Ep 92: From Backpacking 48 Countries to Flying with Young Kids, with Dr. Bradley Block

Dare to Dream Physician Resources:

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Dr. Bradley Block's Resources:

Physician's Guide to Doctoring
https://physiciansguidetodoctoring.com/

Podcast on Spotify @physiciansguidetodoctoring
https://open.spotify.com/show/3GE8U5bFIcWsUmhtbn3GXE?si=PbSJwoj7SM6qpT_q1JyV_Q

Physician's Guide to Doctoring on Facebook
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@physiciansguide on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/physiciansguide

Bradley Block, MD on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-block-md-1712a6127/

Transcript

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Welcome to another episode of the dare to dream physician travel podcast. I'm so excited that you decided to join us today. I want to go over a topic that often comes up. And even if you don't say it, some people may be thinking it. Which is, whether travel is a waste of money. Um, and I can see why people may feel that way. So if you go on a trip for a family of five, which is the size of my family. If you have to buy plane tickets and then rent a car when we get to the destination and then find lodging for five people. It really adds up. And so it's not unusual, for a two week trip to cost $10,000 when you add all those things up. And it's, it's not even a splurge vacation is just all the expenses being added up. so you wonder, after those two weeks, My network has dropped by $10,000, is it worth it? Is it, is it worth to travel? I think this is a great question. Which is why today's episode. I'm going to be talking about. Why we should invest in trouble. And I picked the term invest because I do believe traveling is a, is an investment, just like we put aside money, every. Two weeks or every month and invest for our retirement. We also can think about travel and experiences in general, in our life as investments, you know, there we're investing in that memory bank I mean, This is a little bleak, but you know, in life planning, I am always embracing. That we are mortals, you know, that tomorrow is not guaranteed. So when we are. Uh, 90 years old and, and we are laying in bed, reflecting on our life, you know, what is going to bring us the smile on her face as we reflect back. And, and I, I truly believe, it's that memory bank that we build for ourselves, that memory bank of amazing experiences, where we felt like we were living life to the fullest when we were able to, that is going to bring the most joy to us. While we are talking about this topic, I'm going to be sharing some of my travel experiences. From our trip. Um, back in October of 2022. To St. John island in the us Virgin islands. So, the number one reason why we should invest in traveling. Is that financial responsibility. Does not mean restricting joy. Amazing travel can be done on a sustainable budget. And this is such an important concept because I don't want you to think that, you're either choosing to be financially irresponsible and going on a nice trip, versus saving and being good with your money. And, saving for the future. What, I would like you to. consider Is, where do you want to lie on this spectrum? And when I talk about the spectrum, what I mean is, you know, in personal finance, There are two ends of the spectrum. There is on one end the ultra frugal, high savings person, these are, um, people who are really focusing on the numbers on a spreadsheets. I don't want to pay for a car and car insurance and gas money, so I'm going to ride my bike to work instead. What are the ways that we can cut expenses? How we will be able to, um, improve the numbers in this column. And so that is one end of the spectrum. And then the other end of the spectrum are perhaps, the people of the thought that, Hey, you only get to live once. So, you know, why don't we just live a great life and live a great life now. And if we have to use credit card, high credit card debt to do that. Then that's okay. Because, if I die tomorrow and I have a high credit card debt who cares. Right. So, so these are the two ends of the spectrum and I'm just, using examples to illustrate the concepts. It of course will show up in different ways and most people are, are somewhere along the spectrum. Right. Especially since, this is a travel podcast and you might think that I'm going to be advocating for the high credit card debt. You only live once type of philosophy and be on that side of the spectrum. But the reality is most of us are gonna live quite long. Right? And so. To have this, you only live once and to spend everything actually ends up being really stressful because, maybe you did that in your twenties. Maybe you did that in your thirties. And maybe there were other expenses that came up that were out of your control. But anyone that is living paycheck to paycheck and yes, a lot of physicians do live paycheck to paycheck, no judgment there, but all I'm saying is that type of scenario does lead to quite a bit of stress in life because although money doesn't buy us happiness, not having money can certainly be a source of stress. So I am certainly advocating that, when, when we're planning travel to not ditch financial responsibility. But to embrace travel, if that is part of your life plan, part of what you think will help you be able to live your best life and live life to the fullest. Um, or even if you're curious, even if you don't know, you're thinking is travel part of my living my best life. I don't know because I haven't had a chance to do it. So even if you're curious about it, to try it out, but to do so on a sustainable budgets. So don't go into high credit card debts. To do this. And the Trek to doing that is this personal finance motto that I've heard, many times. That you can have anything, but not everything. And what I get from that statement is to be intentional with your spending. Depending on our specialty, we might, you know, look at other physicians in higher paying specialties and think, well, maybe that doctor can travel, but I can't because you know, I'm a solo earning pediatrician. Um, in the lowest paying specialty and I have to support my family of five. Let me give statistics. The median household income in the us in 2021 was just under $71,000. And 34% of us households make over $100,000 per year. So even if you are in the lowest paying specialties in medicine, our income is still quite favorable compared to. The average household in the U S now I am not denying that physicians have our own set of obstacles. We often we have to be on call and there's extra expenses for childcare because we have longer work hours. I am just, citing the statistics to show that. A lot of other people managed to find ways to travel, with a much lower household income, then. Even the lowest pain physicians. This is a very large topic and we can certainly do more podcast episodes in the future about this, but there are many ways to. Travel on a sustainable budget. Um, there is geographic arbitrage. Um, so we talk about that in personal finance where you work, you in a low or mid costs of living area where physicians tend to get higher salaries than, some of the high cost of living areas. That's an example of geographic arbitrage for physicians, but there's also geographic arbitrage. And when it comes to traveling, because there are places that we can fly to where the cost of living is just so much cheaper. So your lodge is going to be cheaper. The food's going to be cheaper. Um, transportation, once you, after you get there is going to be cheaper. That would be an example of taking advantage of geographic arbitrage when traveling. Um, and then there is. Travel hacking, which is a whole world of maximizing travel rewards, based on our everyday spending, right. We think of spending. That the spending that we do on a daily basis, like, going to buy groceries, getting gas for the car, paying insurance, all the normal day spending. Where we're looking at this and, thinking of it as a liability. They are liabilities, but there's also a way to turn the liabilities into an assets for travel hacking. I personally used for, um, Um, many of my trips. And so speaking of travel, hacking, and because I'm talking about our trip to the us Virgin islands. We flew a family of five from. Vermont to, St. Thomas and the us Virgin islands. And so that's five tickets and we were able to fly for free. I think, you know, maybe for. Um, just the taxes, maybe we're about less than $200. We were able to fly for free because of United frequent flyer miles. This is just more of an example, but we can certainly go more into depth on this in the future. But, you know, being able to, um, at least get the flights paid for through credit card miles helps the budget by, maybe 40% in some cases, possibly even 50%, depending on where you're flying to and what the cost of living is. By the way, the us Virgin islands are very, very expensive. So that was the opposite of geographic arbitrage, where, you know, you have the price of living in paradise, the price of shipping groceries, shipping, anything, building materials to paradise. Um, so the us Virgin islands, everything was, car rentals, lodging, food, everything was end up being more expensive, but at least we didn't pay any cash to fly there. So the other thing is traveling during the off season, um, off season rates For the same exact lodging and flights. Can be much cheaper. So if you have a way to travel in the off season, you'll have less crowds. It's more of a relaxing travel experience where you don't have to book days in advance to even, you know, go eat out or to do a tour or an activity. And everything is cheaper. So an example of that is when we were at St. John, which is St. John, by the way, is the island, uh, most of that island, I think two thirds of the island is, us Virgin island, national park. My oldest son loves birdwatching. So I, when we got there, I actually saw on a flyer for the national park, so my family showed up on a bird walk on this boardwalk, and we actually thought we missed it because we didn't see anybody there when we arrived at the time. Maybe two minutes later, the park ranger um, showed up. And so, so we got a personal birdwatching tour, with just the bird guides and my family, which is amazing. Um, What was interesting though, is, um, They were telling me If it was in February, which is the high season for the us Virgin islands. It would be, 20 plus people who are walking on it. So for the house rental, which is, most of the money that we paid for that trip was on the house rental. It would have been, I think about 20% more if we were traveling in, in their highest season, And by the way, it was amazing. The us Virgin islands were amazing in the last week of October, the first week of November, we were there for 13 days. The weather was beautiful. And even when it rained a little bit, the sun would come out after a few hours. So, um, we got great weather. It was kind of the shoulder season because, um, October the hurricane season was. Dying down a little bit. Although, technically it was still a risk. So there were a lot fewer tourists. Yeah, there are so many more things that can be said about a sustainable budget. I will also add that while I am a big proponent of financial responsibility and of keeping sustainable budgets. I personally believe that there are many ways of being able to keep a budget. Then the traditional strict budgeting, um, where you'd have to, you know, Write everything down and that works for some people. So that works for you. Keep doing that. But if you are like me, who really resists in, recording everything who would just find it very tiring and not sustainable to record all the expenses and to keep track of every little detail, while we're on vacation. Um, I have good news for you. There are other ways that you can try. Um, one way is something called intuitive spending and intuitive spending. Um, we can use an analogy. If you compare it to diet culture, there's a traditional diet method, which, you learn all these rules. You have to count carbs. You have to keep track of everything that you're eating. And you know, if you go over this, then you broke the rule and then you may even feel bad. Um, And it also just gets tiring to keep track of everything. And then you might give up at some point, um, and also, and still, and still feel bad like you failed, um, versus intuitive eating, which is this other way. Of, eating where you pay attention. Like if you put a piece of food in your body, even before you put this piece of food in your mouth, you're looking at the food, you're maybe smelling it. You're, you know, recalling previous experiences where you ate a similar kind of food and you pay attention to your body signals to how your body's responding to the thoughts that are coming up, the feelings that are coming up. And you may decide that. I don't need to eat this piece of food. Um, the last time aided, it didn't really feel good to eat it. Um, my body didn't respond very well to it. And so you just learn to trust your intuition, and choose not to eat it. Um, or if you do eat it, even if it's a, quote forbidden item that might be in the traditional diet rules. Um, you decided that you were going to eat this piece of cheesecake and you're going to enjoy eating it. You're going to enjoy every moment of, um, chewing it and smelling it and, um, savoring the flavors and the textures. And really getting that full enjoyment out of it and feeling satisfied and fulfilled, um, and, and feeling even, you know, happiness as, as you go through that experience. And so that is an example of been of intuitive eating. And so the same thing can be said for strict budgeting versus intuitive budgeting. So you can decide to do the same thing, like, you know, the piece of cheesecake or. You know, maybe the lollipop that you don't really feel like you want to eat it based on your previous experiences of what it felt like after you ate it. And so you could also do the same thing. So for us, when we went to the us Virgin islands, we splurge on this amazing Villa with a pool and. Um, three jacuzzis. Um, it was, it, it was secluded. You had complete privacy. You have this amazing view of the Caribbean sea. It was situated on a mountain and, um, It was just so, so beautiful. And, the architecture was, um, like a local style architecture of so interesting to live on that property because the living room, um, you know, there, there were no windows. Um, everything was just open. So when it rained, the rain would just come inside, all the materials that they use for this living room was. Design so that it could withstand rain. Um, and get this amazing breeze. And you would hear the, all the sounds outside the birds, the frogs, um, just everything. It just, all the, it was like an orchestra of insects and birds. And it was just, it's such an immersive and amazing experience. And we just, we felt like we were just living the life, like living the dream life. And now would I do that again? Maybe? That was our, the first trip to sort of kick off. I had not done any traveling outside of the continental us. Um, my husband either. For about 15 years. In the meantime, went through medical school and then we had our first child in my internship. So, you know, younger kids where it was harder to travel. And just when my kids were a little were old enough what was considering, um, longer flight travel. Um, the pandemic came and then, my dad's health had declined and I, you know, didn't even want to travel at that point. Cause I wanted to be there for him if he needed us. So the us Virgin islands was really a Sentinel trip for me and my family, I've never been to. Uh, setting quite like the us Virgin islands. I'd never been to the Caribbean. Um, Growing up, we were more of a land type of travel, you know, land and hiking. And, um, and so I had never really spent much time in the ocean. Um, I did learn how to swim when I was a kid at the YMCA and a pool. I did go with, friends to the beach near Maryland, and we would. Splash in the waves, but, but never really swimming in the ocean. And, um, and part of the reason why I picked going to the us Virgin islands was in my life planning. I had this vision of. Wouldn't it be cool to swim in the ocean. Wouldn't it be cool to go scuba diving. And when I had this vision, it just felt like it came out of the blue because I had never really had an experience like that. Um, and I think at that time, I don't even think I knew anybody. Um, who at least that I talked to was doing this. And so it was just really sort of out of this curiosity, like, wouldn't this be amazing? It seems like it would be amazing. And so, um, I just follow my curiosity. And so this trip, um, so going to paradise, where it was a more expensive location for me, it was worth it. You. It was worth that. And so this brings to, the conclusion to the financial responsibility and the budgeting, which is, you know, remember the role of money. Money is a tool. Money is a means, not an end to an extraordinary and fulfilling life. And so when I talk about the, you know, the different sides of the spectrum, you know, that, I think that point speaks to the people who are naturally good at delayed gratification. Um, you know, the ultra frugal high savings rates. Um, We have to remember at the end of the day, um, because you know, it's, it is important to reflect at the end of each day because tomorrow is not guaranteed. We don't know right now we may be healthy and able and alive. So that we can have this amazing experience while traveling. And we don't know that we don't know if we have that tomorrow. We can take that for granted. So-so there has to be a balance, right? You don't want to spend so much money, um, because there may not be a tomorrow that you're now living life in, um, so much stress because of finances because of, you know, trying to make ends meet. But you also, there's a different kind of stress that may happen. Um, for people, if they, you know, keep putting off, keep putting off experiences, keep putting off experiences so that they can feel more secure, um, with their money. They might be losing out on an amazing life, losing out on living that extraordinary and fulfilling life that they want that maybe, you know, they're waiting for retirement. But we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or in a year or two years or five years or 10 years. And so. I want to urge you to balance your life balance, what you want, decide on what you want. Dream. Be curious and decide on what you want. And, and try it out, try it out in a way that is not going to kill your, kill your expenses. Um, but you know, if you're someone who is more of, um, in the camp of delayed gratification and that extreme. You know, loosen up a little bit and, um, let yourself. Spend the money. Okay. So I want to, just spend a few more minutes talking about, there, there is a rule of thumb. That money spent on experiences bring, brings greater happiness than money spent on things. So reflect on that. Is that, is that true for you? Can you think of experiences? In your life where that may be true. And I think for me, that is absolutely true. Um, before I had kids and before I started medical school, I, became a world traveler in college and that was such a eye opening experience for me. Not only did that help me feel more confident. Um, I think that's, you know, when I really truly felt like an adult was when I, had my backpack, my passport, my money belt. And I'm set off on my own too, to see Europe, to see a lot of Europe. And, I became more confident in my own. And be able to be able to trust myself my own abilities. And then I just learned so much about myself. Um, and I may have shared that that's, you know, how I ended up being in medicine was through, um, through experiences that I had in travel. I became convinced that I actually wanted to go into medicine, which was not something that I plan on doing before I started traveling in college. Like Dr. Deanna Mercado, a few episodes ago said. Somebody is going to use your money, so it might as well be you. A lot of us maybe have some many scarcity and we're afraid of using money. And, you know, we think, well, maybe this will be better. We just leave it for our kids or leave it for somebody else. And the thing is, um, it's, it's a mindset to be able to bring maximum joy with, with some amount of the money. I'm not saying to spend all of it. Um, but you spend some amount of it. And spend it on experiences I'm trying to think of, you know, aside from the basics, like, having a house and having a car and, things that kind of helped me function in life. I can't think of an item, let's say, you spend. Um, $10,000. On a vacation for a family of five, to an amazing location, where you really had the trip of a lifetime. And I can't think of something where I spend. $10,000. Um, that would bring as much joy. Now, there are many things that you can buy for $10,000. You know, you can buy several wardrobes, you can buy. Um, lots of furniture you can buy. Um, lots of electronics. Computers, phones. Um, but even if you hold on to these material objects that you buy with the $10,000. Um, those it's somehow it just doesn't seem, it just doesn't feel the same. And I like to think of, going back to the example of being 90 years old and where we're at a time in a life where we don't have the same amount of energy where we could just, you know, easily go fly somewhere for two weeks. And, um, and swim in the ocean. I mean, hopefully we can do that when we're 90, but what have we can't. To think back, you know, to, to the experiences that we had to. And one of the things that I did for the first time in my life and the us Virgin islands was to go on a discover scuba experience, it was probably four hours altogether where, you know, I went on a boat. They show me how to put on the scuba diving gear on myself. And they gave me a very basic crash course. Um, On things like what to do, if you're a Goggle fills with water and then you go in the water and then you start diving and, I didn't have to do anything but breathe. I didn't have to worry about, any of the controls on my gear, because, there was a guide who was, who was helping me adjust those things. And I just got to look. In the ocean, go 20 feet deep, and then 40 feet deep for the first time in my life and just be incomplete. Ah, Of this world that's under the water, this world that, you know, takes up the oceans, take up. More space than land on this planet. And, and to see what's in there. It was just phenomenal. And, you know, I think that whole experience, was maybe $250, maybe a little bit more after the gratuity. But it was, you know, it, it's in my memory bank and it's going to keep paying dividends and I even feel joy as I think back to it now. And so. So that, is an example of how, I am just so much happier spending money on, on that experience and just really on the whole trip. Um, like I said, that trip was a splurge for us. The first thing on my mind, wasn't about keeping a uh, budget because we had not traveled outside of the continent until us for 15 years. And actually, as a result of that, cause we were the young kids, we were home most of the time. We were pretty on track on our, with our financial goals due to not being able to spend as much. Money on experiences. Rather than just valuing that opportunity to, um, to save more and invest more during that time of her life, for me, when I look back, I think, well, that was us building up the ability for us to have the amazing experiences in 2022 and 2023. And so, why is money spending experiences bringing greater happiness? So not only does it bring more awe and wonder and magic to your own life. But if you go on these experiences with your friends and families and loved ones, The, the experiences can deepen relationships. Give you memories that you can share for the rest of your life. Memories that, like I said, when you're 90 years old and you're laying in bed, that will bring a smile to your face. and so that's reason number two. And the last reason I've already alluded to is that tomorrow is not guaranteed. And while we love to think that if we save up enough money, that in one year, five years or 10 years, we'll be able to live our dream life and live that best life and start checking off our bucket list then. There's, that's not a guarantee. And so what is guaranteed. Is the health that you have right now? The the life that you have right now. And if, if you feel that you have this bucket list, if you feel that there are things in the world that you want to see, that you want to experience through travel. Then prioritize travel now. To go places to do activities that you've always dreamed of doing. While you are healthy and able. And so the first part of that actually, Is, you know, but well, one is realizing our mortality and knowing that our time is precious and our time is never guaranteed. But the other thing is to dream. Like I mentioned what you dream of doing so first you want to know what you're dreaming of doing. So give yourself some space to. To imagine what it is. And so for me, when I went through the process of light planning, like I said, one of the things unexpectedly that came up was wouldn't it be cool to go diving? Wouldn't it be cool to go swim in the ocean and then to see what is the life that lives under the water. And so in order to do that, one of the things I had to do was actually get to a place that offered the chance to do this activity. While you can swim in the ocean, you know, in the new England, which is where I live. It's not the same as, so, so going to the Caribbean waters, because seeing the visibility where, you know, you can see 60, a hundred feet. Um, having that clear blue water and the coral, the coral with all the colors and, the, the fish that's, you know, the fish that's feeding on the coral and how the amazing colors that they turn. And just being able to see that, you know, there's, there's nothing quite like that. that nothing makes me happier to be alive than those experiences that I was able to have. And so I'm, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that I was able to bank that experience and bank that memory. And I, my wish for, for you and my wish for. My friends and family, my kids. Um, all my loved ones is that they also do the same. That they can start living their dream life, start traveling and checking off places that they want doing so in a sustainable way, but doing it. While you're still alive, healthy, and able. There are so many more things I would love to share with you about. Um, remember if you are a physician, uh, join our new Facebook community dare to dream position travel. That link is also in the show notes. So we can talk more about travel and share more details. I hope to share more details about all the trips that I've done with the group and, and, hope to hear from others like yourself, about where you've been up to and where you're dreaming of going. Until next I have a great week.