Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Tomorrow morning, before the sun rises, I'll kiss my dogs goodbye and leave for the Phoenix airport. And before I go to sleep that night, I'll be in another country and back in the arms of Mrs. Done by Forty. We'll get two whole weeks together! One in Peru, one in Ecuador. While we're gone, I'll be logging in briefly and posting when I can. But I have to apologize to all my favorite bloggers, as it might be a while before I can catch up on your posts and comment. Sorry, guys! I will be reading, but it probably will be delayed. On the plus side, if there is anything you'd like me to write about covering either country (e.g. - local customs, negotiating abroad, using airbnb, etc.) just let me know in the comments and I'll try to put together a post on that.
This will be my first time visiting South America, and I can't wait. My Spanish is terrible, but luckily Mrs. Done by Forty is fluent and knows how to say, "I am sorry my husband is speaking loudly instead of learning your language." I especially want to check out Cuenca as a possible early retirement destination. We'd love to see our nest egg grow during early retirement, and living in a lower cost country seems like a fun and effective way to do so. Plus, Mrs. Done by Forty and I want to raise our future kids in a foreign country for a while, if only to teach them a new language at an early age, when it's really easy.

We'll also be spending Thanksgiving in Ecuador this year, which is kind of bittersweet. It'll be fantastic to be together on the holiday, but we won't be able to see our extended family and do the stuff we normally do. So, as an alternative, I am hoping to recreate a little holiday down there for us. I am going to bring down cans of cranberry sauce and green beans, as I think the other big items will be available to purchase: maybe a chicken as a substitute for a turkey, potatoes, and hopefully some flour for a tiny bit of gravy from the chicken juices. Here are the other things we'll try to recreate:

• Skyping with the family in our p.j.'s and toasting sparkling cider (or whatever we can find)
• Catching a soccer match, as a substitute for football
• Camping outside of an Ecuadorian shop all night so we can be the very first ones in the store
• Knocking over some poor, old lady en route to Black Friday deals

Okay, we won't do the last two unless the opportunity presents itself. Still, for my family that reads this blog, we love and miss you and will make it next year.

Personal Training for Your Pocketbook
I also wanted to let you know that, thanks to the help of some great podcasters, bloggers, and new blogging buddies, I will be taking action on an idea I've kicked around for months, and launching a business that offers personal training for your pocket book. I notice that a lot of my friends and colleagues completely "get" the concepts of personal finance but, in this particular area, they are not self-starters. Just as I need an accountability partner if I am going to run five miles after work three times a week, they often need an accountability partner if they are going to follow through on paying down debt regularly or start investing for retirement. It's not as though they don't understand what to do, they just need someone to meet with once in a while to get a "push". That's the niche I want to fit in: being the guy who gives regular encouragement, motivation, and pick them up when they feel like quitting.

More to come, but wish this soon-to-be-entrepreneur good luck. He's going to need it!

On a final note, since I may not be able to say this on Thanksgiving, I want to say how thankful I am to those of you who come to the blog and read and even leave your thoughts in the spaces below. Reading your comments here and the posts on your blogs is the very first thing I want to do in the morning. I look forward to it, and the relationships I have with you guys make this blogging thing feel pretty easy. Thank you, sincerely. I'll talk to yinz soon.


*Photo is from epSos.de at Flickr Creative Commons.