Hi everyone, and thank you so much for your extremely thoughtful replies! I'm definitely going to try harder getting our credit score up. I'll admit, I've sort of given up hope as it's hard being rejected time and time again for stupid things like an Amazon card! I'll try to elaborate a bit on some points now.
First the controversial financial advisor! He's an independent advisor who takes 1% from any gains per year. He has a 25+ year record of an annual average return of over 8%. Minus his 1% fee, that leaves his clients with a 7% return. He was able to get my parents retired a few years earlier than they had planned on which to me, is nothing short of a miracle! The portfolio is diversified enough that if some of the investments tanked, some would remain intact. Also, down times are good times for bargains so stuff evens out I reckon. I do appreciate how anti-mustachian it is to have a financial advisor and I promise that if I was in normal life, I would never in a million years have one, but we're in quite a vulnerable position with patchy internet access at best, no weekends, no stability in our routine, and very long working hours. Our free time is spent trying to remain as healthy as possible. Also, psychologically, having this third person in our financial "family" so to speak, gives us the motivation to not spend when sometimes it's not so easy.
My degree was in Japanese language and my husband's was in art and sculpture. He does amazing small sculptures of Buddhist masters like Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh but each one takes him about half a year as they are so meticulous.
I would personally like the time to write a blog or something for husband and wife team truckers. In this industry, we are quite rare as we are still considered very young. Your average husband/wife team will be in their 50's, kids are all grown up and the couple realise they have nothing in the retirement pot. People our age are busy raising young families and anyway, modern society is very concerned with the dreaded "property ladder" and keeping up with the Joneses to ever even consider a life such as this. But there must be those who would like a way to financial freedom but the lack of information available as far as team trucking goes is shocking. When we started, I was so desperate for some tips and guidance as to life in a truck but couldn't find anything, so we spent our first year making a lot of mistakes and bumbling by quite painfully at times. Perhaps when we have completed our goal, I can consider that more. But while we're on the road, I don't think I have the time or mental energy to concern myself with much other than keeping healthy, both mentally and physically. I'm only just now getting to grips with the job and life, and I'm in no position to help anyone right now as I still have those "This life is just too hard - screw the money just get me off this truck!!" moments.
We wouldn't consider becoming owner operators in a million years I'm afraid, as having Major Stress as a constant companion is not something we'd relish. We are company drivers and every single thing is taken care of for us. We don't pay a penny for diesel (which costs hundreds of dollars every time we fuel up daily), we don't pay for repairs, permits, insurance, upkeep, nothing. We are experienced drivers now so we are given brand new equipment to drive which means we're hardly ever sitting in a repair shop for days on end like the owner ops do. We don't have to fight tooth and nail for loads as they are just given to us by the company. We aren't a flashing red light for the DOT as because we're with a large company with very strict safety standards, we get to bypass most weigh stations and are rarely called in for inspection. That's a huge time saver for us.
We eat one hot meal a day which we cook ourselves using trucker stoves. We roast vegetables in olive oil, have a bit of chicken, goats cheese and a baked potato. We eat eggs, omelettes, bananas, spinach salads, whole grain cereal with no sugar, we stay away from sugar and our only concession is a couple of squares of 85% chocolate each day. We try to get in at least 4 workouts per week using interval training, high intensity jogging, boxing, calisthenics. Lots can be done in a moving truck!
I personally have an issue with going out in the truck stop to exercise. As it is, when I'm fuelling, I get more than enough attention just by being. I don't look like your typical trucker and I stick out like a sore thumb when I'm in a place for truckers. It's great when I do have to go into a weigh station as I'm definitely given special treatment but here in a truck stop, doing squats or whatever jiggling about would give me a very unwanted audience. Remember, I'm in a world where a social nicety is saying "You have a very nice bosom". In normal life, I'm nothing special at all but this is not normal life. I tend to keep to myself or I stay with my husband when out in the open and let everyone assume I'm just a trucker's wife. Inside a truck stop, I blend with the 4-wheeler drivers so that's OK.
Funny enough, except for housing, living in the UK is pretty inexpensive! We could rent for sure. I'm not dead set on buying but if we're going to be in the UK, I would really love to live in the area of Cardiff that we want to - an area called Pontcanna. My husband is adamant that if we can afford it, he wants to live near friends and family as we are sacrificing community for so many years. Me, I'm not so bothered about where in the world we live (being not such a social creature myself), although if all went wrong with the goal, a frugal life in a log cabin in the Appalachian mountains wouldn't be much of a sacrifice!