Yes, that’s it – and more.  Our regular jobs are ending in May but we will be paid through the summer.  Nearly everyone has been really excited about our plans.  Some people, however, are a bit more tentative about what we are doing.  They might say to us “That’s great – but I’m not sure I could do that.” That is totally understandable!  This is not for everyone; but we are SO excited about our prospects.  This will be a big change – but we are thrilled to be moving forward with our dreams of living abroad.

For those who are wondering if we have a big pile of cash somewhere allowing us to do this, the answer is a firm – I wish!  We are doing our best to avoid dipping into our savings, which we will surely need as we move deeper into actual “retirement.”  But we do have some ideas about how we will make ends meet.  These include:

·      Selling our house and most of our belongings

·      Selling one car

·      Moving the stuff that is left to Ohio where we have family and putting it all in a storage facility – except        for our 500 bottle wine fridge that will go into Greg’s parents’ basement.

At that point we will have reduced our expenses considerably.  We will no longer have to pay property taxes, house insurance, electricity, gas, water, internet, Netflix, newspapers, etc.  We will only have to pay insurance on one car.  We will also pay for health insurance and a cell phone.

We plan to live simply and reduce our living expenses by working in exchange for room and board as much as we are able.  This is made possible through the shared economy!  How cool is that?  These are opportunities that would not have been available to us 10 years ago.  As much as we can, we will use the following websites to help us find housing, in exchange for some work -- usually about 20 hours a week.

workaway.info- “building a sharing community of global volunteers who genuinely want to see the world whilst contributing to the places they visit” (for us, think:  wineries)

Wwoof.net – Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms – “linking volunteers with organic farms and growers” (for us, think:  wineries)

Trustedhousesitters.com – they “connect home and pet owners who need a sitter, when going away, with trustworthy people who are happy to sit for FREE”

Mindmyhouse.com – “a global housesitting matching service”

We will need some income, of course.  We have to pay for that insurance and cell phone (and food and wine -  we can’t eat in ALL the time)!  Right now we are taking a class to become certified to teach English as a Foreign Language.  This is turning out to be a lot of fun!  It’s an online curriculum through the International TEFL Academy. We’ll be able to work for language schools and do some private tutoring.  We also look forward to continuing to teach classes online for Tarleton.  And, we expect our business, The Travel Coach, offering Trip Planning Services for Italy, France, Ireland and the rest of Europe, to grow significantly in the coming year!  Please help us make that happen!  Help us spread the word that we would love to help people with their travel planning needs.  We look forward to being travel consultants for Italy, France and Ireland and gaining more and more clients.  We want to create custom trip itineraries and help make peoples’ travel dreams come true!

We are also exploring the possibility of teaching at LCC International University in Lithuania.  It sounds like a really interesting opportunity.  We’re exploring it now!

Who knows what other prospects might arise???  Once we get out there and start meeting people, we may discover other opportunities that we never even knew existed.  Who knows what’s out there until we go for it? 

So what do you think?  Let’s talk about this!  What do you think of our business as travel consultants for Italy, France and Ireland?  What questions do you have for me??  What would you like to hear about as we make these bold moves?  Make comments and ask questions, below.  Share our story, this blog and our website with everyone!  Subscribe to this blog and join our journey – it’s going to be awesome!