Paring down, saving up, and getting out

March 18, 8:37 AMSeattle Women & Business ExaminerBetsy Talbot

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For once in my life, I'm ahead of the curve.  A trendsetter, in fact!

The current economy has many people thinking about simplification, saving money, and being more aware of what they already have instead of what they want.  Even though no one wants to go through financial difficulty, the lessons learned when times are tight can be a powerful grounding in life. 

My husband and I have been on a simplification plan for the last few years, kicking it into high drive about 6 months ago.  You see, we had a big house and lots of stuff when we lived in Boston, and ever since we moved to Seattle we worked on having less "stuff" and more "life."

We paid off our credit cards, bought a small townhouse, got rid of one car, and hardly use the other one.  We started my consulting business, which simplified the travel schedule we both had for most of our marriage.

Then my 35-year-old brother had a heart attack.  And a good friend in her 30s had a major illness.  Both of them survived and are doing well, but it left us both a little shaken that life could end so young.

So six months ago we decided to amp up our simplification efforts, save a lot more money, and do what we love best - travel.  Our plan is to get rid of just about everything and sell or rent our house, and then take off next year to travel around the world with just a backpack each.  We'll probably lose money on the house, and our 401(k) has already taken a beating, but life is calling and we just can't wait.

You can benefit from our experience by applying it to your own dreams.  Want to buy a house, go to college, take a dream vacation or start a business?  It all takes money, focus, and relationships, and we are blogging about our efforts at Married with Luggage.  I hope you'll check it out.

Planning for this trip, downsizing my life, and starting the new blog takes a lot of time, and because of that I made the tough decision to give up this column.  At the end of this month I'll be turning over the reins to the very capable Karen Rosenzweig, whom I will introduce to you in my next post.  I'm so happy Examiner.com chose someone with such great connections to host this column, and you will all benefit from her knowledge and experience.