Our Hard-Earned Advice for Downsizing | Full-Time Travel Prep
Ep.112 Viewers have been asking us how we made the transition from living in San Francisco to full-time travel, so we decided to create a series to help anyone who wants to travel more or just simplify for their retirement. In this episode, we talk about our best tips for making these process easier and more stress free.
Why We’re Never Returning to Live in the US for Retirement
Ep.109 We love the U.S., but it simply doesn’t offer us everything we want for our retirement. In this video, we break down the reasons why we’re going to keep traveling full time and, when we do settle down, why it will be in another country. Watch and share with us what you want for your retirement.
Health vs Wealth: We retired early, should you?
Ep.67 Money isn’t the only factor to consider when deciding when to retire. It’s the easiest to focus on, but we think you should consider what activities you want to do in retirement and how health issues could ruin those plans. We share a frank discussion about why we retired early and how our lives have changed as full-time travelers.
Why are we back in the US so soon?
Ep.31 After a few glorious weeks as digital nomads in Southern Italy, we decided to fly back to California. This wasn’t our original plan when we were leaving San Francisco, but you know how our plans don’t always go as planned.
We’re leaving San Francisco, for good! In just a few days…
Ep.26 After months of mental gymnastics and a long-awaited trip to Portugal to see if we want to move there, we’ve made a decision. In this episode, we reveal our plans and the deadline for our move. Unfortunately, we still have to sell nearly ALL our stuff. It’s pretty chaotic around here! ❤️
Reside in Portugal or roam the globe?
Ep.24 Join us as we stroll to Cheese Plus in San Francisco, grab some breakfast, and try to decide if we’re ready to process paperwork and move to Portugal, or roam around the world as digital nomads. And did we pick a date? Judy seems to think so.
Living as Digital Nomads - More Cons than Pros?
Ep.23 If we choose to be digital nomads, there are a lot of positives. But we also have to give up more stuff and make some really hard choices in our lives. In this episode, we sit in San Francisco's Lafayette Park and share our pros and cons list.
Living in Limbo! (But we want to be in Europe)
Ep.22 Join us as we sit on a beach — with the Golden Gate Bridge as our backdrop — and discuss how we’re going to get to Europe. We’ve planned 3 different paths and received plenty of signs that we should pick one now and go faster. But various life events keep holding us back from moving forward.
Are we oversharing?
Ep.21 We try to share both our successes and our failures in our videos. By keeping it real, we hope to make real connections with you, our viewers. But how much sharing does it take to turn it into oversharing? In this episode we try to answer that question.
Cappuccino Time - A Sneak Peek
Finding Gina Marie is moving to Saturdays at 8 AM Pacific Time. Here's a sneak peek at this Saturday's episode, where Judy and Kevin use a cappuccino break to slow down the day and enjoy time together.
When to get rid of our expensive stuff - 50 years in 5 suitcases
Ep.19 Timing is tricky when it comes to downsizing the bigger items, like furniture, electronics, and things we need to keep using until we are ready to move. We talk about and work the problem in this episode.
A pause to share an emotional moment
Ep.18 At the end of March, 2023, Kevin will be the same age his dad was when he passed away. When he realized our plans will overlap that date, it triggered a flood of emotions. We felt we needed to pause our downsizing and share this moment with you.
This is the easy stuff? 50 years in 5 suitcases
Ep.17 This episode is about getting rid of the things we’re not using daily or just don’t love. The limitation of 5 suitcases is a good plan, but since we don’t have our European destination finalized, emotions still come into play. Some of this turned out to be harder than we had expected.
How do we fit 50 years in 5 suitcases?
Ep.16 Downsizing for our move to Europe looked like a simple process, but as we broke it down into steps it got complicated. Can we keep from feeling overwhelmed by this task? We talk about it in this episode.
Italian Dual Citizenship - How hard could it be?
Ep.10 In 2021, Judy and Kevin travelled to Buffalo to finally meet her sisters and celebrate a 90th birthday party for Kevin's aunt and uncle. We also bought e-bikes and rode them to Napa for my birthday trip. Judy also breaks down our first attempts with Italian Dual Citizenship.
A setback and a move forward - the COVID lockdown
Ep.9 Immediately after the family reunion, COVID shut everything down. While Judy stayed connected to family via video chats, Kevin struggled with depression in 2020 — the doomed year. We also talk about our move to a bigger apartment and exploring Dual Italian Citizenship.
Meeting my birth mom for the first time! A Family Reunion
Ep.8 A hug from a mother after 55 years is an emotionally charged moment. Meeting a dozen family members for the first time amplifies the love. This reunion episode might even have you reaching for a tissue.
First contact with my birth family using 23andMe
Ep.7 Only a month after returning from Italy, DNA results led to first contact with a cousin. Soon after that, the floodgates poured open and more family was connected. The best was yet to come when Judy listened to her voicemail. Episode 7 is packed full of special moments… including finding Gina Marie.
A Surprise in Italy - 23andMe Results
Ep.6 While traveling in Italy at the end of 2019, Judy got an email with some amazing 23andMe DNA test results. In this episode, we talk about what led up to this moment and share pictures of our trips to Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice. Finding Gina Marie was suddenly closer than we ever expected.
Downsizing our lives - Houston to San Francisco
Ep.5 We decided to flip our lives around 180 degrees and move from our multi-car, 6 people in a house, lifestyle in Houston to a new biking/walking, apartment-dwelling, empty nester lifestyle in San Francisco. Not only did we have to change every routine in our lives, but we accidentally set ourselves up to be much closer to Finding Gina Marie.
Visit Our Gear Guide
If you’re interested in what we pack in our suitcases, take a look at our Gear Guide.
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Thanks!
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