Transition to retirement by downsizing and travelling the world

Are you making plans for your transition to retirement? If not, why not?

Is it all too daunting, too much information out there to digest or not enough information?

Are you still working because you are fearful that you may not have enough?

What if we said you do have enough, what if we said to you take that big step and leave the corporate world early. I heard that gasp! Now, take a deep breath and think about it. Time to travel to those places that you have always wanted to go too before you are too old or your health fails you.

We at To Travel Too have a mantra ‘Chase Time Not Money’. We are in the transition to retirement, but we have given up our corporate life before retirement age and we have made the decision in 2015/16 to travel the world on the current Australian aged pension for couples i.e. $36,500 per year or for us $100 a day. You will have your equivalent in your country.

We don’t have a home anymore. We sold our 7-bedroom tri level home on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, Australia and downsized to a 2-bedroom rental apartment in Sydney. It wasn’t easy, but in the end it was a relief. No more huge mortgages, utilities and maintenance costs etc. Our weekends no longer tied to the cleaning and the garden maintenance. It helped that one of our sons had left home to live with his partner and our other son was just about to embark on a belated gap travel year.

Then we had an “Aha” moment. We left our corporate jobs, placed our worldly goods into storage and took off for a 12-month RTW adventure, taking in South America, Europe and Asia all on AUD 165 per day.

When we arrived back in Australia in 2014, we had nowhere to live; our boys probably would not have wanted us to live with them for that year so we started house sitting on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. Over the next 381 nights as we planned our next part of our transition to retirement, we saved over AU$40,000 and only spent AU$3,400 on accommodation.

As part of our 2015/6 strategies we are house sitting around the world as we travel. House sitting brings down our travelling costs whilst living like a local and caring for pets and homes. Currently we have just finished a house sitting assignment in Canoa, Ecuador and heading to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico for a 3-week house sit in June.

We have gained ourselves time, we are achieving our budget that we set and we are living the retirement dream before our retirement age. We have our health and we are travelling to the most amazing places having great adventures.

After Mexico, who knows where we will be. We are currently discussing Cuba, Bolivia, Spain, Sweden, and Costa Rica.

So, are you making plans for your transition to retirement? If not, why not?