Normal is a Hoax

A friend of mine on facebook posted a status the other day with this question:

How does one fund world travels and adventures while they're still young enough to enjoy it?

While others were leaving creative comments for him like "find jobs that pay for travel" and "work for hotels overseas... they are happy to hire people who are fluent in English," I answered simply "Don't spend money on video games, tattoos, or beer..." and I should have added "energy drinks" to that list as he drinks A LOT of them.

I know, I'm a jerk. It felt like a buzz kill answer too, but honestly I could not help myself. And ever since I left the snarky comment I can't stop thinking about the question he posed. This young man works at a hip local restaurant, I think full time, and still lives with his parents. I personally think it's financially wise to live at home if you're not married and your parents are on board with it so I'm not putting him down in that regard at all. He's been graduated from high school for a few years and is not enrolled in college. That is NOT meant to be a put down as I did not go to college and really never wanted to either. He spends a great deal of his time playing video games, just like my husband... video gaming is an enormous generational trap but hey if that's how you want to spend your time and money more power to you. He's also as of late started acquiring new tattoos and piercings. While I have zero gripe against either of those things, I don't have any tattoos for my own reasons but I went through a punker stage and I really appreciate good tattoos, to be honest even more so when someone is covered in really good ones. I also had a few piercing myself although they're in my past. However he makes comments often about how much he desires to travel, generally always accompanied by a "whoa is me, I can't afford it" twist.

I know for a fact that one can nickle and dime themselves into poverty. This fellow does not pay rent to his parents and he has a job. As far as I see it there is no reason he shouldn't be able to fund world travels and adventures in his exact situation with only a little difference. He needs to put his money where his heart is. If his deepest hearts desire is to "travel" through a television screen with a controller in his hand for hours on end then okay, spend $70 a pop here or there on the latest greatest game. If his hearts desire is to cover himself in images that express who he is, you know, wear your heart on your sleeve, as opposed to covering his innards in real life experiences that will impact who he is forever then go ahead and keep spending hundreds of dollars on tattoos. And while I understand that beer and energy drinks are fun, they are incredibly expensive. I speak from experience here, my husband loves micro brews (although he's tremendously cut back on buying them) and I used to have a SERIOUS Starbucks coffee problem.

I am absolutely not writing any of this to put this young fellow down. He and I have a lot in common precisely because of his ardent desire for adventure and travels, and his punker spirit (which yes, I still have, despite my having grown up). But I write all of this to say, "where are your priorities?" It's so easy to just go on with life. It's so easy to just hit up the Starbucks drive through again and again. It's so easy to go out with your friends and spend $15 on beer at the local pub (over and over and over...). It's so easy to get caught in the trap of normal, video games for example which are HUGE money earners for their creators. It's not so easy to cut out all of those things for a little while to fund some world travels but wait, it actually should be easy.

Let's say he spends $3 a day on energy drinks (I bet that's a low estimate) $90 in a month.

One tattoo, I think a low estimate $200 in a month

Three six packs of micro brews $45 in a month

A few coffees from a coffee shop,
lets say one a week generally around $4.95 for a mocha $20 in a month

Let's not buy three video games $220

That's $575 saved in a very short period of time. It would take two months (granted I made him purchase two tatoos and six video games in this scenario but he buys a lot of other geeky nonsense too so it's probably a VERY reasonable if not super low savings estimate) to fund a VERY nice world travels adventure. There are trips on travel websites, to Ireland for example, that cost about $600 for a package that includes airfare, a rental car, hotels, and an enormous breakfast each day for a week. (And I know these trips are legit because my mother in law took us on one several years back and it was amazing) After two months of saving $1150 by cutting out a few "normal" life expenses this young man could travel to Ireland for a week with a very decent amount of spending money in his pocket.

The question he posed irks me to no end because my husband and I spent so many years living just how he is living now. The real question is NOT, "How does one fund world travels and adventures while they're still young enough to enjoy it?" but "Why isn't one funding world travels and adventures when they're still young enough to afford it?" Why is it so difficult for the average Joe to look past the every day normal and see that if he just laid out his priorities and went after them then he could have so much more than, "oh woah is me, I can't afford it?" You can afford it! Just stop being normal. Normal doesn't win. Normal has never won. Normal is a hoax!