FreeBear, you ask some good questions. We have traveled outside the US for years, albeit for 2 weeks at a time, and mostly in this hemisphere. Travel is a bit of a passion. Both sets of parents are immigrants, so we both grew up around folks from different cultures. That said, we realize that what we have planned may turn out not to our liking in the end, and we may come back much sooner than planned "with our tails between our legs". If so, we plan to rent in places in the US where we think we might like to live long term, pick a place and eventually buy something for around $250k and still do some budget travel as we are able on a more limited basis. Right now we feel like we want to travel extensively, but you are right that we need a Plan B. Most people that hear our plans do ask us what is Plan B if we decide the nomad lifestyle is not for us, so we have thought about it a bit, just not sure where exactly we would settle. With that in mind, we are storing our core belongings for a year just in case.