All tagged Musings
In normal times we live a pretty unique life as digital nomads and full time house sitters. However, now that life as most of the world knows it has changed because of COVID-19, our lifestyle is being put to the test. Read on to see how we’re coping, are in some ways busier than ever, still finding house sits, and more!
It’s hard to believe that Screw The Average is over two years old! It’s been and will continue to be a place where we share our journey. A journey to pursuing financially independent, retire early (FI/RE), becoming digital nomads, house sitting full time, and travel hacking adventures. And of course, it’s not just rainbows and butterflies, so Screw The Average is also a place where we share our mistakes and lessons learned.
We’ve learned a lot in the past couple of years, but seeing as how life is a continual path of learning and growth, we’re looking forward to the future!
A stop in our hometown led to a lesson learned... We’d just returned from flying around the world but we realized that we’d never really seen our hometown. This realization was a huge reminder to us to try and look at our surroundings with fresh eyes. What seems ordinary to you may be extraordinary to a tourist, so why not take a staycation and see your hometown through the eyes of a tourist?!
After a year of continuous travel abroad, with just each other and our backpacks, we’ve completed what we originally set out to do!
Our first podcast appearance was on Sean and Kevin’s 2 Frugal Dudes Podcast. They made the experience super enjoyable and fun, and we had a great time talking about F/IRE (Financially Independent, Retire Early), travel, house sitting, miles and points, and much more!
Two of the things we hold in high regard are family and elders. Our elders are the ones that are always there for us and the ones that have been there before us. They’re to be honored, respected, and listened to.
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!
Shannon’s biggest fear was getting on a plane with an ear infection and she dreaded the pain she thought she’d experience. Unfortunately, by the time we boarded the plane bound to Athens, Greece her ear was still not healed and she had to face her fears.
As we travel Europe, we seem to find ourselves visiting the UK (United Kingdom) more than we’d imagined we would when we started this adventure. It’s actually not something we’ve tried to do, it just seems to have worked out that way, for what we think are two primary reasons...
In general, we try to be incredibly careful when it comes to our health, but especially when we’re traveling long term. First, because a cold, flu, or injury could ruin the best of days. Secondly, because we’re traveling internationally and medical care depending on the country (language, laws, cost, etc.), could be challenging to obtain.
Little did we know that our travels had taken a surprising twist of fate. Oddly enough, without even knowing it, we’d set off to visit three ‘competing’ European tourist cities in short succession. It wasn’t our plan, we didn’t even know there was a behind-the-scenes rivalry between them; it just worked out that our travels would take us on a route through all three cities.
Let’s be honest, Warsaw, Poland probably isn’t one of your future top travel destinations... But, you’d be wise to give Warsaw a chance; it’s an up and coming destination that may just blow you away! It certainly took us by surprise, leaving us in awe of the city and its rise from the ashes.
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.
We were finishing up work, washing clothes, and packing everything in our backpacks. It was time to check into our flight for the next day....
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 put a lot of time and consideration into what we’d pack in our ‘onebag’ for our yearlong trip across Europe.... So, after five months in Europe, we can’t help but ask, “How’d we do?”
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.
