Freedom to Travel, Financially Independent at 43
My wife Julie and I are financially free, aged 43. Our lifestyle now revolves around travel, and we’re currently winding our way slowly across Europe in a motorhome. As I write this we’re on the Lofoten Islands, an incredible Nordic archipelago some way north of the Arctic Circle. We have no children, a decision driven by a lack of parental urge. Although I’m sure it’s made our financial situation far simpler to achieve, it certainly wasn’t part of any end game to hit financial independence (FI), since neither of us had even heard of FI before we turned 40.
OurTour on Tour!
The Lofotens, where we’re currently sat writing this
In our ‘old lives’, as we refer to life before 40, we worked as salaried employees in the offices of corporations. Both of us had worked our way upwards, slowly, and by the time came to quit, were managing projects and teams, and earning more money than we felt we could easily spend. We can’t claim any valour for quitting work early; I had a work-related breakdown, and initially we stopped in order to take a year out and recover. Things took an interesting twist from that point onwards.
Before the gap year idea, we lived in a three bedroom detached house on a corner plot with an extended garage, in the English midlands. A hot tub bubbled away in the garden, perpetually heated, dimming house lights as it periodically fired up. The garage and loft were well stuffed with years of accumulated belongings. Counting them up, we were surprised to find we had at least seven computers and two games consoles. Our evenings would be spent sat in front of a wall-mounted plasma TV browsing through the Virgin+ listings with one eye on a tablet. I’d set up a night vision web cam which enabled us to monitor our dog’s sleeping habits over the Internet. We had two cars, a camper van and a motorbike. All fairly standard, middle class behaviour I guess, but we were far from feeling fulfilled.
Our old hot tub – steaming away in a corner of the back garden
A TV series about people paying their mortgages off in two years prompted us to attempt the impossible and do the same, albeit over a longer time period. eBay started to clear out our stuff, and as more and more of it went, the more we realised our precious things had precious little value. Our buying slowed down as a result, and all that money previously spent on ‘stuff’ now went towards paying off the mortgage. Momentum built until one day, amazingly only three years later, the mortgage was gone. We still had a small mortgage on a bungalow we owned, which we’d been renting out for a few years, after we moved out of it and failed to sell it. As the rent was easily covering the mortgage payments, we chose to leave it alone, but purposeful investors, we were not.
Us 10 years ago, when all this started
With the house mortgage gone, and our buying habit with it, our savings went ballistic. The faster our savings grew though, the more desperate I became to exit work. I felt the darkness of depression clawing me into what felt like a deep hole in the earth. Ju was in better shape, but wasn’t immune to the stresses of her work environment either. We worked out roughly what a year traveling in a motorhome would cost us, based on previous two week holidays, and as soon as the bank account hit that level, we pulled the trigger, handed in notices and started serious planning for a year on the road. We bought a slightly larger, but still old motorhome and spent the evenings of notice periods sticking ‘don’t forget to go here’ post-it notes on a map of Europe. Moving our remaining belongings into the house’s loft and a storage facility, we let the place out.
Saying goodbye to great mates back home in 2011
Loading up a storage facility before leaving (it turns out we’d have been far better off selling our stuff!)
We dreaded having to come back and empty the attic of all of our old stuff!
About to set off in Dave on a cold wet and grey UK day
The trip was intended to give us space to find new vocations, a mid-life crisis of sorts. We’d worked hard in our current roles to be able to take this once-in-a-lifetime adventure, and had every intention of returning to our home and work, of some sort, after the year was up. Of course neither of us knew it, but this act of travelling would eventually set us on the path to FI. The travel proved we could thrive on limited resources, since everything is limited in a motorhome; space, weight, electricity, water, gas, diesel, even the capacity of the loo! It proved we could happily live together, in a very small space, 24/7. It proved once and for all we valued experiences over possessions. It proved that around £15,000 a year was sufficient for us to live a great life (we’ve met people who are comfortable on far less). And, most importantly, fellow travellers we met introduced us to the ‘pre-retirement’ FI concept, such an outlandish idea we’d possibly have never been exposed to otherwise. The gap year continued beyond 12 months as we found ways to stretch our time on the road by reducing our costs, but eventually we spent all but our emergency fund, and needed to head home and find work.
Pisa, Italy
The Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch, Switzerland
Ait Ben Haddou, Morocco
At this point we’d been free for two years. This kind of freedom was something neither of us had experienced in the past. No deadlines. No commutes. No pointless slide packs. No 6am flights. No bosses. No reorganisations. No petty politics. No fighting over days off. No performance reviews. All of it gone, leaving just us to decide where we went, what we did. Most of the time I didn’t know which day it was, as we moved gradually from country to country.
Acropolis, Athens, Greece
The most formative experiences for me were probably in the financially poorer countries, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine, where we realised that even on our self-constrained budget, we lived a life of kings. One day walking a market near the Libyan border, a local tried to buy our dog. On reflection we realised this was quite a reasonable thing or him to do, since we were leading an animal around a market on what looked like a piece of string. Attempting to explain we couldn’t sell him as he was part of our family yielded a very confused Arab, and drove home to me just how luxurious a life we lead.
Erg Chebbi, Sahara, Morocco with Our Hymer Motorhome
At the end of all of this, as our wheels touched the earth at Dover, I burst into tears like a child. The burning desire to re-attain freedom, what I referred to as our ‘blinding light’, was ablaze. Nothing would stop us getting that freedom back.
Only now did we start to truly pursue FI. A friend we met on the road introduced us to Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, which shifted our consciousness sideways. Although it stated what seemed quite obvious, none of the ideas Robert discussed came naturally to me. I rummaged around the Internet looking for inspiration, finding the outstanding Early Retirement Extreme and Mr Money Moustache blogs, and devouring them, among many others. Realising my basic financial knowledge was lacking, I found the Meaningful Money website and enjoyed learning from Pete’s videos, as he stood in relaxed locations around south-east England.
We dusted off our personal pension plan statements, something we’d never looked at previously, to discover we’d been investing in them for 18 years. Combined and compounded, they’d grown to a sizeable investment. Since we were too young to access them though, we needed an alternative approach, and set about finding the best ways for us to achieve a residual income. Going back to corporate life to earn the money for our investments, we set up our own business and worked as consultants in our chosen fields. We bought and renovated another property to rent out and also started a ‘trial investment’ in Vanguard ETFs, since neither of us had directly invested in the stock market before, and were nervous of it. We had solar arrays fitted to two of our properties, which the government pays us for the energy we generate and export, and also established some other smaller passive income streams.
The kitchen part-way through renovation – we lived in the house while all the work was done – not a good idea!
The finished kitchen
The lounge after we’d stripped it ready for re-plastering
Lounge after we’d finished
After only two years at home, we’d hit balance point – we now have enough coming in residually to cover our outgoings, which we constantly track. In retrospect, we did it too quickly, and this time Ju suffered depression as we pushed too hard. But we can’t step backwards, Ju recovered with help from the fabulous NHS, and we’re now free.
Freedom for us, for the moment at least, means we’ve re-joined a huge community of people from all walks of life who travel for various lengths of time in a motorhome. Airline pilots, builders, doctors, business owners, paramedics, teachers, policemen, lawyers, you name it, they’re all out on the road wandering. Europe is far more geared up for his kind of community than the UK, and many countries have hundreds or even thousands of low-cost or free official or semi-official overnight stopovers available.
Many people opt to overwinter somewhere warm in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sicily or Morocco, and campsites there will charge as little as €6 a night for the privilege. Our wanderings haven’t seen us stay still for long, and we tend to move every day or two, which makes it difficult to become bored. Our time is spent on research, driving, planning, walking, taking photographs, swimming, updating this blog, writing, reading and whatever else takes our fancy. We’ve even written and self-published books, which we enjoyed massively, not least because it helped prove to us we could earn from sources other than a salary. Boredom does remain an ongoing risk though, as we’re effectively flooded with free time. We continue to keep an eye out for it, and we have other options up our sleeve in the event it becomes anything but a temporary problem.
Our goal this year was to head through the Arctic in the summer months and reach the North Cape in Norway (which we did on 15 July 2016) , and now we are exploring the islands and fjords and working our way back to the UK via Sweden and Denmark. By the time we arrive back in the UK in the autumn we’ll have spent three years on the road, and slept in (and written blog posts from) around 750 different places.
We made it. the North Cape in the Norwegian Arctic. Yeah baby!
Ticking off a bucket list item – the midnight sun in Arctic Norway, 2016
We still have a base in the UK (which we call ‘The Cooler’), since we’ve only let out some of the bedrooms in one of our properties, again through our management agent. Our remaining belongings are at home, and we have storage for the motorhome at a nearby farm, so we could opt to come back at any time, if we decide to do more paid work or want to be near family for example. The idea was to maintain a good level of flexibility to suit whatever circumstance arises in the future.
Outside ‘The Cooler’ before renovation
Outside ‘The Cooler’ after renovation
Inside ‘The Cooler’ before renovation
Inside ‘The Cooler’ after renovation
Life has taken some twists and turns for us. We’re both from hard working families. I’m especially proud of my father’s long years he worked the coal face, although I wish he’d been able to support his family without wrecking his health. We worked hard too, but working hard wasn’t fulfilling our basic need to be happy, something had to change. As smiling Moroccan’s would tell us as they attempted to sell us everything under the sun: “you Europeans may have watches, but we Moroccans have time!”
Now neither Ju nor I wear a watch. Given a choice between a watch and an unforgettable local meal out, we’d choose the experience every time. Nope, no watches, but we most certainly have time.
Cheers, Jason
You are such an inspiration! We are nearly FI and cannot wait to hit the road in our motor home. Like you we are devouring other people blogs and learning so much while we wait. Keep the posts coming, they’re our daily fix of the good life to come.
Excellent post and one which resonates with us so well. At 42 and 41 we made a similar life changing decision and have not looked back since. We swapped the corporate lifestyle for a more nomadic existence. Life is good. Continue living the dream guys. 😎😎
Just great!
Wow, superb!
A fabulous summary of your journey to financial freedom. Thanks for sharing.
I’m now in between the FI and RE of FIRE so am fast approaching your current position. The FI bit really snuck up on me and passed by my physical/emotional readiness. It’s been a hard lonely (my friends and family have no interest in the topic) slog and has certainly taken determination so I can understand how Julie nearly burnt out. That said for me, and it sounds like for you as well, it’s been so worth it.
Current plans have me FIRE’ing in Spring 2017 with a move to The Med immediately afterwards. I can’t wait to start the next stage of my life.
We are a year away. Mortgage is paid off now and access to my pension in a year (55 yrs) creates lots of opportunities. We now need to start Ebaying our mountain of s**t whose only purpose is to stop the house floating away. Then we need to sort out some passive income.
I collect our 2008 Hymer B544 SL next week. That starts the ball rolling.
Who knows where this will end up?
Thank you for sharing your journey, it has been such an inspiration to read and get me focused on what matters most, the experiences of life and our world. I have devoured your blog from start to end and each morning your daily update is there for me to read which helps me get through another corporate life day knowing there is freedom at the end of a long tunnel.
Looking forward to hearing about your next travel goals? I can highly recommend Turkey.
You guys are awesome !!!
Fantastic story, folks! Thanks for the nod to MeaningfulMoney too – you are living testament to what can be achieved with laser focus on your goals – Congrats!
You guys were the catalyst for change in our lives and set us on the road to FI. For the last 4 years we have looked at life and what we want from it from a completely different angle thanks to your story and links to other blogs like Meaningful Money, MMM and Early Retirement Extreme etc. We are currently 4 months into our travels and have absolutely no intention of returning to our former lives. Even though we have far less income coming in than when we were working we are so much happier and I wouldn’t trade the lifestyle we have now for any money! :)
Wow, thanks very much for taking the time to tell us this, means a great deal to us. The fact such a wonderful life exists just out of sight is what keeps us going writing this blog, trying to get the message across to anyone interested in living this kind of life. Have a fantastic time, as I know you will, and we hope to see you on the road some time. Jay
Hi both,
I think you underestimate how much positive influence you’ve had on other people’s lives. By sharing your knowledge and experiences, including the personal ups and downs, you’ve made many realise their dreams are achievable. In our case, without reading your daily posts and, in particular your plans and journey to FIRE, I’m sure we wouldn’t have lit a fire under our own dream and put together an aggressive plan to make it happen as soon as possible. For instance, this morning I made the final payment on our mortgage – We Are Mortgage Free!! It hasn’t sunk in yet but as soon as our savings and investments start to ramp up, we’ll know the start of our own FIRE journey and long term campervan travels are close …19.6 months, or 84.9 weeks, or 424 weekdays or 14,263 hours until FIRE ON 1 April 2018… not that we’re counting! So thanks guys – thanks for showing us what’s possible in a short space of time, thanks for selflessly sharing your experiences and knowledge. Thanks.
Paul
Thanks for your message Paul, made us both smile this morning. Congratulations on making that final payment, from now on in it won’t get any less surreal, at least it didn’t for us. The sense of seeing investments compound up, spirally wealth I call it, is bewildering. The point at which you hit FI is an utter shock, no matter how long you’ve planned it, it simply can’t be real. The papers say it’s impossible, after all… Keep pushing on guys, surreal it may be, but a slow realisation sets in that you’ve bought yourself the life of your dreams. No BS, that feeling is better than any other. Jay
Hey, we where your Spanish neighbours yesterday in the fjord near Mo I rana. We are FI.. Just like you.. Yesterday we had never heard of it.. But today reading your blog .. Stretching our money endlessly.. If you have time..life doesn’t cost so much.. Phishing, picking berries and making jam,finding ways to make cookies without a oven(I made them with oats and a ripe banana and coconut). It is fun.. My husband is reading your blog because it has many good tips for our way of life.. Maybe we meet again.. Hasta luego amigos
Hey guys, thanks for dropping us a line! Was great to meet you, however briefly, to meet other people doing similar things is life-affirming for us. We’d not heard of FI either, the idea of stopping work before 60 is so weird it never occurred to us. We’re tracking our spending though and in the past year spent £1000 less than we earned from our passive income streams. We have a decent-sized emergency fund, so there’s no financial reason we can’t keep travelling as long as we like. Bizarre, isn’t it? Pretty cool though too… Take it easy, thanks for the your fantastic English once again, and sorry about our dodgy English food! Jay
We also have been inspired by your blog. Collected our MH on Friday and we head for Dunkirk on the 3/10. For a month to start off with and then who knows. WHere would you suggest for October and November. I follow your adventures every day. We are just 50 and can relate to so many of the de cluttering stories on your blog..
South Susan! South! Depends much on what you want to see and experience, but if you want the best chance of sunshine, southern Spain or Portugal would make sense, on the Med. If you’re up for snow, the Alps or Pyrenees will be beautiful; make sure you’ve got mud and snow or winter tyres and chains if you head there. Alternatively, head to southern France via the Dordogne, tons of fabulous places to see in La France. There are SO MANY fantastic places to head for!!! Go, go, go. Cheers, Jay
Well done to both of you. Inspirational! I have a similar plan and your story confirms I am on the right track. Good luck for the future.
Thank you for sharing your story so honestly. Too many of us have nearly gone under in the search for what seemed like the good life full of ‘stuff’ and it turned out to be anything but. Freedom, simplicity and kindness to ourselves and others make us richer than we could have dreamed possible.
Fully agree Margaret, thanks for commenting. Jay