Hello Steemers!
Newbie here with my first Steem post. I believe the best way to start is with a brief background on myself and why I think I have something to share on this platform.
You see, my wife and were completely burned out at our respective jobs a couple of years ago and we made some pretty big decisions that changed our lives forever. Since its my first post I’ll just break it down for you…
We both quit our jobs.
We moved to Guatemala for 6 months to de-stress and get our heads on straight.
We then moved to the Appalachian mountains of Virginia.
Lived in a barn for a year while building our home.
We are now working to create a better life for ourselves with homesteading techniques.
All while still trying to indulge our love for travel and adventure while not going broke as young retirees. (OK young is relative).
I’m afraid I’m going to be a terrible Steemian because I have no idea what people want to hear from me. So I’m going to just say what I think is important… My wife and I had great jobs making very good money. We should have been much happier than we were, but work was incredibly stressful and demanding of our time and brain waves. We were basically working for our vacations as well as to have nice things that we didn’t have time to enjoy. Things had to change. I wish I could tell you it was an easy decision and we just said to hell with it and quit to start the life we always wanted. However, the need for security and fear of not having money was staggering. We planned our exit for around 8 years before it came to fruition. I envy folks who have been able to drop everything and go straight to the life they’ve always wanted, but that just wasn’t us. We really liked our paychecks and security. It took years for the call of the world to finally be so loud we couldn’t turn it down. Finally the stars aligned and we jumped at the chance to start a new life.
In my following posts I’ll go more into our past lives, jobs, how we got to this point, and etc but for this one I want to focus on our first steps after freedom.
Our first order of business was to get our finances in order. Not that they were out of order, but we were not at a point where we could just quit collecting a paycheck and go off galavanting all over the world. We had a home that needed to be sold and we needed top dollar for it. We also needed to meet with financial planners to determine several factors:
How much money could we spend. Not just now, but each month and each year until we die or start collecting social security (assuming they’ll still be such a thing).
How should we invest our life savings to ensure we can safely make interest to live on without losing it all.
How do we protect ourselves and our life savings. (Insurance, Will, Trust, etc)
Luckily we were able to sell our home with a Facebook ad for $18 without a real estate agent. They even requested everything in our home; the furniture, pictures, knick knacks, everything! To us, it was a sign that everything was meant to be and was going our way. We spent about about 5 months squaring all of these things away (home sale and various finances) before boarding a plane to Guatemala.
Man, this has been fun to think back thru and share with you. I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much. Next time I’ll start with Why Guatemala and share that experience with you. Spoiler alert, we loved every minute of it.
You have a new follower!
Loved your story, and that photo of that terrace by the lake just took my breath away. I'm assuming this is some lake in Guatemala.
Thanks! Yes, that's Lake Atitlan. One of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It has 4 volcanoes around the shoreline. Check this out for more.. https://steemit.com/travel/@qberry/lake-atitlan-guatemala-one-of-the-best-places-on-earth
Welcome! I very much enjoyed your intro story and am looking forward to reading the rest of the installments! :)
p.s. You’re basically next door to us!
Thank you so much. WV is indeed very close to us. We are near Floyd, VA. I love it here!
Wow, what an inspiational post! I’ll definately follow your journey. Hopefully I’ll manage to follow suit one day, still at the point where it’s all very daunting. 😁
@lil-mich
Thank you. It was definitely worth it. Life is so much better when enjoyed fully no matter the cost.
I'm enjoying reading about your experiences! Definitely following for more inspiration and tips to keep in mind!
Thank you very much for the kind words.
Welcome to steemit!!! That is awesome that you two were able to do such an amazing thing! I hope things work out well for you two! Cheers
Thanks, I appreciate it. So far it's great!
Welcome to steemit fellow homesteader! Your journey is inspiring. ^_^
Thanks for the kind words.
Welcome!!! I can't wait to read more about your journey. Also, welcome to the Homesteaders Online community!
Thank you! Homesteaders Online has already been very kind to us.
So happy for you guys! It might have taken you 8 years to be prepared, but now you can go forward with certainty! Everyone's adventure is so unique. I'm excited to hear more! Resteemed!
Thank you very much for the kind words and resteem! Indeed, I love to follow unique journeys as well.
Welcome to Steemit , very interesting journey you are on !
Thank you very much. If we are anything, I think interesting is it :)
I think blogging about what you are talking about in this very post is the way to go. People love hearing about people who do "talk" about leaving it all and striking out on their own but people especially love to see those who actually do it. :)
Congrats and look forward to hearing more from you @qberry as I'm Following now :)
Thank you very much. We appreciate it. I hope you're right. It's amazing how much fun it is reliving it as we write about it!
Welcome to the steemit rabbit hole. Sounds like you have plenty to share that people will be interested in. I'm new here myself and have found it a little overwhelming. There is so much great content when you fall into the right feeds.
Totally get that place of being done with your soul sucking career. I just made the same decision myself and felt like a thousand pound weight had been lifted.
Really excited to hear about Guatemala. Will follow so I can be sure not to miss.
Thanks for the encouragement. I am finding good feeds, but I was worried at first. There is a lot to sift thru. Glad to see you like rocks too.
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Awesome! Thank you very much. That's exciting!
Welcome - fellow newby here - I'm in NZ and also living the homesteading life :) I enjoyed ready your post! I will follow you
Hi. Welcome yourself. You may be a newbie but you seem to have it figured out pretty well. Your first posts did great. Hopefully I can figure out how to get my steem up :) I love New Zealand, my wife and I are planning to spend 3 weeks there driving around in a camper van next year.
Thanks I'm trying - it's all about the networking I feel and of course up voting the posts you like etc.... Awesome!!! I have space to park a camper if you want to visit :)
Careful, I'll remember that!
A genuine offer!! :D
Welcome and congratulations on the big shift in your lifestyle. I think it would be great to hear more people’s descriptions of how they make such a transition. I also think it would be great to hear a variety of examples of this. In your case it’s a classic example, and very inspiring, but I’m also interested in more subtle shifts that no less require faith in things working out. I consider myself extremely lucky that I ended up as a full-time college teacher (and that my wife is a high school counselor). I never would have lasted in a traditional 40, 60, 80-hour per week job. I tired that. Our jobs allow us a certain balance that I have come to think is impossible for a lot of people. Some people are cut out for high volume jobs, but probably a lot more are not. But that said, it still takes a lot of creativity and knowledge to love a rich life on a modest income. I like to post things here along those lines, because at the ripe old age of 48 :) I do think I’ve figured out some things that others might find helpful. So bring it on! Following.
Thanks for your comments and follow. It's very helpful to know people are interested in what I'm going through.
Welcome to Steemit! The homesteading community on here is a really great one. I am sure that you will find a lot of people with stories like your own. My wife and I both quit our jobs as well. Now we are in the Missouri Ozarks on a homestead. Never know what life will bring you!
Thank you. I can tell already it's a great community. It seems like a lot of other homesteaders are also interested in traveling like us.
Wow, what a scared thing to do! But seems like it is working out well, so good luck! I look forward to more posts from you, and hey, earning Steem is a great way to pad out that bank account!
Welcome to steemit
Thank you. It was a bit scary until we made the decision, then no looking back. I'm hoping you right and steemit starts building!
welcome on steemit.nice to know about you after reading your post
Thank you very much. That's very kind of you.
Welcome to steemit. I think you'll find a great community of homesteading types here that have a similar story and can relate (well maybe not the Guatamala part). We almost chose Uruguay but ended up in New Brunswick, Canada :) I look forward to your next post.
Thank you so much. New Brunswick is beautiful!
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