Diana and I have been planning for extended travel for many years. We are now ready for our roving retirement. Roving retirement to me means being nomadic and not having a permanent home base. I like to think we will be ‘citizens of the world’.
To us, roving retirement requires being nimble enough to roll with the inevitable challenges by shedding as many obligations as possible. What’s the point of living in paradise if you remain tethered to the daily blahs?
What are those daily blahs?
- Working regular hours
- Maintaining a house
- Dealing with mail
- Taking care of the pets
- Etc.
Daydream to a New Life
Just sit down with your favorite beverage and daydream about things that make you want to get up early in the morning. For me, that’s travel, skiing, and golf. Ask your spouse/SO to do the same and then compare notes.
Here are some suggestions/prompts to jumpstart your daydreaming sessions:
- Start with areas where your interests align with your SO.
- Dream big. What would be really great?
- Want to visit Italy? For a week, for a month, a year?
- What would you do if you did stay in Italy that long?
- How would you pass the time? At the beach, museums, language or cooking school?
- All of the above?
It might seem hokey but, write down your dreams and put the piece of paper away until the next time you try the daydreaming exercise. Sometime later (1 week, 1 month), do it all again. What if any differences do you note from the first time you did the daydreaming exercise, what is the same?
Once you have some ideas about where you want to go and what you want to do, think of all of the challenges you will face in implementing your plan. For instance, do you have enough vacation time? Can you take a vacation during a desirable part of the year? Your plants will need watering; your pets need to be cared for. Most importantly, the trip will cost $8000 all-in, where will that come from?
Over time, your challenges will change (no more pets, so no problem there), but themes will emerge. For example, I learned a long time ago the beach won’t hold my interest for more than a month. I also know that not being able to speak Greek is not really a problem, and if I didn’t have a mortgage, I could save the $8000 in 4 months. I guarantee, if you never make a plan, it will be really difficult to make your daydreams come true.
Start Your Financial Planning Now
“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
Ben Franklin
Selling your house may provide the financial wherewithal to quit your job and start traveling, permanently or not. You still have to pay your travel bills, but the money freed up from equity, mortgages, taxes, and maintenance can often more than cover the bills.
My approach was to envision where I would like to be in 5 years. Doing so allowed us to start preparing our finances to be able to support the lifestyle we had in mind.
As we near our entry into roving retirement, we are mindfully reviewing our spending. For example, why throw money at a new car when the current one only needs to last 2 more years? Why insist on a 3-year appliance warranty when you don’t need the appliances to last any longer than 1 year? Adopting spending changes like these can help save money, change your mindset and allow you to focus on the actions you need to take to achieve your goals sooner than later.
We all know that every plan will require changes. Life would not be interesting if everything was predictable.
The sooner you plan, the sooner you can start living some of your own dreams.
