Imo started building the boat in 2015.
Our kids were still little, and I wasn’t working at the time.
We were genuinely broke. Not “tight on money” — actually broke.
We couldn’t afford the $5 fee to join playgroup.
Going back to Japan was completely out of the question.
At the supermarket, our card was declined more times than I can count.
There were times we couldn’t afford a birthday present for our child’s friend,
so we made up an excuse and didn’t go.
It’s not a pretty story.
But it’s the truth.
Back then, if Imo worked, he couldn’t build the boat.
He wouldn’t have the time.
But if he didn’t work, there was no money.
No money meant no materials.
Either way, it felt like a dead end.
In reality, there were years when Imo couldn’t even afford a single beer on his birthday.
We were always completely broke.
Still, we didn’t borrow money.
No loans.
No instalments.
No credit cards.
Little by little.
Painfully slowly.
Over years, he pushed open that razor-thin margin,
and eventually, the boat was finished.
It wasn’t flashy.
It wasn’t efficient.
And it definitely wasn’t the modern way.
But the core never wavered.
Instead of “borrow now and get it faster,”
we chose “take longer, but don’t break.”
If back then we had said,
“Just for now,”
“We’ll figure it out later,”
and borrowed money,
the boat probably would have been finished much sooner.
But our lives would not have been lighter.
Because we didn’t borrow,
we kept our judgement clear.
We didn’t panic.
We were able to choose —
to quit, to continue, to wait —
all on our own terms.
Even now, I believe this.
Getting through that extreme poverty without debt
is one of our greatest assets.
To be honest,
Imo is still living with burnout.
And yes — sometimes it genuinely frustrates me.
People who spend years not breaking, not borrowing,
and pushing all the way through to the end
often freeze after the finish line.
Not because they failed.
But because they completed it.
Respect and frustration can exist at the same time.
I still get annoyed.
I still complain.
But even so, I can say this clearly.
I truly respect Imo.
He didn’t run.
He didn’t borrow.
He didn’t break.
He didn’t spend our family’s future in advance.
That doesn’t disappear just because things are slow right now.
It takes time.
The next stage won’t be easy either.
But the strength has already been proven.
I watched that —
year after year —
walking behind Imo.
#choosingnotodebt #extremepoverty #didntbreak #burnoutrecovery #corevalues
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