Benefits of traveling: An early retiree’s perspective on living a nomadic lifestyle and the why behind it...

 

View from Chimney Rocks Park, Hollidaysburg, PA

Mark Twain:  “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Ever since our early retirement in August (2020), my wife and I have traveled to quite a few places, which we wouldn’t have been able to, prior to our retirement.  What our retirement allowed us is that it gave us freedom to live like nomads most of the times, while spending time with our family in between those times.

Since that August, we’ve spent a month or longer in Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), Claysburg (Pennsylvania), Ellicottville (New York), Indiana (Pennsylvania), Altoona (Pennsylvania), and Snowshoe (West Virginia).  In between these travels, we’ve spent time at the Poconos (Pennsylvania), Preston (Connecticut), as well as many day trips in and around New York City area and its suburbs.

In this post, I’d like to discuss why we travel and why we live this nomadic lifestyle.

One of the most important things we wanted to do when planning early retirement was to travel.  I have a nomadic gene, a longing to explore new places.  Note the title of this blog ‘Wandering Money Pig!’  I am truly happy when planning trips, figuring out where to visit, where to eat, where to shop for food, and experiencing new environments.

I got my driver’s license at the age of 16, the earliest possible age in New York State to get a driver’s license.  I always loved the lure of the open road, with wind in my hair, breeze going through my nose, and enjoying the ever changing scenery around me.  

What’s better than a road trip?  I love stopping by at rest areas to pick up a cup of hot or cold coffee.  Even eating a snack tastes better on road trips.  In fact everything tastes better on road trips!  

I took my friends on a trip to Atlantic City (New Jersey) with my driver’s permit(!) at the age of 16, which was not really legal, without a licensed person sitting next to me.  Luckily, my dad was the coolest parent when it came to these last minute trips.  He encouraged me to explore as much as I could and have fun as much as I could.  He used to explain to me that these good times are fleeting and once gone, they’re gone...

I realized at a young age that everything in life has a definite shelf life.  Everything we do has an expiration date.  Something lasts for some time, but they never last forever...Those happy, lazy summers spent with friends during junior high / high school, killing time at the arcade, playing sports, walking to a nearby McDonald’s for lunch, and just shooting the breeze is something we all take for granted until they’re gone...

When we’re young, we fail to see how short childhood is.  We fail to see how precious each happy moment spent with friends and family are, until it’s too late.

The happy times we have with our friends only last until we’re all living our separate lives.  Once we get married (or engaged, or have kids) and living our lives, it gets harder and harder to have the same, carefree get togethers that we always seemed to enjoy when we were younger.

Same thing with our parents.  We always think our parents will be with us forever, and we fail to appreciate them when we’re younger...It’s only when we become adults ourselves that we grasp how precious these moments spent with parents are...

Knowing how everything has an expiration tends to make you appreciate the little things little bit more, like those moments when you’re doing what you love, or spending time with loved ones...

This is one of the reasons why I always enjoyed living spontaneously when it comes to exploring new places.  I was always the one who would plan a spontaneous exploration of a place, whether it be Atlantic City, Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey), or Manhattan, just because...

This love of exploring always stayed with me as an adult.  I’ve visited South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Canada, and of course, the United States.  Within the United States, we’ve lived in NYC, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania.  

In our early thirties, my wife and I did a three week cross country trek going from New York City to Colorado on our car.  We also did a two week trip from NYC to New Orleans (Louisiana), and a three week trip from NYC to Key West (Florida) all on our car.  

Those cross country trips would stay with us all these years, and it would certainly define how we like to travel these days.  The time we spent out on the open road would create a longing for us to see this beautiful country again, but in more detail!

These are our reasons for why we travel:

• Planning for a new trip gives us goosebumps!  Especially me!

Sometimes, planning for a new trip is arguably more fun than the actual trip.  I love searching on websites like AirBNB or Vrbo to see where our next destination might be.  This unknown, of where we may end up, gives me chills.  

Once we settle on a destination, the things to research are places to see, places to eat, and places to shop for food.

I truly enjoy this part when I’m researching and learning!

• Seeing and experiencing a new place gives us a new perspective on life.  

Like Mark Twain’s quote, it literally broadens our horizons!  By seeing how other people live in a town/city, and how they behave and think, it allows us to have an open mind to absorb the peculiarities of a place, to accept it as it is.  In turn, it allows us to appreciate our situation in life.

For example, when we see people less fortunate than us, it makes us appreciate how much we do have.  When we see a part of town that is decrepit, we appreciate the places we lived in, even if the apartments we lived in weren’t in the best shapes themselves...

I’ve gotten more grateful about how much we do have since we started traveling more, after our early retirement...

• New stimuli equal happy brain!

Just experiencing a new environment in person makes my brain (and me) happy!  

There’s just no substitute for actually driving on a new road to arrive at a new destination.  There are so many roads that I haven’t driven!

When I lived in Hawaii, I often felt depressed that I couldn’t drive on new roads.  On the ‘mainland’ (this is what Hawaiians call the Continental US), this is no longer a problem!

I love the feeling of seeing distant mountains or body of water while driving.  I love looking at various trees that line the roads.  I love the feeling of driving on beautiful undulating roads that change scenery at every turn of the wheel.  I love the smell of the open road after it snows or rains.  I love the smell of trees as I’m driving through mountainous areas...

Once we arrive, we take in our new accommodations, then wonder what memories we’ll create for the next month or so.

This newness of a place excites me in a way that few things in life can!

• Pride & Prejudice...(of a destination)

When we were younger, maybe because we both grew up in New York City, both of us had this prejudiced view of everywhere that is NOT New York City, to be less than worthy of visiting.  This view is actually common to New Yorkers who are really proud of their city.  Growing up, we followed this viewpoint as well...

Back then, nothing but the ‘fancy’ city life appealed to us.  We loved museums, concerts, and tall buildings, but not open spaces, parks, or hikes.

It would take 9/11 (September 11th) to change our view of a city life.  Post 9/11, we looked for slower pace of life, and learned to appreciate natural attractions, like the ocean, mountains, lakes, open areas, etc.

When we did our cross country trek, it opened our eyes to how beautiful nature is.  We were awe struck by the Rocky Mountains, Lake Michigan, Lake Ponchartrain, and wide open spaces of Wyoming.  Everything  changed at that point.  

Arrival of Toby, our Pomeranian dog, to our pack, further instilled in us this need to visit natural attractions.  After all, we couldn’t take Toby to museums, buildings, or concerts.  

We were thrilled that Toby took to nature like fish to water!  He absolutely loves to walk, hike, and explore new places, especially wherever there are open green spaces!

Since our early retirement, we no longer care where we stay for a month, as long as there are parks nearby (and it’s in a safe area).  We no longer have prejudice based on what we perceive a place to be...

We simply book a location, then set about exploring each location’s own charms and unique characteristics.  

You can say travel made us more open to new places and lose our preconceived notion of a place.  We now understand that each place has its own good and bad things.  This is true whether one talks about Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania, or anywhere else...

This viewpoint may not have been possible had we not ventured out and experienced natural beauty in places like Colorado and Hawaii.  

Here are our reasons why we live a nomadic lifestyle:

• Flexibility to live anywhere.

We thought hard prior to our retirement to figure out how we can travel to as many places as possible.  For us, the best answer was travel using our car to various locations in the United States.  

We chose ‘slow travel’ so we can spend a month or longer at a location, to truly appreciate all the things it has to offer.  

We obviously thought about getting a permanent rental somewhere, then travel.  It didn’t make sense financially to pay for both the permanent rental and the accommodation at a destination.

There are so many places we haven’t seen even on the eastern parts of the United States!  We’re looking forward to seeing these places just waiting to be discovered by us!  

When the pandemic eases, our next potential destination is Canada, specifically, eastern parts of Canada, to cities like Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Again, so many places to explore out there..

Looking at the past year, we’ve spent 8 months at different destinations and we’ve spent 4 months with our family.  So far, this schedule seems to work for us...

• Cost savings 

As mentioned above, we didn’t want to pay for two places (who has a budget for that?).  We decided living this way actually saves us money in the long run.

Just imagine having to pay for a permanent rental of say $1,000 and having to pay for accommodations at a destination, which can be another few hundred dollars easily.  If staying for longer than a week, then cost of accommodation at a destination would be close to a thousand dollars or higher...

By choosing AirBNB and Vrbo, we pay a flat fee that covers things like water, electricity, gas, pet fees, and internet.  If we were to have a permanent rental of our own, all these things (as well as application fees, security deposit, first month/last month payment) would typically need to be paid by us, easily adding around $200 - $300 per month.

• Ability to spend more time with family 

When we’re not traveling, we’re able to stay with our parents in New York City.   It also helps that we no longer have a permanent place of our own to worry about, where we’re paying rent each month!

We choose when we (the three of us) travel to a destination, and we choose when we spend time with our family.

Without the need to work, we can choose to spend a month with our parents these days, which would not have been possible prior to our retirement.

In conclusion:

Early retirement has granted us a way of living a lifestyle which we could only dream about.  After one year (and counting) of retirement, we can say this nomadic lifestyle suits us well.  

Travel has always been one of our passions in life.  To see different places, to experience new environments, is such a huge natural high for us, especially me!

To do what we love, and at the same time, spending time with our loved ones, is something we consider very important.  We consider ourselves very lucky in that regard.

For those of you considering early retirement to travel, consider this nomadic lifestyle as one possible lifestyle choice among many others.  Like with everything in life, there will be pros and cons.  Consider what’s important to you, before making a decision.  At the end of the day, do what works for you, what makes you happy!

Thank you for reading!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 

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