Billy and Akaisha retired at age 38 in 1991—long before Skype, email, and online bill pay!—and have been traveling the world for the past 25 years. They typically set up housekeeping in a foreign location for a while and then hit the road again for more exploring. Sometimes they house sit, or rent apartments or live out of an apart/hotel for months at a time. Over the years they have survived financial crashes, bear markets, and the Great Recession, and actually have more money today than they did when they first retired.

Most Memorable Location-Independent Experiences
We would have to say the whole lifestyle of personal freedom. To come and go as one pleases—within the parameters of visa requirements, of course. To not be limited to a two-week vacation in any one place, to learn languages, cooking skills, see hill tribe people from around the world. We have become global ambassadors.

Biggest Surprise along the Way
When we first started out traveling the world, there was no internet, no Skype, no Facebook, no internet transfers of money, no email to keep in touch with family, no iphones, no ipads, no netbooks, no Kindle books. Nowadays internet and WiFi is available in some of the most remote of locations, making it easy to conduct business and to keep in contact with family and friends. It’s easy to transfer money to accounts to pay bills, to receive local currency from ATMs, to read Kindles instead of carrying heavy books around. Life on the road is far easier now.

Also, how kind and friendly people around the world are.