It's definitely been a busy end of 2019. We took our first big step towards FIRE (financial independence retire early) / becoming nomads / moving to Spain. We listed our house in mid-December to sell, and (if all goes well) it "sold" day 1 / showing 1. Things should be finalized soon, and we should be moved out to a temporary apt in the next few weeks or less.
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| Moving / Gearing up for Spain |
On the one hand it is definitely sad to leave our very unique home behind ... we designed the home with an amazing architect - Brett Zamore Design (and great builder / family owned business - Mealer Homes) ... and our kids spent most or some of their early childhood in this home (starting age 3 and 1 ... up to age almost 9 and 7)... But on the other hand, we only planned to stay here about 5 years and eventually move to a better climate / place with seasons like CO (and CO turned into Spain more recently).
So it is on to new beginnings and new adventures ...
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| Throw back photo of the kids on our front porch (I believe their first Thanksgiving at the house). |
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| Our last Thanksgiving at the house (2019). |
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| Our last Thanksgiving at the house (2019). |
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| Backyard with Brooklyn. |
So is it possible to achieve FI (financial independence) in 5 years or less?
As we mentioned in our first post, it took us about 2 years (2013 - 2015) to pay off debt and trim down our expenses / budget. Starting in February 2015 we started investing and saving for FIRE. Here we are a little less than 5 years later, and we hit our FIRE number. And now we continue our plan to move to Spain.
So what's next?
Our next big step will be preparing for the Non-lucrative Visas (which selling our home was a part of that). This will be a big (and detailed) undertaking that I will try to share through our blog.
Some of our "smaller" steps have involved deciding what we need for Spain. We tried to cut back on "things" for Christmas, but some of the things we and the kids received related to our travels.
All four of us received LARQ bottles that were researched by Erik. (Even the kids were very excited about their LARQ bottles!). Water purifying bottle with great design I might add ...!
The kids also received their Tortuga bags (equally excited about those ... and we've talked about our Tortuga bags before), and I got them some Atlético de Madrid futbol jerseys and key chains for their bags. I definitely think Erik won the gift ideas between us though because he got the kids personalized travel journals and old school compasses.
He found all four of us travel towels by Matador (you can see them hooked right on the bigger Tortuga bags), and even our neighbor got in the spirit of our big move (despite not wanting us to go) ... she got the kids Frozen characters for their bags (they will probably add more - like a monkey from my parents!), and she also got us and the kids books related to Spain.
These are just a few gifts / purchases related to our upcoming travels. We will definitely provide more details and share more soon. What is your favorite travel gear (we plan to pack as easy and light as possible!)?
So that is a very brief summary of the happenings around here. We are excited to share our journey to taking flight to Spain in 2020.
What plans do you have in 2020? How do your finances fit into those plans in 2020? Or travel? Will you take flight with us?
-Tara
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