Where/when/why did you come up with this plan?

Many people have asked where this crazy plan came from.  It’s hard to say exactly when we first starting thinking about it–it probably began at least sub-consciously  during our vacation to Guatemala in November.

We were only there for a few days, but it was long enough to go through the following thought process:

“Wow, there’s not really much going on here.  It’s beautiful, but kind of boring”

“…”

“Cheap though…”

“…”

“Too bad it’s kind of boring”

“…”

“Wait a minute… we don’t have anything at all that we have to do, that’s kind of cool”

“…”

“Nevermind, too boring. ”

“…”

“No, wait!  Boring is AWESOME”

We are slow.

During the same vacation we both read “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss–didn’t expect much from this, but were extremely impressed!  Some very compelling ideas about taking several “mini-retirements” in life rather than working hard to retire someday.  Also, some great tips on how to create passive/automated income streams.  Most importantly, he spoke at length about how much cheaper it is than you might expect to go a live in a place like Buenos Aires for an extended period of time.  That’s when the idea started percolating.

Soon after that (like 8 days later) we got engaged and started wedding planning.   We were headed down the path of doing a traditional white wedding sort of thing sometime in late spring and then vaguely spoke of maybe sometime after that spending some time in South America.

Logistics and finances were not working particularly well with wedding planning (Northern California weddings are crazy expensive no matter what you do), and we were both becoming less happy at work, so…

What is the plan exactly?

With only about 3 weeks of lead time, we made and executed on the following decisions:

1)  Quit our  jobs  (see our story)

2)  Move out of our apartment and put everything in storage

3)  Get married

4)  Move to Argentina

5)  Figure everything else out as we go on a day by day basis.  No plans.

MANY logistical and other challenges had to be overcome to pull this off in 3 weeks, but we are living proof that it can be done.  We’ll detail in future posts how we pulled all of this off so quickly, but suffice to say, it’s possible.  You too could do it.

Who me?

Yes you.

But, isn’t this crazy?

Maybe… or is it crazy that YOU aren’t doing it?    (see what we did there?)

Why Buenos Aires?

Supposedly awesome city, great wine, great steak, and cheap.  Why not?

What will you do after?

No idea.  Let us know if you have suggestions.

But, but…?

Do you have a problem??

Update 9/1/2010: See our addendum to this FAQ pertaining to the focus of this blog and it’s relevance to consulting:  Addendum to FAQ:  Thoughts on management consulting