Becoming a full-time grey nomad.

Some thought on living on the road after 3 years travelling.

For most of us travel is something you fit in between life. If it’s important to you and you work hard, plan, take some risks and have some luck along the way you may be able to manage to travel a lot. That has been our story. We ended our working lives in our late 50's with less savings than many of our friends but with 145 countries under our belts and experiences we would not swap for a million dollars.

Our intentions were to create another "chapter" in our lives while we were healthy and free of responsibilities (for the first time in forever). We knew we would travel more and we loved long overland trips, so the decision was to try and open ended trip where there were no final destinations, no return date and nothing to tie us to our home. Now life no longer fits around travel, travel IS life.

Grey Nomads

These days you will discover a number of people who combine work and full time travel. They are called “digital nomads”, implying that they earn a living digitally and travel the world with no fixed address. As the slightly older equivalent, we have been called “grey nomads”, full time travellers earning a living from investments, or drawing some type of pension after raising a family and building a career. What-ever you call us, there are a surprising number of over 55’s doing exactly that. Leaving their jobs, packing up their homes and hitting the road. Their budgets vary greatly from the ‘cashed up’ who may have bought a second home and travel on cruises to the ‘not so cashed up’ who have a more defined income. That’s where we place ourselves.

You see them all over Australia, USA and Europe, many in mobile homes and caravans, others in cars and some on buses with backpacks. There are blogs, websites and networks dedicated to this group of traveller. Many stay within the confines of their own countries, but you will find others spread from the Himalayas to the Andes, messaging their children from the remote corners of the world.

How you do it and where you go is up to you! If the thought makes your feet twitch and your mind race then give it a shot! Walk away, sail into the wind, take the risk, give it a go- That is all that matters! What’s the worst that can happen? You have a great 6 months and miss the children and grand children so head home. What a great 6 months you’ll have had and maybe you’ll go again next year.

So, what have we learned along the way?

OUR 10 TIPS ON LIVING ON THE ROAD

1. DECIDE IF THIS REALLY SUITS YOU- THIS MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE.

Along the way we have met a number of people who say,“That’s exactly what we would love to do” (and an equal number who could not even consider the possibility). I do, however, have to admit that it has been a tougher transition than we anticipated. I think that travelling (even for die hard travellers like us) had always been just one dimension of a rich, purposeful and full life that included family, work, study and other interests. When you travel, your home and life with all it includes, is left waiting for you to simply pick up when you get back. It is as if you step outside your life for a moment in time. Home is still your “life”. But when you opt to leave it all behind, and travel fulltime, you leave behind so much more than you anticipated. You leave behind life as you have known it. Travel becomes your life! It must now meet all of your needs. Travel has to move from being a hobby or a part of you, to being the whole of you. It is your life. Remember, there is no one way to travel. It's about what brings you joy!

2. BUILD A FLEXIBLE NOMAD MINDSET

Being a nomad is as much a state of mind as a behaviour. It is about making travel your core focus. It is your fulltime job. Like any new job you will have to learn some new skills and make some changes to your thinking. Don’t underestimate how hard this can be, even if you really want to do it. And remember, it does not have to be forever! It’s about the letting go of home, the opened ended idea, the independence and importantly the gift of time. It doesn’t have to be for 10 years living in a Tibetan monastery or trekking in Siberia, it can be 12 months driving around Europe or 6 months volunteering in Thailand. Many people find that once they have a taste of the lifestyle, they find their own way to be a nomad.

 Being a nomad for us, means we come and go. Sometimes we are gone a year and sometimes only a few months. We touch base at home in between, see our children and friends, change our clothes and have a planning time. We have downsized to a small apartment in Australia as I like a “nest” that I can come home to if something happens.

3. PHASE YOURSELF INTO IT.  

I have to admit that a part of the change we have had to under-go in the first 12 months was because we left fulltime jobs, packed up our house and hit the road all in one go! We had to cope with all of the unexpected transitions involved with early retirement as well as leaving our life as we had known it for the last 35 years. You don’t have to declare to the world you are going forever. Leave it open ended but prepare in case you stay away. We started with 6 months as a test run. When we knew we could do it, we went home for a month, got everything sorted and set off again. The test run helped us work out if our budget was realistic, if house sitting worked, if we enjoyed volunteering, if we actually wanted to work part time, what stuff we needed to take and to start to develop a new travelling routine. The six months went so quickly, and we found out so many places we wanted to see, and things we wanted to do, that the next 9 months seemed to fall into place on its own. We like to touch base at home after 6-9 months so are thinking that will be a good time for us to ‘visit’ home. I have discovered I need a "nest" so unlike some grey nomads we have kept our home. I actually look forward to cooking and cleaning in our stints at home!

4. DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HOME AND POSSESSIONS.

We have friends who have simply locked up their house, cleaned out the pantry, turned off the water and arranged for a neighbour to check on the house. We have others who have hired a storage shed, packed up everything and rented their house out. Others sold everything and will rebuy when they decided where they want to go or crash with their children. Everyone has different personal situations and emotional needs. Some people are tied to grandchildren. We have daughter with health issues so need to be available when she needs us. So, you have to try the schedule that works for you. There is no medal for the longest trip in history.

We wanted to keep a home base we could come back in case things changed, so didn’t want everything in storage, but we needed the rental income to fund our travels. So, we divided our family home into 2 apartments. We moved downstairs into one apartment (keeping all our treasures) and began renting the upstairs apartment out, by the room, to students from the university across the lake. We also decluttered and did all the repairs our home needed. We try to have family or friends into our apartment to manage upstairs. I guess the message is, to make your assets, whatever they are work for you.

5. WORK OUT HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO SPEND.

With a budget we can manage to travel in much the same way as we have our entire lives, that is as a budget independent travellers with occasional treats and an emergency credit card. The big difference now is that travel no longer has set time limits to fit within work and raising a family so we can bargain hunt.

Your budget will be what you can afford. Sit down and make a budget even if you’ve never had one before- you need to know what you are comfortable with. We know when we are at home we live on $100 US a day- $36,000 a year to cover our basic living expenses, plus $15,000 set costs (running the house, insurance). When we travel on top of that we know we need the same $100 US per day extra for every day we are ‘on the road’. This covers the 2 big extras of transport and accommodation we have when we are travelling. So, in total we have $87,000 US a year if we are away all year. We could do it for less if we house sit or stay with friends as accommodation is the big expense. This allows us to fly backwards and forwards to Australia and cruise (around 60 days a year). Check out my post on Money Matters where I have more information on how we budget.

It has been a psychological shift for us back to budgeting again. We budgeted all of our early years together but were fortunate that in the last few years we were on 2 good wages, the children were just about gone, so we had a window where we didn’t have to check the bank account or think a great deal about what we were spending. However, whether we were travelling or not, I think this same psychological shift would have had to happen and indeed happens to most middle wage earners when they leave their full-time work. For the first time in 35 years there is no regular income, we are living on a finite income. That is a massive shift. So, the budget issue and fears or anxiety that have arisen for me would have come even if I was still living at home! I still do the budget every week to assure myself we are going to be OK!

6. WORK OUT YOUR PRIORITIES AND A DRAFT SCHEULE. Your budget will determine what sort of travelling you can afford to do. For us we find we easily have half of our year as “low cost”- under the $100 a day. This means that in the other half of the year we have more to spend. It averages over the year and isn’t about day to day or even month to month costs. These “cheap” months for us include house sitting, volunteering, renting an apartment and staying with friends. We have found that we NEED these months not just for financial reasons but because they allow us a “break” from travelling. It just isn’t possible to travel continuously without a break. You find you lose that drive and interest and get very complacent (Oh, not another church). Our low cost months are our rests as we usually stay in one place.

7. SET UP YOUR LIFE'S ESSENTIALS TO FUNCTION WHEN YOU ARE GONE.

Somethings just need to be seen to even if you are in western China! If you dont have a house, the list is shorter but still exists. The idea is that everything can be managed by email!

Get a mail address and person to manage your mail: if you are renting your house and there is no one there- you will have to redirect all your mail to a post box or friends address. We are nearly paperless but try as we may- there is still a need for an address. Someone will need to open your mail as there WILL be things you missed or forgot about.

Get a Power of Attorney and will: Get someone legally designated to deal with your affairs if you are not able to do so. This also includes making sure your will is in place

Switch all preferred contact to email: So many secure communications require a SMS code to be sent to your phone, which may not be possible unless you keep your home sim card going. What ever you decide concerning your phone- emails are easier.

Advise everybody:

Suspend what you can: Health Insurance

Check expiry dates on everything: Credit cards, licences etc and either get new cards or arrange for new cards to be sent to an address.

8. DECIDE WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU:

Once everything you are leaving behind is sorted, you need to get the stuff you need for the trip worked out.

Medical: Have a full medical (ears and eyes) and dental check-up. Take all medications with you if possible and if not take ta copy of the prescription (glasses too). Take spare glasses.

Official documents: Scan all official papers and take coloured copies the main ones (PP, DL, credit cards)

Phone and communication:

Make a sheet of all your contacts with an address, email, phone and either What’s App or messenger (as these will be your main form of contact while away).

Start a simple blog to hold photos and post where you are. Check out my post on Traveller Technology for tips we have discovered.

Insurance: We have a Travel Credit card that has unlimited insurance for no set time frame. Insurance for long trips is super expensive and hard to find (most have a 90 day limit and cant be renewed over seas). These cards cost between $200-800 a year but are worth every cent. Remember, most insurance is underwritten by one or 2 companies so the choice is not as difficult as you think. Choose the underwriter you are most comfortable with.

IT: This does depend on what you plan to do. I write a lot, do research and all the travel planning so love my laptop (which I don’t take on short trips).

We each have a phone and I have my Ipad. We also travel with a solid state 2TGB external hard drive.

We have ICloud storage and our devices are all linked.

We have a charger pack for our phone, blue tooth speakers and a power board.

Baggage: For short trips we take only a backpack and a max of 10kg. This is so easy and convenient and possible when you have one climate and one style of travelling. When you are living out of your bags you have different seasons (from snow to beach weather) and different activities (hiking to cruising). So, it is REALLY hard to manage with 10kg. We have 20 Kg each in a medium wheelie duffle bag with a lock and a small back pack (this is standard check in on most airlines). The day pack can be used if we do a side trip or can leave the bigger bag behind and is also our hand luggage when we check anything in. We also have a friend in the UK where we leave an old bag, and we try to circle back every few months and swap clothes or top up. It just isn’t possible to take everything you could possibly want or need. We have a portable vac suction bag to store what we are not using. You will have to priortise but will be surprised how little you actually need.Ask yourself:

· Is it versatile? - can I use it for several things

· What does it weigh and how big is it?

· How often will I use it? Can I buy it cheaply and easily ?

· How important is it? What happens if I don’t have it?

· Is it washable (will it dry easily when hand washed), tough and non-iron?

· How expensive or easy is it to buy or replace?

· Crushability

We pack everything in stuff cells and drawstring bags so it can be found easily.

Check out our post on Packing for Independent Travel.

9. PLAN A SCHEDULE WITH BREAKS AND CONTACT WITH FRIENDS.

Our schedule is set very loosely about six months ahead. That is mostly because volunteer placements, booking around friends schedules, great advance price trips and housesits are best to arrange ahead if you can. We know a month full-on travelling is enough for us personally. We are then ready to stop, do our washing, sort our photos, catch up with emails, enjoy some cooking, some sleeps in the same bed and do all the admin jobs that have cropped up in the last month. We do meet friends along the way, either by staying with them if they are near where we are or by meeting them for a trip together. We try and see our children somewhere along the way- but don’t seem to have much luck getting us all together in the one place at the one time. You will make lots of new friends along the way but will miss your old friends and family the social routines you are used to. It is SO easy to call with What’s App or Messanger- so I call our friends in our rest months and message the children every few days.

10. MAKE A DAILY / WEEKLY ROUTINE. When you travel for a short time, you have no set routine. Each day you are out and about “making the most” of what there is to do in the exciting place where you are. You can miss any exercise, diet, meditation or health routines and the bills can wait until you get home. Long term travel HAS to be different. You do need to find a way to eat well, you can’t survive on French Bread and wine! We mostly eat 2 meals a day – 10-12 Brunch and 5-7 Dinner. We try to cut down snacks and drink mostly water. You need to have a fitness routine- even if is as simple at 10,000 steps and meditation in bed. We also try to get up and go to bed at a similar time each day.

So, there is a summary of the things we have found since we started travelling much more full time. I hope they help you as if you are considering a shift in the way you travel. Remember there is only now, live it to the fullest. I hope to meet you somewhere on the road.