Taking the Leap
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
The dialogue above is from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. Although bankruptcy is not at the forefront of my mind (yet), this quote always floats in my head as my closest friends and loved ones ask us “How did you decide to give up everything and travel?!” The answer is the same. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
If you would have asked me about selling my house 2 years ago: “Never!” One year ago? “Let’s talk about that when the kids move out of the house.” Six months ago? “Did you call the realtor yet?”
And our jobs? Whoa. Previously, we couldn’t even agree that it was possible to live the life we wanted on just one salary. Suddenly, we decided we would both quit and have NO salary. So what inspired us to make the mental shift? Here are a few ways that helped us make the leap:
Aligning our expenses with our priorities:
Kevin and I have made a habit of talking about our financial goals to ensure we were working towards paying off an agreed upon debt or building savings for a specific upcoming expense. We already had several accounts allocated for various purposes (School Tuition, Future Car Replacement, New Window Replacements, Home Taxes, etc). For the past couple of years, I have kept an income spreadsheet for myself detailing exactly what was left over after all those pre designated allocations and a ‘wish list’ of what I would like to spend it on. Hint: it was ALWAYS travel related.
We don’t consider ourselves flashy and tend to spend as little as possible on most things. For example, we bought a modest, manufactured home 13+ years ago on the outskirts of town. The mortgage was well below our means at the time and almost half the costs of what friends were paying 10 miles away. It wasn’t fancy but it was the perfect space for our needs and had future potential. When we felt we needed more space as our family grew, we renovated with money we had saved and watched our home equity grow with it.
We have both owned the same vehicles since 2001 and my husband is proud to be sporting over 411,000+ miles on his Nissan Altima. His work territory would sometimes be the entire state of Montana and although not a luxury ride, that car gets the job done just fine.
We wear clothes out. Literally. Our kids used to want holes in their pants just like Daddy. It also doesn’t hurt that we have absolutely no fashion knowledge or even care if our clothes match. Reigning in our wardrobe to just 4 outfits each should be no problem for us.
I went through an extreme couponing phase for a bit and was that annoying grocery shopper in line at the store that would hand the clerk like 20 coupons and correct them on sale pricing. I always knew exactly which store had the cheapest price on toilet paper and milk at all times.
Our utilities are as minimal as we can get them. We don’t have cable (just Netflix and Amazon Prime), we never had a personal cellular phone (only used our company-provided lines) and my husband is like a ninja following us around the house turning off lights and turning down the heat (“Can I get you a blanket?”).
On the other hand, we don’t skimp when it comes to our children’s education, travel, eating out or good craft beer. Again, it’s all about priorities and nobody needs to spend money on terrible food or beer.
The real ‘Ah Ha Moment’ came when we decided to deep dive into our general spending habits. We spent an hour or so going through all our credit cards (there are many and I will write more on that in a future article) and categorizing the expenses. A new spreadsheet was created and the game was on! We needed to ‘Better our Best’ and cut out unnecessary items. We brought our kids on board and made an effort to speak openly with them about expenses and our new daily budget. They have done surprisingly well and seem to ask for frivolous items less frequently. Bonus!
In case you are wondering, there really is an embarrassing amount of money that can be spent monthly on craft beer. Straight up embarrassing.
And so “gradually and then suddenly” we found ourselves in our current situation. We have no debt other than what’s tied to our mortgage. And we now have enough savings to buy us a few years to decide what we want to be when we grow up. My vote is on Lottery Winner but that seems like a stretch.
Inspiration:
Whether at work or hanging out with friends, the go-to question people would have for me was “so what’s your next vacation going to be?” To be fair, I do always seem to have the next vacation planned. What I don’t have is a pre-designated list of places I want to visit after that. The proverbial bucket list is always evolving and changing. When someone asks me “where do you want to go next?” it feels like they are asking me to choose my favorite dessert. Or kid. How can I? Too many good choices. I need inspiration and, for me, that comes in many forms.
- Listening to other travel stories: I have been listening to travel podcasts for years. I love to hear about various destinations and pick up some travel tips along the way. It wasn’t until 2016 that I heard my first tale of a family deciding to travel full-time. Up until that point, the stories seemed to focus on young, 20-somethings and their digital nomad lifestyle. Hearing about this particular family and their adventures had me enthralled. I checked their official Facebook updates almost obsessively. Then I started proactively searching for more stories like theirs and found a few podcasts dedicated to this lifestyle including Family Adventure Podcast and Epic Education Radio. I binge listened to hundreds of hours of family interviews. It hit me. We COULD do this! I started taking mental notes and sending my husband random websites and/or destinations I had heard about. From those podcast interviews, I found out about Facebook forums that I could pose my unanswered questions on. I ordered books and web courses that many mentioned were helpful. It’s like learning a fun, new skill and I am trying to absorb as much information as possible to share with others. Keep checking back!
- Following an event or interest: My husband is a real-estate junkie. Our friends will actually bring him back the magazines from destinations they visit. One of his favorite activities during his own vacation (to my dismay) is to check out the local open-houses. So when he became intrigued by a hotel for sale in Belize, we booked a backpacking trip to check out the area. We knew buying a hotel was not likely (or was it just me?). Checking out the real estate opportunities was just the bait to make us choose a destination to explore together. It was such a great choice!
As far as events go, you better believe that if someone invites us to a destination wedding or family trip, we’re going. This hasn’t happened yet. I’m just saying could someone PLEASE get married on a beach somewhere soon? Help a girl out! Anyways…
When our kids were very young they LOVED Mickey Mouse and wanted nothing more than to go to ‘Mickey’s House’. So this was the trip we planned. Now that they are older, their interests are changing and we are looking for ways to nurture that and provide a deeper learning opportunity. At eight years old, my daughter was learning about the history of ancient Egypt and told us how much she wanted to see the pyramids. That wasn’t in the cards for us but it planted the seed on HOW to choose the next destination. The beginning of the next school year I asked her to find out what era they would be studying. I’m not gonna lie, I danced a bit when I heard it would be The Renaissance. The planning for a European vacation began. I can’t wait to see the castles and artifacts she had studied through the eyes of our children! And since we decided to stay in Europe even longer, a homespun lesson plan around World War II has already begun. So much to learn!
So there you have it. Travel inspires education and education inspires travel.
3. But let’s not leave out the delicious craft beer I love so much. Some of our most memorable destinations were thanks to that hoppy goodness and a bold bid at a fundraiser’s auction. While I am pretty sure my husband wasn’t as pleased to find out we would be headed to Africa (he does watch me a bit closer at fundraisers now), we had a phenomenal time and I owe it all to that wonderful beverage for pushing me to be daring. So go ahead, order that second round!
Cheers to prioritizing and finding YOUR inspiration!
