It’s another beautiful, relaxing day at sea somewhere in the Mediterranean, off the coast of northern Africa. This is day 53 of our current journey. 47 of those days have been on cruise ships spanning half the globe. We have visited 11 countries and have stopped at 32 ports of call. We have 4 more countries and 11 more cities to explore over the next 25 days before returning home for a short break and the Holidays. Today, I turn 56 years old.
Who takes a trip like this? At this age? Who has the time? Well, I suppose really wealthy people can & do. Nope, that’s not us! Maybe someone traveling for work? No, again, not us. Maybe, retirees. DING DING DING, us! Our friends and family already know our story, but here is the Reader’s Digest version for those who don’t. We are Mike & Kristi, best of friends since 1979, inseparable for the last 12 years. After high school, we went off separately to earn our stripes in life, make mistakes, and learn valuable lessons. Many years later, the Powers that Be (God, fate, chance, etc.) brought us back together, for good. We have spent the last decade getting out of debt and planning for the future. The goal all along was to retire as early as possible. As time trudged along, the plan changed many times, but the goal remained the same. We ultimately did not have to retire, years before what is considered traditional, directly due to health concerns or other physical ailments, nor were we forced out by job downsizing. Rather, we CHOSE to retire in our mid-fifties after years of planning, hard work, sacrifices, a dash of luck, and a sprinkling of opportunity. Strangely, a worldwide pandemic actually accelerated our timetable.
In a nutshell, after years of varying degrees of progress, we had gotten focused and came up with a retirement date at the end of May, 2024. All of our spreadsheets, plans, and goals were coming into line with this timetable. Then, Covid reared its ugly head and threw the world into an historic spin. Fortunately, our jobs were not greatly affected and we continued to earn our same salaries. The lockdown over the early Covid years allowed us to save more money by not eating out and foregoing vacations, amongst other things. We paid off even more debt and concentrated on our side business selling on eBay. We became more intense and focused on our goals. While the days and months were ticking by, we were getting more and more disheartened by our work lives and the associated changes taking place. We know change is normal and have always dealt with it in stride, but being so close to our goal, it was tough to stay mentally involved. Little did we know, a life-altering change was coming.
Even with our accelerated debt pay down, we had always still budgeted for a few small vacations. In July, 2020 we had a Mediterranean transatlantic cruise planned, the trip of a lifetime. You can guess how that turned out….canceled by COVID! But, we were given credit for the full price and a nice additional credit by the cruise line to let them keep our money and make a future reservation. We made a reservation for another cruise in summer 2021. Same story…canceled, and given another credit. Thankfully, Covid, while nasty for many people, overall was turning out to not be armageddon, as first suggested. The ability to travel and live life again was on the horizon.
As 2021 came to an end we were very close to becoming debt-free. We also needed to use those cruise credits before they expired. The hospitality and entertainment industries had been hit very hard and were trying to claw themselves out of the pits into which they had fallen. As we searched for an itinerary we liked, we started receiving multiple offers for what amounted to FREE cruises (we still had to pay taxes & fees, and gratuities). Of course, we were still working and there was no way we could take advantage of these deals, or COULD we? That was literally our thinking and when Kristi and I put our minds to something, all plans, goals, and traditional logic are fair game for change. We selected the first cruise we liked. Turns out, we had the same “free” offer for the week after that cruise as well. The dates actually worked, although we would use up many vacation days. But, hey, that’s what those are for, right?! A few days later I was looking at the other offers and there was another cruise to some bucket list destinations, and then another back to back with that one. You can see where this is going. BUT, two four letter words were standing in the way…WORK & DEBT. We really wanted this to work, so Kristi went to work on the spreadsheets and the budgets. I doubled down on the eBay business. We talked about the situation EVERY night. More cruises came in line with our existing itinerary, with too-good-to-pass-up offers attached each time. Our kids were in position to buy our houses from us. Our jobs became more and more of a drag and draw on our happiness. Something had to give.
One night during the end of year holidays, we were talking as usual, strategizing and there was an almost audible shoe drop, as we both simultaneously, definitively decided this WOULD work….all of it! We booked every one of the cruises (9 of them!) from September 2022 – January 2023, we sold the houses (both of them) to our kids. We became debt free. The financial plan came together. Kristi gave her notice (two full years before the previous plan) that she would not be returning in the fall, then I gave my work notice that I would be done in June. It was an incredibly awesome, scary, exciting, relieving feeling…and we have not looked back.
Retirement dates came and went. Future plans are in place, but we KNOW they may/will change (maybe already in the works??????). So, here we are in the middle of 85 days of planned cruising and travel around the world over three and half months. I’ve talked to loved ones back home and will see them soon, but what a way to spend my birthday!
All of our cruises happen to have been on Carnival cruise lines (those deals are just too good). One of their tag lines is CHOOSE FUN! Given the choice between fun and work, we chose FUN, but for both Kristi and me it is not just fun, we are enjoying a whole new way of life, of freedom, of happiness, and peace. Sure, since we are not multi-millionaires there are still budgets, plans, goals, and passing thoughts of what-if, but we DO have a plan, a good one, that we believe will see us through to the end…far into the future! If you’re interested in more of our story, you can check out other blog posts here on our website or feel free to follow along on this journey and many more to come on Instagram and eventually YouTube at https://www.instagram.com/mkalmostthere/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6VD3QdcfN_2IIHkjk7V-Q.
Mike