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My brother and his wife did this; quit their jobs and spent a year in Europe "slow living" (still did a bit of consulting work, maybe 10 hours/week), but with c
by insane_dreamer 2y ago
My brother and his wife did this; quit their jobs and spent a year in Europe "slow living" (still did a bit of consulting work, maybe 10 hours/week), but with careful planning were able to keep their expenses waaay down (not sure of exact figure but much less than if living in the US). Month-long AirBNBs in non-tourist areas are inexpensive, so they'd spend 1 month in each place. A lot of walking, hiking, trains, just living. Not Paris, London or Zurich of course, but places like Albania, Montenegro, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, France of course. (Part of the reason for going to those countries is you can only spend so long in the Schengen Zone.) So you don't have to go as far as Vietnam or Ecuador to do this.
Obviously the OP has no children (and my brothers' kids are grown up) - if you have kids this changes the equation completely (though if they're very young then it can still work).
- unsupp0rted 2y agoWhereas in late-2024, go to Turkey if you’d like to blow through your savings faster than in Western Europe.
- switch007 2y agoRight. Beautiful country and amazing people but even when I was there in 2022 people were really angry about inflation and now it seems even more dire looking at the exchange rate
- insane_dreamer 2y agothey did it in 2023 but obviously yeah, it'll depend on the situation at the time and also where you go in a country Same with the Adriatic. If you decide to stay in Dubrovnik or Split, for example, it'll be quite expensive, but there are other places to stay in Croatia that are non-touristy and inexpensive.
- Loughla 2y agoI have a cousin and his wife who did this with kids. They sold everything, bought an RV, and traveled north and Central America. They were homeschooling during that time. Their kids were 5 and 7. It was not good. I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea this is unless your children are under 3. Children need structure and permanency. They need friends, not just acquaintances. My cousin did everything else right, but his kids still have issues with relationships because 5 of their very formative years were spent without actual friends. It's really sad to think about. For him, it was a wildly selfish move that negatively impacted his children. Don't be that guy.
- samvher 2y agoWhat does issues with relationships mean in this context? Also, it sounds like they were traveling for 5 years? Yeah, that does sound like a very long time - I imagine if it had been 1 year or so it might have been a very different story (?)
- rikafurude21 2y agoI dont really see the issue here? Obviously the parents are the stable anchor in that situation, and the kids probably had a great time traveling and exploring the world with their parents. I would honestly prefer that compared to the usual childhood experience you get nowadays, which is sitting around watching youtube brainrot right after being subjected to public school brainrot for 8 hours.
- geraldwhen 2y agoKids need structure and permanency. This is child abuse, and I know people who have done it. Their kids are a mess, and it breaks my heart.
- galangalalgol 2y agoHumans have been nomads for most of our existence. I think if the traveling group had been larger so that there were consistent friendships of various ages that it might have gone differently. Carnival workers are a modern example in NA, they have traveling homeschools as they go to each ren-fair or whatever. So there are permanent friends, but the structure is pretty lacking.
- SoftTalker 2y agoYes I know a woman who grew up this way, moving every couple of years, nothing ever permanent. As an adult, she has lived a life of self-sabotage, quitting jobs, moving and starting over, in and out of relationships with self-destructive men, never saving any money, never really planning for the future.
- 2y ago
- szundi 2y agoAlso some eastern countries have deadly diseases even these days, malaria, etc.
- ajuc 2y agoMalaria is about the north-south axis, not the east-west one.
- trinix912 2y agoThere's no Malaria or other tropical deadly diseases in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
- chgs 2y agoThere is some evidence Malaria is increasingly coming back to some places in southern Europe and the US despite being eradicated decades ago https://www.wired.com/story/a-rare-domestic-resurgence-of-malaria-is-circulating-in-the-us/ https://www.wired.com/story/a-rare-domestic-resurgence-of-ma...
- oblio 2y agoStill, if OP was warning an American to not go to Eastern Europe because of malaria, if it's both places, anyway, their point is moot.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoMalaria is mostly West Africa. be careful about what you eat and drink but it’s not like you catch these diseases just from walking around.
- filleduchaos 2y agoMalaria has absolutely nothing to do with food or drink.
- chgs 2y agoWhat visa did they use?
- CalRobert 2y agoGiven that op talks about not staying in the Schengen zone too long, I assume they just used tourist visas. When I lived in Ireland I occasionally met people who would bounce between Ireland/UK and Schengen to reset their visa clocks (people from US, Canada, etc. can spend 3 months at a time, or 6 months a year, in Schengen, though eventually you might start getting tougher questions).
- insane_dreamer 2y agoYou can spend 6 months out of the year (and 90 consecutive days) in the Schengen on an US passport without any special visa, and these other countries usually let you stay as a tourist for 30 days without a visa, some 3 months. Also Portugal has the Digital Nomad visa for 1 year renewable. That requires employment in the US (or elsewhere outside the EU) so not the same as what my brother was doing but a good option as the min wage requirements are not high; could get by with what would be part time work on a US salary esp in tech.
- chgs 2y agoYou can visit for tourist or business reasons, not working. I suspect that many of the housing problems in places like Lisbon’s old be solved if visas were enforced.