Early-retirement wannabe

DreamingofGreece

hugheskevi said:

That should give a nice set of tools documenting what we are doing, where we are doing it, how long it took, and how much it all cost. That would then enable anyone to replicate a portion of the trip if they wished, knowing exactly what they would see and how much it would cost. Not I expect anyone to do so, but it might give some people a few new ideas along with detailed data to inform them.

Perfect, thanks @hugheskevi

It's been 4 years+ since we ventured outside Europe and I'm keen to get back to some longer haul travel next year (although restricted by annual leave) so will follow with interest. 

Cornish_mum

Congratulations hugheskevi, have an amazing trip CM

Dh6

All the very best HughesKevi, enjoy your trip

michaels

Congratulations

And a really mundane question. What have you done with your stuff whilst renting your house out?

hugheskevi

michaels said:

Congratulations

And a really mundane question. What have you done with your stuff whilst renting your house out?

A lot of it has been thrown away, as we have been planning for this for a long time so have avoided buying things unless essential, and kept things much longer than we usually would. We have also been careful to dispose of things we no longer need over the last few years to avoid lots of clutter.

A small amount of things I will keep at my brother's house (he has an enormous house far bigger than he needs). This is mostly more valuable things, notably a piano, a PC, physical pension records, and my wife's rings. I'm also loaning my car to my mother, but it is rather a wreck now, 10 years old with lots of war wounds from being parked on the street in London. But it might still be handy when we return for a while, hopefully enabling us to move and then get a new car.

But mostly we boxed things up and put them in the loft. My wife had a lot more things than me, but this is all low value things - kitchenware and clothes, etc. We are renting house furnished so all the big items stay where they are.

bluenose1

Congratulations Hugheskevi, must be a great feeling to have finished work ready for your adventures. 

That Airbnb in Mexico looks amazing (and very reasonably priced)

A great time to leave these shores for a while, hopefully things will have improved by the time you return, though depressingly I fear not.
Would  love to follow your adventures on YT etc, make sure you post the link when up and running.

Lifematters

Many congratulations @hugheskeviI look forward to your YT channel.

My partner wants us to travel Central America in 2024 (we are travelling Europe next year) 

The Airbnb accommodation looks amazing, we’ve had some fabulous Airbnb apartments over the years, I think that’s the way to go. 

We are big foodies and love eating out, going on foodie tours. Will you be doing any foodie type info / blogs? 

We are both vegan so would be good to get an idea of how accommodating certain parts of the world are before we travel. Obviously never had any issues over the years as everywhere has the basics; rice, beans, fruit, veg etc so never starve but interested to know how accommodating restaurants are in their plant based options. 

Enjoy your trip! 

hugheskevi

We are big foodies and love eating out, going on foodie tours. Will you be doing any foodie type info / blogs? 

We are both vegan so would be good to get an idea of how accommodating certain parts of the world are before we travel. Obviously never had any issues over the years as everywhere has the basics; rice, beans, fruit, veg etc so never starve but interested to know how accommodating restaurants are in their plant based options. 

I doubt there will be much food stuff, I have no interest and leave all that to my wife. We will mostly prepare own food or eat from supermarkets rather than restaurants, perhaps less so once we reach Mexico and beyond. My main concern is calorie control (unbelievable the calories restaurants on USA serve), and I am taking some scales and will try to get back down to running weight, probably losing about 4kg or so.

My wife and I are both vegan. Traveling through rural Africa we had to be vegetarian, although I have far fewer issues there, as their village animals are treated far better than ours. I expect there may need to be similar at some places on this trip. Although no harm will arise from a week or two of inadequate diet, months would start to do harm, and there won't be a lot of vegan food in some of the places we go.

cfw1994

Echo all the good wishes here!  

That’s an amazing adventure ahead of you: I look forward to vicariously enjoying the journey once you post links 👍
Maybe do an instagram thing too? 

Bon voyage!

hugheskevi

We have now arrived in Alaska, and are into Day 3 of our travels. Work is a receding memory, and it is quite hard to keep track of the days, taking into account time zone differences and jet lag. We are now up near Fairbanks, which is the most northerly point of our trip - it will be predominantly south from here!

Alaska varies between incredibly expensive, and insanely expensive. The cheapest accommodation is about £60-£70 per night, cheapest car hire is about £65 per day (including insurance) and food in supermarkets is about 3 times the cost it is in the UK - although this varies a lot, with some products being much the same yet others costing 5 times the price. A big frustration is the 'members' price' - with many supermarkets offering free membership...as long as you have a US cell phone. The members' price can be several dollars difference per item, and also includes 2 for price of 1 offers, so not being a member can easily double the price. I'm using it all as motivation to cut out various vices (Pepsi Max...), eat healthily (cook all our own food) and get back down to running weight, which I ballooned up from during COVID lockdown (need to lose 4-5kg). As well as running frequently, I've started to do 20 minutes of strength and stretching when I get up, watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory each day (with ear buds to avoid annoying everyone around). From previous experience, fitness can be lost very quickly when travelling, so it is going to be a key consideration in the coming months.

The travel budget is something like £65,000 p/a to stay on course for retirement plans. I can't imagine spending that so should 'save' whilst traveling (ie spend under budget, thus increasing resources for later). However, market performance will be much for significant in determining the financial position whenever we come back. The budget for annual UK spending up to age 55 is £41,170 p/a as we set off, so it will be interesting to see how this changes whilst we travel (after age 55 we have £45K of fully index-linked DB post tax pension, as well as £243K of DC, a tiny bit more DB at age 57 and two full State Pensions to come, so it is only up to age 55 that matters).

I'm thankful that a lot of our USA expenses have already been paid for, with car hire all sorted, an 8-day cruise paid for except tips, and AirBnbs booked and paid for the first 2 weeks. That, combined with still getting paid in UK (leave ends mid-October) and rent payments on our house means that despite the high US prices we will still be better off at the end of 2 months in USA than we were at the start of it. Then once in Mexico expenses should fall massively.

The main embarrassment so far has been looking puzzled at the car key, and asking what the button marked 'Hold' does? In my mind, I was thinking is this some sort of hand-brake? The answer was 'It opens the hold' (boot) - the guy probably thought I was a right foreign idiot! That, along with not being able to start the car (it needs to be in Park and you have to press the brake to be able to start it)...

Although it is very early days, I really can't envisage going back to work in London. It would feel too much like going back to a previous chapter of life. I think if that happens, it would only be part of short-term plan to sell our house and move, not anything long-term. I know others have found the switch from work to retirement difficult, but I don't think I'll have any such yearnings. My wife is much more open to returning to work though, albeit with a different employer doing different things, she wouldn't want to go back to what she did before we left.

The picture below shows everything we have with us for the next couple of years - it is very liberating to pare everything down to about 35-40kg of things between the two of us, and to be able to carry it all comfortably on your back!