There are so many different reasons that people decide to travel, and making the decision to go is complex. Everyone has different hurdles to overcome in preparing for full time travel. This is our story.
We are very fortunate to have seen so much of Australia while we are both still working, raising our boys and paying the mortgage. Glenn had a stroke six years ago and after his recovery we were determined to travel more with our boys. We have done just that. The trouble is, the more we have seen, the more there is to see!
Like many others, we had plans to increase our travel “one day”
We never intended to sell everything, we want the security of a house to come back to and Glenn really enjoys tinkering in the garage with his classic cars. A hobby that he will miss while on the road, but can always come home to.
In our minds, we probably thought we were five to ten years away from full time travel. We still don’t own our home and our young adult boys are not fully independent. Five to ten years would be about right!
And then this happened ……….
Over the last few years Glenn had started to slip back into the mindset that is drummed into us all from childhood. The expectation of working to eventually own our home, the expectation that we work until we retire. Meanwhile the retirement age keeps getting further away!
He was working 60 hours a week, the stress was intense. Work was making him sick.
Unfortunately, last year the stress became too much, it was now a medical issue.
Something had to change.
As part of his recovery, we took short trips away. It was like running away, but it helped him to clear his mind.
He changed his role at work and reduced his hours of work.
This gave us a reason to talk seriously about full time travel sooner rather than later.
How do we make this idea possible?
We can’t rent our house out, our boys still live at home. They have special needs and are not as mature as others their age. They struggle with some simple day to day tasks. Neither of them have a drivers licence. The thought of them living independently is very daunting.
How do we afford to travel?
We would be resigning from our jobs and we are too young to access our superannuation. We have no savings. We would be “living on love!” Lol
We looked at the facts and decided it still makes sense to go now.
Obviously travel will be great for our health.
If we work with our boys on independent living skills prior to leaving they can continue to live at home and pay rent to help with the mortgage.
It turns out we are lucky to not own our home. We have enough equity to redraw a lump sum to finance our travels. Obviously it will need to be paid back eventually, so we will be looking for work on the road after the first year.
We are describing it as a gap year. Who said that a gap year is only for 18year olds after completing the HSC! Our gap year will give us the opportunity to destress and investigate work opportunities on the road after our year off.
We will be leaving in October 2018.
Follow us on our Four Leaf Clover!
Our lap of Oz will look more like a four leaf clover. We will be popping back home for a few days every 3 to 6 months to check up on the boys. We will have 4 loops!
It feels right. It’s exciting yet scary at the same time.
Four Leaf Clovers are good luck. Not sure we need luck, but we will take it anyway.
We hope you will enjoy our adventure!
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