Retirement Travel full-time? Here’s our Reasoning:
- Front-load retirement with travel. Nomads can achieve their most important retirement travel goals before health and energy wane with age.
- Do what tourists cannot do. Nomads experience life in a variety of interesting places by living in each place for weeks or even months at a time. They don’t just see places from the window of a rolling tour bus, they experience places.
- Simplify life by shedding possessions. The most important things in life aren’t physical things. Becoming a nomad forces the purge-of-things to happen now, not at some imaginary future date. Your future self (and your children) will thank you. Full time retirement travel is a perfect time to do the purge.
- Freedom to be wherever. No worries about leaving a home, lawn, car behind, or the incremental cost of being away from home. Wherever we are, that is home.
- Free up money to pay for nomadic life. Eliminating the costs of normal life helps fund the cost of nomadic life.
- Nomadic life is temporary. When health, family circumstances or interests change, nomads can settle down to a more normal retired life.
Does this sound good? Before you spontaneously sell everything and hit the road, here are some things to consider.
What are my goals as a Nomad?
What are you trying to accomplish in your life, that is better done as a Nomad? There is no one right answer, but you should be able to articulate your goals. That should guide your choice of locations and activities. In our case, we had a list of places we wanted to see and more importantly, experience. We also had the desire to actually do some good in some of those places. The disruption of normal life to become a nomad was worth it to us because our travel objectives were important to us. Full time retirement travel is our choice for now.
On the other hand if you have deep roots where you are, like your life now and travel is not so important to you, then by all means, don’t dismantle what you have. Nomads are in the distinct minority for a reason.
Do I actually enjoy long-term foreign travel, or just the idea of it?
Being a global nomad in retirement is a romantic notion, like buying a sailboat to cruise the Caribbean. The reality of sailing isn’t reflected in the filtered Instagram posts. If you haven’t traveled much, then take a test drive before committing. Take a longer trip to a desired location. Do you enjoy the fun and challenge of being someplace new? Now imagine at the end of your three weeks you can either go home, or to New Zealand for the next month. Which would you choose?
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
~ Saint Augustine
Am I willing to give up my current lifestyle?
The transition from stable, normal life to nomadic life is disruptive. Consistent direct contact with your networks of friends, family, woodworking, the backyard grill, favorite foods and restaurants, your kitchen, your bed, they all go away. Technology helps maintain relationships but not like actually being there. This exacts an emotional toll. Not everyone is going to be a Nomad, and that’s fine. Nobody else in our circle of friends has made this choice and we have met very few fellow retired nomads in our travels. The key to being a successful nomad: enjoy what you gain by being someplace new, without dwelling on what you lost by leaving home.
Do the finances work?
Nomadic expenses are very different than normal life. It is hard extrapolate from past experience to know what expenses will be as a nomad. We made estimates before going nomadic, and we now have 7 years of actual experience.
As a nomad, expenses in some categories go up (most notably, lodging and airfare), but expenses in other categories go down (e.g. house-related expenses and cars). For our situation and the way we travel as nomads, the cost of being a nomad is about the same as if we had just stayed in our house.
I summarized our situation in an article and Excel spreadsheet on our blog. It can be a starting point to help you understand your own situation.
What about the house?
Some may choose to keep their house, get a property manager and rent out the house. After the nomadic years they move back in. Some may rent to friends or family members. Other may sell the house and invest the equity in some other asset, then buy a house after the nomad years. This works especially well for people who already planned to move or downsize. The point is, you don’t have to permanently give up your home base if you don’t want to, but if you keep it, you probably want your house to earn some money to help fund the cost of nomadic travel.
It seems like too much change and stress and too much travel.
Nomadic life covers a wide range of travel. At one end of the spectrum are roaming nomads: those who constantly explore new places in the world. Every week or so they move again and embark on a new adventure. Experiencing new things is precisely what nomadic life is about, but sheer volume of change can easily transition from stimulating to overwhelming.
At the other end of the spectrum are migratory nomads: those who pick out 3 or 4 places in the world and follow a yearly cycle: Mexico for the Winter, Portugal in Spring, Canada in the summer, somewhere near family in the fall. Still nomadic, but staying in known places for months at a time.
Mix and match as you see fit, there is no one right way to do it.
What to do with all my stuff?
You know you need to purge your possessions at some point, so why not do it now? Yes, you will likely live in a house again after being a Nomad but be judicious in what you keep. Self-storage costs add up: 5 years x 12 months/year x $200/month = $12,000. Limit what you keep and spend the savings on some nice furniture in 5 years.
How much stuff to bring?
Less luggage means easier travel. For roaming nomads that is critical. We travel for months with each of us having just a carry-on and backpack. This means a restricted wardrobe and few other possessions. Everything has to earn it’s way into our bags. However travel days go much more smoothly. Here’s a link to the list of what we bring
Alternatively, migratory nomads move less often and stay put for months. Dealing with more luggage just few times a year may be worth it.
What do you actually do all day?
Nomads aren’t like normal tourists. Sure there are touristy things to see and do wherever you go, and you will do a lot of those. Roaming Nomads roam specifically to see and do new things. But the see-12-countries-in-3-weeks tourist pace is unsustainable and not desirable anyway. Nomads travel slower and that is by design.
View this more as being retired, but just doing it in a variety of places. Some days we see the sights and do the activities. Other days are just normal days similar to days we would be having at home: do the laundry, catch up on finances, read the news, call or write to friends/family, shop for food, take a nap, read a book, go for a walk or hike, cook dinner or go out.
Tourists just go home to normal life after a trip, no planning needed. Roaming nomads are always researching and planning the future. Right now we are in Constanta, Romania on the Black Sea, but are planning the next few weeks in Bulgaria, Poland and Denmark, followed by where we will be for 6 weeks in the US, and then our next trip, which is to Nepal and surrounding areas. That is a lot of research, decisions and reservations to make.
Some hobbies actually flourish as a nomad such as photography, hiking and blogging. Family history can be combined with travel to places of interest. Learn a language by living in a country that speaks the language and attending classes. Any hobby that doesn’t need much stuff to tote around works well.
Anything computer related is portable: writing, reading (Kindle), watching movies or doing geeky computer things. WiFi is a standard feature now at hotels and AirBnB’s wherever we have traveled in the past few years. Cellular data plans are reasonable and fast, so staying connected is not a problem. (except the Galapagos Islands, not so fast)
What will this do to our relationship?
Nomadic couples spend a lot more time together, and with only each other for company. Really, a LOT more time.
Every new trip or new place visited presents a challenge: the best way to get from point A to point B, where and what to eat, what to do that day, where to stay. Often this means making a quick decision based on incomplete and questionable information. Mistakes will be made. Disappointment will happen.
I once frantically raced around a bus terminal trying to find the right bus when it turned out I had booked seats on a train that left (on time I presume) from the adjacent train terminal, the one we walked through to get to the bus terminal. That was not fun for me, but especially for Susie who had to just follow me around. No judgement just lessons learned, as the same thing might happen when it is her day to lead us into the unknown.
Resolving conflict and maintaining good relations requires a great deal of mutual tolerance, patience and forgiveness. Not every couple is up to the task. On the other hand, experiencing the wonder of the world with your best friend by your side can deepen and enrich your relationship. We love it. Most of the time…
Do I have the required health and stamina?
Roaming nomads travel much more than migratory nomads. On most days we easily get our 10,000 steps. On travel days we are often rolling suitcases down cobble stone streets and hoisting our luggage into trains, boats, planes, cars and buses or are carrying them up and down stairs in apartment building. We shop in local grocery stores and carry food and water home. Many places have no air conditioning. Some beds are not up to par. Balance, strength mobility and stamina are required to be a roaming nomad.
Migratory nomads don’t move their stuff as much, but there is still a lot of walking on uneven surfaces to visit sights, getting into and out of public transportation and carrying things from stores to home.
Sounds good, now what?
If this all sounds good to you, then it’s time for more serious study: Get more opinions from other nomads and articles. There are lots of Digital Nomads and articles out there, but there are a few resources that take into consideration the special needs of Retired Nomads. Determine your goals as a nomad, analyze your particular health and financial situation, discuss with spouse and family. If necessary, try out an extended trip to see if it suits you. You can check out our blog to get some sense of our experiences if you like.
Beyond that are a myriad of things to learn about, choices to make and things to do: house, car, possessions, budgets, travel gear, insurance, financial tools, phone plans, etc. Consider what we have learned during the past 7 years, which is available on our Articles page. Every situation is unique but there are many people that have done this before you. Well at least two…