It is a common dream to set up a guest house in a foreign country and live in paradise. I certainly have considered it. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a tropical climate and have a profitable business funding your lifestyle? However, running a business, especially one in a foreign country, is not always glamorous and exciting. In this interview, I talk to Mike Henry, who has recently bought a guest house in Bali with his wife. He shares what it is really like to own and run a guest house. (Also, check out this 2009 interview with Mike when he just arrived in Bali.)

Please tell us about your guest house in Bali.

Our guesthouse is located on the north coast of Bali in the village of Anturan and about 6km from Singaraja, Bali’s second largest city. It comprises of just four guestrooms, a restaurant, a pool and our own house.

What is Bali like?

I have lived in Bali for nearly two years. There are many things I like about Bali, the weather, the culture, the easy going nature of the people and the scenery. There is still a very strong…

I am a huge fan of great, simple ideas. When I first heard of the TropicalMBA, I thought it was a brilliant concept with lots of potential. Just the name alone, conveys all the information you need to know. What better way to learn about business, then interning with a successful entrepreneur in an exotic country? In this interview, Dan Andrew talks about how he started the TropicalMBA, how he makes money and gives advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Please tell us about yourself

After studying philosophy in college, I sort of blindly jumped in to business because I assumed that business guys had a lot of freedom in terms of how they spent their time and where they can be located. I didn’t really have a plan, but in retrospect I think I was right about the business thing. Being an entrepreneur allows me a great deal of freedom in how I spend my time and I also get to be creative, which is really important to me.

It took me a little while to figure out how to get the kind of freedom I was looking for. I started my business…

26 year old professional day trader Marcello Arrambide of WanderingTrader.com works a couple of hours a day trading futures while travelling the world. In this interview Marcello explains what day trading is, how he got started and talks about some of his travels.

Interview Summary

01:11 Where are you now?

(Buenos Aires)

01:39 What is day trading?

(Essentially taking profits from the differences in moves in the stock market.)

02:04 What exactly are you trading?

(Indexed futures.)

04:50 Do you make money on every trade?

(No, losing is part of the game. It is all about probability. Make sure you win more than you lose.)

05:18 Do you have negative months or weeks?

(No, negative days. That is about it. When people get consistent enough it is rare to have losing days in a row.)

05:50 Do you have some algorithm or computer program that helps you determine when to buy and sell?

(It is a set of indicators. It is not a red light or green light that tells you when to get in. There is a set of rules you have to follow but within those rules there is some wiggle room for discretion in…

Breakfast in Hungary

Many travelers hope a travel blog is going to provide enough income to have a location independent lifestyle. What could be better than getting paid to write about your travel experiences? The problem is that blogging is one of the most difficult ways to earn an income online. It takes a phenomenal ongoing effort to write and promote posts and even then you have to steer topics towards selling something; you don’t make money by writing an online travel diary. There are much more effective, faster and reliable ways to earn money while traveling.

Want to be a Millionaire?

Imagine if you had one hundred thousand dollars in the bank. In today’s financial climate, you would be pretty lucky to earn a safe 3% per year or $3,000 ($250 per month). That means if you could make $250 per month in regular passive income, it would be the equivalent of having $100,000 in savings. If you could ratchet that up to $2500 per month you would in fact have the income of a millionaire. ($1,000,000 X 3% = $30,000 per year. $30,000 / 12 = $2,500 per month)

Elusive Passive Income

The…

It is difficult to make money online. It is even harder if you avoid all the cheesy sales pitches and fake scarcity building tactics and offer a legitimate product for sale. The problem is that there is so much to learn and so much crap online that it is hard to find real, valuable information and advice.

I believe ThirdTribeMarketing is a great way to learn and be part of a community with some of the top names in blogging. I hate to include sales pitches and affiliate programs on my blogs and so I debated for the last month or so whether or not I should recommend Third Tribe. The only reason I am mentioning it now is because prices are going to more than double from $47 to $97 on June 1st. If you are looking to invest time into learning more about making money online then ThirdTribeMarketing is a great way to go. (And yes, I will make an affiliate commission if you buy through these links.)

While $47 is a lot of money every month,…

Lifestyle Design Entrepreneur, Corbett Barr

I love watching people succeed through hard work and talent. I often say that we live in amazing times, because anyone with focus and dedication and rise to the top. Corbett Barr is one of those people that I have admired since his blogging beginnings just over a year ago. He has managed to build two popular blogs, start several other business ventures and live location independent in Mexico for a good portion of the year. Corbett has the talent and dedication to accomplish big things. If you want to track the progress of a rising Internet celebrity, than I recommend watching and learning from everything he does.

Please tell us a little about your background

I’m a 30-something former careerist who traded salary and perks for doing what I love and living anywhere.

After growing up in typical American suburbia, I jumped on the career hamster wheel and ended up as a management consultant working for Fortune 500 clients. I traveled across the country and worked on projects that helped giant corporations make more money or become more efficient. It paid well and everyone I worked with was whip-smart,…

The Secret of My Success

In a recent email, a reader of this blog asked me how I became so successful. He read in one of my posts about how I moved to Japan on one week’s notice with no job, no work visa and only $1000 to my name and later became a jet-setting global rock star celebrity. (Okay, I added the ‘jet-setting global rock star celebrity part ‘ for added effect. )

Here is the Secret to my Success

The short answer is … I am not successful. Most people, myself included, tend to glamorize or even exaggerate successes and hide set backs or negative aspects of their lives. Don’t believe everything you read or hear because you are only getting the positive side of the story.

I am not rich. I am not famous. I am not particularly smart or talented either. I am just an ordinary person that is not afraid of hard work. When…

Interview with Nathan Hangen of Beyond Blogging

Nathan Hangen is half of the superstar marketing team that published the hugely popular ebook Beyond Blogging recently. Nathan also happens to be in the US military and was stationed in Afghanistan. He shares some of his experiences and advice in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

Well, I’ll start by saying I’m 31 going on 19…feel like I’ve gone back in time over the past few years…much of which has to do with finding myself through my entrepreneurial ventures.

I have a wife, Heather, and 2 kids (a 3rd due any minute).

I’ve worked in every industry you can imagine…fast food, service, retail, manufacturing…etc.When I was 18, I worked for a very big company called Lexis Nexis…and having a job there was like a ticket to retirement. You just didn’t question a job like that. But then suddenly, they started laying off people that had worked there for their entire lives…it was really tough to watch…so I quit and went back to school. I just couldn’t take it being in an environment like that. The magic was gone.…

Entrepreneur in Costa Rica, David Horn

Most of us are interested in starting a business but we also want to travel. Why not do both? Entrepreneur and restaurateur David Horn shares his experiences living, working and opening a restaurant in Costa Rica.

How did you end up in Costa Rica?

I was living in New York City after I graduated college, working anywhere between 10 and 18 hour days in the special events and catering business. I hated it and didn’t see any end in sight. I’ve always felt there is more to life than work, work, work so I started looking for opportunities outside of the U.S. I ended up getting hired by a travel agency in San Jose, Costa Rica and, within a few weeks, I packed up my stuff, subleased my apartment and took off to Costa Rica. I figured if things didn’t work out that the worst case scenario would be I’d have a mini-vacation before having to find another job in the U.S.

How did you find that travel agent job?

I posted my resume on a website called TicoJobs and they contacted me.

Is

…

Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a little skeptical about making easy money online. The people who say it is easy are generally trying to sell you something. I have found someone that is proving me wrong. Pat Flynn created a $200,000 a year passive income stream in a few short months. It now takes less than 15 minutes a day to maintain. Pat offers extensive details into his business and his advice for online entrepreneurs in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

Before we start, I just wanted to say thanks for the opportunity to share my story with you and your readers. Looking back, I never would of fathomed the idea of anyone interviewing me about anything, unless it was for a job interview or something like that. I am deeply humbled, and I hope I can provide you with some inspiring and useful answers.

My background is actually in the field of architecture. I went to school at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated with a B.A. in Architecture in 2005. I immediately began working for…