We are Beth and Mark Copenhaver (aka Wandering Lights), both long-time residents of the Atlanta, GA, US area. We are both in our late 50s and are full-time digital nomads.
We got early start on retirement by buying a house in Ellijay in the North Georgia mountains in 2017. We commuted to Atlanta weekly until the COVID lock-downs, when our company went 100% remote. We love our home in the mountains on the Coosawattee river, but realized that since we could work from anywhere, that we should get out and Work from Anywhere.
We decided in 2021 that we would put our home on the short-term rental market by the end of that year and travel as much as possible while still working remotely. Getting the house ready was a hard, difficult process that took us about 6 months (and multiple trips to the thrift stores and landfill). So far, it has been successful, though the income is not as much as we hoped.
It was during our expanded search for more digital nomading content that we discovered house sitting when I ran across the Traveling Housesitters blog. House-sitting turned out to be the missing piece in making our digital nomad lifestyle a reality. Pairing house-sitting with a digital nomad lifestyle allows us to travel to more places and stay longer. Saving money on accommodations means we don’t have to dip into savings or travel on a shoestring budget.
Our goal is to find housesitting assignments and travel around the world for the next 4-5 years, possibly longer. Ideally, we will be house-sitting about half the time we are traveling, then using hotels or short-term rentals between gigs.
More posts to come — We’re currently on a 5-month house-sitting assignment in beautiful Belize.
