This is an excellent question. Undoubtedly, trying to travel the country while neither of us is working is daunting. However, thanks to some financial decisions Damon and I made when we were first married, combined with some recent financial gains, have made our dreams of traveling as a family a reality.
Like many couples, we were living right at the edge of financial comfort when we were first married. We bought a 3,000 sq ft house, on a quarter of an acre of land, in a nice neighborhood in Orlando. Damon soon realized that we spent more time maintaining the house than actually enjoying it and it was stressing him out (I should realize that when Damon is ultra-stressed out, then were doing something wrong.)
After a wonderful vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains and Hilton Head, we realized two very important things:
- We wanted to travel more
- We wanted to start a family
Both of these required more financial freedom than we currently experienced. But, instead of just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, we became proactive with our finances. We sold our too big house and moved into a smaller, more manageable house; paid off our cars; paid off all our debt; and reduced our spending so that we could afford our lifestyle with just one of our salaries.
So what did we do with our money? We diversified our investments into the following categories
- House
- Precious metals
- Short-term Lending Club
- Bitcoin
After seven years, two of these investments (precious metals and short-term lending) have stayed constant. The other two, however, have increased significantly in the past year.
- House: The housing market is at an all time high at the moment. Combined with some updates we’ve made and our house value has gone up.
- Bitcoin: This cryptocurrency has been in the news a lot lately. I’ll write more about it later, but in simple terms, it’s digital currency. Damon researched it years ago and became very excited about it, so we decided to invest.
Between these two investments, we can now live comfortably in our house for years. But we quickly realized that we would just be existing in the house. We wouldn’t be living. What’s the point in staying home if we can’t enjoy ourselves?
So instead of living comfortably for a few years, why not reduce our expenses even more and be able to live for close to a decade? That’s right – we decided to sell our house, buy an RV trailer, and hit the road.
Part of our investments went into buying and renovating the RV and the rest are going into our other investments. The hope is that the other investments will continue to pay off and we can travel for many years.
Of course, we are maintaining the mindset that if it doesn’t work for us, or if we run low on money, that we can always go back to Orlando. No decision has to be forever and it’s OK to change your mind.
Heartswell Adventures 