Dear readers,

You guys know that I preach frugality a lot. But I’ve also told you many times that it is all about enjoying the road. Money is not the end goal. Many people would trade money for meaning relationships, health, experiences, etc. If you’re working towards an early retirement, you have to learn how to enjoy the road as well as you meet your expectations and goals, while being frugal.

While this may sound difficult or counter intuitive, I bring you a nice example. I recently flew from Lisbon to Frankfurt in business class, as I was able to upgrade my coach ticket with mile points. I enjoyed the whole thing pretty much, and I would like to share it with you!

In Lisbon, the first / business class lounge is pretty much crazy. High quality espresso and all sorts of sandwiches, fruit, all newspapers and magazines, you name it. There is tons of space too. The chairs are super comfy:

After the lounge, I had this breakfast on my TAP flight, on Tuesday:

 

TAP is my favorite flight operator. However, I had much better meals at TAP when flying first class. I am not saying that I didn’t enjoy it, but I’ve seen TAP doing better!

I didn’t like the Frankfurt first class lounge on the way back: the quality of the food is not even close to that of the Lisbon lounge, and its super crowded and noisy! On the upside, my dinner with Lufthansa was awesome:

Everything you see in the picture was god damn delicious! After a nice, refreshing night of sleep, at a cool hotel in Lisbon, I had this breakfast:

Yes, a king’s breakfast!

So, I hope this motivates you both to work towards financial independence and enjoying the road.

Best

Ben