This is not one of those “I quit my 9-5 job and went backpacking around the world” stories.
I know…I always wondered how people could do that too … even though, trust me, the idea of saving for a while to go on a year long RTW trip crossed my mind several times.
Thankfully, my husband didn’t approve.
He always told me we would do it our way, and that there was no need to quit our jobs to travel on a tight budget and then go back and start from zero again. He was certain that we would, at some point in our lives, make traveling our top priority—at least for a while.
My Sagittarius self never believed him…and yet, here we are, almost 12 years later, starting the most exciting adventures of our lives to date. That’s right, Toto, we are not in Kansas Miami anymore!
How we got to this point
We both have been working from home since the COVID-19 pandemic started back in March of 2020. We absolutely love Miami and lived comfortably as working professionals in the United States. However, if there is something we realized during this past year, is that working remotely meant we could work from anywhere, and hence, technically live anywhere.
We had an opportunity to slow travel and become “digital nomads” and we made sure to take it.
Aside from our remote jobs, we lived under our means and saved enough to have a back-up should any emergencies arise while on the road.
And that’s how it all started, back then it was nothing but a dream. As I write this post, on day 5 of our lives abroad, it still doesn’t feel real!
In a nutshell: we told our landlord—and our family—that we were leaving and started selling everything we owned in late January 2021. Nobody believed us…
On April 1st, 2021, we hopped on a plane (more like 3 planes) with two suitcases, two backpacks and two negative PCR tests on our way to country #1, Montenegro!
Honestly, it sounds simpler than it actually was.
If you plan to do something similar, my advice is to start NOW! You never know how much stuff you have until you need to get rid of it all! Seriously!
I do believe that we had a lot less possessions than the average American and it still was a never-ending painful process. If you’re planning to do something similar and you are in the United States, OfferUp is the place to list all your items! We had two intense months of posting our stuff in the app and meeting people to sell our items. We also donated a bunch of things and did a massive decluttering of items we couldn’t sell or donate.
But selling our stuff was not everything, there was a lot more to consider! Health insurance, bank accounts, credit cards, what to pack, travel regulations, transportation, currency exchange…the list goes on and on. I will work on a more specific blog post detailing everything that we took into consideration and did while planning to move. Stay tuned if interested.
What we are doing
This is a “I brought my job with me to travel the world” story. We will be working at least 25-30 hours a week each, but happily our schedules are very flexible at the moment.
Our plan is to slow travel for the next year or so, before we have kids and while we are young and healthy. Maybe we hate this new lifestyle and the craziness that comes with it. Maybe we end up leaving right away. That’s a possibility, but for now we will be staying at each destination for at least a month, renting Airbnbs that are equipped to feel like home and exploring as much as we can during our visits.
We won’t be traveling on a tight budget nor backpacking the world. We will simply be living in different locations, and if it turns out to be cheaper than Miami, then that will be a huge plus!
We want to live like locals, appreciate the cultures and immerse ourselves in the day-to-day life of each destination.
We have a huge list of places we want to see, but right now traveling is a little bit harder than usual due to the current global situation. We hope that countries will continue to open up as their population is vaccinated and the world quickly becomes a safer place.
Montenegro will be home until the end of April, but we still don’t have a plan for May…and for the first time in my life, I don’t care about what’s coming next!
This is my first blog post from abroad, I am focused on living in the present and enjoying every second of this adventure.
If you know me at all, you know this is not my typical behavior. Surprisingly, I am not worried about where we will be sleeping next month, and I love it. I am a planner, and in a way, this is a huge life changing challenge. I know we will figure it out, and more importantly I know it is going to be fun and memorable. And if things don’t work out, we can always go back “home.”
Thanks for reading! I am excited to document our new journey, see what’s coming next and get back to blogging regularly after months away from The L Axis!
Like always, stick around, the best is yet to come!
