After being a corporate expat for a decade, I left my company, sold everything and did the nomad thing for the next 10 years. At 64, I’ve been to 40 countries, staying 1-3 months. Now I’m off the road and enjoy settling in one place. I learned how to live frugally, feel comfy in small spaces, use public transit and not buy a lot of stuff so that is an ongoing “pro” from my experience. I’m glad I did my journey in my 40s & 50s but it’s nice to have a home base again. I’ve been everywhere and done everything I wanted to do.
Great way to define your style of travel. Yes, the planning is a time consumer., but I actually enjoy the process. And there's no way I can be as spontaneous as some travelers are. Thanks for sharing your pros and cons. A pro for me is how amazing that feeling of total freedom is, to be able to control every aspect of your life in the way you want rather than conform with what others are doing. And also the liberation that comes from minimalism and not being encumbered by things. Experiences are so much more valuable than things. The con is all that freedom requires a lot of responsibility to use it wisely. But I wouldn't have it any other way!
So true! We've also found that if we meet up with friends who are not yet retired/nomads, they typically are on a vacation budget and we are on our regular living budget. We really need to be thoughtful about being more flexible at those times and then compensating elsewhere.
We are full time homeless waifs in our forth year. Mostly our travel decisions/plans are last minute. “Our visa runs out next week, where do you want to go?” Kinda thing. We like it that way. We are not a big fan of the anchor/rock system and we don’t normally spend a lot of time planning. Could be different strokes for different folks but probably just laziness. But sometimes…. So last May we were in Crete and we were thinking about spending the summer in someplace cool and away from the tourist hordes. UK or Norway were at the top of the list but we happened to run across a great deal on business class airline tickets from Athens to Newark. So we said hey, let’s go to Cuenca, Ecuador for the summer and we bought the tickets. Then we had to fill in the blanks from Crete to Athens and Newark to Cuenca, doing it in the right order and leaving cushions in case of delays or what have you’s. Three weeks later we were in Cuenca after a long bus ride; 2 ferries; 5 plane rides; 8 hotel reservations; and a near divorce. Yeah, so no more anchors/rocks. Ok, so it was a lot of spontaneous shooting from the hip since we were making reservations and plans as we went along. But never-the less, you are right, planning is a bitch. Oh, and we are currently enjoying the cool springlike weather in the Andes and don’t know where we are going next. Dolce far niente.
Thank you for the video! I learned a lot from you. I am also a full-time world traveler from Texas, currently in Penang, Malaysia. I have a couple of questions for you: How do you manage credit card renewals and replacements while traveling? Do you have the credit card company send them directly overseas, or do you rely on your mail service in Livingston? What do you do if you receive a physical check and need to deposit it? I've found this to be a bit of a headache. Thanks in advance!
Thank you. We have the mail service scan both sides of the cards and then we load them into our ewallets. When we have a secure mailbox where we can track mail to, we have them send our cards and checks
I think my main issue - other than uncomfortable beds - is the fact that I'm alone and want pets. Also, I've traveled a lot in my life (so far) and I know that for me - it does get tiring not having somewhere to call home. Granted, my longest trip was probably 6/7 weeks, but still - it felt so good coming home and sleeping in my own bed! :) That might be something I could adjust to. I'd love to try it for a couple years when I retire but the timing would need to be right (re the pet comment above).
Thank you for your video! My biggest concern is the air quality/smoking rate of the destination countries. As I am researching our slow travel destinations, I saw this article "Killing me softly: air pollution in the Western Balkans" by Aleksandra Tomanić Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB): "Western Balkan countries have the lowest air quality in Europe. Cities from the region figure regularly and prominently among the global top ten most polluted cities on Earth. According to the European Environmental Agency, 30,000 lives are lost every year as a direct consequence of excessive air pollution." These are just facts. Same apply to most of the SE Asia countries that are heavily touted as slow travel destinations. I found the tradeoff between polluted air/second hand smoke and lower cost of traveling/living in these countries extremely difficult to make personally. But then how do you slow travel full time without taking a huge health risk? How do you two deal with this issue being from Denver, one of the cleanest city in the world and being health conscious like you are?
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" Hunter S. Thompson
Another g in at video. We love watching you guys and are now counting months until we are down to our backpacks and on the road. Can’t wait and thanks for the inspiration.
Chris in particular is super sensitive to sit quality and checks the AQI scores around the world. We avoid the big dirty cities or keep our visits short in those locations. Avoiding them in the height of their heat seasons helps. Btw, Denver can have super high AQI during fire season.
After being a corporate expat for a decade, I left my company, sold everything and did the nomad thing for the next 10 years. At 64, I’ve been to 40 countries, staying 1-3 months. Now I’m off the road and enjoy settling in one place. I learned how to live frugally, feel comfy in small spaces, use public transit and not buy a lot of stuff so that is an ongoing “pro” from my experience. I’m glad I did my journey in my 40s & 50s but it’s nice to have a home base again. I’ve been everywhere and done everything I wanted to do.
What a great summary!
Great way to define your style of travel. Yes, the planning is a time consumer., but I actually enjoy the process. And there's no way I can be as spontaneous as some travelers are. Thanks for sharing your pros and cons. A pro for me is how amazing that feeling of total freedom is, to be able to control every aspect of your life in the way you want rather than conform with what others are doing. And also the liberation that comes from minimalism and not being encumbered by things. Experiences are so much more valuable than things. The con is all that freedom requires a lot of responsibility to use it wisely. But I wouldn't have it any other way!
You nailed it!
So true! We've also found that if we meet up with friends who are not yet retired/nomads, they typically are on a vacation budget and we are on our regular living budget. We really need to be thoughtful about being more flexible at those times and then compensating elsewhere.
No truer words...
Great video guys!! Truth!
Thank you
We are full time homeless waifs in our forth year. Mostly our travel decisions/plans are last minute. “Our visa runs out next week, where do you want to go?” Kinda thing. We like it that way. We are not a big fan of the anchor/rock system and we don’t normally spend a lot of time planning. Could be different strokes for different folks but probably just laziness. But sometimes….
So last May we were in Crete and we were thinking about spending the summer in someplace cool and away from the tourist hordes. UK or Norway were at the top of the list but we happened to run across a great deal on business class airline tickets from Athens to Newark. So we said hey, let’s go to Cuenca, Ecuador for the summer and we bought the tickets.
Then we had to fill in the blanks from Crete to Athens and Newark to Cuenca, doing it in the right order and leaving cushions in case of delays or what have you’s. Three weeks later we were in Cuenca after a long bus ride; 2 ferries; 5 plane rides; 8 hotel reservations; and a near divorce. Yeah, so no more anchors/rocks. Ok, so it was a lot of spontaneous shooting from the hip since we were making reservations and plans as we went along. But never-the less, you are right, planning is a bitch. Oh, and we are currently enjoying the cool springlike weather in the Andes and don’t know where we are going next. Dolce far niente.
Love it. I keep threatening to Steve that we're just gonna go to the airport one day and pick a flight...
Thank you for the video! I learned a lot from you. I am also a full-time world traveler from Texas, currently in Penang, Malaysia. I have a couple of questions for you:
How do you manage credit card renewals and replacements while traveling? Do you have the credit card company send them directly overseas, or do you rely on your mail service in Livingston?
What do you do if you receive a physical check and need to deposit it? I've found this to be a bit of a headache.
Thanks in advance!
Thank you. We have the mail service scan both sides of the cards and then we load them into our ewallets. When we have a secure mailbox where we can track mail to, we have them send our cards and checks
@@EatWalkLearnDo you trust the mail service to do that?
@WandererBell 100%
I think my main issue - other than uncomfortable beds - is the fact that I'm alone and want pets. Also, I've traveled a lot in my life (so far) and I know that for me - it does get tiring not having somewhere to call home. Granted, my longest trip was probably 6/7 weeks, but still - it felt so good coming home and sleeping in my own bed! :) That might be something I could adjust to. I'd love to try it for a couple years when I retire but the timing would need to be right (re the pet comment above).
Maybe consider pet sitting?
Thank you for your video! My biggest concern is the air quality/smoking rate of the destination countries. As I am researching our slow travel destinations, I saw this article "Killing me softly: air pollution in the Western Balkans" by Aleksandra Tomanić Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB): "Western Balkan countries have the lowest air quality in Europe. Cities from the region figure regularly and prominently among the global top ten most polluted cities on Earth. According to the European Environmental Agency, 30,000 lives are lost every year as a direct consequence of excessive air pollution." These are just facts.
Same apply to most of the SE Asia countries that are heavily touted as slow travel destinations. I found the tradeoff between polluted air/second hand smoke and lower cost of traveling/living in these countries extremely difficult to make personally. But then how do you slow travel full time without taking a huge health risk? How do you two deal with this issue being from Denver, one of the cleanest city in the world and being health conscious like you are?
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" Hunter S. Thompson
Another g in at video. We love watching you guys and are now counting months until we are down to our backpacks and on the road. Can’t wait and thanks for the inspiration.
Wonderful! Enjoy your launch!
Love HST!
Chris in particular is super sensitive to sit quality and checks the AQI scores around the world. We avoid the big dirty cities or keep our visits short in those locations. Avoiding them in the height of their heat seasons helps. Btw, Denver can have super high AQI during fire season.