I’ve always wondered why we wait until our 60s or 70s to retire. Whenever I thought of it, it never seemed to make sense. You work hard to get through school…then you work hard to start your career. Once that’s done, you work hard to buy a house, car and lots of stuff for you, your spouse, two kids, and gaggle of pets.
We’ve always loved traveling…so why wait until we’re in our 60s or 70s?
And when you’ve done that…then you work hard to put the kids through school, pay for their weddings, and eventually buy stuff for the grand kids. Only after all of this, do you get the chance to retire and spend some time doing the fun stuff you want to do. Makes sense, right?
For some reason it never added up for me. I’m not saying all of this isn’t important. It’s just the thought of waiting till the end to do the things I’ve always wanted to do was a but unsettling. I kept thinking about all the folks I knew in their 60s and 70s. Some of them are spry and active. But many of them are not. I kept thinking that for an active person like myself…a person whose passion is traveling and experiencing new things in life…I was rolling the dice a bit to think I could still do that successfully in my golden years.
Then a dose of reality hit me and my husband hard. At the age of 51 my husband’s best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. We held out hope that he would beat it against very tough odds, but in less than two years, Fred passed away. We watched as his life changed from day-to-day happenings, laughter, and angst (all the normal things that happen in life), to a life consumed with fighting for his life, hope, despair, hope again, then finally despair at the inevitable. And at the end, he reflected on the fact that there were so many things he still wanted to do.
Overlooking Italy’s Cinque Terre
We had just come to terms with this terrible loss when a second tragedy hit. A close family member who had gone to the doctor for a sore shoulder discovered through a series of tests that he had an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. In his 60s, just two months after the discovery, Bruce passed away. We were all stunned. It was at this moment that we realized two things. First, no matter how young and healthy you feel, you are not guaranteed your health will always be there. Second, you are not guaranteed there will be a tomorrow…so you better live your life the way you want to today.
As heavy and heartbreaking as this was, these tragedies actually evolved into inspiration. There wasn’t anything we could do about the loss of these two cherished men. But we realized that we could do a “check up” on how we were living our own lives.
The Traveling Wino and Mr. Wino exploring Rome.
The good thing was…we realized a huge part of our lives were totally dialed in. We had worked hard to support our families and raise our children, and we were so proud of that. We worked hard to be responsible, successful members of the workforce and society, and we were proud of that too. We aimed to be loving and caring to our family, friends, and people in general, and we were most proud of that!
But one area we had set aside over the years, was our desire to travel and see the world. Don’t get me wrong…we both had dabbled in it as much as we could over the years, taking vacations and traveling as much as we could with our annual two-week vacations with kids in tow…but there was still so much we hadn’t done and so much we still wanted to do. This was the part of life that we hadn’t yet lived.
Sharing a moment at Canada’s Lake Louise
It was the tragic loss of these two amazing men that made us take a hard look at this…and it inspired us to not wait any longer to finally do what we had always dreamed of. To travel the world and experience the most we could from this wonderful planet. But there was one slight problem. We were not overflowing in money and we were years away from retirement. Luckily my husband had planned much better than I did (he was on a standard retirement plan whereas I was on a “die at your desk” retirement plan) so we had some retirement set aside. However, we were far from having enough to retire now.
That’s when we began to think outside of the box.
Hiking in the world’s oldest rain forest – the Daintree in Australia.
What if we “flip-flopped” our retirement? What if we got rid of all the normal daily living expenses we had, and shifted our expenses towards a life of travel? In other words…what if we traded the cost of living where we were at (rent/mortgage, utilities, car expenses etc.), and redirected the money to live in a bunch of different places all over the world? And what if we did it for only two years, while we were in our 40s and 50s and healthy? And what if we just worked two years longer to make up for it and get back on track with the original retirement plan?
At first it seemed like a far-fetched idea. Until we ran the numbers.
We found that if we rented Airbnbs on a weekly or monthly basis, often there was a discount that made the monthly cost less than what we were paying for rent. You heard right…LESS! We would actually save money in the rent/mortgage expense category by traveling. In fairness…we were in the Bay Area (one of the most expensive regions in the U.S.) so our expenses were unusually high. And without owning a house we knew the consequence would be giving up investment opportunities. But this was something we were willing to give up…because we would be investing in our dreams in the here and now. And we were OK with that.
Traveling by scooter around Aitutaki in the Cook Islands (South Pacific).
We also took a look at the expenses for food, transportation, and activities. We found a few notable things. First, many of the places we wanted to visit had a good currency exchange rate so the food costs were either the same or lower. Plus, with Airbnbs we could cook at home and save costs on eating out.
Second, without vehicles (since we were traveling so much), we could save on car payments and commuting costs, and minimize insurance costs…all of which could be redirected to pay for trains, taxis, Ubers, and rental cars in the countries we wanted to visit. We discovered the net cost of this expense category was far less than what we expected.
And the biggest surprise of all was airfare. You see…when you are not bound by summers, holidays, and weekends…and you have a more flexible schedule without having to plan around work…you can travel on a Wednesday in “shoulder season” and save hundreds of dollars per trip. Think I’m kidding? A flight from the western United States to Europe would normally cost about $1,100 (seems fair enough, right?) We were able to get a trip to Italy for $650 round trip flying during “off season” in the middle of a random month in the middle of the week.
Diving the Great Barrier Reef outside of Port Douglas, Australia.
Being more practical people, doing this research and running real numbers provided the reassurance we needed. The cost of travel we were familiar with, would actually be less. A lot less! So we ran the numbers again and found our retirement savings could be used for a two-year period with the majority of it being untouched. We had found a great middle ground. We would still have retirement savings and we could travel for two years.
So that’s what we did. We left our jobs…sold most of our stuff…and we hit the road. And each and every day we are exploring the world, we take a moment as we look over an amazing vista on a tropical island…or at a lush green field a continent away from all we know…to say thank you to Fred and Bruce for the gifts they gave us. Not only were they inspirational men during their lives…sharing kindness and caring with us and everyone they knew, but they remain an inspiration to us every day to live life fully for us and for them.
Two men that inspired us to travel the world, Bruce and Fred, are with us in our hearts every day.
We know they are here with us, on every plane ride…on every hike up a mountain trail…on every dive down to the ocean floor…and certainly with every bar we stop in to. Thank you guys. Cheers to you both…we love you!!
Whether you have a Fred and Bruce in your life or not, if you dream of traveling and exploring this great planet of ours and meeting the most amazing people throughout the world, do not let life get in the way. Get out and do it!!
