All in Lifestyle
The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community is thriving. We experienced this first hand on a trip to Northern Colorado where we found ourselves welcomed into the NoCo Mustachians community at a Meetup at Mr. Money Mustache Headquarters!
We never would’ve thought that when we started to travel house sitting would turn into a lifestyle for us. But now we’ve house sat extensively and have nearly 20 house sit jobs under our belts. Our latest house sitting job took us to Colorado where we enjoyed a comfortable home at the foot of the Rockies, with the most adorable, fun, and amusing dog and cat!
If you’re traveling for more than a few months you’ll find yourself needing a haircut along the way, unless you know how to cut your own hair of course. Furthermore, if you’re a digital nomad and long-term traveler like us, you’ll find yourself needing haircuts in cities all over the world.
We’re frequently asked how we can afford to travel the way we do. The short answer is that we made the choice (thousands of small choices really) a long time ago. The long answer is a bit more complex.
We embarked on this year of travel, knowing that many of the comforts of home we’d grown accustom to wouldn't be available on our trip. Either the sheer circumstance of not being in our own home, or the fact that our bags can only fit so much stuff, meant that we were going to need to manage without a lot of 'stuff' we were used to having for the next year or so. Of course, we knew this going into it, so it wasn't a surprise to us.
Just because we were leaving behind the stresses of home and achieving a goal we’ve worked towards for years, didn’t mean that life would suddenly be easy and smooth sailing. On the contrary, life is now full of new challenges, ones we haven’t faced together before.
We pride ourselves in being able to take on most physical activities at a moments notice. This by no means, means that we do the activity at the highest caliber or that we’re winning any competitions for speed or strength. We’re just in decent health and with good overall conditioning levels.
The United Kingdom is very similar to the United States in many ways, but very different in others. Of course there are the major things that are different, like driving on the left side of the road, an English accent, a much more exhaustive train system, and trash cans are rubbish bins. Then, there are the little things that take a bit of keen observation to notice, pubs are not bars, wall outlets have individual on/off switches, and you aren’t expected to tip.
We want to travel with as little stuff as possible. Less stuff equals less weight and more space. It’s amazing how much difference a couple of pounds can make on comfort and mobility.
In many ways, finding a house sit is like looking for a job. We need to find an intriguing one, apply, and go through an interview process.
Sleeping isn’t when the memories and the life changing events happen.
Using less stuff has a multitude of ancillary benefits, and it’s typically a butterfly effect.
We’re extreme. So, saving money on food while traveling (or not traveling for that matter) is a task we take very seriously.
As we've researched, prepared for, and done some travel, we've come up with some tips, tricks and hacks to make long term, light weight traveling possible. Here's a tip that will make things a bit easier.
We’ve been of the belief that flying is the best way to travel. The ads have told us so since well before we were born. Our parents lived in the golden years of flying and we live in the inexpensive, easily accessible age of flying.
*We won’t ever feel like we’ve ‘made it’, and that may in fact be why we've made it?!
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule originates from Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. The principle states that “for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”
On our walk this morning, a woman was coming towards us with a big city look on her face, no emotion and a wall between her and anyone else on the walkway. We smiled a big small town smile and said hello. It was amazing
