More about Earth Vagabonds

Hello! We are Ellen and Theo (Ellie & Tedly) – and we are experts at budget slow travel in early retirement. Our dream lifestyle has been a reality since 2015, when we began to wander the planet full time.

More about Earth Vagabonds

Ellen quit her career at 43 years old. Theo retired at 52.

Early retirement was an intentional decision. It took years of planning, saving and investing, and wise spending. It also took a shove from the universe.

As we got closer to the time for a decision about early retirement, Ellen’s company laid her off. So, after some months of debate, we looked at that life-changing event as a shove from the Universe to live our dream of slow travel in retirement.

Life is Now is our mantra.

We have a good pep talk for anyone debating a budget slow travel lifestyle through FIRE (financial independence retire early).

Our early retirement dream

We always loved international travel. While working, we looked forward to global wandering.

This dream motivated us to set goals and make lifestyle decisions that allowed for more savings. Frugal choices led to financial freedom before traditional retirement age.

We lived below our means, put money into retirement accounts, made other investments, didn’t have children, and we didn’t buy junk we didn’t need.

Is this long-term slow travel in retirement for you? Maybe you could test it out, like we did when we were still working. We took vacations and ‘lived like locals’ instead of wasting thousands of dollars in all-inclusive resorts.

If you are looking for more specific information on how to retire early and travel the world, we have another page you should visit.

Giving back

We usually stay in one place for a month (or two or three) at a time.

But in the first two COVID years, we were in a rural area of the Philippines a short ferry ride away from the famous Boracay Island – the crown jewel of that country’s beach tourism.

We used our unspent travel budget to help local Filipinos survive without tourism.

We also helped the indigenous Ati tribe with sustainable community projects in partnership with kind overseas donors.

This self-appointed volunteer experience changed our perspective on the world – and on travel.

Then, in 2022, it was time for us to move on. The Earth Vagabond ethos.

But we still do humanitarian work on a regular basis. We often don’t publish the details, out of respect for the dignity of those we help. We will share some cases, when it’s out in the open and obvious what we are doing, as with the Ati tribe, or with a disabled young man in Pokhara, Nepal, or at a (now closed) refugee camp in Greece.

We’ve covered a lot ground since 2015.

• 4 continents
• 23 countries
• 100+ cities and villages
• Hundreds of apartment rentals & hotel rooms
• Countless beautiful friends
• Endless unbelievable experiences

Medical challenges during slow travel in retirement

This site also shares personal experiences with medical challenges during our travels. Chikungunya (a mosquito virus), broken bones, and breast cancer — to name a few.

Yep. In our third year of budget slow travel in early retirement, Ellen was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer following a routine mammogram in Croatia.

She had a double mastectomy in Zagreb — without reconstruction — in 2018.

Ellen now travels the world as a fabulous “flattie” – with no evidence of disease since the surgery.

We kept traveling after her surgery abroad because travel makes us happy, and this is the lifestyle we always wanted.

To anyone on the fence about traveling the world now or later, we say do it now.

Life is now.

Health care is one of the reasons people delay slow travel in retirement, and we totally understand that.

However, we also have much experience with mundane health issues, like eyeglasses and dental visits and preventative care in several countries around the world. Most of our medical care experiences have been excellent – and affordable.

Budget slow travel in retirement is affordable

We enjoy showing people that nonstop travel can be a real possibility. And, it can be ‘endless, if you spend less’.

We share our monthly and yearly budget breakdowns from our slow travel in early retirement. Budgets are relative, but ours is $2,000 a month (outside Europe).

We also share money-saving techniques in places all over the globe – whether you are retired, or early retired.

We invite you to look around, and explore the site.

Maybe one day we will see you out here somewhere on this fantastic planet Earth.

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