Hi, I’m Jamie. I started blogging in 2012 when my then fiancé, Greg, and I quit our jobs to travel the world for six months. Back then we were Two Hearts, One Beard, and by some miracle at the end of that trip my sweet Pookie still wanted to marry me and we became the Warckens.
Greg and I met as seasonal employees outside of Denali National Park, Alaska, and though we’ve tried a conventional life with ‘real’ full time jobs, we definitely prefer making our own schedules and working on our terms. We quit said jobs and sold, donated, or gave away almost everything we owned and moved into our minivan and traveled the US for six months, hiking and camping and taking advantage of friends and family. It was then we became The Hardly Warckens.
I’m a Registered Nurse by trade, and Greg works for a subsidiary of a major airline. He is fortunate to be able to work part time and go home every fall to help his father harvest, and I take temporary travel nursing contracts. Greg brings home the flight benefits and I bring home the bacon. We sold our minivan in 2016 and are currently living in our 29 ft Keystone Sprinter travel trailer in Tucson, AZ.
We aren’t independently wealthy, we’re just normal people who have to work like everyone else, but by living under our means, and without any debt, since we were married we’ve managed to average less than eight months a year doing so. We just don’t buy into these American ideas that more is more, you should finance what you can’t afford, and debt is just a normal part of life. We invest very little in ‘things’ and choose instead to allocate our finances to doing what we love. And index funds. I started writing to share our anecdotes with friends and family, but now my main motivation and true passion is to encourage others to pursue financial freedom, and to live their wildest dreams. Looking at you, nurses.
This blog is part travel, part personal finance, and part real life. I hope you’ll find some entertainment, and if you’re keen, learn a thing or two about working little and spending less to do whatever you love more.
Workin’ hard or hardly workin’?
