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Learn how to live the dream and travel the world at a slow pace! Write your own early retirement stories. How to become a nomad yourself! I am retired at 45. Read my road to retirement with successful retirement stories. How my

Early Retirement Stories – Dream and Travel the World

I nurtured the dream to travel the World at a slow pace for many years and read a lot of early retirement stories and travel guidebooks. With my family I traveled to exotic and exciting places, only to return to the daily business within weeks which made me even more anxious to travel longer and more intensely. I asked myself often: how do I retire early? Finally, after a most satisfying career, I decided to live my dream and travel the world in the middle of the so-called working life. I am retired at 45 and enjoy my life. Read more on my retire early blog to learn about the road to retirement and how you can enjoy a ” retire early lifestyle “, too!

Should YOU write your own early retirement stories?

The older you get, the more time you have to save money and pay off debt before your income is reduced. Maybe you should just dream and travel later. But you don’t want to hear this, right? There are plenty of successful retirement stories out there with good reasons to retire early. But can you afford to leave your job in the prime of your working life? Most people would say you can’t as they weigh financial benefit and security higher than mental health and happiness. You must though, put your own priorities at stake yourself.

Travel – Retire Early?

People may have the opinion that you are too young not to be working on a daily schedule as you will be losing an opportunity to get back on your job to proceed with your career. They are most probably right!

Learn how to live the dream and travel the world at a slow pace! Write your own early retirement stories. How to become a nomad yourself! I am retired at 45. Read my road to retirement with successful retirement stories. How my " retire early lifestyle " looks like, how I enjoy my life and how you can do it, too!

Marcelle walking the Coast Line in Sea View, South Africa

Dream and travel the world, but can you afford to retire early?

Let’s imagine you are one of the lucky few who won the lottery or who were smart enough to make millions before retirement. Great for you! What are you waiting for? You only have to worry about how to invest your money properly not to lose it in a stock market crash or in poor property investments. You’ll be able to live solely from your interest or rental income as long as life is good for you.

What are you waiting for? Retire Early and Travel the World!

But most probably you are not that wealthy but want to live your own early retirement stories as soon as possible anyway, right! How retire early with no money or little savings?

Learn how to live the dream and travel the world at a slow pace! Write your own early retirement stories. How to become a nomad yourself! I am retired at 45. Read my road to retirement with successful retirement stories. How my " retire early lifestyle " looks like, how I enjoy my life and how you can do it, too!

View from the deck of our rental house in Morgan Bay, South Africa

Travel Retirement

Maybe you dream of travel in retirement or you’d like to escape the cold and hang out at the beach to drink a Mojito with a few friends – without time restrictions, which order you back to work within a couple of weeks.

You love to travel? We help you retire early with following tips.

Prepare your early retirement well in advance

Everybody who knows me, got tired of me when I was a teen because I was always talking about traveling the World and living abroad odds-on! In my twenties, with a growing family, studies, and work, the dream never went in the background. On the contrary, we’d spend every cent we could into the development of our house, building additional space for rental property. In my thirties and early forties, I worked on my career and meanwhile, my four kids grew up and finished their education and apprenticeships. With 45 years I quit my job without regret and left our home in Switzerland to travel the World. Good things take long preparations you might say!

How to retire young?

There are some essential steps, you need to take to reach your goal of early retirement:

  • Adopt a simpler, less-consumption-oriented lifestyle.
    Did you know for example, that you can RV in the winter, too?
  • Take control of your spending
  • Invest wisely and steadily over the years (properties worked best for me)
  • If you are into assets (which I’m not), learn to make savings. Generate as much income as possible and re-balance your finances to maximize the return.

Check out Radhika and Johnny’s advice about jobs who allow you to travel the world!

How much money do you need to retire early?

Maybe you are asking yourself: How can I retire early? Assuming that you are willing to live or travel mainly in low-cost countries you can stretch your money exponentially. Looking for house sitting opportunities and long-term rentals helps to cut down the costs as well. If you don’t have any debt and you’ll be getting social security or a pension at some point, you can retire comfortably with an income of US $30’000.– a year. If you can add some extra income along the way, even better. Read here what gear you need to start as a digital nomad.

 You can retire comfortably with an income of US $30'000.-- a year.

What you should accomplish before quitting your job

There are certainly a few preconditions which could be helpful to reach if you want to break the mold and leave your job:

  • No debts

If you are currently debt-free, you may be able to retire early. If you don’t have a mortgage or it’s paid off, even better!

  • No dependents

If you have young children or studying young adults you may have to wait to retire till they are self-sufficient before you realize your early retirement. Having said that there are plenty of early retirees out there who continue working part-time to top up their income. If you love what you do and you can work from wherever you are on this earth, there is no better way to beat the daily rat race while still keeping a foot in the working society.

Prepare well and do a trial run

Take a sabbatical for an extended period of time. Try to live on a budget, before you sell up and leave. It’s the best way to get a taste of what you are up to and if you really like it. A colleague of mine warned me before I left my job as a CEO, which in his eyes was the top of desirability: “If you dismiss this job, you will never get back to the top again!” He was most probably right, but I couldn’t resist the call of freedom to travel the World. But, I’d done some extended travels before which only nourished my desire to leave the corporate world. There was no holding back for me.

"If you dismiss this job, you will never get back to the top again!"

There are people who are happy to work hard and as long as possible up to an old age. If you don’t belong to these undoubtedly admirable people and you want to achieve a more relaxed, retired early lifestyle, it’s time to focus on your goal. You will face many naysayers along the way. They will say it can’t be done. They want everything secure and guaranteed. They may have the opinion that you are too young not to be working on a daily schedule as you will be losing an opportunity to get back to your job and proceed with your career. They are probably right! That’s why you should do your homework thoroughly in advance. Don’t let them get you off the track though. If it is your dream: go for it! Don’t lose sight.

Learn how to live the dream and travel the world at a slow pace! Write your own early retirement stories. How to become a nomad yourself! I am retired at 45. Read my road to retirement with successful retirement stories. How my " retire early lifestyle " looks like, how I enjoy my life and how you can do it, too!

Wild Coast, South Africa

Little but important things before you step on the boat

  • Sell your house(s) or rent them out
  • Avoid making any large purchases
  • Get rid of everything you can (yard sales, eBay, etc.)
  • Apply for credit cards which don’t charge for cash withdrawals or foreign transaction fees (no luck for Europeans there, sorry).
  • Convert all to paperless correspondence (banking, bills, insurances, etc.)
  • Scan every document, bank card, ID and save it to your cloud or email it to yourself.
  • Settle all your obligations

Early Retirement Travel Budget

We live on less than US$ 700 a week — that includes airfares, car, housing, and living expenses. Depending on where you go and what comforts you need during your travels, your budget may look completely different. Retire early and travel free! It’s almost possible with cheap flights, couch surfing, smart deals for monthly rentals, house swap, and house sitting! Cost of living with a home base is more expensive than living as a world nomad.

It is pointless to listen to other travelers who tell you to avoid a place as it is too expensive. We learned rather by experience than by other travelers, how to become a nomad. You might be able to make it work for you with smart travel deals and yummy street food.

You will profit much more from your travels if you don't rush from one country to the other, only to tick them off from your bucket list.

I haven’t got any regrets as to my decision to leave Switzerland, to retire and travel the world. I was able to take the time to indulge myself in other cultures without rushing and had extraordinary sightings of wildlife especially in Southern Africa, but also in South America. We traveled to more expensive places like the USA and Europe on a tight budget. During the last five years, I learned more about photography, writing and blogging as I could hope for. I feel like I live my life at its best and feel very blessed.
If you’d like to know more, please get in contact by replying to this post.

Learn how to live the dream and travel the world at a slow pace! Write your own early retirement stories. How to become a nomad yourself! I am retired at 45. Read my road to retirement with successful retirement stories. How my " retire early lifestyle " looks like, how I enjoy my life and how you can do it, too!

George and Marcelle, living THE WILD LIFE

I enjoy my life at its best and feel very blessed.
Here you find more early retirement success stories.

 

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