Will takes in the views over the Spanish countryside

The top problem for most aspiring long-term travellers is how to earn enough income on the road. Travelling off of savings is great way to start, but what happens when you run out of money. If your travel bug is going to turn into a location independent lifestyle, you will need to start working on the road.

More often than not, that means doing some type of freelancing work. Many also try their hand at travel writing, for their own blogs or other sites. Will Peach does all of the above. In this interview, Will shares his experiences working for sites like Gap Daemon and Vagabundo Magazine, as well as SEO article writing and consulting. He shows that you don’t need to earn much money on abroad if you can keep your costs low.

Please tell us about your travel background?

Hi guys! First off let me envelop you all in a nice warm “Will Peach” hug and wish you all the best for the year ahead. Right, now that the sexual tension is out the way, let’s continue onward.

I started travelling as a wee nipper making my first trip abroad a few short years after having sprung from the womb. Growing up under the heavy influence of my travel-curious dad, I had the fortune of going on vacation to quite a few destinations during my childhood. Stand out trips include a month long tour of Australia at the age of 12, holidaying in Kenya at 14 and a tour of California in my awkward teenage years. I hardly saw much of my native England!
Needless to say this taste of travel spilled over into my adulthood. At university I was lucky enough to do a year abroad at the University of Miami and after graduating I upped sticks and went to live in Vietnam for a year and a half. I’m still not done yet!

Where are you now?

The past few months I’ve been living in a little city called Cáceres in Extremadura, Spain (quite close to the Portuguese border). I came to live in Spain primarily because I had the crazy ambition of becoming the first person in my family to become fluent in a language other than English (and, if I choose to believe my grandmother, Irish). Since moving here however I’ve found that Spain really floats my boat. Right now I’m back in London for the holidays but, depending on when you read this, I’ll be back out in Spain in a new location working on my goal. If you’re interested in reading about my experiences and checking out my progress check out my site My Spanish Adventure.

Will enjoying Caceres' old quarter

What are you living expenses in Spain?

A lot cheaper than when I was living in London! In Cáceres I was paying just 100 Euros a month in rent (for a room in a shared apartment). For food I was probably paying around another 180 Euros a month (eating out maybe a couple of times a week) and for entertainment (which there wasn’t a great deal of maybe 200 Euros). I spent most of my “entertainment” money on travelling around the area getting to see cool places like Seville and Mérida.

How do you earn an income now?

Ah this is the bit where I give away all my secrets isn’t it? Well the bulk of my money I earn from my role as an editor at Gap Daemon (that accounts for maybe 50% of my monthly income). Then I work with a few different clients in the SEO world and provide writing for them on a freelance basis. My earnings per month vary wildly (depending on how much freelance stuff gets sent my way) but have always been enough to cover my outgoings.
Recently I’ve been working on other projects designed to bring in some income further down the line. I’m trying to push my SEO writing work more into consultancy (willpeach.com is my base for this) and also running a few different travel sites in the hope of monetisation in the coming months. I’ve also taken an editorial role at Vagabundo Magazine, which I hope will help prop me up too.

My earnings are still very much a work in progress and I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert in this area. Still I love being the master of my own fate and this way of living is certainly the one for me.

Please tell us more about Gap Daemon and Vagabundo

Gap Daemon is a gap year website for backpackers and young travellers that provides people with a network to help record and prepare their travels as well as meet other people while out on the road. I actually got involved with them over a year ago when I worked in a full time capacity as a site editor in their London offices. Deciding to go travelling myself I was fortunate enough to have them support me. Right now I’m helping to add to their ever-increasing information resource by writing articles and recording podcasts with travellers around the world. It’s pretty cool work!

Vagabundo Magazine is an online travel magazine run by Brendan Van Son, a pretty well known Canadian photographer and travel writer. I got involved with them after writing a few articles for the digital magazine and asking Brendan if there was anything more I could help out with. Right now Brendan and I are working together to bring Vagabundo Magazine to the masses by expanding our activity on social media (particularly Twitter) and continuing to provide great travel stories and inside destination guides from around the world. Be sure to check it out!

How did you find those job opportunities?

I found the opportunity at Gap Daemon after working in the trade press here in London for a while (I had a big portfolio of travel writing and blogs from my time in Vietnam to help support my application). Back then they were just starting out so I had the good fortune of joining them after only a few months of operation.

Vagabundo Magazine came off the back of me writing for it and contacting Brendan. If I had to give any advice to people looking for similar opportunities I’d say networking with bloggers or writers in the field (simply by shooting them emails and telling them you’re fans of their work) is definitely the way to go.

In one of the frustrating moments of learning Spanish abroad!

Is this work 100% remote?

The work is 100% remote with the only stipulation that I check-in via emails regularly and take the occasional Skype call.

Are there good opportunities for travel writers at companies like Gap Daemon and Vagabundo?

Both these publications have great opportunities for travel writers looking to make a break in the field. Unlike other sites of a similar nature, Vagabundo Magazine and Gap Daemon both pay for good content from decent travel writers. Granted you won’t make anything near as much as you would writing for national papers or magazines but it’s still a great way to start.
If you’re interested in writing for the Gap Daemon blog I’d suggest thinking carefully about what you can offer and then pitching to chief editor Nadia. You can get in contact with her via Twitter.

The process is similar with Vagabundo. Check out the site, familiarise yourself with the content then have a read of the contributors guidelines.

Why do you work for other companies rather than focusing on your own sites?

That’s a really good question but one that’s easily answered by saying that I’m still very much a beginner and new to this world. Working with people like Gap Daemon and Vagabundo gives me a very solid start (not to mention great contacts) and also two solid online brands behind that of my own name.
Working with these sites also reinforces just how great it is to be part of a team. That’s a feeling I often miss running my own independent project!

Please tell us about your search engine optimization services

SEO is new to me but something that I’m growing increasingly passionate about. I learned a lot from my time at Gap Daemon but have explored it more over the past few months, thanks largely to communities like Sean Ogle’s Location Rebel.

Right now I work primarily as a SEO writer, freelancing with SEO companies who outsource this type of work. For these firms I generally write on a whole host of topics, which can range from anything like telecommunications, to business agents to real estate dealings. Finding work in this field can be tricky (given the competition) but there are plenty of opportunities for people on sites like Elance.

I find most of my work based on referrals from previous clients or networking. More recently I’ve expressed an interest in moving away from the writing and more into consultancy.

SEO writing: Will's usual expression

Are there good opportunities to do SEO work for small businesses?

I’d say there’s a healthy amount. It’s all about taking action, contacting the types of business you want to work with and telling them what you can do for them. Chances are, if you’ve studied the subject, you’ll know more than most small business owners. The next thing you need to do is to convince them to pay you for it, even if that means doing some unpaid work first!

Can you give some advice for travellers looking to do SEO freelance work?

The first thing you want to do is find other people who are doing it and ask them about it – unfortunately I can’t relay all the details in an interview or it would go on forever! Ask those people if they wouldn’t mind Skyping or something and then take it from there.

I’d suggest starting out by simply reading about the subject and getting a feel for what it’s all about (the learning curve isn’t all that big!). From there I’d find SEO companies, web design firms or small businesses that you like the look or sound of and just start pitching to them.

It needn’t be too hard!

Do you have any advice for aspiring long-term travellers?

The only advice I’d feel qualified to give is make sure it’s your dream and don’t let anything hold you back. You don’t need massive savings, you don’t need specific skills and you don’t need to be that well prepared. All you need to be is a capable person and willing to take a few risks.
Oh and remember to give back by doing interviews such as these!

About Will Peach

Will is one of the site editors over at Gap Daemon, the gap year travel website for backpackers and young travellers. He also works as a freelance SEO writer as well as tackling the subject of what to see in Spain over on his travel site My Spanish Adventure. Follow will on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Travel Writer/Consultant Extraordinaire, Andy Hayes
2. Interview with Travel Writer, Anja Mutic
3. Interview with Location Independent Freelance Writer Sharon Hurley Hall

The big problem with settling down is that it costs a lot of money. It actually costs a huge amount of money to have a normal western lifestyle.

Here is a rough breakdown of monthly expenses that we would expect to incur if we permanently relocated to my home city of Calgary.

• Mortgage on an average starter home: $1800
• Property taxes: $200
• Utilities: $350
• Telephone, Internet: $150
• Cell Phones: $200
• Car Payments: $300
• Car Insurance: $100
• Car Maintenance and Gas: $200
• Furniture and Household Items: $500
• Clothing: $200
• Food: $500
• Entertainment: $500

Total $5000

The North American Idea of a Normal Lifestyle

We don’t have to spend that much money of course, but it is hard not to when all of your peer group does. Expenses of $5,000 per month are normal for a professional couple in Calgary.  It doesn’t matter how independently minded you think you are, we are all influenced by society, peers and family. When your friends all have the latest iPad, LED TV or trendy automobile, you start finding pressure to buy too.

My wife and I could cut back on those expenditures if we rented an apartment downtown, reducing the need for a car and lowering our accommodation fees. We could also cut down on food and entertainment if we really scrimped, so cutting these costs down wouldn’t be impossible.

On the other hand, that mortgage payment is contingent on low interest rates. Payments will easily increase a few hundred dollars per month once interest rates start to rise. Also, in a sprawling city like Calgary it is common to have at least two vehicles per family, particularly if both parents work outside of the home. That could also add another $500 or $600 in expenses.

I have also left out health and life insurance which can get quite pricey, but it won’t change much regardless of where we live.

Despite all those caveats, I don’t think that $5000 per month is too out of line for a middle aged couple like my wife and I. In Canada, assuming a 40% tax rate, $5000 per month after taxes would require a salary of $100,000 per year. (60% of 100,000 = $60,000 or $5,000 per month.)

Factoring in commuting time, lunch hours and overtime, it is very likely the total hours dedicated to work would be 50 plus hours per week each. We would do all this with the reward of about 10 statutory holidays and a couple of weeks of vacation time per year.

What if You Only Had to Work 6 Months a Year?

There is a clear trade off between time and money. You can work 60 hour weeks and make a lot of money, but if you don’t have time to enjoy your life, what is the point? If you could cut your consumption in half, you could easily free up 6 months per year of time. What could you do with half a year of free time?

From living in Japan, and traveling across Europe and Asia, we know that we can have a pretty comfortable standard of living outside of Canada for about $2,000 per month. $3,000 per month would offer a great lifestyle with money to do almost anything we want. Even as visitors in Calgary, we only spend about $1,000 per month. (This is largely due to low accommodation costs because of an empty condo my mother owns.)

Not having a permanent residence eliminates so many costs. The fact that we are location independent means we can’t buy a car, furniture, household goods, clothes, tools, etc. We have no need for them and we have no place to keep them anyway.

There are benefits from being stationary like getting higher paid work, time spent time with family and friends, the opportunity to work with other people in person, more networking opportunities, etc. I don’t want to over simplify the choice, however after living a consumerist lifestyle in the past, my wife and I are not interested in setting up that life again. Less is much, much more.

Are you willing to control your spending in order to do the things you want in life?

Related posts:

1. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur Brandon Pearce
2. 15 Reasons I Love a Location Independent Lifestyle
3. Interview with Location Independent Irish Polyglot, Benny Lewis

Please tell us a little about your background?

I’m a tech-geek, adrenaline junkie and entrepreneur who got tired of 9-5 day-jobs and decided to be my own boss. I love kite-surfing, wakeboarding and world travel, and have managed to start/run a few online businesses that allow me to live life how it is supposed to be lived

While traveling around the world I often missed the community feel and creativity that comes from working with fun, inspirational and like-minded people, but what I didn’t miss were the timesheets, managers and meetings.

So instead of going back into an office, I decided to try to bring inspirational people out of offices and into exotic environments by starting Project Getaway.

How long have you been living in Indonesia?

I’ve been living in beautiful Bali, Indonesia, since September 2010 – that’s 9 months so far, and I’m still loving it.

Why did you choose Indonesia?

I did a bunch of research online, looking for a place that had most of the things I love, and the least of those I didn’t. I narrowed my options down to Thailand, Indonesia (specifically, Bali) and the Philippines, then asked well-travelled friends for the pros and cons of each place. Bali always turned up as the destination with the most friendly locals, a great natural environment with superb diving, surfing, shopping and nightlife (what more could I ask for?) – so that’s where I pointed my compass and didn’t look back.

How do you manage your visas?

As a Danish citizen, I can get a 2-month, multi-entry visa to Indonesia via the local embassy, which is great to start with. I’m a pretty sociable guy, so I then got to know enough locals to earn myself a 6-month social visa, which allows me to stay here for 6 months at a stretch visiting my new local friends.

What is Project Getaway?

Project Getaway is a one-of-its-kind gathering that brings creative entrepreneurs together in a luxurious location to live, work, network and play for several weeks. It’s the ultimate get-together for adventurous, independent “lifestyle design” entrepreneurs/freelancers who are self-motivated, driven and savvy enough to live their dream responsibly NOW rather than wait until they’ve accumulated enough vacation leave or until they grow old and retire from a desk job.

It’s an immersive gathering of like-minded folk who yearn to live life on their own terms, to love what they do every day and to bring their unique business ideas to life through fruitful partnerships, efficient work habits (work smarter, not harder!) and a positive, fun attitude. In short, Project Getaway is more than just an event – it’s a way of life.

How many location independent entrepreneurs participated in the first session?

We were a total of 18 people flying in from all over the world. Most of us didn’t know each other at first (or only vaguely via emails and networking events), but when the event ended, we’d developed very close friendships – and a host of viable new businesses, too!

How many are expected for September 2011?

We’ll have between 15-30 people at the September 2011 Project Getaway event in Bali – not too big, not too small, but just…. right. We are still taking applications (haven’t picked the final participants yet) - check out more details here.

What types of workshops and learning experiences are offered?

We’re still fine-tuning this year’s offerings, which will include master-sessions such as:

• Online Marketing
• Product development in China
• Business development/evaluation
• Individual feedback sessions
• Outsourcing your life – and business
• and plenty more!

How do you earn an income?

This is the million-dollar question that’s at the top of most people’s mind I guess

In my case, I run 5 different companies at the moment, most of which I primarily manage a specific area of, where I have a lot of expertise.

Two of those are software companies that generate revenues at the moment (they’re confidential, so I can’t mention their names yet) and the other 3 companies I’m currently investing time and money into, in the hopes they’ll also start generating revenues in the near future.

Basically my work consists of getting good ideas for Windows software applications or online services, then finding, hiring and building a great design & development team to realize those ideas, and then marketing the software online. For example, I’ve recently set up a 5-person team in Bali which is focused on developing, improving and building two new software applications.

I’ve also sold two of my companies in the past (a software company called Smartlaunch, and an online apartment rental service in Europe). Even though I earned a fair amount from selling those companies, I haven’t yet had to spend any of that money to fund my current lifestyle. But that money certainly gave me the confidence go out in the world and experiment with different work/life styles. It was important for me to know that even if things didn’t work out, I had those earnings as my “safety net”.

What businesses are you working on now?

• 3 software companies
• 1 mobile conference application: evenbird.com (beta)
• 1 online villa rental service: vilondo.com (beta)
• 1 non-profit for lifestyle entrepreneurs: projectgetaway.com

Tell us about your travel frequency?

It takes a little while to settle into a new place, so for optimal productivity, I tend to stay at least 1-2 months in a single place. Besides that, I now have businesses in Asia and Europe, so I travel back and forth a few times a year enjoying the best of both: summers in Europe, winters in Bali. It’s pretty sweet

Through organizing Project Getaway gatherings, I hope to have more events around the world soon, which would mean more exciting travels for me.

We are actually looking for people who want to help us organize events, so if any of your readers are interested, please drop me an email.

Do you have any advice for aspiring location independent entrepreneurs?

1. Set a TMI (Target Monthly Income): US$ 1000/month is a good start, and should be sufficient for most low-cost travels e.g. in South-East Asia.
2. Find a way to become a location-independent consultant in your field of expertise (for example, we had a lawyer at the last Project Getaway event who started his own 1-person law firm, and could then easily move to Bali for a month at a time and deal with clients via Skype and email).
3. Search online to find your ideal place to live for a while (look in online forums, Google searches, etc. for recommendations); talk to friends and acquaintances as well. Try to find a place where you can network and meet with other like-minded people (Bali is becoming a great place for this, while the Philippines still has mostly backpackers and fewer lifestyle entrepreneurs).
4. Contact other people who already live in the location, or have lived there, and ask them for a short interview.
5. Take the plunge!

Bonus tip: Listen to podcasts like Dan Andrew’s LifestyleBusinessPodcast for loads more tips and inspiration. Have faith in your dream – and then go live it!

Links:
michaelbodekaer.com
projectgetaway.com
Project Getaway Facebook Page
Personal Twitter
Personal Facebook

Related posts:

1. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur Brandon Pearce
2. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur, Lea Woodward
3. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur, Mike Henry

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 in 2007, basically the day after I read the Four Hour Work Week. At the time I was working as the Vice President of Operations for a small manufacturing firm, and even though I was making good money, I wasn’t able to afford the kinds of adventure and freedom I wanted in my life.

At that job, I started hiring web developers and experimenting with outsourcing to improve our marketing. As I learned about things like SEO and web development it dawned on me that by becoming an expert in that stuff I could make a living from anywhere. After the business made its first few sales I quit my job and took off to travel.

I don’t want to portray it like one day I was just free and galavanting around the world. Although I can work from anywhere and do a lot of cool stuff, I still have tons of responsibilities (like payroll!) and its not all fun and games. For me, building a lifestyle business is a ton of work and freedom increases gradually and by degrees, it doesn’t just arrive overnight.

Where do you spend most of your time?

I’d describe my lifestyle as semi-nomadic. I travel a lot and generally spend about 3 months in a location. Since I quit my job in San Diego I’ve pretty much been drifting from condo to condo. I’ve spent time and done my work from San Diego, Pennsylvania, New York, Montreal, Saigon, Hanoi, Bangkok, Manila, Dumaguete, Puerto Galera, Phnom Penh, and Bali. I’ve set up offices and hired employees in Vietnam and the Philippines, and checked on our suppliers in China. This year I’ll be renting a space in Bali to meet and hang out with my TMBA interns.

Please introduce your main sites, Tropical MBA, OutsourcetothePhilippines and the LifestyleBusinessPodcast.

The TropicalMBA is basically my personal blog where I occasionally offer paid internships for aspiring digital nomads. I started the Lifestyle Business Podcast because I’m a radio nerd and wanted to have my own show, and OutsourcetothePhilippines.com started as a place where I could share my experiences setting up a business in that country.

You wrote that you had sales of more than $800,000 last year, exactly how do you earn an income?

We aren’t known for giving satisfying answers to this question. If my product were an information product I’d be showing everybody everything, but with hard goods its a zero sum market. There can be a downside to revealing how I make my money. For example: one of the products I sell is a particular kind of safe. If I start publishing on the web how much money I’m making there, and show the key terms, it really has the potential to damage my business.

In general, we basically do niche marketing but with manufactured products. My business partner @AnythingIan is a product designer. We got started in business by designing and manufacturing products for niches that we felt were under-served. We develop industrial products for hotels, restaurants, and we also have a line of consumer cat furniture.

We got two new interesting sources of revenue in 2011:
1) Contracting. We’ve started to do environmental design and contracting within the parking industry, which is really exciting because the deals can be quite large. We are currently working on securing new contracts and
2) Information products. This year I’ll be launching a private membership site for entrepreneurs, a guide to setting up a business in the Philippines, an expat living guide to Bali, and a product that helps people make money by flipping used cars.

I love the idea of the TropicalMBA, can you please tell us about that?

Starting the TropicalMBA really changed my life. Exploring the world while I work is really a dream come true for me and I’m so happy to get to help others make the same transition. I came up with the idea when I was in the Philippines looking to hire a PHP developer. I had a budget which was pretty decent. It occurred to me that when I was in a job hoping for things to change, I would have jumped at the chance to have that salary I had budgeted for a Filipino employee, provided I could earn it from anywhere and have a good learning experience out of it. So I bought the domain and put the offer up there. You can still see the first post on the site now.

The response was pretty overwhelming– I got some incredible applications for both semesters and ended up hiring two incredible guys who are now great friends of mine and still working for my business.

I’m really in love with the idea of the program, and if our business continues to do well I hope to provide many more internships in 2011.

Why did you go the podcasting route for the Lifestyle Business Podcast?

The podcast has been up until this point a 100% passion project. I’m a total radio and podcast nerd. I used to skip high school to listen to the Howard Stern show, and I still listen to tons of podcasts.

Podcasting is a lot of effort, but for me its so much fun. I feel I am learning to communicate better. I think the people who listen to our show have a more intimate and trusting relationship with us than if we were writing.

I’d say if I could do only one project for the next 5 years, it would be the podcast.

You wrote that you have more than 80 domains, can you give some advice on choosing profitable niches?

I think one thing about niche selection that isn’t talked about much is expertise, this is especially true in conversations surrounding affiliate marketing. The more you know about a niche the more likely you are going to be successful in it.

I’d also suggest that you chose niches that you love. Any way you slice it, being successful takes tons of work, so it sucks to slave away at niches you don’t care about and it’s difficult to keep up the energy for it. I’ve been successful in a few niches I don’t care about (safes?!) and I’ve handled it by hiring myself out of that role.

What country do you pay your taxes in?

We have a California S-Corp and we’ll be finalizing a corporation in the Philippines this year. We have an accounting firm, an office and warehouse in California, and we offer health insurance to our employees.

Have you had to set up a business or get any special visas or licenses to work in other countries?

Oh my! I could go on for days… Right now we’ve got people on the payroll in Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and the USA. Currently, all but our US employees are technically independent contractors. I’ve gone through all kinds of visa stuff to operate overseas, but in general, you can operate on tourist visas as long as your primary corporation is in the US and you aren’t making money in the country you are in.

Can you give some advice about outsourcing?

My favorite outsourcing site at this time is Odesk.com. My best advice about finding employees overseas is that you should treat them just like you would any other employee. I think a lot of internet marketers and online business people underestimate the time and commitment it takes to have an employee on board.

If you were new and starting today, what would you do differently?

I would find one small creative project that I could pour all of my energy in to. I have a zillion things going on right now, which is cool, but sometimes I’d like to have a little more focus. I also would not do hard goods again. It’s too tough to make a buck. I’d focus on information products and software. If I had to start form scratch, I’d just wake up every morning and do the Lifestyle Business Podcast.

Links
TropicalMBA
Lifestyle Business Podcast
Outsource to the Philippines
Follow The TropicalMBA on Twitter
Follow The Lifestyle Business Podcast on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Interview with Nomadic Day Trader, Marcello Arrambide
2. Interview with Entrepreneur and Digital Nomad Corbett Barr
3. Interview with Nomadic Entrepreneur, Chris Osborne

I would like to keep my house in Japan as a place to return every year, but I don’t want to pay for a full year to only stay there for two or three months. If I can rent it out for at least an additional 3 or 4 months per year, then I will re-furnish the house and get it ready for others to stay there.

Japan is actually not that expensive, particularly if you have reasonably priced accommodations and don’t live in a major center like Tokyo.

The Idea

In a previous post I mentioned the difficulties in getting set up in a new apartments in new countries. Dealing with shady real estate agents is a big pain and apartments are often dirty, poorly equipped and/or have lousy Internet connections. It can often take several days to find decent accommodations at a reasonable price. Even then, you will have to make some sacrifices to keep your costs down.

I am hoping to put together a small network of houses or apartments in different countries that are clean, fully set up, have good internet connections and a decent kitchen. Basically, on your very first day of arriving in a new country, you could go directly to the home you rented and be completely ready to work without stress and difficulties.

For those of us trying to work online, a network of comfortable accommodations would offer a much higher quality of travel and allow us to be up and running as soon as we arrive at a new destination.

Location #1 Nara, Japan

The house is in Nara-Prefecture about 40 minutes from Nara- City by Train. Kyoto is 1 hour away (with Bullet train access to Tokyo in 3 hours). Osaka is about 50 minutes away. Kobe is about 75 minutes away and the Kansai International Airport is about 85 minutes away by train and a comfortable limousine bus ride directly to the departure floor.

My house is in a small city, about 5 minutes away from a good grocery store with great fresh and inexpensive sushi. There is a convenience store about 1 minute away and the nearest train station is a 13 minute walk. There are beautiful temples and shrines nearby (Sakurai, Kashihara-jingu mae, Nara-city, etc.) and it is still in a densely populated city.

It is secluded enough to be able to work without distractions, but has easy access to all the major centers of central Japan.

I haven’t worked out the costs yet, but I expect it to be about $1500 per month with all utilities and bills included for the peak season in spring and fall and about $1200 per month in off seasons. Visits less than one month would be possible but not ideal because of extra costs involved with cleaning and administration. Longer stays could be cheaper.

Digital Nomad Network

Ultimately, I would like to schedule overlapping time to connect with other location independent professionals. We could meet to share ideas, work on projects together and generally connect in person. For me, one of the best things about traveling is meeting other travelers. I hope we can create a good core group of people that regularly meet around the world. A few people are already interested so I don’t think it will be so hard to put together. We just need to start committing to dates and locations.

Do you have a house to add to the network?

I hope to set up the next location in Budapest, in 2012. If anyone else has an apartment they could add, in a popular location around the world, please contact me. Again, the goal is not to make a lot of money, I just want to share quality accommodations with a small group of people that I know and trust.

If you are interested in renting my place in Japan please contact me before March. I am visiting Japan for a short time in March and will need to decide before then if I should re-furnish the house and reconnect the Internet and all utilities.

Please contact me or comment if any of this sounds interesting.

Related posts:

1. We made it out of Japan
2. One More Week to Leave Japan!
3. Japan is the Most International Country

Don’t have enough money to travel? Raam Dev went on a six month trip after bankruptcy, living on about $500 per month. He then went on to coordinate an ebook, Small Ways to Make a Big Difference, with 40 contributing authors that has been downloaded 27,000 times. He is another great example of what can be accomplished with the right mindset, talent and hardwork. Raam Dev is a fantastic writer with thoughtful and inspiring blog posts. I highly recommend subscribing to his blog at raamdev.com.

Please tell us about yourself.

In my late teens I decided to skip college and focus on building a career in the IT industry. Self-directed education wasn’t new to me: I had been home-schooled my entire childhood and began teaching myself at the 8th grade when my parents became too busy with the growing family business.

Technology has always come naturally for me so a career in the IT industry seemed like the best opportunity. I have since held titles like Lead Support Engineer and Software Developer. Although technology is what I’m good at, what I truly love is spending time outdoors, exploring the natural world, and traveling.

For most of my life, I followed opportunity in exchange for following my dreams. I listened to the advice of my elders and worked hard to secure a good job and build a fat bank account. But those were never goals that interested me. Getting rich or finding a high paying job weren’t my dreams. They were what society was telling me my dreams should be.

You started traveling after going bankrupt, didn’t you need a lot of savings to get started?

I bought my first real estate investment property a month before my 21st birthday with a $15k down-payment and a great first-time home buyer program. Using the rapidly increasing equity of my first property, I bought another rental property. A year after that I bought a third property.

Traveling the world was always something I wanted to do, but I never felt that I had enough money to do it. It was my hope that these real estate investments would give me the financial security I needed to start traveling in my late 30s and early 40s.

A few years later I was hit hard by the 2007 mortgage crisis in the United States. I managed to sell one of the properties but lost the other two to foreclosure. The following year I filed for bankruptcy. I suddenly found myself with new opportunities: I had no major debt to pay off and I was no longer tied down.

The bankruptcy encouraged me to get rid of unnecessary possessions and simplify my life. I began looking more seriously at what it would cost to fulfill my lifelong dream and start traveling the world. I discovered that I didn’t need very much if I went to a third world country and lived simply. In my research, I found other bloggers who were traveling and living in many places on $250-$500 a month.

So I sold my gas-guzzling pickup truck for $1,200 and bought a round-trip plane ticket to India. I quit my job with about $1,500 in the bank and $2,000 in savings. With that in mind, I set a budget of $250 a month for six months ($1,500) and decided to use whatever was in my savings for backup funding.

Not going on this trip and waiting until I had saved more money felt riskier than not going at all, so I wasn’t too worried about having a big safety net.

What countries did you visit on your first six months of travel?

I spent the first three months in India, slowly making my way over land from Bangalore in the south to Delhi in the north. I then flew to Vietnam to tag along with a friend and his Vietnamese wife for two weeks as they visited family in Saigon and Hue.

Then I flew to Nepal and spent two months in Kathmandu and Pokhara, trekking in the Annapurna region of the Himalayan mountains and visiting a non-profit who invited me to tour their project sites. They were helping build schools in remote Himalayan villages for children who would otherwise have no access to education.

My return flight departed from India, so I flew back to Delhi and spent another two weeks in India before flying back to the United States.

How much money did you actually spend on your six months of travel?

My plan was to spend six months, exploring three countries, on a total budget of $3,000 (that amount included my round-trip ticket to India). To show how this was possible, I began keeping a very detailed record of exactly where my money went each day. At the end of each month, I compiled and published a report of my expenses and described how I lived and traveled for that month.

Although my original budget was $3,000, I ended up spending a total of $5,102.67 for the entire trip. I attribute the extra cost to eating at restaurants when I could’ve made my own food, occasionally traveling by plane when I could’ve gone overland, and otherwise not making a consistent effort to be frugal.

I have no doubt that I could do the same thing again on $3,000 and the Frugal Travel Reports show how that’s possible.

Did you have health insurance coverage on your travels?

Nope, no health insurance coverage. Before I left, I had researched and read lots of horror stories of people who would’ve died if they didn’t have coverage. But the truth was, I couldn’t afford it. Even a few hundred dollars would be cutting way into my budget.

Instead of getting insurance, I spent my money getting vaccines and malaria pills. Since I hadn’t planned on doing anything particularly risky and I already considered myself fairly healthy, going without insurance was a chance I was willing to take.

Did you have any serious travel problems?

Throughout most of India, you can find people who speak at least some English. Signs are often written in English and people are very friendly and welcoming.

However, when I got off the train in the city of Surat to find a bus that would take me to Udaipur, it was as if I had gotten off in a different country. Not a single sign was in English, the people seemed less friendly, and even the ticket attendants and bus station officials didn’t (or wouldn’t) speak English. Everybody seemed to ignore me.

It was the first time on my trip where I really felt alone, confused, and incapable of finding my way around. I’m sure my experience was very localized: It was late at night and I was at a bus station where lots of people from different areas were in a rush to get somewhere. Thankfully, an English-speaking young man noticed how confused I was and helped me out.

Besides that one incident, I got sick probably 30-40 times during the entire six months. It was mostly travelers diarrhea, which I was able to remedy with antibiotics whenever it lasted for more than two days. I was eating at local restaurants and drinking the tap water in smaller towns because I really couldn’t afford to buy bottled water for six months. I knew I would get sick and I was prepared for it.

There was only one time I got sick where it felt more serious than travelers diarrhea (I had a high fever, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea) and that happened on my third or fourth week in India when I was living on a remote farm in the jungle. Just as I was considering admitting myself to the hospital, I got better.

I also had a near miss towards the end of my trip: Originally I had planned to cross into India overland from Nepal. My planned route took me through the city of Gorakhpur to catch a train to the mountain station of Darjeeling. Instead of going overland, I decided to fly straight to Delhi.

A few days after landing in India, I read a news story about a rare Japanese encephalitis outbreak in the town of Gorakhpur on the exact same day I would’ve been going through the city. Japanese encephalitis is one of the vaccines I skipped because it wasn’t common in any of the areas I was visiting.

Did you have an apartment or place to live on your return to the US?

A few months before I went to India, I left my apartment and moved in with my parents to save money on rent. Now that I’m back from India, I’m temporarily living with my parents again and doing what I can to help with the bills. Living expenses in the Northeast United States are astronomical compared with other parts of the world and it doesn’t make sense to get an apartment when I know I’ll be moving on soon.

How have your minimalism backpacking experiences changed your life back in the US now?

I’m definitely spending less and looking at life much differently. Seeing how incredibly simple millions of people are living every day makes you feel incredibly grateful for something as luxurious as a MacBook Pro and a latte.

I’ve decided to remain a digital nomad indefinitely. Being a nomad in the United States is a bit more challenging, but I’m committed to living out of my backpack. I refuse to buy a car, rent an apartment, get a full or part-time job, or do anything else that might tie me down again.

How do you earn an income now?

When I got back to the United States, my previous employer offered me a short-term contract that will last until the end of January. I’ve also been accepting any online freelance work that comes up (PHP programming, WordPress customization, ebook design/layout; contact me if you need something).

Those two things have kept me on my feet for the past few months. I’ve been setting aside as much money as possible for my next trip, which will be somewhere cheap (I might even go back to India) so that I can lay low and focus on business development.

My long-term goal is to support myself through my writing, so with that in mind I’m starting SustainableGuides.com, a business separate from my blog where I can provide digital products. My blog is a personal space and it doesn’t feel right to monetize there.

I’ve also been running a web hosting business for the past few years, but profitability has never been a primary focus. The focus of that business is to provide friends with a trusted hosting option and to occasionally feed my love for diving into technology.

Please tell us about your popular ebook, Small Ways to Make a Big Difference.

My journey through India brought me very close to the extreme poverty and inequality that exists there (over 500 million people below the poverty line). I felt something inside pulling me towards that problem, quietly nudging me to think about how I could help them. But what could I do? I was a poor traveler with no money and no influential political power. I felt hopeless.

Then one day I realized that the world changes not by the actions of a few, but by the tiny choices made by each individual. I also realized that everybody, no matter how well off they are, wants to do good things and help in a small way.

With that, I started the Small Ways to Make a Big Difference project and sent an email to about 50 bloggers asking them to describe a few things they do to make a difference — things they felt improve their lives and the lives of others.

The goal of the project was to provide a downloadable resource of inspiration that people could use to get ideas for small ways to make a difference. I didn’t have money or power to help millions of suffering people in India, but I could at least create something that would help push the world in that direction.

The project was a success. In less than three weeks, over 40 bloggers contributed more than 100 ways to make a difference. The following six months saw the ebook downloaded more than 27,000 times. I’ve received reports of it being printed and passed around in remote villages in Africa and people from all over the world have emailed in to thank me for compiling and publishing it.

Has it changed the world and brought world peace? Definitely not. But it was a start. It helped me take the first step towards doing something with my life that will benefit others and nudge the world in a better direction.

Do you have plans for more long-term travel?

After my six month trip, I feel certain that travel will always be a huge part of my life. I plan to live out of a backpack indefinitely and stay light on my feet so that I can continue traveling and exploring the world. Most importantly, I’ve realized that I want to use my love for travel to inspire others to see the world as a whole… as one big family.

We need to take care of each other and share our abundance with those who need it. That abundance could mean anything: Money, knowledge, resources, experiences, perspectives. We need to work towards a world of sustainable abundance and aim for a future worthy of looking up to.

Do you have any advice for people considering long-term travel or escaping a consumption oriented lifestyle?

Stop procrastinating and coming up with excuses. Set a date and make a list of exactly what you need to do between now and then (sell x number of things, notify landlord/boss that I’m leaving, tell friends/family that I’m going, buy a plane ticket, GO). Then get the ball rolling by taking one of the big steps. For me, that was notifying my boss that I would be leaving the country in three months.

Once I got that first big ball rolling, everything else started moving on its own. Telling friends and family that January would be my last month as an employee and that I’d be leaving the country in March helped move everything else along. It became exciting to see friends and family for the first time in a few weeks and wait for them to ask, “So what’s up?”. Hearing their responses to what I was doing was like adding fuel to a fire.

Think about your possessions as little anchors that tie you down (that includes the debt you own). The fewer of those you have, the more free you are to make decisions. Every time you’re about to spend money, ask yourself exactly what matters to you. Does traveling the world matter more than drinking a nice latte every day? Does exploring the Himalayan mountains matter more than your cable TV subscription?

Set your priorities and then compare those to what you’re doing and what you own. If they don’t match, work towards correcting the discrepancy. Life is too short — too full of beauty and adventure — to waste it by filling our lives with unnecessary junk. It’s not the material possessions and the social status that add real value to our lives, it’s the experiences we have and the people we meet.

Links

Raam Dev is a writer, changemaker and digital nomad. He writes about sustainable abundance and practical minimalism on raamdev.com. You can join his Community of Passionate Changemakers and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Digital Nomad, James Clark
2. Interview with Entrepreneur and Digital Nomad Corbett Barr
3. Interview with Digital Nomad Carmen Bolanos

14 Reasons I hate Travel

I love living in new countries but I am really getting tired of the constant moving. I have been living abroad for about 14 years now and I don’t plan to stop. However, moving around all the time is way too much.

When you don’t travel much, going on a two week vacation seems like paradise. Every step of the process from the anticipation, arrival at the airport, checking in at the hotel are exciting and new. However, when you travel regularly most of those novel experiences quickly become boring and often dreadful.

Here are 14 reasons why I hate travel.

1. Customs

Customs in some countries, especially the US and UK have become draconian. From power hungry customs officers to stupid security procedures that fail to deliver even basic levels of respect, arriving in a new country can be a royal pain. It is not like this in every country, however. Travelling through Japan and many other countries can be quite pleasant. I understand the need for security but I wish every customs officer was forced to fly through Japan to see how they should behave.

2. Environmental Footprint

Air travel is hugely devastating for the environment. The faster you travel the more damage you are doing. It is very inexpensive to fly now, but as with all of our consumption, the total environmental costs are not factored in. If you care about the planet, you will fly less.

3. Transportation

Learning new public transportation systems and navigating new cities is tiring, particularly if you are carrying lots of travel gear with you. It is great to be in one place for a long time so that you don’t always have to figure out where to go. Some cities like London and Budapest are quite easy to navigate, but many cities really have terrible maps and finding information online has been next to impossible.

4. Travel is for Animals

When I was a child, travelling was a special experience where people dressed up and passengers were treated like they were in a high quality restaurant. On my first trip to Europe, there were dessert carts on the airplane where we could choose from among several desserts after eating a meal. I remember going up to the lounge on the second floor of a 747 and sitting on the spacious sofas. This was economy class.

Now you are likely to sit next to a traveller who hasn’t showered or changed their clothes for three days. The planes are dirty, passengers and flight attendants are rude and the airlines have moved the seats so close together that you can barely move. I can’t justify the jump in price to business class, but I would definitely pay more for a better experience.

5. Living out of a Suitcase

Constant packing and unpacking, trying to wash clothes and always rifling through bags is tiresome. I want to put all my things away so that I am not tripping over clothes and bags everyday.

6. Finding Flats

Finding new accommodations also takes a lot of time and energy. We spent more than a week each looking for flats in Istanbul and Budapest It is difficult to find a good place for a reasonable amount of money.  Real estate agents have been terrible and we have also encountered at least a half a dozen Craigslist scammers. We ended up with a beautiful flat with a great landlord in Budapest but our Istanbul apartement wasn’t cleaned as promised when we moved in so we had to spend several hours getting it to a livable state.

The same goes for finding hotels or hostels. It takes time to find decent places to stay. The reviews help and all the competition is bringing down prices but I still think hotel booking can be improved a lot online.

7. Internet Access

Getting a USB internet connection in Budapest was hell. Vodafone sucks; It took three hours in the store to get a USB internet stick with lousy (non-existent) service outside of Budapest. The software didn’t work on a Mac as promised  and the Vodafone store refused to return it the next day. I was sent to the back of  queue three times, each with more than an hour wait, to try to get it working with different clerks.  I repeat Vodafone sucks!

Our Istanbul landlord promised we would have internet upon moving in but it took more than 12 days and even then it is really slow and cuts out regularly. It is hard to get work done without a decent internet connection. Now I am starting to realize how spoiled we were in Japan. I miss my fiber optic internet connection!

8. Lack of Routine

When travelling regularly it is impossible to have a routine. My wife and I like to work out daily and can’t wait to join a gym again. It is very difficult to find places to run in a city like Istanbul and I can only imagine what the pollution is doing to my lungs.

It always takes a while to find quality supermarkets so that we can eat fresh and healthy food regularly. Going to restaurants on occasion is nice, but everyday is too much.

Regular travelling also wrecks havoc on sleep patterns. A couple of sleepless nights have lead to colds, some minor dental problems and a whole lot of crankiness. People often ask what do we want to do while in a new city, our response is often, “Nothing! We just want to relax.”

9. Pollution

The larger cities of the world, particularly in rapidly developing countries have serious pollution and garbage problems. It is only getting worse. Combine this with non-existent smoking law enforcement and it is very difficult to breathe clean air in many cities of the world. Clean air and water are quickly becoming the world’s biggest problems.

10. Cleanliness

I admit that my wife and I can be anal sometimes, but I still find it difficult to accept people smoking, eating sunflower seeds, taking out garbage, handling money and then touching the food they are preparing for me. In Europe, where bread is often sold unwrapped, I hate when customers squeeze three or four loaves before choosing one. It is kind of funny because in many countries food service workers wear rubber gloves but still smoke and handle money. Didn’t their mothers tell them to wash their hands before touching food?

11. Lack of a Decent Kitchen

The rental apartments we have stayed in have had terrible utensils. A good kitchen knife, cutting board, a decent pot and pan plus a collection of good fresh herbs are really missed. Doesn’t anyone cook when they travel? It takes four times as long to prepare a meal without the proper equipment. We are going to bring a good kitchen knife and cutting board with us from now on.

12. My Stuff

I don’t need much possessions but there are a few things I have difficulty living without. I like to play guitar and couldn’t bring one because of our check in allowance on EasyJet. I bought a used guitar and left it in Hungary, but I have been without in Turkey again. Even if you only want to do any semi-professional podcasts you need some basic gear. It is difficult to lug that stuff around in a backpack.

Good bicycles are also important. The best way to navigate a city is by bike. It is good exercise, yet not too quick to really enjoy the commute. We have rented some junk bikes by the day, but we would love to have access to some reasonable quality bikes everyday.

13. Weasels

I hate having to be on guard against theft and cheating all the time. Budapest is a bad city for getting ripped off. A couple times a day we would be overcharged or not given the correct change, Turkey is much better though.

It is not the money. Just the principle of being taking advantage of really irks me. It takes a lot of mental energy to deal with that everyday. We are beginning to long for Japan again where it is safe everywhere and you never have to worry about being over-charged.

14. Lack of time

Travelling really takes a lot of time in planning, preparation, getting to a new location, sight-seeing and meeting people. That means I haven’t focused on my work projects as much as I would like to.

I am not really contributing to the world when I am in constant motion. Travel is completely self-serving. At the risk of ruffling some blogger’s feathers, partying on a beach is not “kicking ass,” “extraordinary” or “awesome.” It is fun sure, I still like to go out and party once in a while, but it is not changing the world.

Too many bloggers write like everyone should be travelling the world full time. That is total bullshit. It is easy for a fresh graduate out of school with no obligations, work experience or money to live on next to nothing while having fun for a year or so, but that is not a lifestyle.

Penelope Trunk wrote 4 Reasons travel is a waste of time, I am starting to agree.

Travelling is Not All Bad

Of course, travelling can also be incredibly rewarding. My wife and I have met and continue to meet some fantastic people. We have seen many beautiful places and ate at some great restaurants. We have learned how little material possessions are necessary to be happy. Staying in many places has helped us figure out exactly what we want and need when we build our dream house. We have a much better understanding of the diversity of our planet. We also have a much better appreciation for our home countries and families. Living abroad is great, but travel is too much.

My Solution to the Travel Problem

We will continue to travel but we are going to do it much slower. Ideally we would like to stay in each city for at least 2 or 3 months with short excursions to nearby places. I have also started coordinating a group of travellers who would share the same accommodations around the world.

Personally, I would love to have a small network of people I know and trust to share each other’s homes. Everything will be completely set up, with internet, clean and nice furniture and fully equipped kitchens all for just enough money to cover costs. So far I plan to set up my house in Japan again and we will mostly get a second place in Budapest in 2012. If there are any of you out there that would like to swap accommodations around the world, please email. I want to keep this small and inexpensive. It would be fantastic to be completely set up in a new country on arrival without staying in hotels, dealing with real estate agents and living in run down short term accommodations.

What do you hate about travel?

Related posts:

1. 8 Reasons Why You Should Work in a Foreign Country
2. 15 Reasons I Love a Location Independent Lifestyle
3. Top 6 Excuses to Avoid Long Term Travel

0:22 Tell us about your travels, where are you now and where have you been?

(Currently in Vietnam, their first time in S.E. Asia. They have been to 22 countries this year including South America, Europe and New York. Craig shares how he and his wife funded their travels by working hard to save money and then teaching English around the world. )

1:48 Do you have a homebase?

(Only a P.O Box where Linda’s father collects mail. “Home is where the backpack is.” He talks about why they started their travels in Malta. )

3:26 What did you do in Malta?

(They taught English. They got into English teaching in order to work around the world.)

4:24 Is Malta a good country to teach English?

(“Not if you want to earn any money.” Two weeks teaching in Italy earned the same amount of savings as three months in Malta.)

5:03 Tell us about IndieTravelPodcast.

(They started the site after they left Malta. They realized they made many dumb travel mistakes that guide books didn’t cover. They wanted to create a website for independent travellers that plugged the gap that guide books weren’t covering. The now have over 170 podcasts. They are looking at practical ways that people can travel long term.)

7:20 Why the podcast focus?

(That was almost by accident. Blogs were quite saturated but no one was really doing a podcast.)

8:17 Are there any advantages or disadvantages to podcasting?

(It’s very time intensive. He goes into detail about what is required. 20 minutes of audio often represents 5 to 8 hours of work.)

9:32 Do you find your listeners value the podcasts more than just a blog post?

(It’s something very unique. People can download it and take it away. “You really get in their ear and they begin to trust you.”)

10:29 Is IndieTravelPodcast funding your travels?

(It is now covering 70 to 80% of their costs with the rest being made up by English teaching. They now have about 25,000 unique visitors a month and they have half a dozen other websites as well. They reckon they will be up to their goal of US$100 per day by the end of the year which will cover all of their travel and living costs.)

Links
IndieTravelPodcast.com
Follow Craig Martin on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Interview with Long Term Traveller, Expat and English Teacher – Nomadic Samuel Jeffery
2. Interview with Perpetual Traveller, Wandering Earl
3. Interview with Long-term Traveller, Roni Weiss

We are in Istanbul!

It has been 8 months now that Motoko and I left Japan. We are having a great time with our lives but this is also not an idyllic lifestyle. It is great to be able to see the world and have complete freedom, but we are really starting to miss having a regular routine in our lives. Here is a short summary of our current situation.

We  are in Istanbul

We are currently in Istanbul and loving it here. The hospitality of Turkish people has been amazing. Turkey is very unique in that it is a bridge between European and Middle Eastern cultures.  It is so different then anywhere else we have been but I will write more about the country later.

Our Financial Situation

We haven’t been able to sell our house in Japan because of the terrible real estate market there, so we have been paying bills and a mortgage for an empty house. It would have been nice to get rid of that obligation, but such is life. We are now thinking of spending a few months every year in Japan. Unfortunately, we got rid of all of our furniture so it will be a little expensive to get set up again.

Purchasing a house was probably the worst decision we have made in our lives. If we didn’t buy our house we would probably have an extra $60,000 to $80,000 in the bank now. Again, such is life.

Our investments also haven’t done so well this year so we have lost a fair amount of money. We are not in a desperate situation but it has put more financial pressure on us. Mentally, it has been stressful. We really hate spending more money then we are earning. Watching your bank balance constantly go down is not a comfortable feeling. My wife and I have both been very good at saving in the past so these last 8 months without much income haven’t been easy. We definitely are not going to spend all of our money so earning a sustainable income is becoming a priority.

Traffic to my websites has been increasing slowly and we have started to earn a little money from a few of the sites but it will take some time to build them into sustainable businesses. I know there are still great opportunities to create real businesses online, but I don’t think blogging and selling expensive ebooks  are the way. Blogging is great to connect with like minded people and even earn a small amount of income, but it is a huge amount of effort for the small potential returns. I am starting to redirect my focus to some smaller wins.

JetSetCitizen.com Plans

I love connecting with other travellers and lifestyle designers, so I will continue the interviews I have been doing.  However, I don’t think I have much to contribute to travel blogging. The travel niche is very saturated and is not something I want to focus on.  I will start to decrease the number of personal posts like this and just focus on the interviews. I also have a couple of ebooks in the works that I plan to offer for free or at very low cost. They will have a somewhat contrarian message to what most other people are writing. I think personal excellence is more important than accomplishing goals or striving for more experiences. You will start to see more of that reflected in my writing.

Too Much Travelling

My attitude toward travelling has definitely changed since my twenties. Maybe this means I am getting old.  It is great to see many countries, meet new people and experience new cultures but we are also getting tired of the constant moving. We are trying to travel as slow as possible but it is still too fast. It is really hard to exercise, eat healthy, play music, maintain friendships, really experience new cultures and get work done when perpetually travelling. We love being in new countries but the constant change is getting to be too much. We are most likely going to start rotating between a couple of main home bases with shorter travelling in between.

I also feel that new cultures are appreciated more when you can reset in a stable place. When you work for 11 months you really build anticipation and excitement for that 1 month of travel per year. When you are always travelling you start getting bored of new experiences because they happen every day. How many amazing European churches do you need to see? After the first couple they all start looking the same.

Travelling is also getting in the way of accomplishing important things in life. I want to spend more time working on projects that have the potential to make a small dent in the universe. Most of what I am doing now is for my personal pleasure. I am not really contributing.

I have no sympathy with vagabonds and talkers who try to reform society by taking men away from their regular productive work and making vagabonds and talkers of them too. Bernard Shaw

Life is good

Overall we have absolutely no complaints about our life. There is not a single day when we don’t discuss how lucky we are to do exactly what we want in life. We are working on projects of our own choosing, living where we want and spending time with cool people. What else is there?

Related posts:

1. 16 months into Location Independence
2. Interview with Nomadic Day Trader, Marcello Arrambide
3. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur Brandon Pearce

Benny Lewis of Fluentin3Months.com

I had an opportunity to meet up with and interview the charismatic Benny Lewis from Fluentin3Months.com in Budapest recently. Those of you following the location independent and travel blogger crowd will likely already be well acquainted with Benny. His blog and recent language hacking guides have been extremely popular. Currently fluent in 8 languages and proficient in many others, Benny definitely knows what he is talking about. What I admire most about him is the intense focus of his blog and language missions in different countries. Travel, lifestyle design and location independence are all very saturated topics, Benny managed to find an unique angle and he sticks with it. He is the Language Hacker Polyglot.

Here  is a very brief summary of the video.

00:20 Start off by introducing yourself.

(He studied electronic engineering. Has been travelling for 8 years. Started his blog 1.5 years ago with a language focus. Every three months or so travels to a new country to learn the language.)

1:45 Why three months?

(It is not a magic number. It depends on the person. Three months is good for him.)

2:01 What is your job?

(He has had over 40 jobs in the last 8 years. Three years ago he decided to get more direction in his career and combined language learning with engineering to start technical translation work. He wrote his language hacking guide in May and it is now enough to cover all of his expenses.)

4:28 What kind of advice do you give in your guide?

(You have to speak the language from day one. Waiting until you are ready is a feedback loop of never being ready. You are never going to be 100% ready.)

5:19 You are a very outgoing person. That must have a big influence on your ability to learn languages.

(He was very shy when he started travelling. He forced himself to become an extrovert. A language is a social means. It is a way to communicate with people. It is something anyone can learn.)

7:00 Is your language guide giving you a full-time income now?

(Yes, he is still selling 1 or 2 a day even after the initial burst.)

7:40 Can you give us an idea of your travel expenses?

(Less than 1,000 euros -$US1400. Speaking the local language and knowing some tricks of the trade can help you get very good rental rates.)

8:25 Is 1000 euros enough in more expensive countries like Spain or Italy?

(If you are living in a capital city in the center, you definitely can’t get by on 1,000 euros. If you stay for three months, are charming enough to get a good price and do it in the local language you can haggle the prices down much better.)

9:34 Can you give us some advice on how to be successful online?

(He likes to be as social as possible. He replies to every single comment on his blog. He writes separate status updates on Facebook. He engages with people; he likes it to be a two-way conversation.

11:28 How important is meeting people in person to being successful online?

(It has been very important this year. Meeting people face to face makes them much more likely to help you.)

12:18 Any plans to settle down?

(He is currently enjoying his lifestyle but probably won’t keep it up for the very long term but he is only planning for the next three months.)

13:19 If you had to choose one country to live, do you have a favorite now?

(Absolutely Brazil. The people are the friendliest in the world and they have genuine happiness and warmth.)

Links
Fluentin3Months.com
Fluentin3Months on Facebook
Follow Benny Lewis on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur Brandon Pearce
2. Interview with Location Independent Freelance Writer Sharon Hurley Hall
3. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur, Michael Bodekaer