After years of dreaming, planning, and preparing, Betsy and Warren Talbot sold their home, packed a couple of bags, and left the U.S. on a one-way ticket with the intention of traveling the world.
Little did they know that their travel dream would become an indefinite adventure, with a sustainable location-independent income, and a lifestyle full of more freedom and better health than they could have ever imagined.
Since hitting the road in 2010, they have picnicked in Provence, fallen in love all over again in romantic Florence, snuck away from the crowds to write and recharge at a 300-year-old farmhouse in Portugal, learned Spanish in Mexico, and recently bought a house in a small countryside town in the Andalucia region of Spain.
Betsy says, “We were planning to retire at 50 or 60 and see the world. But then we realized there are no guarantees. We saw all these people around us having health problems and we asked ‘what would we want to do with our lives if we weren’t going to live till 40?'”
So they decided they would leave the U.S. behind to travel for five years.
“We were able to make the saving process into part of the adventure. Warren got really good at selling things on Craigslist. When you see that money come in—$25, $100, $500—you’re thinking how it represents travel.”
Betsy and Warren budgeted $100 a day for their full-time travel adventure. That’s $36,500 a year, around $3,040 a month. But travel—especially in place like Asia and South America turned out to be even cheaper meaning they spent $15,000—just $1,250 a month.
Their first exploit was six months wandering around the Andes, which is how they discovered a passion for hiking and also how they lost a combined 85 pounds.
After that, the adventures continued. For Betsy, some of the highlights included an eight-day hike along the West Highland Way in Scotland, a 335-mile trek across Turkey, and a two-week tour of Antarctica. For Warren, their overland trip across Asia, sailing across the Atlantic, and the unexpected time spent in Europe all stood out.
He says, “The world just keeps getting bigger for us as we realize there are places we never even considered before. Now, we travel in a deeper way than we thought we would.”
“I think you’re truly rich when you can do what you want to with your time,” Betsy says, “Being able to wake up when I want to, set my own projects, and do and see what I want—that’s an incredible gift.”