Who we are
So here we are. A couple of months after making the decision to swap our full time jobs for the lifestyle we wanted. And what a whirlwind it has been. The highs & lows and lack of time made it an adventure in itself.
But we’re locked & loaded and ready to see as much of the world as we can. We chose to leave Australia for a life in Germany. Not only for the quality beer or cheap cost of living, but to be better positioned to explore wherever we want.
As for who we are, well we are a pretty average couple – probably pretty similar to yourself.
We are Daniel & Nadine. We met in Perth, Australia, my hometown & luckily for me, where Nadine was on a working visa. Nadine is a highly sought after Environmental Engineer and I am an Accountant specialising in small business.
For us, our respective homelands of Germany & Australia are almost 24 hours of flying apart – not exactly ideal for a quick getaway. Especially not when you have to see your family a few times a year. And definitely not when you only have limited annual leave to use every year, be it 2 weeks in the United States, 4 weeks in Australia or even the 6 weeks in most European countries.
To be honest, nobody likes the standard 40+ hour work week. Nor the limited annual leave out of 52 weeks in the year. And even more so when you have to ask permission to access the leave you have earned.
More than once during my full time working career I have had to cancel planned holidays due to them not suiting the company. I’m sorry – the leave I have earned cannot be taken when I WANT because it doesn’t suit someone else?!
With only two full days to do the things that interest us we were quickly running short of time. I play semi professional football (soccer) which takes up most of a Saturday every week and between us we could never escape and relax for a decent amount of time. We were getting sucked into the rat race and it was depressing.
Jobs that were once enjoyable became dull and the weeks became unbearably monotonous. We noticed the months flying past without anything notable happening.
Something had to change. We had to take back ownership of our own lives & give them the direction we wanted.
What we are aiming to do won’t appeal to everyone. We are both travel addicts and are more interested in accumulating experiences rather than possessions. Not everyone is that way inclined. This isn’t to say we don’t enjoy the finer things in life – quite frankly, who doesn’t – but we would rather spend $2,000 travelling for a month than on replacing an older couch.
