About

What are you doing?

We left Pittsburgh to live and work remotely and nomadically. We spent half of 2018 in North America, 11 months in Europe in 2019, and now we're in Portugal in 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic.

 

How do you afford this?

Believe it or not, we actually save money living this way. The big reason is that we "moved in" together, so we pay rent once instead of twice. We’ll also avoid regularly buying gas for cars, paying car insurance, investing in the maintenance of a home, or needlessly accumulating material possessions.

 

How did you decide where to go?

Our itinerary is a bit jumbled, but we’re excited about it because it balances a lot of competing priorities:

• Have reliable internet in time zones similar to our coworkers (Americas, Europe)

• Explore places we’ve never been (Utah’s National Parks, rural France)

• Visit friends and family (Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona)

• Live in places we want to live but haven’t been able to yet (New York City, Berlin)

• Avoid extreme cold or heat, if possible

 

Where are you staying?

Primarily, we plan to stay in Airbnbs, although we’re open to staying anywhere. Airbnbs offer steep discounts for week and month-long visits, which makes the accommodation cost more rent-like and less hotel-like. We’ll also be staying with friends & family here and there, especially in the North American leg of our journey.

 

Do you still have apartments in Pittsburgh?

Although we might come back to live in Pittsburgh at some point, we both moved out of our apartments on August 1st, 2018. Ryan moved his stuff to a storage unit and Ali moved her stuff to her sister’s house in Minnesota. We’ll both officially live with our parents, so we’ll still have permanent addresses for mail, voting, and taxes. Moving back in with your parents is extremely cool, from what we’ve heard. 

 

How are you getting around?

Neither of us owned a car in Pittsburgh, and we don’t plan to rent or buy a vehicle for long stretches of time. We're avid users of public transportation, use Lyft and Uber in rare cases when public transportation isn't fast and convenient, and we brought bike helmets so we can utilize the bike sharing programs available in many cities.

 

How are you carrying your stuff?

Ali has an Osprey Fairview 55 and Ryan has an Osprey Farpoint 55 backpack. These backpacks are designed for long-term travel and are just barely small enough to qualify as carry-ons when you zip-off the detachable daypack and use it as a personal item. Although we plan to be gone for a year or two, we've packed for about a week of living. We'll buy new things and ditch old things as needed as we go.