More questions than answers
part 3 of a never-ending series
The next question in the planning process was – Can we monetize the traveling retirement concept at all to help subsidize our senior nomad travels and maybe not skate into SS completely broke ? She’s good with tech and I’ve got a big personality so perhaps we could establish ourselves as a ‘hints and tips’ resource for people who want to do a nomadic retirement or maybe just take a really extended vacation.
For cost of living and convenience reasons we are looking at cheapest countries to live in and more specifically Montenegro and Croatia. One appealing option was the idea that we could do 90 days in one then take a bus to the other and do 90 days there. Studio and one bedroom apartments were plentiful in the $500 to $600 per month range. But then I looked into visa requirements and restrictions and it turns out the EU doesn’t want us to stay long-term. 90 days out of 180 days is a limit for the whole zone. So we could do 90 days in the UK then go to Croatia then go back to the UK for 90 days and then go to Montenegro ? Oh, no, 90 days of the previous 180 means leaving the EU for 180 days in order to go back in for another 90. Dammit. (Updated – 90 out of 180 means 90 days in then 90 days out. Not sure what I was thinking there. Also, Montenegro is NOT part of Schengen – yet – but it’s also really tiny so 90 days might be too much)
We’ll also need to schedule occasional trips back the US to visit family. Is that annual ?
I was really struggling with how could my prescriptions be handled and she suggested that perhaps they could be shipped to the US Embassy wherever we were living. That might could work because we certainly aren’t liable to move anywhere that doesn’t have a consulate at least (Update – Apparently non-narcotic prescription drugs are much more readily available pretty much anywhere outside north America. Whodathunkit?)
My sleep apnea therapy is another healthcare consideration; the CPAP machine I have is pretty bulky but I know there are smaller, more portable options available – that’s another expense to account for
What about housesitting and/or petsitting gigs? That would mean being tethered to a community but for short periods it would be okay; if the only responsibility is to feed and walk Fido twice a day there would be a lot of time to do extensive exploration of the very local area and those sort of jobs are generally going to be a week or at most a month at a time
Speaking of petsitting, another challenge is what to do with our 2 cats? We love them and they are an important part of our home life. Seeaytee was a rescue from the animal shelter and when we first got her it took 3 days before she came out from under the bed. She’s around 10 years old now so another rehoming would be pretty traumatic after 7 years with us. Anathema was a barn kitten we turned into an indoor cuddler. Well, not really that cuddly, there is a reason I sometimes call her razor floof. Can we rehome them ? Probably not practical to have them travel with us because of the various quarantine requirements, not to mention the logistical nightmare of managing food and litter box issues. It would limit our access to rentals as well as making spontaneous changes in plans problematic.