Day 7: Barriers to a Mobile Lifestyle

The hardest lesson we have absorbed so far on our journey is that we aren’t actually mobile. While we were aware and accepting of the fact that Kevin’s business is tied to our garage and we could therefore only afford a long adventure, we were completely caught off guard at how much we are tied down to our lives back home.

From showing and leasing our rentals, setting up move-out walk-throughs and cleaning, depositing rent and business checks, collecting mail, moving packages indoors, watering plants, to numerous other day-to-day tasks, we underestimated how difficult it would be to unplug and travel.

Lifestyle change is comprehensive. The mobile lifestyle, where your earn anywhere, hopefully passive income allows you to globetrot whenever and wherever, requires adjustment in multiple life areas.

Investments must be on autopilot.

You must be intimately familiar with your bare necessities (preventing needless shipping of birth certificates that were forgotten, which so didn’t happen to us).

You must either secure your valuables or get rid of them, because a vacant home is a target.

You must have extremely welcoming pet sitters if you have opted to adopt one of these furry friends who are not welcome in many destinations and transportation options.

You have to forward your mail to a trusted person (if going for a long while) who can open anything that appears urgent.

You must allow someone to forge your signature (or go the legal route with a complicated power of attorney).

After years of putting down solid roots, this is difficult. Unplugging is not just about technology.

It’s about quality time and peace of mind, which does not equate to calling maid services and carpet cleaners from the top of Mount Washburn during peak grizzly viewing times like I did yesterday.

Ultimately, in order to experience the true value of mobile income, we must adjust and prepare our lifestyle. The rentals will be sold. The mail converted to email whenever possible. My in-laws must be thanked frequently and paid back in favors for watching the Chihuahua and being our local back-up. And we probably need to look into a mobile mail and personal assistant service for the long trips in order to deposit checks and forward urgent information.

Bottom line: It is nearly impossible to anticipate and tie up the loose ends before making your first leap into freedom of place, but it’s a fun test run to learn what’s staking you (and your happiness) down.