This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Englert, 58, a woman who retired early after building up her savings and investment portfolio. Now, she travels full-time with her husband. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
At my first job out of college, I attended an orientation session about 401(k) matching and investing.
I was just 22 years old, and my mind was blown by all these financial tools I hadn’t thought about before. That’s when I decided I wanted to make the most of them and that I’d do everything I could to try to retire early.
At that job and each after, I put away as much money as I could from every paycheck by living below my means. I checked my savings often, invested in mutual funds, and bought stock purchase plans at discounts through companies I worked for.
Although I originally hoped to retire at 55, I felt ready to do it once I’d accrued $2 million in savings and investments. It happened faster than I thought.
At 49, I retired and started making plans to travel the world.
Once our kids were grown, my husband and I sold our house to travel full-time
Chris Englert
Although I retired six years earlier than anticipated, I didn’t start doing a ton of travel right away.
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I wanted to wait for my husband to retire, too. We keep our finances separate, and he wanted to hit a certain amount in his savings and investments before joining me. We also wanted to wait to start traveling until our kids were older, at least college-age.
In the meantime, I took a five-month solo trip to South America and tried living in different cities for one month at a time. I realized that this model of spending 30 days in one place and then heading to the next one could be fun to do full-time.
After doing some math, I realized it could also be financially feasible for my husband and me to live that way.
Between bills like our mortgage, utilities, and car insurance, we were spending about $6,000 a month to live in Denver. If we eliminated our biggest expenses, like our house and car, we could travel and live comfortably on less every month.
So once my husband retired a few years after I did and our kids were grown, we sold almost everything we owned and packed the rest of our belongings into two carry-on suitcases and backpacks.
Once we were “home-free,” as we like to call ourselves, we began traveling full-time in May 2021.
We try to spend about $4,000 a month and have strategies for keeping costs low
Chris Englert
We’ve since traveled to more than 40 countries across places like Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and Europe.
Our budget is about $4,000 a month — half for housing and the other half for things like health insurance, entertainment, food, and any transit we use.
Our travel plans vary, but we usually try to chase warm, 72-degree Fahrenheit weather and stay in each place for 30 days. We save money by not having to move so often and we’re usually able to negotiate with renters for discounts on longer stays.
In more expensive cities, we do house-sitting to save money on accommodations. It’s extra nice because the houses often come with a car we can use throughout our stay.
To cut costs when switching continents, we try to skip flights and instead take repositioning cruises, which are discounted sailings when cruise lines move their fleets from one market to another.
Above all, we love the excitement of this lifestyle and plan to keep it up
Chris Englert
So far, traveling so much has been great. Every day is different, and we love having new challenges to keep our minds active. In many ways, frequent travel helps keep us young.
Although we’re away often, we stay connected to our family and talk to them often. Our travels have only made us appreciate our visits back to the US even more.
We don’t have grandkids yet, but when we do, that might be part of the rub of this lifestyle. For now, though, we have no plans to slow down.
If we can stick to our budget of about $4,000 a month, we should have the funds to continue traveling for many more years.