A couple weeks ago my wife mentioned this (That we should take a 1 year trip) to me on a walk.
I'm been slowly pushing her towards frugality and have been trying to convince her that if we save enough money we can retire much earlier than normal. I wouldn't classify us as mustchian but we are relatively frugal for our income level. In 2016 49% of our income went towards debt reduction/investments, another 20% to taxes, 10% to tithe/charity, and we lived on a little over 20% of our gross income. Our income has gone down a little this year but our expenses have stayed the same so I would expect our living expenses to be a little higher percentage of our income this year.
We both love to travel and have taken several international trips together over the past 6 years.
We're 34/35yo and we have a 1yo and want to have another baby in 1-2 years. So we would be likely embarking on this trip with a 1yo and 4yo.
We have $20K left in student load debt, and $59k left on the mortgage. We've paid down over $150k in debt in the past few years but really kicked things up a notch last year.
We have $5k in savings, $340k in retirement accounts, a $140k house we live in, a $40k condo we rent out and paid off cars (1 is a junky 2001 Honda CRV with 200k miles and the other is a 2015 Toyota 4Runner with all the bells and whistles).
My goal is by May 2020 to pay off all our $79k in debt, save up $50k+ in cash, $10k+ in our HSA, and have both the house and condo rented out. They should net about $1,500/mo after taxes, insurance, and minimal expenses. I also want to have invested some $ for college for the kid(s) and continue to put about $30k+/yr into retirement accounts until we leave on the trip.
I'm pretty sure we'll be fine financially. We'll spend the $1,500/mo generated by the rentals, and probably use 2/3 of the $50k in cash over the course of 1 year. I'm more worried about the other things.
1. We want to spend most of our time in Europe. I'm aware of the 90 day rule in the Schengen Zone and we plan to travel very slowly. Ideally rent a house or apt for 2-6 weeks in a city and then move on to the next. I could see us spending 9 months in Europe and the Britsh Isles and then 3 months somewhere else in the world, maybe New Zealand. Is this crazy to do with two small kids? Our daughter just turned 1 and I feel like we have just now gotten to the point where we could travel with her and long as the actual travel is kept to a minimum and we keep her on a reasonable eating and sleeping schedule. I envision us spending lots of time walking around, going to parks, making meals together, and just doing the occasional touristy thing.
2. Quitting my job... I've worked at a small retail store for the past 13 years, my boss is nearing retirement and wants me to take over, but I'm hesitant to take on the risk. The timing could work to where he wants to retire around the time we get back from this trip, but I'm not sure I want to commit to the hours I would need to work after we get back. My wife has a very marketable skill set. I'm not worried about her being able to find work when we get back.
3. Our dog. We have an 8yo mini aussie that my wife has had longer than me. I bet we could get one of our relatives to keep him, but it would be really tough for my wife to leave him.
4. Managing the 2 rental properties. I'm not too worried about this one. My brother is super handy and I'm sure I could pay him for any time he would have to spend on the properties. Worst case, we have a bad tenant, they trash the place and I miss a few months rent. I'm out $5-10k. But I have more than that in buffer.
5. Health Insurance. I'm not even going to bother looking into this until we are less than a year out.
6. I'm sure I'm missing some major things.
