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In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Our Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Nomad Numbers

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

The variety of reasons to leave the workforce when young are many, and the options for living a satisfying FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) lifestyle are inspirational. We always say there's no one-size-fits-all.

Below we have an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Nomad Numbers, who tell us their story.

Take a look!

Enjoying the view at Hierve el Agua just outside of Oaxaca, Mexico, interview, RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Enjoying the view at Hierve el Agua just outside of Oaxaca, Mexico

Retire Early Lifestyle: Could you tell us a little about yourselves?

Nomad Numbers: Mr. NN is originally from France and Mrs. NN is from the US. We both worked tech jobs in the Silicon Valley that we enjoyed but they weren’t our passion. We achieved financial independence and in mid-2018 at the age of 36 and 37, we decided to sell all of our stuff, move out of San Francisco and travel the world. We share our travel journey with the cost of living details on our blog where we hope to inspire others to choose their own path.

REL: When did you start your journey to Financial Independence? What was your motivation?

Nomad Numbers: In a way, we got a headstart on our journey to Financial Independence before we knew what it was because we were both frugal and natural savers. Our motivation for FI was to find a way to sustain travel long-term. The first time we heard about FI was actually when we were researching perpetual travel and stumbled upon the Mad Fientist Podcast interview with Retire Early Lifestyle! Our minds were blown when we discovered that it was possible to retire in your 30s and travel the world living off of savings and investments. From there, we were hooked on learning more through blogs, podcasts and books. It didn’t take us long after that to put our finances in order and start making plans, we were sold on the idea!

REL: Did you ever think it was possible to live a different lifestyle other than the conventional one?

 

 

 

 

Nomad Numbers: For the longest time we did not think it was possible. We thought it was for people that were either hustling digital nomads or millionaires that sold their startup. We didn’t know that there was a middle ground that was very achievable while not sacrificing on standard of living.

REL: Would you consider yourselves to be Financially Independent? Are you still working to afford your lifestyle?

Nomad Numbers: Yes, we are financially independent wooHOO! We are able to cover our living expenses through our savings and investments. It also helps that traveling is a lot more affordable than others think and we find it is much cheaper and more exciting than staying at home!

Mrs. NN swimming in the perfect waters of Eagle Beach in Aruba, Interview RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Mrs. NN swimming in the perfect waters of Eagle Beach in Aruba

REL: How many years have you been retired now?

Nomad Numbers: We are newbies! Mr. NN has been ‘retired’ for 1.5 years and Mrs. NN for 9 months. We say ‘retired’ in quotes because we have been working on passion projects that keep us busy such as the blog for Mr. NN and studying nutritional therapy for Mrs. NN.

REL: When we retired in 1991, the digital world didn’t exist for the regular person. Things are very different now. How would you say having digital access to information, banking, and keeping in touch with family and friends has changed your view of the retirement or nomadic lifestyle? Has it made things easier? What challenges do you face in your digital life?

Nomad Numbers: Technology makes things so much easier! We are not sure we would have had the courage to make the leap from a conventional lifestyle to a nomadic one if it weren’t for all of the blogs, podcasts and books we researched. It definitely helps to see others before us do it successfully and to hear their stories. It is especially good to know long-timers like Retire Early Lifestyle because it may be doable for 5 or even 10 years but 30 years is something else! Practically speaking on the day-to-day, technology makes it easy for us to book flights, find apartments on AirBnb, plan our days and keep in touch with friends and family. However, we try to be aware of our attachment to our devices and intentionally disconnect when we can. The 2 day silent meditation retreat in Chiang Mai we recently attended was a good time for that!

REL: You both like to travel. Can you mention a few of your favorite places where you traveled in the years since your FIRE?

Nomad Numbers: We loved the Costa Brava in Spain for the gorgeous coast and perfect ocean swims. Other favorites are San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Montreal in Canada and Chiang Mai in Thailand, where we are currently.

REL: Do you have a home base?

Nomad Numbers: We have family in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Alps region of France (lucky us!). We plan on visiting and staying with family for a couple of months each year so in a way it is our home base but we don’t have our own place there. After a few years of full-time travel, we intend to find a true home base to slow down and build more of a community.

REL: Since housing is a big expense, how do you manage lodging on the road? Do you house sit? Rent apartments? Stay in hotels?

Nomad Numbers: We almost always rent apartments through AirBnb. Since we tend to stay a minimum of 4 weeks, there’s usually a big discount from the nightly rate up to 40%. We would be interested in trying house sitting one day but haven’t looked into it yet.

Wandering the caves of Arikok National Park in Aruba. Interview, RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Wandering the caves of Arikok National Park in Aruba.

Rel: What do you do about health care? Are you open to Medical Tourism?

Nomad Numbers: We are open to medical tourism and plan to pay out-of-pocket for any minor medical visits. We have observed that there is a high quality of healthcare for a very low cost in countries we have visited such as Mexico and Thailand. We do have expat medical insurance through IMG in order to be covered for any major treatments.

REL: What do you average in spending annually? Does this include health insurance?

Nomad Numbers: Our first full year of nomadic travel cost us $28K which is about half of our spending when we stayed at home the year prior! Mrs. NN was still working remotely most of that year so her employer covered health insurance. This year, we are paying for an expat medical insurance through IMG that is costing us about $3K for the two of us.

REL: Can you share with us anything about how your portfolio is structured? Did your retirement affect your allocation at all?

Nomad Numbers: We are index funds fans! We are mostly in the total stock market index funds and total bond market index fund plus we have 2 rental properties in Texas and 2 in France. We decided to invest in the rental properties in Texas prior to retirement in order to add some diversification and because it would be much harder to get a mortgage without a W2.

REL: How do you manage your finances while on the road?

Nomad Numbers: Mr. NN loves to manage our numbers! He keeps track of all of our expenses and investments mostly in spreadsheets with the help of tools like Personal Capital and Splitwise. He is even building an online tool to help better manage and report our travel expenses.

REL: Do you own a vehicle?

Nomad Numbers: Nope! We didn't own one before we started traveling either.

REL: What’s the worst thing you deal with in this new chosen lifestyle? Your biggest challenge?

Nomad Numbers: Making and keeping friends is the toughest part because as soon as you meet some cool people, either they are leaving or we will be leaving.

A perfect spot for some meditation on Eagle Beach, Aruba. Interview RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

A perfect spot for some meditation on Eagle Beach, Aruba

REL: What has surprised you the most about your Early Retirement Lifestyle?

Nomad Numbers: How did we ever have time for a job? Our days are filled with fun activities, sight-seeing, experiences, delicious meals and interesting projects. We weren’t exactly sure what we would fill our days with once we didn’t have a job occupying 40-60 hours per week but it’s really easy to be busy with true living.

REL: What is exhilarating beyond words? Something you would never trade about your lifestyle to obtain “security?

Nomad Numbers: Asking ourselves everyday, what do you feel like doing today? We get to wake up every morning with complete control of our days and usually in stunning places. There’s no way we would trade that for an alarm clock, being stuck in traffic, a booked calendar of unnecessary meetings and sitting at a desk indoors all day.

REL: What would you say to someone who is considering tossing the conventional lifestyle and living one of travel? What advice would you give?

Nomad Numbers: You won’t regret living a life that is true to yourself and not what society expects of you. Everyday and every destination will be an experience of discovery and self-growth. Why wait another day?!

REL: What would you say are your most unique talents?

Nomad Numbers: Mr. NN has a refreshing optimism that helps us find joy in everyday life and approach everything with a glass-half-full attitude. It’s a really great balance to Mrs. NN’s worrying tendencies. Mrs. NN talent is more tangible (and edible!). She can make wonderful gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free treats like brownies, cakes, pancakes and cookies. In fact, she can make these treats while traveling and staying in AirBnbs with very limited ingredients and kitchenware. She can even make a mug cake in a microwave if necessary!

REL: What are your greatest passions in life?

Nomad Numbers: The obvious for both of us is travel! Other than that, Mrs. NN is passionate about health and wellness. She really believes in the body’s ability to heal and thrive given the right nutrition, sleep, stress management and lifestyle. She is grateful that she now has the time to study nutritional therapy and who knows, maybe one day apply her passion in the future somehow. Mr. NN’s hobbies include photography and videography that he is having a lot of fun with on our travels. His carry on backpack is essentially filled with his tech toys, including a drone!

Taking a walk by the beach in San Francisco, California. Interview RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Taking a walk by the beach in San Francisco, California where Mr and Mrs. NN were based before they started traveling full-time.

REL: Tell us about your greatest personal success, not necessarily finance related.

Nomad Numbers: It’s hard not to sound cliché but we are living our dream! Our greatest success is achieving this dream of traveling around the world indefinitely while being financially independent. This once sounded like a far-fetched dream that we might achieve around traditional retirement age but we still sometimes pinch ourselves that we are living it today in our 30s.

REL: How do you contribute to the world?

Nomad Numbers: We try to do our part to leave the world a better place by being environmentally conscious and volunteering with the local community. We are very aware that travel leaves a big carbon footprint so we are thoughtful about our transportation, avoid animal tourism, carry a zero-waste kit(reusable bottles, bags, utensils, glass straws etc.) and support local businesses when possible. Mrs. NN is also part of an organization, Give a Day Global, that connects travelers with non-profits around the world to volunteer for one day. Now that we can refocus our energies from our careers to elsewhere, we are excited to figure out how we can be of more service to the world.

REL: What is a secret fact about you?

Nomad Numbers: Speaking of the digital world making this lifestyle possible for us, Mr. and Mrs. NN met on an online dating app! We couldn’t have imagined the dream we would be living together after we both swiped right!

REL: Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?

Nomad Numbers: Finding a beautiful home base somewhere in the world and building a community around it. But still traveling for at least half of the year, of course! Also continuing to work on things we care about and making a difference in our own way, whatever that may become. We are on an ever evolving and unique journey that does not have everything mapped out like a conventional lifestyle might - some days that feels uneasy but mostly it’s amazing and we look forward to the adventure and what the future may bring.

 

 

 

 

REL: What is your biggest splurge?

Nomad Numbers: It is actually tough to think of something because we are both such valueists and don’t splurge! One thing that we did treat ourselves to was attending the Chautauqua retreat in Ecuador which was an inspirational one week FIRE retreat with like-minded folks and bloggers we look up to like Mr. Money Mustache, Jim Collins and Millennial Revolution.

REL: Is there a happiness mantra or motto that you've found to be very helpful?

Nomad Numbers: Funny you ask because Mrs. NN recently decided on a mantra to use during meditation: Expect nothing, appreciate everything.

REL: What do you do for fun or entertainment?

Nomad Numbers: Our favorite activity is hiking, we try to join a hiking group whenever we visit a place so that we can get out into nature and meet like-minded people. The most impressive hiking group we joined was in San Miguel Allende Mexico where our hiking leader was 80 years old and extremely fit to lead an 8 hours+ hike in the mountains! That group was definitely an inspiration for us to stay active well into our grayer years.

REL: Where are you going next?

Nomad Numbers: After a month in Chiang Mai, we will be spending a month swimming everyday in Koh Lanta which is supposed to be a beautiful tropical island. We then plan on visiting Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan - about a month in each country. We are certainly enjoying life and are so grateful for our nomadic lifestyle!

We at Retire Early Lifestyle would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Nomad Numbers for sharing their vision of FIRE and their perspectives on Life and Travel.

We hope their enthusiasm for adventure has lit your own fire to FIRE! You can follow their journeys at nomadnumbers.com

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About the Authors

 
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website bookstore or on Amazon.com.

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