Trev's temporary early retirement

[Trevc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Trevc]

Well…after talking about it in the abstract for a number of months, Bec and I have made the decision to pack-up the kids and travel Australia as a family for 12 months starting January 2014.
In essence we're stealing a year of our retirement and bringing it forward 20 years.

Before we could commit ourselves we had to have some certainty of employment on our return, and as it happens it looks like both of us will have jobs to come back to with our current employers. So working on the belief that you’re a long time dead, and trying to live without regret, we've decided to put our professional lives on hold to take the opportunity while we can (the eldest starts Secondary School in 2015).

It’s scary and exciting and there is a hell of a lot of planning and preparation ahead; this post will act as a place holder for all the questions and comments we’ll have over the next 7 months.

We've broken the planning into groups and so far we have:

Vehicle
Trailer
Communications
Equipment
Trip Budget
Home Admin
Food
Education
Clothing
Itinerary

Each of these groups will be broken into ‘tasks’ which will help with the planning, budgeting, prioritising etc.

I’ll have plenty of questions on all of the above (and more) over the next 6 months and will post them in the appropriate sub-forums and link them back to here. We all know what a great resource Pradopoint is, so both here and MySwag will bear the brunt of my queries.

So there we go, thanks to all in advance, let the fun begin…

Trev

[dreamon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dreamon]

Look forward to following your travels

[ursos Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursos]

Fantastic thing to do. Wish I had been in a position to do it when my kids were young. Everyone I know who's done it says it's the best decision they ever made. Looking forward to following the plans and the trip.
Cheers!

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Awesome stuff Trev! I'll keep an eye out for your posts/questions and hopefully can throw some help your way, as I'm sure others will too.

No doubt a massive amount of planning yet to be undertaken, but you've got a bunch of time to get it done, although it will be here before you know it!

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Hey Trev.....

Fantastic move.... only wish I too could do it b4 our kids hit their high school years.....l did a fair bit of outback travelling when I was young and single and absolutely loved it..... Would be great to take the family away for 12mths of life experiences... but unfortunately we'll just have to enjoy our annual touring trips.....

Good luck with your prep and look forward to reading all about it..... in the hope that one day it will be us asking similar questions...



cheers....
Rob

[macaroon1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close macaroon1]

Good on you Trev, it's great you have such understanding employers which is getting increasingly rare in todays fickle world!! I don't come from a 4wd background, I struggle to find the shops (??) but when my little one's a bit older I hope to do this. Like you said your a long time dead, my parents saved 4 years, did very little then passed on quickly, relatively early, I just know you can't take it with you. With schools I felt I hardly knew my folks when they passed, I feel my life would have been so much more enriched with interaction with the outside world not vegetating behind a desk!! Just enjoy life......C.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Well…after talking about it in the abstract for a number of months, Bec and I have made the decision to pack-up the kids and travel Australia as a family for 12 months starting January 2014.
In essence we're stealing a year of our retirement and bringing it forward 20 years.

That is the smartest thing I have read in ages

If I could give one piece of advise to help with your set up it would be to keep everything organized. Thats why I have floor to roof drawers in the back of the Prado, also why everything in my camper slides out the back. The ability to be able to get things quickly and then pack them back away where they belong with ease keeps everything organised and simple.

Hopefully we bump into you on the road somewhere.

Cheers Andrew

[ursos Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursos]

Hopefully we bump into you on the road somewhere.

...and if you're looking for help/ideas or just another PPer to catch up with, I'm sure there'll be plenty of us happy to meet up and show you some of our local spots.

[gspy4u Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gspy4u]

Do it while you can is what I say. No use putting things off till later on in life as you never know what will happen in the future anyway.

[r4ndll Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close r4ndll]

Well…after talking about it in the abstract for a number of months, Bec and I have made the decision to pack-up the kids and travel Australia as a family for 12 months starting January 2014.
In essence we're stealing a year of our retirement and bringing it forward 20 years.


Trev

Awesome idea - Your kids will learn a hell of a lot more about Australia than from a classroom and the interwebs. My wife and I met a couple doing this with their 10&8 yr olds whilst we were in WA. They'd been on the road for 8/9 months in an 80 series and camper trailer, and they didn't regret it one bit. Their kids were having a ball. They loved it so much they sold us on the idea too, we'll be looking at doing similar in 5 years or so.

I look forward to seeing the updates as you go on (and to borrowing some ideas as well)

[ursos Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursos]

...and if you're looking for help/ideas or just another PPer to catch up with, I'm sure there'll be plenty of us happy to meet up and show you some of our local spots.

...and if you time it so you're in Victoria for the 2014 GTG...

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Trev

Let us know when you are going so the SEQld group can do farewell day. Also we could do some product testing reccies before you go I'm sure all te SEQ folks will attend

See ya on the tracks, Richo.

[Trevc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Trevc]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys - I've yet to speak to or read of anyone that has regretted it.
I've got a few different ideas around storage and will fine-tune things - we got a floor stock 60L EvaKool fridge at the BNE show today - so we have the fridge issue sorted.
Got plenty of ideas from the show - glad we went.

We'll almost certainly be in most of your neighbourhoods next year and look forward to hitting the tracks with you guys - I've flagged the GTG'14 as a definite maybe!

Richo, I was talking to Rob_Mac tonight and floated the idea of maybe having a couple of tech -days where those that are willing to pass on a little knowledge and time can help with a few small mods. All done around a BBQ and with a few drinks of course.

Trev

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys - I've yet to speak to or read of anyone that has regretted it.
I've got a few different ideas around storage and will fine-tune things - we got a floor stock 60L EvaKool fridge at the BNE show today - so we have the fridge issue sorted.
Got plenty of ideas from the show - glad we went.

We'll almost certainly be in most of your neighbourhoods next year and look forward to hitting the tracks with you guys - I've flagged the GTG'14 as a definite maybe!

Richo, I was talking to Rob_Mac tonight and floated the idea of maybe having a couple of tech -days where those that are willing to pass on a little knowledge and time can help with a few small mods. All done around a BBQ and with a few drinks of course.

Trev

Trev if you can wait till I get back from the cape in mid July we could make it a mega day at the new shed, we can park a hundred Prados (and maybe some FGays) in the yard that should generate a few ideas

See ya on the tracks, Richo.

[Trevc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Trevc]

Well doesn't time fly...

Posted this 6 months ago and we are now only 3 days away from leaving.

We've just about finished packing and have a few social engagements on over the next 2 days, before doing a final shop and a trip to the weighbridge on Monday and then jumping on the Moreton Island Micat Tuesday to kick-off our adventure.

We've setup a FB page: Cummings and Goings, for friends, family and forum members to check in and see how we're going.
There's not a lot of content at the moment but will start ramping up once we leave on the 7/1.

So thanks all for your encouragement, assistance and words of wisdom and as Richo would say "See ya on the tracks (and the roads, beaches, highways, ferries etc)".

Hopefully we'll catch-up with a few of you along the way.

Trev