The Let's-Sell-Our-House-And-See-the-World Retirement

Excellent plan. I did this when I was 30.<p>Or at least a slightly modified version, where you fly back to the US to do a short on-site contract gig from time to time, or (more recently) just work remotely when you need to.<p>Naturally, if you do this 40 years earlier than the folks in the article, you have a much higher tolerance for cheap living. I notice the article mentions nothing about living in a little hut on the beach in some random backpacker paradise for months on end to stretch out the finances. Or of hitching across the sketchier parts of those countries the State department advises you not to go to (though if they did, they'd probably get a lot fewer worried emails from their parents, so maybe that's an upside).<p>But yeah, as tech folk, we get the ridiculous three-fold advantage of being able to do 100% of our job remotely, being able to deliver measurable results from short (ie., sub-3-month) engagements, and commanding a somewhat higher rate (ie., 3-10x) than pretty much anybody else with the same amount of flexibility.<p>I find myself dangerously close to slowing down in my old age. (I actually bought a couch yesterday.) Hopefully some of the rest of you lot will get out there and take my place!

My girlfriend and I decided to do this last year. We didn't have a house to sell, but we sold our cars, put everything else in storage, and left to see the world. We've been on the road for about 18 months now, and it's been quite a blast.<p>Being able to remotely work from anywhere with an internet connection really opens up the travel opportunities. It also means that you can start traveling <i>now</i>, as opposed to waiting until retirement age when you have a bunch of cash saved up. This also lets you travel more cheaply, and do more physically challenging activities, like say, climbing mountains, scuba diving, running marathons, or whatever.<p>On the flip side, being in the software industry (with relatively high levels of income) also means that you're not <i>forced</i> to travel cheaply when you don't want to, and you can splurge on interesting once-in-a-lifetime experiences, or spend time in more expensive countries, without wrecking your travel budget.<p>We're very fortunate to be in an era (and industry) where this kind of travel is possible, and I hope more folks decide to take advantage of it, particularly while they're young.

You can have the best of both worlds. I started working (iOS consulting) and travelling two months ago and I save more of my earnings here than I did living in San Francisco. Today I signed a lease to rent a shared house in northern Thailand and my rent is $160/month for a place that would cost a small fortune at home.<p>I found that constantly being on the move is difficult to keep up for weeks at a time. So now I have a base from which to explore the surrounding countries.<p>There's a surprising number of expat tech workers in the city (Chiang Mai) but now I can sit in a cafe without overhearing social-local-mobile startup pitches.

Some nice stuff in here, especially that about "trans-Atlantic repositioning voyages" which I'd never considered. I'm assuming they have investments totaling over US $2m to be pulling that kind of monthly interest?<p>It's astonishing that they could spend as much as they do (the picture has details) but I suppose requirements for a retired couple in their 60s is different to a 20-something serial relocator!

I was just talking to my parents about this. They're in their second decade of "retirement" (really just working a little less and volunteering a lot more in their case.) Many of their friends fulfilled lifelong plans to sell their homes and move to the lake or someplace warm or travel the world. Most of these friends are now back in town having missed the connections that they built over a lifetime. One couple even bought the house next to their old house so they could reconnect with their neighborhood. God bless people like the author and her husband, but most of us are sustained not by where we live but by lifelong connections to others.

Anyone here experimented with a working-nomadic lifestyle? It seems an intriguing possibility for anyone without a house or family.

Interesting article. I'd love to hear from anyone who does this with kids (I would guess at a slightly lower moving frequency)? I grew up in several places as a kid (my Dad's an engineer) and I'd love to find a way to give my children some of the same experiences.<p>Also I'd really appreciate if those of you who work remotely at a good level of income could share how you go about finding gigs. Repeat customers? Retainers? Short term project to short term project?<p>TIA

I'd be interested in hearing alternative takes on retirement in general.<p>It'd be interesting to see if the idea of "retirement" gets disrupted and the economy moves from a primarily labor intensive (and physical ability oriented) to knowledge intensive (and mental ability oriented).<p>We're already seeing people work longer, but I wonder if the notion of retiring will go away or if people will keep working as long as they can keep thinking clearly &#38; feel they can create something of value.

Yet another article about the adventurous kind of retirement. Is it me, or do all personal finances magazines seem to have one of those these days?

The only thing keeping my wife and I from full nomad is pets. You can't keep critters if you move all the time.

Millennial version, circa 2055. "The Airfare-Is-Too-Expensive-When-You-Still-Have-Fucking-Student-Loans Retirement".

How long do you think those $6000 checks are gonna keep showing up for?

&#62; <i>Our financial adviser sends us about $6,000 a month, generated from investments. We also collect Social Security and a small pension.</i><p>Why would you even need to sell a house when you get so much money monthly?