Sea ya!
A restless couple who said they were “sick of asking permission to go on vacation” ditched the 9-to-5 grind and are now ready to drop a whopping $70,000 on the adventure of a lifetime.
Tiffany Baker, 38, and husband Mark, 40, said goodbye to the finance game in April 2019 and decided it was time to “live life their way,” moving into real estate investment and working as their own bosses.
Now, after saving up enough money, they’re ready to pull their three daughters — Giuletta, nine, Penelope, seven and Delia, six — out of school and take their act on the road. Or in their case, the high seas.
Later this year, the family of five will leave their home in Terre Haute, Indiana, and embark on a five-month world cruise that will take them to 50 ports in 21 countries, including Singapore, Australia, Africa and Europe.
The girls will be homeschooled, while the couple runs their business remotely — nothing new for the well-traveled family, the parents said.
The adventure will start in December, with a flight to Prague, and then on to Marseille, France, where they’ll board the ship.
The Bakers will be traveling in style — they’e booked two bedrooms for the family, and they’ve given themselves a $10,000 spending allowance for the few things that aren’t included in their fare.
“This world cruise was one of our goals that we thought ‘one of these days we will take our kids on a cruise,” Mark told South West News Service.
“Tiffany planted the seed while we were on a drive back from our vacation in New Orleans, Louisiana, and she ‘why don’t we do the cruise now?’ We looked into it and it has worked out,” he said.
The couple’s journey to independence began when they quit their six-figure jobs in order to find a better “work-life balance,” Tiffany said.
“It didn’t sit well with us that we had to ask permission for a day off. When we quit our jobs it was more to design our lives and live them unapologetically,” she said.
After leaving the corporate world, the couple began to flip houses for a living. They now own 35 properties that they rent out, from single family homes to commercial developments.
“We have probably flipped 50 houses over the last five years,” Mark said. “Flipping those houses has allowed us to start renting out properties.”
Mark estimates that they earn about $20,000 per month from their rentals — enough to fund the family’s latest adventure. In the past, they spent four years living in Europe, and have been to Bali, a place they’re very much looking forward to returning to on the cruise.
They are also excited about a visit to Brazil, as well as a circle tour of Australia.
The girls, already world travelers, are apparently “super excited” for the cruise — even if Tiffany is a little nervous about homeschooling them.
“They were all born in different countries – Italy, USA and Japan,” she said. “Our nine-year-old is on her fifth passport.”
“For me I am looking forward to see if it works, to see if I can home school our daughters from anywhere on the planet,” she admitted.
“It is about taking the chance to see whether we can do it and make it work,” Mark agreed.
“The worst scenario is that doesn’t work — normal school will be waiting for them.”
