The world has really changed in the past ten years or so because of the digital revolution. Our lifestyle, which we call Nesting Abroad , was never possible before now.  It’s a whole new way of imagining  semi-retirement.

We’ve always been adventurous. We moved frequently with the Air Force and soon learned that we can make anywhere a home as long as we are together. We love to travel, and have explored much of Europe, and have taken major trips to Central America, Russia/Ukraine, China and Japan. Each time we travelled, we discovered wonderful places, but only really got a taste of any one location. We wondered what it would be like to actually live in these beautiful or exotic settings instead of just visiting them.

We first imagined this lifestyle about four years ago, after an epiphany.  Sue’s mother died much younger than we expected, and we realized we might not have the time to do all the things we’d always dreamed of doing. We were working massive hours to support ourselves in a lifestyle we weren’t sure we really wanted. We dreamed of adjusting our life to allow lots of time for travel, but we’ve got two grown children, a wonderful grandson and lots of friends in Virginia. Our life with them is an integral part of who we are.  We couldn’t imagine cutting all roots and heading out with a backpack for years, as some others have done. So how could we have the best of both worlds – a home with family AND an exciting life of travel?

We took a cue from the birds nesting around our home. They make nests for a season, and then migrate away. We nest for three month time periods, spending three months at our home in Virginia in the summers and winters, and then choosing other places in the world to live for the spring and the fall. We call our lifestyle Nesting Abroad because we’re not expats – we have not permanently moved to a foreign country. Neither are we digital nomads, who wander the globe working online without a home base. We’re semi-retired, part time travelers who have decided to live half our life at our  home base in  Virginia and the other half in other locations 

 around the world. Our goal is to be in each of the locations that we’ve chosen long enough that we have a real ‘feel’ for the place and live as a local, not just a tourist. We both still work part time digitally, but by the time we leave our temporary nests, we know the hidden little gems of the town, we’ve been able to spend entire days in museums instead of rushing through and just seeing the high points, we’ve taken part in festivals and gotten the spirit of the city, and best of all, we’ve made local friends.