This is the second part in a travel series about our seven-week trip to Squamish and back. To read part one, start here.
Continue reading “From Squamish, With Love”From Squamish, With Love
EP 9: Your Questions Answered: Volume 3
This week I decided to dig through the digital mail bag for some questions.
In this podcast episode, we take a dive on how to spend retirement money early, how to live off investment income, recommended index funds, life on the road, climbing with a significant other who doesn’t partake, taxes, spot-on recession predictions, and so much more!
Continue reading “EP 9: Your Questions Answered: Volume 3”Mid-Year Financial Check & All the Latest
We now find ourselves approaching the mid-year point of 2021. So, how about we check in on those simple, yet highly effective methods for actually saving real money? I’m taking a break from my typical long-form post while we travel, so hopefully you’ll find this one straight and to the point.
Continue reading “Mid-Year Financial Check & All the Latest”Fear and Limping (Alone) in Las Vegas
This week’s post is not about ways to save money or plan for a retirement. There’s not even much here about climbing. I spent some time alone this week, and as such, fell (pun intended) into a bit more of a contemplative mood. This is an essay on wild places, loneliness, and the compounding emotional effects of night. Finally, and perhaps unexpectedly, we examine the continued relevance of the death of Chris McCandless in the Alaskan wilderness.
Continue reading “Fear and Limping (Alone) in Las Vegas”The Simple and Complicated Life on the Road
We’ve been back in a house for just over a month, which feels like a good time to reflect on our five-month 2020 life on the road.
We’ve all heard the myriad benefits of a life of full-time travel: a new and ever-changing environment, chasing good weather, meeting new people, and abundant nature. And certainly, we’ve seen all the photos. But with this sense of freedom comes some significant trade-offs in comfort, ease of living, work productivity, and sometimes even freedom itself.
Does life on the road live up to all the social media hype? How about the costs? What type of vehicles, vans, or RVs are even affordable?
Here’s what to expect:
Continue reading “The Simple and Complicated Life on the Road”And We’re Back to Home Ownership! But Why Now?
After years of planning, overanalyzing, and thinking too much, in July we listed our house in Denver for sale and hit the road. Our goal was to spend up to a year traveling in search of our next home base. Five months later and we are back to the game of home ownership again.
In this post we examine the unexpected location of our new home, the current home buying environment, and a hard look at whether current mortgage interest rates are the final incentive to jump into home ownership. Should you consider home ownership right now?
In our minds, we always assumed we’d end up back in Flagstaff, Arizona, where we both lived a decade ago while I attended graduate school.
Well, it didn’t turn out that way. So, where are you going to come visit us?
Continue reading “And We’re Back to Home Ownership! But Why Now?”Four Months on the Road: Can This Really Last?
We’ve moved from high mountain valleys and ridge lines, to coastal tide pools and arid western expanses. As much as this journey has been the best lesson in the school of life, after four months, how much longer can we go? Today, we find ourselves at a crossroad and we’re lookin’ to make a deal.
So dude…where to?
Continue reading “Four Months on the Road: Can This Really Last?”Relocation: A Guide to Moving and Housing Affordability
We’re out on the road in search of our next home, our sights set on home ownership once again. In this post we examine the complicated process of relocation and the sticky, tangled spiderweb of housing affordability. Is housing in America becoming less and less affordable?
In this post we discuss:
- Costs to consider during relocation
- Home price and income metrics to affordable housing
- National trends on housing affordability
- How much a retiree should spend on a home
- Our process for evaluating relocation options
- Ways to make housing more affordable
Three Months on the Road: Pacific Northwest
We’ve spent three months on the road, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. From our origin in Colorado, we’ve journeyed through Wyoming, Montana, and now the lovely state of Washington.
Let’s review, shall we?
Continue reading “Three Months on the Road: Pacific Northwest”In Contrast: The Reality of Life on the Road
What follows is an essay outlining the stark contrast of life on the road. It’s frankly easy to get really frustrated out here. Social media, blogs, and YouTube channels often paint a masterpiece of life on the road as an effortless, pillowy dream state and hall pass from reality. We’d certainly spent enough nights outside prior to this trip to know the ridiculousness of these claims. However, I like to be an honest guy on this website.
My mother nailed it when she said that the struggle for meeting basic needs and the lack of external social interactions can be a very real challenge. That said, might this be the very best place to be in the summer of 2020?
Let’s see why…
Continue reading “In Contrast: The Reality of Life on the Road”