Hey @Frugalchicos,
Good questions and a lot to unpack in a single post
If someone has a tip on how to do a photo dump on these forums I would be glad to post some picture, we have many great pics from Spain and PT, especially The Fisherman's Trail, which was stunning.
Regarding financial snapshot, as of today, we have a low 7 figure NW (similar to you I presume) and May will be the last month of our "accumulation phase". Trailing 12 month expenses are sitting <$36k/yr thanks to spending the winter living in a MCOL area in a shared house and doing some pet/house sitting to offset costs. Right now our expenses are trending up and I expect them to level off around $48k/yr by early 2024.
Our portfolio is currently ~40X annual spending, with 60% of that being in low cost ETF's and 40% spread between "high" interest CD's, treasuries, iBonds, and HYS accounts. We're not impacted by stock market fluctuations because we have a decade in easily accessible and stable investments....that's a long time to course correct or ride out any turbulence in the short/medium term. We don't budget per say, but track everything diligently and watch the TTM spending vs. 3% and 4% WR trendlines to make sure we're on track on a longer timescale. This is working quite well for the time being, and we're currently @ ~2.5% theoretical WR of assets......quite safe.
For the first part of these travels, I've mixed up working remotely and using all of my banked PTO. The main reason I've been light on details here surrounding this is that I'm still employed and there is a high degree of probability that someone would easily figure out who I am if they found this thread and knew me IRL. Starting next month, when the eject button is pressed fully, I'll be posting and sharing a whole lot more regularly and in greater detail.
I have only one scenario where I go back to FT work, that's needing a mortgage for the purchase of a future home base. 2020-2021 already proved that getting back to corporate work is not hard and can result in record income in short order (I know this is one of your fears too), We went back to work for two years after our last year off work and managed to make record income with no problem. The gravy train has been great, but it's not worth the handcuffs at this point.....
Regarding activity, I always track in Google Sheets spreadsheet for the past 4-5 years. I haven't been running while traveling, as we're doing a ton of hiking and walking, I don't have a bicycle except where we rent city type bikes for a day in a city, which is a great way to explore but not really exercise focused. I join gyms when we are somewhere with one that allows for a short term (1 day or 1 week pass) and have successfully managed to lift with the exception of our recent 14 day hiker (covered nearly 200 miles in two weeks). I'm in the best shape of my adult life right now, largely thanks to eating better and living an alcohol free lifestyle (had exactly one beer in the past 8 months!)
I do try to find balance in everything I/we do. I love my Garmin watch and use the data to make sure that I'm getting enough activity and that my sleep, resting heart rate, steps, etc are not off kilter.
We're traveling lite....one 50L backpack each. We do laundry using the shower stomp method when no proper washing machine is available. I carry about 1 weeks worth of clothing, a laptop, a cell phone, a powerbank, light weight high intensity bicycle light, and a pair of headphones. Most of my clothing is 5-10 years old and I only replace things as they wear out. It's an extremely freeing way to travel. Most recently my laptop battery finally died after ~900 charge/discharge cycles and I am having a new battery shipped to Poland so I can DIY replacement when I get there next month.
We're going to be in one area for 3-4 months this summer, with the main goal being restoring my late grandfathers orchard. It's been neglected quite a bit since his passing two years ago. It's ~20-25 min away from the center of a smaller city by bicycle. We'll be establishing a nice routine of weight training, gardening, and building our tribe in the area. We have many friends and some family there. DW is learning the language and making excellent progress. We've recently learned that we can stay in the EU as long as we want so long as she's with me (no 90 day Schengen limit), so we're focusing on PL as our ERE home base.
I'm bummed that I'll miss ERE-fest in September.......it would be amazing to meet so many of you in person this year....but I have hopes that I'll make the next one.
Would love to connect with more ERE folks in the meatsphere.
Till next time, 2B1S.
