Sometimes it pays to simply live the dream

I keep banging on about life choices, being the boss and making decisions that reflect personal priorities and what's important. Of course we need to earn but we can still make our lives more of what we want by making decisions that reflect what we need.
For those who are lucky enough to have their epiphanies early on and find what it is that they really want, some will choose to work horribly long hours with the aim of putting as much money away in the short term so that they get to do what they want later on. That "later" could be years or decades down the road.
Then there are people who, faced with the difficulties of financial meltdown, create a second chance for themselves far away from the factors that led to their money crisis.
Others just get on with carving out the kind of life that they want right now.
However you choose to do this, there will be sacrifice and some sort of hardship.
Living in the UAE you could meet people who fall into the first category, so I will share some stories of people in the other two.
I'm writing this from Bocas Del Toro in Panama. It used to be a sleepy beach town, but it has morphed into a destination not only for surfers, but also people from all over the world who want a life removed from city stress and strains.
The people and their dreams may vary but they have one thing in common - they are no longer scared of change or of being outside their comfort zones.
Today I met a Scottish mother of three who, years ago, came to Bocas to take part in some voluntary wildlife conservation work.
She fell in love with the place and with her partner, and now owns an organic cocoa farm on one of the islands.
She wants her children to grow up with a sense of freedom that she never had. She played outside as a youngster but stopped while a teenager, and has a memory of wanting to stay out of the cold in her homeland.
The cocoa farm was created from scratch. Apart from the farm, the family have had to find ways to generate income, and renting out rooms and arranging cocoa tours were early cash earners.
Getting a business up and running is tough, and money is always tight at the beginning. Things such as trips back home have to be put on the back burner.
But the Scot's family is a great example of people who think through what kind of life they want for themselves, and are not only doing something about it but actually living it while they figure things out.
Then there's the woman I met hours after I arrived on the island. She was on a business trip. An American who looked at the mess she and her friends were in back home in the US, and opted out.
She used to own a business that relied on tourism to make a few hundred thousand dirhams a year. But that dried up with the credit crunch.
Her friends started to lose their homes, and she very nearly lost hers.
Instead of fighting to hold on to her life there, she took stock, looked around at where she and her family could live, earn, and have a life. She settled on Boquete, the coffee growing region of Panama, where she now sells security and surveillance systems to other entrepreneurs setting up shop in the country. She has never been happier.
The American had been in Bocas to meet clients. Her business is helped by the many people who are looking at the magical formula of cost of living, earning, and quality of life. And people from all over are increasingly deciding that Panama has the balance they seek.
I was lucky enough to stay in Panama City's old historic district before coming to Boca, and the district it is heaving with entrepreneurs - the full spectrum of younger people who want a better life for themselves and their families, and semi-retired expatriates looking for the same thing.
They were lamenting the commercialisation of Bocas and Boquete, and I can see what they mean.
The irony is that by seeking and settling in "older world" destinations with their unspoilt beaches and laid-back approach to life, they are speeding up the process of stripping away the very things that make these destinations interesting places to live.
Incomers, however, will still be a far cry from any "developed" city for many many years to come.
The important message here is that these people brushed fear aside, or at least reasoned with it, and are in control of their destiny.
If where they now live changes too much for their liking, I'm sure they'll simply up sticks and do it all over again somewhere new.
They have taken charge of their own destinies and have become their own bosses in life.
Nima Abu Wardeh is the founder of the personal finance website www.cashy.me. You can contact her at nima@cashy.me
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