Our Freedom Years

Financial independence, early retirement & slow travel

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  • Binge!
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    • What’s New
    • Plan for Travel
    • Airbnb Living
    • Real Costs
    • Travel with Dogs
  • Destinations
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • Austria
      • Croatia
      • Czech Republic
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Italy
      • Malta
      • Poland
      • Portugal
      • Romania
      • Serbia
      • Slovakia
      • Spain
      • Ukraine
      • United Kingdom
    • Middle East
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Mexico
    • South America
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
    • Asia
      • Thailand
  • About Us
  • Welcome
  • Binge!
  • Popular
    • What’s New
    • Plan for Travel
    • Airbnb Living
    • Real Costs
    • Travel with Dogs
  • Destinations
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • Austria
      • Croatia
      • Czech Republic
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Italy
      • Malta
      • Poland
      • Portugal
      • Romania
      • Serbia
      • Slovakia
      • Spain
      • Ukraine
      • United Kingdom
    • Middle East
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Mexico
    • South America
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
    • Asia
      • Thailand
  • About Us
  • Kitchen Essentials

    Kitchen Essentials for Full-Time Travellers

    November 15, 2020 /

    Before we started traveling full time, our experience of staying in Airbnbs was limited.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 0 Comments
  • Real Life in Retirement

    8 Reasons We Love Early Retirement

    November 8, 2020 /

    Back in our working lives, we had a highly regimented existence. Contrast that with our life today.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 2 Comments

    You May Also Like

    What Was Surprising About Our First Year Of Early Retirement

    September 17, 2020

    Travel During COVID, Money, & Nomad Life Q&A

    March 21, 2021

    What’s It Like To Retire In My 30s?

    November 22, 2020
  • Croatia

    A Month in Dubrovnik

    November 1, 2020 /

    Dubrovnik is a city that we never expected to visit. We’ve always seen it as a place with too many cruise ships and obscenely high prices.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 12 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Cost of Living In Split

    December 20, 2020

    Find Out Why Croatia is the Ultimate Base for Europe

    March 28, 2021

    Adventure of a Lifetime Quickly Goes Off the Rails

    July 7, 2024
  • Greece,  Real Costs

    Cost of Living in Northern Greece

    October 15, 2020 /

    After a month in Athens, we were ready for a new adventure when September rolled around.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 8 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Discover the Greece You Never Expected to Find

    April 22, 2021

    Our Top 5 Favourite Airbnbs (and Why They Weren’t Perfect)

    March 6, 2022

    7 European Destinations that Won’t Break the Bank

    January 2, 2022
  • Real Costs

    How Full-time Travel Keeps Our Costs Low

    October 15, 2020 /

    Back when we were working full time, travel was a luxury. Now it's a great way to manage our cost of living.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 3 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Why Brasov is the Ultimate Base for Exploring Transylvania

    September 17, 2023

    Why Mexico City Blew Our Minds (and Our Budget)

    August 15, 2022

    A Month of Spanish Food, History and Culture at a Surprising Price

    January 23, 2022
  • Plan for Travel,  Real Life in Retirement

    Money, Travel, Relationship + More

    October 8, 2020 /

    It’s been a full year of early retirement. In celebration of this year of ups, downs, surprises and discoveries, we’ve opened the floor to questions.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 7 Comments

    You May Also Like

    The Truth About Full-Time Travel (After Three Years on the Road)

    October 16, 2022

    What Not to Pack for a Year of Travel

    May 23, 2021

    The Truth About Life On The Road

    June 20, 2021
  • Retire Early

    Mindset That Helped Us Achieve Financial Independence and Retire Early

    October 7, 2020 /

    Over the years, we've cultivated the right mindset to make good financial decisions.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 1 Comment

    You May Also Like

    Biggest Financial Mistakes When Trying to Retire Early

    September 3, 2020

    In Just 7 Easy Steps, You Can Retire Early & Travel

    January 3, 2021

    How Much Do I Need To Retire Early And Travel?

    March 6, 2020
  • Real Life in Retirement

    What Life Really Looks Like In Early Retirement

    October 1, 2020 /

    When we first announced plans to give up our careers to travel the world, we quickly encountered a lot of misconceptions about life in early retirement.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 10 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Lessons from Early Retirement

    Lessons from Early Retirement

    March 26, 2020

    8 Reasons We Love Early Retirement

    November 8, 2020

    Travel During COVID, Money, & Nomad Life Q&A

    March 21, 2021
  • Greece,  Real Costs

    What We Spent Living in Athens For One Month

    September 24, 2020 /

    In the midst of the pandemic, we’ve had the rare treat of being some of the only tourists visiting Athens.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 15 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Adventure of a Lifetime Quickly Goes Off the Rails

    July 7, 2024
    Alfama, Lisbon, Portugal

    5 Important Lessons that We’ve Learned About Full-Time Travel

    November 5, 2023

    Our Top 5 Favourite Airbnbs (and Why They Weren’t Perfect)

    March 6, 2022
  • Real Life in Retirement

    What Was Surprising About Our First Year Of Early Retirement

    September 17, 2020 /

    Our first year of early retirement didn't go as expected. Beyond the big surprise of the pandemic, we experienced a lot of personal surprises as new early retirees.

    read more
    Our Freedom Years 6 Comments

    You May Also Like

    What’s It Like To Retire In My 30s?

    November 22, 2020
    Lessons from Early Retirement

    Lessons from Early Retirement

    March 26, 2020

    What Life Really Looks Like In Early Retirement

    October 1, 2020
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ourfreedomyears

Stephanie & Gillian
🌎 Traveled the world with our dogs
❤️ Now making a home in Ontario
⬇️ Watch our latest video

What makes a great winter base? For us: beautifu What makes a great winter base? 

For us: beautiful neighborhoods, easy hiking, warm days… and space to settle into a routine.

Did the Canary Islands just become our go-to winter destination?

Watch the full video — just click on the link in our profile.
For years, the Canary Islands sat on our “maybe so For years, the Canary Islands sat on our “maybe someday” list. They never quite beat out places like Mexico or Portugal when winter planning season rolled around. Now we’re wondering why we waited so long.

After a month in Gran Canaria, we’ve had some surprising takeaways about what really makes a place work as a winter base.

Our full YouTube video drops this Sunday. Stay tuned.
When we look back on 2025, it’s hard to believe ho When we look back on 2025, it’s hard to believe how much we packed into one year. 

🇲🇽 slow travel in Mexico

🥾 100+ miles on the Cotswold Way,

🐕 time inside a 400-dog shelter

🇬🇪 an unexpected detour through Georgia

…and a few big reflections on life after financial independence.

It was a year of travel, volunteering, and learning (again) that freedom looks different in every season.

We’ve wrapped it all up — plus a new podcast conversation with @OurFamilyInvests about what comes after the career ladder — in our January newsletter.

📬 Read the full story — just click on the link in our profile.
Living in Ontario’s snow belt means one thing: we Living in Ontario’s snow belt means one thing: we must escape winter. We’ve been hit with multiple snowstorms since the beginning of November and there are still months of snow and ice ahead of us. 

As much as we love seeing our little village blanketed in white, a few weeks of winter is enough to satisfy for the year. 

After a few misfires during our years of full-time travel (rainstorms in Florence, a chilly apartment in Malta, an unseasonable cold front in Izmir), we finally know exactly what we’re looking for in a winter base.

For the winter of 2026, our wishlist got very specific:

☀️ warm weather
🥗 great food
🏋🏽‍♀️ a decent gym
🐶 stylish Airbnbs that also happen to be pet-friendly
🌳 easy access to nature
✨ enough variety to keep us entertained for three full months

We compared many wildly different options—Taiwan, Argentina, and Cyprus to name just a few—and yes, there was a spreadsheet and a scoring system involved.

So where did we finally choose for winter 2026? We’re sharing the full story (and the big reveal) in this month’s newsletter.

👉 Read now by clicking on the link in our profile.
A final glimpse of our time in Georgia — medieval A final glimpse of our time in Georgia — medieval villages in Svaneti, misty mountain views, and a whirlwind wander through Kutaisi. 

Don’t miss the full adventure on YouTube, including our unforgettable stay at @baias_wine — complete with warm Georgian hospitality, a feast of traditional dishes, and more wine than we could drink in a month. 

Just click on the link in our profile to watch now.
There were plenty of misadventures to go round, bu There were plenty of misadventures to go round, but we still managed to have an incredible time on our first trip to the country of Georgia. Watch the full-length video by clicking on the link in our profile.
It's part two of our trip to Georgia, and this is It's part two of our trip to Georgia, and this is where all our carefully-made plans started to fall apart. 

The misadventures began when our easy 45-minute flight to the mountains was replaced with a 10-hour odyssey by train and mini-van. However, despite all ups and downs of the trip, we still managed to enjoy the highlights of western Georgia, including the medieval villages of the Svaneti region and a ridiculously huge feast at a winery.  

You can catch the full adventure in a new video going live this Sunday. See you then!
The final round of shots from our time in Tbilisi. The final round of shots from our time in Tbilisi. We just couldn't get enough of all those atmospheric mansions and apartment buildings as we wandered the neighbourhoods. 

If you haven't seen our video yet, it's a whirlwind sampler of Tbilisi highlights from our first day on the ground. You can check it out by clicking on the link in our profile.
It's our first full day in Tbilisi, and we're brin It's our first full day in Tbilisi, and we're bringing you along for the ride. Check out the full video on YouTube -- just click on the link in our profile to watch now.
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