When you start a new business, there are two key questions you must answer:
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Why am I doing this
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What is my Goal?
As you know from Our Story page, we want to be a travel resource for older or retired travelers, inspire those who have not traveled or taken a trip to do so, and document our journey as we pursue our ideal retired life.
Our Goal
The Goal came first – our ideal life of moving to Florida for our primary, retirement home, and having a second, vacation home in Europe.
When I retired from the Army in 2016, I moved to Kentucky for my civilian attorney job with the Army. I was already licensed to practice in Texas and Florida. During the past five years I started seriously thinking about where I wanted to live in retirement.
First thing I considered was income tax. Only Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not have state income tax. That immediately narrowed my list to nine states. Since Texas and Florida were among those states, that conveniently resulted in my two final states.
I love San Antonio and Orlando, but also considered Pensacola due to its panhandle location and proximity to military bases. I eliminated San Antonio because we spent a lot more time in Florida for legal conferences. So now we will decide between Pensacola and Orlando. We will not wait forever, but it takes time to get ready and sell our home and establish our new neighborhood. Thus the first half of our goal is to purchase our retirement home and move to Florida by summer of 2027.
I was fortunate to enjoy a military career that let me travel the world. When I finally retired in 2022 I had a strong wanderlust to see the rest of the world. You saw in our first post how we started doing just that and traveled to England, Scotland, Poland, Paris, Mexico, Colombia and Portugal since. After our second trip to England in 2023, I fell in love with Europe.
Having lived in Berlin and Greece many years ago and traveling all over Europe, a desire was born to spend part of my retirement in Europe. This spring we decided on southern Europe. If we have a vacation home overseas it needs to be in a nice climate year round. However, an overseas move takes a lot of planning and coordination. Thus the second half of our goal is to buy a second, vacation home in southern Europe by the Summer of 2030.
Why?
Now that we had our goal question answered, the next question was: why do we want to have a travel blog business?
I’ve been an attorney for almost 30 years. While I’ve enjoyed my law career, I want to pursue my other passion – traveling. With attribution to Confucius, if you do something you love or are passionate about, it won’t feel like work. We love traveling. Both the vacation part when we arrive and the actual travel experience in the airport and flying.
As a private pilot with over 600 hours, I love flying planes and understand aerodynamics and the principles of flight. So we enjoy the entire journey, except for getting through security and passport control. Those two areas will always suck and there is no way around it, but we do find ways to make that part easier.
When we were in Portugal this past April, we had a few unpleasant experiences in Lisbon. I could not believe I was the only one who ever experienced that and thought there had to be a better way. When we got back home I decided to create a travel blog aimed more at older or retired travelers like us. It would also be valuable to people who have never traveled before and wanted to take that first trip. Or to infrequent travelers who wanted to plan their next trip. We are regular travelers living in America and enjoy traveling, with a fixed retirement income to work with.
Buddy and I want to share our experiences so other travelers can benefit from our advice, insight and tips to have even better vacations. We also want to encourage those who have never traveled or never taken an international trip, to do so. Life is never guaranteed and is meant to be lived and experienced. International travel is such an amazing and educational experience. Lastly, we want to share our journey on moving and retiring in Florida and finding an international vacation home in hopes it will help others wanting the same.
This travel blog is for you. Buddy and I want to be your trusted travel partner.
We also want to ask: if you are approaching retirement, what does your ideal retired life look like? Travel? Living overseas? We want to help you realize that.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
Buddy and Jordan
This is such an inspiring clarity of purpose, Buddy and Jordan. I appreciate how you connect your travel goals with a deeper vision for retirement, adventure, and contribution to others who want to follow a similar path. Your focus on intentional living, learning from experience, and helping fellow travelers navigate both the excitement and realities of international travel makes this journey feel meaningful and relatable. I live in Texas and make many trips to Florida, so I’m a little biased towards those destinations. But those are home for me and when I travel, I want to go to places that have never been and do things that I’ve never done. I look forward to my retirement years when that may be a possibility. Wishing you continued momentum as you move toward your Florida home and your future place in Europe.
Thanks, Enrie,
I’m licensed to practice law in TX and FL so I travel to those states rather frequently. Love both states, and San Antonio and Orlando are my favorite cities. Our hope is to inspire others to get out and see the U.S. and world, more. Yes, our medium and long term goals. Slowly progressing but right now my short term goal is to focus on being successful with my Blog this year, as Dean has challenged us.
Hi Buddy, Jordan,
Great to read this clear and precise WHY and the journey you’re looking to work on and have.
Like you, been in the Army and being an Army brat sure has brought quite a few travels under my belt as well. That being said, like you, I definitely prefer warmer weather during our cold winter months that we have here in eastern Canada.
Looking forward to continuing to read your message and travel stories. Those European countries are definitely beautiful go-to places! Cheers!
Thanks, Marc,
I think our military background makes us more flexible in life and also gave us the opportunity to see the world and experience other cultures. That’s what I enjoy most about traveling – seeing other people, experiencing their culture and especially trying new foods and drink. A big world out there!
That’s a fantastic and clear vision you’ve laid out, Buddy and Jordan! I love how you’ve set such specific goals, like the move to Florida by 2027 and the European vacation home by 2030. It makes the dream feel so much more attainable when you put dates on it. Your perspective as a pilot really adds a unique layer to the blog, too. You’re absolutely right that ‘the world won’t wait forever,’ and it’s so inspiring to see you documenting the journey to help other retirees do the same!