Chapter 1

Introduction: Who Are Beyond Your Means Travelers?

Beyond Your Means travelers are varied in their differing approaches to life. Perhaps the one common denominator is a true passion for living life to the fullest at any given opportunity. Many practitioners don’t necessarily associate with one another because the only unifying trait among them is financial irresponsibility or the disdain for securing gainful employment. Each lives the Beyond Your Means lifestyle on his or her own terms, but in the spirit of Maslow’s hierarchy, self-actualization is the goal that allows each traveler to fully embrace an individual niche.
It is also important to understand which approach to take before boarding the plane. This can have vast implications concerning 1) the justification for your vacation, 2) realizing your actual motives, and 3) your subsequent packing. Such an individualized approach to traveling comes with the caveat that certain traits are only exhibited while living in the fantasy world of travel abroad. Beyond Your Means travelers, however, are often stuck in a state of alternate reality and may occasionally exhibit these traits domestically—much to the chagrin of their comrades.
There are varying interpretations of the categories that Beyond Your Means travelers fall into, but the following are some of the more classic examples:

Artistic/Writer Type
This is a very broad category for Beyond Your Means travelers, as it includes those who hopelessly romanticize the ex-pat lifestyle and long for yesteryear, while overlooking the operative word, “fiction,” in “historical fiction.” These particular individuals love nothing more than sitting at Parisian cafés and using a verbally baroque style to philosophize about world issues or whatever may tickle their proverbial fancy. In Paris, they might proudly adorn their heads with berets and their faces with sly smirks, while forgetting their car payments awaiting them back home. They’ve been telling their friends for years about a book idea they are supposedly perfecting, but in Paris, they unsolicitedly share with other café patrons that their many books have already been published, only under a secretive nom de plume.

Jet-Setter
In the mind of this particular traveler, descendants of European royalty or the children of Arab oil barons could, at any given time, recognize him on the rue as one of their own—or at least ponder where they have seen him before. Always wearing black designer sunglasses and a black coat, he isn’t above calling an exclusive bar and asking for a private entrance for “security purposes.” The realization that Prince William doesn’t have him on speed dial is easily forgotten during a stint in any glitzy international city, especially Paris.
Professional Nomad
A professional nomad likely lives a Beyond Your Means lifestyle just about everywhere because no location is ever home for very long. This is the kind of person whose life is always an adventure as he moves around the world for various jobs or other reasons. Once the local restaurant selection grows tiring, he moves. A professional nomad can easily reconcile his expensive travel habits with his inadequate income under the guise of a “you only live once” philosophy. Considering that numerous creditors and relatives have all but taken a hit out on them, changing addresses frequently is not always a bad idea.

Aging Collegiate Who Can’t Let Go
Inside every Beyond Your Means traveler exists the spirit of a fifth-year senior who just isn’t quite ready to grow-up. For some travelers, this is the driving personality that leads to drinking binges and decisions generally reserved for twenty-year-olds. Despite age or adult situations, some travelers are still dominated by their inner frat boy. A special quality reserved for this type of traveler is having the fortitude to resist the criticism of friends who continually encourage him to “grow up” or “leave those days behind.” He also is known to enjoy watching the sunrise on the Seine each morning, not as part of a romantic interlude but because he doesn’t have the frame of mind to remember where he is staying.

The One-Timer
While it is contrary to the general principles of Beyond Your Means traveling, there are those who strive to take a vacation to Paris using this prescribed methodology only once. This individual is more acceptable to society, as she doesn’t continually find reasons to make irresponsible decisions, but when traveling, she isn’t part of the typical categories. A pure Beyond Your Means traveler spits in the face of bourgeois prejudices, but the “one-timer” tries not to rock the boat too much. By and large, the one-timer will use this trip as a capstone to an event in life or an appropriate interlude between life phases. Quite dissimilar to the Beyond Your Means archetype, a one-timer will habitually be honest about her life at home and see no need to take poetic license when entertaining others with tales of forthcoming novels or diplomatic connections.

Raison d’être
While the idea of voyaging to France is something understandable to the masses, traveling in the Beyond Your Means fashion may seem strange to those without this peculiar perspective. A Beyond Your Means traveler often needs little reason or excuse to personally justify quitting a job or putting life on hold to live in the City of Lights. Not everyone, however, understands this approach. Considering that many travel guides assume that readers’ general priorities are career and future, rather than leisure and decadence, it is necessary to rationalize seemingly poor decisions to family and friends in terms they can respect. Since most are not able to grasp the je ne sais quoi of spending a month in Paris, it is important to develop alternate reasons to articulate to those who are so quick to condemn.
The suggestions given here can be easily adapted, depending on the situation of the traveler. For example, a recent college graduate has much more leverage than a thirty-five-year-old in claiming a need to satisfy a lifelong wanderlust. In developing a plan utilizing spin-filled communication to share with the rest of the world, these suggestions will help you develop your own personal rationale and tailor our recommendations to your current station in life.

Cultural and Historical Value
First and foremost, a traveler can always rationalize a trip to Paris based on cultural and historical value. This excuse is indisputably understood by those easily fooled. If this is a traveler’s first trip to Paris, then very little explanation is necessary, as the cultural value of the city is apparent. Any traveler will be hard pressed to find an individual who argues that visiting Paris for at least some amount of time is not culturally beneficial. Be sure to frame the cultural and historical arguments appropriately. Anything is better than revealing your real cultural exploration, which consists of spending borrowed money at trendy bars.
“Finding Oneself”
This ubiquitous concept has always had such a great ring that it easily supports itself, despite having no real meaning. It is highly possible that stating that the goal of your trip is to “find myself” will garner a smile and a look of understanding from others who likely think you are lost. To find oneself is curiously respected by all who have never wasted thousands of dollars living the high life in a foreign country. Those who can’t comprehend such a frivolous lifestyle accept this excuse because they don’t know that a Beyond Your Means traveler can’t locate this elusive ideal any better in Paris than in Hoboken. Despite a traveler’s age or stock in life, finding oneself is always acceptable to some—spouses and employers being prominent exceptions. However, if there have been previous “finding” adventures throughout the years, a Beyond Your Means traveler may have to resort to citing the furtherance of specific business or education goals.

Résumé Building
The last thing on the mind of many travelers may be career planning, but the fact is that the world places high value on this endeavor. For many Beyond Your Means travelers, the enemy is adult responsibility. Thus, it is important to heed the advice of Sun Tzu and “know thine enemy.” Again, depending on the traveler’s age and position, this set of reasons can take on various incarnations.
Case in point, a law student can profess a passion for international law and locate a study-abroad program. There is such a tradition of foreigners studying in Paris that locating a program for college, law, business, or virtually anything else proves fairly easy. However, if the days of higher education have long since passed, there are still a number of French-language-immersion and international business programs in which a Beyond Your Means traveler can enroll for the stated reasons of improving his personal marketability.
Ultimately, others like to hear about the end result of such elaborate ventures; thus, anything that can be phrased as improving career prospects will earn instant credibility. Still, those hearing this reason might already be skeptical about the actual motivation, so perhaps it is best to choose another path that at least meshes better with your personality.

One Last Hurrah
Considering a Beyond Your Means traveler’s likely history, this reason will be more believable than the sudden onset of responsible thinking and planning for an adult career. Those who know you may accept the “one last hurrah” as the last adventure before growing up and doing things differently. Using this excuse involves a few months of preparation by telling friends and relatives of a desire to mature. After promulgating such a position over a period of time, it is then acceptable to share the final plans for eliminating the last remaining vestiges of irresponsibility still latent in your system.
This excuse perhaps works best when preceding a landmark event in life, such as a wedding or a milestone birthday. Because of the very nature of the excuse itself, it should be used sparingly or else it will be dismissed—and for good reason.
Whatever particular communications strategy is employed, these suggestions can be useful. Ultimately, you know your audience better than anyone, and so you should carefully plan to ensure success.

Choosing Travel Companions
When planning a vacation that lasts longer than a week, choosing the right travel companions is key. It is difficult to travel Beyond Your Means without others around to inspire irresponsible decisions and the type of indulgence necessary to live up to your own lofty expectations. There are general factors to consider, along with certain specifics, that will ensure a great trip for all involved and remind the folks at Visa and MasterCard why you are one of their favorite clients. First and foremost, avoiding those with a total group mentality is a must. The ideal travel group consists of several people, each playing a different role to complete the experience. Depending on the number willing to embark on such an extended vacation to Paris, certain roles can be dovetailed into one another.

The Other Beyond Your Means Traveler(s)
For a vacation in Paris to be a completely irresponsible experience, at least one of the other members in the group must be a fellow Beyond Your Means practitioner. This is the person who will constantly help push you to new and exciting limits and will never back down from a challenge. It is important to enjoy one another’s company, but perhaps it’s even more important to have a mutual understanding—neither of you will ever retreat from tilt and tourney, regardless of how badly your bodies and bank accounts need to recover from a few too many nights out. Depending on the size of your travel group, this will be your fellow advocate for ridiculous propositions. It is too easy for other group members to dismiss and isolate one Beyond Your Means traveler, but multiple Beyond Your Means travelers may be too much to keep the flames of extravagance from catching fire.

The Cheap One
The concept of traveling Beyond Your Means is that your means don’t match the lifestyle you lead. This unfortunate reality is something that Beyond Your Means theorists must confront, but it is best to allow a fellow traveler who practices frugality to be the person to suggest that individual king-sized feather beds aren’t necessary. Subtly working with this person enhances the social cachet of Beyond Your Means philosophers. The miser takes the blame for certain things not coming to fruition, while Beyond Your Means travelers can continue to make irresponsible suggestions without actually having to follow through with them.

The Polyglot
Ideally, this individual serves a greater role than just vast linguistic knowledge, but having someone with a command of the French language is essential. The faulty conventional wisdom among many “Ricknicks” and others is that everyone in France knows English. While many French are impressively multilingual, being armed with a Francophone at your side helps when traveling outside of major cities or when engaging in late-night arguments with cab drivers. There is a great possibility that when spending time in Paris, knowledge of the language will be vital. Imagine a scenario where a traveler needs to locate a department store and, specifically, buy a three-pronged converter. Basically, knowing French is helpful. Anyone who has ever asked for strawberry “préservatifs” with their croissant understands why. (Préservatifs is a false cognate since in French the term means prophylactics rather than jam.)

The Return-Ticket Holder
A difficult realization for Beyond Your Means travelers is that eventually a vacation must end. Because many of these philosophers often live their lives in an alternate version of reality, returning home may be difficult. Also, sometimes in order to free up a month or a summer for such an excursion, a Beyond Your Means traveler may have whimsically quit a job, gotten fired, or just disappeared. Therefore, a travel companion who has an actual reason to return home is indispensable. The reasons themselves may range from work to school to family obligations, but without this individual, there is no telling how long a Beyond Your Means traveler could be gone or how much money will be spent.

Add-Ons
If each of the aforementioned roles has been filled, then any additional members on the trip must occupy what is arguably the most important role of all: These individuals become the audience for the many stories offered by the Beyond Your Means travelers, and they serve as a posse to feed the endless egos of the group leaders.
In addition, add-ons who have never been to Paris can also provide the necessary motivation to visit some of the cultural sites that other group travelers may consider “touristy.” In terms of numbers, it boils down to an individual decision. There is something to be said for limiting the number of add-ons for logistical purposes, but after careful deliberation, the best recommendation to be offered is the more the merrier. On the nights when complete domination of a bar or club is necessary, the larger the group is, the easier it is to accomplish the task at hand.