If you now find yourself reading our blog you may wonder why it exists or even what make us think that we have something to say that is really of that much interest to the rest of the world.
First and foremost, this blog exists because my wife and I want to retire to a tropical island to live out our days with SandAndSunscreen. Ok we have some more criteria than that, but the point is we want to find a nice place in the sand to live the good life once we can throw off the shackles of work. And we don’t plan to do that at 65 either… we are thinking more 55.
This goal left us with a few burning questions
- Where do we want to retire to?
- There are lots of nice patches of sand in the world. What criteria makes one better than another?
- How do you figure out if a patch of sand matches your criteria once defined?
- What is all this going to cost to make it happen?
- What can we do to prepare for it?
This is just a handful of the much longer list of questions we have. Now it is time to go find some answers. So in typical engineering fashion when you cannot decide what “product” you want to buy… well you do a trade study. You define what is important to you, then you select a list of candidate “products”, and you see how well they measure up and score to the criteria you set. A lot of this can be done remotely with good old fashioned research. But just like vendor brochures, the Internet lies…or at least can be selective in the truths it chooses to present you. Eventually you have to go put your feet in the sand to make sure you are getting what you think you are getting. Fortunately (unfortunately?), we have a few years to make our decision.
Beyond retirement, this blog is a research project, a travel diary, and a place for us to relay information, tips, tricks, and mistakes we make along the way that may be useful to others. The good, the bad, the ugly, the sand flies, and the sun burns. Hopefully some tips and tidbits that will be useful to others – either on our journey or on your own. Consider this blog a perpetual work in progress – it is both a destination and a journey. Hopefully, even after we pick a place and finally retire, we will still be able to afford these adventures.
Feel free to let us know if you find this blog useful or if you think we are full of crap. We will always take constructive feedback. Safe travels to all no matter where you journey.
Monty and Amy