just came out of the cosmic dry cleaners. This is likely foreshadowing for Thanos to require his armor for round 2 against the Avengers. We know the Avengers will be coming more prepared this time.

Avengers Endgame Trailer VegetationThanos said that to restore balance he needed to kill half of the universe’s life forms and it looks like the vegetation on whatever planet he is on is thriving. Also, we can see a glimpse of what looks like the damaged glove. 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Avengers HQ

We can see the size of the Avengers headquarters. It also looks noticeably empty, a result of “the decimation.”

Avengers Endgame Trailer Captain America

Steve Rogers looks as sad as many of the 5-year-olds (and even some 35-year-olds like me) during the ending of Avengers Infinity War. He’s obviously reflecting on the massive loss they just suffered.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Black Widow

Quick shot of Natasha confirming that “he wiped out 50% of all living creatures”. Or did he??? 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Hulk Bruce Banner

Bruce Banner looking at a hologram of Scott Lang. I couldn’t figure out if he was looking at people assumed dead or alive but it could be that he’s tallying the heroes that are alive to assist. Look right and you’ll see Shuri. 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Avengers HQ

A cool shot of the half-empty (…?) Avengers HQ. 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Thor

Solemn Thor in his earthling clothing. You can still see Chris Hemsworth’s massive biceps through his baggy hoody. #Jealous.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Nebula

Solemn Nebula. Her character growth from Guardians of the Galaxy 1 has been incredible to watch. Once a villain we all wanted to see lose, many of us are now cheering for her as she seeks redemption and revenge.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Hawkeye Ronin

A hood and a sword is always a good costume. I can see this becoming a popular Halloween costume in 2019.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Black Widow

Natasha is thinking “Who is that masked man?” Actually I’m guessing she already had an idea it was Clint (Hawkeye) but traveled to Japan to see how he was doing. They clearly have a bond (which I hope they explore in the Black Widow prequel) which is more important than their differences in Captain America Civil War.  Avengers Endgame Trailer Hawkeye Ronin

Hawkeye finally returns as the rumored-Ronin in Japan. Looks like he’s swapped the bow and arrow for a sword and he looks absolutely bad-ass. 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Hawkeye Ronin

You can see the sadness in his eyes. Rumor has it that his family (as seen in Avengers Age of Ultron) were victims of the snap destroying Clint’s life and turning him into Ronin, deadlier and more violent. I can’t say I blame him. If anyone killed my dogs, I’d become a Ronin too.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Captain America Black Widow

It feels so good and looks so good seeing Steve Rogers back in his Captain America costume. As the leader of the Avengers, Black Widow is looking to Cap to lead them to a victory. This is similar to how my dogs look at me.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Peggy Carter

“This is the fight of our lives” Cap says as he looks at a picture of Peggy Carter. I think that he is going to be reunited with her courtesy of the time stone. Some people think he will go back and time and live out his life with her in the past, but I’m going to make the opposite guess and say that she will be brought forward in time, into our time of need. That could be a little awkward for Steve since he did kiss her niece in Avengers Civil War.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Black Widow

“Steve – bring us to the promised land.” The Russo brothers gave us a cryptic message and said that Chris Evans “isn’t done yet” as Captain America. Almost everyone believes that Captain America is going to die in Avengers Endgame but I don’t think this is the case. I really don’t know what to make of their comment and the guesses are endless: Does he go back in time to grow old with Peggy Carter? Does he retire and become more of a mentor that Marvel can bring off the bench as needed (i.e. Tony Stark in Spider-Man Homecoming)?

Avengers Endgame Trailer Dust

Some people jokingly were guessing the Avengers 4 title as The Unsnappening, or the reversal of Thanos’ snap. This is what the unsnappening would look like. Dust and broken pieces returning to their full form. 

Avengers Endgame Trailer Logo

After so many incorrect guesses from Avengers Annihilation, Avengers Assemble, Avengers Divide & Conquer, the Russo brothers have stopped playing games and revealed the title at the end: Avengers Endgame. I gotta say – I absolutely love it. They did try to throw us off the trail by saying that the title of the movie was never mentioned in a movie, but the word “endgame” was mentioned by Tony in Avengers Age of Ultron and of course by Doctor Strange in Avengers Infinity War.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Captain America

Marvel trailers typically end on a lighter note and this one is no different. Clean-shaven Steve Rogers in disbelief that Ant-Man is alive. They must have assumed at this point that he was a victim of the snap.

Avengers Endgame Trailer Ant-Man

Captain America’s number one fan boy Ant-Man. We all know that he (along with the quantum realm) are going to play a significant role in not only reversing the snap, but the future of the Marvel Universe as well. The question is weather the quantum realm will act as a vehicle for time travel, the multiverse, or both. My money is on both.

Additional Trailer Thoughts

 Captain Marvel not appearing was a bit surprising but understandable being that she just dropped her own epic trailer this week and Marvel likely didn’t want to confuse the more casual consumer.

I didn’t expect to see any of the heroes that were killed by the snap otherwise this would be a major spoiler (hey! everyone is coming back to life!). But it will be interesting to see how Sony addresses this (if at all) in their Spider-Man : Far From Home trailer (expected to drop Saturday). Likely they’ll just ignore it. Unless they’re tricking us all and Peter Parker is actually staying dead and will be replaced by Miles Morales. 

I liked that this trailer did not give away any specific plot points. It’s a very dry trailer in terms of exposing new plot elements and I think this is for the best.

As my friend Ray said, “You know it’s bleak when Ant-Man and Hawkeye are poised as the saviors of the universe.” Pretty interesting how two heroes who lack actual superpowers (beyond skill or technology) are going to save a super soldier and a god of thunder. 

RIP Stan Lee.

What did you think about the Avengers: Endgame trailer? I would love to hear your thoughts! You can e-mail me adam@befreemysheeple.com. And of course message me on Instagram, @adamfrancisco & @befreemysheeple.

Be Free My Sheeple.

If You Don’t Love Your Job, You Should Watch This

 

A few days ago I shared some thoughts over my Instagram Stories @adamfrancisco about how to become a digital nomad and it got a lot of positive feedback through DMs and private messages on Facebook so I wanted to make it available here. I didn’t think I would end up using the videos after the 24 hours expired so the content is very raw and somewhat disorganized (I mean, look at my hair) but I think the message can inspire some people. If you don’t love your job, you should watch this.

Key Highlights

“Your future is not guaranteed. You might never be 60 or 70 so don’t keep thinking that you’re gonna make it that far”

“If you’re one of those people that makes over six figures and you don’t really love your job, you could probably make $15,000 a year remotely.”

“As long as you have a boss, you’re not really gonna be in control of your own life, of your own time, of your own freedom”

“Freedom is the most powerful currency.”

“Besides freedom, the other most important currency is health. Without health, all the money in the world doesn’t really mean much. Ask any billionaire who has a terminal disease if they would trade all their money for health and the answer is gonna be yes. So really, health, time & freedom…I think those are the top 3 currencies.”

“I think that advertising is to blame in a big way because our job as advertisers is to convince people to buy things that they don’t need or to tell them what they want.”

The Subtitles (Because I’m a New Yorker and I talk fast)

***

All right guys so to recap …

The weather here’s beautiful, especially if you go the beaches where you get a nice breeze, it’s a lot cooler, less humidity. Everything’s cheap. So my personal recommendation to all of you…

My recommendation is get a taste for it now while you’re young. Your future is not guaranteed. You might never be 60 or 70 so don’t keep thinking that you’re gonna make it that far. Get a taste for it today. And here’s how you do it.

So many of you are going to retire one day and you’re probably going to want to retire at the beach. I mean that’s just a fact.  Look at Florida. Look at all of our grandparents. They all go to Florida or they move somewhere warm. So you’re gonna want to retire at the beach. My recommendation is…

Try to save up $10-$15,000 dollars instead of spending it on stupid shit like brand name clothes, or things you don’t really need. Save that money, take a gap year. A life gap year. Just leave your life for a year.

Get rid of your rent. Get rid of your car payments Get rid of your … whatever you don’t need. Even your phone bill. Get rid of that too. Live rent-free. It’s so cheap out here. And you can just travel for a whole year on like, 15,000 bucks. You can travel for an entire year in Southeast Asian and the beautiful part about traveling is not only is it good for your Instagram, but it also expands your mind and shows you new culture and meet new people. It’s great.

Now look. If you are one of the 1% of people out there that really loves their job, then you know what, good for you. You hit the lottery. For most people, they don’t like their jobs or their job is a headache or a nuisance. You deserve a year off.

Here’s another thing. I’m 35 now. I know a lot of my friends make over six figures now so if you’re one of those people that makes over six figures and you don’t really love your job, you could probably make $15,000 a year remotely. Think about that. You probably could do that if you really tried.

Now companies are trying to be progressive now with these remote work cultures and “unlimited vacation days” but as long as you have a boss, you’re not really gonna be in control of your own life, of your own time, of your own freedom so just think about how you can become more free.

If LA (Los Angeles) taught me anything, freedom is the most powerful currency. Having actual unlimited vacation days…oh here’s my breakfast. Hey girl, what’s up?

And yes, Asia may not be for you. You might not like Asia or Southeast Asia. Whatever. You can really do this anywhere you want. You can go to Eastern Europe, South America, Central America, Africa. There’s so many other places.

One quick footnote: besides freedom, the other most important currency is health. Without health, all the money in the world doesn’t really mean much. Ask any billionaire who has a terminal disease if they would trade all their money for health and the answer is gonna be yes. So really, health, time & freedom…I think those are the top 3 currencies. Somehow, our society messed up along the way and we made money the most important factor in the world. And there’s a lot of people that have enough money to be very happy and they just keep chasing and chasing like it’s an endless video game. Like an endless runner. And I love this meme.

Stop Chasing Money

Honestly I think that advertising is to blame in a big way because our job as advertisers is to convince people to buy things that they don’t need or to tell them what they want. And therefore, they need more money.

I used to live in New York City and I had an apartment for $4,000 dollars a month but I also had a job. I was drinking 5 nights a week with clients and I had very little time to myself. Very little time. So now that I’m out here in Thailand. Or even when I was in LA, I drank once a month. Twice a month maybe. And I had so much personal free time. It was awesome.

And so while I loved LA, I had to leave because you need to work hard to make money to sustain that lifestyle in LA or New York, even though LA is cheaper than New York. I had to move here to stop the financial hemorrhaging and bleeding and I’m stabilized now. 

So anyway, if you are upset with your job, if you hate the routine, the monotony, if you hate having to rush your vacation days, and rush your gym time and personal time, DM me and let’s brainstorm how we can make you a little bit freer. I’m happy to help.

If you’re already married, I’m sorry for your loss. But if you’re not married and you’re single, I recommend taking a gap year and traveling the world meeting people from all around the world. Just living this free life. I’ll tell you this much guys, the single best part of traveling single is you get to meet local people of the opposite sex and they get to show you their country in the most authentic way. It’s incredible.

That’s not an innuendo. I literally mean they take you to the best local restaurants, the coolest places.

I was in Laos (it’s pronounced Lao not Laos by the way) 2 years ago and I met up with a local Laotion. She invites me to this park which was an hour outside of town and I never would have gone or heard about it because it was so far out of town that tourists don’t really go there. But she was a local so we went out there. It was awesome. We had a great time at the park. We took a lot of great photos. I’ll put some in this feed. She then invited me to a wedding that night. How cool is that? I went to a traditional Laos wedding. It was so cool.

Of course I had no dress clothes with me so she said let’s go the mall and let’ buy an outfit so I’m thinking the malls that we’re used to seeing in America. In Laos, they don’t really have a mall. It’s just street vendors and that was their mall so I bought an entire wedding outfit for like $15 bucks.

That’s my rant for the day. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you guys watched the whole thing. If not, that’s cool too. I’m gonna go get a foot massage, maybe 2 hours. You know why? Cause I deserve it.”

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If you have any questions about becoming a digital nomad or want someone to bounce ideas off of, I’m here! You can e-mail me adam@befreemysheeple.com. And of course message me on Instagram, @adamfrancisco & @befreemysheeple.

Be Free My Sheeple.