The day that Brett and I would set off to explore the world, a day that we all knew would come, - well, its come a lot sooner than expected. After a great deal of deliberation, Brett and I have decided that we’re going to actively pursue our dreams instead of planning for the pursuit of our dreams.

We’ve been planning on heading off for long-term world travels since we got married almost four years ago. We have been saving up money, paying down student loans and figuring out what kind of adventures we want to have.

The timeline change came about as part of a conversation about whether or not we really had to wait until 2012 - when it was originally forecasted that our student loans would be paid off and we would have the amount of savings we thought we would need for this large shift in our location and lifestyle. We realized during our conversation that the amount of savings we had previously agreed upon was completely arbitrary.

When we made our first five year plan together (on our honeymoon), we had hoped to have all of Brett’s student loans paid off ($50,000+) and have some money in savings so that we could travel for the rest of our lives. The second year, we revised the plan to articulate how much savings we thought would be necessary for our travels. We decided that $100,000 should be adequate for us to have the kind of lifelong travel adventure we desired. We were earning 4% interest on our ING Savings account and would have $500+ each month in interest to offset our living expenses and allow us to be able to live for long stints without working.

It was a high number - with hopes that we would be able to pay for the day-to-day living expenses from the interest earned and never really have to work again. After talking about it however, we had made the number so high out of fear. Fear that one of us would get sick, fear that something horrible would happen to us or our families and we would need a large amount of reserves to reestablish our lives in the States, pay off medical bills, etc.

Although we acknowledge that these things can happen - we have decided to not let it keep us from realizing our dream for several more years. We have decided that a lower number would be an adequate amount of savings to have prior to embarking on our travels - due in large part to the fact that we do not realistically plan on NOT working another day in our lives. Whether organic farming or teaching English or crewing a boat or au pairing - we anticipate working along the way.

We also decided that we would not be paying off all of the student loans prior to our departure. We discussed paying them down to a certain level and then paying minimums from the road so that we can get on the road sooner.

We noted that it had been four years of talking and planning for our travels since our original planning session in San Juan on our honeymoon - and that we were still four years away from our anticipated departure. We don’t know for certain if in four years we will still want to go. We don’t know what the state of the world, the state of our health or our family’s health will be in four years. We thought back to everything we had done and seen and experienced in the four years since we got married and we decided to move the timetable for our departure up.

Four years of waiting and planning got us to this point. We have paid down $25,000 in student loans and saved a decent amount as well. We own a very modest house (which we are selling if you know anyone looking for a house). We have no credit card debt. We do not even own a car. We don’t want to take any chances of not leaving and seeing the world that we so ache for - so we have decided to quit planning and start doing.

We picked some more goals - a savings goal and a loan pay back level. These new goals should be attainable by late fall of 2009. Watch out world - here we come (well in another year).