Celebrating my 75th Birthday with a Life-Changing Journey

This isn't really a question, but I'm inviting responses.

Except for a bit of arthritis, I'm a healthy woman. I've discovered that by utilizing the equity in my home I'm able to take the journey of a lifetime. I'm setting all my affairs in order (just in case) and starting to plan this amazing trip. So far the plan is to travel alone but if I came across an agreeable companion, male or female, who can pay his or her own way, that might work well for us both. Not sure yet how long I would be traveling. I hope to travel economically and with just one carry-on sized bag.

Though the plan is also to arrive home with enough material for a book, I won't be taking my laptop. I'll have to be satisfied with a recorder and spiral notebooks.

My main interest is indigenous people, animals, flora. As I want to see elephants in their natural, intelligent state so somewhere in Africa is on the list as are New Zealand. Malaysia, China, and possibly India. Israel is also a place I want to see.

I live near Atlanta in Georgia.

My main interest is indigenous people, animals, flora.

So, it's not the modern world. That would also exclude most cities, and a greater part of your travel would be off the beaten path. That might be too strenous for a 75 y.o. lady, but, not neccessarily, if you're are in good health (which sounds like you are).
Organized package tours wouldn't give you much of interesting material for a book. So, I'd expect you're also an experienced traveller and feel comforable with individual travel and doing things on your own.

One carry-on sized bag is a good idea. You don't need to take too much stuff with you. You can buy things and you can have you clothes washed in a laundry. I assume the "bag" will be a backpack, max 45 l.

There is no question in your topic, so, I'm not sure what exactly you'd like to hear.
Anyway, your plan sounds great. Good luck.

I once met a Canadian couple in their late 70s who had liquidated their assets, "put all their affairs in place", said goodbye to their hometown, friends and family and were travelling where and when they wished. They intended to spend their remaining years having a ball and I was impressed by their approach to their final phase of life.

I know many will argue against the idea (what if you become ill, the worry of your children etc,) but it is a personal choice and I approved.

Whatever you choose, I wish you the most wonderful trip of your life. Go for it girl, and have a ball!

Dave

utilizing the equity in my home ................... Your choice but I would be very wary of such an approach and having seen self funded writers struggle the best you can hope for is some great trip notes. Publishers from my experience are without mercy, that is of course unless you are already published.

Regardless you tread your own path, enjoy the trip it sounds great.

I completely concur with V20091.

"Using the equity in my home" means that you still have to pay back someone who will hold the mortgage on your home. I think it is a foolish thing to do at your age.

Another concurrence. With the US housing market on its way down the drain, first of all credit is tight, and second, you might wind up owing more than the place is worth.

What you want to do is use your home to generate income while you're on the road, i.e. rent it out. You'll need a real estate agent or property manager to make sure your tenants aren't gutting the place, and of course on-line banking so you can access funds as needed.

The Long Haul & RTW branches might help you on the logistics and bureaucracy. If you own your home free and clear, be very wary of encumbering it with an equity loan or whatever in the current economic climate. You never know when you might be in sudden need of a place to return to.

Geritaran...Paulo Cuelo advises in "The Alchemist" to live your dreams without fear. The naysayers will always be out there to discourage those who dream, but the one that can jump the abyss without fear will soar. I say...the best of luck to you.

I hope you find a compatable travel partner and enjoy your life-changing journey.

I am not dashing the dreams , just a look from an outsiders view. We have or had or still probably have a system where you can draw down on the loan and make no repayments untill the house is sold either due to moving or death if that is your path so be it.

Since a week the banks in my country are obligated to mention in their advertorials that " borrowing money costs money". I thought everybody knew that. Whatever choices you make they will have consequences. Maybe selling the house and looking for a rental is the safest. However prices aren't that good at the moment. But you are the one who needs to look at the options.
If you don't do it now, when will you do it? Circumstances will never be ideal. If your family ( husband, children) supports you in your dream they will also help you if things go bad providing they have the means.( but don't burden them with your problems).
Make sure you take good health insurance and take care of yourself along the way. Make your dream came true!!!!! (maybe a smaller version instead of the whole world in one time). Good luck

#6
Live your dream..... you'd better do.

Although different age group - has anybody seen Revolutionary Road, or read the book?

I admire your adventurous spirit at 75.

I started a similar adventure at 54 and have been to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Egypt solo. (I also went Europe with my daughter during this time). I love travelling to places vastly different from my own. I met lots of other travellers along the way and this year I am going to Peru and hiking the Inca Trail with my sister. These have been the best years of my life.

Will this be your first travel experience?

Go for it. Time is a wastin'.

I certainly don't have any questions about you having a life-changing journey at 75,

but I am concerned about you borrowing against your home to do it, and expecting to make money from writing. Neither of those is a wise choice.

That's what I mean, just what Kahua writes: pursuing a dream isn't bad, unless it brings you into a financial nightmare afterwards. Make sure you can pay it and don't go away from home to experience misery unless that's also a part of your dream (wouldn't be mine). At your age you need to have some comfort and take good care of yourself. You need to have some backup when you decide to go away from home at your age, just in case something happens.It can be a great experience but it can also became a disaster. Be prepared for whatever comes your way. My meaning doesn't have much value in the eyes of some intrepid travellers, but I even if you are dying to do it think before you start. I wish the best of luck anyway

Nothing ventured - nothing gained. On the one hand Go for it!....on the other...statistically women have a life expectancy of about 84.

That is a minimum of 9 years of living to do.

Just check that "utilising the equity " does not preclude a worry free 84th birthday.
Joy V

Go for it - after ensuring you have what you need to come back to - but don't put too much stock in the "life-changing" part. We are who we are and travel is just what it is. The epiphanies come or they don't. I don't think there is anything magical, per se about travel.

That said, moving out of the hum drum of one's normal everyday life is always VERY good for me. Actually, I don't think it is the travel that prompts me to new understandings as much as it is moving out of the orbit of things and people that become too demanding, suck too much out of me - because I allow them to. When I head off on a trip it's like I can breathe again.

I don't feel that as much now, but a few years ago I was in a job that was sucking the life out of me, a famly member was presenting as an overwhelming emotional burden and I had two teenage sons with all the worry they bring.

So I'd head off on a trip and within a two-three days this big load would lift off my shoulders. My husband would say, "Don't call home." But eventually I would and then for a day or two the burden would settle back on ....until enough days passed and it evaporated.

Now, I quit the job, the parent is dead and the boys are adults with stable lives. So when I head off on a trip it's just a trip. My life is so much less stressful that travel does not present that contrast. I don't NEED that open space in my life to re-think my life.

So will travel be life-changing for you? Only time will tell but don't expect too much magic our you will be disappointed.

I admire your spirit and wish you happy travels.

As Calpurnia said to her husband that morning on the Ides of March,

"Don't _go+_, Julie, don't +go</i>!"

A small bit of advice from another traveller - don't depend entirely on spiral notebooks, it's a long hard slog transposing them when you get home.
There days you can buy a netbook computer. They're small, lightweight and wi-fi enabled. If you also take a portable solar charger then you'll be ok no matter what the power supply.
Send regular (daily) updates to your own email address.
There will still be places where you'll have to depend on those notebooks, but it will cut out a lot of the back-home boring task.

Oh, and I concur with other posters here. Let out your home if at all possible. No reason for it to stay empty when you could be making more money from it than it will cost you to stay in some countries, plus you'll not be saddled with any debts when you return.

Have a great time.

Another idea - and one which can test the water as far as writing is concerned, as well as making a few $$ on your trip.
Get in touch with your nearest newspaper which has a travel section and ask them if you can do a weekly or fortnightly feature for them. If your writing is any good at all they'll snap it up. Be prepared for them to edit it and take note of the changes they make to your original copy. That way you'll also be honing your skills as a travel writer.