About Us...

We are two college educated guys in our early forties that have decided to take a break from the corporate world and enjoy life on our own terms while traveling and living in an expedition vehicle.  Just how long this adventure lasts remains to be seen.  We’ve sold our condo, our car, our boat and most of our furniture.  What we haven’t sold, we’ve either given away as gifts to family and friends or donated to charity.  The process of downsizing from an 1800 square foot condo to a 573 square foot temporary apartment to a 100 square foot vehicle was scary at first, then liberating.  The few possessions we take with us are either to help us enjoy the activities we love in the outdoors (skiing, hiking, mountain biking, stand up paddle boarding, snow shoeing, rock climbing, camping and in general exploring) or to help us stay connected when we want (computer, cell phones, satellite TV, wi-fi hot spot, etc.).  The vehicle we’ve purchased, an Earthroamer XV-LT, is designed for off road exploration and is capable of staying off-grid for a few weeks at a time.  We don’t have a set agenda, and what’s even better is that we don’t need one.  We’ll start in mid-February 2014 by spending several weeks skiing in Colorado, then move on from there.  We expect our travels to be focused on the US primarily in 2014 and to include the summer in Alaska and that 2015 will likely find us heading from North America to South America.  We also don’t have a set time frame.  We’ll explore at our own pace for a few years and see how it goes.  If we enjoy the lifestyle and can stay on a reasonable budget, then we’ll continue.

We do need to give some credit to friends that have inspired us to take this leap.  We’ve been following their blogs for years while working to prepare for our own journey.  So thank you to Scott and Heather (Heather and Scott's Adventures) and Joanne and Dave (The Adventures of Tropical Breeze).  We’ve enjoyed following your adventures and now look forward to our own.

The following are a list of Frequently Asked Questions and our answers:

Question:  So, are you retiring?

Answer:  We prefer to call it a long term sabbatical.  The general plan is to commit to at least 2-3 years of full-time exploration.  If we like the lifestyle, can enjoy living together in cramped quarters and can stay on budget, then we’ll continue indefinitely.

Question:  Did you win the lottery?  How can you afford not to work?

Answer:  No, we didn’t win the lottery and are not independently wealthy, but we have been pretty good savers throughout our careers.  When you consider the lifestyle, the expenses are small compared to living in the working world with house payments, utilities, dry cleaning, commuting and all the other expenses that that lifestyle requires.  Another significant factor is that we don’t have children.  Our primary expenses are food and healthcare and our total current budget is less than what we used to pay for our mortgage alone.

Question:  Won’t you run out of money at some point?

Answer:  Anything is possible, but if you look at the stock and financial market performance over the long term, it’s unlikely if we stay on budget.  There are several books written about the full-time RV lifestyle and one of the basic principles we are applying is that if you can spend at a rate less than your investment grows, you can afford not to work.  For the sake of example, let’s say you have $100,000 saved and invested in a way that earns you 3% per year.  If you can manage your spending to less than $3,000 (3% of $100,000) per year, you can afford not to work.  At the end of the first year, you will have spent the $3,000 that the investment grew, leaving you with the original $100,000 in principle which will earn another 3% next year.  Obviously, this is a simplified example and our actual model is a bit more complicated and takes into account, inflation, aging, pension payments, social security (or lack thereof) and a variety of economic market conditions, but you get the general idea.

Question:  Won’t you get bored?

Answer:  Maybe, but we doubt it.  We both love spending time in the outdoors and are taking some of our toys with us like skis, snow shoes, mountain bikes, stand-up paddle boards, rock climbing equipment, and hiking gear.  We’ll have an opportunity to spend weeks at a time in the same place exploring every trail, when in the past, we’ve had to pick and choose only the few our limited vacation time would allow.  We won’t be pressed to cram as much activity as possible in as quickly as possible since we won’t be on a schedule.  This will allow us to explore, relax, read and pursue other hobbies (like learning Spanish or the violin) at our own pace.  For sure, there will be a huge adjustment in going from the pace of working 40 to 60 hour weeks where there is a never ending pile of work to do, to not having to do anything on any particular day.  If after a few years, we find that we can’t adjust to the slower pace or get bored, we can always re-enter the working world, but with a new option to start fresh and anywhere we want.

Question:  So where are you going?

Answer:  We have a vague plan at this point.  We’ve been so engaged in other aspects of preparing for our adventure like selling our loft, selling our boat, finding the right vehicle, setting up residency, evaluating insurance options and downsizing that we haven’t put together a detailed plan for where we’ll go and what we’ll do when we get there.  Our vague plan consists of spending the first couple months skiing and snow shoeing in Colorado followed by a couple months of mountain biking, rock climbing and canyoneering in Utah.  After that it becomes even more vague with the summer in Alaska, Fall in New England and South America sometime in 2015.  Lots of things can change between now and then and that’s why we have a blog for you to follow.