could we travel full-time?

Posted on September 4, 2013 Updated on September 4, 2013

This post comes because one wisemonkey has just celebrated a birthday and we’ve celebrated Father’s Day with our dads on Sunday. The days around the events were spent with both our families (at different times) and it has given us perspective on our lives; about what makes us happy and what we want out of our lives… for now at least.

Recently joining the travel blogosphere and connecting with so many people all across the globe who love travel as much as we do, we have experienced a massive wave of emotions. Thinking that we have found our true calling to be full-time travellers and then feeling even more confused about what we want to do! We’ve gone from wanting to sell up everything to travel permanently and then within moments think: could we really give up everything? There is no denying that there are moments in our lives where we wish we could just escape: that we resent being stuck in a rut and that we are our own destinies. Yes, that is all true! It is so very true that financial security isn’t everything and that we should all live how we want to live and we have!

We fantasise that the world should be our home, that we have the freedom to see the world and cultures, that we are no longer in the daily grind of work, that we wake up every day doing what we want. We have NO doubt that we could make it happen if we wanted to. There is so much PROOF out there that shows it can happen.

But the reality is that Sydney is our home. This is where our families are. Could we be happy travelling the world knowing that we would miss birthdays of all the people we love? Could we be happy knowing that our parents are getting older and every moment spent with them is worth so much more than any holiday because we just don’t know when their time will be up? Could we travel happy knowing that our nieces and nephews only know us through Skype and photos and we miss all their milestones in life? Could we be happy travelling knowing that one day we might want to settle down and actually have nowhere we could really truly call home?

We have had a mortgage for the last 4 years but that hasn’t stopped us, if anything we have travelled more. We have proved that no one has to be bound by a mortgage. Life goes on with or without mortgage but the comfort in knowing we have a home to come back to suits us for now. We have done small trips, we have done big trips, we have worked and saved in between. We have made our dreams happen. What we are doing now is the balance that makes us happy. We need to be honest with ourselves… travelling is OUR passion but that doesn’t mean that we should give up everything else we love too.

We don’t know if we have the answers now! But we do know what we want to do in the short-term. Home is home and the world remains our playground. And now its time to declutter, save and plan our big trip for next year which already includes the World Cup in Brazil! Who knows what will happen or what we will feel in the future? We might revisit this question next month or next year and will have a different answer. But what we know for now is that we have our cake (or macaron) and eat it too 🙂