About Us

making travel a priority

Jill and I first got our taste of travel doing the old right-of-passage backpacking trip through Europe.  Pretty soon we were bouncing out of the country any chance we could all while balancing the college life.

We loved the sites, sounds, tastes, and people that you encounter while traveling.  Oh and let’s not forget the freedom, that’s pretty fricken cool to.  The more we traveled the more we realized how important this was to us. 

 

But We Wanted More

putting life first

“One is reminded, at a level deeper than all words, how making a living and making a life sometimes point in opposite directions.” – Pico Iyer

Striking that perfect balance of Life, Money, and Experience has been our goal.

Having just recently quit my job, check out my story of Why I Quit The Best Job In The World.

As we started down our path of choosing a career we knew one thing for sure, traditional retirement wasn’t for us.  We couldn’t wrap our heads around the idea of working 5-days a week during the healthiest part of your life, all with the hopes of achieving this mystical retirement some day.

We wanted the freedom to get out and see the world now while we’re still young.  Both of us chose the healthcare field which afforded us the work schedule and life that was important to us. 

We wanted to look back on our life and not be remembered for what we did at a job, but rather what we did at life.

Now when we say healthcare were talking a Nurse and X-ray tech.  We weren’t some high paid brain surgeons.  In fact, our combined income rarely got above 120k a year.

Success

travel brings us together

Today as we creep into our 40’s we are entering a new chapter of our life.  That is, Location Independence.  We didn’t want to FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) by skimping on the fun and being frugal as heck.  Yes, I realize we could probably be fully retired today if we didn’t take that trip, or eat out this night, or have any fun.  We weren’t willing to give that up as it didn’t align with our goals.  

For us we chose to master the balance of Life, Money, and Experience throughout our entire life.  When we looked around we had a hard time finding examples of people living this balance.  It was easy to find people that were after money and making tons of it.  It was easy finding people that traveled the world barefoot for dollars a day.  But folks who were striking that perfect balance were hard to come by.

The Plan

You might be saying, “Well La Dee Fricken’ Da” what could this possibly do for me?

Living a purpose-built life is what this is all about.  You wouldn’t build a house without a plan so don’t live your life without one.

We all know things work out better with a plan and your life is no exception.  I challenge you to look at life through the eyes of a plan.

Complete with goals and deadlines, as well as the steps needed to make it happen.  I bet your boss has you doing these things so why on earth are you not doing this for the most important job in the world, your life!

Our success is proof that it can work.  There was no magic to this.  No family money.  No inheritance.  And only average paying jobs.

Life

It all started with a plan and for us a goal was to put life first, career second.  We sought out a career that aligned with these goals and would help us rather than hinder us.  We didn’t want to be forced to live somewhere we didn’t want to because of a career choice.  We didn’t want to spend the majority of the time at work when we could be experiencing life.  We had a plan for the future but we also wanted to live in the now and not wait for the future.  You only have one shot at this life so putting life first was a must for us.

Money

We didn’t want to live barefoot and wander the world on dollars a day.  We wanted to experience life now AND put enough away for the soft retirement or Location Independence that we are transitioning to today.  We never made tons of money and with a little planning we never had to skimp on the good times either.

We were smart with our money.  Well Jill was smart with our money.  If it was up to me I’m pretty sure we’d be broke and wandering the world barefoot.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Jill had the smarts to start saving early.  IRA’s at a young age, always maxed out.  HSA’s and taking advantage of retirement programs during our short time in our careers. What we aren’t are some stock market genius.  Just the basics here folks can get you a long way.

The most difficult hurdle is saying no to this culture of exccess we live in.  Always upgrading, competing with Joneses, the bigger house, the newer car.  Working more hours so you can make more, so you can buy more, this all effectively puts life to the number two spot.  Not what we wanted.

Experience

Experience can mean a lot of things but for us it was getting outside and experiencing this world with the one life we’ve got.  We wanted our life to be full of experience that was our choosing and not chosen by our careers.  We picked careers that afforded us this freedom for a reason.  It was all part of the master plan.

I remember when my friends were graduating college.  All franticaly trying to land jobs, willing to move literally anywhere for the “perfect” job.  Instead we picked careers that allowed us to choose where we lived making sure we were looking out for number one.

Outside Nomad is all about finding that perfect balance of Life, Money, and Experience.  Set some goals for your life right now and start planning for a better future.  Let us help you strike the right balance for you all while taking in the amazing travel experiences the world has to offer.

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