December 2019 –
I sold a couch. I have had a sleeper sofa in my home office for many years and I have moved that same piece of furniture from house to house for over ten years. It allowed my husband and I to be prepared for the guests that rarely came to visit. Normally, a basic domestic fact like selling a rarely used sleeper sofa would not be “blog-worthy.” But, in this case, it signals the beginning of a new chapter. The sleeper sofa is the first large piece that we sold off as we begin to implement our plan to become “HomeFree.”
My husband travels extensively for his job. He is sometimes gone for six months at a time. I have a traditional job (Monday through Friday with an office). For the last six years, we have worked out visitation schedules regularly and even though most of our friends say they could never do it, we have made it work. We have even been quite happy.
But (you knew there would be one), our dream has been for me to give up my traditional job and travel with him. We are not official followers of the F.I.R.E. movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) but our goal is similar. My husband specializes in personal finance, so he never met a spreadsheet he didn’t like. I am frugal by nature and a student of everything he teaches. In two months, I will begin travelling with him. This was supposed to happen years in the future, but we each miss our best friend so we reduced our monthly expenses to the point that we think we can afford to make the transition now. In preparation, I have begun selling off items. A bare minimum of our belongings will go into storage. His current assignment has him rotating between many cities in the southeastern U.S., so we will have a P.O. Box but not a site address. We will be HomeFree! Join us on our crazy adventure.
September 25, 2021 at 6:18 pm
You should be proud of yourself. Doing something new and different is not always easy, but the experience and what you learn from it is usually worthwhile.
The F.I.R.E movement is interesting because it can be so subjective. Most people agree that financial independence means generating enough passive income to replace income from an employer, but “retirement” could mean not working at all, working part-time or full-time or any combination. Whatever it means to you, I don’t think there is any denying the importance of budgeting — managing your income/spending.
September 25, 2021 at 8:23 pm
Yes, I guess based on that definition of the F.I.R.E. movement, I do fit! I am a digital nomad working and having fun at the same time.