4 Years of FIRE & Perpetual Travel/Nomad Life

[Diver]

We are now in Year 4 of our FIRE adventure, having retired and sold our house in Atlanta to travel the world. I was first inspired by Billy & Akaisha Kaderli in 2005 after I heard them on the Clark Howard radio show and then ordered the 1st edition of their ebook, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement. DH was immediately on board, and our planning began for our great escape in January 2016. It has been a wonderful ride! We have seen some amazing places, have some fabulous memories, have met some incredible people, and we are nowhere near "done" seeing this big, beautiful world. So many more adventures left.

I know that there are lots of people that have blogs and such detailing their travels, but we were lucky enough to meet our original inspirations this month in Chapala, Mexico and heard that they just finished the 4th edition of their ebook that inspired us and so many others. I wanted to share it for any other folks considering this lifestyle. Billy & Akaisha have been at this for nearly 30 years, having retired at 38 to travel, back before Google, smart phones, online banking, etc. I can't even inagine!

I recommend their book to anyone thinking about travel after FIRE, especially budget travel, full or part time. It changed the direction of our lives in a wonderful and exciting way, and we have met alot of other people on the road that they also inspired. Here is a link to their latest edition: https://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/orderpage.htm

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Tell us about your adventures- what did you do that you never thought you would? What was your favorite place, the biggest surprise?

 

[street]

Interesting! I would like to hear more from your experiences also. I also would like to know what are your expenses (budget) for travel and living for a year are.

 

[Diver]

Tell us about your adventures- what did you do that you never thought you would? What was your favorite place, the biggest surprise?

The biggest surprise is probably how little we need after living the typical middle class or upper middle class American life for so long. We each have a carry on sized bag (but expanded, so have to check it, haha) and a regular backpack. It is liberating, and no stress about buying souvenirs, because no room!

I really don't have a favorite place. We have enjoyed everywhere we have been so far. We started out in Asia, because I wanted to see something totally different, and it was! SE Asia and all of Asia is amazing. I knew I was not in Kansas anymore! We really enjoyed a slow month of travel through Vietnam. I did not expect to like Vietnam as much as we did (traveled length of country and loved it and its people), but we enjoyed all of Asia.

We are scuba divers, so we have done alot of diving as we traveled. We went diving on the Great Barrier Reef (disappointing) and to some amazing places we only heard about from other divers as we went. Indonesia was the most incredible diving we have ever done anywhere. We are going to dive the Red Sea this year, but doubt that will top it.

We spent a month in a Peru and saw Machu Picchu and so much more, and another month in Ecuador hitting the Gallapagos Islands and the Amazon basin. We will never forget either of those months. New Zealand is a beautiful country, esp the South Island. We liked it better than Australia, and that surprised me.

Another thing I was surprised about is the camaraderie among fellow travelers regardless of age, the sweetness of young backpackers, and how helpful everyone is. We would take advice about where to go from 20 year olds, and they were often right on point. We also were surprised at how much and how far European kids travel. So much more worldly than in the states. No student debt and and the culture of travel means they travel through college, and taking a year off work to travel is normal. Especially the Dutch & Germans. I wish more US kids could do the same.

People on this board were also very helpful in advising us when we were about to take off that we should focus on Roth conversions in these years before SS when we can keep our taxable income low. We are following that advice, so thanks to those who gave it!

 

[Scuba]

Diver, thank you for this post. Very interesting. We are also divers, and I’m wondering if you have found an economical way to dive. It gets so expensive if done often. When we were in the USVI for 3 months, we got a local rate but it was still $30/day/person plus tip.

Did you dive in the Galapagos? We have considered it but not sure given the cold water temperature.

I’m going to check out the book you recommended. We have a dog now and we love him a lot, but when he goes, we’d love to do more extended traveling.

 

[brucethebroker]

Interesting. Thanks for the post.

 

[Diver]

Diver, thank you for this post. Very interesting. We are also divers, and I’m wondering if you have found an economical way to dive. It gets so expensive if done often. When we were in the USVI for 3 months, we got a local rate but it was still $30/day/person plus tip.

Did you dive in the Galapagos? We have considered it but not sure given the cold water temperature.

I’m going to check out the book you recommended. We have a dog now and we love him a lot, but when he goes, we’d love to do more extended traveling.

No, we have not found an economical way to dive. I think the cheapest we found was $15/tank for a boat dive in Puerto Galera in the Philippines incl equipment. We only travel with our dive computers. $30/day pp in USVI sounds great! We did spend 2 months last year in Bonaire, and shore diving there is reasonable. We have also done alot of liveaboards, usually on a half-off sale, as sometimes that is the only way to dive a certain area. Not cheap, but some incredible once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Agressor fleet often has sales. We are using them to dive the Red Sea in June.

In Galapagos, we did a liveaboard for a week that only offered snorkeling. Water was cold! We spent another week island hopping, and DH did a very expensive ($150?) dive with a shop one day and had fun with a playful sea lion, but he was freezing in a 7mil. Too cold for me, but there is a diving liveaboard that sails there. Very pricey, I am sure. The animals and birds on the islands are the real highlights there.

 

[Cut-Throat]

We are now in Year 4 of our FIRE adventure, having retired and sold our house in Atlanta to travel the world. I was first inspired by Billy & Akaisha Kaderli in 2005 after I heard them on the Clark Howard radio show and then ordered the 1st edition of their ebook, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement. DH was immediately on board, and our planning began for our great escape in January 2016. It has been a wonderful ride! We have seen some amazing places, have some fabulous memories, have met some incredible people, and we are nowhere near "done" seeing this big, beautiful world. So many more adventures left.

I know that there are lots of people that have blogs and such detailing their travels, but we were lucky enough to meet our original inspirations this month in Chapala, Mexico and heard that they just finished the 4th edition of their ebook that inspired us and so many others. I wanted to share it for any other folks considering this lifestyle. Billy & Akaisha have been at this for nearly 30 years, having retired at 38 to travel, back before Google, smart phones, online banking, etc. I can't even inagine!

I recommend their book to anyone thinking about travel after FIRE, especially budget travel, full or part time. It changed the direction of our lives in a wonderful and exciting way, and we have met alot of other people on the road that they also inspired. Here is a link to their latest edition: https://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/orderpage.htm

So, basically you are 'Homeless'


Where do you stay mostly? --- Houses, Hostels, Hotels -- What is your annual Budget? (If you don't mind telling)



Do you have a 'Home Base'? --- Have you had any issues with other countries as far as Overstaying your Visa?

 

[robnplunder]

We are now in Year 4 of our FIRE adventure, having retired and sold our house in Atlanta to travel the world.

Do you have a fixed place to come back to between travel? Or, as your post indicates, you are 100% roaming the world?

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Thanks for sharing, Diver.

We want to travel extensively during retirement too but aren't willing to give up our home so we're working a bit longer.

I have a similar question to Cut-Throat's about accommodations. IIRC, Billy & Akaisha do a bit home sitting. Can you share what you've been doing for accommodations and whether you have kind of a home base?
Also, how much do you plan versus being very flexible? Do you plan out lengths of stays at a particular destination or do you just decide more ad hoc when to move on and then figure out the next destination?

 

[Totoro]

No student debt and and the culture of travel means they travel through college, and taking a year off work to travel is normal. Especially the Dutch & Germans.

Not as bad as the record holder USA, but the Dutch certainly have student debt.
https://www.iamexpat.nl/education/education-news/dutch-student-debt-soars-record-high

More than one in five graduates that have to pay off their student loans are in arrears.

The total debt of all current and former students in the Netherlands has risen to a record high of 17,9 billion euros

1.000 euros per citizen might not seem much, but it's not nothing either.

 

[HI Bill]

...have found an economical way to dive. It gets so expensive if done often. When we were in the USVI for 3 months, we got a local rate but it was still $30/day/person plus tip.

Shore diving with your own gear is the cheapest was to go.
Check out Shorediving.com

The most economical diving I've done:

1. Hawaii ($2.50 to $4.50 tank fills or $8-10 tank rentals)
2. Bali (inexpensive accomodations, inexpensive tank rentals)
3. Okinawa (inexpensive tank rentals; note: may be difficult to rent tanks if you don't have someone who speaks Japanese; you can't generally rent tanks or shore dive anywhere you want in Japan; very many restrictions and fees)
4. Florida - inexpensive boats and tank rentals
5. Guam - with own gear, 2-tank dive trip can be as little as $35-45 (without tanks or weights), but gettting there is expensive.
6. Thailand - inexpensive lodging and meals

 

[Diver]

Interesting! I would like to hear more from your experiences also. I also would like to know what are your expenses (budget) for travel and living for a year are.

We don't track detailed expenses, we just measure once a month our total outgo and total net worth, which gives us a running monthly average and % of net worth we spend each month. We initially planned on about $6k/mo all-in (with no Roth conversions and low income for ACA subsidies). Our spreadsheet shows us at exactly $8k/mo average, but that includes taxes for annual Roth conversions up to the 15% bracket (now 12%), and includes health ins (incl intl health ins) and 2 life ins policies. Thankfully the market has been good to us, so our net worth is higher than when we retired.

I hesitated to give out our actual running average, because I fear it could really discourage people. You can do this lifestyle happily on much, much less, and we likely will in the future when we slow down a bit.

Billy & Akaisha can show you how to live really well traveling on much less in some very inexpensive countries. Here in Chapala, Mexico, a couple could live well on $1,500/mo, including eating out alot. You can rent a nice apt in town for $300-400/mo all-in. Justin who blogs at RootofGood can show you how a family of 5 can travel on a very small budget. I think he posts on here occasionally.

So, no one should look at our average and think that is what they need to travel. We have taken alot of once in a lifetime trips these past few years, gone diving in nearly all of our wish list places and taken several pricey liveaboard dive trips, plus some cruises and a few all-inclusive resorts. Our thoughts were to hit our bucket list hard while the markets were good to us and while we are younger, and mix in stays in low cost countries to balance it out. We have now identified several places we like that are very low cost, so we can easily cut costs when needed. We have met people and families happily traveling the world on very small budgets.

 

[Diver]

So, basically you are 'Homeless' [emoji23][emoji23]


Where do you stay mostly? --- Houses, Hostels, Hotels -- What is your annual Budget? (If you don't mind telling)



Do you have a 'Home Base'? --- Have you had any issues with other countries as far as Overstaying your Visa?

Homeless by choice, yes! We use Airbnb apts alot, esp if we stay several weeks or a month (our current apt was discounted 50% for monthly rentals, which is common). If we are staying a few days, we usually get a hotel or guesthouse. No bad experiences so far, thanks to tripadvisor & Airbnb reviews.

No home base, but we go back to the states a few weeks a year to visit family. We have a few boxes and some winter clothes at my in-laws. We travel where the weather suits our clothes, summer/spring clothes, that is!

Current running monthly average for our total costs, incl taxes, ins, etc. above.

No visa issues so far, except for the time I miscounted days in the Philippines (day of arrival counts!) so we were going to be one day over. Looked all over online to see if we would really get stopped and it was a toss up, but we went ahead and paid the "stupid tax" for an extension. Few hundred bucks, I think, but flight was more, and we would have missed it if stopped. More careful now, not so close to the wire.

 

[Diver]

Do you have a fixed place to come back to between travel? Or, as your post indicates, you are 100% roaming the world?

We do not have a fixed place. We do visit family in the states a few weeks a year.

 

[Diver]

Thanks for sharing, Diver.

We want to travel extensively during retirement too but aren't willing to give up our home so we're working a bit longer.

I have a similar question to Cut-Throat's about accommodations. IIRC, Billy & Akaisha do a bit home sitting. Can you share what you've been doing for accommodations and whether you have kind of a home base?
Also, how much do you plan versus being very flexible? Do you plan out lengths of stays at a particular destination or do you just decide more ad hoc when to move on and then figure out the next destination?

We knew we did not want to end up back in Atlanta, so selling our house made sense for us. Still not sure where we would like to eventually have a home base, but we think by a beach, maybe.

We have not done any house sitting, but would not rule it out. We actually briefly met a friend of Billy & Akaisha's here in Chapala that is doing lots of house sitting and it is part of his lifestyle now. They said he has stayed in some fabulous homes.

We rent Airbnb entire apartments (no sharing) for longer stays, hotels and guesthouses for shorter stays.

On planning vs. flexibility, when we have to pay upfront for something like a cruise or liveaboard dive boat trip, that becomes like a bookmark, and then we roughly figure out where and what we might do getting there and in between, but we stay flexible with that part. Sometimes we really like a place and want to stay longer, and many times other travelers will recommend a place we have never heard of, and we get diverted there. Those are some of the best times we have had. Sometimes we decide we need a break and look for a nice Airbnb apt to chill in a city we think we would like to more slowly explore and go there for a month.

We have found that once you get to a certain part of the world you want to explore, like Asia or Europe, flights, trains, ferries, etc. are very inexpensive, so we can make arrangements last minute to stay flexible. No need to book transport very far in advance once you get in the region.

 

[TDub]

This is fascinating.
Opening my eyes to a totally possible future once we’re empty nesters.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[street]

We don't track detailed expenses, we just measure once a month our total outgo and total net worth, which gives us a running monthly average and % of net worth we spend each month. We initially planned on about $6k/mo all-in (with no Roth conversions and low income for ACA subsidies). Our spreadsheet shows us at exactly $8k/mo average, but that includes taxes for annual Roth conversions up to the 15% bracket (now 12%), and includes health ins (incl intl health ins) and 2 life ins policies. Thankfully the market has been good to us, so our net worth is higher than when we retired.

I hesitated to give out our actual running average, because I fear it could really discourage people. You can do this lifestyle happily on much, much less, and we likely will in the future when we slow down a bit.

Billy & Akaisha can show you how to live really well traveling on much less in some very inexpensive countries. Here in Chapala, Mexico, a couple could live well on $1,500/mo, including eating out alot. You can rent a nice apt in town for $300-400/mo all-in. Justin who blogs at RootofGood can show you how a family of 5 can travel on a very small budget. I think he posts on here occasionally.

So, no one should look at our average and think that is what they need to travel. We have taken alot of once in a lifetime trips these past few years, gone diving in nearly all of our wish list places and taken several pricey liveaboard dive trips, plus some cruises and a few all-inclusive resorts. Our thoughts were to hit our bucket list hard while the markets were good to us and while we are younger, and mix in stays in low cost countries to balance it out. We have now identified several places we like that are very low cost, so we can easily cut costs when needed. We have met people and families happily traveling the world on very small budgets.

Thanks and what a life.

 

[WestUniversity]

Great post Diver... Thx!

 

[deserat]

Thanks for sharing this - Billy and Akaisha were my mentors many years ago - and I have chatted with them via email over 12 years ago...nice people.

Have you really pared down all of your material goods to what you can carry in a suitcase and backpack along with a few boxes 'stationed' in the USA? I know that Billy and Akaisha used to have (still do?) a mobile home in Mesa, AZ, which they used as a home base that stored some of their 'stuff.' The Terhorsts had a home in South America for awhile, but also did the slow travel but for several months in a place at a time.

As for your monthly amount, that's not too bad for two people who are also enjoy participating in a more expensive sport--I was intrigued by that number because I could do that now....

Thanks again.

 

[flyingaway]

Hi, Diver:

You mentioned you have international health insurance, do you also keep a U.S. based health insurance?

We are thinking about a similar travel life. We need to sell our house first. But we do not know if we should keep a U.S. based health insurance such as ACA, for potential serious health problems in the future. I am not concerned about doctor's visits that we can pay out of pocket, but something like cancers might cause big problems for any portfolio.

 

[Diver]

Thanks for sharing this - Billy and Akaisha were my mentors many years ago - and I have chatted with them via email over 12 years ago...nice people.

Have you really pared down all of your material goods to what you can carry in a suitcase and backpack along with a few boxes 'stationed' in the USA? I know that Billy and Akaisha used to have (still do?) a mobile home in Mesa, AZ, which they used as a home base that stored some of their 'stuff.' The Terhorsts had a home in South America for awhile, but also did the slow travel but for several months in a place at a time.

As for your monthly amount, that's not too bad for two people who are also enjoy participating in a more expensive sport--I was intrigued by that number because I could do that now....

Thanks again.

Yes, we really have pared down our belongings to that. It was a process, but so very liberating now. We do restock/replace some clothes, electronics and necessities when we see family once a year (thank you, Amazon Prime). I think we went Minimalism before it was cool with the Millenials, but Tiny Houses tv show did start before we left! I will never accumulate that much stuff again. When you have to drive carloads of it to Goodwill, trip after trip for months, it cures you. Our eventual home base, years to come I think, will be much smaller and compact, and I hope we are car free forever. Less is definitely more!

 

[Diver]

Hi, Diver:

You mentioned you have international health insurance, do you also keep a U.S. based health insurance?

We are thinking about a similar travel life. We need to sell our house first. But we do not know if we should keep a U.S. based health insurance such as ACA, for potential serious health problems in the future. I am not concerned about doctor's visits that we can pay out of pocket, but something like cancers might cause big problems for any portfolio.

Yes, we do have an ACA policy for the same reasons you mentioned, plus an intl travel policy. We use World Nomads for the latter, but I have heard others that are happy with Allianz.

 

[Scuba]

Diver, how do you get US health insurance without a home base? I’ve never explored that but I thought US health insurance is state-specific?

Really enjoying reading about your story. We would love to rent our condo out, see our cars, put other stuff in storage, and hit the road. Our dog holds us back. I assume you don’t have a pet? I would think the nomad lifestyle would be quite difficult with a pet along.

 

[gattara]

Living in the Atlanta area, I listen to Clark's radio shows. I think it would be cool for you to email his show. I'd be willing to bet he'd love to have you on the show for 10-15 minutes so you could talk about your experiences and inspire others. One of Clark's brothers and SIL sold their things and have been traveling in a nomad-like way for a few years. Clark had his brother on the show and I was riveted, as I would be listening to your lifestyle. I find it fascinating.