Hey, everybody. This is Anthony Otomo and you’ll have to excuse me if what I’ve written seems a bit off. I’ve been drinking VSOP very heavily for the past few days. I thought I’d touch on my journey from being a slave to where I’m at now and the future goal of being free.
“Free” can mean so much to so many, but for me free meant never having to answer to anyone. It meant doing what I want to do with no consequence other than my own guilt (which the cognac is extremely adept at silencing). And most importantly it meant being my own master. Retiring at 65 when my plumbing doesn’t work and I’ve only got 2 or 3 marbles left rolling around upstairs is not free.
Roping myself to a huge house in Small Town Suck with friends of convenience and a few blood-sucking kids is not free. And trading my soul for a 7/11 on every corner and cable TV is a trade I’m not willing to make. And it is not free.
I started out like lots of guys you know. I got married young and joined the air force. I thought to myself “Why not? Maybe I’ll get to Japan”. The closest I would get to the East was south Jersey where I spent 6 years taking orders from incompetent superiors, using my spare time to play video games and drinking with people whom if giving the choice I’d just assume not know.
After 6 years of fixing jets in the snow I traded vocations within the military. Took some IT training and moved to Arizona (that’s minus 1 wife and plus 1 kid). In Arizona, the place of my birth I found some comfort in familiarity. It’s the comfort cancer patients find in giving up. They make peace with death and accept the inevitable.
Then one day while I was driving back from the grind I had a moment of sheer terror.
I could see my next 20 years ahead of me……………………and I had never felt so bad in my life.
After a “vacation” back to New Jersey to see a friend I got back to the grind and found out that 7 of my coworkers were getting ready to go to the Middle East. Not on a military assignment. They were going over as Civilian Contractors. When I found out how much they were making it was then that I realized that this was it.
This was my way out - This was escape plan zero, this was my chance to get out of the rat race. Funny enough when thinking about it, I remember that I actually had to be convinced to do it.
I had 9 years in and was half way to my pension. My boss at the time (the best boss I ever had by the way) told me “heck, I have 16 years in and I’m thinking about taking it.” I owe him about as much as I owe anyone else. If it wasn’t for his push I’d still be there drinking a big ole glass of suck.
The heck with it. I got the freak outta Dodge and took a job in the Middle East.
On the way there I just happen to meet a gentleman named Mr. Smith. At first I thought he was a huge pervert (I’m a pretty good judge of character), but after BS’ing with him I found out that not only was he a pervert, but he was doing something that I wanted to be doing, but was never able to verbalize to myself.
It’s like an itch in the back of your brain that you’re constantly aware of that would disappear if you only you had the cipher to decode it. The desire to be free.
Expat Free.
Lots of guys talk about getting rich and they do it as if talking makes it so.
Mr. Smith was on a 6 month self financed vacation in Bali before I met him. Mr. Smith wasn’t a talker and if he did talk I made it a point to listen. He set me on a path to attain wealth and I took it upon myself to expand on whatever he gave.
He would say “get a book on real estate”. I would buy 3. I learned how to study, save and look for and create opportunities for myself. Opportunity happens to us all. Being prepared makes all the difference in the world.
So where am I now??
I’ve got six figures in the bank and I’m in Waikiki showing my daughter places my father couldn’t afford to show me when I was 9. I’ve got plans that aren’t the drunken ramblings of a cubicle monkey, but the XYZ to a free existence. Money isn’t a concern anymore and only the goal matters.
Am I free yet???
No - But I’m close. So close I can smell it on every glass of cognac I drink and in every Italian suit I put on and every Cuban cigar I smoke. Every time I can pay somebody to do something that I used to do by myself I know that goal is just over the horizon.
If you see me in Bangkok this month come and say “Hi”.
Drinks on me……………………….I’m buying out the Friggin’ bar.
Anthony Otomo is an IT contractor living a somewhat nomadic lifestyle (traveling wherever the money takes him). He is currently working in Iraq and plans to put down roots in Jakarta, Indonesia in the near future. He is happily divorced with a daughter.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Summary:
“I wanted to be rich/free.
Someone told me to read a book on real estate.
I read a book on real estate.
Now Im rich/free.”
very informative and unique.
from Ukraine: cool site man, i will be back.
posts like this keep the hope in what passes for my soul alive. here i sit in my cubicle, here i sit, here i sit…..thank you for reminding me why i dream and save and am not renewing my contract here in the states for next year.
Im glad you guys liked the article. Im glad that some else also shares the view that we are NOT meant to be punchin the clock all the way to the grave.
I bought those books on real estate and used my savings, now im a male hooker on hollywood trying to pay off the mafia for the money i owe.
Thanks Anthony!!!
I’m currently in Afghanistan working as a contractor. I’m only 20; I’m impatient I wanted to get an early start. I just got back from Thailand and I had THE BEST TIME of my life. I was planning my next trip and I stumbled upon this site. This is what my life is gonna be all about for the next couple years and I love it. I’m no longer a sheep confined to the feckless life accepting the rediculous rhetoric of my teachers, parents, and peers. When I’m on vacation I’m living a life that many literally only dream about.