A year ago, when we made a joint decision that travelling the world together was what we wanted to do more than anything, we realised that we’d have to make some big changes in our life. There was no ‘having our cake and eating it too’ – keeping our fabulous life, apartment, job and hobbies here in Perth as well as travelling – it would have to be one or the other.
We had managed to go on our previous travels by saving up our annual leave to use all in one go – as we are only entitled to four weeks a year, that meant working over 18 months straight to accrue the six or so weeks that we wanted to take. When all you want to do is explore new places and experience new things – that’s a long time to wait!
As I work in the corporate industry, the option to take additional time off – whether paid or unpaid – is not an option – there’s no one to do my job whilst I’m not there. Not only that, but with the rising cost of living – traveling more than once every 18 months was not exactly affordable either, at least not without scrimping and saving every single penny.
So, what were our options?
Fortunately, Mike works a completely different schedule to myself. He works a FIFO role – a job role that over 63 000 West Australians hold, and on a very generous roster. We worked out that it would be cheaper for us financially as a couple to give up our Perth life and expenses – that is rent, vehicle costs and insurances, utilities – and to be based overseas full-time. We’ve estimated the costs of being away for both of us to be comparative to the amount that just ONE of us spends on the above mentioned living costs. Therefore, it made both financial and logical sense that I would be the one to give up the restrictive, full-time job – and to be supported by Mike’s FIFO wage.
We’ve been able to go from having to wait a year and a half between our travels, saving every last spare cent – to investigating the real cost of long term travel, make changes to our lifestyle and settle for ‘less’ financially, but gain so much more – the opportunity to spend all of Mike’s time off travelling together.
Yes, we are in a very unique position – but as mentioned above, there are so many others with a similar lifestyle – more time off than the average worker and more disposable income. If living overseas full-time costs the same as living here in Perth, WA – why aren’t there more doing it? Perhaps the whole thing seems too far-fetched, a pipe dream. Maybe it is, but we are determined to give it a red hot go, and to do so in a way that not only inspires others but is also easily imitable.
There’s definitely been a lot of work in the lead up to taking off on this adventure – leaving your whole life behind is not easy! We are in the final few weeks of finalising everything, and will share the process with you next time!
