I hope that everyone had a wonderful day yesterday and are not working today, but if you are, I hope it goes by quickly! Here are a few more answers to some of the questions people have asked me lately.
Michelle asked: How do you stay safe? From idiot drivers, creepy people, wildlife? I try to ride on either dirt roads or bike paths that are away from most cars, but when I do have to ride on the highway, I have a red jacket and a blinking red light. I try to stay over as much as possible to the right and after that, I just have to pray that the drivers give me room. As far as creepy people, I just try to walk on the other side of the street, or if I am riding, I can usually ride away. I have not had any issues with creepy people in places I have camped. I obviously try to pick a spot that is either established, or if wild, is slightly hidden and not on a busy road or area. Wildlife and I are copesetic and we coexist happily.
What will you eat? I answered that here and here.
What do you do in bad weather? Cry. Just kidding! I just keep peddling. When I was riding the Tour Divide, we would say that in the voice of Dorrie from Finding Nemo. In case you have not seen the movie, “just keep swimming" was the necessary action to accomplish the large feat of crossing the ocean, but more abstractly, it was how they coped with the improbability of the task. This quote also helped them move forward without thinking too much about it.
Do you speak any foreign languages? I can get by with Spanish and French and can say hello, thank you, bathroom, beer, "do you speak English" and "I don't speak ____" in all of the languages of the places I have been to. I try to always learn at least that.
How will you communicate with people in Europe if you don't speak their language? An app? If I don't speak the language and nobody speaks English (which is fairly rare in most big cities in Europe), I can use Google Translate. If you have not used it, it is great. You can download the language for use offline and then the person can either type into or speak into your phone and the app will translate it, and then you can type or talk and it will translate back. I have also found that hand guestures, body language and facial expressions will work wonders.
Will your phone work in every country? Yes, I have Google Fi (I talked about that here), which works internationally. In some countries you have to pay per minute for phone calls, but texts are all included in the plan, and if and when I need extra data, I have an e-SIM (through Airalo) where I can load up data onto my phone for whatever country or region I am in.
Are you worried about people being anti-American? No. There are always people who are anti something, but I am not going to let that ruin my day. Also, for the most part, I have found people to mostly be curious, not negative. I had a great conversation with two Swedish people in Thailand about why we had voted for Bush. Actually, in all of the places I have been, I have never had anyone be rude or mean to me due to my nationality.
Also, you've said that you have stomach issues when you're not exercising hard - is that correct? I'm wondering if you'd talk more about that? Woof. This could be a whole post. The short answer is that I did have a lot of bloating, like 5 months pregnant, tight, aching belly and since I have been on the bike every day, it has been a lot better, as in only a couple of times have I noticed it. I did a ton of testing before leaving the Bay Area and bottom line is that it is probably SIBO, which can be treated with antibiotics, but also can return over and over. So, I currently try to stay away from beans, cruciferous vegetables, onions, garlic and wheat, but it is definitely not a cure all.
M asked about my major being Kinesiology and how did I get into finance from there? I got my BS in Kinesiology and then went to travel the world and reflect, and when I came back home, I had spent all of my savings and took the first job I could get, which was as a financial analyst on a contract with the DHS. In the meantime, I also volunteered at a PT clinic, which was what I had thought I wanted to do, and I didn't like it. I ended up doing the analyst job for about eight years before deciding to travel again and when I came back home, I got a job in insurance, which I hated, and then a job in financial services, which I loved, and have been doing ever since!
I think that is long enough! Now it's your turn!
Is the job that you are currently working (or worked in the past) related to your major in college? Do you speak any foreign languages? Have you ever encountered rudeness or meanness in a foreign country due to your nationality?
Oooh I like these answers. I have been learning Spanish, and I can get by and converse decently. I am Canadian so I have high school French, which I found was easy to refresh (DuoLingo, I love you) before we went to Quebec. I spent six months doing DuoLingo Italian lessons, which really helped, because I could have a very basic, toddler-level conversation with people. I also try to learn at least a little of local language, although where I'm going French, Spanish, Italian pretty much covers my bases.
ReplyDeleteI have a master's in economics, and I did work relatedly to that, but obviously not anymore.
I am a tad jealous of your HS French; we only had the option for Spanish and my teacher used to lay on his desk and throw pencils in the air to try to get them stuck in the ceiling. I probably did not learn much from him, is what I am saying. Good on you for learning Italian too! I can probably barely converse in Portuguese and Italian too, but mostly due to my Spanish knowledge. When I was in Brazil, I could pretty much understand most of what they were saying to me.
DeleteMy undergrad is in Nutrition and Dietetics, and I have worked zero days in the field. The next step after the degree is an internship, which you find out 3 weeks before graduation whether you get it or not - I didn't so my next move was office temp work to kill time for the next year until I could apply again. Well, by the time the next year rolled around I had climbed up the ladder from front office to working in technical support and the idea of going from a badly paying job to an unpaid internship was not appealing. Much later on I got a taste of accounting and eventually I got a master's degree in that, so when I was 39 my job finally matched my major. As you know, my ultimate career goal is not to have a job, and I hope to start "working" in my new field next summer.
ReplyDeleteI've flirted with French and German but was never fluent and haven't kept up. My greatest language triumph for French was a work trip to Quebec a long time ago where I was able to understand most of what was said. The only time that I was 100% lost was when an English speaker said something in French. My biggest German win was once I came across an old silent movie that wasn't translated. I had to pause at each title card and type anything that I didn't understand into Google translate (this was before cell phones, today I could just point my phone at the screen) so it took forever but I was able to keep up.
I love this line: As you know, my ultimate career goal is not to have a job, and I hope to start "working" in my new field next summer.
DeleteAmen sister, you really have a lofty goal there and I really hope you achieve it! :) Wow, good for you re French and German. I have never tried German, but when I was in Argentina there were a lot of signs in touristy places that were also in German and I remember laughing because I could understand a lot of it, like I think "noodles" was "das noodles" or something!
My degree is in math so my job is kind of related to my degree. Duration and convexity are first and second derivatives so I can understand the complex math behind those theoretical calculations but I would never use the word derivative in a client conversation!! I had a wandering path to my current job - first I worked in mortgages in eventually became an underwriter, then I worked in corporate finance while getting my MBA which I found incredibly boring. But I met my mentor when I was in corp fin and he eventually hired me and I haven’t looked back since!
ReplyDeleteI took some Spanish in HS and college and now use the duo lingo ap. So I can get by in very limited conversations!
I went to Spain in December 2016 after Trump had been elected and my friend and I were very quiet about being American. When people hear me talk, they can sometimes think I am Canadian because I lived so far north growing up. If someone thought I was Canadian, I wouldn’t correct them. Phil was in Spain in the early 2000s and there was a lot of protesting about the war in Iraq so it was a contentious time to be an American abroad.
Do you use the word "convexity" in your client conversations? I remember first hearing that word long ago and having no clue, but also now I wonder if the guy who used it with me would say it in a client conversation. I would think that it is beyond a lot of people's knowledge of the industry. Luckily I worked with a lot of fixed income guys, but I think even the normal managed account financial advisor probably does not really know what convexity is.
DeleteI traveled a lot during the Bush years, but did not get any pushback. Of course, now Bush looks pretty tame but at the time, he was not well loved by the international community.
No, I do not use convexity in client conversations. If it comes up, I will talk about it, but that is pretty rare! If it come up, it’s usually when discussing current coupon agency MBS since that is an area of the market that is very negatively convex. And I will talk about it with the securitized PM. Some of our sales people want to talk about convexity to sound like they are extra smart but I think it will just confuse people!
DeleteI agree that it would just confuse people, and some of your salespeople sound like some of the people I worked with, that want to be "above" others instead of putting everyone on the same level and making them more comfortable.
DeleteI put myself through college by working as a bank teller. I worked every summer and worked vacations and weekends. I started undergrad in pre-veterinary medicine, but pretty soon, the math killed me, along with organic chem. I also had an incident during a blood-typing lab that caught me by surprise--I almost fainted. I switched majors and went into secondary education, English and History. When I completed my student teaching and graduated, however, it was during the recession of the early 80s, and there were no jobs. I went back into banking until I was hired for teaching, but I was cut every year for the first three years. Finally, I had job security and then tenure and put in 30 years, plus summer school time.
ReplyDeleteI took a lot of French and can translate and read it pretty well, but because I haven't practiced it, I'd have a hard time conversing with anyone who wasn't very patient. Both my sons are fluent in Spanish, which is far more practical.
I did not know that you were in pre-veterinary medicine! I actually wanted to be a vet or a marine biologist when I was a kid, but due to not the best counciling in HS, I ended up deciding to be a physical therapist. Who knows why I picked that, maybe because I was sporty? I had no idea what it really entailed.
DeleteUnlike you, I actually enjoyed organic chem! I remember everyone in my major dreading it and when I got there, I though that it definitely was not as bad as I thought it was going to be! I was not a huge fan of Physics in college though, although I loved it in HS.
I understand a tiny bit of French, but mostly cannot keep up with any conversation. I can speak a bit more than I can listen to, but my pronunciation is horrid. I took Latin in HS and again in graduate school, partly because the pronunciation is so easy, and not a lot of accents to keep track of.
ReplyDeleteI have never encountered rudeness about being American while overseas, but when asked where we were from, instead of saying US, we would say San Francisco. Everyone loves San Francisco.
I have a BA in International Relations and an MA in Comparative Literature (both from SF State) and I have used exactly zero of those skills in my career, unless you consider the critical thinking aspect of literature, and the ability to start and finish something (a degree) counts as well I think.
Latin! I did not even know that was an option! In HS we had Spanish or nothing. I also tell people I am from San Francisco, but not so much due to trying to avoid conflict, but because it is a place that people are familiar with. Also, saying you are from the US is like saying you are from North America; there are so many different types of places and to lump them all together seems strange.
DeleteI do think that the ability to finish something counts for a lot! When we hired people (in finance) we did not really care what their major was, as long as they had graduated.
Thank. you for answering these questions, Kyria! I enjoyed learning more about you! My major was French. I lived in France for a year. It was the year of the Gulf War, and there were protests, and the American students were all told to keep quiet, don't speak English with each other, and don't announce that we were Americans. However, I never had any problems at all. Did I use my French degree? Nope. But I do think it helped me with everything in my life to experience life in another country and learn their language.
ReplyDeleteSorry - that Anonymous post is from Michelle G. ☺️
DeleteI totally agree that living in France and traveling and having to be humble about not speaking the language is probably one of the best lessons you can have! I think all kids should travel for a year between HS and college; they would learn so much in that one year that would help them be adults later in life.
DeleteI was wondering what your job was and you answered that. I didn't know you majored in kinesiology and considered being a PT. That's wild. So different from the world of finance. I majored in business. I do not enjoy business and I sort of worked in that field for a bit after college. Most of my jobs were in customer service. I run a daycare. I guess my business degree taught me a bit about how to market myself, but I feel like a lot of it is common sense. I took 3 years of French in high school. I am terrible at foreign language, like I'm missing that chip. I've not experienced anyone treat me rude. When I lived in Ireland, people were always interested and excited to meet Americans.
ReplyDeleteI got distracted while commenting. SIBO - what? I have SIBO. I've done two rounds of the antibiotics, but if it does go away, it's never gone for more than a week or so. I ended up having to go on an SSRI, which has helped calm things down so that I can sleep. I believe strongly that I have some additional issue and that SIBO is secondary to that. Sorry that you think you have it too. It's not fun.
DeleteYes, SIBO. I also did a round of antibiotics, which helped, but like you, it only helped for about a week and then voila, it was back. I did not go back to the Gastro after that becuase she was useless; I had to suggest we do a SIBO test after over a year, and it was positive and I wondered why I had to use Google to suggest it when she should have suggested it to me. So now I am kind of just dealing with it on my own because going to the doctor was useless and it cost me a lot.
DeleteThank you for including my question here! And although you responded to my question on that thread, I learned more about your career trajectory. So cool to read about other people's in the responses as well. I do have a follow-up question: Since I think I remember you said you may not work again, I wonder how you came up with the amount that you'd be able to live on. I know there are tools that FIRE community use but I didn't pay much attention to them so I really don't know what is out there.
ReplyDeleteLet me see: I majored in Accounting and worked in the field (as an auditor) my whole life! I speak another language although not fluently. When we traveled to a smaller town in Italy this past summer, I think people were tired of tourists, no matter the nationality -- we encountered people who won't acknowledge you when you try to talk to them.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
You are welcome! And I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! To figure out how much I would need to live, I used my own numbers for some things (like, as you know, I keep track of all of my spending) and ran some numbers re whether or not I would want to keep and rent out my house and how that would look vs if I sold it, and of course, then I would have to live somewhere, and how would that look etc. So a lot of it was just from my own numbers.
DeleteThe tricky thing is to figure out how much you are going to spend on healthcare. There are definitely models for figuring out your basic spending, but then there are also models for healthcare. I think the average cost is about $7500 per year for someone over 65 (don't quote me) but then if you need to go into assisted living, that can cost $70,000+ per year. So that can add up fast, and is hard to predict. Any good model will have a monte carlo function which should tell you how likely you are to have enough money until you die.
For me, I am pretty frugal, and also am okay with going to Vietnam or Turkey to get healthcare done, and may even end up living somewhere much cheaper into my old age. Who knows! Not having kids does give me some flexibility there, and the cost of living and the cost of healthcare are much cheaper in other places. So for me, I also factored that in. Additionally, I hope to live on dividends for quite some time without dipping into my principal. As you can see, I could talk about this for hours. Feel free to email me if you have more questions. My email is on my Who Am I page! :)
I forgot to say...I worked at a firm where we had a program that you could put your numbers in, which was cool because it takes inflation into account, and taxes, and does do a monte carlo. You can do this with an advisor for a one time fee, or there are probably free programs online, but I have not looked into them at all.
DeleteThose were interesting questions and great answers. I love your laid-back attitude about travel and language barriers. I think the universal language is a smile and that works everywhere :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I speak German (which is NOT my foreign language LOL), English (pretty much fluently LOL) and I could probably string together a few sentences in French, Italian and Spanish (which I took in school).