Questions We Get Asked

Yesterday we cozied up in a 17th Century pub in London and had a fireside chat with some locals. There was a lovely couple from South Wales and a gentleman from Glasgow. The conversation drifted to where it usually does when we meet people in other countries. Where are you from? How long are you here for? That is the sign that the conversation is about to get interesting. We know that our lifestyle is unique. Here are the most frequently asked questions. People are curious about our choices. Maybe you’re curious too?

What About Healthcare?

This is one we’re typically asked by Americans. First and foremost we’re healthy, which makes things way easier. From there, it is a multi pronged approach. Dental care is easy to maintain. We’ve been to the dentist in Portugal and Mexico at very affordable out of pocket prices (less than we paid for dental insurance premiums in the US!) For healthcare, we have a global insurance plan from Cigna. We chose a high deductible, so we’ll use it only for any major emergencies or issues, but it has good coverage for us globally if we need to use it. And the premiums are a LOT less than we’d pay in the US for an ACA plan! We have limited coverage in the US, but we keep our stays shorter to accommodate that. Beyond that, we’ll self insure, meaning we’ll pay out of pocket as needed for minor things. The insurance plan has a tele-health service we’ve used once to get Eric a sea-sick patch prescription before we went to Jamaica. We could use that to get antibiotics or other medicine if we get sick. Next month in Istanbul we’re doing a full checkup in a day. Head to toe checkups, imaging, and lab work in one day for one reasonable price. Turkey is known for medical tourism, so we wanted to fit that in this year. So far, healthcare has been a non issue for us. Let’s hope it stays that way!

Did You Win the Lottery?

No. In fact we’ve never played the lottery! We worked hard, saved smartly, and were in the right place at the right time in our careers. We realized that life is too short to not take advantage of doing what you love. And we love to explore and see the world. Tomorrow is not promised, and we didn’t want to be looking back at our life with any regrets. No household maintenance, no car maintenance, much less insurance, and eliminating the consumerism that filled our lives means that we don’t need to spend nearly as much as we used to. And we have a much richer life.

Don’t You Miss Your House and Stuff?

Do we get tired of wearing the same clothes over and over? Yes. Do I miss having “nicer” clothes to wear out to dinner? Yes. Would I trade those things for the life we have? Nope! I find it fun being in different Airbnbs every month and enjoying the aesthetics. Some are boring white cubes with little character. Others are filled with art and knicknacks from the owner. Some months we have every kitchen appliance we could ever want. We’re currently enjoying an airfryer, instapot, and food processer! Other months we have to get creative with one pan, one pot, and no microwave. Its all part of the adventure. And we don’t miss the stress of having to constantly maintain our possessions!

Is It Safe?

This one mostly comes from Americans too. In 15 months of full time travel we’ve only felt unsafe one time. That was in Mexico City, and it was an encounter with a homeless person. If you look at the Global Peace Index, which ranks countries based on factors such as the level of security and safety, the extent of domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarisation, the United States ranks 128 out of 163 listed countries. So yes, we have felt safe in places like Portugal (7), France (74), Austria (4) and the UK (30). We’re not focused on accumulating countries or checking off a list, so that allows us to prioritize countries where we feel comfortable.

Riding a bus in Portugal. We would never have taken the bus across the country in the US!

What About Your Kids and Family?

People often ask about our kids. They ask about grandkids. They wonder how we could leave family. The reality is that none of our family live in the same place. One son in Pennsylvania. One in North Carolina (for now). My sister is in Wichita. Eric’s family is in western Kansas. There isn’t one place we could be where we could easily see everyone regularly. We’ve been so fortunate to have many friends and family come to visit us in various locations over the past 15 months. And when they visit we get really quality time together. They get a bit of a vacation. We get to enjoy the togetherness. And we still text all day every day and Facetime regularly. It works.

Do You Get Bored?

Sometimes! We’re still learning what we like and what the right pace is. We’ve learned that we don’t need a full month on a beach. We get bored just laying by the pool. We’ve learned that if we’re in a small town, we need easy access to hiking and maybe a car. We have learned that we like big cities for the endless exploring. We’ve learned that after 4-5 days of non stop exploring, we like a day where we stay in, cook, do laundry, and catch up on computer work. And we remember that we were bored back in Kansas City. Its much better to be bored in France! We’ve also learned that simple things fill our cups. Daily visits to the market and long walks bring us joy and cure our boredom.

How Far Do You Plan in Advance?

I’m a planner. Plain and simple. I like to lock things in. We generally plan and book a year in advance. That means that right now we have accomodations booked through January of 2027. We have flights booked through November 2026. We’ve booked the hot tickets for our time in Greece and Italy this spring. We’ve booked cruises for April 2027, November 2027, and March 2028. And we have tentative plans for 2027 and 2028. We try to book refundable accommodations when possible in case we decide to pivot.

How Long Will You Do This?

We don’t know! There are YouTubers we follow that describe go-go, slow-go, and no-go years of retirement. We want to take full advantage of our go-go years . At some point, we’d love to do a similar lifestyle to travel in the US and Canada for a few years. To do that, we have to figure out health insurance, because we won’t be of age for Medicare yet, and ACA plans are often restricted to the state that you are a resident in. We would also have to buy a car. Likely that means that our nomading in North America would come before we are ready to find a home base in the US. We have a lot of flexibility in how we chose to live our life. If we feel we’re going to fast, we can slow down and stay somewhere 2-3 months. If we are bored, we can speed up and see more locations. When one of us has reached their limit, we’ll talk about it and go from there!

We know we are living a unique life. While we’ve been able to find online communities of people who are pursuing a similar lifestyle, we know that for 99% of the world, it is interesting but not for them. And that’s ok! For us, it is what is right in this time of our lives. So the next time we’re cozied up in a pub or cafe, we’d love to share our story with our neighbors.