From the chapter: The 21-Month Plan |
My husband and I are not trust-fund babies or self-made millionaires, but like many people, we dreamed of living abroad. In August 2001, after much discussion, research, and planning (which included John’s ceiling to baseboard flowchart of To-Dos), we boarded a plane departing from Houston, Texas, en route to Rome, Italy. Checking only the allowable two bags each — one of which contained a bicycle — we began what we referred to as the “21-Month Plan.”
This unconventional adventure was not funded by a corporate overseas assignment, an inheritance or winning lottery ticket, but in lots of little money-saving ways, such as brown-bagged lunches and bypassed caffé mochas.
When I first met my husband-to-be in 1998, I overheard him musing about quitting his job and living in a box on a beach in Mexico. I was immediately skeptical but secretly intrigued. Fast forward two years and there we were, enjoying our honeymoon in Guadalajara. No, we didn’t stay in a box; he actually sprang for a hotel suite. However, before we got married, we did discuss the “box on the beach” idea — endlessly.
The “box” was upgraded to a more stable dwelling, and European countries were added to our pool of choices. We had enough money saved to bum around for a while. But then what? John was 42 and I was 37 when we started planning this adventure. We were too old to throw caution to the wind and too young to retire. We wanted to live somewhere and not feel like tourists in city after city. I wanted to know my neighbors and understand what their lives were like. We needed a plan that would not only allow us to experience another culture, but also prepare us for future earnings.
For months as we were trying to decide if we should take the risk of quitting our jobs and moving to Europe, several thoughts kept going through my mind: Two years are going to go by anyway. How are we going to feel in two years if we don’t take the chance? What about in 20 years? Will we always have nagging feelings of “What if…?”
Happily, we will never have to ask ourselves these questions. Our son, however, born after this adventure, may someday ask us what happened to his inheritance.