Exploring the Unknown

Good morning!

I hope this finds you well.

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to live the life you actually want to live.

Thank you for your continued support.

If you enjoy The Matt Viera Newsletter, please forward this email to one person you believe would enjoy reading this.

I am currently finishing up the 13th year of my current career. 13 years. It’s the longest job I ever had.

Before that, it was the US Army for 8 years.

Between those 2 careers, I bounced around a few different jobs, went to law school, and was unemployed a couple of times (for longer than I care to admit).

During those periods of unemployment, I seriously considered some significant life changes.

Why?

Being unemployed without any job prospects can be an experience that’s demoralizing and disconcerting and will really have you questioning your self-worth.

You apply for jobs, and most of the time, you don’t receive a response.

If you do receive a response, it’s often negative.

If the company is interested in you, you schedule an interview, interview, and then wait for a response, which, more often than not, is negative.

And the cycle repeats.

All the while, you’re burning through any financial safety net you managed to save.

For me, it got to a point where I was using credit cards to pay my bills.

I remember clearly the day I spent my last $40 cash on groceries without any job prospects.

Shortly afterward (before I ran out of groceries), a solo attorney in Brooklyn hired me to help him with his litigation caseload in Brooklyn Housing Court.

I learned what I could as fast as I could and leveraged that job into a better-paying one with a Manhattan law firm.

But that Manhattan law firm wasn’t a good fit for me either: the pay wasn’t great, I didn’t have any benefits, and I only had one week of vacation per year.

Don’t get me started on the holiday bonus.

Ultimately, I quit practicing law, landed on my feet, and am in a great position professionally and financially.

But, there are days when I wonder where I’d be in life if I did pursue some of those life changes I seriously considered when I was unemployed.

What were some of the significant life changes I seriously considered?

Check this out:

I seriously considered moving permanently to Africa.

I spent some time in Zimbabwe in the Army; it was one of my favorite life experiences of all time.

When I considered moving to Africa, I didn’t know where I would move to.

I thought Zimbabwe would be an excellent place to start.

Because of my background as a soldier, I believed I’d be a good fit as a ranger to prevent poachers from killing elephants and rhinos.

The only thing that stopped me: Africa is far. You move to Africa, and there’s no coming back. At least, that’s what I believed at the time.

Next, I considered joining the French Foreign Legion.

“The French Foreign Legion is an elite corps of the French Army….It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army.”

Again, with my background as a soldier, I believed I’d be a good fit.

What was the only thing that stopped me? Truth be told, it was fear. I did not know what to expect if I followed through with that decision.

On a side note, during my second mini-retirement in Europe, we were in Madrid when I learned that Spain also has a Foreign Legion.

Had I known about the Spanish Foreign Legion when considering the French Foreign Legion, I’m 99% certain I may have jumped on that opportunity.

The last life change I considered was becoming a smokejumper.

“Smokejumpers are highly trained wildland firefighters who parachute into wildfires from airplanes to quickly suppress them.”

Perfect. I was a paratrooper in the Army, was in decent physical condition at the time, and had nothing to lose.

But I did have one strike against me: I have a bad knee.

And any “physical defect sufficient to impair efficiency or endanger fellow workers will disqualify the applicant.”

That bad knee disqualified me from becoming a paratrooper in the Army.

But, I was able to circumvent that disqualification using a loophole (I was born to be an attorney) to become a paratrooper.

I never had an issue jumping from planes in the Army because of my bad knee.

But I was approaching 40 at the time I thought of becoming a smokejumper.

If my bad knee had the potential to “endanger fellow workers,” it wasn’t worth my time or energy to pursue something I may not ultimately qualify for.

So, I practiced law until I was fed up and then rolled the dice:

I transitioned to education.

I believe I lasted in education as long as I have (and probably the same reason I stayed in the Army for as long as I did) because it’s a career that allows me to travel.

I always have something to look forward to.

Does that mean any of the significant life changes I considered wouldn’t be a good fit?

I can only speculate because I didn’t try.

But, I did try a career in education, and it ultimately worked out for me.

What’s the point of all this?

The point of all this is to encourage you to:

• Don’t settle

• Explore your options

• Avoid the status quo

You may not end where you want to be.

But you may end up where you need to be.

What caught my attention:

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”

—Eric Hoffer

You can find the collection of financial tools & resources that helped me grow from a 6-figure debt to a 6-figure net worth by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

Please feel free to reply to this email with suggestions, questions, or comments.

I read every email.

If you have a question about personal finance, travel, or mini-retirements, email me and ask and I’ll discuss the answer in a future article.

If you enjoy The Matt Viera Newsletter, please forward this email to one person you believe would enjoy reading this.

I’m ready to follow you on X (formerly known as Twitter)!

I definitely want to read past articles of The Matt Viera Newsletter!

I’m not a subscriber to The Matt Viera Newsletter and I’m ready to subscribe!