Josh & Liz run the travel blog Peanuts or Pretzels. They describe themselves as sometimes salty and sometimes sweet, but always a little nutty! After an intro like that we’d knew they would be perfect for our Living The Dream series. 

Living The Dream: Sweet, Salty & Nutty

Living The Dream

What is the first country that you ever visited?  With who and why did you visit it?

While both of us traveled before we met, the first country we visited together wasIreland!  We were actually traveling to attend Liz’s friend’s wedding in Ennis, Ireland. It was a great opportunity for us to see how well we traveled together, and we had the chance to hang out with good ol’ college friends. Plus, an Irish wedding is a blast! So we had a wonderful time!

When did you start a travel lifestyle?  What inspired that change?

It was actually after that first trip together in Ireland. Traveling together is a really great way to get to know someone and whether or not you work well as a team. We had such a great time in Ireland (and a subsequent trip to Scotland) that we both knew we wanted to continue our adventures together. So after that point, we started actively saving and planning for our next trips. We were constantly on the go traveling anywhere we could, even on short road trips for the weekend. We even had a destination wedding on Key West a couple of years ago. So travel is who we are!

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Do you have a base you travel from?  Or is it continuous travel?  Why do you choose that style?

Currently we live in Atlanta, Georgia and have full time jobs. So this is our home base. Having the busiest airport in the country helps us with finding flights anywhere we want to go  However, our travel bucket list is so big that we have realized it will take us a long time to see and do everything we want to around the world. 

So we have decided to save up in preparation to take a gap year (or 2…or 3) to go on an around the world journey! We plan to continuously travel, but slowly so that we can spend time experiencing the true cultures around the world. We just love interacting with people and learning. Whether it is history, art, food, music, landscapes, architecture, etc. we just have a passion for learning and experiencing the world. So we are really looking forward to the future!

How do you fund your travel lifestyle?  Is it something you do when traveling or are you a saver?

Currently we have full time jobs, and we have chosen to make travel a priority in our lives. So rather than filling our home with things, we spend our money on travel. We plan our travel savings into our monthly budgets, so money is always set aside to do whatever we want, even at the spur of the moment!

In the future when we go on our gap year, we will be doing a variety of things to fund our travels so that we don’t have to dip into our savings. From teaching English abroad, to running our travel blog, freelance writing, advertising, consulting work, and even working in exchange for lodging abroad, there are a variety of things we can do to earn money while traveling. We figure if we can break-even after our gap year(s) without dipping into our savings, then it is a win!

If you could tell yourself one tip before you started your travel lifestyle, what would it be?

Hmmm, while we would like to say that we wish we would have started earlier, then the two of us wouldn’t have met!  And that would have been a shame. So instead, we would say that it’s not as hard as people think! If you set your goals and plan your budget accordingly, your dream of travel is more possible than you think. 

And if you want to take a break to travel the world, do it!  Don’t think you have to live a “normal” or “responsible” life by society’s standards. It’s your life, live it and do what you want  Everything always works itself out. We truly believe that travel is the one thing that you will NEVER regret spending your money on!

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What does “Living the Dream” mean to you?

To us, “Living the Dream” means that we feel like we are in control of our lives. Doing exactly what we want, and how we want, together as a team. It’s also important to us that we can support ourselves financially in a manner that gives back to society and helps to make the lives of others happier.    

You can find Josh & Liz here - 

Website:  Peanuts Or Pretzels 

Twitter: @PeanutsPretzels

We don’t travel to escape life, we travel to experience it.

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