The first time I FIRE’d I didn’t know the term, didn’t know anyone else had really thought about it, and knew I’d have to go back to work eventually… (I could probably have gone as long as 5 years without a pay check) I was 31, it took me a week to pack then I spent the next week hitchhiking with a lot of walking. I thought I was decompressed then, but there were a few more serious mental recalibrations over the next year of travel, especially back packing in Nepal about 6 months in. In the end it was much harder to accept going back to work after freedom than to leave work behind…
The second time was similar and left on a 800 mile bike ride the day after my last ride. I felt pretty decompressed by the end of the ride.
I tried recreating that the third and hopefully final time I retired but it didn’t work as well. Maybe it feels more permanent this time around… it felt like I’d figured things out about a year in though so I put that down. Then a bunch of other life happened and I’m not as sure as I used to be about anything now.*
*Except I’m definitely thankful I’m not living paycheck to paycheck or working full time plus while trying to juggle the rest of life right now.
Hi Alternatepriorities - That sounds like me coming up soon. I'm working on planning some large trips like backpacking in Europe and Asia. Would be curious to know how you went about planning it in a way that was affordable.
My average expense in 2012/13 was 2k per month. If I take out one really expensive week (climbing Kilimanjaro) it would be about $1,800 per month. Most of that went to transportation, accommodations and food.
Transportation - I had saved up a lot of points flying for work at my first job. I paid for the first half of my flights with those points which helped a lot. I also tried to structure the the routing to be reasonably efficient which kept me from making a couple of stops I might have but saved several thousand dollars. I only had a 42L carry on bag for the whole trip so that saved checked bag fees. In Australia the only vehicle I rented was a relocation rental so it was much cheaper and I shared that with two strangers I met on gumtree... I also did some unconventional travel by hitch hiking the first leg of the trip from NM to WA and catching a ride with a friend from WA to AK and back to NM before I started the flying.
Accommodation - Rough guess looking back on things I only paid for my accommodations about 1/2 the days I was traveling. The rest of the nights were couch surfing with friends in various places. It helped a lot that my friends and family were mostly in the places that would have been the most expensive to pay for a room. I stayed for free in Alaska, Sydney, Paris, Norway, and on a boat in Florida... Sure, I had to pay for my room every night I was in Nepal, but as that was about $10/night it was a very affordable seven weeks... The 10 weeks in Europe would have broken the bank without friends to visit and other friends to share the cost of rooms with.
Food - I mostly kept this simple and ate whatever the locals were eating. In the more expensive places I limited my eating out, and in cheaper places I didn't
As for "planning"... I didn't really have a solid plan when I started. I had 2 months warning that I'd be taking this trip and I knew that I wanted to go all the way around the world, but that was it. I left hitchhiking with a plan tp "return to AK and do the things I didn't have the time and money for growing up". I decided to do that first since my father was in AK and he'd had some heart problems. In another universe I could easily have gone to South America first. I went to South Korea for a friends wedding then and on to Australia which had always been on my list of places to go. I did some backpacking there and really started to wrap my head around what I had accomplished and what I was doing. The timing for Nepal was mostly a matter of getting the good weather and the schedule of the friend I was meeting there. Seven weeks was enough time for two long treks and also some nice down time. I originally planned to go the climb Kilimanjaro right after Nepal, but my brother couldn't go then so I ended up spending 10 weeks in Europe instead of the 4 I had planned. That really pushed my cost per month up and by the time I finished climbing Kilimanjaro I decided it was time to return to the states rather than going to South America as I'd planned. I'd gone to South America in 2011 but I wish I'd been able to make it to Patagonia. Some day. Also Antarctica
Hope there is something helpful in there...