WHO AM I?

WHY I TRAVEL

It all started around 2019. I had been working as a software developer at one of the largest cheese and yogurt companies in the world for almost four years, with its headquarters based in Green Bay, WI. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Green Bay itself. It’s a great city, famous for its cheese curds and, of course, the Green Bay Packers, a team that’s practically a religion every Sunday. I had built a life there. I was in a moped gang with great friends, had a beautiful old house I was constantly working on, owned a classic MG MGB car that I adored, and had a boat that worked most of the time. I was living the American Dream. It was so great, in fact, that 20 years had slipped by in the blink of an eye. However, as life and work stresses mounted, I started questioning if this was what I wanted for the next 30 years. I realized that I didn’t want to follow the “typical path”: graduate from college, get a job, work five days a week, taking one or two vacations a year, cheering for the same sports team every Sunday, only to retire at an age where I couldn’t fully enjoy life. There’s nothing wrong with that life—kudos to the millions who live it every day—but I simply decided it wasn’t for me.

So, I sold everything. The house, the car, the boat—I let it all go and hit the road. I was HOOKED. I’ve seen breathtaking places I never knew existed, gathered enough core memories to last many lifetimes, and met some amazing people along the way! We’re now in our 20s, in terms of the number of countries we’ve visited, and we have no plans of stopping. Only about 170 countries left to go!

People often ask, “How do you travel so much?” While I’m fortunate to have the means to travel, it doesn’t come without sacrifices. I spend countless hours researching ways to spend as little as possible while maximizing experiences. I always hunt for the best value in flights and accommodations. Some notable examples? We went to Turkey in 2020 because Qatar Airways was giving two free tickets to healthcare workers! We spent three weeks exploring Iceland (a notoriously expensive destination) in a campervan, cooking our own meals from groceries bought at Bonus (their version of Aldi). We’ve also traveled to lesser-known, budget-friendly destinations like Colombia, where the dollar stretches far. By saving money this way, we’ve seen and done so much more. In fact, we often spend less traveling the world than we do on bills at home.

This frugality extends to our everyday life too. I’m a big proponent of the FI/RE movement. FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) emphasizes frugality, extreme saving, and investment. We’ve saved 60-80% of our income every month for the past four years, channeling it directly into investments. Our plan is to transition to working six months and traveling six months each year in the next year or two, with hopes of fully retiring in the next 5-10 years. Fingers crossed, but we’re making solid progress toward that goal.

So what’s next? I have a massive bucket list that keeps growing. In 2020-2021, I converted a cargo van into a camper van, which we’ve used to explore many states, though we still have many destinations left to check out. We aim to travel internationally every year, trying to visit at least 4-5 countries each time. In 2022, we purchased 11 acres of pristine land in a beautiful valley in western Washington State, which I’m developing into a farmstead and home base in the Pacific Northwest—arguably the most beautiful part of the country, in my opinion. My latest obsession is sailing the world. It seems like a natural progression from van life to boat life. I’m constantly researching boat life, and that’s my current 5-year goal. So stay tuned because there’s always something exciting on the horizon! ⛵