One of the concepts I’ve been thinking quite a bit about recently is what I call one's “Return on Adventure,” or ROA.

Think of the financial concept of Return on Investment (aka "ROI"), but for the investments you make in travel and the subsequent personal enjoyment you get from those adventures.

Your ROA for any one trip is probably much higher than you even realize. That’s because—like interest in an investment account—the value of positive memories compounds over time.

Many people look at a trip and primarily value it based on the fun they had during the trip[1]. But that misses the value they got every single time they remembered or relived something from the trip. And that’s the key—that’s the lifetime value of the trip. That is the trip's "ROA.''

The overall value you get from taking a trip isn’t derived solely from how you feel during it—it’s the cumulative value of that trip for the remainder of your life. The small moments of joy you get when you think about that trip are like small Memory dividends. They get added to the value you’ve already earned. Like an investment appreciates, the more you think back on the trip, the more dividends you accrue and the more total value you get from the time and energy you originally invested in having the experience. That’s why investing in experiences can be such a powerful concept.

Over the remainder of your life, a trip’s value continues to increase and increase. It’s not uncommon for the majority of the personal value of a trip to be generated after the trip itself. 🤯 With a concerted effort, you can ensure that you gain several times the value of the joy you had during the trip itself.

This is a powerful concept that’s worth repeating: you can get more value from a trip after you’re home than while you’re enjoying yourself on the trip itself.

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