Author Topic: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!  (Read 50027 times)

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #100 on: October 24, 2015, 02:17:03 AM »
Thanks for the update!

The wife and I are similar ages, and doing a similar thing (full time travel), so it's nice to hear of others doing it, and getting to peek at their budget.

We're doing Europe to start with, but South America or Southeast Asia (haven't decided which yet) will be our plan next summer.

Now that you are back in the states did you sign up for an ACA compliant health insurance plan?

Glad the first 6 months went so well.  What are the plans for the next 6 months, and two years?
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

FrugalFan

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #101 on: October 27, 2015, 08:24:44 AM »
Super inspiring! Posting to follow. Will check out your blog too.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #102 on: November 02, 2015, 03:56:24 PM »
Thanks for the update!

The wife and I are similar ages, and doing a similar thing (full time travel), so it's nice to hear of others doing it, and getting to peek at their budget.

We're doing Europe to start with, but South America or Southeast Asia (haven't decided which yet) will be our plan next summer.

Now that you are back in the states did you sign up for an ACA compliant health insurance plan?

Glad the first 6 months went so well.  What are the plans for the next 6 months, and two years?
That sounds great! Congratulations! Are you in Europe now?

We're currently still in Costa Rica. Our lease ends at the end of this month, so we're planning on driving back up to the US in a few more weeks from now.

Yup, we'll definitely be signing up for an ACA Health Plan during the open enrollment. Aiming for the 150% of poverty level plan, which is quite affordable.

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #103 on: November 04, 2015, 02:15:54 AM »
That sounds great! Congratulations! Are you in Europe now?

We're currently still in Costa Rica. Our lease ends at the end of this month, so we're planning on driving back up to the US in a few more weeks from now.

We have been in Europe, but dipped down to Africa (Morocco) for 11 days.

Do you have a plan for the next 6 months?  We alternate between having a bunch of stuff planned (months and months worth), and having no plan and suddenly we need to figure out something for a few weeks from now.  :P
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #104 on: November 13, 2015, 08:11:13 AM »
That sounds great! Congratulations! Are you in Europe now?

We're currently still in Costa Rica. Our lease ends at the end of this month, so we're planning on driving back up to the US in a few more weeks from now.

We have been in Europe, but dipped down to Africa (Morocco) for 11 days.

Do you have a plan for the next 6 months?  We alternate between having a bunch of stuff planned (months and months worth), and having no plan and suddenly we need to figure out something for a few weeks from now.  :P
We usually try to plan 3-6 months. For example, we were thinking about going to Europe but then for the last couple months the markets really fluctuated so we decided to be more conservative in our planning and stick to the US/Canada. Our next big trip will be driving from Costa Rica to Nova Scotia - we actually hit the road one week from now!

Have you enjoyed Morocco? Do you have a blog where you give details on your travels?

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #105 on: November 13, 2015, 08:56:13 AM »
We have been in Europe, but dipped down to Africa (Morocco) for 11 days.

Do you have a plan for the next 6 months?  We alternate between having a bunch of stuff planned (months and months worth), and having no plan and suddenly we need to figure out something for a few weeks from now.  :P
We usually try to plan 3-6 months. For example, we were thinking about going to Europe but then for the last couple months the markets really fluctuated so we decided to be more conservative in our planning and stick to the US/Canada. Our next big trip will be driving from Costa Rica to Nova Scotia - we actually hit the road one week from now!

Have you enjoyed Morocco? Do you have a blog where you give details on your travels?

Yeah, we're thinking pretty similarly.  :)

That road trip sounds awesome.

We don't have a blog yet, but have been considering it.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #106 on: March 15, 2016, 06:22:43 AM »
Hey everyone! Just wanted to provide another followup update on our travels (if anyone is interested). We're alive and well, and we successfully drove our 4Runner all the way up from Costa Rica, through Mexico and now we're back in the US. So far so good! Everyone we've met along the way has been extremely friendly and helpful, and we've had no problems with corrupt police officers or anything. Maybe we've just had good luck?

As we've been driving through the US, we're currently searching for where our next home should be. If anyone is curious, we just made a blog post describing the cities we compared: http://freedomwithbruno.com/hunting-best-early-retirement-city/. We think we might settle in Asheville, NC.

If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

homestead neohio

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #107 on: March 15, 2016, 07:05:24 AM »
If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

How has your stash weathered the recent downturn?  Were you getting nervous before things started turning around in mid-feb?  I'm happy about downturns while still accumulating, but imagine there will not be much good in them once I FIRE.  They are expected, of course, but were you as fine with it as you thought you'd be?

For housing, planning to buy or rent?  Cash or leveraged (30yr fixed)?

How did ACA work out for you once you returned to the states?

Axecleaver

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #108 on: March 15, 2016, 08:13:28 AM »
Atlanta seems a bit out of place in this list. Problem with Atlanta is sprawl - there are no natural barriers to constrain the city's growth, like there is in places like SF or NYC. Hotlanta was cool 20 years ago, but seems too big and spread out now, especially if walkable cities are your thing. Crime is high (#6), the size of the metro area is up to 5.5m people (#9, geez, that's a lot!) That said, I always enjoy my time in Atlanta and there is a lot to see and do.

The other cities you listed are all great candidates.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #109 on: March 15, 2016, 11:08:01 AM »
If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

How has your stash weathered the recent downturn?  Were you getting nervous before things started turning around in mid-feb?  I'm happy about downturns while still accumulating, but imagine there will not be much good in them once I FIRE.  They are expected, of course, but were you as fine with it as you thought you'd be?

For housing, planning to buy or rent?  Cash or leveraged (30yr fixed)?

How did ACA work out for you once you returned to the states?
Hi homestead neohio! Our portfolio is around $930k now (down from $1M). At the end of each month we check our portfolio and set the budget for the next month (based on a 3% annual withdrawl rate of our portfolio balance). So we've had to tighten our belts a bit in the last 4 months, but it hasn't been too serious of an impact. On our way driving back up from Costa Rica we ended up camping a lot more than on our way down - specifically because our budget tightened and we wanted to save more money.

We're going to buy a house, and we're open to paying cash, but since interest rates are so low it would be nice to have a mortgage. Not sure how we'd qualify without having salaried jobs though. Will have to see.

So far ACA seems to be pretty great, but we haven't had to use it yet!



Atlanta seems a bit out of place in this list. Problem with Atlanta is sprawl - there are no natural barriers to constrain the city's growth, like there is in places like SF or NYC. Hotlanta was cool 20 years ago, but seems too big and spread out now, especially if walkable cities are your thing. Crime is high (#6), the size of the metro area is up to 5.5m people (#9, geez, that's a lot!) That said, I always enjoy my time in Atlanta and there is a lot to see and do.

The other cities you listed are all great candidates.
Yeah, Atlanta was a bit of a long shot, but we had fun checking out the city!


FrugalFan

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #110 on: March 15, 2016, 11:15:49 AM »
Awesome update! It's been fun catching up on your blog as a reminder. We've lived in Costa Rica quite a bit so your posts brought me back. Asheville sounds pretty great!

chetmanly

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #111 on: March 15, 2016, 11:22:08 AM »
Awesome! Congratulations!

FrugalFan

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #112 on: March 15, 2016, 12:10:26 PM »
If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

I have one! I was looking back and your Google spreadsheet of savings, and many months increase by over 25k, some by much more (a rough calculation of the average over those ~2.5 year is over 17k per month). This blows my mind! Is a big part of that market gains? Do you know approximately how much you were contributing each month?

Axecleaver

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #113 on: March 15, 2016, 12:44:33 PM »
Quote
We're going to buy a house, and we're open to paying cash, but since interest rates are so low it would be nice to have a mortgage. Not sure how we'd qualify without having salaried jobs though. Will have to see.
Income from investments will qualify you, as long as you can show 2 years of tax returns that document the investment income. You should be able to do a traditional 20% down mortgage. Your debt ratios are pretty good :)

https://www.fanniemae.com/content/guide/selling/b3/3.1/09.html#Interest.20and.20Dividends.20Income


happy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #114 on: March 15, 2016, 06:17:11 PM »
Thanks for your update. I also enjoy reading your blog about your adventures.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #115 on: March 16, 2016, 08:10:03 AM »
Thanks everyone!

Quote
We're going to buy a house, and we're open to paying cash, but since interest rates are so low it would be nice to have a mortgage. Not sure how we'd qualify without having salaried jobs though. Will have to see.
Income from investments will qualify you, as long as you can show 2 years of tax returns that document the investment income. You should be able to do a traditional 20% down mortgage. Your debt ratios are pretty good :)

https://www.fanniemae.com/content/guide/selling/b3/3.1/09.html#Interest.20and.20Dividends.20Income
Hrmm, very interesting. Thanks for this. Unfortunately, we've only averaged $8,000 of annual dividends over the last two years, which would not really qualify us for much of a mortgage loan.

If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

I have one! I was looking back and your Google spreadsheet of savings, and many months increase by over 25k, some by much more (a rough calculation of the average over those ~2.5 year is over 17k per month). This blows my mind! Is a big part of that market gains? Do you know approximately how much you were contributing each month?
Some of those jumps were bonuses, others were market jumps I suppose. Between the two of us we were making more than $200k per year, and I believe we were saving about 75% of it. So that would be an average of $12.5 saved per month roughly. I guess in hindsight I should have calculated more detail on our exact savings rate, since now I have to kinda guess.

Exflyboy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #116 on: March 17, 2016, 11:25:28 PM »
Oh its YOU guys travelling with Bruno!

I hadn't recognised you, I made a couple of suggestions about Bruno and its quirks when you were on your way down.. Cool, welcome back..:)

LateToTheParty

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #117 on: March 19, 2016, 08:45:10 PM »
I've enjoyed catching up by reading your blog.  I read your city reviews with interest, as we are looking to FIRE in the SE. We are visiting Asheville next month. We will be FI in the next 3 years, but will wait to FIRE for 10 more years to be eligible for our pensions and other retirement benefits that our employers offer. Plus we do like our jobs (healthcare). We live in Portland, and it is amazing 8 months out of the year. But the winters are gray and dreary.
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 05:59:15 AM by LateToTheParty »

dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #118 on: March 20, 2016, 03:54:39 AM »
Hi, just to say I love your blog, and it's such an inspiration reading about your travels and your plans for your next project.


CanuckExpat

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #119 on: April 05, 2016, 02:04:47 AM »
Hey guys,

Been loving reading about your adventures and that you met your goal. I forget but did you guys mention somewhere that you were also Canadians originally?
I had a few specific questions if you were (and in general). I can follow up here or by email if you don't want them so public :)

FrugalSaver

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #120 on: April 05, 2016, 11:07:47 PM »
I'm not a big Reddit person.  I clicked on the link to find the full story and couldn't find anyway to get to the original post.  I feel dumber now for having tried.

anyone have any pro tips on how to do that?

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #121 on: April 05, 2016, 11:18:27 PM »
It looks like they removed it--if you click the reddit link, the text is just "[removed]"

Check out their blog for the full story. :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #122 on: April 06, 2016, 12:17:49 AM »
Hey guys,

Been loving reading about your adventures and that you met your goal. I forget but did you guys mention somewhere that you were also Canadians originally?
I had a few specific questions if you were (and in general). I can follow up here or by email if you don't want them so public :)

Their latest blog post does confirm that.  :)

http://freedomwithbruno.com/o-canada-home-native-land/
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Primm

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #123 on: April 06, 2016, 12:24:47 AM »
Posting to follow, but also to say that I feel your pain regarding the diff repair and the oil seal issue. I had exactly the same thing happen (although my diff is probably 1/3 the weight of Bruno's) when I got mine fixed, was absolutely positive I had everything secure and tight only to see litres of oil spewing in all directions when I actually put some stress on it. In the driveway of all places. It makes you sick to the stomach to see all that stuff going down the drain.

Galactic

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #124 on: April 08, 2016, 12:31:38 AM »
Congrats, for me as a Belgian 1.000.000€/$ is a very hard to reach goal as the taxes are insanely high. But here not this much is needed (as because the high taxes and social security rates there are lot's of (unwanted) services for it provided). For instance, we not need to account costs for health insurance as it is close to fee here compared with the US. Also in lot's of IT functions you have a company car (with all costs covered even gas) which is provided to you at a low cost of only (in my case) 100€ a mouth. That's why we do can have a insanely high savings rate of +/- 75% on our 50.000€ net income per year and do have all the necessary comfort.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #125 on: April 25, 2016, 07:40:46 PM »
Hey everyone, sorry I missed some of your replies - yes, we're originally from Canada. :) Moved to California about 7 years ago.

It's now been more than a year since we quit our jobs, and at the end of each month we've been keeping track of our expenses and our portfolio balance. Here’s what the last twelve months have looked like:



In total, we spent $32,260 of our portfolio as expenses over the year. Dividing this by an average of our portfolio balance, we get an overall Withdrawal Rate for the year of 3.4% ($32,260/$946,429). Our target for the year was a very conservative 3%, so we’re reasonably happy with this!

All in all, it’s been a hell of a year. The freedom that Amanda and I have had in the last year has allowed for experiences and joy unlike anything I have experienced before. If anyone is on the fence about early retirement, don't delay - you won't regret it!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #126 on: April 25, 2016, 08:18:11 PM »
Hey everyone, sorry I missed some of your replies - yes, we're originally from Canada. :) Moved to California about 7 years ago.

It's now been more than a year since we quit our jobs, and at the end of each month we've been keeping track of our expenses and our portfolio balance. Here’s what the last twelve months have looked like:



In total, we spent $32,260 of our portfolio as expenses over the year. Dividing this by an average of our portfolio balance, we get an overall Withdrawal Rate for the year of 3.4% ($32,260/$946,429). Our target for the year was a very conservative 3%, so we’re reasonably happy with this!

All in all, it’s been a hell of a year. The freedom that Amanda and I have had in the last year has allowed for experiences and joy unlike anything I have experienced before. If anyone is on the fence about early retirement, don't delay - you won't regret it!

Your story is incredibly inspirational. If you are ever in the NYC area I would LOVE to meet up for a meal or coffee. My SO and I are planning something very similar to what you are doing although we are a going to be a tad older by the time we have enough $$ to pull the trigger.

I'm assuming the remaining delta between spending/NW decrease is market drop since last April?

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #127 on: April 26, 2016, 01:03:56 AM »
What made you decide to stop traveling to settle down?

You've talked a few times on the blog about house hunting, narrowing down cities, etc., but never explained why.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #128 on: April 26, 2016, 01:05:54 PM »
Your story is incredibly inspirational. If you are ever in the NYC area I would LOVE to meet up for a meal or coffee. My SO and I are planning something very similar to what you are doing although we are a going to be a tad older by the time we have enough $$ to pull the trigger.

I'm assuming the remaining delta between spending/NW decrease is market drop since last April?

Thanks! We were in NYC last summer and had a fantastic time, we got a CitiBike pass for the week and biked everywhere (surprisingly, there are not as many bike paths in Manhattan as I would have expected!)

Yes, the net worth decrease is a combination of our living costs and the market being flat/dropping a bit.

What made you decide to stop traveling to settle down?

You've talked a few times on the blog about house hunting, narrowing down cities, etc., but never explained why.

Hey arebelspy - you ask a good question! Basically, as we've been on the road for a year, I've recognized that a piece of life that I'm missing is having some sort of a "home base". When traveling, we must stay lean and light and avoid buying any material goods. Because of this, it's hard to partake in many hobbies - like mountain bikes, playing guitar, playing PC/video games, etc.

So we figured we'll buy a house, living in it for maybe 9-10 months a year, and rent it out while the travel the other months. Ideally, it'll give us the best of both worlds (traveling and also having a home base). The great thing about Asheville, NC is that the summer months are booming with tourists, so it should be easy to rent out our house and hopefully get some nice income while doing it. We'll see.

Question for you: Where are you at these days? Still in Europe? How have your travels been??


arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #129 on: April 26, 2016, 01:33:46 PM »
What made you decide to stop traveling to settle down?

You've talked a few times on the blog about house hunting, narrowing down cities, etc., but never explained why.

Hey arebelspy - you ask a good question! Basically, as we've been on the road for a year, I've recognized that a piece of life that I'm missing is having some sort of a "home base". When traveling, we must stay lean and light and avoid buying any material goods. Because of this, it's hard to partake in many hobbies - like mountain bikes, playing guitar, playing PC/video games, etc.

So we figured we'll buy a house, living in it for maybe 9-10 months a year, and rent it out while the travel the other months. Ideally, it'll give us the best of both worlds (traveling and also having a home base). The great thing about Asheville, NC is that the summer months are booming with tourists, so it should be easy to rent out our house and hopefully get some nice income while doing it. We'll see.

Question for you: Where are you at these days? Still in Europe? How have your travels been??

Gotcha, makes sense.

We've been in Prague for about a month, but we leave tomorrow to go to Krakow for two weeks.

Then to the U.S. for a month to visit family (two weeks mine, two hers) and introduce our siblings to the new baby, and attend Camp Mustache. Then off to Australia for a two month housesit.  Then probably up to Asia in the fall.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

happy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #130 on: April 27, 2016, 07:27:43 AM »
Interesting how different folks have a different response to extended travel.  I did a lot of travel in my 20s including spending a year  travelling around Europe in a Combi van ( a great Aussie tradition at the time).  After 10 months my colleague and I had had enough and were happy to return to home. I really really enjoyed that time, and we travelled at a moderate pace staying in one location for a couple of weeks or so,  but after 10 months I felt kind of over saturated with new places/experiences and was happy to stop. I really wish I'd made the trip to West Berlin at the time before the wall fell. Otherwise, interestingly the wanderlust never really returned, and whilst I'm not against travelling, I'm kind of meh about it even 30 years later.  We did meet a ton of Aussies who set off for a year's travel and never stopped…they'd been overseas for years, travelling, frugaling and working a bit, and never wanted to go back. I guess its a case of YMMV.

ponchoape

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #131 on: April 28, 2016, 07:15:09 AM »
Gotcha, makes sense.

We've been in Prague for about a month, but we leave tomorrow to go to Krakow for two weeks.

Then to the U.S. for a month to visit family (two weeks mine, two hers) and introduce our siblings to the new baby, and attend Camp Mustache. Then off to Australia for a two month housesit.  Then probably up to Asia in the fall.  :)
Nice! Congrats on the new member of your family! How as your stay in Prague been? You've rented an apartment I presume? Is there lots of stuff to do there? Hope that's not too many questions... thanks!

dude

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #132 on: April 28, 2016, 09:24:45 AM »

All in all, it’s been a hell of a year. The freedom that Amanda and I have had in the last year has allowed for experiences and joy unlike anything I have experienced before. If anyone is on the fence about early retirement, don't delay - you won't regret it!

Hell yes, I cannot freakin wait.

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #133 on: April 28, 2016, 09:39:32 AM »
Gotcha, makes sense.

We've been in Prague for about a month, but we leave tomorrow to go to Krakow for two weeks.

Then to the U.S. for a month to visit family (two weeks mine, two hers) and introduce our siblings to the new baby, and attend Camp Mustache. Then off to Australia for a two month housesit.  Then probably up to Asia in the fall.  :)
Nice! Congrats on the new member of your family! How as your stay in Prague been? You've rented an apartment I presume? Is there lots of stuff to do there? Hope that's not too many questions... thanks!

Prague was amazing.  Our favorite city in the world (and we're not much for having "favorites"--couldn't pick between a favorite book, movie, food, etc.).  Lots to see/do, and it's just beautiful.

We generally use AirBnB, I think we've done just a handful of nights in hotels (mainly for single day side trips, or layovers) over the last 8 months.  Having a whole apartment rented is the way to go--washing machine, kitchen, and just much more room.  Not a fan of hotels, despite them being nearly free (via travel hacking).

We'd definitely be traveling more like you, at times, if not for the kid.  As it is, we may get an RV to tour Canada at some point. The Canadian dollar falling so much versus the US dollar, combined with how much oil has fallen (so gas prices are cheap) seems like the perfect storm for spending six months touring across Canada.  Some day.  :)
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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #134 on: April 28, 2016, 11:29:43 AM »
Love reading your blog and catching up on your travels. I know you have mentioned here and there how you guys decided on Asheville, NC as your 'home-base'. Do you mind elaborating more on your decision(s) for choosing this place over the others on your list?

We are in the process of doing something similar to the both of you - I don't know if we will travel around for a whole year or not - a little more work with two dogs and a toddler. We are thinking of the Mid-Atlantic area to 'settle down' in. My main two factors are moderate climate and close-ish to family (Southern Ontario). Close-ish = within 16 hour drive. Specifically we are looking at Richmond, VA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Asheville, NC and others in the area as options. We lived in Baltimore, MD for some time and not opposed to MD but would like to avoid the DC suburbs.  I have been following the various threads on the forums that talk about re-locating, but wanted to read your thoughts on this as well.

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #135 on: April 29, 2016, 12:19:51 PM »
We'd definitely be traveling more like you, at times, if not for the kid.  As it is, we may get an RV to tour Canada at some point. The Canadian dollar falling so much versus the US dollar, combined with how much oil has fallen (so gas prices are cheap) seems like the perfect storm for spending six months touring across Canada.  Some day.  :)

Is there a particular range where it becomes particularly interesting to you? I've been watching with mild amusement the swings of the Canadian dollar and it seems essentially as volatile as oil prices.
When it was below 70 cents to the USD it seemed particularly attractive, but it's hence swung back up to 80 cents.

arebelspy

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Re: Mission Accomplished: My wife (32) and I (30) just hit our goal of $1M!
« Reply #136 on: April 29, 2016, 12:33:11 PM »
We'd definitely be traveling more like you, at times, if not for the kid.  As it is, we may get an RV to tour Canada at some point. The Canadian dollar falling so much versus the US dollar, combined with how much oil has fallen (so gas prices are cheap) seems like the perfect storm for spending six months touring across Canada.  Some day.  :)

Is there a particular range where it becomes particularly interesting to you? I've been watching with mild amusement the swings of the Canadian dollar and it seems essentially as volatile as oil prices.
When it was below 70 cents to the USD it seemed particularly attractive, but it's hence swung back up to 80 cents.

No, I don't think we're likely to base our travels on price any time soon.  It's just something neat to keep in mind/take advantage of where possible.

I don't check it that often, looks like it was 0.69/usd in January, and is 0.80 now.  Had no idea it rose.  But like I said, I don't think that would affect anything.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

ponchoape

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Prague was amazing.  Our favorite city in the world (and we're not much for having "favorites"--couldn't pick between a favorite book, movie, food, etc.).  Lots to see/do, and it's just beautiful.

We generally use AirBnB, I think we've done just a handful of nights in hotels (mainly for single day side trips, or layovers) over the last 8 months.  Having a whole apartment rented is the way to go--washing machine, kitchen, and just much more room.  Not a fan of hotels, despite them being nearly free (via travel hacking).

We'd definitely be traveling more like you, at times, if not for the kid.  As it is, we may get an RV to tour Canada at some point. The Canadian dollar falling so much versus the US dollar, combined with how much oil has fallen (so gas prices are cheap) seems like the perfect storm for spending six months touring across Canada.  Some day.  :)
Nice, thanks for sharing! Since I've never been to Europe yet, I'm excited to fit in into our future travel plans (maybe summer 2017). Great to know that you've enjoyed Prague so much!

As a Canadian, here are my my favorites in Canada, going from West to East: Victoria, Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Whistler, Rocky Mountains (Banff), Ottawa (Capital), Montreal (Jazz Festival is good), Quebec City, Cute Fishing Villages/Towns in Nova Scotia & Newfoundland.


Love reading your blog and catching up on your travels. I know you have mentioned here and there how you guys decided on Asheville, NC as your 'home-base'. Do you mind elaborating more on your decision(s) for choosing this place over the others on your list?

We are in the process of doing something similar to the both of you - I don't know if we will travel around for a whole year or not - a little more work with two dogs and a toddler. We are thinking of the Mid-Atlantic area to 'settle down' in. My main two factors are moderate climate and close-ish to family (Southern Ontario). Close-ish = within 16 hour drive. Specifically we are looking at Richmond, VA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Asheville, NC and others in the area as options. We lived in Baltimore, MD for some time and not opposed to MD but would like to avoid the DC suburbs.  I have been following the various threads on the forums that talk about re-locating, but wanted to read your thoughts on this as well.

Thanks, it sounds like your FI journey so far has been similar to ours!

We picked Asheville, NC for a number of reasons. For starters we were hunting for "good weather" and used Brian B's "Picture Perfect Weather Days" map here: http://us-climate.blogspot.ca/2015/03/picture-perfect-weather-days.html

Also, we were mainly looking at cities that have a low Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For my personal research, I built a spreadsheet listing the lowest cost cities based on CPI data here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UMA6vMMZVRYuASluqZssOL5H8ZU4MzKjIKUfJ61h6S0/edit#gid=0

Also, we wanted to live somewhere that had lots of trees, somewhere that doesn't get too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter, somewhere that has somewhat of a freethinking/liberal culture, and somewhere that is close to nature/mountains.

Last but not least, not to get too deep into details, but we also wanted to live somewhere that has enough of a tourism draw that it would be easy for us to short-term rent out our house and travel for a few months each year. Asheville seems to be booming with tourists in the summer/fall, so it should be easy to rent out our place if we want to travel then. Furthermore, if we get a house that easily accommodates it, we may occasionally Airbnb for some easy $$ on the side.

We made a short-list of cities, and drove through a number of them and felt that Asheville was the best fit for us. Our #2 backup city was Chattanooga, TN.

We drove from Asheville to Toronto a few months ago, and it took us roughly 13 hours... not terrible!

Hope that helps!

 

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