Couple trades house and possessions for life out of a suitcase

Lynne and Tim Martin call themselves "senior gypsies." From Mexico to Argentina and Ireland to Turkey, the retired couple travels the world, living out the mantra "postpone nothing."

As pioneers of the "home-free retirement" movement, they sold their house and other belongings so they could hit the road and live internationally.

The most fun part?

"The people," Lynne said.

"And the change," Tim added.

Lynne chronicled their adventures in her new book, "Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World."

It wasn't easy to take the plunge. The Martins found themselves reluctant to bring up the subject with each other.

"We were living near my children and grandchildren, and we had the dog and the house and the whole thing," Lynne said. "It's hard to say, 'You know what, honey? I'd like to go live in London. Could we go to Paris for a few months?'"

For Lynne, 73, and Tim, 68, the potential of traveling and experiencing the world outweighed the logistical headaches.

"We didn't want to have to have a house hanging over us. We wanted to be able to be gone," Lynne said. "And having somebody call you in Istanbul and say, 'The water heater's broken,' it sort of spoils the romance."

They decided to give into their wanderlust, and they never looked back.

"We rent apartments and houses all over the world, wherever we want to go, for long periods of time," Lynne said.

Tim said you don't have to be rich to do this.

"It's arithmetic," he said. "You have an overhead when you have a house ... and then you take that number and see how it will work out in the world. And then there are cases where it works just fine."

They're redefining retirement, and others are taking note.

"We want change. We embrace change, and what we found is that people who get in touch with us, which are lots and lots of them, want the same things," Martin said. "And now we get emails all the time from people saying, 'I sold the house, I'm going here, I'll be in London here.'"