sheriI have to admit that agreeing to leave for up to 6 months was scary for me. I have always wanted to travel the world and always believed I don’t have to live by the normal rules-work, get married, have kids, buy a house in the suburbs, and then retire. Earlier in life I left for 15 months with my husband and we lived in Italy, selling everything we owned. Then of course we did it again last year, selling everything but our car and about four boxes. We ended up in Honduras for 5 months and it was fantastic. So why would taking another 6 months to keep doing what I have dreamed of doing my whole life be scary? I guess because breaking the status quo can be.
I feel like the older I get the more there is at stake, the less time there is to recoup your losses if you really screw up and that makes me so mad! So here is what we did to compromise and live within our budget:
- Used our airline miles to fly to Thailand (and upgrade to Business class so we don’t kill each other cramming a 6’3″ man in coach (my husband) for such long flights
- We fell in love with Airbnb. We had never considered Airbnb before (yes we are a little late to the game) but once we started looking at them I am obsessed!
- We are balancing our trip so that many of the places we are going are inexpensive to offset our time in Europe (never inexpensive).
- We spent time really talking about our current finances, our retirement etc. to set up a budget that we both feel comfortable with.
- I LET GO! I found the part of me that remembers that everything always works out if you follow your dreams and your path. I know the road isn’t always smooth but it does always work out. I realized I would rather live the life I WANT free from worry than to worry about why I wasn’t living the life society wants me to.
So now I am worry free (except about what I am going to read since my husband has strictly forbidden me from bringing 6 months worth of books and I can’t love ebooks yet). It is really funny about life, nothing has changed except my attitude and my outlook and yet I feel like everything is completely different.
When I lived in Italy I used to ride my bike around the ancient wall of Lucca, listening to my iPod and feeling like the whole world belonged to me. I felt as though I were floating because I was living my dream. So, that is what I remember when I finally decided to stop worrying. Worrying made me feel bad, living my dream made me feel good. Opportunities came to me there as well which helped to propel me forward towards all the things I wanted in life. -That is the advantage of following your dreams, and believing in the reality you want.
The cool thing about not having the responsibility of a mortgage, car payments, electric bills, cable, internet etc. is that you are free to spend that money elsewhere, like on travel. We can travel like this and still spend the same or less as we would owning a home and all of the costs associated with that. Everywhere we are staying offers free wi-fi, many of them offer free breakfast, plus we don’t pay electric, gas, water, recycling etc. so we are saving all of that money as well. We have to pay to live somewhere so why not do that around the world where we can have experiences? Do I sound like I am trying to convince you? Maybe I am, okay I definitely am trying to convince you to follow your dreams, even if they aren’t selling your house and traveling the world, whatever they are, follow them, trust in them and then live them, be present in them and enjoy!
Wow that is quite a coup finding air bnb. It helps a lot when trying to maintain a budget as well as go abroad. How did you enjoy Italy? Would there be anywhere you’d recommend to go?
I loved Italy! In the 10 years since I left I have missed it everyday. It seriously changed who I am. I loved Lucca so much, it was unique in that it was a walled city so it had a more authentic feel than many other places. It is also not as well known so you won’t find as many tourists there. In Tuscany, close to Italy was a town called Monte Catini Alto which I loved so much. There is a great restaurant to eat and drink the afternoon away, amazing views, and great authentic feel, virtually untouched by tourists. The town of Carrerra, just north of Tuscany is really cool because you can see where they actually mine the marble and where Michaelangelo spent months waiting for the right marble for his Virgin Mary statue in St. Peter’s Basilica, you can also eat the most amazing pizza and calda-calda you will ever have after you watch local marble artists creating amazing statues. Of course the Cinque Terres, the duomo in Florence, Rome and Positano and Ravello. Orvieto is a great town with an incredible Cathedral, and then there is Venice which is in a league of its own. I will never forget the way I felt in Venice (we went off season so I think that helped with my love for it, not sure I would love it packed with people.).
I could go on forever but maybe this gives you a good start.
Wow, you definitely know Italy! Thankyou for your advice, will definitely look those places up and check them out 😊