A year on…
It is the anniversary of the day our dreams became real plans. That day, the 26th of November 2016, is etched in our memories forever.
We had been dreaming of a new way of life for some time, and we had all sorts of ideas, but nothing really stuck, or seemed really workable. Until this day.
We have just come back from a lovely holiday where we’ve mostly done nothing but relax. We’ve come back refreshed and relaxed, and as we’ve focused on nothing but Sand, Sea, Sun and Fun, we have had plenty of headspace to think better again.
This is the only thing I can think of that has helped us to finally formulate our plans a bit better. We went for a relaxed bimble around our lovely Southsea village, stopping at a few places for some drinks. When we get to the Belgian bar, Huis, we sit down in the window and suddenly it hits me.
Here’s what we can do. We save money, retrain, pay off a bit more mortgage and sell the house so we can buy something smaller and rent it out for income. Then we can travel. We can do work digitally, on the road, and we’d be free from the ‘9 to 5’.
At that point it was a 3 year plan. That was the only problem. 3 years seemed like such a long time. Time to do some number crunching. Luckily, I love a spreadsheet…! (Sorry, but it’s true). Several spreadsheets on, lots of sums done, scenarios explored, and I’ve come to the conclusion that if we accept a few limitations, and we try to save really hard, we can do it as soon as 18 months from now. Well, that was much better.
So time passes, and we’re focussed on our dreams. We keep moving a little bit at a time. We keep travelling, and we get increasingly impatient. After the Scotland tour, we became even more restless. With the help of yet another spreadsheet, we figured out how much the house would have to be worth to bring the plans forward even more, and we invited some estate agents around. The rest, as they say, is history.
Within a year of forging a 3-year plan, we are now living in our van, finishing work very soon, and we’re ready to embrace the open road!
