We’re so lucky!

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

As we have told friends and family about our retirement/travel plans most respond by saying “You’re so lucky!”, “I’ve always wanted to do that”, or “That’s on my bucket list”! We definitely feel incredibly lucky to be able to take a hiatus from real life to travel for a while but we feel like timing, more than anything, has enabled us to do this.

Timing is everything. About three years ago, we started to think seriously about what we wanted to do when Charley became eligible to retire in early 2021. As we discussed it, we realized that at 43 years old he’d be in a much better position to start a new career than if he stayed working another 10 years. There was really no financial advantage to continuing to work as his pension would essentially be the same whether he worked until 43 or 53 so we made the decision that he would retire as soon as he became eligible. As avid campers, we even toyed with the idea of selling everything and living in an RV. We decided not to take it that far but the idea came to us that we could, if we played our cards right, take some time off and travel before settling into the next phase of life. Add to the equation that our kids are living independently and our parents are all healthy, it really became a matter of “No one needs us” and “We’re crazy if we don’t”. Neither of us want to be unemployed forever but have a window of opportunity to do something really cool and we’ve decided to take advantage of it.