Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

Where are you and where are you going?
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Ego
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by Ego »

2Birds1Stone wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 11:46 pm
It's going to be quite a culture shock to be back in the USA, and we are essentially coming home to nothing (no housing arrangement, vehicle, etc). Probably should figure out some of those logistics before boarding the plane -_-
This is the most stressful and exciting time. A few thoughts.

-This is a moment of fast change that presents opportunities for maximum serendipity. Go with it. There is a window upon returning from long-term travel where you are more open to new experiences and opportunities. Realize that as you settle back into a routine this will begin to dissipate somewhat. Not entirely. But somewhat. Use that maximum openness while you have it to go in directions you want to go.

-Along those same lines, notice how people and places make you feel. It can be tempting to simply fall back into old habits. This is your opportunity to redefine relationships. Others have gotten out of the habit of seeing you. That means you have to make an effort to seek out those you want to be around, which can be hard, but also presents the perfect opportunity to minimize contact with those you want to avoid. I find that a good way to figure out who falls into which category is to trust the instantaneous feeling I have the moment I see a text, email or call from someone.

-When unpacking the stuff you put in storage notice how many times you say, "Why did I keep this?" Make a mental note for the next time you are packing up to leave. Also notice the few things you wish you kept.

-Before leaving Poland be sure to talk to one another and agree on what would be the ideal solutions to the big challenges of housing, transportation and work. You may not achieve the ideal but at least you'll be working in the same direction. Talk about the unknowns. Talk about concerns. Know each other's lines in the sand. You will be in a position where you may need help. Manipulative family or friends may see this as an opportunity. Try to anticipate these potential weak points in advance, talk about them and face them as a unified team. Give one another final say on anything to do with their family.

-The moment you became FI you earned the right to a life that is a daring adventure. Approach your return in the same way you did the trip itself. Be bold in seeking opportunities. Continue to do epic shit.
-

Scott 2
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by Scott 2 »

I cannot believe it has already been a year. It is encouraging to see you finding so much success.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

@Ego, that is some incredibly thoughtful and much needed advice. Reaffirms just how amazing this community is. Thank you, good sir. I absolutely love the linked threads. Bookmarked many links, and will be using for inspiration.

@Scott 2, it's been a rollercoaster for sure. Now our trip comes to a sudden end.

I'm sorry that I haven't responded since my last post. Mentally and emotionally drained....not in a great place right now. Our flights were tentatively cancelled and rescheduled twice. Have been trying to cherish this time with family, but simultaneously anxious and edgy due to circumstances. Not used to feeling like this, the shit show that is 2020 is finally getting to me.

More craziness here in Poland. A very extreme rise in Covid-19 cases over the past week (peep the chart, yo! https://www.worldometers.info/coronavir ... ry/poland/ ) has quickly started shutting the country down again. Several EU countries already restricted air travel this week, with many more expected to make announcements next week. We called our airline to see what our options are, and were also advised that they have cut some routes with more expected next week. The booking agent also indicated that they expect to see almost entire fleet grounded by November.

We moved our flights up as soon as humanly possible, and begin our ~30 hour journey back to NY on Sunday morning.

The next few days are going to be extremely hectic. We have a lot of loose ends to tie, family and friends to say goodbye to and logistics to figure out......and packing, oh the joys of packing, we are allowed carryon baggage only and the airline limit is 16 lbs. Going to be interesting.

See y'all on the flip side.

classical_Liberal
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by classical_Liberal »

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Last edited by classical_Liberal on Fri Feb 05, 2021 2:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Frugalchicos
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by Frugalchicos »

Good luck with everything and hope to have you back in Europe soon!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Thank you guys, made it back without a hitch. Tired, but grateful to be safe and sound.

Now to figure out what's next =P

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I slept only a few hours after the 26 hours of travel. Jetlag had me up by 5 AM EST, crunching the final numbers on the trip.

For anyone curious, we spent a total of $10,377 in 215 days, for an average of $48.26/day for two peeps.

This included EVERYTHING, from flights, accommodation, insurance, food, entertainment and even DW's student loan payments. The costs in the USA will definitely take a bit of getting used to, and soon enough our SWR will be going up instead of down.........

Looking forward to getting settled in and find my bearings. Going to be amazing to see family and friends for the first time in 7+ months.

Going to update y'all on what the plan is once I figure it out, for now the next few weeks to be spent mountain biking, easing back into running, family/friend time, and as much nature as weather allows.

take2
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by take2 »

Glad you arrived without a hitch. Will you guys be getting your own place or crashing with friends/family?

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

@anesde, that still remains to be seen.

Rent here for a 1 bedroom has gone up to ~$1250-2000/month depending on the area. Most places would want a 1 year commitment and first months/last months/security deposit up front. Then there is the whole dilemma of not having jobs/income verification with renting......so financially it just doesn't make sense to lock ourselves into a HCOL area.

But at the same time, we can't stay with family forever. It will be a balancing act. For now we have to rely on family/friends and then figure out a longer term solution. This will either be continued travel via short term rentals, or something like a long road trip/vanlife/car camping to explore the USA. It's too bad that winter is coming quickly, making the whole vanlife thing more complicated. We are tied to NY till the end of the year, more or less.

Fam-ish

I usually er on the side of caution whilst writing about family matters, but they are currently a big cloud hanging over DW and I's heads. My family is extremely dysfunctional, and coming home a few weeks earlier than anticipated forced us into a living situation where we are staying with my father, who is an extremely difficult person to communicate with/be around. Luckily he's afraid of CVD-19 so much that he's made alternative plans for a few days to avoid seeing us these first few days. Moving forward we are trying to rely on them as little as possible for anything at all.

DW is looking for a job right now, and if it's a 100% remote position we are going to get the fuck out of NY right after Xmas. Whether that means hitting the road or going back to somewhere warm in Europe remains TBD.

For now, one day at a time.

Frugalchicos
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by Frugalchicos »

Good luck with everything. I feel you with how draining a dysfunctional family can be. Try to keep your positive energy and I hope you guys can figure out a good plan to enjoy the cold days!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Thanks, Fc.

NY Update #1

So far, things are going ok. We bounced around between my parents house and friends for the first 5 days, after which we hit the road for Syracuse, NY. One of my best friends lives up there, alone + 1 roommate in a 3bdr/2bath house. We haven't seen each other in nearly 18 months, and he proposed that we stay as long as we want/need to. That ended up being 6 days/6 nights.....we had great weather for the first 3, exploring the Green Lake state park, Erie Canal trail, and some other local parks. The next 3 days were non-stop rain, after which we felt very cooped up. Thursday we left Syracuse and traveled southwest to a little town on the NY/PA border where two of DW's cousins and their families live. It was 70+ degrees and sunny, so we enjoyed hanging out on the patio and having a large outdoor family dinner. School night for all of the kids, so we crashed around 11:30 PM. Our accommodation was a very nice camper trailer they have parked in their yard, which serves as a guest bedroom when they're not using it. We woke up yesterday at 4 AM to head back to Long Island. Made it home in 4 hours, got a few errands done, and did my first MTB trail ride in 8 months! DW studied for an interview she has next Wednesday.

Speaking of DW's interview.....the position would be remote to start, then have us relocate to Cary, NC, once the offices open and require employees back to butts in seats. Not entirely sure how I feel about moving to NC where we don't know anyone, but I haven't done any research about the area. Maybe some forumites have experience?

Family Stuff

This has become an increasingly big part of our lives, for better or worst right now. Since we are currently relying on family for some help until we get back on our feet and things sorted here, dealing with them is a necessity. Luckily my mother is still in Poland, but due back to NY in the next few weeks. My dad is willing to see us as of Sunday (the magical 14 day rule after flying from a country which had way less Covid spread than NY), so we have the option of crashing in NYC in a pinch until my mom is back. DW's parents are divorced, and her mom lives in a 3 bdr/2 bth house by herself. She's willing to put us up through December, with no expectation of rent, though we would definitely help around the house and cover our costs. The rub here is that she works in a hospital 3 days a week......DW's father rents a small house with his GF and in a pinch we can stay there for a night or two, but no longer.

That leaves us in an interesting situation, because it would be silly/very difficult to try to find our own apartment for such a short period, knowing that we are very likely to leave NY after Christmas. But now we are committing to being homeless for 10 more weeks.......

Traveling around the USA is a no-go right now, because leaving NYS (for 42 other states) and coming back requires a 14 day quarantine. International travel for the foreseeable future does not look good.

We don't really have a plan yet. I've been thinking about the best approach to our next adventure....

Adventure Plans.....

Winter has put a bit of a damper on our adventurous spirit, but we are trying to figure out what might happen if we survive the winter, through several scenarios.

If DW gets a job, we might have to home base it for a while, albeit somewhere LCOL and warmer than NY. Being nomadic is a possibility, depending on how things play out with Covid-19 into 2021.

If DW does NOT get a career type through the end of 2020, and we decide to get the F out of NY, we have several options that we've talked about.

Thru-hiking the AT - it would have to look a bit different than years past due to continued Covid-19 risks/logistics issues, but certainly doable. We have the funds to do this now, just require a decent amount of gear/planning.

Van Life/Car Camping road trip through the USA - while we have the cash to buy/build out a rig, I'm not entirely sure either of us wants to drop that much coin on a capital expenditure given our extremely lean budget. We may both take some kind of PT jobs to fund this purchase, or at least offset it. Still completely unsure of what setup (minivan/hatchback + camping gear, high top van conversion, small SUV/truck + small camper) we would want to go with, but all of them would likely be $10-20k for a reliable setup that would be livable for 9+ months.

Doing a Workaway/WOOFing in another country, this would be highly dependent on Covid-19 situation, but the easiest in terms of getting health insurance and minimizing costs.

The first two options still leave us in a predicament wrt health insurance, as even ACA plans don't do anything for you out of state.

classical_Liberal
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Homeless and Confused Edition

Post by classical_Liberal »

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Ego
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Homeless and Confused Edition

Post by Ego »

You could string together some housesitting gigs over the holidays. @screwtheaverage posted about their experiences with https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/. It sounded really good to me. So much so that Mrs. Ego and I talked about taking a few short house sits locally next year to build up a good reputation so that we can use them internationally on our next trip.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Homeless and Confused Edition

Post by Laura Ingalls »

I think Ego has a good idea with house sitting. I also thinK that a night or two in a hotel might be useful expenditure to keep yourselves sane with no pressure to be good guests :lol

There are some good hotel signing bonuses credit card offers right now if you can meet the required spends.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Homeless and Confused Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I do like the idea of housesitting. We are not looking to lock into a lease/long term rental agreement any time soon.

@c_L, we are going to look into some house sitting options down that way in January! @Laura, that's not a bad idea. I have to see when my annual free Marriot night expires as part of my Bonvoy card. Now that we're back in the states churning some CC travel bonuses sounds like a good idea.

NY Update #2

This will be the non-financial update for today. Regularly scheduled monthly financial recap update either later in the day or tomorrow when I have time to crunch the numbers.....

It's been a crazy week. We went from homeless, unemployed, and without insurance.......to just homeless. DW received an offer yesterday and should start working in a couple of weeks. Wasn't even looking myself, but once we had our tickets back to the USA purchased, I checked the little box on LinkedIn that lets recruiters know you're open to new positions. Surprisingly, I was reached out to by about a dozen or so in the first few weeks. Took calls with a few to see what's out there, just in case. Well one opportunity piqued my interest, lo and behold.....after a 3 week interview process I received an offer yesterday. I don't have a start date, but I accepted the offer.

Before y'all call me bad names and express your disappointment (*cough* J&G *cough*), hear me out.

I just had what was essentially an entire year completely off work. And while it was awesome, with the current pandemic situation stifling our grand travel plans, DW going back to work, and the winter quickly approaching, I don't feel like I'm giving anything up by giving this a shot. Times are uncertain right now, and having an income gives us immense flexibility. If house sitting doesn't pan out, we could bounce around doing monthly AirBnB rentals in warmer climate. This position *should* be a lot less stressful and more enjoyable than my last gig. It's 100% remote, for a small company, and doing something I enjoyed doing before I joined my last company. It's decent $$, especially combined with DW's salary, and will allow us to build our travel fund back up, top off our Roth IRA's and 401ks while the markets look to be breaking down rapidly into the next year.

Until DW's job forces people into the office (might never happen with current CV19 developments), we can live/work from anywhere with a laptop and solid internet connection....whether that's nomadically out of a camper/van, short term rentals, or even back to Portugal/Poland if we wanted to! And in these uncertain times, not having to burn savings (and even grow them) feels pretty good.

-2b1s over and out for now

take2
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Someone Call The Internet Retirement Police...

Post by take2 »

FIRE is about doing what you want. Seems like that’s what you’re doing. Congrats!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure - Geoarbitrage and Nomadic Lifestyle Edition

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

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Scott 2
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Someone Call The Internet Retirement Police...

Post by Scott 2 »

IMO you highlight the single greatest weakness in ERE as a retirement strategy. The people who pull it off are capable of highly compensated work. It is a hard temptation to resist, especially given the multiplier effect on financial security, when expenses are so low. I wouldn't be surprised if you bank 5 weeks expenses for every week working.

I'll be interested to see how you feel about returning to full time work after having so much freedom, especially in the remote only covid era. It's a different experience for sure.

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Seppia
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Someone Call The Internet Retirement Police...

Post by Seppia »

Great stuff 2b1s!

Unless one is in runaway mode, I see nothing wrong about going back to work and adding some more margin of safety.
I've thought about this for a while, and it's clear to me that the personal traits that make you a good "FIRE candidate" on the financial level are often the same ones that prevent you from being comfortable with no income.

That's why the areas of ERE that I want to focus the most on are non-financial: if the only thing I look as a metric is money, I'll never feel safe.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE Year 2 - Someone Call The Internet Retirement Police...

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

@anesde, thanks! It's a combination of want/feel like it's a good time to earn some $$ while the world is in the state it is. With the election in the USA, the recent Supreme Court changes, who knows what the state of healthcare will be, inflation/deflation, etc. Right now it just feels right, if it stops feeling right, we certainly have proven that it's not hard to pack up and go =)

@Scott 2, good point, though we will be far from that savings rate (83% if my math is correct) in your example. I definitely no longer fall into the "highly compensated" bucket. The new gigs OTE is ~50% of my last one. I'm hoping that I'll be able to divide my time strategically to meet/exceed the work requirements while still having plenty of time for my own projects/DW/friends. Since she's going to be working similar hours, it should be pretty good. We don't have kids/pets or any other responsibilities. Without having a commute 40 hours a week shouldn't feel too limiting. We will see though, I could be looking at things through rose colored glasses and reality may be very different. Trying to avoid any expectations and just taking things one day/week/month at a time.

@Seppia, thanks. We are very far from run away mode. Our longer term spending/desired full RE budget is more in the $36-40k/yr range, which would require ~$1-1.5M in investable assets if we were to solely rely on those. Having proven we *can* live on <$20k a year was a good experiment, but it required relying on being outside of the USA for insurance, and a lot of social capital to stay places without housing costs. If we lived just as frugally but paid average market rate on rent and healthcare in the USA, we would be right back up to the range I stated above.

It's too early to tell what our earnings will look like once we start working. Even if we loosen the purse strings a bit, leverage the income to do short term furnished rentals in desirable HCOL/MCOL areas, we should be able to attain a ~50% savings rate.
Last edited by 2Birds1Stone on Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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