Live Truly

After further thought and further research, I’m still not sure about elevating living abroad to goal status. It’s a definite desire, but I feel I need a few more days and a few more pages of writing before making that commitment and starting to visualize it–I’m already having a hard enough time concentrating.

Last night and this morning I did do some further research and found out that it may actually save money. It turns out that unless someone is making over 70 or 80k, there are abroad tax exemptions. So someone making 40k here, would end up keeping 26k. Whereas someone making 29k in Japan, would end up keeping the same 26k. Not bad! However, there are other factors: like the cost of living and having to learn a new language (it’s good to be learning, but frustrating not being able to speak).

There’s a fantastic post about teaching English in abroad: rec.arts.anime.misc: ot ba wanted to teach English abroad. K9 covers just about everything and really puts things into perspective. He really brings home the point about really analyzing one’s reasons for going to teach abroad, and understanding the commitment and responsibility. He also has a great little chart about the pay, costs, savings, positives, and negatives of working in the four top countries. Thailand is in the top four and I can’t wait to get back, but it seems that in order to make a real impact, it might be more worthwhile to make money elsewhere and then use it to make a greater impact there.

In fact, looking at the net income, one really has to have some very valid reasons to only save 6k that year. It’s one of those experience versus time questions. The culture, the language, the insights, new (good) habits, friends, connections, and experience, but at the cost of one year in career and one year in pay/savings. I’m still not sold either way. Will I make a true difference for my students? Will I really gain such insights? At the same time, why not make this count as a year in career development? Is it worth 15k though? For that I could live in Thailand for a year and pay for a dozen kids to get high school educations there.

The more I think about it, the more I think it’d be better to start building my career and investing now and perhaps taking my trip in two or three years. On the other hand, perhaps this could be the opportunity of a lifetime, since I’m still unclear about my career and still not sure where I’m going. Yes, spinning without a target, but perhaps this could be removing the blindfold.

Perhaps some further reading for this weekend:
Teaching English Overseas: A Job Guide for Americans & Canadians
The Global Citizen: A Guide to Creating an International Life and Career

On my way to work and back, the Zig Ziglar Goals CD really got me thinking.

Some ideas from the cd:

Take an amazing archer and blindfold him and spin him around. What if this archer is so good he still hit’s the bullseye. Impressive. Now, what if there’s no bulleye? How can you hit something that doesn’t exist? (It sounds a lot better on the tape with the background and in depth explanations and Zig Ziglar’s use of language and humor.)

Every person should write a book, not necessarily for publishing, called “How to Make My Life Meaningful”, and live by it.

The people who are always “about to” do something, never get anything done.

Every night, spend ten minutes reviewing your goals and what you’ve done to accomplish them. Before going to bed, write down what you’ve done to get there in your notebook. For the next day, choose the top six most important goals, and focus on those.

I had been keeping a log because of Think and Grow Rich and it helped me get the guts and will-power to I leave my first day job. This was in November. I left for Thailand at the start of December and came back last week. The trip really changed some of my time-limes and goals and this is quite dangerous. Ultimately my goal is to become a good father and a good husband. To accomplish this I need to have enough time and energy to dedicate to my family. To accomplish this I need financial independence, my own businesses/investments, and a true love of what I’m doing. My current goals and decisions were all geared toward this, but now another element came into the picture.

My trip to Thailand changed a few things: 1) I’m no longer as eager to marry within the next few years. 2) I want to travel. 3) I want to make a huge difference for the better in many people’s lives, and I know I have the means to make it happen.

As far as marriage goes, I think marrying later and traveling more may actually make me a better husband. By understanding more about myself, knowing more about the world, I’ll better appreciate my partner and have more to offer. As far as career goes, this may not be the best option. I didn’t make the most of my education and right now is the time to make up for it. If I run away to a distant land, would I be working toward my goal or just enjoying myself and losing more time. On the other hand, if I don’t do it now, I’m not sure I’ll ever will get a similar opportunity. My two weeks of travel taught me more about life than at least a semester at Cal. Perhaps some time abroad may lead to further growth and realizations?

I understand that in looking at goals, one needs to look at one’s goals and work backwards, not look at what one likes and find justifications for it. One should also look at the reasons for one’s goals. If I elevate travel to goal level, I better have a meaningful reason for it. Similarly, although I’m lucky to live in a place where I may have more opportunities than anywhere in the world, maybe it would be worthwhile to truly widen my scope and experience before aiming for a target.

It’s always both scary and fantastic to have your world view shaken. My first shake came from my first job out of school and my awakening with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I chose to be rich. That’s my goal. I know amazing fathers and husbands that aren’t rich, but I choose to become an amazing husband and father that is rich. My second shake came from my trip to Thailand. I’m on the verge of adding another goal, and this goal may have a huge impact on many of my other choices.

I need to figure these things out before making any commitments and decisions in the next few weeks (and another interview awaits me this morning).

Thailand was amazing. I had the time of my life. It’s such a beautiful country. It has a super strong infrastructure and at the same time it’s still developing. the people make very little, but at the same time the cost of living is very affordable.

What’s really cool is that it doesn’t take very much to start investing there–you can get a condo for 5-10k. The yearly return was about twelve percent according to one guy I was talking to, although more research would need to be done. Properties by Bangkok go for a bit more, but still nothing compared to the market in CA. It’d be a really cool idea to get some rentals going there, and use a large chunk of that money to help kids that can’t afford it pay for high school.

Another amazing thing about Thailand was the massage. The traditional massages are just amazing and it seems like almost a quarter of the country knows how to give them. There are shops everywhere. There’s a huge school, in fact the oldest school in there at Wat Pho. The best thing though is the foot massage. Half an hour at the Chiang Mai night market had me in heaven. The people giving them were cracking up at the ecstasy on my face.

There’s a catch though: it’s almost impossible to get citizenship. Thailand did an awesome job keeping colonialists away, and those same laws still make sure people don’t destroy the country. I think this is totally cool, but it does mean anything you do there would have to go through a Thai corporation.