I Actually Can't Have It All - and Why That's Okay

Hiking in Auburn, CA - what "settling" looks like for me right now. Not too shabby. 

In the past I've written about the power of saying no to things that made me unhappy. As my closest nomad friends are spending a sure-to-be-epic month in Europe together, I've been thinking a lot lately about saying no when you really want to say yes.

2016 was the year of more travel and volunteering. 2017 is the year of stepping up my financial game. So when the idea for this trip came up, I had two options: say yes and put my 2017 finance goals on the back-burner, or begrudgingly say no and research and make (and save) bank. An incredibly glamorous option, I know.

Am I sad that I'll be missing out on this Euro trip with my fellow wanderers? Absolutely.  In fact, it's the first time in years I feel like I'll be missing out on something. But I know that now is not right the time for me. I would've had a constant undercurrent of thoughts about the money I'd be spending and not saving. I'd then be fretting about how I wasn't living in the moment, carefree and enjoying every second of traveling to new places with some of my favorite people.

Foregoing the trip means that I'm currently living in and exploring Northern California, my favorite area of the US.  I've made some awesome new friends, am learning how to indoor rock climb, and breaking in my hiking boots.

While I figure out what financial independence (check here, here, and here) means for me, I'm being selective about which adventures I say yes to. Accepting that I can't have it all at the same time - frequent travel/volunteering and building wealth -  makes me prioritize what is most important right now so that the years beyond can be a balance of both that feels right for me.