Vagabonding, ERE Style.

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Vagabond
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Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:32 pm

Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Vagabond »

There are several books that changed the course of my life, the two most pertinent to this community were DLJ's ERE and Rolf Potts' Vagabonding.

At time of reading ERE for the first time, the ideas seemed very extreme indeed. MMM's content was more palatable for a WL1-2 individual living in a developed country, earning an "honest living". As time went on, the ERE ideas started looking less extreme and eventually the focus on resilience and ecological impact completely won me over. The bulk of the accumulation phase consisted of being a salaryman with a high savings rate, nothing particularly special or creative about the strategy....... the tactics were inspired by not just the book, but the community here as well.

Simultaneously, having always been a traveler, the wanderin' fever started getting worse as the monotony of corporate office work slowly ate at the creative and curious parts of my soul. After reading, and soon after re-reading Vagabonding, it was clear that ERE was a natural enabler of a vagabonding lifestyle. Between the implementation of ERE tactics and iterating our travel style over the past several years, my partner and I are looking to take the leap to full-time world travel for the foreseeable future.

We are at the edge of the cave right now, working on getting those final (and strongest) tethers removed.

The intent of this journal is to share the trials and tribulations, facing the choices and actions needed to get firmly over the line to the other side of no longer being a salaryman. Joining me on this journey is my partner, who is in a very similar boat with regards to work and freedom.

First to share some background....

Mid 30's DINKs
Both white collar work
Low six figure income (MFJ)
HCOL city in USA (for now)
Discovered ERE/FIRE ~8 years ago
Current WL ranging from 4.5 in some areas to 6 in others
Spending - high from an ERE perspective, lower than most of our peers
Assets are not quite there to cover current spending at safe WR%
Don't own any real estate

We thought that by 2022 we would have already quit our jobs and made the leap to full time travel.........Between some gaps in employment during the worst of Covid, underemployment for a while after, now a ~25% drop to our assets during the same time as 8-10% inflation, we're short of the goal, by quite a bit.

This being ERE, I'm hoping that by sharing our story and situation we can craft a plan that will accelerate the timeline and give us the courage to go for it, because the timing will never be perfect.

The options at this point seem pretty simple......work longer to make up the gap, or experiment with cutting back expenses to make the current numbers work, yet there's a lot of details and questions to agonize over. When approaching this as a household unit with another individual, the needs, wants, emotions, goals, feelings, of each person don't always align with the others. This makes it a complex decision process and test in communication.
Last edited by Vagabond on Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

Western Red Cedar
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Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Welcome to the forum Vagabond! I'm eager to hear more about your travel plans and itinerary after you transition away from the salaryman lifestyle.

How are you projecting costs for future travels? If you are basing your SWR on expenses in a HCOL city, it seems like you might have some wiggle room through geoarbitrage. In my experience, costs are quite different (and typically lower) when vagabonding. They also fluctuate by the region.
Vagabond wrote:
Fri Sep 23, 2022 12:12 pm
When approaching this as a household unit with another individual, the needs, wants, emotions, goals, feelings, of each person don't always align with the others. This makes it a complex decision process and test in communication.
This is a big challenge that can be exacerbated by some of the pressures of long-term travel. It sounds like you are both on the same page about your travel goals, so that is a good foundation moving forward. Good luck and keep us posted!

Vagabond
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Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:32 pm

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Vagabond »

Hi, WRC.

Thank you for the welcome. This is a reintroduction to the forum, a reincarnation if you will, for reasons that are personal. If someone happens to figure it out, feel free PM me but please don't dox.

Geoarbitrage is a big part of the plan and more or less necessary for this to work at the current spending we're able to sustain long term. We are projecting costs based on several years of trial and error and knowing roughly where we want to go, and what the costs are for ~1 month increments in most of these locations, for our desired lifestyle (which is fairly spartan).

Since we have been good optimizers on the costs front, our current COL is not high for the HCOL we are in. So monthly short term furnished rentals are not THAT much less expensive even in "cheap" areas compared to our current housing. Employer subsidized health insurance is pretty cheap and comparable to nomadic travel/health insurance, we currently get our mobile phones and gym reimbursed through work, so losing those benefits offsets some of the savings of geoarbitrage.

The biggest way we plan to geoarbitrage to our advantage is through doing some pet/house sitting, work stays, and language freelance work.

As far as itinerary, it's very up in the air right now. Like many, we had travel plans over the past several years thwarted due to Covid. Planning "too" far into the future is not the way to go for us, from experience. We're going to be following the warm weather south in the North America for the next 6 months, followed by some international destinations in the spring/summer.

We've been wanderlusting together for a while, this isn't our first rodeo either.
Last edited by Vagabond on Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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unemployable
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Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by unemployable »

I've vagabonded for weeks and months at a time. Looks like I'll be doing an extended vagabond this winter. If you have things to do, a place to sleep and don't wreck your car by, like, running into an elk with it, it's a fun way to live and a great way to save money. I live out of an ordinary SUV, but I'm by myself. Doing it as a couple is an experience I cannot speak to, but yeah, it should help greatly if you both have the ERE buy-in.

guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by guitarplayer »

Nice! I'll look at Rolf Potts' Vagabonding. I get you when you write that household decision making grows complex with each +1 in the household (and I am also only at 2 ppl at the core).

Anyway, look forward to reading your story!

Laura Ingalls
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Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:13 am

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Laura Ingalls »

We (straight, legally married 50-somethings) are planning on doing some long term travel very soon. First we need to sell our house and get the young one launched.

I am curious about what your challenges will be. I am a bit worried about feeling rootless? I am also a bit concerned with the health insurance part. I think the financial part will take care of itself. We are very good at scaling spending both up or down. We are willing to work for pay or volunteer for accommodations. We also are not new to the retirement piece as neither of us has worked full time since. 2014.

ertyu
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Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:31 am

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by ertyu »

worldwide health insurance ex-US is actually cheaper. research your options, it's unlikely to be a problem. I have that through my expat job. Can't make any recommendations to you, though, bc obviously different options would be available to you

Vagabond
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Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:32 pm

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Vagabond »

@unemployable, that's awesome. We'll have a slightly larger vehicle and will be traveling with all of our camping gear. Right now we have housing lined up until mid March. Will be sharing a house with some friends in a desirable climate, which will cost less than what we are currently paying.

After that, things are kind of up in the air. We'll let the next 6 months guide that.

@Laura, it helps to have some places with familiar faces scattered around. While we have been, and continue to be very nomadic, we found that having community is very important as well. There is also the community of travelers/nomads themselves. We've been blessed to have met some great people as a result of this lifestyle and continue to find other great resources for meeting and staying in touch with likeminded people.

The financial part is not all that big of a deal if you're willing to do some PT work. We are going to keep an eye out for opportunities to make hay while the sun is shinning, that are either easy, fun, teach a useful skill, or any combination of the above.

Personally, I see a challenge with schedule, routine, etc while being on the move harder to stick to. It's been an important constant in my life (working out, trying to eat healthy, sleep regularly, etc). Part of the way to control that is staying in places longer and moving around less. Costs are more favorable traveling in such a way too.

@ertyu, we have found that to be the case. Our travel/health insurance should cost roughly what we're paying for employer subsidized insurance now.

Vagabond
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:32 pm

Re: Vagabonding, ERE Style.

Post by Vagabond »

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future.....


There are seasons of each lifetime that once gone, cannot be recreated. One of the biggest reasons for ERE and an atypical lifestyle for us has been the desire to leverage relative youth, energy, and maybe a stronger resilience for discomfort to move about and explore the world in a way that may not be possible or as accessible in the future. Already at present, the aches, pains, and longer recovery times are there to remind us that we're no longer spring chickens.

Living slowly and intentionally, undoing years of programming done by "schooling", employers, life on the typical treadmill. The only real purpose of each passing day, week, month to experiment and allow the next path to show itself over time. Centering new routines and habits around physical and mental health.

The focus was on accumulation, optimization, and a constant battle between dreaming about some utopian future where we don't have to work and the reality of our day to day lives....that's no way to live. The grass is greener where you water it, and we need to start thinking about how to design this metaphorical irrigation system to neglect no single patch of grass.

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