Hungarian Goulash on an Open Fire

Motoko and I have made it to Hungary. Hungary is my father’s home country and I still have a lot of family here. I first visited when I was 5 years old and have returned many times. It really is astonishing how rapidly the country has developed in my lifetime.

Hungary in the Good Old Days

Some thirty plus years ago, Hungary was still in control of the communist U.S.S.R. This meant severe restrictions on everything we take for granted. It was impossible to travel to western countries because passports were only valid for communist block countries.

My father escaped in the 1956 revolution. Even though his escape wasn’t politically motivated, deserters were still viewed as traitors for a long time. It was 18 years before he was able to return to visit his family.

In order to buy a car, you had to pay a sizeable downpayment and apply for a number which indicated your order in the queue. The list of numbers was published in the Sunday newspaper so that everyone could track how long it would take to get a car. My uncle had to wait for six years in order to get his first vehicle. Needless to say, the Sunday newspaper was met with great anticipation. The only available cars were Soviet Ladas and East German Trabants. Until recently, you could see these old vehicles commonly broke down on the side of roads.

There was one small store in my father’s village. Everyday at around 3:00 P.M., the bread truck would arrive from the closest city. There were two choices; brown or white bread. Families would often send a child to wait at the store until the bread truck arrived. Not getting there early enough meant waiting another day for bread.

The only soda pops were Coke and Fanta Orange. When I was a child, the deposit on the bottle was equal to the price of the drink, 3 forints or about 5 cents. It was about 1/12th the Canadian price at the time.

In order to take a hot bath, they had to put hot coals under a water tank to heat it up. It took so much time and work that our entire family used the same bath water.

Most houses had pigs and chickens in the backyard. I still remember the frequent squeal of pigs as they were slaughtered in the mornings at various houses around the village.

Twice daily, cows were walked on the main road through the town to and from their grazing grounds. I loved watching 20 or 30 cows slowly walk through town everyday.

It is Not My Father’s Hungary Anymore.

The last decade in particular has brought huge changes to Hungary. There are the gigantic western supermarkets like Tesco, Auchan and Cora. If you were transported to one of the numerous modern shopping malls, you would probably have difficulty telling which country you were in. Now the coffee chains like Starbucks and Costa are popping up everywhere.

You can really see the affluence everywhere. Five years ago, expensive western cars started really becoming common. Now you won’t have much difficulty spotting a BMW, Volvo or even Porche.

The last three years have seen a massive explosion in high end sporting equipment. It seems like everyone has expensive bicycles and high end sports clothes.

The number of bus and boat tours for out of country visitors also have sky-rocketed. Backpackers can often be seen on every street in downtown Budapest now.

What does Rapid Westernization Really Bring?

I think there are two important lessons to learn from all of this ‘advancement.’ First, we really should appreciate just how comfortable and good life has become. Perhaps you have never seen empty store shelves or had to endure much hardship in your life, but your grandparents or great-grandparents certainly did. I don’t think we really understand how good our lives are now. We live in amazing times.

The second is sad and troubling; authentic traditional cultures around the world are disappearing. The influx of western ideas and goods are crowding out local cultures. Across Europe the most common foods are pizza, hamburgers, french fries and donairs. Over-sized shopping malls all over the world sell the same brands as your own country. Tourists are more likely to visit McDonald’s  than try traditional local food.

It is great that the world is advancing at an increasing pace, but I don’t feel that the ‘advancement’ is always a positive step forward. We are becoming more globalized and interconnected but that also means homogenized and commercial. It is amazing that we can fly across the world for only a week or two of salary, but do we really want to arrive only to eat a Big Mac and buy tourist kitsch? The time to travel is now, because in a decade or so foreign countries won’t be much different than your home town.

The Calgary Stampede midway early in the day before the crowds arrive.

Lining up before the Heavy Horse Show.

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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 hard part, of course, is earning the passive income. After all, if it were so easy everyone would be doing it.  Many of the travelers I have interviewed are proving that consistent online income is definitely possible. (Check out some of my interviews with Pat Flynn, Kirsty Henderson, Karol Gajda, Nomadic Matt-Mathew Kepnes, etc.) One thing I can attest to, and I know all the people I have interviewed would agree, is that passive income is NOT easy. It takes a lot of upfront work and knowledge of internet marketing. You have to spend hundreds or probably thousands of hours learning until you can consistently deliver profitable results.

If Blogging Doesn’t Work, What Does?

There are people making money blogging, so I know it is not impossible. It is just really, really hard. There are rock stars making millions traveling the world, but there are also countless musicians that play only as a hobby. Becoming a successful A-list blogger is a lot like becoming a rock star. It takes years of dedicated, focused effort and some good luck helps a lot too.

A better alternative to blogging is creating mini-sites to market other people’s products or services. This is often referred to as affiliate marketing. It basically means building a small website to get targeted traffic to sell things. You don’t have to create the products because there are thousands made by others to sell already. You just have to get traffic to a site. If a sale is made through your web site you earn a commission, often around 50%. So for a $100 product, you would earn $50 per sale. Five sales per month would earn you $250, the equivalent of $100,000 in the bank as I mentioned above.

Get Rich Quick (Earn a Decent Income Slowly)

There is a science to getting traffic and finding out what works and doesn’t. It can take years to get that level of marketing and technical sophistication. There are some good training programs to walk newbies through all the steps of creating niche affiliate marketing sites. Some programs can cost thousands dollars, especially if there is a real life seminar, and others are membership programs for $97 per month or more. While I am sure those programs have value, they are a far too pricey for most people starting out.

I have just completed Corbett Barr’s Affiliate Marketing for Beginners course and found it to be a great inexpensive course to get started in affiliate marketing. Corbett walks you through all the steps in choosing topics, researching market potential, finding products to sell, creating mini-sites, search engine optimization and more with a real affiliate marketing example. The best part is that all the modules have comments so that you can ask questions that Corbett will answer. The modules explain everything clearly and concisely without all the hype and pushy sales tactics. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is relaunching today (August 10th) with a two day discount. The price increases  on Thursday.

To be clear, this is not a quick and easy way to riches. It takes time to research niches, find products and start earning commissions. Some of your sites might be successful, some not. Like anything in life, consistent effort and regular improvements are required to find out what works best. My niche sites make almost no money at all. When I got started I didn’t know how to research key words and optimize sites effectively. Actually, I didn’t even bother to find products to sell. I hoped to earn enough from Google Adsense. Well, I know that ads alone don’t earn much income. Now I need to put in the work to implement Corbett’s techniques.

Again, if you don’t have the motivation to implement what you learn in the course then save your money. Corbett makes it clear that his program is about ethical marketing of good products that people want to buy. Creating a sustainable income honestly, takes work and time. If you want to get a good, easy to understand, comprehensive introduction into building mini-sites and Internet market, then Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is good value for the price.

You have probably guessed that I get a commission for selling Corbett’s program (affiliate marketing) . For anyone who buys through the links on this page, I would like to offer an extra mastermind group where we can regularly share our experiences, problems and lessons learned. If you are interested in working through Affiliate Marketing for Beginners with me please email after you go through the course. It would be great to bounce ideas off of others doing similar things. I can show you some of the sites I have and mistakes I have made to hopefully save you some time when you do it for yourself.

Jet Setter in Montreal

Greetings from my favourite Canadian city, Montreal. This is our second time in the cultural capital of Canada but our first experience couchsurfing.  CouchSurfing has been fantastic so far, not only as a free place to stay and an introduction to an unknown city, but as the quintessential social media site. It’s very essence is about connecting people in real life.

What is CouchSurfing?

For those of you who don’t know, CouchSurfing.org is a network where travellers can connect and find a place to stay  with a local person in cities around the world. There is no cost for the website or for the couch (bed, room or floor) but it is expected that you are going for the social exchange and not just a free place to sleep.

This is how my wife explained it to her mother, “We are going to stay at a stranger’s house. We found the person on the Internet.” (Very rough English translation. )

Prior to our visit, I must admit we had some apprehensions about staying with someone we have never met. Other than the profile everyone writes about themselves on the CouchSurfing.org site and reviews from other travellers, you really don’t know what to expect on arrival.

Will they actually be there? Is it safe? What etiquette is expected? What gifts should we bring? Many things were on our mind prior to our first meeting our host.

The World’s Greatest CouchSurfing Host

It turns out we managed to find the best CouchSurfing host in the world on our very first attempt. The generosity and trust of our host is amazing. He opens his home to couchsurfers constantly. There is a steady flow of new people living in his house. Each surfer gets the keys to the house and full access. Despite his never-ending kindness, for every one person he accepts, he has to turn two away.

My wife and I have had the opportunity to spend several amazing nights with him drinking late into the evening. We feel like we have gotten to know him more than some of our close friends.

CouchSurfing is What Other Social Media Sites Try to Be

I think many social media critics  associate online friends with superficial connections and banal conversation. That may be true in some cases but CouchSurfing is inherently different. The real value of the site comes from facilitating real life meet-ups. There is little chance that these kinds of connections could have been made before the Internet. Some good relationships can be developed online only but they will never reach the level of in person contact.

This to me is the real promise of social media. We are able to connect with like minded people on a global scale. That is huge!

It takes lots of work to build and maintain relationships but it can be so rewarding. I hope we have started the foundation of a life-long friendship with our host. I am certain we will meet again in different parts of the world.

Many people and businesses are using social media platforms as an inexpensive way to advertise. They try to friend or follow as many people as people with the intention of building a potential customer base. While that is part of life, I hope that it  is going to be a very small part of our social media experiences.

CouchSurfing is Not About the Money

With CouchSurfing there is absolutely no financial transaction, the host is generous without expectation of direct reciprocity. Certainly there are long term benefits of being repaid with future couches to surf, but most hosts seem to give a lot more then they will ever receive. The real reason for giving so much is the social interaction.

That to me is a very powerful idea. We are social animals after all, social connections have tremendous value. That value extends far beyond any financial exchange. We have been conditioned to be consumers over the last 150 years or so. It is important to remember that society wasn’t always like this and it doesn’t have to continue this way indefinitely.

Again, it is my hope that this is all part of the economic and social evolution of mankind. We are reaching for the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy. Life is no longer a struggle for food, shelter and clothing. We are looking for meaning and purpose in our lives. That meaning can’t be bought or consumed. Life is measured by the quality of our personal relationships and contribution to other people. CouchSurfing.org is the best example I have found of that so far. The only downside is that we have been having such a great time that I haven’t been able to get any work done. After the fantastic conversations we have had with our host, I am going to put a lot more effort into meeting people around the world.

I would love to hear about other websites that facilitate human interaction like CouchSurfing for a project I am working on. If you have any good examples or experiences please let me know in the comments or by email.

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

Downtown Drumheller, Coffee on a rainy day.

Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller

Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller

Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller

Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller

The Hoodoos near Drumheller

The city Drumhelller is about 1.5 hours drive from my home city of Calgary in Alberta. It is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum which houses one of the world’s largest collections of dinosaur fossils.

The museum is a great place to get a feel for the variety and size of dinosaurs that once roamed the earth more than 65 million years ago. It really makes human existence on this planet pale in comparison.

The area around Drumheller also contains visible records of Earth’s history. Centuries of climate change are on display everywhere in the region in the layers of rock sediment. The valleys formed by retreating glaciers are spectacular.

Drumheller is a great visit if you are travelling through western Canada. It is beautiful country and it is a good reminder of how fragile life is on this planet.

I am constantly discovering  people who are not happy with their careers and are looking for something more interesting to do with their lives. Jason Demant and Sharon Duckworth are two people that share my philosophy on life. The time to experience life and travel the world is now. As Jason and Sharon have found, once you begin you may never want to go back. They share some of their experiences and advice in this interview.

Please tell us  a little about your background.

We’re both 26 and originally from northern California. We met in college at the University of California, Santa Cruz (go slugs!). We both graduated and independently moved to the Silicon Valley. Jason worked for Seagate Technology for almost five years in a few different positions: project manager, finance and finally marketing. Sharon worked at a gym teaching kids motor-development skills originally, but ended up selling out and joined a commercial real estate company.
We always knew we wanted to travel, but weren’t planning on leaving until October 2010. When the economy started going downhill, we started really pumping up our savings to leave sooner rather than later. Last October we left and have been traveling around Asia ever since.

Please tell us about your travels?

We’re currently in South Korea. We started our trip in China, did the Southeast Asia route, headed back to China and then took a ferry over to South Korea. (All of the destinations we’ve been).
One of the things we wanted to do on this trip was learn a language and settle down for a while. Sharon is 75% Korean and so we thought the perfect place would be Korea. We lived in Seoul for a little over 2 months and now have settled down in the coastal city, Busan. Assuming Kim Jong Il doesn’t decide to do something stupid (again), we’ll be here for another couple of months before hitting the road again.

What has been the most expensive country you have visited?

Japan, hands down!! We couldn’t believe how expensive Japan was. On this trip, our average spend per day was $35 per person ($70 for the both of us), Japan however ended up being around $260 a day! We didn’t really splurge either. We did purchase the Japan Rail Pass, which put us back $300 each, but other than that, we slept in hostels in a dorm and ate at what we thought to be reasonable restaurants.

What has been the least expensive country you have visited?

On the complete other end of the spectrum was Vietnam. We traveled from north to south and spent about $23 per person per day. One of the best hotels we’ve stayed in on the entire trip was in Vietnam and it was $8 a night. Not to mention, it’s an amazing country with great food.

What has been the worst food you have tried?

The most difficult place for us eating wise was China. We knew only the very basics of the language and many restaurants do not have pictures of their food, nor do they have their menus translated to English. There were times where the only thing we could do was point to a set of Chinese characters and hope for the best.
I think the two worst foods we have tried on this trip would be:  1. Some kind of fried pork rinds that tasted like what I assume sewer and garbage would taste like.  2. Fried chicken feet.  I realize that chicken feet are very normal in Asia, but why?  It was like eating fried bones- there’s no meat there, not to mention they still very much resemble feet from a chicken, and that’s not a very appetizing thing.

What is a safe travel budget for a year?

For the way we travel, which is staying at middle-range hostels, eating reasonable meals out twice a day, taking buses and ferries rather than planes, $15,000 ($41 per day) a year should be sufficient per person. Extrapolating our budget, I think we’ll come in at $30,000 for the both of us. Which is great, because we saved $50,000 for the planned year trip!
Breaking that down is going to vary tremendously, but roughly (per day):

• Accommodation: $15
• Food: $10
• Transportation: $7.50
• Activities/Entertainment:  $5

This doesn’t add up to the $41, so the rest would be on other things: health insurance, flights to and from home, netbook, whatever. More detail on our budget and how we spend money by country.

How did you save enough money to travel?

The Twitter answer is: saving more than we spent .
The longer answer: I worked for five years, Sharon for four, in corporate America. We focused on saving and had to make daily decisions that prioritized saving for the trip over other things. We were still able to live comfortably, pay off most of our debt from school and have a good time with our friends. The key is automating your savings so you don’t have to think about it. I wrote a more detailed post on this topic.

Are you getting tired of traveling?

Now that we’ve discovered our preferred travel method, no, not really. The first 4 months of our trip we stayed in only two cities for longer than 5 days (and both were less than 10 days). Other than that we were constantly on the move. We now know this isn’t sustainable for us. We prefer more structure, where we can unpack for a while and have a stable Internet connection, make friends for longer than a night or two and really connect with a city. As many travelers have found, I think we’re happiest finding a place to live for a month to 3 months and settling down for a while.
In terms of things that we miss from home, we pretty much only miss our friends and family.  There have been many times when we experienced something amazing but wished our loved ones could have been there with us. Other than that, this lifestyle is tough not to love.

Have you had any serious problems on your trip?

No, thankfully not. Asia’s a very safe place and we’ve been very lucky so far.

Are you trying to extend this one year trip into a more permanent lifestyle?

The trip was originally one-year. We were heading to Asia for a year, then coming back to Northern California and looking for jobs again. I don’t know what happened to that plan, but it went out the window pretty quickly. I (Jason) always had an interest in entrepreneurship, but somehow lost that at some point. This trip has sparked my entrepreneurial interest again and I’ve launched a new travel site that I’m really excited about.

The site is called UnAnchor.com and it’s a place for anyone to create travel itineraries for sale. Eventually it will be a place for travelers to find all of the information they need in an itinerary for their next destination. Because it’s new though I’m still focusing on growing the database of travel itineraries. If you’re interested in earning some extra money, check it out, it’s easy to start and free to sign up. [End of commercial]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling as a couple?

To be honest, it’s been pretty much gumdrops and rainbows. We’re both very easygoing people, so the benefits of solo-travel – doing things on a whim, and going wherever you want without worrying about someone else’s opinion is pretty much what we have. If one of us wants to do something, the other is typically fine with it. The advantages of traveling as a couple are numerous: feeling less isolated, splitting up the research process, finding places and things together.  However, we have had our share of meaningless bickering, but these were very limited to certain times; when we were wearing our backpacks, when we were lost and hungry, and when it was hot outside.

How do you deal with banking, bills and health care?

Banking and health care took a lot of upfront research, but we couldn’t have been happier with the companies we went with. If you’re in the US, you should check out Charles Schwab. They charge zero ATM fees, no foreign exchange fees and on top of that they even reimburse you when the ATM you’re using charges you a fee. So, we never have to worry about which ATM we use. We couldn’t be happier with them.
Health care, like most travelers, we use World Nomads. It’s essentially emergency-only health care. The deductible is $100. So if it’s something basic, you’re paying for it, but if it’s something serious, you’re covered. It’s pretty cheap as well, only $500 for a year per person.

Do you have any advice for people considering long term traveling?

Our favorite advice comes from Sharon: “just do it” (the Nike corporation are thieves!). There are so many excuses: it costs too much money, I have a house, I have kids, I’m too old, I’ll have a big gap in my resume. For every excuse you can think of, we’ve met someone that’s overcome it. We’re not saying it’ll be easy, but if you’re serious about it, you can find a way and it’ll be the best decision you’ve ever made.

Links
LifeAfterCubes Jason and Sharon’s Blog
Follow LifeAfterCubes on Twitter
UnAnchor.com Travel Itinerary Site

Long-term travel is a life-changing experience. It is exciting to meet new people, experience new cultures and completely broaden your horizons. Most of us travel for our own personal satisfaction and growth, however there are many people, living and traveling abroad, dedicating their lives to make the world a better place. Such selfless devotion truly is amazing. Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg are two of those people striving to make a difference in the world. They took some time out of their African endeavors to answer some questions here.

Zimbabwe- HIV:AIDS Orphanage Project Visit with the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations in Harare

Please tell us  a little about your backgrounds.

B: Danielle currently serves as Co-Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute , a Washington, DC-based environmental research organization. Her background is in sustainable agriculture; impacts of meat, egg, and dairy production on the environment, primarily climate change; animal welfare, and farmers; greenhouse gas emissions and the food system; biofuels; urban agriculture; and food safety.  She also worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and volunteers at farmers’ markets, the Earth Sangha (an urban reforestation organization), and 1Well (an NGO focused on sustainable development projects all over the world).

D: Bernard’s background is as an expert on political campaigning and communications. His expertise in organizing state and national campaigns for the AFL-CIO has resulted in the election of major pro-worker candidates and laws in California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He has developed communication programs for labor organizing all over the U.S. and has worked extensively with media reporting on workers’ issues. He is currently traveling across Africa with me, meeting with labor unions and workers across Africa, and blogging everyday from Africa on our personal site called BorderJumpers.

Are you both full-time journalists?

D: Last year the Worldwatch Institute received a two-year grant to evaluate environmentally sustainable solutions to alleviating hunger and poverty, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The grant is enabling us to expand our research and writing on food and hunger issues, do more on-the-ground research, and develop a comparative analysis of different agricultural innovations and technologies to help policy-makers, farmers, NGOs, agribusiness, and development agencies make more informed decisions regarding food production and food security goals.

The major outcome of this project will be State of the World 2011, our flagship publication, focused on hunger. Over the next two years, we will also publish research on this topic in Worldwatch’s other print and digital publications. I am traveling throughout sub-Saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in environmentally sustainable food production.

Bernie and Dani in Zambia

Where are you now?

D: Africa is the epicenter of hunger and poverty, so it seemed logical to focus our research for the project here. We are currently in Dakar, Senegal, headed across Western Africa all summer to Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Cameroon. Countries we’ve traveled so far include: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Since we left in October 2009 we’ve visited approximately 130 projects in those countries.

Uganda- Visiting Schools with Project Disc (Slow Food International)

Please tell us about your work in Africa?

B: We are tired with all the misconceptions about Africa. All we hear in the media is about conflict, HIV/AIDS, famine and disease. You almost never hear anything positive, and as a result people think the situation is hopeless. That’s why everywhere we go we are looking at African-led innovations and sharing those stories, in hopes of reaching the funding and policy making community so they can get scaled up or replicated, but also to challenge misconceptions that things in Africa are “beyond repair.” After sixteen countries, we’ve really seen firsthand how much incredible work is happening on the ground here and I’ve never felt so much hope.

D: The project is a two year grant to evaluate environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger and poverty with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.  We hope to build a roadmap for the funding and donor communities of projects that either need to be scaled up or replicated across the continent. Hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into funding agricultural projects every year in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reality is that so much of that money is misused, or misplaced and never reaches the hands of the farmers, workers, and people who need it the most.

We want to paint a new picture of Africa, one far different from the infomercials and images we’ve become accustom to. We are meeting with Africans on the ground, who are using their vast knowledge, and developing innovative ways of reducing hunger and improving food security in their communities. We want them to be the face of our project, putting their stories front and center, sharing their hopes and dreams to audiences they’ve never reached before.

From what you have seen, are African countries progressing and improving the quality of life of their citizens?

B: There is a lot of news that is not being reported on from the continent — we are seeing dozens of examples of stories of hope and success in agriculture from NGOs, policymakers, farmers groups, workers, unions, etc, that are helping to further not only food security in Africa but general quality of live. For example, in Uganda, a young team of volunteers is working with kids, parents, and teachers to reignite an interest and appreciation for indigenous food. In Rwanda, Heifer international is working with very poor farmers to improve their qualities of life through smallscale livestock projects. In Ghana, NGOs are working to improve access to processing facilities for palm oil so that farm workers can earn more money.

What have been your least and most favorite countries so far?

B: There is no least favorite because every country is different with positive and negative aspects which you could also say about the United States. We didn’t like aspects of Nairobi, but we loved traveling deep into rural parts of Kenya like Samburu. Johannesburg at times was stressful for us, but we’d definitely be up for living in Pretoria, Durban or Cape Town. Within countries there is so much diversity that it all is a valuable learning expierience for us.

Is Africa safe to travel?

D: I would say that Africa is like anywhere else, you have to be careful, obviously political conflict is more an issue than in the United States but we either have been very lucky or everything you’ve heard about Africa being dangerous is wrong. With that said, big cities like Nairobi and Johannesburg are not safe to be by yourself at night, you need to take a taxi, etc.

B: We’ve also been lucky and blessed. We watch each other’s backs as we travel together. People warned us about places that have had recent political upsets like Zimbabwe and Madagascar but we are really glad we went to those places because they turned out to be some of our favorite countries. We are avoiding Libya and the Sudan, just because we feel uneasy about our safety.

What African countries do you recommend for other travelers?

B: It depends on why you are traveling to Africa, we like to go off the beaten track a little bit. If your looking for a vacation, go to Mauritius. If your looking for something off the track, head to Zimbabwe and Madagascar. If you want to see a lot of wildlife, then head to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. If you are looking for great live music, then check out Ghana and Senegal. Africa has every adventure you could ever dream of.

Have you encountered any major problems or dangerous situations?

D: No (knock on wood), we’ve been very lucky.

What are your travel expenses?

B: On average we spend we spend $50 a day which includes a budget hotel or hostel, local meals, travel by taxi, and entertainment. VISA fees vary greatly and can be very expensive for Americans – but it ranges from free (Senegal, Botswana, South Africa, Rwanda) to over $100USD (Nigeria, Mozambique, Cote D’Ivoire). It all depends on what you want to do, plan several hundred a day if you plan to hike Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania; Lemur trek in Madagascar; whitewater raft at the source of the Nile in Kampala, Uganda; or Gorilla trek in Rwanda.

Africa can be very expensive depending on what you want to do and it is worth splurging for safety – private taxis at night, long haul-buses instead of shared taxis for international travel, making sure you are staying in a good location, etc. We also benefit by the fact that projects we visit go out of their way to make us feel at home, from airport pickups, to driving us between projects, to feeding us in their homes, it really helps cut down costs.

Traveling in Africa is totally not what you expect. People are often afraid to take a risk here, so they plan very packaged vacations for things like the World Cup or a safari. We couldn’t imagine a more friendly, or welcoming place to travel.

Are you able to get good Internet access and other modern conveniences?

D: We are really surprised how connected Africa is in terms of hi-speed wifi (these are mostly in cities). Also Skype allows us to keep in touch with the United States for free, SIM cards in each country make local calls incredibly cheap, and email is accessible nearly everywhere. In terms of what we miss — it is mainly different foods — like fresh salads, bagels with cream cheese, vegetables like broccoli, cranberry juice, a good latte, etc… Stuff that we totally took for granted in the United States but are hard to find here.

Do you see yourselves ever permanently relocating to Africa?

B: Yes, definitely a possibility. We love the people, energy, the diverse cultures. Our choice would be Senegal so far (with that said we have 25 more countries to see). In reality we’ve talked about how we could live in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Senegal. Since that list will only grow, it’s hard to imagine ever leaving.

Links
Borderjumpers
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Interview with Brandon Pearce

Making the decision to move to another country is difficult and scary. It is even harder if you have a family to support and educate. Brandon Pearce, his wife and two daughters made that choice and moved to Costa Rica at the start of the year and are loving their new life outside of the US. Brandon is also proving that the idea of the low hour work week (he works 5 hours per week) is definitely possible if you put in the effort. Brandon offers some great details into his business and his lifestyle in Costa Rica in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

I just turned 30 years old, and was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a child, I fell in love with both music and computers. I learned to play the piano and sing – a passion probably inherited from my parents who are both musicians – and when I was 12, I began teaching myself to program in QBasic. I always dreamed that one day I would either be a music teacher like my dad, or have my own computer game on the shelf.

As it turns out, I ended up both teaching music and writing computer programs as a profession for a season, and then quickly decided that neither profession was what I wanted to do forever. Now I enjoy working less than 5 hours per week, living wherever I want (currently Costa Rica), and enjoying life to the fullest every day.

My first experience living internationally was when I served a volunteer mission for the LDS church at age 19 (I am from Utah, after all). I was called to serve and teach the people of Japan for two years. I loved my mission, and I loved Japan. Everything was so different. The language was interesting, the people were so polite, and the food was delicious (well, some of it – I still can’t down natto). At that time, I don’t think I considered the possibility of living outside the U.S. permanently, but it opened my eyes to what else was out there.

After my mission, I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science (although I found learning on my own to be much more useful). I also met my wife, Jennifer, who had served a mission in the Canary Islands (by Spain). We now have two little girls, ages 6 and 4, whom we absolutely adore!

Where do you live now?

We have been living in Costa Rica since January, 2010, and are renting a beautiful house here that overlooks the central valley for $900/month. We found it on Craigslist. We wanted a furnished place because we sold nearly all our furniture before we made the move abroad, and didn’t want the burden that comes with large possessions. We chose to rent for a year because we could get a lot better deal than the 1-3 month vacation rentals we were looking at previously, and we wanted to stay long enough to become fluent in the language, make some good friends, and understand the culture.

We chose Costa Rica for a few reasons:

• Climate. We got really tired of snow and cold in Utah. We wanted some place green and warm all year around.
• Language. I wanted to learn Spanish, we wanted our kids to learn it, and since Jen already speaks it, we figured it would be a less difficult transition than a new language for all of us.
• Culture. Coming from the U.S., we knew our lives were too full of stress, too focused on material possessions, and too busy to really enjoy what’s important in life. Costa Rica has a reputation of being relaxed and easy-going. “Pura vida” (pure life) is the phrase they often use. We hoped some of that could rub off on us. Fortunately, it has.
• Cost. We thought we could live cheaper in Costa Rica than in the states, and for the most part, we have found this to be true. Electronics and cars are actually more expensive here than in the U.S., but housing and food is cheaper. We’re spending less and living better. For example, we have a maid that comes 5 days a week, a gardener, and a private Spanish tutor twice a week.
• Activities. There is so much to do and see in Costa Rica, from volcanoes to beaches, rainforests and the animals that are in them. Our kids are big animal lovers, and Costa Rica is an ideal place to get up close and personal with all kinds of unique animals.
• Buddy Passes. We’re lucky to have a family member who works at Jet Blue, so we were able to fly here for almost free on buddy passes. Costa Rica is one of the few international locations that Jet Blue flies to. We knew this would also make it easier (cheaper) for family to come visit us if they wanted.

For a more complete explanation about our decision to move abroad, check out this post on my blog.

We have been so happy here in Costa Rica! We love the people, the weather, and feel much more relaxed and at ease. We feel like we have time to enjoy being a family, learning together, and pursuing our interests. I also just love to sit out on our balcony, listen to the birds, and enjoy the view.

What made you decide to make the move abroad?

We would never have dreamed of making this move a few years ago, but I was seeing people get laid off from their “secure” jobs and realized that there is no such thing as job security when you work for someone else. So I focused on building my Internet business in order to be more in control of our livelihood. Once it started taking off, I quit my job to work on building it full-time.

And then it finally dawned on me, thanks to books like The 4-Hour Work Week, that I was now able to live anywhere in the world since my business was all on-line. In January of 2009, we took a 6 week trip to Panama as a family to test the waters, and it was an amazing life changing experience for all of us. It was there we realized we wanted to homeschool (a thought we had considered before, but didn’t really see the benefits of), and that we really could stand to be together as a family 24 hours a day, seven days a week without going crazy. We knew we wanted to spend more time abroad as a family.

What is it like in Costa Rica?

We live in Grecia, which is a fairly small town (Wikipedia says 15,000 people) about 45 minutes west of the big city. We live up in the hills, away from the town center, where it’s a little cooler (perfect temperature for us). We decided we like smaller towns, because we’re not much for crowds, concrete, or pollution. It takes us about 15 minutes by car to drive to town (or 25 minutes by bus), and we enjoy the ride every time. Initially, we thought we’d go carless, but after two months, we really missed the convenience of being able to explore hidden streets, take excursions to further away places when we felt like it, or visit friends without making the girls walk for two miles. The bus access is good here, but we determined a car would work better for us living so far from things. So we bought an old 99 Rav4 (an adventure in itself) , which has been getting us around great. We’ll probably just sell it when we leave.

Internet access is excellent here. It hasn’t gone down yet (although the power has). However, I’ve been trying to upgrade from a 1MB to a 2MB connection for over a month now. Apparently, it’s not as simple as calling the Internet company and asking for an upgrade. One thing I’ve had to learn more of in Costa Rica is patience. Things get done when they get done, not when someone says they will get done. That’s just how it is here, and you can’t really rush things. Whether it’s your water or electricity going out, or someone scheduled to come to an appointment, we’ve learned not to expect things to happen on time, but just be glad when they happen at all, and try to be content in the mean time.

My iPhone works great here at 3G speeds with Internet. It was a little difficult getting a line, since you either need a Costa Rican corporation, or a local friend who can get you the line. I had the latter.

We feel very safe here in Grecia, and are completely comfortable walking the streets at night with our kids. People are friendly, and we’re always hearing people comment to each other about how cute our girls are. (Their blonde hair is quite a rarity here). Shopkeepers chat with you, and there are smiles everywhere you go. We’re making friends and having a great time.

What is your cost of living Costa Rica?

Here’s a rough breakdown of our monthly expenses (in USD):

Rent: $900 (Remember, it’s this house)

Maid: $240 ($12/day – 5 days a week, 4 hours a day).

Gardner: $140 (comes a few times a week, and helps with a lot of side jobs, too)

Spanish Tutor: $200 (comes twice a week, for a couple hours)

Internet: $25 for 1MB/second, $38 for 2MB/second

House Phone: $7

Cell phone (iPhone w/3G Internet): $34

Satellite TV: $33 (so the kids can watch cartoons in Spanish)

Other Utilities: $40-70 (including water, gas, electricity, garbage – cheap, huh?)

Food: $400-600 (we eat really well, and eat out probably 3-4 times per week)

Gasoline: $50-100/month

Activities: $200-300 (really depends on what we feel like that month)

Those are the basic monthly expenses. Obviously, we’re splurging in some areas, but my family of four is living very well for under $2,500/month. You could live here for a lot less, though, if you wanted. You can find decent 3bdrm houses that rent for under $150/month, for example. They may not be furnished or have a breathtaking view, but there are lots of options if you want to live on the cheap.

For activities, we love taking family trips to different parts of the country. There is so much to see and do in Costa Rica. Some of the activities are made for tourists and have tourist prices ($30-60/person), but others are very reasonable. We’ve done everything from feeding toucans and cleaning raccoon cages, to swimming at waterfalls and zip-lining through the rainforest. I’ve been writing about our adventures on my blog, Fulness Of Life.

I should also mention that we recently cancelled our health insurance in the U.S. because we realized it just isn’t necessary, so we don’t have that expense either. The healthcare here is good and cheap (and universal). You can get insurance for your whole family here for $60 if you want it, but we rarely visit the doctor. If we had an emergency, nothing is so pricey we couldn’t afford it.

Do you need special visas to live there?

We’re just on tourist visas, which are free, but which require us to leave the country every 90 days, for 72 hours. In some ways it’s a burden. In other ways, it’s a good excuse to take a vacation every few months. At our first 90-day mark we drove to Nicaragua and spent a few days in a hotel there. We’re not sure where we’ll go next. You can apply for residency, but I hear that it’s a fairly expensive process that can take years to complete (remember, everything moves slowly in Costa Rica). We don’t plan on being here for more than a couple years, so we didn’t think it would be worth it to apply for residency at this point.

How long do you expect to stay in Costa Rica?

We don’t really know exactly how long we’ll stay in Costa Rica, but we’ll be here at least until our lease is up, and then at that point decide if we want to find another place here to rent, or if we want to explore the world some more. I think we would like to stay long enough for us all to become comfortably fluent in Spanish.

How are you schooling your two daughters?

We’re following more of an “unschooling” approach, where the kids direct their own education. We don’t follow any specific curriculum. I believe that learning is a lifelong process, and that we’re learning in every moment whether we think we are or not. People learn best when what they’re learning is immediately applicable and interesting to them, and they learn even better when they are the ones seeking the information and getting their own answers. Experience is the best teacher. I think most curricula (including school) kind of squashes that by forcing you to learn things that are largely irrelevant to you at the time (or not even useful in the real world), causing you to quickly forget what you’ve learned, and in some cases, to hate the process of learning itself.

Kids learn best when they’re having fun. And they have the most fun when they’re playing, so we play a lot. They like to create make-believe adventures, put on plays, create art, play computer games, and ask a lot of questions. If they ever ask something we don’t know, we immediately pull up Google and find the answer with them. We’ll watch videos on YouTube, which they love, and go as deep into their question as they want. We also use IKnowThat and Tumblebooks on occasion..

We read to our kids a lot as well. Lately, I’ve been reading them the Narnia series on my iPad. Emily, our six-year-old, never wants me to put it down. She is also reading very well on her own, and loves to read the scriptures at night during our devotional. (We sing a hymn, read the scriptures and pray together before bed each night). We’re happy that she loves to read, and can sound out big words surprisingly well, even in Spanish. Marie, our four-year-old knows the letters and is starting to put sounds together.

The girls each have their own blog, which they update periodically. Emily types it all herself, and Marie mostly dictates to us. We thought a blog would be a good way for them to journal their experiences abroad and also get good reading and writing practice. Their blogs are emilyinthejungle and ridingabutterfly.

We do have a Spanish tutor named Nela, who comes to our house twice a week for a couple hours to teach the girls and me. We didn’t start this until a few weeks ago, but I wish we would have started it as soon as we got here, especially for the girls. She brings games for the girls and quizzes them on vocabulary. They’re learning well. It’s been great for me, too, as I’ve had someone to ask questions to about the intricacies of Spanish grammar. But outside of tutoring, we get a lot of Spanish practice from being with friends, going to church, and talking to people wherever we go. I’ve been amazed at how quickly I’ve been able to learn Spanish. It’s only been four months, but I can understand about 85% of what people are saying, and can get my point across quite clearly most of the time.

Finally, I think traveling is an education in itself. Seeing different cultures, learning new languages, and interacting with different people opens your mind to new ways of thinking and living.

Have your daughters adjusted well to life in Costa Rica?

Adjusting seems like it’s been no problem at all for any of us. Even though we spent the first three weeks in a hotel while looking for a place to live, it’s all been a great adventure and we’ve enjoyed it from day one. The girls have made some good friends, and we have play dates usually once or twice a week with friends they’ve met at church or in the neighborhood. Despite the language barrier, they still have a lot of fun playing together, and our girls are picking up Spanish little by little. (Although sometimes they seem more intent on teaching English to their friends than practicing Spanish).

Marie does sometimes talk about wanting to go back to our “old house” in Utah (which we sold), but none of us really want to return to the U.S. culture and lifestyle. We do miss our family and friends there, though. If you read Marie’s blog, in almost every post she asks for people to come visit us. My family is planning to visit us down here in June, and we’re excited for that.

How do you earn an income?

My main source of income is from a business I created called Music Teacher’s Helper. It’s a web application that helps private music teachers manage the business side of teaching, such as scheduling and billing. I also created Studio Helper, which is the same idea, but for larger studios with multiple teachers, and not just for music. Teachers pay a monthly subscription to use the sites (between $10-25/month for Music Teacher’s Helper, or $50-200+/month for Studio Helper). MTH also has a Free plan with lets you use it with up to 3 students, and includes a free website. Lots of teachers join that one just for the free website.

Both of these sites combined bring in over $20,000/month, currently, and are growing more every month. I don’t get to keep all of that, though, since I’ve hired two full-time programmers, a full-time SEO guy, and a fantastic customer support team that answers e-mails 24/7. I also have a team of bloggers who write many useful articles for music teachers each month. Then there’s marketing and server expenses, etc. But I make plenty for my needs, and am able to save a lot of money each month (way more than I’m spending).

I used to do a lot of freelance web programming, but I kind of got burned out on it. Sure, I could outsource it, but I don’t really need the extra money and I don’t want the stress of managing extra projects right now. There are other things I’d rather do with my time, like be with my family, read, write, and compose music.

How did you come up with the idea for MusicTeachersHelper.com?

When I was teaching private piano lessons, I used to get frustrated trying to keep track of when all my students’ lessons were and how much they owed me. So I wrote a little program to keep track of their schedules and payments. Students could login to see when their next lesson was and how much they owed. It saved me lots of time and headache.

Soon, other teachers saw what I was doing and wanted it for themselves, so I decided to make it available to others. I listened carefully to feedback from my customers and improved the program a LOT over the next few years, adding everything from automatic invoicing, to on-line payments. Now it does pretty much everything except teach the student, and teachers love it!

How do you market the site?

I didn’t know much about marketing when I started this business. I made some paper fliers to display at local music stores. Then I tried Google Adwords. Eventually, I started going to music teacher conferences and demonstrating the product to teachers. I wasn’t very confident in the program at first, though, since it was pretty buggy (it was the first real web app I’d ever made) and I was afraid to do much marketing, thinking that if I got too many teachers upfront, word would get around that it wasn’t a good program, and then no one would want it.

Actually, the opposite happened. Almost every teacher who tried it out absolutely loved it! Sure, they had some suggestions for improvement, but they were happy to pay for it. Eventually, it got to the point where it was doing way more than I originally intended, and I decided to rewrite the whole thing from scratch, with cleaner, faster code (I’d learned a ton since I started).

It wasn’t making much money at first, because I wasn’t doing much marketing. But teachers were telling other teachers about it, and Adwords was bringing in a slow but steady flow of customers. Also, I never put any of my own money into this business. It has always been funded entirely from its own profits (and my initial efforts, of course).

Now, 6 years later, our marketing looks quite a bit different. The blog itself has been a great marketing tool, and brings in lots of traffic. We still go to music teacher conferences, although I now usually have an affiliate go in my place. We’re at the top of search results for our desired keywords, and teachers are constantly telling each other about us. Interestingly, word of mouth is still our largest source of referrals.

Your site says that you are working less than 5 hours per week, is that correct?

Yes, 5 hours is correct, and it’s often even less, but let me define what that means. I count “work” as any activity that’s related to making money. My daily “work” usually involves looking over the tasks my programmers have completed, deciding what new features we’ll add or bugs we’ll fix, advising the support team members with any questions they’ve had, and answering any other e-mails that have come in. Some days, I can get this done in under 10 minutes. Other days, I may want to spend an hour or two to really think things through. I don’t count blogging as work, since I’m not trying to make any money on my personal blog.

I keep track of my time using SlimTimer.com, so I can measure how effective my time is at producing results. I wrote a blog post a while back that goes into detail about exactly how I spend my time in a given week. It’s a little outdated – back from when I was still doing some freelance programming, but it will give you a good idea. You can read it here: How I Spend My Time.

It hasn’t always been this way, of course. I used to be a “one-man show”, doing everything from the design, programming, planning, customer support, marketing, and bookkeeping all on my own. This was time consuming. When I was an employee, I’d get up early in the morning to work on my business before work. Then, I’d spend my lunch breaks working on it as well. And at night, when my wife would let me, I’d work on it some more. It was an obsession and it was exciting because I could start to see where it would lead – to eventual freedom of my time and enough money to do whatever I wanted. And it has been worth every effort.

The time eventually came when it was taking so much time outside of work, that I wasn’t being very effective at my job. I’d find myself answering business e-mails or doing other tasks when I was supposed to be working. I knew this wasn’t right, and I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to grow my business how I wanted to while working at a 40-hour a week job. So, even though my business was only making about $1,500/month at the time, and I probably had less than $10,000 in savings, I decided to take the leap and quit my job. I was confident that we could make do until the business got larger, especially since I could also supplement my business income with freelance projects.

Everything worked out great, and the business took off quickly. I automated as much of the busywork as I could, and hired people to help with the rest. Now here we are living the dream!

Do you have any advice for others wanting to build a similar low hour business?

Yes, lots. In fact, I just started writing a book about creating an on-line business. It probably won’t be ready for several months, but I want to share what I’ve learned with others and show people that it’s totally possible to create this kind of lifestyle. I see too many people who hate their jobs and don’t see any way out. I’ve also written several blog posts about creating a business on my blog in the Entrepreneurship category.

My biggest piece of advice is to just get started. You may feel like you don’t know enough, but you can learn as you go. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s okay. What’s important is that you’re making progress toward your goal. And the more progress you’ll make, the more you’ll be inspired to keep working at it. So just get started. If you can set aside an hour a day to work on your business, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll be able to get done.

Do you plan on permanently living outside of the US?

Yes. We don’t have any plans to return to the U.S. at this point, except maybe for a vacation or to visit family now and then. It’s hard to know what life will be like for us in 10 or 20 years, and we may eventually want to return to the U.S. But who knows? We’ll just take life as it comes.

Are there any other countries that you hope to move to in the future?

Oh! So many! I’d like my kids to experience Japan like I did on my mission and brush up on my Japanese. I’d like to see what it’s like in India and China. Emily really wants to go to Venice, Italy. Jen would like to live in the French countryside. I have no idea where we’ll end up, but we definitely want to live in other parts of the world.

One of the things we learned is that short 1-2 week vacations just don’t cut it if you want to experience what it’s really like in another country, especially if you just stick to tourist activities and sites, and don’t meet any people. Our church has been a real advantage to us this way because there is a built-in community of friends everywhere we go, as well as opportunities to serve and help. It does make it a little harder to leave a place once you’ve made good friends, but the Internet makes it easy to keep in touch. And we can also come back to a place to visit.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my story on JetSetCitizen!

Links
Fulness Of Life Brandon Pearce’s blog.
Follow Brandon Pearce on Twitter