By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
In recent years, we've been making a conscious effort here at The White Coat Investor to make the blog less about me and more about you, the reader. However, some of the long-term readers seem to miss me a little bit. In our most recent survey, we had a lot of people ask if I could write more about my adventures and vacations. Now, I love writing about that stuff, and I actually do write about it. It just doesn't get published here on this financial blog. The staff tells me it reads too much like a humblebrag. So, I'm not going to tell you about all of the great adventures I've had in the last year, but I am going to teach you how to add some adventure to your life.
Before we get into it, a bit of a preamble seems appropriate. Having adventure in your life requires a few things that not everybody has:
- Money
- Time
- Health
- No responsibility (or at least good people to cover your responsibilities)
Without at least a little bit of all four of these ideas, you're going to have a really hard time doing much adventuring. There were long periods of my life when I did not have much money or time. There were also periods where my responsibilities did not allow for the sorts of things you're going to read about. I have also been blessed with excellent health, and frankly, I spend a lot of time and effort maintaining it.
Now, with that acknowledgment of privilege out of the way, let's get into it.
I've had a number of people comment to me in the last few years,
“You're going on another vacation?”
I then have to explain to them that
“It's not a vacation, it's a lifestyle. I set my life up this way on purpose.”
I discovered in medical school that I had a wide variety of interests. Medicine was just one of them. And no way was I going to sacrifice the rest of them on the altar of medicine. I hope my obituary says I lived a life of service and adventure. I do like serving others—through medicine, through my work here at WCI, through coaching, and through volunteer work. But I also agree with the Hunter Thompson quote:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!'”
How to Add Adventure to Your Life
Whether you are interested in adopting a similar lifestyle or just adding a little more adventure to your life, here are 10 tips to help you do so.
#1 Get Some Money
Some of this stuff can be surprisingly cheap, but most of it costs a fair amount of money. Our lifestyle is hardly out of reach for most doctors, though. We spent just over $200,000 in 2021, and that was without trying to be frugal at all. It's mostly just a result of taking care of business early in my career. When you don't have any payments and you're already done saving for retirement, you can blow your earnings on heli-skiing, scuba diving, and $500 oars. Follow the rest of the advice on this blog, and get yourself some money.
More information here:
How Much This FI Physician Family Actually Spends in a Year
#2 Get Some Time
You know what people who figure out how to get some money have a really hard time with? Getting some time. It's apparently really hard to let go of a little bit of that money and exchange it for more time. But it can be done. How? By saying “No.”
“No, I'm not going to work any more shifts.”
“No, I'm not going to take any more call.”
“No, I'm not going to go another year without using my PTO.”
Just do it. Find the time or you'll find yourself sitting on a pile of money in your 60s and 70s wishing you had and no longer having the physical capacity to do so. In my case, I steadily cut back shifts in the ED while hiring assistance at WCI. Over the course of about five years, I went from having two full-time jobs to spending 18+ weeks either under the stars or out of the country.
More information here:
What’s the Value of Our Time, Anyway?
#3 Buy Some Disability and Life Insurance
While it is more common to have exclusions for your disability insurance or to be denied life insurance due to medical problems, dangerous hobbies cause similar issues. If you rock climb, mountaineer, scuba dive, skydive, or fly private planes in the 6-12 months before applying for insurance or plan to do some in the 6-12 months afterward, you are likely to have that excluded from your disability insurance policy. You are also likely to pay dramatically more for life insurance (if companies will issue it to you at all). Buy insurance before you get started with your adventures.
I also always find it fascinating what they don't ask about. Apparently, all of these are fine:
- Big wave surfing
- Rodeo
- Backcountry skiing
- Cliff jumping
- Road biking (by far my most dangerous hobby)
- Mountain biking (I have three friends who have broken their necks doing this)
#4 Get Some Skills
Most adventures require a certain set of skills. You can often bypass many of them by hiring a guide, but that also means you're usually getting a watered-down version of the real thing. So, go get some skills. Get PADI certified for scuba diving. Take an avalanche or canyoneering course. Ask competent friends to take you along and teach you the ropes (although remember the most dangerous thing outdoors is being a beginner led by a beginner).
#5 Get Some Gear
Most outdoor adventures require some gear. Buying gear represents a commitment that you're actually going to use the equipment and do the activity. Without the gear, you almost surely are not going to go do it. You don't necessarily need everything to get started, but how are you going to take a rock climbing class or go out with friends without at least a harness, shoes, and helmet? Buying gear signals you're serious about it, and it will cause you to be invited along much more often.
More information here:
#6 Make Some Friends
Speaking of friends, most outdoor activities are not done alone. If you like doing this stuff, try to find other people who like doing it, too. Be the person who is easy to invite and hard to leave behind. Offer to help in any way you can. Respond quickly to texts and emails. Pay your way quickly. Offer to drive. Bring food and a six-pack. Do all you can to say yes and not bail out at the last minute. Do more than your share of the scut work inherent to any adventure.
#7 Plan Some Trips
I'll let you in on a little secret. There are a ton of people out there who will go out on an adventure if they are invited on something that is already semi-planned but who will never plan it and invite others. I'd guess the ratio is at least 10:1 and could be closer to 20:1. So, be the one. Be the one who figures out the permit system and applies for a permit. Be the one who figures out the logistics behind the trip. You don't have to be the expert. There are a lot of people without the drive or skill set necessary to put a trip together. I'd guess I have to plan about half of the adventures I go on. It would be a much higher ratio without Katie. Of the trips I did this year, I was the main planner or a significant secondary planner on all but three of them, and Katie did two of the other three.
More information here:
#8 Say Yes
I'm sometimes amazed at how many people tell me no when I invite them on the trip of a lifetime. As I write this, I'm planning a canyoneering trip. We'll have 10-13 people there. But I probably invited about 25. If you want to go, it's never going to be convenient. You actually have to prioritize it in your life. There are always going to be times you can't go. But if you usually say you can't go, people are going to stop inviting you.
Don't be scared to have a new experience and learn some new skills. The more you try, the more the skills you already know can be applied to the new situation. Take rappelling, for instance. It's a skill common to climbing, mountaineering, canyoneering, caving, and even some backcountry skiing. Might as well learn how to do it. How about swimming? Hard to do much scuba diving, canyoneering, rafting, or kayaking without that skill.
#9 Learn to Tolerate Suffering
Almost every fun outdoor activity involves a little suffering at some point. In canyoneering, you're always either too hot or too cold. You're loading a boat every morning, sleeping on the ground, eating dehydrated food, pooping in a bag, dealing with sore muscles, or walking around for hours with a heavy pack. All of that is often the price of entry to an incredible adventure.
#10 Find a Balance
Adventure trips can be done by yourself, with friends who also love the activity, with your partner, and with your kids. Find a balance between those trips. They are all enjoyable for different reasons, and after a while, you realize that it is the people you are with that often make the trip.
You only get one life. You can do whatever you want with your money and your time. If you can relate to John Muir's statement:
“The mountains are calling and I must go”
Then I suggest you create some space in your life for adventure.
What do you think? What is your idea of an adventure? Do you like to find outdoor adventure in your life? How do you find the time, energy, and money to do it? Comment below!
Best trip we ever took was in 2013 to Peru. It took a lot of planning and preparation.
We flew to Lima, then up to Cusco at 11,000 feet to acclimate. After a few days of exploring ancient ruins, the town, and horseback riding, we got in a van for several hours to the trail head for our 120 km trek through the Peruvian Andes.
We had a guide, a cook, a muleteer and a mule team loaded up with supplies for the 8 day trek. We hiked six or eight hours a day. It involved pooping in holes in the ground and bathing in streams or with hot water in a basin. We stayed in a four person tent and paid extra for cots with a soft sleeping pad, the larger tent, and hot water to wash ourselves in the AM and PM.
At one point, we crossed through a mountain pass at 16,000 feet. The terrain was tough at times and the scenery was amazing. It was the only trip we’ve ever taken that required a satellite phone evacuation package add on.
We ate fresh trout caught by our crew. They cooked us a chocolate cake in a dirt oven for our 20th anniversary. Some days we saw no one but our team and guide. It was just my wife and I and the group of Peruvians we entrusted our lives to.
The trip ended at Machu Picchu. We climbed Huayna Picchu and looked down on Machu Picchu from above. It was an awesome two week trip that ended with three days of rest in the Sacred Valley. No other trip we have done compares in risk, reward, and spectacle. It was the best $10,000 we ever spent.
As you say, life is an adventure. Now, ten years later, our next epic trip will be walking the last 100km of the Camino Portugues. We will pay to have our luggage moved from one hotel to the next and will be sleeping in beds instead of on cots, but it will be another two week adventure.
By all means, plan it, take two weeks (or more if possible) and do it, while you can. There is already a difference in stamina and other parameters creeping up on us slowly from age 50 to age 60 despite staying in decent shape. Carrying a pack 10-15 km a day in varied terrain is still on the table for us…for now.
Respect! I took a kid to Peru for her HS grad present, no trekking just mild tourist stuff, and in my 40s experienced angina hauling my suitcase up one flight of stairs on arrival in Cusco. I will recognize it if I ever get it at 300′ some day.
After we descended into the Apurimac River Valley, the next day was a long hike up something like 70
switchbacks to get to Choquequirao.
At one point, I was so tired, I sat down to drink my warm Gatorade. The guide and my wife were several hundred yards ahead of me. The guide motioned for me to get up. When I caught up with them he said, “Anthony, Peruvian men never give up”. I kept up the rest of the trip…
Sounds awesome!
Adventures can be long (weeks long), or short (three or four day weekend) or even shorter (after work on a weekday)! It really is a lifestyle choice like you said
Lost me at pooping in a bag. I’d like less adventure
When you consider the alternative (stepping around or swimming around piles of poop in your favorite places) using the bag doesn’t seem so bad. But you’re hardly alone. It’s pretty amazing how many people won’t spend more than half a day away from a modern toilet.
Excellent post!
if i had to rank, i’d put Time at the top followed by money.
1. Although money is important, you’ll always find cheap or free adventures locally. Having enough time will let you plan things well, let you stretch your trip/s to have enough time to relax or unwind. More time throughout the year will also let you stay in shape to enjoy those trips better.
2. #7 is spot on. i also know several friends and family who can’t plan a trip to themselves and rely on others to plan it out for them. There is also a misconception that traveling to anywhere outside the US is complicated and use of airbnb or uber or visiting anywhere without a guide is unsafe.
A great aspect of outdoor adventuring is you don’t necessarily need a lot of money to have a great experience.
Maybe another post should be your personal top 5-10 adventure trips — might be even more inspirational to see what you’ve actually done.
Those were in this post when I originally wrote it. They were cut from the post prior to publication. The staff argued it sent the wrong message (the whole humblebrag thing). I’ve emailed the missing parts to you.
Can you email it to me too Dr. Dahle? Thanks in advance.
On its way.
not to jump on the bandwagon, but me too please!
Jumping on the bandwagon – I would love to see the list of adventures as well.
I’d love to read this as well. Thanks!
I would love the list too. Cheers!
Email sent to Sara, Tyler, Gfro, and So.
This is fun. It’s like a super secret blog post only for insiders.
Add me to the list please – IMO it’s not humblebragging if people want to hear about it, just reinforces where following the financial principles you espouse can lead.
I’m interested too 🙂
Understand why it wouldn’t fit in your original post, but you really got me thinking with this post and I’m looking for some “next steps”…
All right, emailing it to JDM and John r. Maybe if we get 100 requests or something we’ll just add it to the post!
I’d like the super secret blog post as well. Thanks
Me too, please!
Me too, please!
I’d love to see the list as well.
Sent
Me too, please!
I’d love to see the list as well. It’s really not humblebragging. When you tell someone your stories, it works because people want to know what you did and how you did it.
I am interested in the list as well
Please email me the list as well. Thanks!
yo tambien
I’d love to see the list too! Thanks.
This summer I organized a skippered, week long 45’ catamaran trip in the Adriatic Sea with 10 friends. Wow what an experience and not hard to set up at all, but totally correct about the 20:1 rule. You can also travel without spending a lot of money. We go on several two week trips per year, with Airbnb, rental car and DIY adventures and usually don’t break 5k for two people. As docs we are super fortunate to be closer to having the ingredients for adventure than most.
Hey, I want to get in line for the list, please.
Kitesurfing ( you’ve got to take lessons though). Windsurfing (also need to take lessons, but I’ve seen people who taught themselves). Triathlon ( +/- coaching). The gear for all of the above can be as cheap or as expensive as you want.
A friend of mine was putting his Porsche to good use on the track (5 points restraint, helmet). I hate motorized sports with passion, but he would say that at least he’s truly using his Porsche to its specifications, not to impress people he doesn’t know at the red lights
Kitesurfing: one of the best sports ever. You can literally fly. No motor required.
I would also like your adventure list.
Could I get the trip list as well? I’m shifting my work focus and need an epic adventure to mark the transition 🙂 Thanks!
Ok, sent it to Kath, Dr. Nosepicker, Madeline, JL RVA, and Mikelo.
I’d love to see which of your adventures made the top 10- please send me the email too 🙂
Sent!
me too please!
How many of these top 10 trips did your wife join you on? Send me the super secret post.
Sent! (The last two requests are from people who were on a bunch of these trips with me!)
And the answer, my dear Katie, is 9 of the 11.
I’d like an email of the mystery trips also. I might want to do something from the list!
That was funny. Me too please. Thanks for your website, I learn a lot from it.
I would love to be emailed the Top 10 list as well. I’d like some inspiration for more adventures. Planning is the hardest part for us.
Sent to allen, YourHuckleberry, and M.
I am reading this while impatiently awaiting visas for my family’s New Zealand adventure! I quit my job in the US mid October with plans to start a locums job in NZ with a start date of Oct 25. We are still here in the US due to slow visas and seriously chomping at the bit to get going! That said, I am having a great time not working and being home without a serious adventure, work etc. I read a post recently about being “time rich.” I definitely feel time rich right now! Thanks for the adventure inspiration.
I am not sure where Hunter Thompson would rank on a list of “People Whose Advice One Should Ignore,” but he has to be near the top.
I suppose it depends on what you consider to be adventures. One can have adventures of the mind for the cost of a used book, or a trip to the library. No problems with insurance. No expensive gear to obtain. No need to plan for a dozen people. No visa required.
I have never thought ” I wish I had spent my time and money on more dangerous, expensive and unpleasant things than I did.”
I have am often in despair knowing that I can never read everything I would like to read.
And the reading is somewherebetween cheap and free.
I dunno. I read a book about Magellan and it makes we want to go see the Straits of Magellan.
I would also like to see your top 10 list. Thank you.
Sent
Now I’m curious. Single black diamond at a grandma pace is as far as I have gone.
Would you please send me the list, too?
Sent
Please send me the full post with the ten best, for inspiration!
I too would like to see the top 10 list, and suggest perhaps a link in the post who want to check it out. That could save you from sending a bunch of emails but still shield those who aren’t looking for ideas/inspiration.
We flew into Punta Arenas as part of a trip to Torres del Paine so we got to look out at the Strait of Magellan. If you go, I recommend the Nao Victoria Museo, which has replicas of Magellan’s vessel as well as the HMS Beagle and one of Shackleton’s ships. You could also see if your library has “Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws And Windjammers…” by Dallas Murphy.
I’d like a copy too. Thanks
You’ve written down a lot of what I’ve felt about adventure travel over the years. Especially your response about pooping in a bag – I came back from a climb up the east face of Mt Whitney and the only response one colleague had was to laugh about the wag bag situation. I also found your quantification of the number of people who would join vs plan interesting as well.
As someone who used to think nothing about planning every day off as a trip or activity, I now have two toddlers at home and miss them dearly. I get palpitations thinking about even a weekend away from them. The types of trips I can take with them are fun, but don’t generate the same brain stimulation. Is it just a function of the fact that your kids are older, allowing you to get back to these activities?
No, I did adventure stuff even with little kids. Most of the time the kids didn’t come along.
As we built wealth and especially as I cut back on clinical work we were able to do more. As the kids got older and were easier to watch/take care of, we did more together.
Lots of adventurers basically drop the adventure out of their lives when they get married and have kids. I never really understood it. I always thought it was the spouse not letting them do it, the responsibilities of work taking up all their time, or just the fire going out. I wonder how many of them just feel the pull to not be away from their kids for long. Personally, we’re doing more now than we ever did as far as big trips, but perhaps less locally like going to the crag or for a mountain bike ride. That’s just a function of time and money.
Our limiting factor used to be time and money. That is definitely no longer the limiting factor. The kids are busier than we are between school and their activities. So we go with them when they’re out of school and when they’re in school, we go as much as we can talk grandparents into sitting and/or go separately.
I would love a copy also! Thank you Jim.
I would also like to see your top 10 list. Thank you!
Sent to M, DP, Ricardo, and Clare.
Add me to the list, for the list!
Sent
Very sage advice for anyone at any stage of their career, even those in High School. Wish I could see my kids faces when they see that I have sent them another pearl of wisdom from the White Coat Investor.
I would also love to see your list of top ten adventures.