Facing Mortality: The Second Edition

First Edition

Before I started coding I applied and did the applitude test to get into the Australian Army. I achieved a score that enabled me to select the SAS as my first pick. I was medically unfit to join however. I felt the urge to join the Army, but we cannot always get what we want. Ever since, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in my life. I worked at a retail store and was training to be a security guard at a casino, this was around 18-19 years old. Then covid hit and my security course was called off.

Second Edition

$1800 AUD flight from Dubai to Singapore. Editing my pending podcast episodes then decided to watch Convalent and the American Sniper. By the end of the American Sniper I’m reflecting on what is the real meaning of life when it can be taken away so quickly at any time. You might be in the middle of working on a hobby project and get wind that you have x amount of time to walk this earth.

At that point what do you revert to doing?

Spend your remaining time with family and friends, reflectng on your life in terms of what memories you’ve created, what you wish you did differently, the chances you wish you took, the choices you’ve made. An approach to decision making after my first experience of mortality has been: “what would you regret not doing the most?“. Then the answer for the decision becomes obvious in the moment, and at the end of the day all you can do is take calculated bets from derterming the trade-offs between options.

Before setting off to become a digital nomand and explore the world for the first time I contacted a financial advisor in hopes to optimise tax for the smart contract exploit generation tool I have been building. I hastely made the decision with the limited information and experience I had to relocate continents and reside in Dubai, UAE. When I arrived I instantly felt the weight of the decision. The subject persepctive you face when you’re physically in that position rather than the objective, on paper, thought of the decision. It turns out the reality was much different to what I expected. From the moment I entered my airbnb I felt deep regret and sadness that I had left my home town, that I didn’t appreciate due to my lack of knowledge of the rest of the world, with my fmaily and friends. My thought behind the move was to make it with my startup, get tax free money for the following 3 years and return back to Australia. My biggest fear was my family becoming sick while I resided in another country. After 1 month in I started my podcast and was getting somewhat okay with the decision. Another month went by and although I was missing my family, I was excelling in my career. After the second month I moved into my first apartment ever in a really nice area, however it lacked something. I lacked something. It was the family and friends I once had close to me. I was finally alone. Isolated from my family. I met people from dating apps because I had no reason to go out partying/bars because I wanted to work on my startup and fufil my vision, the sole intention of relocating. On the 11th of September I rang up my grandfather to see how things were. And it turns out the worst thing that could of happend, did. And so naturally with my deciison making progress of regrest, I booked a flight on the 13th and am currently as of 13/08/2023, 3:23am almost back in Australia.

I talked with a handful of people who I consider my close friends that were available at the time, discussing the purpose of what they do, what they value, what they would do - move back to Australia or remain in Dubai after going to visit my family for a while. Despite them all being well off financially, the consensus between them all was that the taxes you pay in your country is the price of being in that country and despite earning upwords to 750k USD a year, hey still would remain in their high-tax payming country.

And you might be like me and think to yourself, why?

The reason behind this thinking is that their families and freinds are there, its their hole town, and relocating wouldn’t actually change anything apart from resetting their life. Money is the tool to choose what life you want. And when you think of it, you shouldn’t move to earn more but you should reach a target that will allow you to live the life you want, in the current tax system and try to optimise it within your country. I’ve come to the conclusion I only need 60k AUD to live comfortably since I don’t depend on materialistic things. Only the satisfaction from doing things others cannot or wont do, traveling and making memories with the people I cherish. I have learned this now, after moving to Dubai and having been put in the situation where I face mortality again with a family member. No matter how much money you make, life will always revert back to your values and what you care about in life.

Towards the end of the first flight, I