Affordable Nomadic Retirement: Our Unexpected Adventure – Part 1

Why Nomadic Retirement?

Our original plan? A tropical paradise retirement in Panama. But the more we talked about it, and the more that Sandra bought into the idea, the more I realized that buying a beach house and living out the rest of our retirement days in a tropical country might not be a satisfying plan. Health concerns, political anxieties, and a growing wanderlust pushed us to rethink everything.

Redefining Retirement Goals 

So we started by defining our true retirement goals. What truly sparked joy? (I’ve been reminded through this process it’s also important to recognize that your understanding of what your goal actually is may change as you attempt to define it more clearly. )

We had initially made a decision that we would retire at age 67. We had planned on settling in Panama unless a visit there changed our minds and so we had tentatively formed a plan to spend a couple weeks there in May. A friend of mine was retired to Coronado so we at least had a shot at some inside scoop on how the process should go. We also decided that we would rent first before committing to a purchase so that we could be WAY more familiar with the country.

Downsizing and Preparing for an Affordable Retirement

Step one was going to be downsizing from our current property. We have 5 acres with a 1,680 sf 3 BR house, a 1,000 sf ‘shop/storage’ space that was the original house on the property, plus two 40′ Conex containers we used as storage and workshop space. I’ve been collecting tools and shop equipment for decades as an auto mechanic and woodworker plus we have so much art; paintings, prints, dimensional pieces, glass, the mind fairly boggles at the scope.

The original plan starts with selling off most of our stuff, sell the house and use the proceeds to buy a motorhome or 5^th wheel and a small piece of land. Then we could continue to work but be debt free and stacking money away while we prepared to retire. Oct 2022 we were laying out the timeline for early summer 2023 to sell the house, still with an eye towards working until 67.

Between personal property, project cars and equity in the house we’d be starting with a decent chunk of cash. We figured on spending maybe as much as $100k to set up a small acreage with an RV and use the rest to buy a rental property somewhere cheap to start developing a passive income. With no mortgage or debt we’d be able to live on maybe around $2,500 per month so anything we earned over that would go towards more rental properties

Adapting Retirement Plans Based on New Information

But then a couple of things happened in November 2022 that caused us to start having a much more serious discussion about what retirement looks like for us. First thing was that I went in for a routine follow up at the end of October (I have had some issues with my heart and actually have an ICD to improve my odds in case of a 3^rd heart attack) and they started me on a blood pressure medication. When I went back 3 weeks later to see how that was working out my BP was 228/122 so they sent me to the ER. I had been monitoring it at home for a couple of weeks and 202/103 wasn’t an unusual reading, the systolic number was seldom below 180. This was explained to me as being bad and wrong and liable to result in a stroke so I wound up being admitted to the hospital for hypertension. Change to the medications and more monitoring but ya know, stress is a thing.

This was my third admission to the hospital because “this is the kind of thing people die from” situation, so it got me thinking very seriously about retirement sooner rather than later. Like, I have always wanted to travel more and I’m apparently running out of time to get that handled.

Around this same time, 45 announced he was going to try and become 47 and we were both uncomfortable with what we imagined the campaign was going to be like having already dealt with 2 years of “I didn’t actually lose; the Dems cheated”. I follow politics casually but it’s enough to cause significant stress because I can’t even believe we’ve gotten to this point in our country. Even if 45 isn’t a contender it looks like Desantis would be the GOP nominee and that’s hardly an improvement.

The Plot Twist: Affordable Nomadic Adventures

That’s when we stumbled upon the idea of affordable nomadic retirement. I had been reading up on various cheapest places to live aka affordable retirement destinations with an eye towards where in the world a couple could live on our anticipated Social Security of about $3,000 a month. During the process we learned more about SS benefits, and that by being strategic about our destinations and living arrangements, we realized we could explore the world while staying within our budget.

Or as our family would say “You’re doing what??!?”