Travel & Lifestyle Writer Early Retirement, Slow Travel, Reinvention

Business Insider • 15 August 2025

We retired early to see the world — but fast travel made life feel stressful again

Plain and simple — hold the tomatoes — fast travel is exhausting.

My husband Nigel and I retired early last year to slow travel the world. We've made it a habit to stay in one place for a month. It feels long enough to unpack, exhale, and feel like we live there.

But this summer, we broke our own rules.

We planned a five-week sprint through the UK and Ireland — seven stops in quick succession, most just five days long. We started in Dorset with a brief, emotionally heavy family visit, then ma...

Business Insider • 1 January 2025

We retired early and started traveling the world. We're not planning to leave money for our 6 kids.

When I was in my 40s, if you had told me I'd be writing this from Mauritius after months of traveling across Europe, I would have laughed.

Back then, I had a more traditional view of retirement: I would work until 65, leave a nest egg for my kids, and settle into a quieter life.

But when I was 53, my husband, Nigel, and I quit our jobs in oil and gas, traded comfort for adventure, and hit the road.

To retire early and travel, we spent seven years restructuring our finances and mapping out a p...

Business Insider • 19 May 2025

We retired early from our jobs in oil and gas to travel. Starting over again in new places has been terrifying.

Last year, at 53, my husband and I quit our jobs in oil and gas and retired early to travel the world. Many friends assumed we were fearless — that anyone who leaves behind home, routines, and everything familiar must be chasing adventure

The truth? I'm not fearless. I'm a total scaredy-cat.

I didn't grow up traveling. We didn't hop on planes or dream about faraway places. Our family vacations were road trips to Ohio to visit relatives — reliable, predictable, safe. Most of my family still doe...

Business Insider • 14 March 2025

My doctor said my 80-hour-a-week job had been slowly killing me. Retiring early gave me my life back.

My plan had always been to retire at 65 — grind it out, climb the ladder, and finally enjoy the freedom. But plans change, especially when your body starts flashing warnings you can't ignore.

Last year, at 53, I retired early with my husband — not because we had meticulously planned every detail, but because the cost of staying in the rat race — mentally, physically, and emotionally — had become too high. Work had always been a source of pride, but it was also a source of stress and, at times,...

Business Insider • 6 February 2025

I retired early and began traveling the world with my husband. In some ways, it still feels like work.

For more than 30 years, I helped companies ranging from startups to giants such as Shell and Chevron navigate strategic change. As a consultant, I focused on guiding organizations through uncertainty — always with a servant leadership mindset.

Now, in retirement, I'm no longer the guide but the one experiencing transformation firsthand. In my field, which was mostly focused on change management, there's a saying: "Drink your own Champagne." It's about practicing what you preach—not just in busi...

Travel + Leisure • 17 August 2025

I Retired at 53 to Live in Airbnbs Around the World

For Travel + Leisure’s column Traveling As, we’re talking to travelers about what it’s like to explore the world through their unique perspectives. Burnt out from corporate America, Kelly Benthall got her finances in order and gave up her Texas lifestyle to retire at 53 and live around the world in Airbnbs with her husband, Nigel. Here’s her story… 

I was living in Texas and working in oil and gas. As time went on, and the kids left, my job became extraordinarily stressful—to the point that I...

Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. • 5 April 2025

A Ghost Abroad

I left the country, tuned out the chaos, and eat croissants while the world burns. Still judging me? Read on.Chasing the honeymoon phase of travel — is that the same as wanderlust? Or is it just glorified escapism? Probably. I don’t want to know all the political details and catastrophes as they happen. Is that irresponsible? Maybe. I’m relying on like-minded people with more mental stamina than I have. I’m protecting my sanity through strategic ignorance.I’ve always been a runner — not the phys...

Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. • 9 June 2025

Provence, I Think I’m in Love

We didn’t fall for Provence on day one. She’s not a show-off. She doesn’t try to impress. She waits. Lets you fumble with the language. Lets you get a little lost. And then, slowly, she seeps in. At first, I could barely order a coffee. Now? I’m speaking French, reading menus without a panic tap to Google Translate, and taking roundabouts like a local. (They make sense now. I’ve seen the light.)We wandered through towns that sound like poetry… Roussillon, Gordes, Lourmarin,...