As some of you may know, I will be traveling as a participant on Remote Year. Their website does a great job explaining the program, so I won’t bore you with the details. I leave SF for Montevideo, Uruguay this Saturday (Jan 30) and will be following the program’s tentative itinerary below: 

  1. Montevideo, Uruguay: 02/01 – 03/05
  2. Buenos Aires, Argentina: 03/05 – 04/02
  3. La Paz, Bolivia:   04/02 – 04/30
  4. Cusco, Peru:   04/30 – 06/04
  5. Istanbul, Turkey:   06/04 – 07/02
  6. Prague, Czech Republic: 07/02 – 07/30
  7. Belgrade, Serbia:  07/30 – 08/27
  8. Cavtat, Croatia: 08/27 – 09/24
  9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:  09/24 – 10/29
  10. Koh Phangan, Thailand:  10/29 – 11/26
  11. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: 11/26 – 12/31
  12. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: 12/31 – 01/30

My decision to join Remote Year was surprisingly simple. With the BoozPops dream no longer alive due to the countless manufacturing issues we encountered, there was only one thing I know I didn’t want to do: continue working in finance for the sole purpose of making and saving more money, or what I like to refer to as “stacking.”

Yes, it also occurred to me that I am single, and traveling for a year could and would be pretty epic.

As philosopher Alan Watts puts best in his book The Wisdom of Insecurity, “the chase for security only breeds more insecurity.” Like everyone else, I enjoy stacking for financial security, but at what point is it enough? The longer that I work, the harder it will be for me to walk away. Now that I am 27 and officially hugging up on my late 20s, I feel that I have an obligation to myself to go “all-in” at least once more because my time to do so only becomes more limited with age. At some point, if my endeavors don’t translate to success, I will have to get my shit together and actually focus on a real career. But until then, I should still chase happiness in the present moment and continue to “do me.”

Remote Year will give me the opportunity to brainstorm new ideas, expand both my personal and professional network, and hopefully start a viable and cash flow generating business. At the very least, my goal is to stay disciplined enough to blog regularly so I can finally improve my writing. The topics I plan to cover will range from my travels, entrepreneurship, life in general to finance and economics. Hopefully the quality of content I publish will increase over time, so please bear with me as I try to discover my writing style. 

Best of luck to everyone in the next year or so; just know that the quality time we have spent together in the past will be missed! Also, thanks in advance to anyone following my blog. I am always open to any feedback or criticism, so feel free to keep it real!

Hasta luego! 

Curtis 

P.S. – If anyone plans to visit the cities/countries during the dates above, please let me know! Happy to meet up if our itineraries align.