Have you always dreamed of living abroad?  Me too!!  Would you like to travel the world but don’t know how?  I will tell you how to do it in 3 easy steps.

First, leave your job.  What??  I know this isn’t the right approach for everyone but that is exactly what we decided to do 4 weeks ago.  For us, that means leaving our job security, our steady income, our home, our church, our stuff and the people and places we have known for the last several decades.  We are thrilled and terrified at the same time.  We have always wanted to live abroad and now we are just going to do it.  I sure hope this works!!

Second, become a digital nomad.  What is that, you say?  Yea – I had never heard that term either until we made this wild decision.  We have to support ourselves somehow if our plan to be harvesting grapes in Italy a year from now is going to work!   The Travel Coach is part of our plan to support ourselves while traveling abroad.   Three blog posts ago, I thought that writing about the places we have traveled over the years would be a good place to start.  Now that I’ve begun, I can see this has a chance of being much more!  Follow this journey with us and over time I’ll tell you about the craziness of what we are planning to do and how we are hoping to make it work.  I’ll share how intimidated I am by the challenge of learning enough technology to create and run a website, write a blog, and figure out digital marketing.  All I really want to do is be a travel consultant.  People have been telling me for years that I should start a business and give people travel advice on Italy, France, Ireland and the rest of Europe - that I would be great at it!  I didn’t realize what a hurdle the technical side would be.  Leaving our jobs means leaving our IT department.  THAT is scary enough in itself!

Third, learn how to make the MOST out of the “sharing economy” that many of those young tech savvy millennials talk about these days. Some of the sites we will be looking into include WorkAway, https://www.workaway.info, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, http://www.wwoof.net, Couchsurfing, https://www.couchsurfing.com/, Trusted House Sitters https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/, and Mind My House, https://www.mindmyhouse.com/sitters/.  It's really exciting to see the opportunities that are out there now that will help us make this happen!

OK, I know it’s going to take lots more than 3 steps for us to live abroad but I just read an article on http://blog.hubspot.com about how to write kick ass titles for your blog and I was trying to follow the advice I found there.  I think I’ll get better at it over time…

So come along on our journey.  I’ll tell you what I learn along the way and we’ll talk a lot about travel, too, because I am absolutely passionate about it.  I’ll talk about retirement and “quit-tirement,” and share a little wisdom, probably some mistakes, and hopefully lots of encouragement.  Please ask me questions.  Offer comments and suggestions.  Engage in this with me and share your thoughts!  It will be lots more fun if you join us on this adventure!!   Subscribe to my blog and travel along with us!