EatWalkLearn-Chris and Steve: Early Retirement=Full-Time Travel

This post “Early Retirement = Fulltime Travel”, has been contributed by Chris and Steve of EatWalkLearn. Another inspiring nomad story in our Life Chapter 2 series.

We built this website to inspire you to create a life you love on your own terms, just like we did, beyond society’s typical expectations. While we’ve shared our nomadic retirement journey on our blogs and Facebook, we realized not everyone could relate to our story.

So, we started featuring others’ unique paths to a fulfilling life. Through our Life Chapter 2 posts, we aim to show that everyday people from all backgrounds can achieve the “impossible,” no matter where they started or who they are. Sometimes, all we need is a little inspiration…

Sometimes your most fantastical plans get a bit delayed. This is a story of patience, adventure, and finding the right partner at the right time.

The Before Before

It was 1999, Chris was single, Steve was married. She had dreams to travel the world in 2005, he was raising a family. By 2005, she was married with a young baby, Steve was remarried. Chris’ plans to travel the world got delayed. Again. But in 2009, Chris and Steve met. Then married each other. And the plan to fulltime travel the world solidified into a 2021 goal.

The Before

Hi everyone, we’re Chris and Steve. Chris, 54, grew up in San Diego, and Steve, 61, grew up in Cleveland. Eventually, we both ended up in Florida, where we met in Tampa. We each worked in education sales, she for a major higher education textbook publisher, and he for a major K12 educational software publisher. In 2013, we both got promoted to jobs in Denver, where Chris retired in 2016, and Steve retired in July 2021.

Her Story

Chris’ story: I’ve always been a traveller and planner. Before I retired, I had already been to all 50 states and 55 countries. I’d always been a saver, too. At my first job right out of grad school with IBM, I immediately began socking away the maximum amount annually into my 401k. Right from the get-go, I had planned to retire early at 55. When a pending layoff arrived at 49, my CFP (Certified Financial Planner) said I was ready, and I jumped 100% into retirement life. My timing though, was off with the rest of my family. My daughter wouldn’t graduate high school until 2021, and Steve wouldn’t hit his magic retirement numbers until the same time.

So, I had to come up with something to do while they finished out their timelines. 

While sitting on my couch in Denver shortly before my last day of work, I pulled out a Denver trails map. I got curious. Where did all the trails go? And why wasn’t there any information about them? Beyond brief summaries of the local trails, not one piece of information about trailheads, what to watch out for, highlights to see, or warnings to heed existed. So I started hiking and walking every day. I’d get home and write about what I found. I added my Denver tales to my existing blog, EatWalkLearn.com. Shortly afterward, when I realized I might be onto something with all my Denver content, I launched DenverByFoot.com. 

The two websites have since spawned four books. In the hiking capitol of the west, people wanted to know about hikes in Denver! My little publishing empire kept me quite content for five years until Steve and our daughter were ready for our next journey. It also produced a bit of income, which more than compensated for my earlier-than-expected retirement.

His Story

Steve’s story: I’ve always loved to travel but never really thought about it as a full-time lifestyle. Busy raising a family and running my own training business, I thought I’d have a typical retirement somewhere in Florida. When Chris and I met, I quickly envisioned a different life and a path to get there.

On our first date, Chris enthused about a full time travelling life and even a possible timeline to make it happen. By the time we married two years later on a glacier in Alaska, I knew our future life would be one of adventure and intrigue.

Admittedly, leaving a successful career and moving from a life of saving to a life of spending makes me a bit anxious. But knowing that I’ve calculated my retirement funds into a comfortable lifestyle gives me relief. I’ve also begun dabbling in Forex, and I’m excited to share my successes (and a few oops moments) with you at our newly redesigned blog, EatWalkLearn…and Earn!

Our Fantastical Adventure Begins

After a road trip through the US in July to see family members, we launch “officially” into our nomad life in August. Our daughter got accepted to Trinity College in Dublin, so we’ll scoot to Dublin to drop her off. From there, it’s just our two carry-on suitcases, two backpacks and us. We’ll travel the world, chasing 72⁰F / 22⁰C, and balancing our “homes” between housesitting, Airbnb-ing, and hotels. We’ll supplement our budget via travel hacking.

This summer has been a whirlwind. We sold our house at the marketing cost of $50, extremely downsized from 2800 square feet, and invited people experiencing homelessness into our house to take whatever they wanted. Read about our strategy for disposing of everything at EatWalkLearn.com. Perhaps the hardest part of this whole process has been figuring out the logistics of domiciling.

We decided to domicile in Texas, and we’ll complete that process in just a couple of weeks. The logistics behind this i.e. changing mailing addresses, getting bills sent to the Texas address while we’re still in Denver selling our house, having the right documents for the Texas DMV, registering our car in Texas with new insurance, etc., have been the hardest part of the whole process. Thinking about our housesits and Airbnb’s outside of the US feels like the easiest part.

And, the big elephant in the room…medical insurance…might be the other hard part. Although we haven’t made a final decision yet on the provider we’ll choose, we will insure ourselves through a global medical provider like GeoBlue. This monthly cost of about US$500 for both of us will cover our medical needs throughout the world.

Life Beyond the U.S.

Once we finally get past Dublin, we plan to housesit, and we hope to stay in each housesit for about a month at a time. In the more expensive countries, we’ll strategize our travel around good housesits. In the least expensive countries, we’ll strategize our travel around Airbnb’s. Read about our housesitting strategy here. Regardless of the type of accommodation, we’ll fill our days seeing the sites, hiking, volunteering, and writing for EatWalkLearn, eating and cooking for our vegan lifestyle, and trading in Forex. In between, we’ll find the expat crowd and local communities’ members, learn the local language, and try our hardest not to stick out.

You CAN Do This

Collectively, we own about 60 things, including toothbrushes, underwear, and hats. It hasn’t been easy to slim down to two suitcases, and we certainly acknowledge all of our friends who say, “We could never do that.” But, honestly, you can. If we can do it, you can too. Build a plan, work toward it, and soon, you too, can be home-free with a passport filled with stamps….even if it does take 22 years to get there.

<<<Author Bio>>>

Chris and Steve, newly retired, have launched a “home-free” life where they slow travel the world, eat a vegan lifestyle, and share their hiking / walking experiences. Follow along everywhere on social @eatwalklearn and sign up for our newsletter. You might even get some bonus information on Forex trading!

_{DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links and Nomadic Retirement Travel are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. That means if you click a link and make a purchase, we make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.}