Travel Strategies
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Welcome All Fellow Travelers!
No matter where you are on your life journey, most of us love seeing new places!
As Road Hackers, we take it a step further ... we love longterm slow travel! This style of travel allows for deeper immersive experiences in the places we visit.
Our travel plans are designed to assist you as you prepare for your own life on the road.
Some of you are already on the road, while others are starting to plan for that special day.
A life on the road isn't for everyone. If you are reading this section, you're probably one of the fortunate souls inspired by a life of travel.
To some, travel is freedom, to others, travel is full of discomforts. As Road Hackers, we clearly fall in the former camp. We relish the moments and thrive on the road!
The key to getting on the road--and staying there--is developing a suitable strategy. We've already done a lot of the hard work developing and testing various strategies. Helping more people enjoy a Better Life on the Road is one of our biggest passions.
We are happy to share what we've learned with everyone out there who has been bitten by the travel bug!
Most Common Obstacle:
The most common obstacle for most people is FINANCES!
"We don't earn enough ... We don't have enough saved ... We have too much debt ... We have a huge mortgage ... How can we afford health insurance?"
Everyone has those concerns, including us. So what did we do? We strategized and planned our way out of that mindset.
We will share those strategies ... and remove this obstacle!
Most Uncommon Solution:
Pop culture demands instant solutions today. If the problem can't be solved immediately, we either ignore it or think it's an impossible assignment.
It is more Uncommon, these days, to strategize and plan for a solution.
A middle-class lifestyle on the road will cost most couples approximately $48,000 (US) per year.
Our detailed plans will show you how to earn up to half the target amount working remotely.
Following our Budget 101 Hacks will help to reduce your day-to-day living expenses.
Our plans will also show how to save for the initial upfront lump sum needed to get on the road.
This is all very doable ... Are you getting excited?
Let's Get to the Good Stuff!
Most of you will want to go straight to our plans.
To make it easy for you, just click on the icon of the plan below that most closely resembles your current situation.
Those of you with more patience, continue reading for more insight into our context and planning process.
Choose Your Travel Strategy
Are you still dreaming of a full-time life on the road? Our easy-to-follow 5-Years-To-Go Plan is designed for couples just starting the planning process. This detailed plan teaches the basics of money management, budgeting, and planning. Every day is precious! Keep dreaming, and start planning!
Ok, so you're almost ready to take the leap and join the Road Hackers across this wonderful world. You've done the hard work getting your finances all set. Our 1-Year-To-Go Plan provides budget examples, final checklists, and innovative budget hacks that will better position you for long-term travel.
So, you've taken the plunge and you're working your plan. Our Longterm Travel Plan will help you build a budget to stay on the Road. The plan includes model budgets, sample itineraries, key checklists, and our Budget 101 Hacks for amazing savings. Every dollar saved is a dollar earned.
A Little Background and Context
For those looking for more insight into our journey, and how we developed our plans, please keep reading:
Our Catalyst
Our lives fundamentally changed when Tricia was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. The terrible 911 attacks had just happened and we were all struggling to deal with the rapidly changing environment.
Out of the blue, Tricia lost sight in one of her eyes. After months of tests, the neurologists confirmed the MS diagnosis. Luckily, Tricia's vision was restored, but the next few years saw repeated exacerbations, leaving Tricia with numbness in her hands and feet, a sensitivity to outside temperatures, and general fatigue.
Our story is actually one of the good ones when it comes to MS.
Tricia was fortunate to enroll in an advanced oral medication study with the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in her home state of New Hampshire, and has not had a severe exacerbation since.
The numbness in her hands remains and will likely never improve. She's still hot when it's hot and cold when it's cold (and invariably chooses the wrong clothes to wear), but for the most part we feel lucky.
Needless to say, this changed how we engaged life. We chose to meet our challenges head-on.
We actively aspired to live the Better Life! In other words, make the most of our lives and enjoy each moment along the way.
It hasn't been easy, but we have managed to stay true to this original sentiment. We are now in a position to finally share our version of a Better Life blueprint.
Major Obstacles Along the Way
The good news is that we were able to bounce back after each of these setbacks.
In the 8 years after the bankruptcy, we put ourselves in a position to fully implement our Better Life Plan.
Our Better Life mindset had a lot to do with that success.
Our Better Life Mindset--Words to Live By
Here's a little insight into the mindset we developed:
The resilience of our mindset made all the difference.
Instead of surrendering to our obstacles, we went on offense, and whittled our way to our Better Life future.
This next section shows how we systematically attacked our way to our Better Life--one whittle at a time.
Our Step-by-Step Plan Builder Approach
Step One: Dream Big and Describe Your Better Life
This is where we got to dream a whole lot! What if ... we could design the life we would like to ... (but haven't yet) ... live?
This ideal life had to be attainable, of course. So, in a nutshell, here are the ideal elements of the Better Life we dreamed to create:
The common thread to almost all of the above aspirations would prove to be financial health.
In the following sections, we outline how we developed plans for each of the above Better Life goals.
Step Two: Develop Plans to Realize Your Better Life Goals
Goal 1: Freedom from Major Debt
To be clear, there is no magic bullet in dealing with the finances. Even so, one can be very creative in accelerating your solutions.
Between 2002 and our financial collapse (Great Recession), we hunkered down in our jobs and started budgeting and developing financial discipline:
Unfortunately, an unexpected business failure forced us into bankruptcy in 2012! We had done all the right things, but the economy had other ideas.
Ironically, we had less than $10,000 in student loan debt and minimal credit card debt. The bankruptcy took one of our homes, most of our savings, the bulk of our retirement funds, and one of our cars.
Good news! We made it through those very tough times.
Between 2012 and 2020, we were able to rebuild our financial health using our disciplined financial strategies:
Unexpectedly, 2019-20 saw several events that fast-tracked our plan by one year:
Again, we relied on our Better Life mindset to make our next decisions.
We decided to retire a year early and move to the east coast. The idea was to be closer to Tricia's father.
We resigned our positions, sold our house, consolidated our possessions, and moved into an apartment cross-country.
Our finances were short of our Better Life target, but we didn't want to regret not making the move.
Unfortunately, Tricia's father passed at the end of 2020 with a COVID infection. Again, we had to deal with the unexpected and adjust our plans for the next phase prematurely.
Over the next year, we were able to exceed our target through consulting and a successful investment run. Our major debt was gone and we had enough discretionary funds to pull the trigger on our Better Life Plan!
Goal 2: Develop a Detailed Better Life Budget
Building our budget for an eventual life on the Road was really a 5-year project.
A lot of time was put into research and scenario testing. We started the process at age 55. Based on our calculations, we projected that we would be in a position to start our travel life at age 60.
Here's a summary of our process and the major targets that needed to be met before launch:
Determine Travel Cycle
This is where we really started to build a model of our dream life on the Road!
We soon discovered it's fun to dream, but tough to plan!
Our first step was to develop a standardized annual travel schedule. This framework would make things easier for projections and overall budgeting.
We decided on the following annual framework for general planning purposes:
Rent vs Own Decision
One of the biggest components in the budget is lodging. We had to decide whether we would rent or own our accommodation.
There are upsides and downsides to both options. To be clear, the renting strategy assumes a more nomadic month-to-month commitment. This option allows for maximum flexibility, though.
Ownership checks the permanent address box, but is relatively less flexible.
For the ownership strategy to work, we had to be sure we wouldn't be double paying while traveling--paying for accommodation on the Road, while paying for a mortgage and property taxes back home.
A permanent home-base and address were important factors in our decision-making process. For us, ownership was an easy choice.
Identify Ideal Ownership Property
A popular vacation destination property would provide positive cashflow while we travelled. We sold our house and bought a small 1-bedroom condo (640 sq ft) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Given the reasonable condo price, we were able to fund our purchase using our home sale equity.
An on-location management company handles everything--and delivers the positive annual cash flow we required.
Identify All Major Assets & Set Targets for Launch
Our major asset components were:
We hoped to be approximately 60 years old by the time we hit the road. This gave us about 5 years to complete our budget planning and preparations. Once our major assets were identified, we set manageable 5-year targets in each category.
Estimate All Monthly Expenses for Our Life on the Road
Our budget was built to allow for a somewhat lean middle-class lifestyle. The goal was to stretch our funds so we could easily live for at least 10 years on the Road.
We carefully monitored our expenditures over a period of 3 years and averaged our spending in each major category. Through this process, we estimated that we would need an annual budget of about $48,000 (estimated in 2020).
This annual budget total did not include condo expenses. We assumed condo revenues would offset all associated expenses--and would generate a small profit.
Estimate Projected Monthly Income
Our model includes income from the following categories:
We assumed a conservative annual Investment return of at least 5%. Investing in a major stock index (for example SPY) fund has historically yielded 7%+ per annum.
We used 5 years of rental revenues to calculate our average annual rental income.
The rest of the gap between expenses and revenues determined how much we would need to earn from remote jobs.
In our case, we wanted to work less and we were comfortable with a small drawdown from our bank account. Some of you may prefer to fully eliminate the gap--and work more.
Develop Final Balanced Budget
Armed with all the above decisions and projections, we were able to fashion a fairly accurate Better Life budget at a very detailed level. All of this detail is available in our Strategy Plans:
The next step was to stay disciplined to meet all of our targets by the Better Life launch date in 5 years.
Goal 3: Own a Small Condo in a Destination Town in a Temperate Climate
As outlined in the previous section, we bought a small (640 sq ft) beachfront condo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The $95,000 price tag (2021) was very reasonable.
We researched and visited quite a few locations before making the final decision. Branson, Missouri, was a close second to our Myrtle Beach choice. The Branson condos were slightly bigger (700 sq ft), cheaper ($60,000-$80,000), and the HOA fees were lower.
Myrtle Beach ended up being a better buy in the end--better annual revenue and beachfront access.
Both properties could be rented out year-round for a positive cashflow. It was important that rental revenues offset our condo expenses.
Down the road, we may also consider using the condo in a house-swapping scenario. This would be allow for another neutral expense-revenue scenario.
Goal 4: Be Employed in Part-Time Remote Jobs
Our goal was to earn 20 - 25% of our our required annual budget from remote part-time jobs.
Rainman was fortunate to secure a remote-friendly consulting contract for 2020-2023. Fortunately, these funds are sufficient to carry us through at least the first five years of the plan.
We will share all kinds of ideas on how to best position yourself for a remote jobs in our detailed Strategy Plans.
Goal 5: Travel at Least Half the Year
As discussed in the budget section above, we have set our travel cycle to allow for at least 9 months of travel each year.
Our ideal Itinerary:
This might sound quite costly, but we've been able to design travel scenarios that actually end up being cheaper than living in the U.S. We'll share these designs later as part of our Strategy Plans.
The secret is to slow-travel to countries that have reasonable costs of living relative to the U.S.
After a lot of research, we are targeting Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Croatia, Ecuador, Indonesia (Bali), Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Panama, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Thailand.
Slow travel is key to get the heavily discounted 28-day+ rates on Airbnb. The total cost of airfare can be reduced by limiting the number of countries visited each year.
Goal 6: Document and Film Our Travels
Our travels are essentially a continuous documentary. Every place we visit is researched, documented, and filmed. To some, this might seem like a lot of work. It all depends on your reason for travel.
Our travel is all designed around experience-seeking and adventure. We try to find fascinating places and stories to share with our audience--who wouldn't love that!
We do what we love to do every day. This website and our YouTube channel tell the whole story of our search for the Better Life.
We're happy you have taken the time to join us!
Goal 7: Stay Healthy and Have Interesting Hobbies
Given Tricia's MS diagnosis, we've been very conscious of living active, healthy lifestyles.
We take our vitamins, sleep well, exercise, reduce our meat consumption, limit our sweets and sugar, super-size our veggie menu, and mostly eat home-cooked meals (even on the road).
The changes have paid off handsomely! Tricia has been mostly exacerbation-free since 2006. Rainman has even taken to running ultra marathons as a hobby. Tricia loves gardening, swimming, and brisk nature walks.
Of course, our major hobby is TRAVEL! What a privilege.
We will share our nature adventures and healthy lifestyle tips on our Blogs and Road Hack posts.
Goal 8: Visit Family at Least Once a Year
Visits to family have been built into our travel schedule. We plan to visit Rainman's family in South Africa for 3 months most years. We'll also be able to take full advantage of our travel opportunities all over Southern Africa on on those trips.
Tricia's family lives in New England (U.S.). We love getting back to nature and all its beautiful scenery by visiting the NorthEast for 1-2 weeks each year.
Touching base with family gives us some sense of normalcy amid our crazy travel schedule.
Goal 9: Share the BluePrint of Our Better Life Experiment
We aim to fully share our Better Life experiment with the world. This website and our YouTube channel provide a great window on our ongoing adventures.
You are invited to sign up for our free newsletters, which will provide updates on our latest adventures and Road Hacks.
Our passion is to make it possible for more people to live their Better Life on the Road.
The Road Hacker mission aims to help people get on the Road, enjoy the road, and stay on the road. If you're still reading, you're one of these amazing people!
Welcome aboard!
