Farley, There is a time to try to make the best possible return on capital… but eventually you gotta make time to enjoy the fruit of hard work. When you play hard, you work harder… The only debt I have are student loan that are at 4% apr… My investment should return more than that. (I hope…) I dont want to work like a donkey for 40 years to end up taking my retirement at the age of 60. I’m more in the multiple mini-retirement camp.
Yes, travel when you can. It’s not the same kind of consumerism as getting a nice jazzy car or new clothes at the mall. Some people might have gotten to see the giant stone Buddhas in Afghanistan before the Taliban blew them to smithereens a few years ago. Jerusalem might be nuked; tigers might go extinct; poverty might be eliminated (well, probably not). And you get a better perspective on the world. My rule of thumb for a windfall is to put 1/3 away for a rainy day, invest 1/3 in yourself, your investment account, or your business (i.e. education or capital equipment that is essential to your productivity or career), and 1/3 for fun and potentially frivolous stuff. You can play with these figures a bit depending on the economic environment, but in your case, $10,000 for fun should still take you far in travels, as long as you’re not going to europe or somewhere else where the dollar is weak. 
Akanska, I see you only addressed my less important comment on this thread.
trading account -> take some leveraged risks -> glory -> don’t show up for full time job
id get so fucked up for the first month that id have to spend the next two in detox/rehab. in all reality id like scuba dive the great barrier reef, spend some time in europe and south east asia. watch out for them ladyboys!
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I spent two weeks in Thailand this January. Two weeks is a short time to travel such a long way but it was still worth it. I spent time in Bangkok, Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, and Chiang Mai. I would definitely recommend the massage at the women’s prison in Chiang Mai and snorkeling around Ko Phi Phi Leh. Overall, despite the 48 of violent vomiting and diarrhea, Thailand was awesome. I would go back in a heart beat.
Can we talk more about the massage?
Hey man. That convict had her hands all over me. At one point, she was on her back lifting me 3 feet off the ground with her legs. She stretched me like a drum and I bet she didn’t weigh more than 110 lbs. It was an incredible but quite painful experience. 2 hours for $10. Can’t beat that. No telling what she was in for. She didn’t seem have the face of a hardened criminal though.
I’d hit up Europe. Prague probably. Willy