We're Becky and Austin 👋 nice to meet you!
Since you’re here, we figured we’d introduce ourselves and tell you a little bit about us.
We’ve been dating since January 2016. We met on Tinder 🔥🤣 how romantic! We moved in together 9 months after that, and have been adventuring ever since.
We both love travel, the outdoors, and keeping things interesting. Becky’s the alternative living nerd who’s been dreaming and designing an alternative lifestyle since she was 14 (when she read The 4 Hour Work Week). Austin is the engineering whiz whose computer design and drafting experience helps us visualize and bring our new projects to life.
We’re both in our mid-20s and we know now is the best time to create a life we love!
As a pilot, Austin’s done a lot of solo travel throughout the US, Caribbean, and Canada and he’s also hiked a good portion of the Appalachian Trail. And as a consultant, Becky has traveled throughout the United States and its territories including Guam.
Together, we’ve done budget travel and used travel hacking to affordably visit the northeast United States, Hawaii, Canada, France, and Costa Rica.
In 2020, we originally planned to build a tiny house to use as a home base while we traveled all over the world wherever Austin’s pilot gigs took us. When the pandemic hit, our plans changed to focus on domestic travel vs international travel, and to no longer include air travel at all. We switched our timeline around a little and decided to do a van conversion (originally planned for 2025) in October 2020. We left on a road trip to visit all of the national parks in the United States on December 19, 2020.
Here’s a quick timeline of our journey to create the freedom lifestyle of our dreams
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
Beyond
Becky graduated university in May, and started working in the corporate world as a consultant (while still living at home). She started paying off her $100,000 of student loan debt with a dream of becoming a digital nomad, retiring early, and traveling the world. Austin graduated university in December.Â
Becky and Austin met on Tinder, started dating, and moved in together. Becky launched her website www.twentyfree.co, where she writes about lifestyle design and financial independence for twenty-somethings. At the end of the year, she faced a serious health issue which made her even more eager to live life NOW (instead of waiting for retirement).
Austin was injured in a motorcycle accident, and subsequently quit his engineering job to pursue his dream job – being a pilot. We became even more committed to enjoying our 20s, because tomorrow isn’t promised. Becky finished paying off $70,000 of high-interest student loans, a huge milestone in her journey to financial freedom.
We built a custom teardrop trailer and took a 4,500 mile road trip to Newfoundland, Canada. We started aggressively saving and investing while pursuing promotions and side-jobs to increase our income, and Becky’s net worth finally became positive. Austin became a private charter pilot.
Becky made a plan to escape her corporate job and become a digital nomad. She saved and invested over $100,000 by November 2019. We traveled to Hawaii for 9 days and paid $0 for airfare and hotels (thanks to travel hacking).
Becky quit her job and started her own money and lifestyle design coaching business and podcast. We hit CoastFI, which is the amount of retirement savings we need for a comfortable traditional retirement, without further contributions. Austin 3D modeled our tiny house design in Sketchup, and when we switched gears to planning a van conversion for October, he 3D modeled that too! In mid-December, we left on our van trip.
We’re on an epic road trip in our Sprinter van conversion to every national park in the United States! We’re traveling full-time and living off our savings, instead of working while traveling.
In the future, we plan to drive from Alaska to Chile, get married and take a one-year around-the-world travel honeymoon, fit out a live-aboard sailboat, build a tiny house and start a homestead, and even build our own airplane (yes, you can do that!).
Why we’re sharing our journey (and the money behind it)
Becky here. In the online world, it seems like we often only see the beautiful end of people’s stories. Not the brutal beginning, not the messy middle. The way most people’s stories are portrayed makes it seem like they never faced issues, felt doubts, or made mistakes. Influencers and bloggers make it seem easy, but that makes other people feel like they’re the only ones struggling, making mistakes, or having doubts.Â
It would be so easy to glamorize our story as well (i.e. we quit our jobs to travel the world), and hey – maybe that’s more marketable. That isn’t the whole story though. I’ve made money mistakes, and they haven’t kept me from pursuing my dreams. That’s the story that I think needs to be told, and sharing the nuts and bolts of how we are able to afford van life or to quit our jobs will help others learn the real process behind creating a lifestyle transformation.
We each also had experiences that forced us to face our own mortality before age 25. These were hugely influential moments in our lives – they tested our personal strength, relationship, assumptions, beliefs and trajectories in life. Ultimately, I want to inspire others to live an unconventional life and to question the status quo without them needing the catalyst of a life-threatening experience. Take it from us – life is short and we’re not promised tomorrow, so there’s no time to waste on living other people’s dreams and expectations for you.
I aim to be authentic because my mission is to help people find lifestyle and financial freedom so they can make their biggest impact on the world. As a coach, it’s my goal to show you that you can overcome roadblocks, doubts and mistakes to create the freedom lifestyle of your dreams.
If you need someone to bounce your wildest dreams off of, to talk through the messy middle and mistakes, and to help you figure out how to make your freedom lifestyle a reality, hit me up! Right now, I’m offering 15 minute clarity calls to give you the clarity to create a life you love (P.S. it’s free).