Rather than move or travel full-time, I decided to keep a small apartment in the US as my home base but live abroad half of the year. I rent a live/work space that doubles as storage for my online reselling business, and the cost is a tax-deductible business expense. Plus I can keep my US bank accounts and physical address. I can go wherever I want, as often as I want and whenever it works for my schedule. Since I source goods from other countries, my travel expenses are also tax-deductible. It's the best of both worlds!
Be aware: You can't legally take a tax deduction for the cost of living space. You can deduct the cost of storage space, however. If you were to say that the entire live/work space is used for storage, the IRS would balk. (I'm an Enrolled Agent.)
Or you could claim residency in South Dakota, Florida or Texas and not have to rent with the risk of something happening (water leak) while you’re away.
@@m8852 Thanks for your comment. I was aware of that rule when I chose the space. It was inspected and classified as commercial storage by the IRS, but zoned live/work space by the county, and my tax returns for the last 4 years have all been approved without a problem. I think it's very rare to find this kind of space but not impossible.
@@thomasreedy4751 I wish I could but I have 4000 units of physical inventory that I need to store somewhere, and I need to be here part of the year to make money.
I have retired for 5 years, and I have traveled the world extensively. But I don't really understand the benefits of being in places other than the US. We have been in Southeast Asia twice and Europe twice this year, all together about 4 months. We travel slowly, trying to immerse in local community and culture. The longest travel outside the US was a little more than 2 months, and we wanted to come home in the Great Lake region. We stay home in the summer June thought August, when it is most comfortable here, while everywhere else is crowded with tourists, and hot as hell (Rome and Athens was 100 degree for weeks this past summer.) In the winter, we like to be in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia for the warm weather. For us, home, sweet home, can not be replaced by any other places.
@worldtravelor Part of the reason we won't return to the US is that renting cars to drive from place to place is expensive (and if you like taking long road trips, gasoline is also super expensive). When our kids were young we took a lot of road trips, but we always worried a little about crazy drivers, drunk drivers, and drivers with road rage with guns (we lived in Houston for 29 years and that was a common concern). We think learning about other cultures and ways of life has made us more empathetic and opens our minds to other ways of thinking. You probably already have that by traveling extensively, but many people never leave the US or even their state. We agree that being in places that have better weather than where you live or traveling during shoulder seasons to avoid crowds is the better way to travel. We loved our time in San Francisco, but it was a very expensive city to live in. We talk about this more in our video linked below if you're interested. Thanks for watching and for sharing your perspective. -Judy 🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html
I binge watched your videos and a fan of both of you. I admire your decision. My husband and I have traveled /vacationed in many European countries , southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil etc. We are very close to taking retirement. We really like your idea of slow traveling. Will be visiting Panama in Jan 2025. I hear that a lot of expats live there . Especially in Boquete as it has year around spring like temp. Going to check it out on our drive from Panama city to Boco del Toro. Have you been to central American countries? Is your next place Uruguway? What made you to select that country ?
I agreed with everything you said. However, I suggest you revisit your information regarding Italy. My wife and I are both retired and having a great time in southern Italy. We moved there March of 2021. We got elective residency and have been renewing it every year with no difficulties. We purchased a home when we got there and took a year to remodel the place. We use our place as a base and travel when we can mainly in Europe. I know some good lawyers and I can recommend them to you if you wish. We are older than you are and we chose this life style. I suggest you do what you are doing now but in 5-10 years I think you may want to seriously think about Italy ( Southern or northern Italy around piedmont area - housing is much cheaper). Hope this helps. P.s. we may reach out to you in September of 2025 to pick your brain regarding South Asia. my wife and I planning to visit Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia in December - February . Good luck and travel safe.
I think my issues with slow travel vs. home base are two fold: 1) I have/want pets and 2) comfort (mainly beds - I'm too old to sleep on bad beds!). Also, my longest vacation was about 7 weeks and I just remember what a total relief it was to get home. I loved the trip, but there was something special about coming home and being comfortable.
Hi @CJ-Photo, We do understand about bad beds, but for the most part, they've been good-and we've stayed in our share of different beds in the last two years! We know some people who travel with their pets, so it can be done so long as they aren't very large. How did you travel on vacation for seven weeks? We typically stay a month in each place (so if we're uncomfortable, it's for a manageable amount of time). Also, we don't live like vacationers where we are on the go all the time. We read books, watch television, play games like if we were home. We find a specific coffee shop and try to hang out at the same place for our entire stay. We do some cooking when we can. We sightsee, but not every single day. We do like to take long walks and while I guess that's considered sight seeing, it doesn't necessarily feel that way because we don't have a destination in mind. We walk until we want to turn back around. We know we could not keep up the same pace traveling full time as we did when we were on vacation. Here's a video where we talk about some of this in the summer of 2023. And we actually do acknowledge that this lifestyle is not for everyone! -Judy 🎥 Slow Travel or No Travel! Why we have to stay longer: th-cam.com/video/LrLGJ-X6I4A/w-d-xo.html
@@FindingGinaMarie I think I'm one of the lucky people from the US that's gets 5 weeks of paid vacation per year (and they let me accrue a little!) and use a pet sitter while I'm away. Most of my "big" trips average 4-5 weeks and I do prefer to stay in the same spot even on shorter trips - I really hate doing the 2 days and each location thing. Good to know about the beds. Guess I've just been unlucky! Just recently had the worst bed ever on an Alaska trip to take photos of the bears...glad I went, but the bed just about killed me. Yeah, I prefer cats so they'd be pretty hard to travel with :)
@@CJ-Photo We had "unlimited paid time off" from the companies that I worked at in San Francisco. However, I had one executive who made a very big deal about taking two full weeks together and was told how rare it was to be able to do that. Another manager told me I could only take time off if I could get someone to cover for me-I was in a role that had no redundancies and she wasn't willing to cover for me-or if I worked while I was on vacation. Those are a few of the reasons I'm now retired! What the heck?! We have not been to Alaska, but everyone says it is amazing. Sorry to hear about the beds in Alaska. What a shame. Thanks for sharing a little more about the way you travel! -Judy
@FindingGinaMarie the new buzz words now are "work life balance" so if you were still in the workforce, it's possible that could be different now. But still - being retired and slow travelling is much better! Thank you for all the work on your videos and sharing your travels with us. (And ps. Alaska is great to visit but if you're going to a very remote place, there aren't a lot of options for comfortable beds!)
@@CJ-Photo I feel like I had more work/life balance during the pandemic than in any other time in my career. Not that I worked fewer hours-I probably worked more. But I could have coffee in the morning with my husband, I could throw in a load of laundry before hopping on a Zoom call, I could take 30 minutes and start dinner at 3pm and then eat together with my husband and son and then be back working afterwards. In the past, I've been at the office until 8pm or even 10pm or later because of some deadline (because when I finally got home, my family resented me hopping back on to work when they hadn't seen me all day). So I'm someone who worked very well remotely, but I think companies didn't like that they couldn't see what their employees were doing all day (despite the work getting done). My job was fine, but as someone in tech, it was astounding to see all the back-to-work edicts from companies who had their employees working just fine remotely. We aren't generally fans of cold weather, but I think Alaska would be the exception. But good to know about the lack of comfortable beds! That might be the one and only place where we'd do a cruise, but it also doesn't sound like we'd be able to have the experience you did). -Judy
@@tedg4171 Hi Ted, The livestream is for our Gelato Members who help sponsor our channel. We do them monthly. You can read about them at the link below (and we have a video that gives a brief overview as well). For paid members if they miss the live event, they can watch a replay for as long as they have an active membership. We also have a separate, completely FREE hosted community forum (La Famiglia) for anyone who wants to join. -Judy 🍦Find Out More About Our Gelato Membership Insider Perks: findingginamarie.com/join
We don’t know where we want to live until we visit many more places! Working on exploration and we seem to fall in love with many places as we go. After we travel for a few years, we think we will just slowdown more and more over and will end up bouncing around 3 or four places to avoid residency.
Hi @erinaustin9968, we feel the same! Places we never dreamed of or knew anything about now open up to us as places to consider. Those would mostly be for a time when we have mobility issues or other health issues that would prevent us from traveling. And even with dual citizenship, we don't want to deal with the cold that Italy deals with! -Judy P.S.: Will you be able to join our livestream today?
Something else to consider when applying for dual citizenship, is the military national service rules. I can easily get citizenship in Poland or Czechia, because my parents were born there. But my parents discouraged me from dual citizenship when I was younger, because if I had Czech citizenship, and I was residing in Czechia for at least six months, then I would be forced to join the army for a year or three. I’m not certain about the timeframes anymore, but it’s definitely something to consider. Especially for me, if the Ukrainian war spills into its western neighbours. My parents point was they travelled as far away from the horrors of WW2 as they could get, to shield their family from war. They wouldn’t be too happy if some of the family went back to the hotspot years later, and got caught up in more trouble.
@danbulowski7013 You raise a good and valid point. There may even be issues for the US if you want to have certain security clearance. It may be frowned upon to have dual citizenship somewhere. But I can appreciate the danger you are sharing. Thanks for bringing it up. Sounds like you have smart and resilient parents. -Judy
Being on the move nonstop is truly addictive. I did van life for three years, sleeping in a different location every night. Now that I’m stationary again I CRAVE movement. Also I traveled nonstop for one year a few years ago for work, sleeping in a different hotel/motel every night and at the end of that year I only wanted more!
Wow, that's impressive. We have been extremely lucky that we've had almost no issues with flight delays and cancellations nearly this entire time we've been traveling. Of course, here in Argentina, we've had two trips canceled, which was a huge bummer. One place we could reschedule and unfortunately the other one we'll have to skip for now. In our hearts, we truly are slow travelers. We like to have some routines and I don't actually like having too much of a schedule. I like to know where I'm going in a few weeks, but we'd probably feel a sense of urgency to see and do everything in each new place. Curious how you managed that. Do you not need any down time? At least when we're somewhere a few weeks, we can take down days. In fairness, we work a lot, so it helps that we have days we can hunker down and days where we can explore at our leisure! -Judy 🎥 Slow Travel or No Travel! Why we have to stay longer: th-cam.com/video/LrLGJ-X6I4A/w-d-xo.html
Hello Judy & Kevin from Broughty Ferry, Dundee (we just got hit with an arctic blast, so we are a bit sick of this UK coldness that you mentioned). Yup, we are still here and getting ready to leave. Heading to Valencia, Spain in mid-december with some friends and spend the holidays with our daughter and then mid January, we head to Mexico City for a month. Mid February, we head to San Miguel de Allende for 2.5 months, for we want to hunker down and not move for a bit - we love it there. Sounds like you are heading in that general direction as well, so perhaps you will be in Mexico. If you guys are coming to San Miguel around that time, we've got a 2nd en suite bedroom for ya. Come spend a week! Christine and I always look forward to your videos each week, especially when it is cold, raining and the sun sets at 3:45p, sigh.
Hi Andrew, Thank you so much for watching and for writing! We really love London and strongly considered the idea of living there before we started traveling full time (and Scotland, but boy is the weather freezing at times). We will send you some warm thoughts to break the chill! Valencia, Spain is one of the cities we are looking forward to visiting (actually there are a lot of cities in Spain we are curious about). We hope you love it. We've not typically had Mexico on our list of countries to visit, primarily because we've been to Cancun. It's not the best representation of Mexico for sure, but we've been mostly interested in exploring new countries. However, we learned that a stopover in Mexico City would be a cheap flight to the US, so we're heading there for the first two weeks in March. I've not investigated how good the public transportation system is there, but if there's a way for us to meet up when we're there and you're there, we would absolutely love to make it happen! -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie We completely understand Judy and agree that Cancun in no way shape or form represents Mexico. Beautiful beaches though. That said, Mexico City has decent public transport from what we see and is very walkable, especially if you are in the Roma Norte / Condesa neighborhood. We are staying on the southern most part of Condesa, right near the park. Take a peek at San Miguel de Allende on google, I think you will be shocked at how beautiful it is there. I believe it is a 4 hour bus ride from Mexico City, so let's see how things are going by that point in time, with either group taking a quick / inexpensive bus to hang for a bit. Until then, enjoy South America and we love London too. Best fries we have ever had were in Portobello Market.
@@andrewkamchi7478 Yes, let's keep in touch. We will be doing quite a bit of fast travel leading up to and including that trip, so let's try not to let this slide off of our respective radar. We've actually been hearing good things about San Miguel de Allende. Our primary reason to head to Mexico City is because it offered a convenient flight into Houston and was easy to arrive from Costa Rica, which is where we'll be coming from beforehand. -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie Nice, we've never been to Costa Rica. I just shared your message with Christine and she said at some point in the not too distant future, and before we are all in Mexico, we should catch up via facetime / whatsapp or something just to introduce ourselves. Funny small world thing... we were just talking about heading to Houston after Mexico to see a chiropractic specialist that we follow there.
@@andrewkamchi7478 Definitely a small world! Reach out to us through our email and we'll work something out! Costa Rica has been a bucket list place since we had small children, but it always was too expensive for our family to get there. It will be a different kind of trip visiting now, but we're looking forward to it! -Judy
We are going for Italian citizenship by descent through my hubby.... we plan on slow travel retirement and wanted another citizenship. We also wanted to spend a lot of time in Italy and the rest of Europe and this seemed like a great idea for a back up plan or if we want to slow down and live there or buy a home. We just started the process and I don't retire for a year. Interesting to hear that it will take you many years. We are hiring an agency that will do everything for us (since his grandfather came through Ellis Island with a minimum of info - the first mention of him is the 1920 Census) but his parents (and THEIR parents) are well documented in Italy, so it seemed wise. Are you using an agency or did you DIY it? Thank you for your content!
Hi @preparingforretirement, I'm not sure how familiar you are with paths for dual citizenship, but I am a 1948 case. It's a little more complicated than some types because I am going through my grandmother (females weren't allowed to pass their citizenship to their children until after 1948, and so people often file lawsuits because women should have always had that right and 1948 was an arbitrary date-this method has had a high degree of success, but it requires you to file a lawsuit in the Italian court where your family member is from). I am using IDC (Italian Dual Citizenship-also known as Italian Citizenship Assistance). But my family is from New York State and it took me 9+ months due to a backlog of cases for them to send me birth records and other documents from NY. So I started the paperwork in February 2022 and it has taken me until now to get all of what I needed, as well as get apostilles and translations. The translations may take another few weeks and then it all will be able to be filed with the court. So what I had to pull together took nearly 2 years, 9 months. If your family members aren't from NY, it might be a quicker process, but it is a slow process. It may take another 18 months after the case is filed in Italy to get a judgment, but I'm hearing it can take a similar length of time to get an appointment with a US consulate for regular jus sanguinis. We were not prepared for the fact that although they "do everything," due to privacy issues, they aren't allowed to do things independently. We've had to receive the documents and then send them to IDC afterwards (and also check on the status of them when they were delayed). The government agencies will only work directly with you, not IDC if you are using them (but I'm assuming that's the case for every third party). We wish you all the best on your journey and your upcoming retirement. It will be here before you know it! I'll link a few of our episodes that may help you with downsizing and a link to our checklist that should help, too. -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: th-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
I would never want to be an expat and live just in one country through the rest of my life because I’d rather travel and see many different countries. Today is my one week anniversary of living in my new (temporary) country.
So great to hear from you, @bw5911! We hope you are enjoying Albania! Yes, that's one of the things that pushed us over to becoming full-time travelers. In fact, I just uploaded a companion blog post about it. We've traveled two full years as of just a few days ago and we share how we got here. At some point when our health is bad or our mobility becomes challenging, it might make sense. But we want to travel this way for as long as we can! -Judy 🎥 Happy On-The-Road Anniversary to Us: findingginamarie.com/articles/happy-on-the-road-anniversary-to-us?rq=anniversary
JUDY - KEVIN - great video with an unique angle!. The more I read and watch videos on BEING AN EXPAT, the more I think I am better off at my age (68), staying put, travel when I wish and stay close to my sister and her kids. It might have been better for me 10-15 years ago, but then those were the years my precious parents needed me most. God knows what he's doing... KEEP MAKING VIDEOS! Much love to both of you!
@enriquesanchez2001 Seeing your face pop up in our comments always makes me smile! Thank you for always watching! Our intention wasn't necessarily to turn people off of being expats, but we had no idea there was another way when we first thought we might want to live full time in another country. Part of us just wanted to have a different kind of experience and appreciate a different culture and country outside of our own. Basic curiosity. Well, maybe a little more than the average person on this topic! We are glad it didn't work out for us in 2011 because like you our lives would have looked so different. And for us right now, there's no one who really needs us in the way it sounds like your parents did. We are keeping our options open that there may come a time when we need to help out my birth mother or our children end up with children of their own and we decide we want to be nearby. But that time isn't now, and we are so incredibly happy to be living this way! -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie Awww, thanks for that sweet reaction! You weren't turning me off specifically, by the way. I am being practical. Family is important to me. My sister and her children are my sole support system. Tonight, all the family is going to a special Mass for my cousin who passed suddenly, she was only one year younger than I am. My family is large and I expect a large crowd to attend. In the long run, and in keeping with my own thinking, it would be a selfish decision were I to repatriate myself. You simply enforced my decision to stay put and enjoy what I have than uproot myself into an unknown destiny. Your absolutely congenial outlook always makes me smile, and Kevin's not too shabby himself!
Good points about the positive aspects to full-time travel vs full-time expat. i think another benefit is related to maintaining a link to US banking services and your trusted healthcare providers. Do you rent out your US home when you go on extended trips?
Hi @artbrutnewyork, We actually sold everything we own to travel full time. We have no home base at all. Our son in the US is holding a single box of items for us, but otherwise, we own nothing. And we travel full time, so we only visit the US once per year to see family. Our daughter sometimes meets up with us during our travels and our sons are homebodies (one who lived in a different state from us, so we didn't see him more than once per year anyway). We try to meet up with family and friends once a year, but we also have made many, many friends through our channel and friends who live in various parts of the world that we meet up with. We don't typically use the US healthcare system since there is great coverage when we need it throughout the world. Thanks so much for watching. -Judy 🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html 🎥 How we thought unconventionally to retire early: th-cam.com/video/ttyh4NXrbfs/w-d-xo.html 🎥 Surgery in Serbia: th-cam.com/video/A2ps2BawyGw/w-d-xo.html 🎥 Medical checkups in Thailand: th-cam.com/video/pypr82ddWG8/w-d-xo.html
Hi Judy and Kevin, Thanks for the inspiring videos. Always bringing smile on my face every-time you talk about your experience in travel. You are always welcomed anytime you travel plans is taking you to Vegas. Would be lovely to catch up. enjoy your trip to Uruguay. looking forward to your videos.
Hi @moradw, Thank you so much for watching and for your very kind words. They really matter and help us! Our time in the US is always so short, but my birth mother lives outside of Palm Springs, so it might be a possibility at some point! Thanks for the good energy for Uruguay. We are excited to see what it's about! -Judy
So glad to hear this is helpful, @julilopez. And yes, this does not need to be something a person does forever. But it's the adventure of a lifetime, and you won't always know if it's for you unless you try it. It's also significantly easier to try out than becoming an expat somewhere. -Judy
Hi @56phil020244: Thank you so much for watching. We have an expanded article tied to our thought process as we debated for ourselves whether to be expats versus full-time travelers. It's linked below if you're interested. We also share in this video below why we don't plan to return to the US permanently. -Judy 🎥 Happy On-The-Road Anniversary to Us: findingginamarie.com/articles/happy-on-the-road-anniversary-to-us?rq=anniversary 🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html 🎥 How we thought unconventionally to retire early: th-cam.com/video/ttyh4NXrbfs/w-d-xo.html
We have learned very quickly that there is no perfect location. There are downsides as well as upsides to everywhere in the world. Full time travel also has its ups and downs. The most important thing is to prioritize what you value. At this time, we value learning new things and experiencing different cultures so we prioritize travel over staying in one place even though there are downsides to that decision.
@reluctantlawyer517 Hi Stan, Thanks so much for watching and for your insights. We've been fortunate that our upsides have far exceeded its downsides, but we acknowledge that you and Erin have had your share of challenges, probably beginning in Equador, unfortunately. If you have specific challenges that you can reflect on and avoid going forward, we'd be curious to know what those are. -Judy
@ definitely the upsides far out weigh the downsides. We are both still loving the travel lifestyle. I just run into a lot of people who are interested in full time travel but have obviously not thought carefully about it and don’t understand that for all the benefits, there are also things that you are giving up when you choose to travel full time. We have definitely learned to be flexible and to pivot when necessary. Each challenge just creates a new adventure and a learning opportunity.
We know it’s not for everyone, but we absolutely are having the time of our lives this way. We are so happy to hear that it is working for you, too! Thank you for watching! -Judy
As of right now and looking into the future, I doubt that I will move overseas-it would take something dramatic happening for me to consider moving away from the US. That said, my plan (as you guys are aware) is to lead multiple small group tours each year. The one thing I would like to do, is have a base in Europe that allows me to do the multiple small group tours without having to personally purchase international flights every time I lead a tour. Still working on how this is all going to look.
Hi Rebecca, Yes, those international flights can be a killer on your wallet. That was one of the attractions of living overseas when we first started looking. It's not a coincidence that Europeans are so well traveled. You can drive or take a train and be in one of a handful of different countries in the time it takes just to make it from one end of Texas to the other! We think your enthusiasm is exactly what people want for when they're looking for a tour guide. We hope your businesses boom and your biggest problem is how to juggle it all! Thanks so much for watching! We hope you'll be able to join us on the livestream tonight! -Judy
I’m enticed by full-time travel, but also am still considering emigrating in order to change my tax residency so as not to continue to pay taxes used for military operations that kill civilians, families, children
Lots of people have asked me that question of where I like the best so far. I’m the same way as you … they are ALL amazing! That said, if I have to pin a place down for someone, then I typically will choose a place that I would actually live long term-e.g., Scotland is one of those places.
Good point! And all the places we mentioned in our video here are ones we'd strongly consider. Our biggest issues with Scotland are how cold it gets and that it's fairly expensive. But we love it, too! -Judy
@@GlobetrotterGranny Yes, we LOVE Edinburgh, but we got a rude awakening last year when we tried to spend a month there. Broughty Ferry was lovely, but it was the most we'd ever paid for a month in one place (up until then). Unfortunately, costs have gone up everywhere. -Judy
Hi @rjh2772, Yes. Everyplace is different. Some places have "retirement" visas, but for those you only are allowed to have passive income and can't work anywhere, even remotely. There are a lot of countries that require you to have a lot of money that you bring in each month before they'll extend any sort of residency to you, which also is different from what a long-stay visa is. Lots of rules ;). Thank you so much for watching and for your contribution! -Judy
I would never want to be an expat and live just in one country through the rest of my life because I’d rather travel and see many different countries. I wish I could travel with you guys because you are my tribe. And Judy, can you just narrate my entire life for me because I love listening to you do narration.😂
@bw5911 We thought long and hard about it, and we also realized that when you have the entire world as your oyster, why not experience it all? There may be a time when we won't be able to travel, and maybe then we'll want to settle down at some point, but that time is definitely not now! How are you enjoying Albania so far? We hope you are enjoying it. We would ADORE traveling with you! We probably could learn so much from your wealth of experience. We literally just celebrated our second anniversary of full-time travel! And you are way too kind. You give me the words and I'll do the narration ;) I'm sure you've got quite the adventure for me to record! -Judy
Nomad life is good, especially if you're living in a country that was awesome, but is now circling the drain due to rising costs, political instability, or crime.
@QuinnPrice That is absolutely true. And personally, we don't want to own property somewhere and then not be able to get out easily if we need to or want to. Thanks for watching! -Judy
@rjh2772 It depends on the size of the dogs and where and how you want to travel. It's a bit more work to arrange flights and accommodations and your pets need to be comfortable with traveling, but it's not impossible! -Judy
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Rather than move or travel full-time, I decided to keep a small apartment in the US as my home base but live abroad half of the year. I rent a live/work space that doubles as storage for my online reselling business, and the cost is a tax-deductible business expense. Plus I can keep my US bank accounts and physical address. I can go wherever I want, as often as I want and whenever it works for my schedule. Since I source goods from other countries, my travel expenses are also tax-deductible. It's the best of both worlds!
Be aware: You can't legally take a tax deduction for the cost of living space. You can deduct the cost of storage space, however. If you were to say that the entire live/work space is used for storage, the IRS would balk. (I'm an Enrolled Agent.)
Or you could claim residency in South Dakota, Florida or Texas and not have to rent with the risk of something happening (water leak) while you’re away.
@@m8852 Thanks for your comment. I was aware of that rule when I chose the space. It was inspected and classified as commercial storage by the IRS, but zoned live/work space by the county, and my tax returns for the last 4 years have all been approved without a problem. I think it's very rare to find this kind of space but not impossible.
@@thomasreedy4751 I wish I could but I have 4000 units of physical inventory that I need to store somewhere, and I need to be here part of the year to make money.
I have retired for 5 years, and I have traveled the world extensively. But I don't really understand the benefits of being in places other than the US. We have been in Southeast Asia twice and Europe twice this year, all together about 4 months. We travel slowly, trying to immerse in local community and culture. The longest travel outside the US was a little more than 2 months, and we wanted to come home in the Great Lake region. We stay home in the summer June thought August, when it is most comfortable here, while everywhere else is crowded with tourists, and hot as hell (Rome and Athens was 100 degree for weeks this past summer.) In the winter, we like to be in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia for the warm weather. For us, home, sweet home, can not be replaced by any other places.
@worldtravelor Part of the reason we won't return to the US is that renting cars to drive from place to place is expensive (and if you like taking long road trips, gasoline is also super expensive). When our kids were young we took a lot of road trips, but we always worried a little about crazy drivers, drunk drivers, and drivers with road rage with guns (we lived in Houston for 29 years and that was a common concern). We think learning about other cultures and ways of life has made us more empathetic and opens our minds to other ways of thinking. You probably already have that by traveling extensively, but many people never leave the US or even their state. We agree that being in places that have better weather than where you live or traveling during shoulder seasons to avoid crowds is the better way to travel. We loved our time in San Francisco, but it was a very expensive city to live in. We talk about this more in our video linked below if you're interested. Thanks for watching and for sharing your perspective. -Judy
🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html
I binge watched your videos and a fan of both of you. I admire your decision. My husband and I have traveled /vacationed in many European countries , southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil etc.
We are very close to taking retirement. We really like your idea of slow traveling.
Will be visiting Panama in Jan 2025. I hear that a lot of expats live there . Especially in Boquete as it has year around spring like temp. Going to check it out on our drive from Panama city to Boco del Toro.
Have you been to central American countries? Is your next place Uruguway? What made you to select that country ?
I agreed with everything you said. However, I suggest you revisit your information regarding Italy. My wife and I are both retired and having a great time in southern Italy. We moved there March of 2021. We got elective residency and have been renewing it every year with no difficulties. We purchased a home when we got there and took a year to remodel the place. We use our place as a base and travel when we can mainly in Europe. I know some good lawyers and I can recommend them to you if you wish. We are older than you are and we chose this life style. I suggest you do what you are doing now but in 5-10 years I think you may want to seriously think about Italy ( Southern or northern Italy around piedmont area - housing is much cheaper). Hope this helps.
P.s. we may reach out to you in September of 2025 to pick your brain regarding South Asia. my wife and I planning to visit Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia in December - February .
Good luck and travel safe.
I think my issues with slow travel vs. home base are two fold: 1) I have/want pets and 2) comfort (mainly beds - I'm too old to sleep on bad beds!). Also, my longest vacation was about 7 weeks and I just remember what a total relief it was to get home. I loved the trip, but there was something special about coming home and being comfortable.
Hi @CJ-Photo, We do understand about bad beds, but for the most part, they've been good-and we've stayed in our share of different beds in the last two years! We know some people who travel with their pets, so it can be done so long as they aren't very large. How did you travel on vacation for seven weeks? We typically stay a month in each place (so if we're uncomfortable, it's for a manageable amount of time). Also, we don't live like vacationers where we are on the go all the time. We read books, watch television, play games like if we were home. We find a specific coffee shop and try to hang out at the same place for our entire stay. We do some cooking when we can. We sightsee, but not every single day. We do like to take long walks and while I guess that's considered sight seeing, it doesn't necessarily feel that way because we don't have a destination in mind. We walk until we want to turn back around. We know we could not keep up the same pace traveling full time as we did when we were on vacation. Here's a video where we talk about some of this in the summer of 2023. And we actually do acknowledge that this lifestyle is not for everyone! -Judy
🎥 Slow Travel or No Travel! Why we have to stay longer: th-cam.com/video/LrLGJ-X6I4A/w-d-xo.html
@@FindingGinaMarie I think I'm one of the lucky people from the US that's gets 5 weeks of paid vacation per year (and they let me accrue a little!) and use a pet sitter while I'm away. Most of my "big" trips average 4-5 weeks and I do prefer to stay in the same spot even on shorter trips - I really hate doing the 2 days and each location thing. Good to know about the beds. Guess I've just been unlucky! Just recently had the worst bed ever on an Alaska trip to take photos of the bears...glad I went, but the bed just about killed me. Yeah, I prefer cats so they'd be pretty hard to travel with :)
@@CJ-Photo We had "unlimited paid time off" from the companies that I worked at in San Francisco. However, I had one executive who made a very big deal about taking two full weeks together and was told how rare it was to be able to do that. Another manager told me I could only take time off if I could get someone to cover for me-I was in a role that had no redundancies and she wasn't willing to cover for me-or if I worked while I was on vacation. Those are a few of the reasons I'm now retired! What the heck?! We have not been to Alaska, but everyone says it is amazing. Sorry to hear about the beds in Alaska. What a shame. Thanks for sharing a little more about the way you travel! -Judy
@FindingGinaMarie the new buzz words now are "work life balance" so if you were still in the workforce, it's possible that could be different now. But still - being retired and slow travelling is much better! Thank you for all the work on your videos and sharing your travels with us. (And ps. Alaska is great to visit but if you're going to a very remote place, there aren't a lot of options for comfortable beds!)
@@CJ-Photo I feel like I had more work/life balance during the pandemic than in any other time in my career. Not that I worked fewer hours-I probably worked more. But I could have coffee in the morning with my husband, I could throw in a load of laundry before hopping on a Zoom call, I could take 30 minutes and start dinner at 3pm and then eat together with my husband and son and then be back working afterwards. In the past, I've been at the office until 8pm or even 10pm or later because of some deadline (because when I finally got home, my family resented me hopping back on to work when they hadn't seen me all day). So I'm someone who worked very well remotely, but I think companies didn't like that they couldn't see what their employees were doing all day (despite the work getting done). My job was fine, but as someone in tech, it was astounding to see all the back-to-work edicts from companies who had their employees working just fine remotely.
We aren't generally fans of cold weather, but I think Alaska would be the exception. But good to know about the lack of comfortable beds! That might be the one and only place where we'd do a cruise, but it also doesn't sound like we'd be able to have the experience you did). -Judy
Such a great video! See you later on the livestream! Love the membership options and non-FB community- thank you so much.
Hi Amy and Rich, We are thrilled to have you joining us and for all of your support. Thanks for watching! -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie where is this livestream that was spoken about?
@@tedg4171 Hi Ted, The livestream is for our Gelato Members who help sponsor our channel. We do them monthly. You can read about them at the link below (and we have a video that gives a brief overview as well). For paid members if they miss the live event, they can watch a replay for as long as they have an active membership. We also have a separate, completely FREE hosted community forum (La Famiglia) for anyone who wants to join. -Judy
🍦Find Out More About Our Gelato Membership Insider Perks: findingginamarie.com/join
We don’t know where we want to live until we visit many more places! Working on exploration and we seem to fall in love with many places as we go. After we travel for a few years, we think we will just slowdown more and more over and will end up bouncing around 3 or four places to avoid residency.
Hi @erinaustin9968, we feel the same! Places we never dreamed of or knew anything about now open up to us as places to consider. Those would mostly be for a time when we have mobility issues or other health issues that would prevent us from traveling. And even with dual citizenship, we don't want to deal with the cold that Italy deals with! -Judy
P.S.: Will you be able to join our livestream today?
Something else to consider when applying for dual citizenship, is the military national service rules. I can easily get citizenship in Poland or Czechia, because my parents were born there. But my parents discouraged me from dual citizenship when I was younger, because if I had Czech citizenship, and I was residing in Czechia for at least six months, then I would be forced to join the army for a year or three. I’m not certain about the timeframes anymore, but it’s definitely something to consider. Especially for me, if the Ukrainian war spills into its western neighbours.
My parents point was they travelled as far away from the horrors of WW2 as they could get, to shield their family from war. They wouldn’t be too happy if some of the family went back to the hotspot years later, and got caught up in more trouble.
@danbulowski7013 You raise a good and valid point. There may even be issues for the US if you want to have certain security clearance. It may be frowned upon to have dual citizenship somewhere. But I can appreciate the danger you are sharing. Thanks for bringing it up. Sounds like you have smart and resilient parents. -Judy
Being on the move nonstop is truly addictive. I did van life for three years, sleeping in a different location every night. Now that I’m stationary again I CRAVE movement. Also I traveled nonstop for one year a few years ago for work, sleeping in a different hotel/motel every night and at the end of that year I only wanted more!
Wow, that's impressive. We have been extremely lucky that we've had almost no issues with flight delays and cancellations nearly this entire time we've been traveling. Of course, here in Argentina, we've had two trips canceled, which was a huge bummer. One place we could reschedule and unfortunately the other one we'll have to skip for now. In our hearts, we truly are slow travelers. We like to have some routines and I don't actually like having too much of a schedule. I like to know where I'm going in a few weeks, but we'd probably feel a sense of urgency to see and do everything in each new place. Curious how you managed that. Do you not need any down time? At least when we're somewhere a few weeks, we can take down days. In fairness, we work a lot, so it helps that we have days we can hunker down and days where we can explore at our leisure! -Judy
🎥 Slow Travel or No Travel! Why we have to stay longer: th-cam.com/video/LrLGJ-X6I4A/w-d-xo.html
Hello Judy & Kevin from Broughty Ferry, Dundee (we just got hit with an arctic blast, so we are a bit sick of this UK coldness that you mentioned). Yup, we are still here and getting ready to leave. Heading to Valencia, Spain in mid-december with some friends and spend the holidays with our daughter and then mid January, we head to Mexico City for a month. Mid February, we head to San Miguel de Allende for 2.5 months, for we want to hunker down and not move for a bit - we love it there. Sounds like you are heading in that general direction as well, so perhaps you will be in Mexico. If you guys are coming to San Miguel around that time, we've got a 2nd en suite bedroom for ya. Come spend a week! Christine and I always look forward to your videos each week, especially when it is cold, raining and the sun sets at 3:45p, sigh.
Hi Andrew, Thank you so much for watching and for writing! We really love London and strongly considered the idea of living there before we started traveling full time (and Scotland, but boy is the weather freezing at times). We will send you some warm thoughts to break the chill! Valencia, Spain is one of the cities we are looking forward to visiting (actually there are a lot of cities in Spain we are curious about). We hope you love it. We've not typically had Mexico on our list of countries to visit, primarily because we've been to Cancun. It's not the best representation of Mexico for sure, but we've been mostly interested in exploring new countries. However, we learned that a stopover in Mexico City would be a cheap flight to the US, so we're heading there for the first two weeks in March. I've not investigated how good the public transportation system is there, but if there's a way for us to meet up when we're there and you're there, we would absolutely love to make it happen! -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie We completely understand Judy and agree that Cancun in no way shape or form represents Mexico. Beautiful beaches though. That said, Mexico City has decent public transport from what we see and is very walkable, especially if you are in the Roma Norte / Condesa neighborhood. We are staying on the southern most part of Condesa, right near the park. Take a peek at San Miguel de Allende on google, I think you will be shocked at how beautiful it is there. I believe it is a 4 hour bus ride from Mexico City, so let's see how things are going by that point in time, with either group taking a quick / inexpensive bus to hang for a bit. Until then, enjoy South America and we love London too. Best fries we have ever had were in Portobello Market.
@@andrewkamchi7478 Yes, let's keep in touch. We will be doing quite a bit of fast travel leading up to and including that trip, so let's try not to let this slide off of our respective radar. We've actually been hearing good things about San Miguel de Allende. Our primary reason to head to Mexico City is because it offered a convenient flight into Houston and was easy to arrive from Costa Rica, which is where we'll be coming from beforehand. -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie Nice, we've never been to Costa Rica. I just shared your message with Christine and she said at some point in the not too distant future, and before we are all in Mexico, we should catch up via facetime / whatsapp or something just to introduce ourselves. Funny small world thing... we were just talking about heading to Houston after Mexico to see a chiropractic specialist that we follow there.
@@andrewkamchi7478 Definitely a small world! Reach out to us through our email and we'll work something out! Costa Rica has been a bucket list place since we had small children, but it always was too expensive for our family to get there. It will be a different kind of trip visiting now, but we're looking forward to it! -Judy
We are going for Italian citizenship by descent through my hubby.... we plan on slow travel retirement and wanted another citizenship. We also wanted to spend a lot of time in Italy and the rest of Europe and this seemed like a great idea for a back up plan or if we want to slow down and live there or buy a home. We just started the process and I don't retire for a year. Interesting to hear that it will take you many years. We are hiring an agency that will do everything for us (since his grandfather came through Ellis Island with a minimum of info - the first mention of him is the 1920 Census) but his parents (and THEIR parents) are well documented in Italy, so it seemed wise. Are you using an agency or did you DIY it? Thank you for your content!
Hi @preparingforretirement, I'm not sure how familiar you are with paths for dual citizenship, but I am a 1948 case. It's a little more complicated than some types because I am going through my grandmother (females weren't allowed to pass their citizenship to their children until after 1948, and so people often file lawsuits because women should have always had that right and 1948 was an arbitrary date-this method has had a high degree of success, but it requires you to file a lawsuit in the Italian court where your family member is from).
I am using IDC (Italian Dual Citizenship-also known as Italian Citizenship Assistance). But my family is from New York State and it took me 9+ months due to a backlog of cases for them to send me birth records and other documents from NY. So I started the paperwork in February 2022 and it has taken me until now to get all of what I needed, as well as get apostilles and translations. The translations may take another few weeks and then it all will be able to be filed with the court.
So what I had to pull together took nearly 2 years, 9 months. If your family members aren't from NY, it might be a quicker process, but it is a slow process. It may take another 18 months after the case is filed in Italy to get a judgment, but I'm hearing it can take a similar length of time to get an appointment with a US consulate for regular jus sanguinis.
We were not prepared for the fact that although they "do everything," due to privacy issues, they aren't allowed to do things independently. We've had to receive the documents and then send them to IDC afterwards (and also check on the status of them when they were delayed). The government agencies will only work directly with you, not IDC if you are using them (but I'm assuming that's the case for every third party).
We wish you all the best on your journey and your upcoming retirement. It will be here before you know it! I'll link a few of our episodes that may help you with downsizing and a link to our checklist that should help, too. -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: th-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
I would never want to be an expat and live just in one country through the rest of my life because I’d rather travel and see many different countries. Today is my one week anniversary of living in my new (temporary) country.
So great to hear from you, @bw5911! We hope you are enjoying Albania! Yes, that's one of the things that pushed us over to becoming full-time travelers. In fact, I just uploaded a companion blog post about it. We've traveled two full years as of just a few days ago and we share how we got here. At some point when our health is bad or our mobility becomes challenging, it might make sense. But we want to travel this way for as long as we can! -Judy
🎥 Happy On-The-Road Anniversary to Us: findingginamarie.com/articles/happy-on-the-road-anniversary-to-us?rq=anniversary
JUDY - KEVIN - great video with an unique angle!. The more I read and watch videos on BEING AN EXPAT, the more I think I am better off at my age (68), staying put, travel when I wish and stay close to my sister and her kids. It might have been better for me 10-15 years ago, but then those were the years my precious parents needed me most. God knows what he's doing... KEEP MAKING VIDEOS! Much love to both of you!
@enriquesanchez2001 Seeing your face pop up in our comments always makes me smile! Thank you for always watching! Our intention wasn't necessarily to turn people off of being expats, but we had no idea there was another way when we first thought we might want to live full time in another country. Part of us just wanted to have a different kind of experience and appreciate a different culture and country outside of our own. Basic curiosity. Well, maybe a little more than the average person on this topic! We are glad it didn't work out for us in 2011 because like you our lives would have looked so different. And for us right now, there's no one who really needs us in the way it sounds like your parents did. We are keeping our options open that there may come a time when we need to help out my birth mother or our children end up with children of their own and we decide we want to be nearby. But that time isn't now, and we are so incredibly happy to be living this way! -Judy
@@FindingGinaMarie Awww, thanks for that sweet reaction! You weren't turning me off specifically, by the way. I am being practical. Family is important to me. My sister and her children are my sole support system. Tonight, all the family is going to a special Mass for my cousin who passed suddenly, she was only one year younger than I am. My family is large and I expect a large crowd to attend. In the long run, and in keeping with my own thinking, it would be a selfish decision were I to repatriate myself. You simply enforced my decision to stay put and enjoy what I have than uproot myself into an unknown destiny. Your absolutely congenial outlook always makes me smile, and Kevin's not too shabby himself!
Good points about the positive aspects to full-time travel vs full-time expat. i think another benefit is related to maintaining a link to US banking services and your trusted healthcare providers. Do you rent out your US home when you go on extended trips?
Hi @artbrutnewyork, We actually sold everything we own to travel full time. We have no home base at all. Our son in the US is holding a single box of items for us, but otherwise, we own nothing. And we travel full time, so we only visit the US once per year to see family. Our daughter sometimes meets up with us during our travels and our sons are homebodies (one who lived in a different state from us, so we didn't see him more than once per year anyway). We try to meet up with family and friends once a year, but we also have made many, many friends through our channel and friends who live in various parts of the world that we meet up with. We don't typically use the US healthcare system since there is great coverage when we need it throughout the world. Thanks so much for watching. -Judy
🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html
🎥 How we thought unconventionally to retire early: th-cam.com/video/ttyh4NXrbfs/w-d-xo.html
🎥 Surgery in Serbia: th-cam.com/video/A2ps2BawyGw/w-d-xo.html
🎥 Medical checkups in Thailand: th-cam.com/video/pypr82ddWG8/w-d-xo.html
Hi Judy and Kevin, Thanks for the inspiring videos. Always bringing smile on my face every-time you talk about your experience in travel. You are always welcomed anytime you travel plans is taking you to Vegas. Would be lovely to catch up. enjoy your trip to Uruguay. looking forward to your videos.
Hi @moradw, Thank you so much for watching and for your very kind words. They really matter and help us! Our time in the US is always so short, but my birth mother lives outside of Palm Springs, so it might be a possibility at some point! Thanks for the good energy for Uruguay. We are excited to see what it's about! -Judy
Thank you sharing this video, it’s informative specially for those who are considering nomads for a year or two ❤
So glad to hear this is helpful, @julilopez. And yes, this does not need to be something a person does forever. But it's the adventure of a lifetime, and you won't always know if it's for you unless you try it. It's also significantly easier to try out than becoming an expat somewhere. -Judy
Really, really, really enjoyed this video. Has some really great advice of things to consider!!
Thank you for an interesting and thought provoking video.
Hi @56phil020244: Thank you so much for watching. We have an expanded article tied to our thought process as we debated for ourselves whether to be expats versus full-time travelers. It's linked below if you're interested. We also share in this video below why we don't plan to return to the US permanently. -Judy
🎥 Happy On-The-Road Anniversary to Us: findingginamarie.com/articles/happy-on-the-road-anniversary-to-us?rq=anniversary
🎥 Why We'll Never Live in the US Again: th-cam.com/video/xeTdMPRgkWM/w-d-xo.html
🎥 How we thought unconventionally to retire early: th-cam.com/video/ttyh4NXrbfs/w-d-xo.html
I truly appreciate your videos. They are so enjoyable and informative and you, both, have a wonderful mindset. Thank you ❤
How sweet you are to tell us this, @RoamSweetRoam! It means so much to us to hear. Thank you so much for watching! -Judy
We have learned very quickly that there is no perfect location. There are downsides as well as upsides to everywhere in the world. Full time travel also has its ups and downs. The most important thing is to prioritize what you value. At this time, we value learning new things and experiencing different cultures so we prioritize travel over staying in one place even though there are downsides to that decision.
@reluctantlawyer517 Hi Stan, Thanks so much for watching and for your insights. We've been fortunate that our upsides have far exceeded its downsides, but we acknowledge that you and Erin have had your share of challenges, probably beginning in Equador, unfortunately. If you have specific challenges that you can reflect on and avoid going forward, we'd be curious to know what those are. -Judy
@ definitely the upsides far out weigh the downsides. We are both still loving the travel lifestyle. I just run into a lot of people who are interested in full time travel but have obviously not thought carefully about it and don’t understand that for all the benefits, there are also things that you are giving up when you choose to travel full time. We have definitely learned to be flexible and to pivot when necessary. Each challenge just creates a new adventure and a learning opportunity.
We've been expats and now Nomads, Nomad life is better!
We know it’s not for everyone, but we absolutely are having the time of our lives this way. We are so happy to hear that it is working for you, too! Thank you for watching! -Judy
Great stuff-thanks! ♥️
Thank you so much for watching, @johnmclean6380 and for letting us know you enjoyed it. We appreciate it! -Judy
SUCH a great video!
Thank you so much for watching, @jeremynkelley, and for your note. We can't tell you how much we appreciate hearing you enjoyed it! -Judy
As of right now and looking into the future, I doubt that I will move overseas-it would take something dramatic happening for me to consider moving away from the US. That said, my plan (as you guys are aware) is to lead multiple small group tours each year. The one thing I would like to do, is have a base in Europe that allows me to do the multiple small group tours without having to personally purchase international flights every time I lead a tour. Still working on how this is all going to look.
Hi Rebecca, Yes, those international flights can be a killer on your wallet. That was one of the attractions of living overseas when we first started looking. It's not a coincidence that Europeans are so well traveled. You can drive or take a train and be in one of a handful of different countries in the time it takes just to make it from one end of Texas to the other! We think your enthusiasm is exactly what people want for when they're looking for a tour guide. We hope your businesses boom and your biggest problem is how to juggle it all! Thanks so much for watching! We hope you'll be able to join us on the livestream tonight! -Judy
@ I’m at my cabin this weekend and my connection can be a bit spotty, but I do plan to join you this evening! 😁
@@GlobetrotterGranny Awesome news! We look forward to seeing you! -Judy
I’m enticed by full-time travel, but also am still considering emigrating in order to change my tax residency so as not to continue to pay taxes used for military operations that kill civilians, families, children
Lots of people have asked me that question of where I like the best so far. I’m the same way as you … they are ALL amazing! That said, if I have to pin a place down for someone, then I typically will choose a place that I would actually live long term-e.g., Scotland is one of those places.
Good point! And all the places we mentioned in our video here are ones we'd strongly consider. Our biggest issues with Scotland are how cold it gets and that it's fairly expensive. But we love it, too! -Judy
@ very good point about how expensive Scotland can be.
@@GlobetrotterGranny Yes, we LOVE Edinburgh, but we got a rude awakening last year when we tried to spend a month there. Broughty Ferry was lovely, but it was the most we'd ever paid for a month in one place (up until then). Unfortunately, costs have gone up everywhere. -Judy
France on an extended stay visa for retirement one cannot work in France but you can earn income remotely as long as you don't do business in France
Hi @rjh2772, Yes. Everyplace is different. Some places have "retirement" visas, but for those you only are allowed to have passive income and can't work anywhere, even remotely. There are a lot of countries that require you to have a lot of money that you bring in each month before they'll extend any sort of residency to you, which also is different from what a long-stay visa is. Lots of rules ;). Thank you so much for watching and for your contribution! -Judy
I would never want to be an expat and live just in one country through the rest of my life because I’d rather travel and see many different countries. I wish I could travel with you guys because you are my tribe. And Judy, can you just narrate my entire life for me because I love listening to you do narration.😂
@bw5911 We thought long and hard about it, and we also realized that when you have the entire world as your oyster, why not experience it all? There may be a time when we won't be able to travel, and maybe then we'll want to settle down at some point, but that time is definitely not now! How are you enjoying Albania so far? We hope you are enjoying it.
We would ADORE traveling with you! We probably could learn so much from your wealth of experience. We literally just celebrated our second anniversary of full-time travel! And you are way too kind. You give me the words and I'll do the narration ;) I'm sure you've got quite the adventure for me to record! -Judy
Nomad life is good, especially if you're living in a country that was awesome, but is now circling the drain due to rising costs, political instability, or crime.
@QuinnPrice That is absolutely true. And personally, we don't want to own property somewhere and then not be able to get out easily if we need to or want to. Thanks for watching! -Judy
we have to dogs how much fun is that
@rjh2772 It depends on the size of the dogs and where and how you want to travel. It's a bit more work to arrange flights and accommodations and your pets need to be comfortable with traveling, but it's not impossible! -Judy