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EARNING A LIVING............................................ 16
TURNING YOUR JOB DIGITAL ............................................................................................................... 18 WHATEVER YOU DO, DONT BECOME A TRAVEL WRITER ............................................................................. 24 BECOMING A DIGITAL NOMAD, FREELANCE EDITION ................................................................................. 28 BECOMING A DIGITAL NOMAD - SMALL BUSINESS EDITION .......................................................................... 34 ADVANCED DIGITAL NOMADING - THE TIME SHIFT .................................................................................... 39 THE PART-TIME DIGITAL NOMAD ........................................................................................................... 42 67 TRAVEL FRIENDLY JOBS TO CONSIDER ................................................................................................ 46
INTRODUCTION
When I quit my corporate manager job in June 2008 in order to completely change my life and travel the world, everyone I knew thought I was crazy. I started the site almostfearless.com to document my transition and Ive learned that Im definitely not alone. There are lots of people who have done the same thing and even more that are thinking about taking the plunge. In the past year, Ive gotten hundreds of emails and comments asking me the same question: how do I do it? This ebook was originally posted on my blog, as a series of 30 posts. The idea was to help someone thinking about traveling long term turn that into a reality, with the real world practice steps that would get you there. Since then, its quickly become some of the most popular content on my site and I knew that at 30,000 words, I had written a small book, not just a series of blog posts. Im very happy to share this ebook for free, but in exchange I want a small favor. If you like what you read, subscribe to my site. If it helps you travel, spread the word. As a writer, I live and die by the support of my readers. Id love to continue producing ebooks like this for free, but in order to make that happen, I need you. Do you know someone who needs to read this? Forward it on. And if you find yourself sitting on a beach in Thailand, because of the tips you read here, I want a postcard.
GETTING STARTED
Today, Im asking everyone to take a small step with me and change their expectations from finding what will definitely work to what probably will. Yes, there is inherent risk in redesigning your life and traveling the world. But Id also caution that there is inherent risk in everything we do. Buying a house is placing a bet that you wont be laid off or the market wont crash, leaving you 25% underwater on your mortgage. Taking a job is placing your short term financial future in the hands of an employer that you dont know very well. Placing your money in retirement accounts is a statement that you feel pretty confident that you wont need that money this week to survive. But how do you really know? The answer: we never know. Im not asking anyone to put their financial future, careers, spouse, children or pets at undue risk. Rather I ask that you change your thinking as you research your options from looking for the absolutely, failsafe, must work to reasonable to assume, others have done it as your trigger to take the plunge. The same as you would for anything in your life. Then you must set a date. Breaking your own rules The second step is to become a diligent rule breaker. Every time you say to yourself, I cant do that, because I want you to ask yourself why. For example: I have a dog and I cant bring it with me and I cant leave it behind I cant travel with my kids I know everyone says this, but I really cant save any money
There are people who travel with their pets, take their kids abroad and make an art form out of living cheaply to save for travel. So why cant you? Why have you set that rule? When you set a rule for yourself, youve just changed a problem into a deal breaker. Unless someone alters the space-time continuum and makes it possible to neither bring nor leave your pet at the same time as you travel, youre effectively closed the door. Problems we can deal with. Huge amounts of debt? Empty savings account? No ideas of where to start? All fixable. Breaking the laws of physics? Not so much. The goal is to not live by rules youve inadvertently set for yourself. Instead of preemptively deciding that its impossible, release yourself from controlling the outcome and try to get to the core of your concern. For example those concerns then become: How can I ensure my dog is comfortable and happy when we travel together? How can I travel with my kids and stay sane, afford it and maintain their schooling? What are some ways I can raise the cash to travel? After you answer these questions, you may decide that the tradeoffs arent worth it. But it will be an informed decision. You will make the choice, not your initial fear/reluctance/negativity. Your homework: 1. Write down every item that is preventing you from traveling right now. As we go through this eBook, we will be (hopefully) crossing those items out. This is your to-do list. 2. Go through your list. Have you created any impossible barriers? Have you set an impossible rule for yourself? Try re-wording the problem in a way that addresses your core concern without jumping to conclusions about the outcome.
3. Start thinking about a date. If youre not ready yet, thats okay, but you might set a soft date based on the items on list #1, based on how your estimate to address each item. As you go through your concerns, adjust the date as you get closer to working out all of your details.
Stop, breathe, think. If youre considering buying something, take a moment to stop and breathe through the impulse. Sometimes what seemed like a must have will not seem as important after a little time. Have you ever talked yourself out of buying something? Maybe you walked around the store too long, holding the item, contemplating and in the end decided against it. This is exactly why sales people want to rush your purchases- the initial impulse is often stronger than the actual need. Use creativity first, cash second. Often we buy things to solve problems. I need this X, so I can do Y. What if you couldnt buy your way out of the problem? How would you solve it then? I suggest going through this decision tree (in order) before making any purchases: Workaround: Can I find another solution? Reuse: Is there something I can mend, reuse or re-purpose? Borrow: Does anyone I know have one? Barter: Can I trade services or goods to get what I need? Buy Used: Have I checked Craigslist/Salvation Army/second hand stores? Buy New (at best price): Will the cheapest model met my needs? Can I get a discount? Make it a fun. Its hard at first to start living more frugally. You begin to focus on everything that is missing, instead of what you will be gaining. It helps to make it game-like challenge and set short term goals: Try to buy no groceries for 10, 20, 30 days (depending on how big your pantry is). Youd be surprised how long you can survive on the food that you have, with a little creativity.
Look for free local events for the weekends- you might see a side of your area that you never appreciated. Set dinner challenges- Can you make a delicious dinner for under $5? Whats the cheapest meal you can make in bulk? Can you beat that? How many days in a row can you go without spending a cent? Or make weekends a spend-free zone. Start living the travel lifestyle now. Little things, like subscriptions to Netflix, a gym membership, magazines, cable, expensive cell phone plans, and so on, will be the first things to go, when traveling. You wont miss them. Youll find alternatives. You can watch your favorite shows online or workout at home or live without a cell phone data plan. Homework: 1. Even if youre just contemplating travel, put yourself on the Travel Diet at minimum, no big purchases, thoughtful shopping and reduction in expenses. 2. The next time you feel like you need to buy something, give yourself 5 minutes cooling off period before making the purchase. 3. This month, commit to convert one potential purchase into being free, using one of the spending alternatives: workaround, reuse, borrow, or barter. 4. For every household purchase, put it to the backpack test. Will you be able to (or want to) carry it with you? If not, dont buy it.
EARNING A LIVING
Do you meet all four conditions? Then it may be worth approaching your boss about working remotely. How to Broach Going Digital This is a case where youll want to be very sensitive to your companys culture. If you get a no it can be hard to come back from that. Use your gut instinct, but here are some ways to approach it: The Litmus Test 1. Let your boss know that you have an appointment at your house one morning next week that you need to wait for. Reassure him that youll bring your laptop home and keep working as you wait. (This is better than faking sick and working from home, as you might make the wrong impression like kiss up). Goes well? Continue on 2. Schedule a meeting with your boss and ask him directly about the ability to work from home. Youll want to be prepared with how youll stay in contact, a backup plan, how they will keep track of your assignments and a communication plan. But your bosss first question is going to be, why? Youll want to keep this simple and objection free. Good and true reasons like, I am sick of the commute are often easier to swallow than Id like to backpack across Central America. While both may be true, your boss isnt ready for the latter yet. They are concerned that youll keep doing the work and wont make them regret the decision. Leave your big travel plans out of it, for now. Goes well? Continue on 3. Your boss probably said something along the lines of, let me think about it or Ill have to check with HR. Now is the time to give him a little air, and work your butt off being the superstar that you are. In two weeks, pop into the office and casually mention that you just finished XYZ awesomeness, oh and by the
way is there any update on the work remotely thing? Be persistent but friendly, work hard and be productive, but dont be surprised if your boss drags his feet. It may take a few months to get an answer, in the meantime, start forming your backup plan. The Im Gonna Quit This one is uber-risky. Its a quick way to find out how valued you are or are not. 1. Schedule an appointment with your boss. Let her know that youve received an offer to work at another company. You really dont want to take it, but its working 100% remotely, which is something that is very appealing to you. You would love to stay where you are but its just so hard to pass that up. Is there any way that they could accommodate you? Be prepared to have information on how this would work if they did let you. The decision will come fast, and it may mean goodbye. The Big Fat Lie Well the last one was a lie, but thats a business lie, which doesnt count, right? This one is lying about your personal life. Not for the weak stomached. 1. Craft an elaborate lie about possibly, maybe having to move just beyond what would be reasonable to drive. Maybe your spouse got a new job? Try not to say your moms sick, thats just immoral. 2. Schedule an appt with your boss. Set out your very compelling dilemma and ask them to help you figure out how to make this work. Perhaps suggesting something absurd like working 80 hours one week and zero the next as you fly between cities. Then it comes to you could you, would it be possible, to work from home? Goes well? Hug your boss and try to keep your story straight.
The Truth This one worked for my husband, dont underestimate it. 1. Schedule an appointment with your boss or just send an email. Ask if you can work remotely, because youd like to travel to X. Assure them that youll be able to complete the work and you understand that for any reason they could let you go if they werent happy. If youve worked remotely before, mention it. Then sit back and wait. In my husbands case they made him sign a letter saying hed still do his job while travelingand if he didnt they had the right to fire him. If they ask for that, do it! Its no more protection than what they already have. Other Tips: If you cant get a yes from any of these methods, then you can always to ask to do it on a trial basis. Try 1 day a week for 90 days. Then work your butt off in that time to prove how easy it will be for your boss. I mentioned this above, but be prepared to answer their objections. How will it work for meetings? What if you need to see the client? How will they get in touch with you? Will you pay for your own phone line? Do you have high speed internet at home? What about sensitive information on your laptop? If youre not considered a rock star in your office right now, you might want to take some time earning that designation before you approach your boss. Have a list of your accomplishments ready if you need to justify why you deserve this perk
I specifically didnt mention how to go from working remotely to traveling the world in this post. One step at a time. If your boss does bite, youll want to spend some time working out the kinks from your home, before you hit the road. A word about honesty I would suggest you go the honesty route, but Ive included the other options, because, hey, sometimes they work. Ive personally seen people negotiate nearly 100% remote working based on some personal situation when it was absolutely not allowed for anyone else. Is it fair? No, but your boss is human. They want to help. And if you dont like your job, and probably will quit anyway but wouldnt mind squeezing a year or two of remote work out of them, then you might not feel very bad about painting an inaccurate picture of your home situation. Be aware that a change in managers can mean that your work remotely agreement is revoked. Always have a backup plan.
Other people, like myself, who find a way to make a very modest living between writing and blogging have a prior history (and trust me, Im no role model for success). I was an editor in high school. I had my first piece published at 15. In college I co-founded a writing society and was chosen to meet Allen Ginsburg. After college I worked in a publishing house for a year. After that I learned about web technologies and can write HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. Ive had blogs since 1999. Two years before I started this site, I wrote a novel (unpublished). These things dont matter, no editor cares about them, but Im trying to illustrate something. Most of the travel writers I meet have similar pasts maybe its a PhD or a prior career as a textbook editor. The point is that any prior experience really does help. Some people make it look easy until you find out they have a MFA in creative writing and four years at a magazine under their belt. If you want to do it, absolutely, go for it. I just needed to get it on the record: if youre picking travel writing because its a quick or easy way to make a buck, youre mistaken. Now, if you still want to become a travel writer, there are just seven pieces of advice: 1. Write about your hometown first and get as many published clips as possible. Do this is well before you begin traveling. 2. Join Media Bistro and read all their articles before you start pitching publications. 3. Write every single day. Writers block is a myth. Youre a professional. 4. Write broadly until you figure out your voice, your niche and where you want to be. (That means work-for-hire if necessary, even if its corporate). 5. Plan your articles before you travel, not after the trip. Try to get as many assignments before you leave as possible. 6. Reach out to people to get feedback on your writing and start a blog.
7. Dont forget: the industry is small. Try not to burn too many bridges in the beginning with your newbie ways. Then prepare to spend all of your free time writing, researching, reading about writing or thinking about it. Are you suitably scared off yet? Good! Thats the point. There are 101 other ways to make money while traveling and well cover a bunch of them before the end of this eBook.
Create a Monster.com profile that specifies remote only. (You might get contacted by a lot of headhuntersdepending on your skill set but they often have short term contract work). Go Local. Youd be surprised how the online world neglects the businesses right in your home town. Find the consulting firms/artists agencies/placement agencies for your niche. Sometimes they can throw you higher profile work than youd get on your own. If appropriate, start attending networking events in your area or participating on conferences to get your name out there. Once you get the work, then the fun begins. Three Ways to Be a Kick Ass Freelancer 1. Know what youre doing 2. Do it and on time 3. Be a professional Being a professional is the toughest one, because its so subjective. I think of it as emulating this kind, helpful, honest person who is both confident and excited but practical and realistic (even when you feel like strangling your client). It comes with practice and most of it is learned from being on the receiving end of someone who is clearly not professional. Everything you say and do should have the underlying message: I am here to help and Im happy to do it. Even when youre delivering a no. A helpful analogy I learned in my corporate training (and believe me there was plenty) was to Sandwich Your No. One layer compassionate understanding, a middle
layer of heck no and bottom crust of I really understand and maybe this will work instead. An example would be: I understand that its important to have this done by Monday. Unfortunately, Im not going to be able to accommodate your request as I have prior commitments. What can we do now to prepare, so that I can hit the ground running next week? It sounds cheesy, but seriously its like a Jedi-mind trick for pouty clients. Oh you understand my needs but arent able to meet them but are trying to do whatever you can to help? Ok. The Business Side of Being Your Own Business You dont need anything at first, except very good records. Extremely good, detailed records, with receipts. For everything. If you get any money, write it down. If you spend any money, write it down. Your home office is a deduction, including the cost of rent and utilities, prorated based on square feet. Industry publications and memberships can be deductions. One person I knew went to Italy every year for research. Anything could be a deduction and when tax time comes, you will be absolutely scrambling if you didnt keep track all year. Being a sole proprietor under your own tax number (social security) is fine for now (or you can purchase a Tax ID for a few bucks, but youre still a sole proprietorship, it just prevents you from having to disclose your social to clients). You dont need to pursue a LLC or S-Corp legal status yet, you can do it later: it costs money and makes filing your taxes more difficult. There are benefits, but only if youre making money! If youre pulling in less than $1000 a month, then your deductions will probably be enough to prevent you from paying any real taxes so why go through all that until it makes sense (i.e. will save you money)?
Why Freelancers Give Up: The Client Cycle The hardest part of being a freelancer is that it takes almost all of your time to find work. You might work for 2 months sending out bids, contacting people, surfing the job boards. Nothing. Then one day you will get 5 clients at the same time and work around the clock for two months. Yeah! Youre finally taking off. Youve made it. Then the work ends, you finally look up and theres no one around. Theres absolutely no work. Limiting the Boom and Bust Cycle of Freelancing I said limiting, because its never possible to have perfectly consistent levels of work. There will be times when you scramble. There will be times when your phone is unnaturally quiet. Golden rule of freelancing: Always be looking for new work. Even when youre working, even when you cant breathe, you need to keep putting yourself out there. But, you cant say yes to everyone. You cant accommodate last minute requests all the time. You cant take a project when youre overbooked just because youre afraid another one wont come. You will burn out, you will disappoint people when you under-perform and in a year from now youre not going to like freelancing very much. Too much work? Negotiate later start dates. I know the client said it has to be done by X, but they are full of crap (usually). Every client in the world says that because they think it prevents you from taking forever on it. Be firm. Set expectations.
If youre going to lose the account anyway, pass it to a friend. You have to say no sometimes, but giving a referral buys you enormous goodwill and its just the nice thing to do. Maybe theyll repay the favor. Raise your prices. If youre consistently working at 90%, youre undercharging. You will lose some clients, but thats the point. Its basic economics. There is one of you (limited supply) and a high demand (many clients) which means prices have to go up. Be strong! Youre obviously worth it. Fire your annoying clients. If they take up a lot of time for the same price as your appreciative, nice clients, then fire their butt. They will never improve, they will always be a pain, so might as well cut them loose now, while you have plenty of good work to take their place. You Can Start Now If youre still at the day job, theres no reason that you cant begin looking for clients now. It may be difficult to manage after hours work, but its a really smart idea to have at least a few clients before you take the plunge. If you think your boss will mind, dont talk about it on Facebook or LinkedIn, if you have current coworkers as friends. It may mean a little stealth work, setting up new profiles under a new email, just to keep things separate. Ultimately, there are a million things to be learned about freelancing, but it all starts with you, getting out there, getting work and keeping clients.
2. We got an office space too soon. We worked for about a month in our basement, and we should have stayed there for the whole first year. It felt like we needed a real office to be legit, but the truth was that we could have saved all that money and reinvested it into the business in ways that would have increased our bottom line. 3. We didnt outsource enough. We tried to do everything I mean everything ourselves. I was building databases for clients, designing our website, taking on every project. Thinking we were milking all the value out of the project by doing it ourselves, we were instead missing an opportunity. We could have actually earned more by outsourcing. We would be able to take on more clients, focus just on our core competencies and waste less time. 4. We didnt focus. If the work was there and it was even tangentially related to design, we took it. At one point we were doing voice over work for a medical video on varicose veins. Not exactly what we had planned in the beginning. Because we didnt focus, we never became specialists in any one area. We missed out because we tried to be everything to everyone. 5. We didnt create systems. The number one piece of advice Id give anyone trying to start a small business is to plan you out of it. Every single thing your company does must be done by someone else. Youre running the business, not literally running it. You are not every employee. Your job is to think about how to make more money. If youre answering phones, pitching clients, doing the work, updating the books and sweeping the floors at night, you dont have a small business. You have a freelancer. You. The first thing to think about is getting everything off your plate and how to monitor that with the least amount of daily involvement.
We didnt fail completely. We did manage to pull in a healthy income. We did gain some name-brand clients. In fact, one client was so impressed with an animation we did, he offered my husband a full time job, working remotely (the job my husband still works to this day). What We Did Right: 1. We worked sales, hard. We didnt sleep, but we did pitch everyone we could: Yahoo, Ebay, Major League Baseball, you name it. Sometimes wed get the work, other times not. In the beginning we spent most of our time creating mock-ups, free samples of our work to show off what we could do for each potential client. If youre just starting out, its the only way to land someone big. 2. We didnt waste our time with free work seekers. In the design world, there are lots of people looking for free services. They say, You can put this in your portfolio! which is just silly. A more subtle trick is when someone puts an ad asking for a logo design but wants to see mock-ups first. Rule: get paid first, then work (unless you approached them first and they are a big name, see above #1). 3. We reached out for help. I went to the Small Business Administration and got connected with some mentors who ended up throwing me thousands of dollars worth of work, plus the invaluable advice they shared. 4. We took care of the accounting and legal structures. It was a pain, cost money, but it was one of the smartest things we did. If we had ignored it, we could have been hit with massive taxes, since our company did over the six figure mark in the first year. It didnt feel like a lot because after expenses and our salaries we were just squeaking by, but at tax time it was a life saver. 5. We cared about doing extremely good work. We treated every project as a potential reference so we really gave 110%. This made such a big difference in our retention rate. We knew if we could just
convince someone to take a chance on us, that we could make them very happy. Every time we kept a customer, we had more time to look for other work. Ultimately, this lead to my husbands current job, which as 100% remote is part of what lets us travel full time. If you can, Id suggest saving enough money so that you can afford to hire people to do most of the dayto-day work for you. Its a full time job to analyze the market vs. your strategy and your time is best spent doing that. You need to figure out how to do things cheaper, better, faster. Let someone else do the repetitive tasks.
Negotiate the night shift. For some employers it would be a bonus to have someone working overnight on their projects. Need something turned around for the next day? Give it to our overnight person. Your overnight will be during the day so it works perfectly for everyone. Unplug your client. If youre a freelancer or small business owner, its possible to set expectations early. Youre available to talk at a certain time and everything else will be handle via email. If youre clear from the beginning, itll minimize issues later. Start weeding out your needy clients. If you know that youll be time shifting, say moving from 6 hours past their business hours to a full 12, begin putting everyone on a low contact diet. For those who complain find replacement clients. Consider starting a small business. The best way to own all of your time is to buy it back from the world in the form of working for yourself. Maybe this is a 2 year plan, but its never too soon to start planning what that would look like. If its doable, time shift your life. If youre living just 6 hours away from their business day, its still possible to make that traditional hours work. If its a US east coast company and youre living in Spain that means working from 3 PM until 11 PM just in time for Spanish dinner.
Unlike a full-time digital nomad, you may be able to spend your traveling time work-free. Of course if youre working for an employer remotely, this wont be possible, but its not at all uncommon for the selfemployed to travel sans assignments. On my travels, Ive met many people in this situation small business owners taking six weeks off to learn Spanish in Guatemala or the IT Guru that would work six months at $100/hr then take the rest of the year off. If youre traveling full time you might be tempted to feel a bit sad for their short term plans, but as youre banging away on your laptop during the day, theyre making the most of their travel time. Unfettered, completely free and enjoying their time because of its finite nature, not despite it. The key is to create the systems before you go, so that your livelihood doesnt come to a screeching halt. If you own a business you need to plan from the beginning , to be able to confidently hand it over to someone else while you travel. If youre a freelancer, then you need to be a strict time-master and be clear with your clients that you absolutely are not available during your scheduled travel times (you dont need to tell them why, just be clear). Having a trusted freelancer that is willing to cover you during your away time is a good strategy to keep clients from straying too far. If youre working seasonally, you may have the easiest time picking up and leaving. Just dont be surprised if your coworkers are less than impressed with your healthy tan and travel stories when work picks up again. Which is better? Full-time or part-time? I have a theory that most full-time travelers eventually become part-time digital nomads (if they continue traveling). While traveling around the world for a year or five is wonderful, after a while most people settle down, at least a bit. That doesnt necessarily mean they settle back home perhaps they spend the winters somewhere warm and then travel, albeit more slowly, throughout the rest of the year. For someone planning their first big trip, Id advise you not to worry about this too much. Most people travel
for a full year before they start day dreaming about having their own bed and a place to put things (thats bigger than just what they can carry). Which is better? I always think people should travel as much and as far as feels good and no further. If youre burned out, stop traveling. If youre bored again, its okay to change plans and leave early. Were all doing this and making incredible sacrificesbut its only worth it if you love it.
19. Become a Diver Instructor 20. Search for jobs in Malaysia 21. Join the legions of IT professionals working remotely and become an IT consultant. 22. Beyond teaching English use your English skills to land other customer facing work. 23. Be like Rolf: become a Travel Writer. 24. Get a pub job. 25. Work in a Ski Resort. 26. Join the bon fire and work at campsites worldwide. 27. Managing Editor of an online travel network slash guidebook writer slash translator slash. well you get the idea. 28. Become a geologist. 29. Work in a hotel in the UK 30. Find jobs from house-sitting to farm hand at wwoof.org 31. Help businesses and writers polish their prose as a freelance copy editor 32. Start your own import/export business 33. Be a bar hostess in Japan 34. Snap up an IT job in Europe. 35. Take care of little ones anywhere in the world: become an Au Pair. 36. Help individuals and small business get off the ground in developing countries by working in Microfinance. 37. Work in New Zealand wineries. 38. Get a job on an Alaskan Fishing boat. 39. Check out jobs in Singapore 40. Sell your photographs to glossy magazines like Vogue
41. Take your corporate job abroad 42. Get your hands dirty and work on a farm in Tuscany. 43. Write what you love and become a freelance writer 44. Fund your travels by playing online poker. 45. Chicken Sexer, Bollywood Extra, and 18 more weird travel jobs 46. Do what you love and teach others how to, too. 47. Search the online classifieds for jobs in Japan 48. Put your design skills to work and be a long distance Art Director 49. Be an English language radio announcer. 50. Search the Gajin Pot for even more jobs in Japan 51. Become a Backpack Filmmaker 52. Become a local, and then find opportunities like voice over work, corporate English gigs and more. 53. Search the online listings for jobs in Korea 54. Be an on-the-ground journalist as freelance foreign correspondent. 55. Become a companys Twitter Guru 56. Play the market and sell stocks 57. Search the online listings in India 58. Become a bush pilot. 59. Take photography to the next level and become a freelance photographer. 60. Be a nurse overseas. 61. See the world from the open sea: find work on a sailboat. 62. Travel port-to-port as you crew Cruise Ships. 63. Show tourists the sites in Rome as a Tour Guide.
Check out the job listings from the Maldives Become a professional freelance web designer Search the job boards on ExpatForum.com Learn how to become a freelance translator
PLANNING TRAVEL
1. First you need to determine every country that you will be visiting on your trip. Each country has their own regulations (although most of Europe shares the same rules) and while its usually easy and simple to comply, its not always possible to do so on the fly. 2. Look up the rules for each country. I use pettravel.com. There are 190 countries listed, but in general, the rules include some combination of the following requirements: at minimum a letter from your vet saying its a healthy animal or a rabies certificate. They may also need a USDA certified form (or for nonUS your official agency) from your vet (youll need to get the form, have your vet fill it out, send it to the USDA and they send it back stamped) and/or they may want your pets micro chipped (be sure that your use the international standard chip, so its readable everywhere, not just at home). A very few countries require advance permission. An even smaller number wont allow your pet at all (Iceland, unless by special permit) or will require rabies blood/titer testing, a 6 month process before you leave (UK) or has mandatory quarantine (Australia). These are just generalizations, so be sure to look up each countrys rules (which can also be different depending on if where youre coming from). 3. Check each airlines website for their rules around pets. For going to Europe, Ive always used Iberia, which was the cheapest and allowed x-large travel kennels, something to consider if your dog is Lab-sized or bigger. Each airline has a page about their pet policy, but sometimes its so well hidden, youre better off calling to ask. Be careful not to get transferred to cargo shipping, which is not the same and will cost a lot more. 4. When booking your flight, be sure to call the airline directly, rather than booking online. If its a 25 lb+ animal, they will create a pet reservation, as there are limits to the number of pets for each flight (first come first serve). They will probably not charge you for the pet fee until you arrive at the airport. (Some airlines have rules about time of year either too hot or too cold and they wont take pets in the hold).
5. The size of your pet will determine what kind of carrier you need. If you have a small pet (>25 lb), youll need a carrier that fits under your seat (they label these at the major pet stores). For larger pets, they need an airline approved kennel. They go for about $60-$120 depending on the size. To the top of this, youll want to tape a leash, water bowl and food, in case you and your pet get separated for any reason. 6. Arrive at the airport early! If youre medicating your pet, either with sleeping pills (talk to your vet) or something over the counter (we use three Benadryl per dog to knock them out), give it to them when you arrive. If youre checking your pet into cargo, expect to be whisked off to have your dogs weighed, pay for their tickets and bring them to a separate security line, all before you check in for your flight. 7. When you arrive at your destination, if your pet wasnt under your seat, itll be waiting for you in baggage claim. As you pass through customs, theyll check your paperwork and scan the microchip (if required). Now what? We like to have a private transportation for us, since the dogs are so big and the cages are huge. Whatever transportation you decide to use, just be sure your pet is allowed. Renting an apartment, instead of staying in hostels or hotels, is a great alternative for those traveling with pets. Even renting by the week, can allow you the flexibility to leave your pet alone for a few hours (many hotels dont allow this, if they do allow pets) and if you hire a dog walker/cat sitter you can even take off for the weekend. Many ferries do allow pets. Usually, if they allow cars, theyll allow your pet (but it may be confined to your car for the duration).
Its relatively cheap and easy to find college student/travelers abroad willing to watch your animals for the weekend, in exchange for a place to sleep or a few bucks. Having your own transportation with animals makes a big difference. If you have a dog, bring poop bags! These are hard to find when traveling, but a complete life saver for being a good dog owner abroad. Try to plan your trip so you minimize flights and long drives. Be ready for some negative behavior. If youve never moved with your pet, they may get a little mad about moving overseas. Its not that its a new country; its that its new. When we moved from Texas to Boston, our dogs did some revenge peeing for about a week (Oh are these your favorite shoes? How about after I pee in them!). Be patient, try to establish a routine as quickly as possible and give them lots of positive attention. If you decide to leave your pet with someone else I know this is a really tough decision, but believe me its harder on you than them. In fact, the heartbreaking part is that your pet will adapt, and get used to their new owners. Our dogs barely seemed to recognize us when we returned. It comes back over time, but that was the saddest part for us. Now its like nothing changed. Your pets will adjust. If youre planning a whirl-wind year around the world, it may make more sense (although youll miss each other) to leave your pets with someone you trust. While we handle change as exciting, it can be very stressful for an animal, so you may be acting in their best interest by leaving them in a stable environment.
SAFE, AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN - FINDING PLACES TO STAY WHEN YOU TRAVEL
Before traveling long term for the first time, you may spend a lot of time worrying about the safety, cost and cleanliness of accommodations along the way. Some people have written me and asked where they should stay because, Im not planning on staying in hostels. Hostels are not for everyone. Personally, I dont mind using them when Im traveling alone I like getting to know other people. But if youre not up to it, or youre traveling with kids, pets or just want some privacy, its definitely not the only option (who wants to bunk with their husband with 6 other people?). In fact, if youre willing to spend the time doing the legwork, there are some amazing places to stay that are still affordable. Finding those beautiful, cheap, safe, affordable, clean and well-located places to stay 1. Consider longer term rentals. Renting by the night, even at the cheapest of hostels, can often cost more than renting an apartment by the week or month. Were not talking managed properties, where a realtor is trying to get 4X market value for those one week vacationers, but rented directly by the owner. Where a hostel might cost you $20/night, you may be able to rent something weekly for $100. The benefit is that its private, furnished, has a kitchen and a private bath oh and its actually cheaper than sleeping in a dorm. 2. Use Couchsurfing.com, but not for the couches. One of the greatest benefits (besides offering free place to crash if youre so inclined) is that you can use it to connect to folks in a city before you get there. They can give you advice on where to stay, help you find long term rentals and even meet up with you for coffee when you get there. The site is all about relationships, so Id only suggest using it if you
also have an interest in making friends with locals (that is, they arent there just to be your travel agent) that being said, it is one of the best resources for getting an informed perspective. 3. Connect with the language schools. Many schools help students find places to stay and have relationships with people renting out apartments or rooms. We found an amazing apartment with 180 degree views of the city for cheap by doing this. You dont necessarily have to take classes at the school, they are often happy to funnel the business to their contacts. 4. Look on the hostel sites for bed and breakfast listings. These will typically cost a little more than a private room in a hostel, but the quality is often much higher. In many countries, these listings are found among the hostels sites, even though they are very different. 5. Negotiate a weekly rate discount at a hotel slightly over your budget. I used to never think of this, I would just spend a week in a city and not ask for any kind of discount. That is, until I saw other travelers doing it, and was able to score 2 weeks at a reduced rate at a hotel with air conditioning in Costa Rica (they are more likely to do this in the slow season). 6. Use the sites the locals use. If you wanted to find an apartment in the US, youd use Craigslist. For the rest of the world, its up to you to find the equivalent. If its in another language, you can use Google translate. If it comes to booking a place and you need to communicate via email, you can use the same translator to draft your letter and then ask folks on a language board to proof read it for you (translators very often do crazy things to certain expressions). By skipping the sites aimed at tourists youll be getting better value. Taking the time to use the local language will also give you access to properties that simply dont have a website.
7. Dont be afraid to walk. If it doesnt live up to your standards, dont be afraid to check out. Its tempting to be polite or to assume all hotels in this area are as dirty/scary/unpleasant, but usually thats not the case. Now that youre at your destination, you can look inside before booking or even ask to see the room first. Dont stress! If it does happen, just keep your spirits up, and move on. Youll laugh about it later, I promise. 8. Wait until you get there. Its a little more adventurous, but it often makes sense to only book 1 night at your destination in advance and then walk around the city to find flyers or stop into hostels/hotels or read the local paper to find something for the rest of your stay (unless youre traveling in the high season or during a festival, when it will be nearly impossible to find anything). While online reviews and research can certainly help, many things become very clear once youre on the ground. Theres no way to ever know what the crowd will be like at any place. The location and relative safety become apparent after you get there. There is no substitute for your impression of a place.
But if youre getting started, and need to plan how much to save, where do you start? First, youll need to know approximately what the cost of living is in the area youre traveling to. The method I use is to look up the average cost of a hostel. Even if Im not staying in a hostel, its valuable to use this as a benchmark for a few reasons: its available internationally in virtually every country of the world you can use a single website to look it up the numbers are always up to date its the cost for a traveler to stay there and generally at the same level of quality so youre comparing apples to apples it tends to reflect the cost for someone traveling on a budget whereas a hotel cost can fluctuate wildly based on quality. Could you use the cost of living index? Yes, but I dont because I think it generally takes into account what it costs to live somewhere as a local, verses to travel through. You wont be buying a house or doing all your shopping at the market, so I prefer to sample the cost from the travel market instead. Once I have the average cost for a hostel, I multiple that number by 3. Thats my per day budget. Avg. hostel cost per night X 3= Accommodations + food + other expenses So if the hostel cost $20/night, Id have a budget ($20 X 3) of $60 a day. This gives me: $20: accommodations $20: food
$20: whatever else If I decide to rent an apartment for the month, I need to find something for less than $20 X the month (30 days) = $600. If I go over on my food costs, Ill have to cut back from my whatever bucket. What! This will never work! This is the typical budget that I use, and I have a certain standard of living. You may be able to get by on a factor of 2 or you may need at least a factor of 5. I would suggest that whatever factor you use, to do a detailed budget for one destination to put the theory to the test. Compare it to the hostel cost in that area and create your own factor. The advantages are that you will always have a quick way to figure out the cost of going somewhere (valuable if plans change on the fly), and youll be able to keep these numbers in your head. The practical application is that youll always know where you are financially. Making this work on the road If you know that youll be spending $50 a day for the week, I will take out the entire weeks worth of funds at one time (to save on ATM fees) but only carry on days worth of cash on me at any time. If this isnt possible, Ill keep a running total for that day in my head, and plan my spending based on what I have left. If I know that Ill be going out that night, Ill keep my food costs a bit lower. If Ive come to the end of the week and Im ahead, Ill splash out on something nice maybe that great restaurant I had been eying up or rent a Vespa for the day. Exceptions Little expenses, like taking a $12 ferry somewhere, can usually be absorbed into your budget and made up for over a few days. However, what if youre planning on flying? Or taking a $400 sailing trip? Or
signing up for language school? I would get hard costs for these items, budget for them, but dont track them on a day-to-day basis. When its time to pay for it, do so, but dont deduct from your daily budget. Advanced planning for the long term traveler Once you have a handle on how much it will cost by destination, youll want to look at your overall costs. Is it averaging you $25/day? Or $75/day? Is the total amount, much too much? One way to balance your spending is to offset those high cost destinations with multiple days in low cost areas. For example, you may spend 3 months in Europe, but offset that cost with twice as many days in somewhere like Central America or SE Asia. For me, its worked out to a rotating schedule of roughly 3 months expensive, 6 months cheap. Based on your priorities, this may look different, but its a way to keep costs down if youre planning long term travel. Homework 1. Test the theory. Create a detailed budget of what you think it will cost for one of your destinations (or use something that youve already created). Divide the daily cost by the cost of a hostel for one night (you can look up hostel costs at hostelbookers.com or hostelworld.com be sure to sort by price) and this is your factor. Round to the nearest whole number. 2. Create your travel budget. Use the estimated daily costs by destination but also be sure to include the big ticket items separately. Your budget might look something like this: Destination X, 1 week: $30/day ($210 total) Destination Y, 2 weeks: $40/day ($560 total) Destination Z, 3 weeks: $50/day ($1050 total)
Flight from home to X: $660 Scuba lessons: $400 Grand total: $2880 for 6 weeks 3. If youre looking to manage costs, look at whether adjusting your travel schedule will work (if it feels okay, but dont ruin your trip by being stuck somewhere you dont like). For example, if we flipped the last example budget to spending more time in the cheaper places, then it would look like this: Destination X, 3 weeks (was 1 week): $30/day ($630 total) Destination Y, 2 weeks: $40/day ($560 total) Destination Z, 1 week (was 3 weeks): $50/day ($350 total) originally: $43/day now: $36/day
liberal arts classes. In other words, the requirements of a college degree in general, not specific to the education major. Teachers are trained to teach in classrooms. They have the education and experience to wrangle a classroom full of young folk while simultaneously educating their little minds. Its a hard job and not just anyone can do it. But youre not trying to teach a roomful of kids. Just yours. Your job is about 1/30th easier than theirs. Besides, your kids will be doing all the heavy lifting (well get to that next). But what if I dont remember the math? or science? or what a gerund is? Thats not your job. Your job is to teach your kids how to self-teach. When they reach the college level, they will be expected to have this skill and its one of the greatest gifts you can give a young person. Youll teach them how to find answers, either using their glossary or the index or in a dictionary or an encyclopedia or on the internet or asking questions through a website or watching educational videos. Your time as a parent teacher will likely be spent talking through issues and making sure that your kids are making progress. You might ask them questions to help them clarify their own thinking. Or you might suggest a resource where they could look it up. Hey Mom, whats a trachea? Your answer, Lets go look it up! Next question, will my kids fall behind? This mostly comes down to jumping through the right hoops when you return home. It wont be about how much your kids have learned (theyll have cut out all the distractions, have a supportive environment and one-on-one support why would they learn less?) However, youll want to make sure that youre covering your bases if you plan to return back to school after the trip. I was homeschooled for my ninth
grade year, and when I returned I was able to receive credit for all of my coursework (including gym class, which I used my time riding horses to count as credit). I went on to take honors and advanced placement classes through the rest of high school and it was a non-issue when applying to college (I was accepted to my preferred and back-up colleges). Some states have testing requirements, or specific course work, so be sure to research that before you leave. If youre planning on traveling longer than a year, you might feel comfortable with teaching your kids at first, but a little worried about high school. I suspect this fear is from the idea that your child will be relying on your to explain materials how will they take a Spanish class, if I dont speak Spanish? The good news is that there are resources online that can connect your child with native speakers and the kind of video and audio resources needed to learn those tougher subjects. What about the social issue? Long term relationships are important and constantly traveling will mean that youll have to spend more time and effort to keep in contact with folks back home. Its certainly possible to arrange your travels so you find your way back to the same place every year or make it a point to spend summers with family (or some variation). As far as being isolated while on the road, this doesnt seem to be a problem. Youll be learning how to make friends quickly, just as they will. After a while, it wont seem strange to strike up a conversation with a stranger and your kids will adapt too. Ultimately, should you travel with your kids and homeschool them? I think its a very important decision that you should make as a family. I would never presume to give a pat answer for everyone. But to me, there are several benefits that might make it a smart choice for you:
1. An opportunity for your child to pursue subjects they are interested in more depth. In a traditional school, its not possible to create a custom curriculum for every student. Would it be better? Yes. An engaged, interested student will learn so much more than one thats bored. For instance, you can purchase a well-rounded base curriculum, but then allot more time for their favorite subjects like reading science fiction books (and writing reports about them) or categorizing the bugs they see on your travels or learning more about each city you visit. 2. A chance for your kids to be around adults and children of different ages. Some people argue that the age-level grouping of children slows their development. Its necessary in schools because they are forced to become more efficient and to streamline education. But kids learn from the people theyre around. At home, exposure to older kids or adults is a positive message in expectations. Their world-view isnt limited to their current age level. 3. Character! Confidence! Courage! The only way to gain these positive traits is to have the opportunity to test yourself. Buying something with foreign money. Making friends with people who dont speak your language. Being stumped on an academic problem, but with hard work, figuring it out for yourself. Being afraid of a new food, but trying it anyways (oh, and its pretty good). Every day is an object lesson. 4. Time to think. In this over-scheduled world, kids dont have time anymore to just absorb the world. This constant stimulus bounces them from one activity to the next, but they dont have time to reflect. Id argue that these little one-day adults need to start practicing thinking for themselves and figuring out how they feel about the world, well before they actually reach adulthood. Parents who are considering homeschooling have a lot going for them. Even if you feel the school system would do a better job, your kids teacher is out numbered 30-1. The materials available to parents are as
good or better than youd find in the school system (especially with budget cuts and outdated textbooks). Youre able to provide your kids with a state of the art learning experience: a laptop, access to audio/video materials, world class online resources and the time and flexibility to learn how to use these materials independently (something youd never see in a public school). Also, its more accepted than ever as people are dropping out of public education not because of religious reasons or because theyre crunchy but because they feel they its possible to get a better education inside of the home. So if you want to travel, take the family.
So how do you find cheap flights without spending hours running multiple searches? Passive Search Im personally a big fan of Kayak (apparently so is Microsoft) for its flexible, anywhere-in-the-world, anytime-frame searches. You can search by a continent say EUROPE, and theyll give you the cheapest flights by country. So instead of checking each country trying to find a good deal they give you all of them at once. You pick where to fly based on whats cheapest.
I recommend setting and leaving a few of these fare alerts so that they will send you weekly email updates and keep you passively aware of the marketplace. Steps: Go to http://www.kayak.com/buzz Pick your home airport, a destination continent and a timeframe (by the month or leave it as is for anytime) I picked NYC to EUROPE for NOV 09 and had some surprising results: The cheapest three flights are: $481 to Moscow, $497 to Dublin, $509 to Geneva. This tells me that a flight to Europe for under $500 is probably a pretty good deal. Click the Get this by email link to schedule a fare alert direct to your inbox. Repeat with other areas of the world as needed. I set one for Asia and found deals in India on the top of the list at about $720. South America had a flight to Peru at $347. Im starting to get a sense of the relative costs. Pounce When a good deal comes, dont wait. Cheap prices in one market usually means that the other airlines will rush in the next few days meet the price. Even if youre not flying that exact day, its worth doing a quick price check across a few sites. Steps Search the airlines site and make sure they are in fact offering that price. (And if youre flying oneway to make sure their one-way price isnt wildly expensive).
Do a quick search on Kayak for the same flight, and then check the second and third cheapest options websites to see if they are offering cheaper deals. If its a long haul flight, youre done. If its a short flight, say Madrid to Paris, youll want to check local carriers, like Ryan Air, who might not be listed in the search sites. A Google search for your flight area will usually bring up a few local search engines you can double check. Dont Worry Too Much Spending hours trying to figure how to save $20 on a flight will drive you crazy and waste your time. The truth is that the pricing mechanisms are complex and dont always follow the so-called rules. If you can get a good price, lock it in.
Jeanne Dee, Soultravelers3 Currently traveling around Europe Homeschooling since: always Age(s): 9
Whats homeschooling like? It truly is the best possible education and much easier than most people realize. It is a perfect combination with travel. We find we that we can get much more education out of much less time put into it. How do you make it work? Our child is an advanced learner so can go at her own pace which is many years above her grade level. We homeschool a small amount daily at her level in English all year round and also use the local school in Spain for 4/5 months out of the year for deep immersion into her 2nd language, literature & culture. We plan to also immerse her into a 3rd language-Mandarin Chinese in the same way when we get to Asia. Much of her homeschooling is done through her reading (geared to our travels) & other ways where she just thinks she is having fun. We also do her piano lessons via Skype webcam from a teacher on another continent and do classes with John Hopkins University CTY program online and other online opportunities. Digital libraries and Brainpop are great fun for traveling homeschoolers too. Tips for getting started: Read John Taylor Gatto and John Holt (father of unschooling). Recommended Links: Why Schools Dont Educate Do Schools Kills Creativity? homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/ Gifted Homeschoolers Forum Families on the Road
College Without High School Did You Know? We are living in exponential times MayaFrost.com Articles youve written that youd like to share: Drawing in Lisbon, Portugal Venice Via Kids Books Swimming with Amazing Dolphins How to Travel the World as a Digital Nomad Family Education Resources Kids Lit Itinerary Homeschooling Books
Brenna Gibson Redpath, From Here To Uncertainty Currently in Scotland (this week anyway). Homeschooling since: always Age(s): 7 and 11 Tips for getting started: Find out the legal implications of homeschooling in your state or country. Legal homeschooling varies widely across the US, and is illegal unless you yourself are a certified teacher in some countries, like Germany. Read books about, and by, other homeschooling families. Knowing success stories, and pitfalls, is helpful in daily homeschool life. Follow your childrens interests. If they dont know what they are interested in, dont panic. They will soon. Having said this - we planned to travel Europe for a year, and once we got here my son fell in love with Japan, and is currently obsessed. Sigh
How do you incorporate travel into homeschooling? If you start homeschooling before youre traveling, find a homeschool group if its available, and go to park days and field trips that they offer. Listen to other parents and ask questions. Take advantage of on-line school websites. Decide your goals, and let those goals guide you. Do you plan to travel indefinitely - letting your traveling play a big part in your schooling life? Do you plan to be gone for a set amount of time, and want your children to be in-line with classmates when they come back? Does a regularly scheduled day feel best to you, or a looser see-what-the-day-brings vibe? There are so many different ways to successfully homeschool your children. You need to decide what feels like a good family schooling experience to you. Recommended resources: My son, who is in 6th grade, really loves a company called Time 4 Learning, which offers an on-line curriculum. He goes as quickly (or as slowly) through the material as he needs. I like the way the website documents progress for parents, promotes independent work, and allows for strengths and weaknesses in different areas of learning. My son is a whiz at Language Arts and higher math, but will never, I fear, be an accomplished speller. He feels successful with this program. Time 4 Learning has on-line quizzes, and worksheet print-outs. Its light on history and science in my opinion, but were living history every day. Another company is K12. It offers lots of choices in curriculum, all under the legal K12 umbrella. I brought along workbooks for my daughter by a company called Handwriting Without Tears, which is a wonderful curriculum that I used with both my kids for beginning reading and writing, as well as cursive. Articles youve written that youd like to share: So We Homeschool
Nancy Sathre-Vogel, Family on Bikes Biking across the Americas. Homeschooling since: 2006/07 and 2008 - present Age(s): 11 year old twins Your Experience: Classroom teacher in Special Ed, elementary, and middle school math & science for 21 years Tips for getting started: Just do it and trust in your kids. Take them out to every place you can think of museums, parks, mountains, and lakes. Enjoy your surroundings and help the kids see the magic of what is around them! But mostly - never doubt your child. Never, ever, doubt your child. Recommended Links:
familiesontheroad.com homeschooling.gomilpitas.com Articles youve written that youd like to share: Family travel: a life-changing event Living your dream with your children Homeschooling Your Children on the Road Roadschooling: Are health care concerns holding you back? Roadschooling 101: What is roadschooling? __ Additional Resources (thanks to Soultravelers3) Advice for Older Kids (contains dozens of links to resources) Books for Kids that Travel
GETTING READY TO GO
3. Stage your home. You dont need to buy anything to do this. If you already have a home full of stuff youll just need to strip out a good portion of your belongings. Its not too early for a yard sale! Setting up your house so that its just minimal furniture and a few decorations will get rid of that cluttered look, make the space seem larger and leave a better impression on potential buyers. If you have anything bulky or broken that needs to go, dont be afraid to use the free section on craigslist.org or even the curb with a big sign. We had a broken hot tub removed within an hour by someone who was sure they could fix it. 4. Clean, clean, clean. As a buyer, nothing is worse than walking into a dirty home (unless its a real fixer upper and thats what youre looking for). An unclean home sends the signal that you dont take pride in your house and begs the question about what else youve been neglecting maintenancewise. Putting up fresh flowers or baking cookies (nothing better than that smell) are some small touches you can add. While it wont sell your home alone, positive impressions can make a big difference. 5. Be flexible on financing options. First time home buyers especially may ask that you cover the closing costs for them or help them with the down payment. You can roll these expenses (plus charge a bit more than you would otherwise) into the price of the home and youll re-coop the cost once all the checks clear. Now is a good time to borrow a money from family and friends (if you get such an offer) if it means closing your house and being able to reimburse everyone in short order (usually 30 days). 6. If you have time There are so many projects you could start to fix up your house, but be careful in bogging yourself down in further expense (youll see only a fraction of the cost in added value to your home) and delaying putting your house on the market. Aim for things with the biggest visual appeal: cleaning up the front yard and planting some flowers or filling in gaps in the landscaping, painting the
inside using neutral tones, getting the carpets cleaned, or completing (or covering up) unfinished home improvement projects. And then, be patient. What if my house wont sell? First, Id caution you from assuming that it wont sell. If you have put it on the market, cleaned it up, taken away the clutter, made any easy fixes that you could and priced it correctly and it hasnt sold in 6 months, then yes, its time to move on to plan B. Other scenarios might include being upside down on your mortgage (owing more than its worth), having lived it for under two years (capital gains tax will apply) or just not wanting to sell it. Can you still travel? Yes. Here are some options: 1. Get help. If youre upside down on your loan, facing a huge ARM interest rate hike or have missed any payments on your loan, now is the time to call your lender. From all accounts they are severely behind in their account departments, but the sooner you can get on their radar the better. Also check out some of the federal programs in your country, (like the Making Home Affordable program in the US). 2. Rent instead of sell. If your goal is to avoid the monthly mortgage payment while you travel, renting may be an option. If you have someone you trust to manage the property and make sure your investment is safe, then perfect. Otherwise, youll be looking at hiring a property manager to oversee things for a cut of the monthly rent. Property managers are often realtors and their real estate site will have a section on their management services. Some ask for a flat fee, others take a percentage of the rent (like 15%) and still others ask for both. If your mortgage is higher than what the average rental goes for, you may end up paying the management fee out of pocket. The question is, can you swing a few hundred dollars a month to travel and if so, is it worth it to you?
3. Home swap! Youll still have to cover your mortgage, but youll have all of your housing expenses overseas covered. HomeExchange.com is a good place to start. 4. Eat the cost. If youre looking at travel for a finite period of time, it is always possible to start paying ahead on your mortgage now, and over time, bank up enough time to take 6 months or a year off. It may take you longer, but the upside is that youll return to your home and things without having to start from scratch. 5. Wait it out. When will the downturn end? It depends greatly on where you live. Right now southern Florida has more people leaving than entering and foreclosed properties litter the classifieds. High priced/high demand areas may have been hit less hard and you could see an improvement next year. Who knows! Give your local realtor a call for the local insight. They see hundreds of listings and have the experience to better predict where youll be in a year.
What if we changed the game? What if instead of trying to not-do-something, you just eliminate that choice. Think of it this way most people manage to spend about what they make. If they make $30,000 one year, its spent. They get a raise to $50,000 and its gone. They get the big promotion to $100,000 and still, they live paycheck to paycheck. You swear it wont happen to you. You imagine how much money youll have if you just made X amount. And then you get there and your expenses magically expand to fit your new salary. Flipping the problem Instead of trying to save, which doesnt seem to work for most people, what if you just made less money? What if your paycheck when down by 25% tomorrow? Youd cut back, right? When your checking got down to $100 youd skip eating out and figure out what to do with the 5 lbs of lentils you have sitting in your pantry. To me this is the easiest way to save. Not having money reduces all kinds of temptations and you can continue to live and spend like you normally do not really thinking about it, keeping an eye on your total in the bank and cutting back only when it gets too low. How to give yourself a pay cut Most banks let you link a checking and savings account and schedule automatic transfers online (if not, youll want to switch now, because this feature is important when youre on the road). Youll want to figure out your pain point, the least amount of money you can live on. For instance, add together your fixed, unavoidable expenses like rent/mortgage, utilities, car payments, gas, food and student loans. Gym membership is not an unavoidable expense. Neither is Netflix, magazine subscriptions, clothing, going out, or beer money. Next find your salary deduction amount:
Total salary - unavoidable expenses = salary deduction amount (i.e. savings) Set a transfer that is scheduled for the day after you get paid for that exact amount. It moves the money into savings before you ever have a chance to spend it. Does this work? I used this for about a year before quitting my job. My husband and I put away my entire paycheck. Yes, we had to majorly cut back. We moved into a smaller apartment, we didnt pay for internet or cable, we didnt use the heat (in Boston) until December 1st, and I got really creative with whole foods like rice, beans, lentils, homemade bread and so on. But we made it work. Since weve been traveling, I still put away everything I make, and we live on 25% as much as we did two years ago. These days, its easy. Were not saving, we rarely even think of money. Weve just been able to reset our spending so it allows us the freedoms to work less, travel more and live anywhere. Why its worth it After a few weeks, you find something amazing happening youre living on less than you thought possible. You might have more free time because you shop less (seriously). Youll begin looking at everything with a critical eye. Is it worth it? Can I do without it? Is there something cheaper I can get? When you reach this point, congratulations, youve broken the cycle. Welcome to Saving.
Formulating Your Own Personal Gut Check I wont presume to tell anyone whats best, thats up to you to figure out. Despite all the varying advice out there, there really is no right way. Will you tell the guy who left his massive debt behind, scrounged up $5,000 to start a business in Central America and ended up paying everything off faster than if he had stayed that he was wrong? Or will you look the other way at the post-doc who wanted to follow her passion and ended up living overseas, working her dream job, but unable to afford a house, to get married, or to have kids, when the time came? 1. You have to know what youre dealing with. If you dont already, you should know what your total debt is and what it costs you per month. So if that $100,000 law school degree is a monthly payment of $1200, then $500 of that is interest. The second part is as important as the first. You need to calculate what it costs you to travel. 2. What will this cost you? If youre planning to travel, say for one year, then the cost to you is your interest ($500 from the case above) per month. In this case, thats $6,000 for one year. Thats how much more debt youll have in a year if you defer payment. 3. Is this too much? You dont need a fancy table to tell you. If you see the number $6,000 and you say, ah well that puts it into perspective, I can deal with that then you have your answer. If you see $6,000 and you say, heck no, travel for one measly year is definitely not worth a $6,000 increase in debt then you too have your answer. How to Pay Off Debt
First, get professional help, if you can. I used the methods below when I was cleaning up my credit report post college recklessness and as I paid off my debt before travel (thats right, we took a year to pay off everything, including some old expenses from a short-lived business before we started traveling). 1. Get your credit reports from all three bureaus. 2. Call everyone you owe money to, tell them you are struggling to pay and see if you can make some arrangement. (Just do it!) 3. If your credit report is a big fat mess, sit down and write a letter and contest everything on your report. Debts are bundled and sold. You could be getting dinged from one $100 doctors fee you never knew about, not once but three times. From the doctor, from the collection agency he sold it to when you didnt pay, and finally from the next collection agency who bought your debt from the first. 4. Start paying everything with the lowest monthly rates you get from your creditors, so that you avoid no payment fees or more dings to your credit. If you have extra, pay down the smallest balances first. 5. Saving money comes last. Even if you invest your savings, chances are you wont out earn the interest on your debt. Pay everything off and then save. 6. Work the pyramid. I dont know where I first heard about this method, but every debt-guru seems to use it these days. Pay as much as you can across your debt. When a bill gets paid off, apply that amount to the next smallest bill. Keep working through your debt until youve paid everything off. Options for the Debt Weary So yes, paying everything off is ideal, but in the back of your mind, you just know that you are not going to do it. Thats okay; its not the end of the world to be in debt. Sure it sucks and sure its better and
cheaper to pay it off first, but its not a zero-sum game. Its not pay it off or die. Here are some interim steps you can take if travel is priority now: 1. Just pay the interest. Assuming you are living within your means now (if not, now is the time to start), then planning to pay just the interest on your debt will allow you to travel without putting you further behind. (From our example above, that would mean saving or earning an extra $6,000 during your year of travel). 2. Try to negotiate lower rates for what you can and pay off some of your debt. For instance, one reader wrote to me and mentioned her $130,000 student loans, but she also had $12,000 in credit card debt. For her, maybe it makes sense to eliminate the high interest credit card debt before traveling, but leaving her student loans in deferment. 3. If your deal is high student loans, you may be able to alleviate some of your responsibility and still travel at the same time (depending on the type are they Stafford or Perkins loans? Are they private loans?). I would check with your alumni office for programs, but you might also consider the Peace Corps and other volunteer positions abroad that help pay down debt and let you see another country. 4. If you have a large mortgage, its better to sell at a loss, than to go into foreclosure. If you are in the process of foreclosing, you might want to demand to see the original loan documents. This has worked for many homeowners to delay or stall completely the foreclosure process as its required by law that they have the original signed documents in order to collect on your loan. With the way home mortgages were packaged, sold, bundled into securities and resold, theres a fair chance that youre current mortgage company bought your loan as a part of a large bucket of loans and the paper work has long been lost. If I Didnt Say This Before
The best thing to do is to become debt free. Sure there are options, but its postponing the inevitable. If you can, pay it down.
Lesson #1: Dont take advice from people online. Even folks billing themselves as experts are often dead wrong. Forums? Fact, gossip and rumor (which one will you get?). Or worse, things that sound correct but are outdated. You may even be able to confirm these details with other sites (incorrect information tends to flourish). Ultimately, take everything with a thick grain of kosher salt. In the vein of bad advice, here are some other cringe worthy suggestions (all from various threads of Lonely Planets Thorntree forums): If you overstay your visa, try to leave the country via boat and avoid border control. Or, if you overstay, pretend like you lost your passport and get a new one from your embassy. Without a stamp theyll never know. If you get caught, just pretend like you dont have the money to pay the fee. If you get caught and they ban you, just go home, change your last name and get a new passport issued. The main reason why all of these things are a bad idea? You cant predict the outcome. Even if you hear 100 stories about people who got away with these or any number of schemesyou will still only probably be okay. Why? A certain number of people get busted but theres no way to know percentages. Anecdotal information is largely skewed towards positive results everyone loves telling and spreading a good story. The Im an idiot and can never go back to Indonesia story just doesnt play as well at parties. Times change. Policies can become more strict starting today. Theres no way to tell when it will become unsafe to break the law until enough people get busted and rumors spread, and word gets back to you possibly too late.
Computer systems change. Even if they dont look at your stamps and do the math, does scanning it tell them? What if that changes? Can they link your old passport number to your new one? How would you know, until its too late? Trying to get out of trouble by skipping the border or lying could massively backfire and compound your problems. What can happen if you overstay? Probably nothing Youll pay the guy a bribe and hell stamp your passport and let you go Big fines and theyll hold you until you pay them A black mark that will prevent you from ever getting a residency or work permit Jail until youre deported or pay fines Banned from the country until you pay fines Banned from the country for a set period of time (think years) Banned permanently A combination of any number of the above depending on where you are (not all apply everywhere)
Maybe everything will be fine, but depending on where you are or your luck, you could have a lot of problems. If youre serious about staying somewhere long term, wouldnt it be horrible to be locked out of the country as you take a short trip back home, all of your things left behind and unable to come back for 5 years? Do it if you must, just be aware of the consequences (and realize one positive story doesnt mean youll be all set).
How to really stay in a another country long term There are no short cuts. Asking how to get a residency visa or work permit is like asking how to get into college. It depends on where youre from, where you want to go, what qualifications you have and how much money you have. And like college its a pain in the butt but lots of people make it work. It takes time. Money. Patience. Lots of forms. Creativity. My husband and I are going through this process now. Some of it seems downright draconian (give a police report for every town you lived in for the past 5 years um what! for us, we cant even remember everywhere, never mind track those places down.) Every year people manage to get the legal permission needed to move abroad you can too. Here are some things to be aware of: There are multiple ways to qualify: being a student, having independent means, being self-employed, having family in country, having a grandparent or parent born in that country, making a substantial investment in the country, being a researcher, having an employer sponsor you and many more. The options vary widely from country to country and I only offer these items to illustrate that there is often more than one way to find your way into the country long term. Some countries wont let you stay or theyll make the qualifying criteria very narrow (like being married to a citizen or investing huge amounts of money). The general rule of thumb is to get your paperwork dealt with before you leave. There may be countries that allow you to extend your stay once youre there, but its always better to at least research before you go. For example, many places in Europe require you to get your residency visa from your home countrys embassy, a task that requires you be in your home country.
Getting permission to live somewhere and work somewhere are often very different things. The latter will often require (but not always!) an employer to sponsor you. It is possible to get the residency permit first, move abroad and get the work permit after you arrive depending on where you are. Keep that in mind as you research and plan. It could take a year or longer in some cases to get approved. You could also be denied. You know that saying about eggs and baskets? It applies here. Where to start researching? I would look for the embassy website in your country for that country. For example, if I wanted to move to Spain, Id Google Spain Embassy New York. There will be a million of websites that offer visa submission services something youll want to avoid. Sometimes they get a little clever and make their site look like an official website, so be careful. The official embassy will never charge you to download forms or to read the rules. When it is a good idea to read forums and take online advice? After youve found the official application and guidelines for your country, its not a bad idea to talk to other expats who have gone through this process about specific steps you have questions on. Good questions get better answers for example, How do I get a residency permit for France isnt very good, but I have a question about the bank statement requirement, does it have to be on official letterhead? much, much better. I would always double check their advice with someone official, but they may be able to give you ideas on how to satisfy certain requirements. Youll want to try to find an expatspecific website/forum since general travel forums can be chock full of really misleading information.
CHAMPVA/TriCare (Veterans ins): Will they cover you overseas? For Champva, probably not. They follow the same reimbursement rules as Medicare. For TriCare, probably yes. There are multiple plans, but more information is here. Privately purchase insurance: It depends. The same as your employer based coverage; this will be specific to your policy. Before purchasing, be sure to look for the same things as employer based coverage: Will they cover emergency evacuation? ER visits? Routine care? Is there a copay? Deductible (for instance youre responsible for the first $1000 of care)? Will you just pay out-of network fees? Is there a cap on coverage? So you dont have overseas coverage or youre under insured. Now what? The cheapest option is to buy something called Medical Travel Insurance. Bootsnall has a great roundup of options that I mentioned above for our non-US readers. Depending on your age, length of travel and which plan you choose you could pay between $40/mo for the under 30 set to over $200/mo for over 65. These plans are typically for up to one or two years. (Most of these plans dont pay for pre-existing conditions, so routine care for a known medical condition will not be covered. See below for more on pre-existing conditions). However, there are risks of not carrying traditional insurance like pre-existing conditions rules and gaps in coverage. Pre-existing condition is a term used in the insurance industry that basically means you got sick before you they started insuring you. Even if you dont detect the sickness, for example breast cancer, if they can reasonably prove that your breast cancer started before they covered you and you should have detected it with routine exams (which you skipped because you were traveling) they can refuse to pay your claims (sometimes effectively stopping your treatment). The only way to get around being excluded for a pre-existing condition is to have continuous coverage. That means having no more
than a 63 day gap in health insurance. Travel Medical Insurance is probably not going to be considered insurance for these purposes. And since its in the insurance companys best interest to not approve you, they will not give you slack. This isnt to scare you. Im mentioning this because some people asked me about it and you should know what your worst-case-scenario is. The good news is that if you did get denied for pre-existing condition. you do have other options. First, its not forever. Every state has a limit on how long they can deny you, so eventually can get care (12 months for some, 24+ months for others) so if its something minor, you may be able to put it off. Otherwise, you may qualify for a high-risk pool in your state, which will allow you to buy insurance at a very high rate, but will cover you for expensive illnesses. By the way, pregnancy is never a pre-existing condition, so if you (or your partner) get pregnant, and then get insurance youll always be covered. Preventing a gap in coverage: Obviously if you have a medical condition, like diabetes, that you receive regular medical treatment for or you are of the age that you would be concerned about having gaps in coverage, then there are options for buying coverage. Even if it doesnt cover you overseas fully, you can supplement with travel insurance for any emergencies and pay routine medical costs out of pocket (Im making some assumptions here that were talking about insulin shots, not chemotherapy). The cheapest option is to get something through an employer. Nows the time to double check and see if being a digital nomad working remotely for a US based employer as you travel, is a good fit. If so, you can get coverage and finance your trip at the same time.
If this is not an option many professional and trade organizations offer their members insurance at a discounted rate. This is cheaper than buying on the open market, because they can buy in bulk, like your employer does. If youre a lawyer, work in the medical profession, have a trade group for design, acting, writing, boat making anything, be sure to check out the member benefits. You could save a few hundred bucks just for signing up. For the writers out there, Media Bistro has an insurance plan for its members. Finally, if youre not able to find an employer or organization to get affordable insurance, you can begin looking on the open market. If youre high risk, you may have a hard time getting coverage or be quoted extremely high rates. Some states in the US have a high-risk pool that makes it cheaper. For those seeking permanent residency: Be sure to check the rules for your specific country, because its not uncommon for them to require health insurance (often quoting specific coverage amounts) before giving you a residency visa or permit. Summary What Should I Get? Medical travel insurance is always a good idea, because even if your health plan covers overseas ER visits, they may not cover everything (like medical evacuation). For most people under 30, gaps in coverage arent a big deal. If you decide to pay out of pocket for normal hospital bills (as they come up) and given that youre a normal healthy 20-year-old, youll probably be okay as long as you have some medical travel insurance in case something major happens. For folks over 30 and more so every year, I would have both traditional medical insurance plus travel insurance to cover those gaps. Until things change in the US, I would personally be really scared about having my life-saving treatment postponed because its considered a pre-existing condition.
For those with medical conditions, you have a big expense. It really may be worth it to look seriously into finding an employer who you can manipulate/bribe/beg to let you work overseas, because high-risk insurance can be extremely expensive. On the other hand, if you save for it, its similar to paying off the mortgage for a year. Whats the healthcare like overseas? I cant speak to most places, but I found the ER in Madrid to be very nice. Hopefully you wont have to find out. If you want research in advance, the Expat Forum as an excellent round up by country.
Paying Bills There are three ways Ive had to pay bills back home. Calling the company directly (using Skype) to make a payment with my debit card, using the online pay feature (if supported) with my bank or setting an automatic EFT. Id suggest getting 100% online with your bill paying before you leave. This means going through each bill and figuring out what theyll accept. Sometimes there are forms to sign (in the case of EFT) and its just easier to handle before you go. Id also set up a PayPal account and have your bank account verified with them, just in case you need to transfer money on the road (its cheaper and easier than Western Union if you need someone to send you emergency funds although it can take 3-5 days to land in your bank account) Vote! First, are you registered? Yeah, youll want to do that. Then its easy to vote from overseas and online. When the time comes go to http://www.fvap.gov/ Renewing Your Driving License Yes, you should probably do this before you go, but it is possible to do it online for many states. First, change your address to your new online mail box, so the license gets sent to the correct place. Next follow your states DMV steps for online renewal. Finally when the license hits your online mail box, you can pay to have it shipped overnight to your current location. The shipping may cost you but its cheaper than flying back home to renew. (You can probably only do this once, they typically want to update your picture for the next renewal). Depositing Checks
As I mentioned above, Earth Class Mail (and other services) offer check depositing services, if you get mailed a check. Personally I prefer to avoid that and try to get all of my payments either through PayPal (convenient even if the payer doesnt have an account, they can still use their credit card to send you money) or through direct deposit. Making and Receiving Phone Calls If you havent heard of Skype, go check it out. I use their paid service so that I have a permanent phone number people can call no matter where I am in the world. Skype also allows you to have those incoming calls forwarded to your local cell phone, so even if youre offline, you can still connect. However, it has some problems. Its perfect for calling back home, but a little shaky for business calls. To be fair, its not all Skypes fault your internet speed is going to be a big factor. But what if youre traveling through a country that has slow internet everywhere? If you need to make work related calls, I highly suggest getting a cheap local pay-as-you-go phone as you travel. Ive also tried to use my Blackberry overseas, but the fees are just too high, even with AT&Ts socalled world travelers program. Getting Prescriptions Overseas This one is tricky. If anyone knows a better way, please let me know. We have struggled with this as my husband takes meds for ADD. The amazing thing is, its so easy to get a prescription in many parts of the world (walk into a pharmacy and tell the doctor on call what you want). The cost to pay out of pocket was often cheaper than our copay back home. The big problem? Getting the drugs. He uses a specific brand and it works. But it wasnt available in many places. Or if it was, they wouldnt have very
much. Or theyd only give us 10mg instead of his prescribed 30mg. Wed go to half a dozen pharmacies in each city trying to track it down not fun. Now, we get a three month supply in advance (the most our insurance will allow) and have them delivered to a family member back home, who then mails them to us overseas. Its not the most elegant solution, but it will guarantee you have the exact prescription you need. Seeing Your Mom (or other loved one) Yes, travel rocks, but youll probably have family just dying to see your face. There are a lot of programs out there for video chat (Skype has it, so does Microsoft Live Messenger), so it might behoove you to make sure that: a) your mom has a web cam and knows how to use it (before you go) and b) that you have a web cam that youve tested. My laptop has one built in and I use it like crazy with my husband when were apart. He was able to get a cheap $10 web cam attachment for his PC that works just fine. There will be a lag, and depending on your internet speed it could be significant, but chatting via video is a very nice way to keep in touch.
make a decision on whether or not to proceed. One idea fails, another succeeds. Forget for a moment that you have to figure out how to use Google adwords or build a website or how to set up a buy now button or a dummy sales page or save enough money to pay someone else to do it or learn what click through rate is good enough to start your business. Youre really smart, that will only take you, what, 30 minutes? But then, what if your idea doesnt work? How many ideas will it take? Eventually you will find a business that is profitable and requires no hand holding. But when? In a year? In two? Are you really earning passive income if its the result of slowly building up your business over a few years? I dont think so. And Tim Ferriss, the wonderful marketer that he is, knows this too. Hes built his brand with hard work and lots of hours. He loves it, so he doesnt count that time (as he says on his own blog). Will you love your passive business? Ok, fine, lets get to it. How to make more money Transition from your day job to self employment. In most careers there is a limit to how much can make. If you truly want to increase your earning potential, you have to cut out the middle man: your boss. As long as the company makes money off of you, youll always be making less than youre worth on the open market. The added benefit of starting a business is that you can also outsource your responsibilities for less and by building efficiencies you can profit off of other peoples work. This all takes time, a learning curve and a bit of luck. Dont spend as much. I know spending feels like a reward for all that hard work, but unless you get control of it, youll outspend your earnings, no matter what you make. Cut your spending in half and you just gave yourself a 50% raise. Calculate your per hour rate. If youre working a full-time job, calculate the hours you spend, from getting into your car in the morning, to getting out at the end of the day. Ill guess its about 10 hours a
day or more. Then divide your take home pay by the number of hours you spend working. I did this once when I was a manager at a small publishing firm and came up with $13/hr. It was my first big job of college, but it wasnt until after I did the math, that I realized my new 80+ hour job wasnt actually paying me that well. If youre a freelancer, this number is your cost to your client minus your overhead. Cut loose those activities that arent moving you forward. Were not just talking about low paying clients, but also those networking events that havent resulted in a promotion in five years or spending a few extra hours at work each week with no raise. Ask yourself, is this helping me move forward or is it giving me the illusion of action? Am I spinning my wheels and seeing very little movement forward? Its time to treat your income like the big experiment that it is. Try something, monitor the results, then move on. Keep what works, ditch what doesnt. Dont just turn your hobby into your business. Its tempting, but dont do it. Instead use the skills you have, even the boring ones, as your base. So instead of starting an ill-advised career writing about high school football, use that accounting degree to start your business. It doesnt have to be an on-the-nose interpretation of it, for instance, you might combine football and accounting (having a website with exhaustive stats and performance predictions) to give you an edge over other folks. The first question should always be: what is my competitive edge? Dont wait for the big idea. This always kills me, because I know people in my life who have been talking about starting their own business for ever. Have they started? Nope. They are waiting for the big idea. The problem is it doesnt work like that. The way to figure things out is to get in there. Youre not informed enough to know which ideas are big, and which ones stink until you take some time playing with the real-world applications. Test the idea on some people. Do a sample run. Try it out as a side
project for a few months. You will learn so much and then it will come to you the big idea that changes everything. First, you have to get your hands dirty. Oh, and Its Not the Money Preventing You From Traveling I used to think like that too. Thats why I waited until I was over 30 to do something about it. I finally hit all my financial goals and I was left thinking, Huh? Thats it? I still had to go through the same process as everyone else having money didnt change a thing. No one ever has enough, but the truth is you already have plenty. It doesnt take more than a minimum wage job and a year to save. Youll get that next raise or promotion or big bonus check and it doesnt mean a thing. Its you. You have to want to travel. You have to commit to doing it. The money thing, its just a thing, no more and no less than getting your passport or booking a flight. Its a detail to be handled. Its not going to give you permission to travel. Its not going to change your life for you. Put it on the list, but keep it there. Make more money if you want, but dont let it become more than it is a means of exchange so you can buy your life back.
Create or update your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a great tool for keeping in touch with everyone you know on the job front. Its particularly useful for job search networking, because you can see where former coworkers are working just by checking their profile. Go ahead and connect LinkedIn with your work email before you leave, so that you can link to those people who are currently using the site. Some people get recommendations, but I think this can wait until you return and itll be a way to let people know youre currently looking for work. Get recommendations and the little details now. Depending on your career level, a written recommendation may help you get your next job. Or they may want to speak directly with those people youve worked with before. Most people remember to get recommendations before they leave, but also email yourself the numbers of your HR department, your employers address, the general phone line at your company, and your references phone numbers (and personal emails in case they change jobs). It may seem obvious now, but in a year you may have completely forgotten some of the routine details you take for granted now. Say goodbye with grace and humility. Ive known a few people who have quit dramatically, and believe me, your coworkers will never forget you if you announce your departure with, See ya later, suckers! as you flip your desk and run screaming out the door. A quiet exit, performed professionally, will buy you goodwill when you need it most: in your future job hunt. Todays coworker could be tomorrows interviewing manager. Best to play nice.
Then the real fun begins. Your imagination, sensing an opportunity to shine, will step in. Not only will you be traveling a world filled with danger, everything will go wrong and youll be powerless to fix any of it. Youll be homeless and penniless; ruing the day you ever decided to travel the world. You are freaking out. Dont worry it happens to everyone. You are not crazy. Crazy is never taking a chance on yourself, living a life based on fear. You can do this. Once you get out there, youll see its surprisingly easy to do. It only sounds hard. Youre not going to screw up your life. You made your life what it is and youll still have those same skills and qualities that got you where you are now. Give yourself some credit. Your life isnt as fragile as you
think. Let go. When you release something youre holding onto because of fear, you make room for a surprising number of positive things. About being selfish or immature it can be painful take something we really want. It feels like we havent earned it. We cant claim it for ourselves because were waiting for someone to give it to us. They arent coming. The difference between the people who live the life they want and everyone else? They just do it. They make the decision, come up with a game plan and make it reality. Just like youre doing now. This is the hardest part. Youre amazing. Youre almost there. You can do this. You may come back to this feeling several times during your planning. When you sell the house. When you sell your things. The day you quit your job. I stayed up late on many occasions, trying to convince my husband to let me cancel the whole thing. I can promise you one thing: I swear that you will feel completely different once you leave. Youll be amazed at how stressed you were before and how far away and distant that feels. Youll wonder why you didnt do this years ago. Everything will change, but you wont want to change a thing. The hardest part is the first step. Traveling? Thats cake.
rented and waiting for us in Madrid for the summer. While I took short trips out to Dublin, Paris, and Lisbon, he stayed behind and enjoyed easing into travel at his own pace. By the end of the summer, he couldnt wait to travel more with me. If your partner is balking at backpacking around, the idea of renting a villa in Italy for the summer might be more palatable. Be willing to handle all of the details In the beginning, this meant not only taking care of all the travel plans, but being willing to explain how it will all work. If your partner is hesitant, they may be feeling some anxiety about everything that could go wrong. Addressing this proactively will take some of the energy out of the resistance. The good news is that with travel experience, your partner will become more and more comfortable with the often ambiguous nature of travel my husband had no problem backpacking last spring with me through Central America with little more than a LP and a vague notion of heading north. Assuage their fears Are they concerned about safety? Getting sick from the water? The expenses being more than you can afford? This is where doing the research (with documentable, reliable sources) can help. Last summer, my husband was worried about me traveling to Croatia, but a couple of US travel advisories (there are no stay away warnings for Croatia) eliminated that concern. Give them the reliable information they need to be convinced. If they cant, you still can Last fall, my husband was helping his dad with his house, so he couldnt travel. Instead of sulking around the house, we decided to send me to Central America for Spanish lessons. If youre unable to convince your partner, or they just cant go with you, it is okay to travel alone. In fact, youll find it to be a completely different experience from traveling as a couple youll make tons more friends, locals are
more likely to approach you and theres a value to being able to travel 100% independently. Youre likely to learn a lot about yourself and return happier and refreshed. Finally, be patient Its a big decision to travel long term. Some folks take a while to warm up to the idea. That doesnt mean they wont ever travel or that youll be doing it solo forever. If you love it, your partner is bound to want to share that with you.
respond to change than about you. Some people get angry, others laugh it off. It has very little to do about whether they will eventually come around. The first time you mention it, your only job is to answer their questions and ignore everything else. Now is not the time to accuse them of not supporting you or letting yourself participate in an argument. Its okay to address it, but try to do so diplomatically, I understand that this might take some time for you to get used to the idea. Timing the Conversation The best time to start telling people is when youre solid in your decision and have made major steps (like buying an airline ticket, setting a date or saving a good portion of money). Testing the idea on other people, before youre committed could work or it could establish you as a bit flaky and make more serious conversations difficult later. Or worse they could talk you out of it, before youve had a chance to work it out for yourself. If youre looking for a benchmark about three months before your departure date seems to be a good balance. It means that youre close to leaving, but with plenty of time for people to adjust to the idea and say their goodbyes. When They Dont Come Around You broach the subject, let their negative comments roll off your back, give them plenty of time to adjust, but sometimes, some people in your life will have a hard time supporting your decision. Inherent in the decision to travel long term is an implied judgment call. Youve decided something else would be better. Sometimes, to someone on the receiving end, that can feel like:
Youre not just leaving, youre leaving them. Youre not just changing your life, youre saying your old life was broken (which included them) Youre not just giving up material possessions, but saying they arent important. This might manifest itself as comments like, It must be nice or Id love to travel but Ive got to work or Not everyone can go jet-setting around the world or Once youre done with this phase. Dont drive yourself crazy over it. Have compassion for your loved ones. Even though they are being a bit hurtful, really what they are saying is dont go! Its possible they might not support it until you come back home. You cant force it. Let them feel and behave how they want, and hopefully theyll come around over time. Oh My Gosh, Were So Going to Visit You! For all the warnings Ive issued about the potential negative reactions, you could be one of the lucky ones with a super supportive and instantly understanding family. In fact, they may be so excited that you get multiple offers to meet you on your travels. This is great. Except well, you might not think so once youre on the road. Overstaying in a few locations can put you off schedule and force you to rush (when youd rather stay) or skip things in order to meet people on certain dates. In your excitement to see friends and family on the road, you might be creating a situation where youll later resent the imposition. And Yes You Have to Do It Its like taking off a band-aid, just rip it off. Say the words and its done. Im quitting my job/selling the house/starting a business and traveling the world.
You Are Not Looking for Sites, Youre Searching for Experiences If you dont plan, show up somewhere and wait for something to happen probably nothing will. As a former-vacationer, you might be used to the kind of travel that involved checking monuments and museums off a list. Your mindset needs to change. The most memorable times of your travels wont be at the foot of some attraction, snapping the same picture as a million other tourists. No, itll be the seaside fish stew you made with the local who rented you a bike that morning. Itll be the family you stayed with because of a chance encounter and helping the kids set the table and practicing their language. Or itll be a sun-drenched day, in a spot you only found because you got incurably lost, but discovered something more beautiful and rare than your intended destination. How do these things happen? You seek them. Like a tourist seeks items on their list you seek experiences. You smile at people and make eye contact. You start a conversation and let it naturally unfold. Say yes, even if youre not sure. Get lost. Do something on a whim. Youre open to anything. Plan, But Dont Commit A plan is what you follow when nothing else interesting happens. You might pick out a hotel for the first night, so you can collapse after a long day of travel, but the next day you might walk around town to see if theres somewhere better. You might make plans to take a certain train or bus to the next town, but only if something better doesnt occur to you. If youre not feeling a place, you leave. You dont feel bad that you didnt spend enough time somewhere. You dont compare yourself to other travelers. Maybe you may have countries on your list that you skip altogether in order to spend another month where you are. A plan is just a plan. Its not what happens. Let Go of Expectations
As you travel, you might find old expectations haunting you. You imagined this big trip for so long and now the phantom memories of those days cloud what youre really doing. You might have had big ideas about how many pictures you would take or how fluent youd become or how youd actually end up spending your day. More than likely you imagined squeezing every glorious drop out of this experience and that meant - at the time - doing as much as possible. Now on the road, things are slower. Youre perfectly happy skipping the 100th old church in order to play chess in the street. But still, you feel a little bad. Are you wasting it? No! Its okay to be disappointed. In fact youll likely feel all kinds of negative emotions at some point in your trip. Its not about not feeling those things. Its about feeling it, and then letting it go. Why? Because this isnt about what other people think, and especially not what a pre-trip you thought your travels would be. So be lazy one day and skip the big important thing. You wont die. You should do whatever you want. And in the end, itll be there for you later. The New You You walk out the door in search of breakfast, with no idea of where a place might be, what the menu actually says or what kind of food youll be eating. When people ask where youre going next, you offer an annoyingly vague (to the asker) response, like, I dont know, I was thinking south. You sign into your hostel, but you dont give an end date. You might leave that night or in a month. You always seem to be meeting people, making friends and bringing unlikely groups together. Someone asks you offhandedly if you want to hike the volcano tomorrow morning and you say yes, even though morning is only 4 hours away. You spend the first day in any new place, just walking around. You have that story or a few of them: the month on a strangers yacht in the south pacific, or living in a monastery with the sisters in
perfect silence or working at a vineyard just because. Its those things you remember, what youll consider the best times. Its the adventure you never planned.
Never put anything you dont want to lose in a pocket, backpack or purse, especially if the zippers face away from your body. Only carry as much cash as you need, stash the rest away. Avoiding getting robbed Ha. There is no way to completely avoid it. Everyone gets robbed, eventually, if you travel enough so stop blaming the victim. Besides, its just money. You can try these: Dont look like a tourist: too late you already do, even your trying looks like a tourist. Listen, I can tell if someone is from Revere, MA vs. Leominster, MA dont you think there are subtle cues that are going to be screaming Hey this guy is not from around here. So yes, maybe not wearing a t-shirt with the countrys name on it might help, but I kind of doubt that pickpockets are that discriminating. You are a foreigner and foreigners have money. Even the stinky hippie backpacker ones. Dont leave your stuff unattended: Yeah, this works great until you start traveling. If youre going anywhere, that means taking a flight, a bus or a train. Three perfectly good reasons to be separated from your luggage and three great times for the other travelers and/or the staff to rifle through your stuff. You have to trust and hope. Keep the most valuable things physically on you and if you go to sleep, sit on them. Most of the time they wont lift you up to steal your stuff, but dont be surprised if they do that too. Dont wear fancy clothes or otherwise look affluent. Yes, this makes sense if youre wearing diamond studded tiaras, but for the most part this falls under the same rule as looking like a tourist. So sure, leave the suit made out of 100 dollar bills at home, but otherwise dont worry about it. Affluence is affluence and trying to send socio-economic signals saying that youre not upper middle class, but more like usedcar-Target-shopping lower middle class to people who make $400 a year is kind of a waste of time.
Scams, Hot Girls, and Dumb Things We Do If you want to worry about something, there are some common ways to separate tourists from their money. Someone at your hostel got robbed! Or an American approaches you on the street they have been robbed and just need some money to get back home. Or they are having money Western Unioned to them but it wont get here until tomorrow can you loan them a few dollars? Probably they are lying. Help them if you want, but do they look like a regular traveler or are they a little rough around the edges? Maybe living on the street, doing drugs? Just saying. An incredibly hot girl wants to talk to you (youre a guy). She is smoking hot and just wants to hang out and get drunk. You wake up the next morning with a bad headache and empty wallet. Did she drug you? Maybe. Probably she just got you drunk then cleaned out your cash. Professional Con Artists. I met one of these in Cancun on my way to Cuba. He kept telling us stories of him as a musician, saying he opened for Bjork, but then later it was Red Hot Chile Peppers. Hmm. Then he invited us out for drinks and bought us all a round. Oops, his wallet was missing. Could we cover him? I left after a bit, but my friend got completely hosed on a huge drink bill and some other not-sonice-stuff. We saw him around the rest of the week working his circuit. As For Everything Else You already have the common sense you need, so dont buy a safety whistle or pepper spray just yet. If youre traveling with kids, keep them close in crowds. If youre going out drinking, take a cab home instead of walking the streets late at night. You know, common sense stuff youd probably do anyway. Sometimes it might feel like everyone just wants your money, but mostly theyre willing to just
overcharge you on knickknacks for it. World poverty is a serious issue but for the most part the people you meet will be more helpful and kind than you could possibly deserve. It will hurt and make you mad to have something stolen, but only for a bit. Youll get better at reading people. Youll sense when someone is trying to sell you, even when there is no product on the table. Youll spend more time fending off vendors than watching out for criminals. After a bit youll feel just as safe as you do at home.
Depending on the site, you may be blocked from accessing programming because of your location if its outside the US. How do they know where you are? When you connect to the internet you are assigned an IP address, which is just a series of numbers. These numbers are issued by location so its easy for a website programmer to write code to block people from certain countries. How to get around blocked sites You need to hide your location and make it look like youre in the US. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a VPN, which connects you to a third party server and they connect to your destination website, making it look like youre coming from where ever that server is, not your actual location. There are sites that do this for free. Hotspot Shield is a good example. But, websites like hulu.com have gotten smart to this and have blocked people with IPs from Hotspot shield too. Other methods are TOR, which is a free download or Hidemynet.com which costs $5 per month. Since the technology changes so often, an easy search online can tell you the latest methods. How to watch Hulu overseas should give you lots of results. (Tip: look at the date of the post, then read the latest comments. What worked six months ago might not work now.) Indirect streaming People are constantly uploading the latest episodes to sites like Youtube.com but these days they tend to get pulled faster than you can even watch them. Project Free TV and Sidereel are two sites that collect the uploads from various sites and just post the links. You can find everything from movies to HBO series to last nights Glee. Torrent Download
So far weve talked about streaming, which means that it downloads as you watch, so you shouldnt have a significant wait to start watching. If your internet is very slow, or you want to watch it later offline (like on a plane or bus) then downloading the full program first as a torrent is the way to go. The way torrents work is that many people have a copy of the file and you download a little from each person. There is software that handles this: vuze.com. To find the torrent file, sites like thepiratebay.com, demonoid.com and limewire.com have lots of listings. Pay and watch Netflix, iTunes and Amazon offer video on-demand services. This means you can buy an episode or a movie and download it to watch immediately. Go local You can always get copies of movies locally, where ever you are. They are often cam versions of movies with subtitles. Oh and expect a 6 month to 1 year delay from US release to availability.
cool. But are they better travelers? I dont buy it. Were all out there. Any distinctions are the constructs of travelers trying to elevate themselves above the rabble. Were all tourists. Even the most experienced traveler is just another clumsy foreigner in a new land. The only thing you have to worry about right now is enjoying it. Sometimes that will be hard. Traveling can be exhausting. Getting lost annoying. Strange food disgusting. But if you can laugh it off and chalk it up as part of the big adventure, you can officially call yourself a traveler. Dont forget to send me a postcard.
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