How to spend your retirement as a nomad: 7 tips from Airbnb’s oldest interns

FAN Editor

Traveling to countries like Kyrgyzstan, Romania and Cuba, staying on a strict budget and spending lots of time thinking about Airbnb – that sounds like the lifestyle of student travelers on a gap year.

In reality, it’s the life of American couple Michael and Debbie Campbell, who have dubbed themselves “the senior nomads.”

Debbie, who is 62, told CNBC in Singapore that the couple’s daughter planted the idea in their heads in 2012 after seeing that her parents had a list of countries they wanted to visit.

While the Campbells were uncertain about whether they could afford to travel full time, their daughter suggested they could manage their accommodation costs by using Airbnb, an online platform for home sharing.

The couple, who had been living in Seattle, looked up Airbnb offerings in the places they wanted to visit, organized a budget and left Seattle six months later.

Now, they’ve been on the road for five years, visited more than 70 countries, stayed in more than 170 Airbnbs and even manage to blog regularly about their experience.

With their ample experience as guests, the couple managed to get internships at the tech company last September, becoming Airbnb’s oldest interns.

While the Campbells are admittedly adventurous risk-takers, they didn’t decide to retire and travel on a whim.

“Money was a concern,” said Michael, who is 72, adding that they had a retirement nest egg that they needed to spend very carefully.

“I wondered at the beginning: Could we do this financially? Would we have the self-discipline not to spend money more than we should? And five years later, we’re doing just fine.”

Here are some of their tips on how to retire as senior nomads.

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