Blueeyedcod

@ hetismij2 - not sure how you came to the conclusion that I was 'encouraging anyone to break the law' - where does my post say that? I *said* that some border crossings don't care and don't check your passport. You inferred something from that which is your problem.

soogies

What about a "golden visa" idea?

http://www.dw.com/en/eu-citizenship-for-sale/a-17816441

My husband and I had considered it, but health issues are keeping us living here, traveling when we can.

I don't know much about the details but perhaps it's worth investigating. I think Portugal wanted an investment of 500k Euro in real estate in return for residency. (That's simplified - as I said, I don't know details.)

Loacker

You shouldn't seek financial advice from travellr. But all I can say is that you can fulfill your dream without having to sell everything.

You can get by on $30/day in places like Thailand.
You can rent an apartment for $500/month. Food is extremely cheap.

julies

Living is also quite cheap in some of the places that US ex-pats tend to cluster in in Mexico.

Some of the former Soviet bloc and Soviet satellite countries are also fascinating places to live and usually have lower cost of living expenses.

"we are sick of frigid winters and smothering summers." Let me guess. Iowa or Indiana or South Dakota maybe?

Kandace_York

Worse, Julies...Ohio, in the heart of what was a swamp. In the summer, the bugs are horrible and nothing can stop them. The last two winters have been the worst in history (Ohio's winter was rated the worst in the country), and when you live on a farm, in an old farmhouse that's heated by wood, that misery becomes triple.

Loacker, selling the farm and (most of) what we own would enable us to become debt-free and have the means to travel comfortably, plus put a considerable amount into savings for when we return.

Thanks for the discussion, everyone!

bvlenci

I didn't think Kandace had any idea of becoming an expat; I understood that she wanted to spend six months abroad. Still, in six months, as someone else said, you have to begin thinking like an expat.

You might want to consider renting an apartment for six months in a place you like and that's convenient for getting to other countries. Munich might be a possibility. It's very convenient for trips to Austria and Italy, and its airport has flights to many places, including direct flights to the US. When I go to the US (from my home in Italy) I often transfer in Munich.

When I was living in the Netherlands, I had a job, which limited my travels, and also very little money, which limited me even more. However, I managed, taking advantage of public holidays and long weekends, to visit Spain, England (just London and a few daytrips), France (just Paris), Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Ireland (en route to my return home). We traveled by bus, coach, and ferry, and once by air (to Spain). We mostly stayed in youth hostels, student dorms (in the summer) and similar cheap lodgings. Having a fixed base in the Netherlands allowed us to "settle in" to the local community.

sandralist

Hi, Kandace_York,

My husband and I did this several years ago, but we got the documents to be legal residents of Italy. We have a storage cubby hole in the US, but in Italy rental apartments come furnished, and so we didn't bring anything but clothes. Rather than visit relatives in the US, we buy them tickets to visit us. We have enough space to put them up as well, but even if we didn't it would still be cheaper to pay their Italian b&b bill than for us to pay US hotel/car rental prices. We even hosted a simple wedding (win-win, since we live in a romantic spot and I hate flying to weddings in summer.)

I toyed with the idea of shipping over my car, since it was cheap to do so, but I realized that the costs and impossibilities of insuring the car, fixing the car if it needed parts, and even parking it Italy made no sense -- especially since the car itself was just a clunker. I use pubic transportation in Italy, mainly my feet. When I need a car I rent one. I leased a car when I first arrived in Italy and it was a mistake. Other countries might have more favorable parking situations, but I'd be slow to go that route, and it will really eat into your budget.

We travel all over Europe, using cheap airfares and often staying in hotels using "loyalty programs". From Italy, we typically pay no more than $200 round trip air to visit Greece, Austria, Germany, Poland, the UK, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. Living in Europe, we don't feel a lot of need to book "first-timer" tourist hotels in the heart of a city. We know how to use public transport and prefer not to be in the tourist zones anyway. But one of the reasons we chose Italy for a "base" is that it is also simply fascinating to take a 2-hour train ride just about anywhere in Italy, because the regional diffences are so pronounced (Pisa is nothing like Turin) and also one can travel internationally by train from Italy to France, Austria, Switzerland. So we aren't bored.

For us, going for just 6 months would have made little sense, so we didn't even consider it, which is just as well, since It took us about 3 months to get ourselves well and truly settled, with a phone plan, a bank account, a vet for the cats . However, we promised ourselves from Day One that if at any moment either of us no longer wanted to live in Europe, we'd leave. Still here. No complaints.

It's possible that all the years of living on a farm have made you a lot more self reliant than many other people, and a lot less worried about "fitting in" or getting used to operating European appliances (I don't pine for American ones, and would rather hang my clothes out to dry). I have lived in Europe now for many years, and I don't consider myself European or "integrated", and I don't even think about it. On the other hand, when I look at the US news about Donald Trump, I feel a lot more at home with the culture here -- and I was born practically next door to Donald Trump!

It is not clear if the Schengen Treaty will last another 5 years, so that is certainly something to watch. I also tend to think that some European countries whose voters want to keep out "migrants" -- that is, refugees from war-devastated countries -- are going to make a great show of being "fair" and "not racist at all" by denying long-stays to visitors from affuent countries simply to deflect criticism of vicious border practices that exclude dark-skinned non-Christians washing up on Europe's shores dehydrated. "Rules" you know. Just following the rules. Yes, it's making a comeback in Europe.

Climate change is also going to make "whose got the best weather" a moving target, plus you are also going to find it is much cheaper to spend 6 mos in Europe in the lousy weather season than it is to travel in the nice weather months.

Good luck with your plan!

You might get something from reading this, the story of a couple who lost their house in Hurrican Katrina, and spontaneously decided not to rebuild, but to spend a year in Italy instead.

http://dawhois.com/site/makinglimonata.com.html

kovsie

Do it! You will never be the same. You will see life differently, you will have great memories, you will be free of things that now seem important but are not really. Three years ago I moved to the other side of the world. It was not always easy ... culture shock is a very real thing. But still, I am so very glad that I am where I am now. Set a date and start moving towards it. Do your research. Listen to people like MmmPerdu who talk from experience. Let go of all the stuff that clutter your life and your thinking. And then just do it! Write about it. Perhaps it will become a bestseller ... two not-so-young adventurers taking on the world!

starrs

I just reread the first sentence of your OP. You are farmers. Do you know about WWOOFing?

http://www.wwoof.net/

This may be an opportunity to give your new adventure a bit of structure. Take a look.

vincenzo32951

sandra: Piacere: Mind telling me what town you live in?

My apologies for the semi-hijack.

tom_mn

Medical insurance: I think many U.S. policies cover international situations, you should check yours. My current and previous plans work(ed) anywhere.

I'm wondering why you don't rent your fields if the work is getting to be too much.

Kandace_York

Thanks for the dialog, everyone.

Tom_mn, we have rented out the fields before with marginal results, and we've reached a point where we're just tired of trying to tough it out year after year. We've been here for 27 years now and the costs and workload are higher than ever, while the return is lower than ever. It's not fun anymore and it hasn't been for a long time. We're ready to do something different and daring and FUN while we're still reasonably "young" and healthy enough to enjoy it.

Sandralist, climate change is a concern for us (we are environmentalists too), and that will figure into our plans. We had planned to leave the farm to our daughters (it does have access to water which could be a big plus over the next century), but neither of them is interested in staying in this area or living the rest of their lives as anchored to a place as they have been for the first part of their lives.

Husband and I are both voracious readers, and we'd like to see more of the places we've been reading about for so many years. We've been lucky to do some traveling already, but there's SO much more we want to see and do.

DonaldJames

You really need guts to do that, I don’t think I have ever heard of anything like that while another question is where do you prefer to travel, it is something to know where you are going to spend your next 6-8 months at least and calculate the budget as well, I can’t help you too much but small tip that I want to provide is check this site http://travelholidayblog.com/, it has things which will help you make correct decision.

Sassafrass

Sandralist, nice post. Thanks for sharing your experience.

IMDonehere

We did the opposite of you. When we were married, instead of spending a lot of money on a three hour affair, we went to Europe for six months. We also retired early. That was through the effort of planning for 10 years of both saving and not spending. And now we go away for three week stretches. We are also trying to go where we have never been. (For the most part.)

When we were in our 40's we realized we'd better go to the places that are more strenuous. They could always throw us in the back of a tour bus. That is when we scaled the Temples at Tikal, one of our favroite trips. And my my wife and then 74 old sister walked the 500 mile Camino.

Thus I would suggest skipping Europe, unless you do want to do the Camino or climb the Alps or something else that takes strength and stamina and go to the more difficult countries to transverse. Additionally, like the old song, "I'm going where the weather suits my clothes." That would help in terms of packing.

I would also hedge my bets, in case traveling is not as glamorous as it may seem. I know nothing about the economics of American farming, but if someone can take over the land, until you are sure traveling is what you want to do, that would probably be safer.