Old 05-13-19, 09:08 PM
  #11  
andrewclaus
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Golden, CO and Tucson, AZ
Posts: 2,822

Bikes: 2016 Fuji Tread, 1983 Trek 520

Mentioned: 13 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 669 Post(s)
Liked 725 Times in 422 Posts
I spent my career crafting the type of lifestyle that allowed extensive travel. As mentioned above, no kids. My wife and I steered our professional careers away from stressful management positions. We kept to low-level design work that was easy to leave without pay for long periods, up to six months every couple of years in our case.

Most important, our first decade together we made a concerted effort to pay off our mortgage early. It was a lot of hard work back then, but we were out of debt by our early 30s. Then we really started saving. By age 40 we were financially independent. That's when those six month trips started.

Look up Mr Money Mustache's blog for ways to achieve financial independence. The author is an avid cyclist, too.

I attribute my early retirement directly to a bicycle lifestyle. When you commute by bike, it's easy to keep work in perspective. You don't bring work home, figuratively or literally. And you tend to not buy much of anything larger than you can carry on the bike, so you're less encumbered by possessions. It's easy to move to take advantage of opportunities. It's easy to travel. You're in great health and you're happy. You do stuff with other healthy, happy people.

My best cycle touring partners I've found while cycle touring. Many long friendships began on the road. Not only that, I married one.
andrewclaus is offline  
Likes For andrewclaus: