Debbie Campbell and her husband, Michael, have embraced what they refer to as the Senior Nomad way of life. Nearing retirement, they decided to downsize, rent their townhouse in Seattle and hit the road. Pictured here in France, they have spent the past year and a half living in Airbnb rentals in Europe. “We both decided we had one more adventure in us,” Ms. Campbell said.”
What does it take to be a Senior Nomad?
Should you want to become one, a few requirements: Be willing to cast off your stuff and accumulate no more; have a flexible definition of what it means to be at home; master the Excel spreadsheet; accept, and even grudgingly appreciate, the ubiquity of Ikea.
Debbie Campbell and her husband, Michael, who have embraced, if not promoted, what they refer to as the Senior Nomad way of life on their blog, might add another criterion: the willingness to uproot oneself at a stage in life when others are settling down in a recliner with the remote.
“We were nearing the time to consider retiring,” said Ms. Campbell, 58, who until recently owned a graphic design business. “We both decided we had one more adventure in us.”
That decision was made just over two years ago at the couple’s townhouse in Seattle. Their daughter Mary Campbell, visiting from her home in Paris, thought they should travel. A friend of her husband’s, she told them, had lived all over, including South America, where he rented apartments and worked remotely.
“My thought was, ‘Had she looked in our bank account and seen more money than I thought we had?’ ” said Mr. Campbell, 69, a former sports marketing executive.
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“We drove by our house, and I didn’t say, ‘I really wish we lived there,’ ” Ms. Campbell said.
And when they flew back to Europe this time, she added, the Senior Nomads did something different.
“We bought one-way tickets,” Ms. Campbell said, laughing.
Mr. Campbell chimed in after his wife, and there was almost a sense of giddiness in his voice: “We don’t know when we’re going back.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 26, 2015, on page D1 of the New York edition. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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