hetismij2

I too say do it, but with a couple of provisos.
Make sure you have health care insurance. It doesn't matter where in teh world you go, accidents can and do happen. Health care insurance, and if the worst happens, repatriation insurance, will make life so much easier for both of you. Whether you can get such insurance to cover you for a long period I don't know, but you should look into it.

Make sure you know the visa rules of countries you want to visit, and abide by them.
Visit Asia, and south America, too, don't just concentrate on Europe and perhaps Australasia.
Look into round the world plane tickets too.

If your children are settled in college, and you are sure they don't want the farm when they are through, then sell, travel for six months, maybe a year, and see how you feel.

You could of course always start with an extended vacation in the US and Canada, and explore you own continent first to see if you still like each other after 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for several months.

Blueeyedcod

You can easily see Europe within the limitations. Spend your 3 months there and then head to the UK or Croatia or Morocco or somewhere outside Schengen.
However, having said that, some countries are not as rigid with checking passports as others.
Have you ever thought of walking the Camino from St. Jean in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain? That is one of the most exhausting yet exhilarating things you can ever do.

hetismij2

blueeyedcod, do not encourage people to break the law.
The 90 day rule is easy enough to understand and obey, and it is easy enough for people who wish to stay in Europe for longer to go to countries outside the Schengen area for a further 90 days before returning.

Natalie2b

My family has done something similar. We are 40 somethings with 3 boys (14, 11 & 8) and had the opportunity to move to London with my husbands work. Long story short - we sold the bulk of our "stuff" and put the rest in storage. We had no idea if we would be in a small flat in London or a larger house outside of London (we ended up in the latter). It was a huge leap of faith but it has been amazing! If you do it & don't like it you can always go home to and resettle stateside.

We miss our family the most during the holidays so - think about what you would do for holidays. Would you fly back stateside? Fly your kids to see you wherever you are (they would probably love that)? Skype? We are okay with just being able to Skype since it is only for a few years...

Visas: UK is 6mos, Schengen 90 days - easy enough to manage moving around to stay within those guidelines, but - I have seen where other people have applied for visas that allow them to stay longer. One in France & one in Spain. Both were self employed/internet based with kids and able to stay for a couple of years. I have no idea what would be involved, but you potentially could "settle" into a spot for a longer amount of time if you applied for longer stay visas. Of course, those visas cost money, I am sure, and Schengen are free...

Get the health insurance and go for it!

Kandace_York

Thanks so much, everyone! We are thinking that we would do this 5 years from now; by then, one daughter will have graduated from college and the other will likely be in her final year.

Health insurance and Rx meds are one thing we need to iron out. Husband's health coverage is set, though he's on some maintenance meds that we'd need to figure out. I'll be too young for Medicare, and I'll need to quit work while we travel so that's a factor for myself (and our daughters).

I've been to Europe four times now, one guided trip and three independent trips so I have a sense of how it works to arrange housing, transportation, etc. I NEVER want to come home when our trips are over. Never. We're currently anchored here with one elderly parent and the girls' high school, but that's not forever. Not close with family, no real friends here (we're loners) and we live in what must be one of the most boring places in the country.

We thought we'd start with 6 months and see how things unfold from there. I do think we would settle down in the US again somewhere, probably as snowbirds. If we're debt-free and we live frugally, it will be dramatically less expensive than our current life of a farm, two vehicles, two kids in school and multiple jobs within the family.

Re: holidays and homesickness, we thought we'd time the first 6 months so that we don't have conflicts with the kids' bdays, Tgiving or winter solstice, and then we'd re-evaluate how everything is working.

I just want us to LIVE first before we hit an age where we're forced to settle down. Thanks so much for the info you're sharing. I love this!

Gardyloo

Based on a couple of similar/different experiences (long "sabbaticals," international relocation for grad school, etc.) I'll just throw out some personal opinions. Obviously you need to do what's best for you.

1. See if you can find a "home base" - someplace close to family ideally - where you can rent or buy something cheap that will give you a fixed US address and maybe a place to have a minimal amount of furniture and personal effects over and above those you might put in storage. Maybe look where your daughter(s) are going to school. The fixed address and "landing zone" is a place where mail and bills can be sent, cars registered, taxes filed, and a place to come back to in the event of (say, health) emergencies.

2. Don't set a firm time frame. You might discover that six months is too long - you might get homesick, or weary of the weather, tired of some aspect of life overseas that you can't even think of now, whatever. (After a three-month sabbatical some years ago, we nearly kissed our washing machine on our return.) Plane tickets are one of the cheapest aspects of all this - coming back every three months if you decide that's best doesn't really amount to a very big part of your overall budget - think of the savings in laundry alone. ( - I'm obsessing.) But gone for three months, home for one, gone for three more, home for one... it certainly worked for us, might for you.

3. Get into an "expat" rather than a "tourist" mind set. I can't describe this too clearly, it probably means different things to different people anyway. But what I mean is this - over three or six months you're not going to be able to afford living like a tourist, and, honestly, you're not going to fit in as a local either. Depending on where you are, you're going to have to find a niche - where you shop, who you socialize with (if at all,) places where you can get help, a local doctor... things you wouldn't bother with as a tourist. But you won't be a resident, qualified for the local health system, you won't be an "insider" with respect to most of community life. This can be strangely alienating in short order.

4. This will probably not sit well with many, but my view anyway - get a car. Lease one if the stay is three months, consider shipping a car from the US if longer (around $1000 - $1500 each way.) This might limit your locations to places where you can park, but one of the great joys of living in Europe is the ability to jump in the car and be out in the countryside, or in some village 30 clicks from the nearest train station - in no time. Trains in Europe are NOT cheap, flying is as big a PITA as it is in the US, and there's nothing like the sense of freedom a car can give you, either with open roads through glorious country, or trips to the supermarche or Ikea. In the rain.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

RoamsAround

I think it all comes down to how much money you'll actually have after selling "everything" and paying down all your debt and then estimating how long that nest egg will last you during your travels. Only you can determine that since it's YOUR LIFESTYLE.

You said you could live frugally and that good but quite frankly saying that and actually doing that are two different things. Questions to ask yourself - How frugal is frugal? Will you be able to maintain that frugality for long stretches? Will you be happy not dining out or actually going on "paid excursions"?

Most people, when planning cost of living budgets tend to underestimate how much money they'll actually need. For example, when given a price range (say, apartment rental of between $800 and $1,000/month) it's human nature to focus on the lower number when in reality you end up spending the higher amount.

Keep in mind too that because you'll be "moving around" you won't always be able to find the most reasonably priced accommodations or even the lower priced food outlets for your groceries.

So too, people often forget to budget for that "little adventure that life has in store for your checkbook each month". Those "adventure" might come in the form of car repairs (if you take Gardyloo's advice), airline change fees (if you buy non-refundable tickets and for some reason you miss your flight), an emergency flight back home, a purchase of new clothes to replace some lost luggage, unforeseen medical expenses not covered by your health insurance or any other non-expected expense. So when figuring out your budgetary needs plan for some contingencies.

Once you have a realistic budget it should be fairly easy to figure out how long you can travel before your money starts to run out.

Good luck following your dream - it's doable if you set your goals in accordance with your budget.

MmePerdu

Not that RoamsAround and others don't have some valid points, but please don't allow fear of the "unforeseen" to put you off your dream.

hetismij2

I'm not sure how you would insure a car if you were to ship one to Europe. Perhaps you can insure it in the US for travel in Europe, but you couldn't insure it in Europe since you won't have a fixed address and residents permit. Third-party insurance is compulsory in Europe, and I expect you would want more coverage than that. No doubt Gardyloo can explain it.
Leasing would work, or buying a motorhome where the seller holds the insurance and title for you might appeal. There are companies in Germany and the Netherlands which do that.

Kandace_York

Thanks, these are great considerations and I appreciate them all.

Re: living frugally, we are not party people. We don't drink or dress up or eat gourmet meals. We don't check luggage; we've lived out of backpacks for a couple weeks straight (I couldn't get more time off work or it would have been longer). We're very comfortable staying at hostels and walking most places we need to go.

I guess we are a bit touristy in terms of some of the things we want to see, but we don't have lavish expectations. An apartment home base where it makes sense, hostels for nearby overnight trips, tons of miles walking and hiking, and we were thinking that if we really needed a car for something we could rent one (some friends of ours in DC do this and have offered some tips).

We're good at shopping farmers' markets for simple food and limiting ourselves to two meals a day to save on costs. We're not looking to become locals, though if we did make some casual friendships or at least acquaintances that would be good.

Thanks for the continued wisdom. It is much appreciated!

Gardyloo

If they won't do it themselves, most US insurance companies have correspondent firms in Europe that will underwrite coverage while you're there. There are firms what will do the same for Europeans bringing their vehicles to North America, too.

For example... https://www.geico.com/information/ab...ance/overseas/

Christina

It isn't clear from your description, but it sounds like you intend to sell everything and then spend everything, so you will end up with zero. Except that pension, which is odd for a farmer. But a lot of people expect some investments/savings, etc. to supplement a pension. If this pension is good for life and adequate for 2 people to live on (sounds like only one pension here), then sounds okay.

Otherwise, it sounds like a very bad idea to end up broke by selling everything you own and spending it all in a year and giving a lot to the daughters.

Otherwise, sure, why not.

MmePerdu

If Kandace has a 5 year plan to put together a life's dream, I don't think it's any of our business to question her fiscal responsibility.

hetismij2

Thanks for the update on that Gardyloo - I knew you would come through. I am glad to hear it works both ways. Just in case I win the lottery .

Kandace_York

Appreciated, Christina, but there's more to our finances than that pension; I said only that those are the funds we would live off of while we traveled. I have other retirement accounts that have done rather well, but we're not touching those.

We will safeguard additional funds; we won't be broke, and this travel plan is only for a little while.

I think that, at least for us, it's better to settle our estate while we're still alive and divest ourselves of (most of) our physical possessions.

My brother has followed a similar path for most of his life, and although he has very few possessions, he also has zero debt -- plus a lifetime of incredible adventures all across the US.

Freedom.

suze

I think it's a fine idea!!

For me, I'd want to have a plan in place for where I was going to live AFTER the 6 months to 1 year of travel was completed.

Will you put possessions in storage? Will you really sell "everything"? Do you want to come back to the area you are now living? Or settle somewhere else?

Depending these details it might be worth selling the farm, "downsizing" into a small condo or apartment now, THEN going traveling with that as a base to come home to.

Kandace_York

We'll put a few cherished possessions into storage, but very little. We definitely do NOT want to return to where we've been living -- we are sick of frigid winters and smothering summers. I like September and October around here, and all the rest of the year ranges from mediocre to miserable.

Once we're not anchored here by the animals and the girls' school, we'll probably be snowbirds. We can't downsize dramatically just yet, because our animals have lifetime homes with us. They are all older to downright geriatric, so that's not a longterm promise to keep.

There are a few places we like in the US, but we've talked it over and we don't necessarily feel like we need to make concrete decisions just yet of where we'll settle afterward. There's a big, beautiful world waiting for us to explore first.

suze

If you don't feel the need to know where you'll land after your year of traveling, that's fine (wouldn't work for me but everyone has a different comfort level about that kind of thing).

Good luck!

bvlenci

I've done something similar twice in my life. When I was young(er) and had small children, I got a chance to work in the Netherlands. I put some things in storage (in a friend's barn), and rented my house with the rest of the furniture to a visiting scholar at my university. I took unpaid leave from the university where I worked. I sent the kids to a Dutch school instead of to the American School, and it was a great experience for them.

Then, when my youngest went off to college, I met an Italian man, who seemed to take a liking to me, and after about three years, I decided to marry him and move to Italy. I quit my job, but made arrangements to do some consulting work via internet.

I certainly haven't regretted either move. My kids ended up not living very near me anyway, and they do like having a Mom in Italy. It's certainly not easy to get oriented in a foreign culture, but if you're open to new experiences and make a big effort, you'll manage.

If this will be in five years, I would work really hard at learning at least one of the languages of countries you want to visit. If you want to spend a good deal of time in Germany/Austria/Switzerland (or even part of Italy) you could start right now to learn German. If there's a university near where you live, see if you can audit a college level course.

I hate to break it to you, but Medicare doesn't cover anything outside the US. You'll need private travel medical insurance for both of you.

Kandace_York

Thanks for the tips, bvlenci. What an incredible experience for your family!

I took 4 years of German in high school, another couple semesters in college, and have spent enough time there already to realize that that does NOT mean I'm fluent. I'd say I'm conversational in simple everyday situations -- so that's definitely something to work on. We'll also need to know some basic French (we made the mistake of going to Paris knowing very little French and it greatly diminished the experience).

We'll start checking out medical coverage options, thanks for that heads-up.