This is my first ever blog post – a bit daunting! I wanted to share a little more about the purpose of my blog and what you might read about here.
The overall goal we are working towards is as much freedom as possible. Financial freedom, freedom with how we use our time, freedom to travel. We as a society get so weighed down with our material things and what they represent. I crave simplicity, more time to create, more time to connect with nature, more time to just be and learn. We are given this one precious life – why spend it working for someone else so we can pay for things we really don’t even need? It doesn’t make us happier, in fact I would argue it makes us less happy.
The more our traveling dream has become our focus the more the answers start to unfold right in front of us, just like when we started real estate investing about five years ago. It’s a simple concept really, but so many of us fail to see it. We can focus on why we can’t do something, or we can spend the same amount of energy focusing on how we can. In fact, the second type of energy is more fun, it is filled with more hope, more excitement, and more adventure. The more it is embraced the more epiphanies you will have towards making it reality.
I think Ed and I have some unique ways that we have made some money. We have careers too, but we have become a lot more financially comfortable by doing everything from buying rental properties and flipping houses, to hauling away people’s junk in our dump trailer, to Airbnb. We started all of our businesses with no capital, no money, and for some time no collateral. Ed likes to say we made money from thin air. That’s not true of course, it took a lot of education and effort, but I will share with you some of the things we have done to get us to the base of this mountain of a dream we have.
Our dream right now is to sell everything we own and buy a fifth-wheel RV. We want to travel across the country – going to concerts, visiting state and national parks, and thinking about where we might want to settle down start our next chapter. We want to do this by next year! As I write this I am 44 years old! My husband Ed is 54. We do not know how long we want to be in this lifestyle, but we do want the freedom to play everything by ear, including how long we stay places.
We have some unique obstacles to our goals as well. For example, we have two older daughters who with the help of their mom and stepdad have graduated from college with no debt. Our son is a senior in highschool and we want to do the same for him. We have no college fund set aside for him either. So, you are going to see a lot of problem solving!
We will also have so many logistics to work through – how will we find affordable health insurance for us and our son? How will we make enough income to live on? (We see our rental properties as retirement and you will learn why later on) What are we looking for in features of a RV? What will we need in our new RV home? (Spoiler alert – I am an over packer and have a slight issue with shoes!) How will we even purchase it?
I will likely also talk about marriage – how we are working together on this, how we navigate these big changes, and just some of the general inside workings.
I basically want to document also how once you take a step in the direction of your dreams, the next step always becomes apparent. Serendipity? Synchronocity? Not sure! But, the universe will certainly work with you and against you sometimes to keep you on track! My hypothesis is this blog will demonstrate that!
So, buckle up, and come with me on this journey…it’s going to be a wild ride but we are ON OUR WAY.