p>Even after achieving what some might call “the dream,” which for me was working for myself wherever I like and when I want, I still seem to find plenty of room for improvement. I want to expand, grow, move, accomplish. This feeling of being driven and ambitious is something I didn’t often feel when I worked in the corporate world. After all, who really looks at their next promotion and says “I can’t wait to climb that wrung on the ladder!”? Not me, anyway, but there are those types out there, I suppose.
Anyway, the last few weeks has been a time of introspection. I often find myself getting pulled in different directions. I wanted to own a house, so I do now, and with that has come a plethora of additional responsibilities and worries. I also want to travel more. Now. Right now, damnit! But I can’t just yet. I still have to work, still have to budget, and still have to make sure everything at the home base is running as smoothly as possible.
The conundrum really summarizes itself like this: Maintaining a home base costs money. Paying bills costs money. Travel costs money. Which do I want to prioritize? Certain parts of the financial picture cannot be compromised. I have to pay my mortgage, for example, and my last student loan. Thus I need a large enough income to wipe away the necessities and have enough left over to see the world, too.
Ultimately, that leads me down one of two paths. I can go back to my old career and grind out the 9 to 5 for more money, or I can continue to expand my own projects. Certainly the latter is more fun than the former, but it will likely take more time and the outlook is a lot more uncertain. So far I have found a fair amount of success working for myself, but can I keep the ball rolling and expand out to the point that I can keep a home base of operations while having the financial capacity to head out abroad, too?