The end of a year off work
December 26, 2020
The year-off work is almost over and I’m finding it hard to believe that it’s only been one year since we packed up and left Boston. It feels like five years. It would be easy to say that this year wasn’t as expected and the timing was off. I mean what sheer bad luck it was to finish work on 31st Dec 2019, with plans to travel for a year, only to witness and experience something no-one could ever have imagined.
However, nearing the end of this year I had a milestone Birthday and it was the gift from my wife (a photo book of the year) which really brought home that even though we could not spend a month in the Champagne region, go bear-spotting in Canada and end the year on a central American beach, we did in fact experience a lot at home and in Europe.
Freedom
Before appearing to be a little self-absorbed in sharing the highlights of the year, I wanted to reflect on what it’s been like out of the corporate rat race.
Someone said it would take 3 months to truly clear my head; let the swirl of actions, objectives and deadlines clear. It was not until we reached Italy, 6 months on when that was true for me. This was partly because the first 6 months were consumed with doing all those home and admin jobs that seemed so unimportant when busy working. But mainly I have found that there are layers of the “de-tune”, where the first emotion was relief, then confusion as to what I was going to achieve. Surprisingly I next felt guilt as others were still going to work, and finally excitement about the possibilities of the future. I’m taking the excitement as a positive mental state and the closure of the de-tune. A bit like an Olympic rower working down his fitness, only in this case it’s all mental.
We now have as much time for leisure as we like, which is a blessing but also a potential curse. A neighbour who is about to retire asked, “how do you stop yourself going stir crazy?” It’s a personal question for each of us. But it’s becoming clear to me that you have to think differently about what a working life is versus a life in retirement. Does it need to be so black and white?
We 
are exploring ways to live a more portfolio lifestyle. An approach that allows us to be in any location, travel and explore but maintain our capital. In essence earn smaller amounts from various channels. Let’s see what happens, but we have already cut out mortgage payments (rent is covering these), travel to work, food/coffee at work, stress related drinking sessions, high cost holiday periods etc… so the net income needed is much lower and much more tax efficient. I have also outperformed my UK pension fund this year self-investing (something I’ve never had time for before). Can we maintain a good lifestyle with this new approach…it’s going to be interesting to see.
So, where DO we live?
“What is your main residence?”, is a question that seems to come up a lot, be it for insurance, car ownership or “where shall we send your birthday card?” But it’s a question we are finding hard to answer as we don’t consider anywhere a “main” residence. We move about…a lot. We didn’t sell up and buy a van or yacht with all our possessions on board. No. 
We de-cluttered our possessions; clothes, paperwork, household stuff, to the point where we can get everything we need into a mid-size car (even a box with cooking spices and two chefs knives).
We rent out our UK property and only stay when there aren’t any bookings. The ‘rustico’ in Italy is our main base in the summer and we house/pet sit and stay with family and friends. That’s only happened in spits and spurts this year but until now the concept was only theoretical. So in a year when we’ve been locked down in one location for months on end, we have still managed to stay in 10 locations (not including family and friends), 6 of which were in mainland Europe. Anyone know of a log cabin in Canada that needs looking after for a few months?
The housesits mean we get to stay in places that you wouldn’t normally see or vacation to. Like the town of Gif-Sur-Yvette near Paris; lovely countryside, town centre, happy relaxed people, just a pleasurable place to stay a week and experience almost like a local. No rushing about ticking things off an itinerary to fit into the week’s break. No, just being there because the house sit happened to be there. Lovely.
Time
I wish I could express my feelings better so I defer to a couple of more eloquent men:
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late” Shakespeare. I personally have lost a few friends during the years, whose lives were cut far too short for various reasons. I think it has shaped the nagging feeling that tomorrow is not guaranteed. So, “we should treat time as the most valuable thing a man can spend” Theophrastus.
This results in focusing and directing all our energy on the now and not all the possible futures, and it’s scary actually. We are not being reckless (I was a finance professional, so that would be really out of character), but I could easily invest the next 10 years (sometimes called “The Money Years”) making 100% sure of our financial future. But then what if it turns out to be a minute too late? What is the right balance? No-one can tell you when the right time is…only you know.
Focusing on the now has led me to really discover my local environments, be it the local wildlife, foraging mushrooms, berries and wild garlic or knowing every walking route in a 20 mile radius. Even something as mundane as the weather is fascinating when you’re out every day. It’s changed my perspective.
The one thing that I do miss is the Friday night feeling. The excitement of going down the pub to toast having 2 days off work.
What have we spent our time doing this year?
In previous posts you can see we stayed in Devon and the lake district, completed our first house sit and started walking the South West coast path. Initially we stayed put in Kingswear, but as the COVID restrictions lifted we did more and more of the coast path, completing a section from Dawlish Warren to Plymouth (almost all the south Devon section) some 98 miles…only 532 miles to go. Our actual mileage walked is double this as each section of the coast path is combined with a circular in-land route to get us back to the car (equally as lovely as the coast).
When June ended and we were finally allowed to leave the shores of the UK we headed straight for Lake Como to our little rustico in the alps. We stayed for 3 months and really enjoyed the off grid living. In fact we forgot about COVID most of the time, and with no TV or internet we just had no idea what was happening until we came back down to lake level for some food or a swim.
I noticed a significant difference to pre and post office life straight away. When we arrived in the mountain the paddock that was grass 2 years ago, was now a small forest of silver birch. And whilst I knew there was work to do I was not expecting trees of up to 15ft. In our previous life I would hire some guys to cut these down. New life – do it yourself…and I only had a hand-saw (long story about where my chain saw went).
It was a little daunting, so I set myself a goal of 2 trees a day for 90 days. Easy! Oh, did I mention it’s a mountain? Everything is on an incline and brambles had to be hacked back before every tree was felled. I also underestimated the number of trees. But what a joy it was to be outside; physical labour cutting, stripping and carrying trees about. My objective was achieved in our last week and I felt proud of the effort (tree trunks are now drying out ready for the axe next year for fire wood),
We also completed a few more house sits in the east of Italy (Marche), Switzerland and France. We visited country number 44 – San Marino (if you are nearby and have 24 hours I would highly recommend it) and returned just in time for the second wave of lockdown. Yippee.
What next after a year off work?
While we’ve been travelling we have continued to post about our adventures; Lake Como towns, the Valtellina wine region, San Marino, Marche and living off grid. Back in the UK, we are continuing to walk the South West Coast Path and have started to explore Dartmoor. And there are a few funny stories and interesting facts about the moors that I’m sure will be in future posts.
Next year we’re going to have another attempt at our bear watching trip to Canada and that Central American beach at Christmas.
“A year’s sabbatical” – take two.
In spite of the lockdown it sounds like you still had a very busy enjoyable year
Well done ,and a nice read xx
Good food for thought as I plan my own ‘reset’ as I like to call it (not retirement). I can’t wait for the Hewitts to visit our lake house in Georgia so you can teach me more about how to think differently. :o)