It takes an irritatingly large amount of work to leave absolutely everything and go travel the world forever. But, then again, it is much more appealing than regretting all the things I will miss if I don't. So on to the legal junk that you need to take care of. If you own anything more than a pair of pants and a toothbrush, you need some basic legal stuff taken care of. I'm not an expert, but I am in the process of leaving for a long term world trip and would like to share what I've recently been learning.
Let Your Current Job Help You Out
I like to think of everything as a stepping stone to something else. Like how buying a tasty candy bar is a stepping stone to a delightful sugar high. Most employers have something like an Employee Assistance Program that is available for all employees. These programs normally have some type of legal help for either free or a reduced cost. If you have one at your current job, why not let them help you achieve your dreams and freedom at the same time.
Low Cost = Library
All the junk you are looking for is normally free at your library or it can be ordered from another library for a really high price. It will be the sky high price of absolutely nothing. All the forms can be found in a legal form book that your library can get. As long as you don't have some extremely complicated legal situation, then you will be fine using one of these fill in the form documents.
Now to the needed legal docs
You need to have at the bare minimum:
1. A Last Will and Testament for every person 18 and over. A will does more than just say who gets your sweet ride when your gone. It actually makes the legal transfer of any asset or debt go much smoother and faster. Plus you will not have to deal with the state deciding who gets what.
This is important when your traveling because you never know what will happen to you. You also don't know what will happen to others who might have put you as the executor of their estate. That means your in charge of taking care of things. Also, just because you have a spouse, but no will, doesn't mean that things won't get messy. So be the quicker picker upper and get a Will.
2. Power of Attorney. There are two different ones. One if a medical power of attorney and the second is a financial power of attorney. These documents allow someone else to make a decision on your behalf. These people can get prescriptions that you might need or be able to sign and cash checks for you as well as sign your tax documents. You will also hear versions of these be called a Living Will or Advance Directive.
Alright, so now that I have utterly bored you out of your mind, just keep it in the back of your head that this is a one time thing. You make it and your done. You can always update things if you want.
Take the stress out of travel before it happens.
Disclaimer and junk: I do solemnly swear that I am not a lawyer and that all the wordy words up there are not legal advice and are for entertainment purposes only.
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