Utopia vs. chimera
There are two ways of doing things: the easy way and the poor man’s way. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, congratulations.
I don’t come from extreme poverty like in the Third World, but I know what hunger feels like. Literally. When I started my journey, I was doing okay, paying my bills and even had some savings (now gone due to recent changes). Since I’ll be keeping two jobs while I stay in the city I currently live in, I expect to build a decent safety net against immediate bad surprises by the time I move to the next stage of my plan, probably next year. Besides that, I have an apartment now on sale that will bring in some cash soon, though I want to keep that money separate from my short-term savings.
So, while I’m stuck here for a while, I’m using this time to plan ahead.
To succeed in becoming a ghost, I need a stable, very secure source of income. A remote job sounds good, but it’s not enough at 53, so I’m working on a plan B just in case. This affects my future life options, and I’m currently mapping out the different paths I could take. Here are two examples of what I’m considering:
First, I could move to a country I’m not particularly interested in and start a business there. You can open a business anywhere, but this place is convenient and “safer” for me since I have a friend there with market experience who’s willing to help if I choose this option. The problem with this path is that it pulls me away from my ghost goals, at least for a few years, until (assuming everything goes perfectly) I could rent it out or something and move on.
Second, I could invest the money from my apartment in financial products, keep my remote job, and hope for the best. That invested money wouldn’t be enough to solve anything in a real catastrophe, especially if it happens when I’m too old to start a business or anything else. But something is better than nothing, and it could at least delay inevitable poverty in the long run. In this case, my best bet would be moving to a very cheap country (I already have several options), saving as much as possible, and waiting. I wouldn’t be able to travel around to become a true ghost, so my project would fail, but I could try to live while avoiding human connections, slowly fading without moving. Not what I’m aiming for, but okay.
These are just a couple of possibilities, but my plan is much broader and covers many other options, each with its pros and cons, bringing me closer to or further from my ultimate goal of becoming a ghost roaming the world until death. I’m still working on it: thinking ahead, researching, planning, and looking for alternatives in case this or that happens.
Having access to the easy way makes success depend only on your will. I don’t have that luxury, and failure is a very real possibility in my plan, but I’m not concerned about it, nor do I fear it. I’m winning just by trying. I still believe it’s not impossible if I make the right choices and stick to what’s realistic every time. This journey has just begun, and we’ll see what happens in the end.