A Summer Across the Pond

We got a lot of feedback on last week’s piece about the importance of starting your day off on the right foot. I also gave you a special look at Michael Masterson’s daily routine.

Here’s just one email we got, from Rita:

Michael Masterson’s daily routine is an inspiration to me (with 100s of things on my ‘to-do’ list and lack of a plan for getting them done). I now have a model for my days.

While the ETR staff has been busy in Miami hosting our 5 Days in July Conference, Michael has been enjoying a busy summer in France.

Since we just taught nearly 100 Conference attendees how to follow the very same business model that enabled him to retire twice before the age of 50, I thought this would be a good time to check in with him to see what he’s been up to…

My Summer Vacation

By Michael Masterson

This summer, my wife K and I have been living in a city in France called Aix en Provence.

It was always a dream of mine to “live” in a different city for a few months every year. I didn’t want to spend a few days or even a few weeks; I wanted to know the city like a resident might. And that takes at least six weeks, I’ve found.

My original thought was that this would be a “post-retirement” activity. But since I’ve discovered that I don’t want to retire because the Internet allows me to do everything I want to do – which is to write and teach and keep my hand in interesting businesses – I can do that almost as well from abroad as I can from my home office in Florida.

Maybe I do it too well… When I’m away from the office, ideas flood in. I write memo after memo to my clients. (I’m sure they would like me to ease back a little.)

I work from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. every day, and then meet K for lunch and an afternoon of doing whatever in the city. Sometimes, if we come back early, I will work for an hour or two in the late afternoon.

I feel like I’m on vacation, and yet I have the fun of doing the work I like to do.

This year, instead of spending six to eight weeks in one city, we are spending six weeks in France and two weeks in Italy.

Since Agora has an office in Paris, I was able to work with them for a week and then for another week at Bill Bonner’s chateau in Courtemer.

This is the kind of life information publishing can give you – once you have your business up and going. Bill Bonner does it, Porter Stansberry does it… and Laura is able to do it for long weekends.

Right now, I’m writing from a balcony looking over the terra cotta tiled roofs of Via Guglia, one of Rome’s prettiest streets.

If you are smart about finding good places to stay cheap (as K is), you can do this on a surprisingly limited budget. It’s actually costing us less to live here than it costs us to live at home!