Ep517: Nik Kennett – Tap into the Power of Journaling

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win an investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. To reduce risk in your life, go to my worst investment ever.com today and take the risk reduction assessment I've created from the lessons I've learned from all of my guests. It's time you start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. Fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest, Nick Kennett. Nick, are you ready to rock?

Nik Kennett 00:47
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, well,

Andrew Stotz 00:50
I appreciate you joining this mission. And I'm going to introduce you to the audience one second. So Nick Cannon and his wife, Allie are a US based couple with a love of travel and adventure currently, on a self funded six months sabbatical through Europe, and Asia, they attribute much of their success to financial planning and the accumulation of over 1.7 million credit card points. And miles, Nick and Ollie believe in the transformative power of travel, and then an intentional sabbatical or gap year can be an incredible form of personal development, and a great way to forge lasting bonds as a family, or a couple. This is why they've committed to document their journey, and provide useful tips and advice around how to plan and afford travel away together, which is their site and YouTube channel. My goodness, Nick, take a minute and tell us about the value you bring to the world.

Nik Kennett 01:50
Absolutely. Thanks, Andrew. Well, I want to back up for just a second to kind of give you the context. There's a lot of travel content creators out there. And I think like so many of them, I had those moments where I fell in love with travel, I fell in love with world travel at a young age, I had the chance to take a mission trip to Peru at the age of 15. And that was I think my first glimpse out of my little bubble. Got to study abroad in China in grad school, and then, you know, had done some international travel. By the time I had met my wife, Ali. Ali had never been on an airplane before we met. So I had to change that. So we started doing some travel once we got married. And for me, and this is part of that differentiation, that value. Travel has really become a shared purpose. In our marriage. There's research by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, about the connections that you can forge, through travel, some of the ideas they explore are that travel creates stronger family connection, it improves relationships, and it reduces the likelihood of divorce. And it increases your individual and overall happiness. combined that with I think, you know, like so many of your listeners. I'm into personal finance. And I had sort of heard about this idea of a mini retirement or taking a sabbatical. And just with where Ali and I were in our season of life. I love this idea of let's take a six month sabbatical as a way to pivot as a way to step back as a way to focus on what matters and to write a story that we're going to love to tell our kids and grandkids someday. So I say all that to say like, I think our point of differentiation is the sabbatical angle. I don't see a lot of content out there. There's a lot of financial info about, hey, how could you save your way to a mini retirement? Or how could you use a gap year as a way to bridge jobs, but there's not a lot out there really explaining the steps to do it. And then how to do it in a meaningful way mentally, to help you get your own mind, right to help you pivot in life and to help you create those lasting bonds with your family with your loved ones. So that you guys have a shared connection and stories you're going to talk about for the rest of your life.

Andrew Stotz 04:36
That's so much, you know so much in that I mean, that I'm thinking about, I never thought about the angle that you build, you strengthen your family relationships, but now as you raise that, whoever you're traveling with, you just get closer when you're experiencing, you know, new environments so that that part is really fascinating. The other thing of what you're saying is You know, there are a lot of people that have, you know, travel blogs or something, and then they just go drifting off into space about all the different things that they're doing and stuff. When you use the word sabbatical, it kind of means to me, like, I'll be back, I'll be back into my job, or I'll be on my work. And that's a different angle. Also, from my perspective,

Nik Kennett 05:21
for sure, you know, so much of that financial independence or fire movement is about how quickly can I get to the point where I never have to work again. Now I've heard you use a phrase on this show before work optional, which, which I love. But for myself, personally, there's only so long I can sit on a beach and set my ties, you know, I need purpose, I need something to do. So we both knew, we're going to come back, we're going to be working. And I think I think for most, that's more attainable, and more achievable. And you don't have to just eat rice and beans for 10 straight years. So then you can start living, you could take steps now. Take a little pause, take a little break, get reinvigorated, and then get back at it.

Andrew Stotz 06:09
Yeah, do it now. So ladies and gentlemen, you can go to a way to what is, let's see a way together.com. And I'll have a link to that in the show notes so that you guys can learn more. And now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking will be tell us about the circumstance leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Nik Kennett 06:36
You bet I want to tell you a couple stories. They're short, one of which is horribly embarrassing, and the other, which was a bummer at the time, but they're both related to the same investment, so to speak. And they're both actually related to this trip. So for the first month or so of our sabbatical, we were traveling around Croatia, and then we spent a little time in Slovenia, and Northern Italy as well. And connecting those dots. It's just easier to explore that region by car. It's simpler. A lot of Europe has great rail, but kind of in that section is just easy by car. So we had a car for a few weeks. And the time finally came for us to cross from Croatia into Italy. The morning could not have been going better, Andrew, we had to take a COVID test to get from Croatia, Italy as we were going to cross that border. So we got up we take our test negative going great, we were going to be arriving at our destination by about 10am have the entire day to explore this part of Italy. I see we're getting low on fuel. So I have to pull over we go to a gas station, fill up the car, I grabbed the pump, start filling it up, go in pay the attendant hop back in the car, we start making our way back down the road and I probably get 100 meters down the road. And the car just stops. And I hear the engine trying to turn over and then eventually just nothing. When I finally figured out what happened, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I wanted to just crawl underground and start crying. Our vehicle was diesel. And I knew it was diesel when I rented it. And when we pulled over at that gas station, I specifically went to the green pump. There was only one fuel option there and it had the green handle. Now, if you're from the United States, the green handle almost always means diesel. I put petrol I put unleaded fuel in our diesel car. And so, you know, okay, First, there's the inconvenience of we had to wait for a tow truck, we had to get towed all the way back to Croatia. We had to walk to the rental car place, get another car and then we finally get to our destination we were going to be at by 10am and it's like 5pm So that was, you know, like, I'm like, Oh my gosh, Ally's never going to talk to me again. But the worst part was, I mean, there are few worst things you could do to a vehicle, then, you know, put unleaded fuel on diesel engine or, or vice versa. So I was so terrified that this was going to completely end our sabbatical, you know, because I was going to have to pay for this car vehicle. I'll circle back around. I want to tell you the second story really quick. About 10 days into our trip we had a family emergency. I won't go into quite as much detail here but someone really close to us got seriously ill. And we were devastated it, it became a dark cloud over the trip. We made a tough decision that we needed to go home and we needed to go quickly. Now, I don't know if you've ever needed to book a flight in, like 24 hours and overseas one, but out of pocket that was about $3,600. And that was another one of those situations where I was devastated if you know it, we were worried that that expense could, again, like shorten or end the sabbatical, but we knew we there was no question in our mind, we had to go home. I think we'd live with regret for the rest of our lives if we hadn't. Okay, so I share all of that, to tell you this. I would have had a much harder time telling you these stories if we didn't have travel insurance. I don't sell travel insurance. Let me say that right upfront, maybe I should with stories like this. But prior to leaving for our sabbatical, I took out an insurance policy to cover our whole trip. One of the benefits of that is trip interruption. So those flights that we had to book 24 Completely covered the vehicle thankfully, not as much damage had been done, as could have been done. But that was covered by some insurance coverages we had. I know that's not technically a worse situation. But I think the story and the holy crap kind of moments in both of these would resonate. And as you talk about reducing risk. This is the best example from our trip and and you know, kind of currently top of mind for me of anybody out there spying on doing some travel, you better be looking at getting a travel insurance policy.

Andrew Stotz 11:55
That's a great advice. So maybe I'll share a couple things. You know, also, I always tell people that you know, there is an option to getting insurance. And that is get rich, you know, get five or 10 million in the bank. And then all of a sudden, that surprise thing is not very meaningful in the scheme of things. But for the rest of us. We get insurance. Absolutely. I just was kind of thinking, I have a book over here on my bookshelf, that is called ramblings of an architect. And my grandfather wrote it about his father. And they had an architectural firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and for maybe 100 years in the family. And then, but what was fun is going through the stories of my great grandfather's travels through Europe. And look at he drew pictures. And so are all these pictures of, you know, castles in mountains, and just these amazing things that he saw a while stories of it, and it just, you know, I never had that kind of, I did I have traveled a lot to Europe, but it's always kind of work, which I don't, I don't regret. I really love what I do. And so it's kind of fun. And so the travel part, you know, I just like, I like going around, but just, I guess that my biggest takeaway really is the enjoyment that you're getting in your travel. Whereas my travel has been mainly work related insurance reminded me of in the old days, and of course, in the old days. You know, if you run out of money, you're in trouble. You're gonna have to get a job in Italy, you know, yeah. And my grandfather, my great grandfather told a story of how, by the time he finished the trip, he worked. He got back to England. So he'd been gone around Europe for a few months. He got back to England, and he's out of money. And the lady and he has a ticket back on a ship to get back. And the lady where he's boarding. He asked her Would you mind if I paid you when I got back to America? And I'll send you the money. Can you imagine? You know, and, and my grandma and my grandfather told me my great grandfather told the story of how she accepted that and when he got back he he mailed her the $5 or the five pounds

Nik Kennett 14:28
Wow. So we're living in a different world today.

Andrew Stotz 14:31
It's a very different world where you know you don't get access to cash. You know, you carrying most of the cash that you're going to spend you know, all of those different things that we don't think about you travel in the old days. So yeah, a lot, a lot of fun there. Anything else any other experience that you would share? Because I think there's a lot of people really that would love to be doing what you're doing?

Nik Kennett 14:54
Well, I guess I would say tactically related to travel any great experience or advice? Keep a journal. Yeah, very similar to what you were just talking about, document what you're doing, you know what we're filming a lot of our travels and that that goes in into YouTube. But, you know, there's so much that's been said about the power of journaling, writing things down. And, you know, from many of my past trips, I still go back and read my journals, it's a great way while you're there to appreciate, and sort of process what you've seen. But then also, you can go back and you can remember things that maybe just a photograph, won't, won't bring to life. And

Andrew Stotz 15:47
I'm going to ask you a question. And then I'm going to leave the mic, and I'm going to go get this my great grandfather, okay, journal. But the question I'm gonna ask you, I want you to think about for a second is, how do you journal because like, when I look at sometimes when I try to journal, it's really mundane stuff. So think about that question. I'm going to go get that one second. So my question was, how do you journal? My journaling is pretty mundane. And I'm just curious, like, how do you make it so that you know, you Journal? Well.

Nik Kennett 16:38
There are a lot of different approaches, most of the time, my approach is very kind of summarizing the day. It's very kind of observational, I just talked through the day, but especially on a trip of this magnitude, where it's more of a sabbatical than just, hey, we're taking a 10 day vacation. I'm trying to ask, how did I feel at the time? What was I processing at the time? You know, through travel, you're just making way more decisions, then you are at home, and you're just in, we were talking before we started recording, you're out of your routine, a lot of your normal go to processes and things don't work. So there are more opportunities to get frustrated, more opportunities for arguments. And so some of the documentation is just summarizing what we did that day, but some of it is. How did I feel? What was I? What was I struggling with? What are some of my doubts, and yeah, just it's more about documentation and capturing. I would say that anything.

Andrew Stotz 17:47
Yeah. And I guess that the trick is, do it your own style. So yeah, here's the book. For the listeners out there. You can't see it. But it's called the ramblings of ramblings of an architect. And that's my great grandfather, wow, my grandfather pulled this together. It wasn't just his travels. And, you know, this is the way books used to be copy, which we call mimeographed. And you can see that it's blue text. And this is a family document is, you know, a very old, you know, and here's some pictures, for instance, of his travel. Wow. And these aren't pictures, they're pencil draw. Sure. For the listener out there. This is St. Marys in. And another one, a fort, it looks like and my grandpa, my great grandfather drew those pictures in drawing and so he everywhere he went, he just drew but some of the fun stories. So you really inspire inspire us. So let me ask you think about, I feel like I got the answer to the question about what one action would you recommend our listeners take? And I would say, get insurance.

Nik Kennett 18:57
Tactically, I highly recommend travel insurance, I would also add, you know, this, this kind of plays into my second story, but then also just our overall story. Bigger Picture, I would say create space in your life to focus on what's important, you know, for us that was taking the sabbatical to transition from one season of life to another but that that second example of having to go home making that decision to go home, um, it was pausing this what we thought was a trip of a lifetime to go be with family in their time of need. It would have been harder to do that without travel insurance. So I would say it's kind of a both the hand. But yeah.

Andrew Stotz 19:38
All right. So what's uh, what's a resource that you would recommend for our listeners?

Nik Kennett 19:43
Absolutely. Well, I've actually been working on a resource, I put together a guide. It's called guide to going away. It's basically about how to put together your own sabbatical or mini retirement or gap You're very similar to what Ali and I are doing. There's so much more to navigate than just earning points and miles or, you know, asking for time off from work and yeah, you can get that at a way together. COMM slash worst.

Andrew Stotz 20:15
Boom, there you go, ladies and gentlemen away together.com/worse And I'll have a link in the show notes to that sounds interesting. I think I'm going to need to read that because you made me want to travel. Alright, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months.

Nik Kennett 20:33
My goal is to use this experience and our adventure. What picked up about sabbaticals international travel, international travel during COVID points in miles etc to help other people travel more and to create those bonds with their loved ones, you know, whether that be through a trip or or just you know, taking some time off to to refocus and so far it's, it's been great. We've heard stories of people we've been able to inspire. And we want to keep doing that.

Andrew Stotz 21:10
I've never been to Slovenia, and some of the other areas that you mentioned, but I have been in Northern Italy and it's just beautiful. And I just remember going from espresso shop to espresso shop. probably had about 10 espressos a day. Because it's just so easy to stand up and drink. So

Nik Kennett 21:30
I love Italy, that is one of our favorite places in the world.

Andrew Stotz 21:33
food's great. Espresso is amazing. So yeah, well listeners, there you have it another story of laws to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever.com Right now, and start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude, Nick, I want to thank you, again, for joining our mission. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Nik Kennett 22:07
I just want to say thank you, and to your listeners. Really, really appreciate you taking the time. I want to challenge you to think about what you want, write it down and work like crazy to make it happen.

Andrew Stotz 22:26
And download that guide to going away ladies and gentlemen, that's a lot of gold in there. That's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth. Remember ladies and gentlemen, this is a podcast about one guest one story one mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying I'll see you on the outside.