Story Time - How the Nomadic Accountant was born

I was a huge saver ever since I started making my first paychecks.  Even as a kid, I can remember my grandmother drilling into my head - “Ashley, save your money.”  

I didn’t allow myself a lot of the every day conveniences or indulgences that most people buy without even thinking.  All with the goal of financial independence and early retirement or (FIRE if you’re in the know).  We saved over 50% of our income and had a nice healthy nest egg, which was great.  But I was working in a job that left me stressed and burned out.  It paid well, but the stress was so heavy at times that it felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest, and I just wasn’t fulfilled by it.  Que everyone’s favorite pandemic “COVID-19”.

Have you ever read a book that just hit you at the right time, under the right circumstances, and your whole worldview just changed?  

Well I don’t want to say that a book changed my life…but it kinda did.  The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin was that book.  It was just the perfect book, at the perfect time for my specific set of life circumstances.

“Freedom isn’t the ability to do whatever you want. It’s the willingness to do whatever you want”  ~Seth Godin (emphasis mine)

This quote in particular B-R-O-K-E my brain.  I kept telling myself all these years that I was saving ALL THE MONEY so I would have the Ability to buy myself the freedom of Retirement early.  Decades early even…but at what COST.  

I was miserable, stressed, and depressed.  I wasn’t actually living now!  I was putting off actually living TODAY, for a future, that I finally realized, wasn’t guaranteed.

I mulled this quote over for weeks, asking myself what this would mean to me if I was actually Willing to do whatever I wanted, now.   And what that freedom meant to me was RV style travel that I dreamed I would do in retirement.  But I didn’t just want a crappily made, old, leaky RV…and you gotta remember, I was cheap!  So we bought a school bus instead and took a little over a year and a half making it our home.  Lots of blood sweat & tears went into it’s construction, but it taught me not only about carpentry, plumbing, electrical, solar, tiling, and cabinetry…it taught me a whole lot about myself and what I was capable of…most of all that “everything is figureoutable.”  Another great book by Marie Forleo.

Working remotely for the first time and then for a full 2 years during Covid, proved what I already knew…this work can be done from anywhere.  So while the skoolie build was a great Covid project, after building our bus for over a year, my company wanted asses back in seats.  My wife and I had already planned to take some time off to travel, but the option to continue to pull a paycheck was really tempting even though I knew I couldn’t continue to take the stress.  

So we decided to “Make the Leap” and hit the road in “Netty” the @BigLeapBus.  We traveled from Naples, FL to Glacier National Park in NW Montana after meandering our way through the west, before turning back around to return to our hometown in Louisiana for a family tragedy.  

Now after having a year off to recuperate, and really considering if a corporate or even accounting related field was right for me, I knew that now was the time to make another Big Leap.  This time, into building a firm of my own.  Building a business that helps small business owners was something I’ve dreamed of doing since college, but I didn’t have the guts.  I knew I was “smart”, I knew I could do the work, but I was terrified of rejection and failure.  

Building this bus and a full year on the road has taught me so many lessons, but the one that I will carry with me is that I’ve got this…no matter what comes my way.  And you do to, and I’m here to help.