FAQs for the Vagabonds
Greetings! We are deep in preparation for our egress and Walkabout. Several friends have asked, “Are you ready, excited, nervous?” Good question, all of them! Taking a few moments now to answer some of our Frequently Asked Questions…
Q: How can you get rid of all your stuff? (Variation: “You’re doing retirement right, I wish I could do that.”)
A: You, too, can do this. However, unless you have a stockpile of money to maintain a full house and/or store your stuff (which we don’t), you have to make choices. The main choice is your stuff or the freedom of the alternative. For us, stuff is not important. We’ve been on a journey of thinking about this issue, and the subsequent purge process, over many years. It began with reading the book Your Money or Your Life back in 1993. The fact that the book is still in publication should give an idea about its worth. For Chris, this was also enhanced through her studies and practice of Buddhism, particularly the concept of non-attachment. We both feel happier and lighter the fewer things we have.
Q: Where are you going to live?
A: We still haven’t decided that. The next 2 (maybe more?) years will involve exploring places that we have identified over the past several years of research. We will be moving around and trying out our top choices, combined with travel that we have wanted to do. This summer we will be trying out Alicante, Spain. We have tentative plans to try out Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the beginning of 2021. We are also interested in Italy, but have not settled on a city yet. If none of those appeal, next on our list is Portugal. All of these places appear on International Living’s 2020 List of Best Places to Retire. You can learn about them, and other cool places, at their website.
In terms of travel, the plans for this year are two Transatlantic cruises, visiting a variety of ports, a month in Sicily, and a month or so each in England and Ireland. The rest is blurry, haha, but we’ll finish up 2020 in California with Emily. In terms of our domicile / home base, we live in Cape Coral, Florida.
Q: How will we know where in the world the Vanchellas are? (A bit like "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" 🙂)
A: Click the subscribe button at the top of the blog and you'll get an email notification when we make a new post. You can also check out the map included in our first post. It's interactive! The legend has our itinerary including dates and transportation details (it's legendary 😉). Click on it and explore!
Q: Why don’t you want to live in the U.S. for retirement?
A: The primary reason is economic arbitrage. We are “exchanging” our money to make it worth more by living in a place where the cost of living, primarily housing and health care, is less than in the U.S. For Chris, she has wanted to live at the coast all of her life. While we have come close, we have never quite made it there. Coastal living within the U.S. is not viable at our projected income as pensioners. Additionally, we enjoy experiencing other cultures. A reason that has developed in the past few years is the current state of culture / climate in the U.S. We definitely need, at a minimum, a ‘time out.’
Q: What about Emily? How can you live so far away?
A: We already live far away, 4-5 hours by air. Although we love being with her and miss her presence, Emily’s life is her life to live (which she happens to be doing very well - proud parents!). None of us know where Emily will end up for her career. Technology really helps, we chat daily by text and about once a week through a video call. We have tried various methods (Skype, FaceTime, FaceBook), but we find Google Duo is consistently the best.
Q: Are you really going to live out of suitcases? How do you fit everything in?
A: Yes! We just did the dry run of our suitcase packing, and everything fit and was within the weight restrictions. The main secret is compression; packing cubes are our friends!
Q: How does Chris get such good deals on cruises?
A: First, try to take your cruise in the off or shoulder season. For example, if you want to cruise the Caribbean, there are certain times that are less expensive: 1) the first couple of weeks in December (after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, two of the most expensive times); 2) September and October (although you have to deal with potential problems of hurricane season); 3) mid-January, post New Year’s. We’ve had several good deals, including one 5-day cruise for 3 for $600 total! Transatlantic (also called Repositioning) can also be good deals, but you need a lot of vacation time.
Q: Why doesn’t Chris become a travel agent? (Variation: A professional genealogist?)
A: With the time these things take, she would make about 50 cents an hour!
Q: What are some of your travel research resources?
A: For cruises, we typically book directly with the cruise line, as we have found that is usually the best price on offer. We cruise with Carnival often because we are Platinum members and receive things like free laundry and priority boarding. We also get some perks with MSC, because they loyalty match. However, we have also cruised with Costa, Celebrity, and NCL.
When trying to get an overview of which cruises are available in total, we use VacationsToGo. They also have a nice feature called the “90 Day Ticker” which shows cruises that are on sale in the next 90 days. We have used them to book cruises on occasion.
For our upcoming journey, we have purchased travel insurance for the first time. (We’re getting older!) Allianz is the company that we felt best about, and they offer individual trip insurance, as well as annual plans (which is what we are using).
Often on our travels, we utilize AirBnB. Just as an example, on our last cruise, staying at an AirBnB and parking (conveniently) at the port was less expensive than staying at a hotel with a park & cruise package (which involves shuttles and a lot more waiting). If you’ve never tried it, here is a link for a discount (we get a little kickback, but you get a big discount).
John has recently discovered The Man in Seat 61, which has all kinds of great information about train travel in Great Britain and Continental Europe.
Q: How can you get rid of all your stuff? (Variation: “You’re doing retirement right, I wish I could do that.”)
A: You, too, can do this. However, unless you have a stockpile of money to maintain a full house and/or store your stuff (which we don’t), you have to make choices. The main choice is your stuff or the freedom of the alternative. For us, stuff is not important. We’ve been on a journey of thinking about this issue, and the subsequent purge process, over many years. It began with reading the book Your Money or Your Life back in 1993. The fact that the book is still in publication should give an idea about its worth. For Chris, this was also enhanced through her studies and practice of Buddhism, particularly the concept of non-attachment. We both feel happier and lighter the fewer things we have.
Q: Where are you going to live?
A: We still haven’t decided that. The next 2 (maybe more?) years will involve exploring places that we have identified over the past several years of research. We will be moving around and trying out our top choices, combined with travel that we have wanted to do. This summer we will be trying out Alicante, Spain. We have tentative plans to try out Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the beginning of 2021. We are also interested in Italy, but have not settled on a city yet. If none of those appeal, next on our list is Portugal. All of these places appear on International Living’s 2020 List of Best Places to Retire. You can learn about them, and other cool places, at their website.
In terms of travel, the plans for this year are two Transatlantic cruises, visiting a variety of ports, a month in Sicily, and a month or so each in England and Ireland. The rest is blurry, haha, but we’ll finish up 2020 in California with Emily. In terms of our domicile / home base, we live in Cape Coral, Florida.
Q: How will we know where in the world the Vanchellas are? (A bit like "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" 🙂)
A: Click the subscribe button at the top of the blog and you'll get an email notification when we make a new post. You can also check out the map included in our first post. It's interactive! The legend has our itinerary including dates and transportation details (it's legendary 😉). Click on it and explore!
Q: Why don’t you want to live in the U.S. for retirement?
A: The primary reason is economic arbitrage. We are “exchanging” our money to make it worth more by living in a place where the cost of living, primarily housing and health care, is less than in the U.S. For Chris, she has wanted to live at the coast all of her life. While we have come close, we have never quite made it there. Coastal living within the U.S. is not viable at our projected income as pensioners. Additionally, we enjoy experiencing other cultures. A reason that has developed in the past few years is the current state of culture / climate in the U.S. We definitely need, at a minimum, a ‘time out.’
Q: What about Emily? How can you live so far away?
A: We already live far away, 4-5 hours by air. Although we love being with her and miss her presence, Emily’s life is her life to live (which she happens to be doing very well - proud parents!). None of us know where Emily will end up for her career. Technology really helps, we chat daily by text and about once a week through a video call. We have tried various methods (Skype, FaceTime, FaceBook), but we find Google Duo is consistently the best.
Q: Are you really going to live out of suitcases? How do you fit everything in?
A: Yes! We just did the dry run of our suitcase packing, and everything fit and was within the weight restrictions. The main secret is compression; packing cubes are our friends!
Q: How does Chris get such good deals on cruises?
A: First, try to take your cruise in the off or shoulder season. For example, if you want to cruise the Caribbean, there are certain times that are less expensive: 1) the first couple of weeks in December (after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, two of the most expensive times); 2) September and October (although you have to deal with potential problems of hurricane season); 3) mid-January, post New Year’s. We’ve had several good deals, including one 5-day cruise for 3 for $600 total! Transatlantic (also called Repositioning) can also be good deals, but you need a lot of vacation time.
Q: Why doesn’t Chris become a travel agent? (Variation: A professional genealogist?)
A: With the time these things take, she would make about 50 cents an hour!
Q: What are some of your travel research resources?
A: For cruises, we typically book directly with the cruise line, as we have found that is usually the best price on offer. We cruise with Carnival often because we are Platinum members and receive things like free laundry and priority boarding. We also get some perks with MSC, because they loyalty match. However, we have also cruised with Costa, Celebrity, and NCL.
When trying to get an overview of which cruises are available in total, we use VacationsToGo. They also have a nice feature called the “90 Day Ticker” which shows cruises that are on sale in the next 90 days. We have used them to book cruises on occasion.
For our upcoming journey, we have purchased travel insurance for the first time. (We’re getting older!) Allianz is the company that we felt best about, and they offer individual trip insurance, as well as annual plans (which is what we are using).
Often on our travels, we utilize AirBnB. Just as an example, on our last cruise, staying at an AirBnB and parking (conveniently) at the port was less expensive than staying at a hotel with a park & cruise package (which involves shuttles and a lot more waiting). If you’ve never tried it, here is a link for a discount (we get a little kickback, but you get a big discount).
John has recently discovered The Man in Seat 61, which has all kinds of great information about train travel in Great Britain and Continental Europe.
Thanks for all the info! Fun questions. :)
ReplyDelete